Another thing that might instill hope in snailboat's boat to perform well in playoffs is the acquisition of top 20 demoman Tim “dummy” Olson onto their roster as roaming soldier. After the last match of the season, the team's starting roamer Frio mysteriously vanished, leaving the spot open (my theory? He knew that if the team cut him they would succumb to the “curse of Frio” and immediately fall apart, as all teams Frio is cut from have done, and decided to save them the pain of doing so). I believe that, despite his inexperience in the role, dummy will be a big asset, more so in managing the other members of the flank than in making huge plays of his own (although that's always possible as well). Frio is kind of an odd, mercurial figure, and his plays often left his team scratching their heads and wondering what in the Sam Hill he was trying to accomplish, so dummy will most likely lend the team a level of consistency in decision-making that will be useful in the long run.
When I talked to Sparrow, he was fairly pragmatic in assessing his team's chances, predicting that they would neither make it to the finals nor exit the playoffs without a win. I'd have to agree with him, and feel that the team will end up finishing within the 4th to 6th place range. However, if the matchups go right and the team brings their A-game, it's very possible to see them 3rd or even 2nd (1st seems a little farfetched for everyone other than Mad Men right now, of course). I also think the team has probably taken practice more casually than many of the other playoff teams, although not the most casually. If the team buckles down and practices hard before the playoffs, it's possible that they can iron out many of their kinks and excel. Good luck, and may Frio's black majik not strike you down!
FIRST MATCH PREDICTION UGUUU~~~
The first team snailboat's boat will be facing is the number three seed, r5. I think this is a very interesting matchup and can definitely go either way. Neither team seems incredibly strong on snakewater, with all of their prior matches on it going to 5-3 or 5-4 with teams I consider to be a fair bit weaker than either of them. I think that duwatna isn't QUITE as scary as snakewater as he is on, say, gullywash or gravelpit, and that the real force to be reckoned with will be Skarlett on pocket, who has consistently done a huge amount of work on the map. Conversely, I feel that bman has always excelled at finding ways to go very aggressive successfully on snakewater, and expect him to be very hard to contain for downpour and xalox. I think that snailboat's boat matches up fairly well to r5 on this map, as the combo battle is so important and SS is a better match for Skarlett than most of the playoff pockets, but I still probably have to give the game to r5 because of the momentum they have going into the game. 5-3 r5 but I think it will be extremely close and could go either way.