...And we're back! Last week was probably the most impactful set of matches, as now we have but one undefeated team in the division: Cafe Monster. Purpleshirt and crew have bested a Ranga-less Meat Market on gullywash last week, and in doing so have removed the largest obstacle for their 16-0 season. But that’s not the only thing that went down by far! Champagne and Cocaine come out with a 5-0 victory over Small and Soft to elevate them up into the top 3, even without a consistent roamer. Bearded Clams also came up on an unsuspecting Sparkle Bunniis with a new roster, and took both of their gullywash matches 5-0. This is probably going to be the most exciting part of season 18 besides playoffs, so buckle up and snail down! Unless you're in the back seat, because buckling up in the back seat is for bitches.

• Soapy
• Goldfish
• Purpleshirt
• Desca
• highfive
• yomps

The satisfaction was positively dripping from Goldfish's mouth during their post game interview last week. With a few thinly veiled remarks, you could tell they all felt good about the win, although the criticism for this particular match was that Meat Market did not have their normal starter, Ranga. Hooli actually played a decent game in place of Ranga, and in all honesty I'm not sure if he was any part of how Meat Market couldn't pull it together. Either way, it was some great TF2 to watch, and Cafe Monster played a very clean game. Usually this is the part of the season where the dominant team lets their hair down a little and relaxes, and then loses to some random team not even on the radar. I would think looking at Cafe Monster's schedule that this isn't too likely, but you never know. The team will have the first seed in the bag unless something awful happens, and Meat Market will have to wait until post-season to regain some of their dignity.

• jodd
• broKing
• ranga
• jarrett
• yeeegz
• cheesy

The Meat Market may have fallen back a step, but I think it would be unfair to count them out. If anything, that last match showed us just how tenuous the dominance by Cafe Monster really is. BroKing and the boys are probably only going to have one loss all season, which is no small thing in itself. Their next three matches might hold a few surprises for them here and there, but unless Dino Riders can make it happen with their new roster and bearded clams play the game of their lives on sunshine, Meat Market will have to quietly hope that Cafe Monster drops a match on a bad day or something in order to regain that top spot. This week, they will only have one badlands match against MAD LUX GOLD who will be playing both Cafe Monster and Meat Market this week. Lets hope Meat Market can close out the season in style with a 15-1 record and put that one loss (pfft) behind them.

• saam
• sleepinglife
• Waldo
• muma
• sezco
• Dolphin Rider

What could have been disastrous became one of the biggest upsets of the season for Champagne and Cocaine last week. While trying to get Waldo (roamer replacement for Huck) in the server, they ended up having to grab Crossfire to play again. What resulted was what my friend Puff would refer to as a “pummeling”. Small and Soft got their booties handed to them and Champy and Coke played a great game, which in all honesty should put them on everyone's radar. SleepingLife and Muma continue to be an excellent core of the team, and now with Sezco joining forces with the legendary Dolphin Rider, I feel like this team could just not ever have a permanent roamer and do just fine. The boys will have an opportunity to try to upset Cafe Monster in a few weeks on sunshine, which honestly could be one of the best matches of the season. This week they'll go up against a revamped Dino Riders and Pizzagon eSports, which should both be fun to watch. I tentatively give this third place rank to them in the hopes that they will not fail me like literally every single team I've put into 3rd this season. Don't let me down, boys!

• lucrative
• javaB
• hellbutt
• pamphlet
• dance
• fox

Mad Lux Gold got a little embarrassed last week by their counter parts on Mad Lux Blue, but hey somewhere there is a message in this loss; something to be learned, if you will. I really don't know what it is, but I certainly hope Lucrative and his team learned it because this week is not going to be any more forgiving. Mad Lux Gold gets the “curse of season 18” as I have taken to calling it, where a team is matched up against the two best teams in the division in the same week. I want to say that they will have a chance at upstaging either of these teams, but honestly with the way they have been playing in the last couple weeks I just don't see it in the cards. Unless something nutty happens, ML:GOLD will be sitting at 7-5, with a lot of ground to make up for this late in the season. A couple more losses after this week could mean a bad seed, but more importantly it could be pretty bad for morale too. Hopefully Hellbent doesn't kill himself. Just suck on some of that Satan's salad, dude. It will all be ok.

• Kig
• Farns
• Walka
• Dagger
• Corsa
• Rummy

Alright, this team probably should be in 4th right now but because of some of their questionable early season losses and getting 5-0'd by Meat Market last week, I can safely say this team is ranked right about where they should be. Its hard to not only talk about Corsa when I talk about Hate Being Sober, but recent performance was pretty much par for the course as far as this season goes for him. The next couple weeks will be the time to prove that the whole team can play the game well with some of their strongest opponents matched up. Badlands will be a warm up for sunshine week for the not-so-sober boys, with matches against Sparkle Bunniis and Bearded Clams. Sparkle Bunniis has been a bit iffy lately, but this should still be a fun match for both teams. Bearded Clams is more of a question mark for Hate Being Sober, mostly because like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. The team has been very solid for their last 3 matches, and with some semblance of consistency, I think this will be a crazy exciting match to watch. Good luck to both teams!

• split_
• wrech
• simulate
• powergamer
• demoted
• ex

Mad Lux Blue hasn't had too many big successes this season, mostly losing and winning to teams relatively predictably. Last week changed this for the team with their first big upset win over their namesakes (and sponsors? Is that real?) Mad Lux Gold. Not only that, it was pretty much a blowout. Demoted and Powergamer were pretty much unstoppable on mid, racking up all the kills and barely leaving anything for their teammates. After such an impressive performance, looking at their next couple matches makes it look like they will even end with a better record that Mad Lux Gold, giving this season that special feeling of poetic justice somewhere. The team will still have to work to maintain their spot in the top 8 against some of the rising stars around them in the standings, but as long as they don't throw too many rounds to some of the worst teams in the division this season, they should be sitting pretty at either fifth or sixth seed.

• miwo
• tooth
• fragg
• topshot
• micah
• vand

The return of my friend Miwo to medic gives me a warm feeling in my heart, as he is probably one of my favorite players to watch on that class. For awhile there, I had counted out bearded clams as a team that would not make it in the top 8, and for some reason I'm still not all that convinced. Fragg and Tooth are a great soldier combo, topshot has proven to be able to fulfill his role as demo well enough, and their scouts have been decent all season. Even with all this evidence in front of me, I look at the rollercoaster of a season has been for these guys so far and feel a little discouraged at how they will do against some of the more formidable teams they will be facing soon. Either way, its cool to see this team with at least a consistent roster (cross your fingers). Lets hope that it isn't a case of “too little, too late” for bearded clams.

• xattuu
• KTB
• phlps
• tankman
• icTus
• rooks

It is with no small sense of irony that as soon as Mustard is cut from his team that they make it into the power rankings. But even more so, the roster shuffle this team has (and their new team name that isn't absolutely horrible to look at) should perk a few peoples' attention. Tankman will be moving to his main off of roamer to be replaced by Phlps, with ex-Blame Game scout icTus coming in for some very fashionable late season roster tickling. IcTus has some pretty crazy DM, and with a couple seasons of Invite under his belt, I can only think that he will bring a lot to the team. Rooks was already a standout player on this team even from last season, so its pretty great to see what could be a very scary scout pair from this team. The new roster will have plenty of opportunity to prove itself in the next couple weeks, with match ups against Champagne and Cocaine and Meat Market coming up. Dino Riders are a pretty great candidate for 6th or 7th seed at this point, and in my mind will turn some heads during the post season.

• miwo
• tooth
• fragg
• topshot
• micah
• vand

• kig
• Farns
• Walka
• Dagger
• Corsa
• Rummy

by Valkeri

It’s Badlands week and this week we are featuring Hate Being Sober versus Bearded Clams for the MOTW. Both of these teams are sitting at 6 wins and will be fighting to retain their playoff spots. The key to winning this match will be the transitions, whichever team can pull off better pushes after a midfight will end up being the team that takes this map. Both lineups have some good players, but as previously stated, it will all come down to which team transitions better. I asked KIGBARIOM of the IM Super Combo that is KIGBARIOM and FARNSWORTH what he thought about his match versus the Bearded Clams and he said, “Badlands is one of our favorite maps and we are pretty confident on it. We’ve also been tightening up our game by watching demo reviews and have been trying different main callers to try and get the best results.” This match will be a good indicator of what we will see during playoffs as both of these teams are near the edge of making it.

Prediction: 5-3 Hate Being Sober

Players to Watch: Farns, U.S.S. Corsa, Tooth, Fragg

Next week, these rankings will be on time and with a longer feature video (hopefully). Again, if any of you guys have something you'd like to see featured in these frag videos, add me up and let me know. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, it makes this season really fun to write for.