The third week of Highlander has arrived, and through the cry of "what's the map name again?" it's apparent we reached the week of Viaduct Pro Product! Product is the next installment of a map with significant history in Highlander, reaching all the way back to a snowy day in February 2011, where teams battled it out on koth_viaduct. The map is certainly no stranger to strategies, with many teams finding success in completely different ideas of how to play the map. A team's ability to successfully pull of their plan, as well as adapt to their opponents, will be key here. Of course, DM also helps.

The cooldown period between Week 2 and 3 was no friend to many teams, with only six teams not reporting some form of roster change. It's entirely possible, however, that a team had a roster change that slipped by, or will have one between now and match night, bringing the number of teams changed up to last week's nine, but for now we'll have to follow the wave and wait for Week 10 when only one team has a roster change.

Ban Paals is the first team listed, with leaders Metawe and Yipyapper quitting TF2 and Highlander respectively. It looked as if the grassroots revolutionary campaign would die, but Melon Lord found it in her heart a true burning hatred of Paals, and filled the now-empty Medic and Engineer slots. cookie is not someone new to the dK/bp group, having subbed for both teams at one point or another. User, on the other hand, is an Engineer from a few seasons ago, having played on one or two Platinum teams back in Season 13-14 before joining .knd as their sub. While this perhaps isn't the addition necessary to give people belief in a return after a 0-2 (1-2 after the Bye week) beginning, both should be able to hold themselves just fine, and there should be enough experience on the team regardless for them to be able to take down any of the lower Plat teams.

The Corn Ducks settle down, putting Timeless on Sniper after Xen's departure, and Rightjustify reclaiming his lost Demoman spot after fixing his computer. With that, qaK should be able to truly 'begin' their season, and a 1-1 place should be a fine place to plan around for the future.

Dedoris have their fair share of roster swaps as well, with Sleepteiner and Shoe both departing, leaving the door open for Catface and Kresnik to replace them. Kresnik is obviously a huge boost for them, as having a high level combo class will quickly smooth out any bumps in a team's overall strategy. Catface, on the other hand, is seemingly yet another player in Platinum this season from the lower levels of Highlander, but 6s experience should give him the ability to play in Platinum safely.

The first team in Platinum has died, and it's turned out to be Secret team. A 0-2 start in Platinum caused the admins to move the team down to Gold, to which the team responded by disbanding. It's always a shame when teams die, especially when it results in Bye weeks returning to Platinum.

sheen and the ultra lords, or "platinum winners" as they're currently known, have adjusted their roster slightly, with train replacing odb on Scout, and Xenith substituting in for Pellovely for a few weeks.

The One Moment continues to live moment by moment, though slowly move towards a consistent roster. Kresnik's moved on to play for Dedoris, bringing in .knd teammate Jacob to replace him. Auzzie is temporarily swapped out for Etney, and Fire/Fireshaker have returned to the starting lineup after a week away. Hopefully this will signal the end of roster shakiness for moment., but time will tell.

Dear Leader tiptoes has altered his cabinet, deciding that LazyDane and Dave+ were not as loyal to the PINGPONG mindset as he would like. In replacement, he's brought in former mTs Heavy Dill on Heavy, and jk!'s lemon pulp to play Engineer. While Dill is no doubt an accomplished Heavy, lemon pulp is not known for his Engineer play, so hopefully it will work out for Pyongyang's favor and no more heads will roll.

Last and probably least, Wartortle Warriors' Sniper spot continues revolving, with bowswer5 stepping in this week.

As for the teams that didn't change…

A common side effect of Week 3s are the huge amounts of 1-1 teams, with just under half of all the teams sporting that score line. With that said, Process did not have the expected effect of drastically throwing off the MP groups – there are a lot more groups now, sure, but with only 2 matches not ending in a 5-0, there's still some semblance of tiers. For reference, this page is the reference point and the official ranking system for future matchups and placements.

The first thing to note is the 13 teams. As said above, with Secret team moved down and dead, Bye weeks will return to the season, throwing in another variable for the lower level teams as they try to claw their way higher.

The next thing our (my) eyes fall upon is the four 2-0 teams. Acoomuma, Burnham & Root, Chill Penguins, and Memento Mori. What's interesting enough though, is that even this group can be divided further. The first two teams are the first two for a reason aside alphabetical – they got all five points in Week 2. Bv and m | M were unable to get more than 3 points against their opponents, moment. and -ww- respectively. Those two missing matchpoints may actually affect them in the future, most likely placing them below a team they'd be superior to with those matchpoints. While it's unlikely to matter for the Top 3 spots, it will almost for sure affect matchups down the line, and perhaps even the two teams' final spot after Week 8.

Moving on down, we'll pick out cK and estevez as the first of the 1-1 teams to look at. The reason is due to their won round in Week 1 on Borneo, putting them above the rest of the 1-1 teams and against each other.

A group of indistinguishable 1-1ers are next, with a grand total of 4 teams having won a game in one of the weeks, only to get thoroughly stomped in the other one, leaving them with 5 MP. I technically lied, the teams are distinguishable, which is why some may have noticed that the four teams (moment., '92, DOOR, and qaK) are not alphabetically sorted. They're likely sorted by MpD – Match Point Difference. With qaK and moment. not having 'simple' games like '92 and DOOR, both of which won their match without giving the opponent MP, and then lost their game without getting MP, the system sorted them the way it did. Unlike the 2-0 teams, it does affect their matchups, with '92 facing .moment instead of DOOR, who is facing qaK instead of .moment.

I am confused slightly as to why bp received the Bye week after the death of Secret team, as both -ww- and PINGPONG are below them on the list, and have yet to receive a Bye week, especially with PINGPONG having the exact same numbers lineup that bp does. It's possible that it had something to do with bp's own uncertainty for the future, assuming that the matchups were made when it was still unknown. The only other possibility is that the Byes are technically given out alphabetically, with -ww- being overlooked due to their missed Week 1, and then it defaulted to bp as PINGPONG is later in the alphabet. Regardless of reasoning, this will very likely be a pretty large change, with the matchups and the future of those three teams changed somewhat dramatically due to the interesting Bye week placement.

The second big match-up this season, Acoomuma and Burnham meet up on Viaduct. With Curse of Knowledge, they are the three teams expected to fill the #1, #2, and #3 spots at the end of the season, in some order. That order will be directly impacted by the matchups between the three titans, and this is the second. Week 1 had Acoomuma vs Curse of Knowledge, which ended in Acoomuma's favor. If they can pick up the win against BR here, it will be very difficult for them to be uprooted from the #1 spot. That is by no means a guarantee for either variable, as BR stands a good chance of winning, and upsets against Acoomuma are certainly possible later in the season.

As for the match itself, it's easy to see it going either way, depending on what sort of biases you find yourself with. You could choose to look at some matchups like the Medics or Demomen, in favor of Burnham / Acoomuma respectively, or some of the more up in the air matchups, like the Scout+Soldier or Sniper matchups. If Rainy and Ma3la have quickly taken to understanding their classes' role, then BR will have patched significant issues that Acoomuma have no doubt prepared to take advantage of. The game should be close, but while it'd mean so much more for the race if BR wins, Acoomuma should have this. 4-3 in favor of Acoomuma.

While the scores make it seem like this is an even match, a look at where the numbers come from will severely lower the hope for an interesting match. Memento Mori has two victories under their belt from sheen and the ultra lords and Wartortle Warriors, in closely contested games. In Bv's pocket, though, is a FFW and a slow 3-0 game against The One Moment. While Bv should be able to put up a fight, Memento Mori should be able to continue their run up the rankings. 4-2 in favor of Memento Mori.

After dispatching bp and returning to their Curse of Knowledge banner, they find themselves facing another team that changes name on a whim, sheen and the ultra lords. cK was hoping for a simple run back to the top of the scoreboard after their Week 1 loss, but facing estevez was certainly not in that agenda. estevez is certainly a wildcard team, with off-meta strategies that they're determined to make work. However, against a team as experienced as cK is, those strategies may not hold as well as they do against less experienced teams. 4-1 in favor of Curse of Knowledge.

Two seasons ago, a similar matchup happened and was deemed the decider of the best mid-Plat team, below jk!. Flash forward two seasons, and we have a similar match. While it's too early to claim this determines anything, it should be an interesting match regardless. '92 Dream Team is very different now, and a fairly strong team overall. The One Moment went through a similar re-invention, looking almost completely different from prior versions. Etney, Spamfest and Jacob pop out as heavy hitters for moment., and on classes that can do something on KOTH, it's entirely possible for it to go either way. 4-3 in favor of '92 Dream Team.

Their recent crush from high Plat teams over with, the two Gold moveups find themselves facing one another. With scrims going in both directions on both Borneo and Process, and both teams changing since then for the better, it's hard to tell which team will come out on top. Overall, Dedoris does look stronger, especially with Kresnik as a recent pickup. 4-2 in favor of Dedoris.

A loss and a roster reshuffle for PINGPONG will set them up to face Wartortle Warriors, lounging around at the bottom of the scoreboard due to a missed first week. A loss here will be almost season-ending for PINGPONG, so they'll need to win, and they certainly have the lineup for it. Wartortle Warriors aren’t pushovers though, especially with bowswer5 sniping for this week. The roster changes benefit PINGPONG more than they do -ww- though, and should give them the edge this game. 4-2 in favor of Pyongyang Pyonggang.