And so Steel ends, with some teams finally showing cracks in their armor, others reclaiming their destined placements, and all in all a good week. Up comes Sunshine, and its black clouds of negativity. Already complains are heard of the stalemates, ringing bells similar to the ones that played when Highlander got its first taste of Snakewater outside of PUGs.

Week Five Results

During Steel, Menace To Society and Hateful Eight picked up wins against bote and Kids Next Door, respectively. That should set the tone for the highest placements, likely dashing the hopes of knd. picking up a seed higher than their previous season's placing. Tree Forest and Chill Penguins got to duke it out to see which was the superior between them, as well as A Million Ways and '92 Dream Team, with [♣F2] and ·aMw· picking up victories. Just Kidding picked up a fairly unsurprising win, and Route from Smokin Trees picked up their first non-Bye Week win, while simultaneously dashing IFA's hopes for the same.

Week Six Matchups

Now we head to the beautiful skies of Sunshine, and the grumbling that comes with all new 5CP maps in Highlander. As the season winds down, less and less matches are particularly tantalizing, until we hit the part of playoffs where practically every week contains a few good matches. This week is no exception, with teams like mTs, .knd, jk! and ·aMw· all looking to pick up another win against their opponents. Respectively, their opponents; Bv, [♣F2], wu^ and mtn., are all looking like the underdogs in their matches, but if there's going to be a match to pull an upset, let it be on the map new to HL that people might not quite yet understand.

bote vs Hateful Eight + Decimate

As Hateful Eight slowly creep towards a season with a single defeat, the last Top 4 team, bote, will act as what is likely the final barrier for accomplishing that. bote themselves are not too keen on losing either, as a third loss will not only rock the boat when it comes to their final seed for playoffs, but will hint towards what will come when they face those teams (mTs, .knd, and h8) in the playoffs. It's not impossible for bote to win this, especially on a map that is new to Highlander, but the cards are stacked against them.

Overall, Hateful Eight's roster outclasses bote's, with the possible exception of Medic and Sniper. Sunshine is a map that, whether due to its design or because teams lack the knowledge of how to play it, lends itself to stalemates. However, should a strategy work, a few rounds could be pulled off before the opponents have the ability to reverse-engineer why the pushes worked and then counter it. Medic and Sniper become all the more important in stalemates, as both of them are key when it comes to whether or not a point can be held.

When it comes down to it, Hateful Eight are looking far stronger, and with bote having a sub Heavy play due to computer issues on brick's part, a matchup that was already a bit lopsided might be a bit more. While bote have no doubt improved over the season, and will continue to, there's no reason to believe, aside for the Sunshine factor, that Hateful Eight will lose. 4-2 in favor of Hateful Eight.

Playoff Bound

As the season nears closing, some teams find themselves with spots practically confirmed, while others stay up late trying to do calculations to see how they might get pushed out, or perhaps slip into the playoffs. This is a list of the teams that logically have a decent chance of making playoffs, based purely on current score and (calculated) upcoming matchups. The listing is loosely based on the potential playoffs seeding at the end of Week 8.

• Menace To Society - [Chill Penguins, Just Kidding!, '92 Dream Team] Perhaps a testament to how an old dog can learn new tricks, or just pure coincidence, mTs are practically locked in for the #1 seed. A team that 'doesn't care till playoffs' has lost only a single game so far, and look to continue that fact into playoffs. Their remaining three matches are not too difficult, although if mTs shows up weak to any of them, especially jk!, they might find themselves in a run for their money.

• Hateful Eight + Decimate - [bote, Chill Penguins, Tree Forest 2] As what appears to be a common occurunce in most seasons, a team full of some of the best Platinum has to offer gets together. Hateful Eight is full of that, and with so little on the team to play off as a weakness, it should come as no surprise to most that h8 has gone, and will continue to go incredibly far this season. Like their buddies, h8 is looking forward to a 7-1 ending, and should find little resistance.

• Kids Next Door - [Tree Forest 2, A Million Ways, Just Kidding!] The last season's victors come back, proving beyond a doubt that there was no fluke in their previous performance. They've come from the unknown to claim a spot in Highlander's history as evidence that stacking a team with Invite talent is not a necessity to win Highlander. They've only got better since, and are looking to repeat their performance from last season. knd. are not one to be shown up either, angling for that 7-1 scoreline their direct competitors are likely to collect.

• bote - [Hateful Eight, wu^/mtn./BYE, Chill Penguins] Whether due to a poor name, the efforts of a certain colored avian on the forum, or the fact that they have what is likely the worst team name in Platinum in recent memory, bote's boat has had its fair share of jeering. Yet in the end, what is undoubtedly a powerful team will be sitting fairly comfortably in the playoffs, picking up one more loss against h8, but solidifying a positive score with two wins. Due to how volatile and hard to predict lower Plat is, it's hard to say what team they'll end up facing come Ashville. However, if all three teams would remain with the same points relative to each other, they'll face Bring Your Esports. After that, a match against Chill Penguins should not prove too difficult, but is possibly the most likely match for them to lose and end up with an even score at the end of the season.

• A Million Ways - [Route from Smokin Trees, Kids Next Door, Bye-Week] An early upset on Week 2 that caused mustardoverlord to disband yet another version of DRS gave the doubters of the 'bfl reform' reason to believe that A Million Ways had no plans of lounging around in low Platinum. In what will likely be a solid 5-4 ending, for the first time in ages some of the players will find themselves on a team that will continue a season past the normal eight weeks.

• Just Kidding! - [Wu Tang Killah Bees, Menace To Society, Kids Next Door] Just Kidding are a team that's flown under the roster for most of their existence, slowly improving and sneaking higher up in the skill tiers. They've had a fairly solid season, with most of their matches being completely predictable - they won the games against teams lower than them, but couldn't take a victory against the top 4 teams they've played up until now. Their last few matches will be difficult, facing the remaining two of the top four teams they've had yet to face, and only a game against wu^ to get them ready. Just like with the rest of the season, their end should be fairly predictable, but a 4-4 final score is nothing to scoff at.

• '92 DREAM TEAM - [Independant Fighters Alliance, Bye-Week, Menace To Society] The Gold victors of last season, '92 have made a significant effort into not getting shuttered in with all the other Gold moveups that end up playing poorly in Platinum. Like ·aMw·, they find themselves with a relatively comfortable end-of-season, with a win against IFA expected, a Bye week on Ashville, only to end it by taking a likely loss against mTs on Swiftwater.

• Tree Forest 2 - [Kids Next Door, wu^/IFA, Hateful Eight] While some controversy swirls around the team due to an incident with an alt and hacking, Tree Forest are still a fairly solid team. In the end, they should theoretically edge out over Chill Penguins, if only due to a likely win on Ashville. They shouldn't have much chance against knd. and h8, but scoring a win against either wu^ or IFA should give them the points they need to sneak past Bv and slip into the final spot in playoffs.

• Chill Penguins - [Menace To Society, Hateful Eight, bote] While in theory they aren't quite able to pull playoffs if everything goes as expected, TF2 is a game where upsets can happen, and Bv may only need just one surprising result to pull ahead of [♣F2] and sneak into playoffs. While few expect them to win any of their upcoming matches, if they don't want to bank on Tree Forest messing up, they'll need to pull it together and find it in themselves to take a victory, otherwise their hopes may be dashed.