Wow. Just when everything seemed to be calming down, everyone slipping into their groove and recovering from the sink, Valve drops the biggest rebalancing update in perhaps forever. While the 6v6 scene no doubt is affected less by it, Highlander has the classes and weapon whitelist to perhaps make use of the changes and rebalances. And of course the skins.

The Teams

dK takes a break in between their .knd and mTs games to take care of .buffalo's "unbeaten" streak. A quick victory there will finish Badwater Pro for the season in all likeliness, as they look forward to the rest of the season. Their only challenge until playoffs will be this week with mTs, and a loss there may not even result in the loss of their first place seed. If they lose to mTs with three rounds or more in their favor, and then mTs lose to .knd, regardless of whether they take a round, dK should be fairly confident in their first seed place.

mTs also took a break, dealing with the Funkblasters on Badwater. They are also undefeated up to this point, but also have .knd lurking in the future waiting to be able to give them a loss on Upward later – though counting out .$$ is certainly a mistake. Assuming they win here, they're still going to have a tough road to secure first seed. .knd and perhaps .$$ are capable of defeating mTs, and ·aMw· as well as the previous two can all secure rounds against mTs.

.knd dispatch ·aMw·, and gear up to face .$$. They're the team now that .$$ will set their eyes on, as they hold the only chance of .$$ slipping into playoffs. .knd should have the upper hand, having proven to mTs in the finals last season that they could beat mTs on this exact map. Their team was slightly different back then though, Ibby of course no longer there and the Scizor/Corsa switch, but now another change has happened – Nursey has stepped down from the team to go play with friends in a more casual environment, so Justin Time of bote has come in to replace her. Both are fantastic Medics, but with Justin's perhaps more serious mindset, .knd will find themselves a more well-oiled machine.

After all the trash-talking and declarations of "they can't do it!", Ginyu Hoops find themselves fairly tight in the fourth place spot, securing themselves a spot in playoffs. The shards of a broken bote still float around them, but in the end, it's the playoffs that matter. And Ginyu's got a ticket. Vacationer continues to ring for them, and continues to be a ringer. They'll hopefully figure out their roster spots by playoffs, else they may find a team or two not so willing to let them bring buddies in unannounced. There should be no losses coming up for Ginyu outside of .knd, and even that is potentially winnable.

Outside of weird numbers and a game against .knd, the $avages find themselves unlikely to make playoffs, with a solid 5th place end. While that number may have held more attention when playoffs had 10+ teams, it's by no means an end to be discontent with. For what is effectively a Gold moveup team, the $avages have set themselves up with a solid record, and a chance to bring down some big teams if they choose to continue in the future.

Despite the smaller Plat and ·aMw· being referenced as a team that would get hit with the worst end of the stick, they seem to have maintained a similar position in Plat, with the only difference being the overall placement due to a much smaller lower Plat. A relatively calm rest of the season is in store for them, aside a match against mTs on Glassworks. Their loss against .knd was hardly a surprise, and they should look forward to picking up wins against Buffalo and eHarmony, though the former may prove to not be as easy as it sounds.

Unable to even tarnish dK's perfect season with a round won, .buffalo move on to face ·aMw· and play for the final potential of a moveup. The rest of the games this season should be largely out of their reach, so after tomorrow's match they should find themselves in their final position, win or lose.

Funkblasters sit back and sip their beer, watching the 4th of July fireworks. Their Bye Week is Ashville, and that's finally come around to face them. A loss against mTs is nothing surprising, so they'll wait out the week before meeting up with eHarmony next week to decide which team doesn't have to have their only win be a FFW.

While eHarmony is in the same place as Funkblasters just mentioned, they've actually got a game to play, and still are missing a Scout. While there are certainly good players on this team and roster, they've not exactly had the best of luck. Consistent roster turmoil on most of the damage classes, especially early in the season, is no good for any team. Add a small Platinum size and the opinion from other people that if there had been more interested teams (if Tryhards and/or Tree Forest didn't die, say), eHarmony would not have been in Platinum, the result is a less than stellar season. They'll be hoping to pick up the win against Funkblasters, but if they can't, they may find themselves with nothing to show but a Plat Participation badge and some text on their profile pages.

Matches

After a victory against .$$ giving them the priority for the playoff spot, Ginyu find themselves facing a struggling eHarmony on Ashville. With still an unknown Scout on such a flank-centric map, eHarmony's only hope is to take advantage of potential confusion in Ginyu's ranks with regards to the weapon changes. There shouldn't be much confusion as Ginyu's members do play TF2 outside of match nights, so there should be no reason Ginyu can't take this easily. 4-1 in favor of Ginyu Hoops.

After a loss against Ginyu Hoops, the $avages are hoping to pull off an upset and give Ginyu yet another run for their money for the playoffs spot. The team and map are unfortunate, however, as .knd have proved before that Ashville is a map they can win at, and well. Last season, mTs picked it in the Grand Finals, only to lose 3-1 to them and secure the season for .knd. Kids Next Door are also usually on the forefront of new maps and strategies, so it'll be interesting to see what they pull out given the recent changes. 4-2 in favor of Kids Next Door.

The schedule saved the best for last, so here it is. Two undefeated titans clash on a respectable map for what will likely be the first seed and the possibility of an undefeated season.

A lot of factors will be at play in this match, anything from class matchups such as b4nny vs engima, to previous experiences on the map like mTs choosing it in the Grand Finals last season. Both teams will no doubt be coming into the game with incredible levels of confidence and coordination, having well defined strategies and the skill and practice to execute them.

The recent update will no doubt throw a few things for a loop, as Harbleu no doubt is eager to take advantage of the new medigun mechanics, and various small weapon changes. A lot will depend on the individual strategies and how they're executed, as well as the presence of a few key classes and the potential use of recently changed weapons.

Overall though, with both teams being flat out fantastic, it will come down to the small things - a good flank, a surprise strategy, a unique weapon selection. Dunning-Kruger is more likely to be able to provide all three, at least to a greater extent than mTs may. 4-3 in favor of Dunning-Kruger Effect.

In one of the few remaining matches that will affect final ranks, ·aMw· and .buffalo find themselves facing each other. Both are solid teams that won't have to be too worried about losing their spot for next season, but aren't exactly rolling in wins. Each team will want "just one more", and on a map like Ashville, where the only thing more numerous than strategies are flank routes, the rounds will go in favor of the team that can execute their strategy more thoroughly. Overall, ·aMw· is probably a stronger team, and while the game will be close, ·aMw· should be able to take it. 4-3 in favor of A Million Ways.