After earning a bye in the first round, the two undefeated teams, United 5 and Mug 'N Mouse, were back in action in the second round! The 4 quarter-final matches were set to kick off around 9pm Monday night. Maps were picked 15 minutes before match time, which meant is was hard to prepare for the match since the maps were not pre-defined. The overtime map was picked by TWL just before the match started as well, and the pick was Special Forces Sandstorm. Teams such as Conviction and FightClub were delighted with this choice as it is one of their stronger maps. Below are the recaps with the Teams seed marked in brackets next to the team name.


United 5 (1) vs 160th_Soar (8)
#1 ranked United 5 boasted a 10-0 record going in with 160th holding a 5-3-3 record. 160th gained confidence in their upset win over IceNine the previous week. Some 160th_Soar members were even bold enough to get involved in the AA Drama forums when a thread was started to make fun of i9's devastating result.

Map 1, 160th_Soar's choice, Border:
United 5 chose to start on assault, and went down 0-2 quickly. 3 u5 guys dropped and came back in, u5 proceeded to get more aggressive and took control after that. Audacity was getting lag caused by taking demos, but it didn't affect the result as they took the set 6-4.

Map 2, United 5's choice, Urban Assault:
United 5 had west spawn to start and set the tone in the first round pushing East and taking the round in 30 seconds. They never looked back after that and proceeded to take the set 6-3-1 and win the match in 2 sets straight out.

160th_Soar's roster:
Kick, Vomet, GC Fireman, The Rude
United 5's roster:
snapo, audacity, josh, freak

u5's undefeated season continues.
End result: u5 > 160th 6-4, 6-3-1


Unreasonable Ownage (4) vs Ataxia (12)
UO were the favorites with their 7-3-1 record, with Ataxia only having a .500 record of 5-5-1. After cutting UnknownFactor some slack on the start time last week, Ataxia decided to uphold their reputation for arbitrarily forcing teams to play by the rules depending on how much we like them. Unreasonable Ownage actually thought they'd let them play on a server without CVARS. After picking WC the previous week believing it would be easy to at least tie without practice, Ataxia changed their pick this week. They realized that was a mistake after losing all the rounds on assault to uF and then 1 guy going to make a sandwich when they switched to defense.

Map 1, Ataxia's choice, Mout McKenna:
Ataxia started on Loyalty and used a lot of unconventional, full pushes simultaneously to both B & C, with their C rushes being the most effective. For Honor, Ataxia played really passive either waiting for them to get picked or fragging their rushes.

Map 2, Unreasonable Ownage's choice, Pipeline:
Ataxia started D and screwed the pooch, losing 2 rounds after they picked our west guy early. Atx only managed one round on assault when Fender did some sort of ninja West rush killing 3 of them while using a mind-probe to get them to TK in the process. The round was basically over before the rest of atx got into main pump room. There were plenty of opportunities for Ataxia to win or tie Pipe, and in hindsight the match should have never gone to OT.

Map 3, TWL's OT choice, SF Sandstorm:
Ataxia took North with about 30 seconds left, and snuck in to take Central and the round as U's remaining 2 shifted over to North. Next round U took atx out near central and took the second round easily. Ataxia pushed North reasonably hard in the 3rd round and ended with a 2v1 with North & South objectives. They pinned Alkali under central until time was scarce, and Zoink shot him when he tried to make a move. Ataxia swapped over to East and lost the first round by playing too passive at Central and an getting untimely jam. Atx played much closer to Central the next round, but the action didn't start until 50 seconds left when mza took out Alkali under Central, they secured central and finished them off with about 10 seconds left in the round. Effingee got a quick pick at Central in the last round as Aligator apparently got bored and decided to rush in alone. mza took out Alkali under Central about 30 seconds later, Ataxia took central, and fender cleaned up the leftovers outside central to give Ataxia the win 4-2 in OT!

Unreasonable Ownage's roster:
alkali, aligator, vicious, tribalwolf, blackaim, omega, davis
Ataxia's roster:
Zoink, fender, effingee, mza

There we have it, upset #1
End result: atx > U 6-4, 4-6, 4-2


Dropouts (3) vs FightClub (11)
Dropouts had an excellent record of 9-1-1, whereas FightClub had an average 5-4-2 record.
Dropouts definitely were the favorites going in, but there were still plenty of people that figured fc could pull off the upset. I guess they figured this due to fc's experience, not due to their commitment to practice, since they've scrimmed maybe twice in the past 2 months! Dropouts fully expected FightClub to pick Bridge SE after they picked it in round 1 and they also eliminated dropouts in CEVO playoffs on this very map. FightClub definitely had no desire to pick Bridge SE after almost blowing that set the first week, and a couple of fc guys being upset with the pick in the first place. After their performance on IC the 1st playoff round, fc definitely considered picking this map, but knowing dropouts strength is CQB fc went with an outdoor map. FightClub fully expected dropouts to pick pipeline as it is likely their strongest map (or WC), plus they noticed drp scrimming pipe once or twice.

Map 1, FightClub's choice, River Basin:
This is a pretty strong map for fc so they were confident they could take the set by stealing at least 1 round on assault. They didn't realize rounds won could be a potential tie-breaker when they picked it though. Dropouts chose to start on assault. FightClub spread their defense to hold back dropouts from all angles. It can be risky, but even though 1 guy would get picked every round they were able to hold off dropouts long enough to make them run out of time or kill them all. In most rounds fc had to finish 2v2 or 2v1 situations to take the round, with donth@te and clean being the remaining 2 each time. FightClub swept D, and with clean having his demos make his breathing sound like Darth Vader, he subbed out and hoped to fix it before the pipeline set started. Laz subbed in for clean and the first round fc pushed central, and took C and A, but took too long to push B where dropouts had decided to defend. The 2nd round fc sent 1 to B to slowly move in, while the others took over A/C. They approached B with an extra 2 minutes this time and were able to take the round. Both teams played more aggressive after that with the set already being decided and the score ended up 7-3 in favor of fc.

Map 2, Dropouts choice, Pipeline:
FightClub had side choice and decided to pick defense first. This looked to be a good choice in the beginning as they were able to hold off dropouts assault and win the first 3 rounds. Dropouts assault was solid, and just came up short. In the 4th round, after about a minute in, laz uttered on vent that his internet had crashed, fc hadn't realized so they were stuck playing a man down. Clean tried to pick one in tunnels, and after emptying a clip of rubber bullets point blank he retreated to reload and got flanked, therefore confirming he is bad! 2v4 fc lost the round with laz actually being the only remaining player as he hadn't dropped from the server yet. The final round of assault for dropouts was a good one as laz got picked at main ent, and split exchanged kills at prime leaving donthate and clean to attempt to clutch. They both got flashed and killed simultaneously.
Switching to assault FightClub knew it would be tough to take 2 rounds, and split was really aggravated with the final 2 rounds. Knowing Dropouts would be tough at main/sec FightClub played passive at both entrances and waited for the other 2 to take exterior and get in the tunnels. Big's internet dropped after about a minute, giving fc the 4v3 advantage, so they took over secondary then made a push on prime. Plenty of smoke to mask sound helped as donthate grabbed the prime valve while clean took out 2 guys while covering him. The final round, split got taken out in tunnels, but donthate redeemed him. 3v3 fc pushed prime again, and donthate flashed the guy that killed him, plus laz and clean flashed him too. Laz took him out while clean got prime before the frag grenade was able to take him out. The rounds were at 5-2 in favor of fc which was enough to secure the win, so both teams said their GG's and the match was over.

FightClub's roster:
teq (rb), hellz (rb), donthate, clean, split (pipe), laz (pipe)
Dropout's roster:
dac, mxz (sub in for who), big, shader, who (rb)

So here we are with upset #2 in the books.
End result: fc > drp 7-3, 5-2


Mug 'N Mouse (2) vs Conviction (7)
After finishing off epiC without the need of overtime, Conviction got the opportunity to continue onto Round 2 of the TWL-Playoffs. This match was against the 10-0 Mug 'N Mouse.
Conviction with a 5-3-3 record going in, was 0-4 against mNm in recent history, and they felt that this may be their chance to end the losing streak. Would this 7th seeded team be able to mug the undefeated mice of their cheese? In order to accomplish this, Conviction put much time into what they guessed mNm's map choice would be. coN's map of Sandstorm had a good history with them and allowed them to not put much practice into it. The overtime map, not announced until the day of, would be the deciding factor in a win or loss. When Monday came around, all of Conviction was pumped to see Sandstorm as the OT map. Now could they deliver?

Map 1, Conviction's choice, SF Sandstorm:
Conviction went into the match with much confidence. Six rounds was all that was needed for the map. It was a strong start, and coN was able to take three straight rounds. The momentum was not able to carry. It was ended with a steady four losses in a row, leaving the score 3-4 in favor of mNm. It became life or death, where every round had a chance of making the map a tie, giving mNm a strong advantage at a win in the end. In this clutch, coN was able to pull 3 straight winning rounds, barely winning the map 6-4.

Set 1 Logs - Note (The first two rounds were suicided by mNm to fix the score after a server mistake was caught)

Map 2, Mug N Mouse's choice, Urban Assault:
MugNMouse is very strong at Urban. It was a great choice by them, due to the fact that coN struggles with it. This was able to show when mNm was able to win the map with a 7-3 victory. Chris led the team with and amazing 16 kills and 4 deaths.

Set 2 Logs

Map 3, TWL's OT choice, SF Sandstorm:
This was Conviction's lucky break. Their strong map became the one that would decide the win or loss against a #2 ranked team. The first three rounds were won by Conviction, making it 3-0 at halftime. All coN needed was 1 round to win. If the OT became a tie, it would force a tiebreaker in which mNm would win due to more rounds won overall. They had a 1 in 3 shot to do it. After two rounds, the score was 3-2 coN. The outcome came down to the last round. A quick strat change was called and immediately two mNm players were shot in the final round. It was left at a 4v2 with only 20 seconds off the clock. The time was starting to expire, and the two teams began to make their moves. With a 2v1 situation left, uNk made the winning kills, finishing off all of mNm, and securing the OT set for the win at 4-2!

Set 3 Logs

Conviction's Roster:
xtopherus, unk, bama, jee, majik
MugNMouse's Roster:
chrones, mYth, Rabb, spanker

Finally, there we have upset #3!
End result: coN > mNm 6-4, 3-7, 4-2

TWL Inter S12 Quarter-final Results for 14/04/2008


Next week features seed #1 United 5 against seed #12 Ataxia. Is another upset in the making? The other semifinal features seed #7 Conviction vs seed #11 FightClub. This one is too close to call! Good luck next week, and good season to those who were knocked out this week; 160th_Soar, Unreasonable Ownage, Dropouts & Mug 'N Mouse.

TWL Inter S12 Semi-final Matchups for 21/04/2008


In closing, even though chrones (aka. chris) confirmed he was indeed butthurt, I think it was really his shoulders that must have been sore and his team owes him a good massage!