The playoff format this season should make for a very interesting outcome. Instead of only having to win 2 matches (semis and finals), the wild card teams would have to win 3 matches to take the championship. As we often see in sports, it's not always beneficial to have a first round bye, as you often start off your first playoff match very rusty.

The first round was scheduled to start on V-Day, but after many complaints it looks to have been pushed to the following Thursday Feb 21st. This will give teams a little more prep time, which will likely mean even tighter matches, and closer results. The map of choice for the first round of playoffs is Urban Assault. This is one of the most balanced competitive maps, where teams will try to push quickly to the further objective, or hold the closer objective. The map allows teams to battle both mid-range and close-quarters, plus use AR spam and nade spam as part of their tactics. Success is often determined by a combination of skill and creativity in strats on this map, as well as timed aggression.

CAL INVITE – WILD CARDS

overRated takes on Cover 3

This first matchup is between 2 teams had very solid seasons. overRated finished strong with 3 consecutive wins to finish off 5-2, whereas Cover 3 started to slip a bit down the stretch and fell to 5-3. Although oR beat cov3 twice recently in CAL, this will be a much tougher task. oR has always struggled in Urban matches in the past, but they have improved. This will represent a huge chance for Cover 3 to take down the once dominant overRated squad, and put an end to their quest for a second CAL-Invite title. Whoever puts more practice time in before this match will likely be the eventual victor. I see some possible momentum swings during the match which will lead into the final 2 rounds being the deciding factor. Pimp and epic are sure to have some classic crucial battles.
Prediction: cov3 comes thru with the 8-6 upset

Mediocrity vs Audigy

Although these teams have gotten along pretty well for the most part, they faced each other often enough recently to build up some animosity and a bit of a rivalry. Audigy only had one blemish to cov3 in their season after being moved up from CAL-m in week 2, and finished 5-1. Mediocrity had close matches every week and finished off 4-4 for a pretty decent season. I would imagine both these teams will be very prepared for this one. It will come down to execution, and timing the right strategy calling. The AR’s will be key to both teams success as I’d expect it will be toby from aud vs spanker of med! I can see one team building up a lead by about 3 rounds, and the other team making adjustments bringing it back to within 1 round down the stretch. I may have predicted differently in the CAL forums, but I think Audigy will come thru with the photo finish victory.
Prediction: aud takes it 7-6-1

CAL MAIN – WILD CARDS

Notorious Gaming vs Unknown Factor

Having played both these teams often in the past I would say Unknown Factor is the much better mid-range shooters and Notorious Gaming is better up close and personal. Neither team did exceptional in the season with nG holding a 4-4 record and uF finishing at 3-5 after an 0-4 start. uF likes to spread out quite a bit and pick of opfor from a distance, but nG may work this against them. I think Unknown Factor is the more skilled urban team of the 2, so they should be the favorites to win. uF has finished off very strong which should play in their advantage as nG had 2 forfeit wins to finish their season, plus they’ve started to slip a bit as shown in their recent TWL and CEVO league match results. At the end of the day, this is still playoffs and both teams will be hungry for a win.
Prediction: uF wins 8-5

Unreasonable Ownage vs Volatilis Infensus

This match was played on Wednesday Feb 13th, so I will give a recap since I was in the match. Volatilis Infensus have had a terrible run as of late, as only a few guys still play this game so it’s always a difficult task to get a 4th for the match. vI started on east and really didn’t have any plans, they started all over the place and U played aggressive by taking west and pushing east with 1 kinda floating and causing problems. U took a commanding 5-1-1 lead where the tie round I had a 1v1 and looking back should have went for the kill, but I was holding west at this point and didn’t know where the last guy was. We swapped sides, and yet again got dominated the first round to give Unreasonable Ownage the 6-1-1 advantage with 1 round more needed to take the match. vI changed up their style where I gave Carlisle the AR and we got very aggressive on east with myself holding west. Carlisle was able to take them down from a distance as the other 2 pushed east hard and we won 5 consecutive rounds to tie it up at 6-6-1. Huge momentum swing and the final round would be the deciding one. Carlisle got spam naded, and I got flanked in west right away, eventually leaving Hellz in a 1v3, he took down 1 in west, then held them off, after getting spammed to yellow thru the door and smoke he ran outside thru the smoke and killed 1, as the last guy pushed in the other side. Hellz came around the other door and tried to lean prefire the guy at objective, but got domed. Great battles with alkali leading at 18 kills and Carlisle with 13.
Result: U clutches the 7-6-1 victory