Late Monday night, the Coast Guard reported a small vessel had sunk. The vessel, registered under the name "U.S.S bote", was serviced by a staff of nine people, but was occupied by an unknown number of people in addition. While many of the boat's inhabitants have been accounted for, three of the staff are currently unaccounted for, as well as an unknown amount of inhabitants.

The bote has sank. A loss against Ginyu Force was the straw that broke the camel's back, causing decisions to be made that eventually led to the team parting ways and finding their own paths for the rest of the season. Geosus, Bobby, and Linkuser have yet to join a new roster, but Jewfro and brick have joned dK's roster, while muma, yosh, Justin Time, and feint have all made their way to mTs.

Shadowing that news, however, is a few key matchups having been decided, with .buffalo taking a victory against Funkblasters, dK giving .knd their second loss (technically), and .$$ proving themselves better than ·aMw·.

A really quick note about the Wins/Losses record: All teams have been given a Bye Week victory in place of their match against bote. Even if they lost or won against them, or haven't even reached the week they'd have played them, each team in Platinum has an (additional) win. So a team like dK or .$$, who had yet to face bote, will have a record that adds up to 5, while teams that have faced bote, like .knd or Ginyu, will only had up to 4.

The Teams

An open-shut victory against .knd on Steel (2:29 offense on Steel?!) will give dK their first touch of the original playoff-bound teams, and with such a dominating presence, it's little surprise that they find themselves in the first spot. While they have yet to play mTs, they've faced every other playoff potential team without dropping a single round. They're looking to secure a perfect season, assuming they can overcome mTs on Ashville.

mTs finds themselves with the large scraps of the dead bote, picking up a fair bit of subs and finding themselves a new Soldier and Sniper in the form of muma and yosh. While everyone's seen yosh's skill so far in Platinum on Sniper, this will be muma's first Soldier presence. That shouldn't be a problem, however, mTs has shown that they're fine with established players picking up classes they aren't immediately known for.

While technically this week was the second game they lost, their first game is nullified and a FFW handed to them, meaning they're technically still only with one loss. .knd picked up nothing directly from the death of bote, gaining Dimento back as mTs cleared out spots on their roster to fit all the bote members. Kids Next Door should have a quiet few weeks upcoming, though .$$ and 20b will no doubt want to pick up a victory against them to help their case to take the now up-for-grabs playoff spot.

While the +1 is solely due to bote dying, it's a very important move, as either .$$ or Ginyu Hoops will find themselves with a playoff spot at the end of the regular season. For now, Ginyu will take the spot in the rankings, as .$$ haven't quite given reason to overtake Ginyu Hoops. An upcoming match this week is incredibly convenient, as the winner of that game will in all likeliness be the team that takes the spot, upset shenanigans aside. As always, Ginyu's roster is subject to changes if they decide they're going to have more fun on a different class. Deadbolt is still listed since Vacationer, the Demo that played on Steel, was not added to the roster when ninjanick was.

A victory against ·aMw· will give the $avages the insulation they need to not have to worry about being upset, and with the death of bote, they can shoot for a playoff spot that would've otherwise been unobtainable to them. Their match against Ginyu Hoops will be of upmost importance, as a loss there will all but deny them their chance at playoffs, upsets aside.

·aMw· takes a loss against .$$, putting them in the spot that .$$ up until now held. They find themselves in the 6th spot, in the blurry area of mid Plat. Any teams below them shouldn't be able to beat them, but they shouldn't be able to beat any teams above them.

A victory against Funkblasters will cause the two to switch spots, giving the linguists an extra boost on top of their life insurance payout from the death of bote. Amusingly enough, with their loss against bote removed and an unplayed game against mTs means that currently, .buffalo is undefeated. Their played matches don't provide much support for anything higher in the rankings, but an upcoming game against ·aMw· will provide for another potential victory, but dK faces them before that, and that's a large obstacle to overcome.

Funkblasters is one of the teams that pick up a win ahead of time with bote's demise, but until they were supposed to face them, they're unlikely to pick up any wins. Their only winnable match in all likeliness will be against eHarmony on Glassworks, but until then, they can entertain mTs and lounge around for their Bye Week. Their match against eHarmony will largely indicate the bottom team in Platinum score-wise, as whoever picks up the win there should deny the other team any wins outside of a Bye Week.

As just stated, eHarmony will sit there and twiddle their fingers until their match against Funkblasters on Glassworks. They're the victim of the Bye Week for this week, having been originally slated to play bote this week. They'll face 20b next as Funkblasters takes their Bye, and then meet up. eHarmony's hopefully settled down their roster issues (aside Scout), meaning they should have a solid two or so weeks of scrimming before facing off to try and pick up their most likely chance at a victory.

Matchups

Just one week ago, this match was largely going to decide what team fell just outside of playoffs. But now, the game has a bit more magnitude, as this should be the game that decides which of the two teams will take bote's place in the playoffs. Outside of this game, they should match each other in record overall. While upsets can and do happen, this should be the deciding game for the fourth spot in playoffs, assuming .knd/mTs/dK are all shoo-ins. On one hand. Ginyu did recently upset a top 4 team and caused them to collapse. On the other hand, .$$ are filled with players dedicated to proving themselves in Platinum, and there's no better way to do that then by making the smallest playoffs in the smallest season of Platinum. A lot will come down to the general atmosphere of each individual Mumble, and the games will be be able to go either way to the last second. 2-1 in favor of Ginyu Hoops.

With .knd's recent loss against dK, ·aMw· will no doubt want to get a train rolling and also pick up a victory against .knd. Technically .knd has yet to win against any playoff set teams, having lost to bote before the collapse and a recent loss to dK. A Million Ways may be reaching a bit out of their abilities, as .knd is no doubt still a fantastic team and should have no trouble keeping their general reputation up high. 2-0 in favor of Kids Next Door.

mTs find themselves facing yet another team that is unlikely to beat them, having yet to face either dK or .knd. There should be no way mTs will lose this game, giving yosh and muma a relatively easy week to settle In before facing dK next week on Ashville. 2-0 in favor of mTs.

While the uninformed may see this is a close match between two undefeated teams, the reality is that there will be one team that wipes the floor with the other. Let's just hope Funkblasters doesn't cause dK to disband as well. Jokes aside, this is a similar game to mTs vs fb., where dK will pick up another easy victory to add to their list, while Buffalo will pick up their first loss after slipping away from a game against mTs and an overturned loss against the now-dead bote.