Pudding Cup gives us his expectations for the upcoming UGC Platinum games on pl_badwater

Kimberlite Council < Ginyu Force 1-2

Now this should be a big opportunity for kLITE to really see what they can do against a top 4 team. Coming off of some very close wins against GA and CR, kLITE should be in confident spirits. And history could very well be in their favor here as Ginyu has struggled on pl_badwater in the past. Of course this was before they picked up duwatna and all-star engineer abelincoln (sorry not chimpoo), so I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of their former issues disappear this time around. Kimberlite seems to be doing well on this map as well, but they're going to need at least one good scrim against Syndicate or BPM before I would consider them truly ready to take on Ginyu. I do want to note that kLITE's medic phorofor has put up some impressively low death numbers in their scrims so this match could definitely be closer than Ginyu might assume.

The Syndicate < Menace to Society 1-2

Obviously match of the week right here, and I couldn't have even chosen a better map for these two teams to butt heads on. Well maybe upward could have been better to recreate last season's platinum finals, but badwater will do just fine to set the stage with bitterness and rivalry. Syndicate will be fielding shrugger on scout and mangachu on demo this week for the first time so we will have to wait and see just how much of an impact these players can make. I personally went out for drinks with stabby a couple days ago where he told me he had a lot of confidence in mangachu as a demo, but they're going to need more than confidence to stack up against the crew from mTs. Not many people will argue that xalox isn't the best demo in highlander right now and ukm has been consistently putting up very impressive frag numbers week after week. The real threat of mTs, though, lies with their silent carry--harbleu on medic. He's rarely caught out of position, he builds ubers like no one else, and he knows just how to prioritize his heals on top of calling most of the plays. The key for Syndicate to beat mTs is to keep killing harbleu and maintaining precious uber advantage. Without vhalin and ruwin to get the med picks this is going to be a very tough match for our season 8 champions. Stabby, jake, and shrugger will have to make a lot of magic happen this week--no pressure.

Death Marked Soldiers < Baby Punching Marathon 0-2

DMS has been making this season their strongest showing in what seems like a very long time. I might have scoffed at Sylon's team in the past for stagnating for so many season, but now I can say I really admire them maintaining in platinum this long instead of going the silver or gold route that other old teams have done. They've made some solid pick ups like LitoJ on pyro (seriously dude what were you doing in silver), Chriz Tah Fah on soldier, and heep hop on sniper that have brought them a lot of success against other mid-platinum teams. This season also marks the return of Tadd on demo, but I don't think it'll be enough against the behemoths of baby punching, BPM. The aggressive combination of boink and bronze will be too much for DMS to handle on badwater. Welcome back to platinum sdogg.

Quality Control > Chain Reaction 2-1

I always get these two teams confused because of their fairly bland generic team names. Which is unfortunate because teams like these are essential to keeping platinum populated with promising and hardworking talent. This will be another very close match that deserves to be casted. CR has made a very nice pick up of misskay on medic that should give them a lot more confidence in their team's ability to push. QC should have the same line up we saw last week when they put up a very tough fight against Ginyu Force. If they show that kind of endurance this week on badwater they will be a tough defense to break. Of course the addition of misskay could be just the boost CR needs to edge out a victory. I'm going to with QC to win but I suspect this will be very close.

Gangsta Gang > IKEA 2-0

IKEA forfeited last week so I'm not sure if they're dead or not. Either way I expect GG to take this.

Playing Naked < Blunderful 1-2

Blunderful has had a bit of a rough start getting back into the swing of things this season, but it looks like they're starting to come back into form. Being by far the most stable roster I think platinum has ever seen makes BFL one of those teams you just want to root for. This week squidfrog and his posse will be facing off against dash and his merry band of ESEA open misfits. Should be an entertaining match to behold, but I see Blunderful coming through with the win here given their experience and their inclination towards actually scrimming. I have enjoyed playing 6's though with some of the guys on Naked so I hope they have fun on badwater this week.

Ghetto Afterthought > Axl Wat 2-0

Ghetto Afterthought has had a little bit of a tough schedule so far, losing 4-3 to kLITE and then 5-2 to BPM. Hopefully the early losses haven't shaken them up too badly as they should have a pretty good shot at taking the win this week. Axl Wat meanwhile seems to be taking this season lightly, at least for the moment. The roster they're fielding right now is looking a little flat. Hydrogrind has been having a tough outing as demo and xlax is being played at scout when he's significantly more fearsome at sniper. If AW were to magically bring back some of their star talent from last season they would instantly shoot up in the power rankings, but right now it's not looking good for them. I think even bringing back brody would would drastically improve their odds. GA has sweater, however the hell they pulled that off, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them take this with good measure.

Zaboomacrew +3 = Starfucker 0-0

Both these teams should be dead. They were probably only scheduled to give platinum the illusion that they still have 16 teams :(.