Ginyu Force > Kimberlite Council 4-1

The good matches are coming I promise. In the meantime, we’re kicking off week 2 of the playoffs with Ginyu vs KLITE. Ginyu has been having some issues this week keeping their cool as any avid stream enthusiast can attest to, but the absolute dominance of Max on sniper will probably be too much for KLITE to properly counter. The one strategy that seems to work on Ginyu is all out unexpected and coordinated aggression. If KLITE can take advantage of chaotic moments where Ginyu’s comms will be cluttered they could potentially take a round or two. Raw deathmatching ability might secure them the win this week, but going forward Ginyu will need to work on their comms and ability to adapt quickly if they want to take down BPM or MTS.

Gangsta Gang < The Syndicate 4-2

I’ve been eyeing this particular match for about two weeks now, waiting for this day to come. In fact I’m almost a little disappointed that TS is bringing in B4nny to sub for Chriz-tah-fah because it’s so hard to determine exactly the kind of impact he will have. B4nny is undoubtedly an amazing demo, but his adaptation to highlander isn’t all that seamless. He’s vulnerable to spies and doesn’t seem to take as many heals as he probably should. That being said he’ll probably give TS just the edge they need for a convincing win because he’ll have an excellent support cast of Vhalin on scout, Arthur on heavy, and Fathom on pyro. Over on GG the big players to watch will be Moonchild on sniper and probably Raz on spy even though he’s been a little inconsistent throughout the season. Ma3la on soldier might give them some surprises as well, although highlander soldier on Viaduct is pretty difficult. If GG want to take enough rounds to win it’ll all come down to how consistently they can pick Hildreth either before or after ubers and how well they can keep Seabass alive.

Baby Punching Marathon > Ghetto Afterthought 4-1

It might be fun to watch these two hyper-aggressive teams butt heads, but the superior DM from BPM should let them coast to win against GA. I don’t think any team in the league is as good at winning the scrappy chaotic fights as BPM is. That’s probably why they’re always so eager to initiate them in the first place. The only weakness to that strategy seems to be that BPM always has a couple players who get ahead of themselves and overextend, which could be a nice opportunity for GA if they’re quick enough to take advantage of it.

Menace to Society > Quality Control 4-1

Once again we have another David and Goliath match up. But if there’s any team I feel has the potential to compete with the top teams it would be QC. Now with famed open all-star Indust+ playing medic they’re a much tougher team that’s for sure. We’ll have to see if it’ll be enough to go toe to toe with the mighty MTS. Pretzel will be a formidable protective force around Indust+, but it’ll all be up to how well guys like Lumines, SteveC, and even TMP can work together to make sure Harbleu goes down at least as much as Indust+ does. I’m going to predict that someone from MTS who’s probably flown under the radar this season will go huge in this Viaduct match, and that someone is Jerro on spy. He’s a very experienced and skilled spy that doesn’t usually get his appropriate props, but he’s solid for sure. Other than that it’ll be the usual Harbleu, Xalox, and UKM carry show.

Remember be on the lookout for some actually exciting lower-bracket matches this Thursday. Those preds will go up Wednesday.