A lot has happened throughout this 9th season of the Cyber Amateur League. Some teams didn't finish out the season after struggling to field 4 with loss of players or inactivity issues. Some teams exceeded expectations such as IceNine who won their division in Invite and Fragweiser winning their division in Main, while others were a disappointment such as overRated who chose not to finish out the season. After doing as much as he could to get this season going positive and making it as big a success as possible, we even saw CAL-Vando step down after a frustrating season that probably burnt him out. andOnly two weeks remain in this season of CAL Invite. In the end we have 6 teams advancing to the playoffs in invite, with the division winners receiving a first round bye. In CAL-M we have 8 teams advancing to the quarter-finals of the playoffs. This coming Thursday July 31st we will have the 2 invite matches and 4 main matches played out on Mout McKenna.

IceNine Gaming and just Cause project won their respective divisions in CAL-I and thus have a first round BYE in the playoffs. Mout McKenna is a map where spam plays an important role as the team which is more effective can come up with better rushes, or do a better job stopping the other teams rush. In the end the more skilled, more prepared, and team with the best teamwork usually comes out on top. Our 3 predictors for this week are Mr.Clean of FightClub, Wh!z of IceNine, and jeee of Mediocrity (previously on conviction), and I had blu1ce of epiC do one of whiz's picks for iNNo vs

Dropouts won the only head-to-head match between these teams this season, but it was on an outdoor map so it's not a good indication of what to expect in this match. Both teams finished with a solid 5-3 record. When they are on their game, Dropouts tend to be pretty solid on CQB maps such as Mout/Pipe/WC so that bodes well for them seeing the first 2 maps of the playoffs are Mout and Pipe. Final Destination has been unpredictable this season, beating teams such as jCp and oR, but losing to eFlow. If these teams get in some practice time it will be a great match and can go either way.

Mr.Clean	wh!z	jeee
FD-i was not at the top of their game this season, but they may be coming around. I can see dropouts taking this one by an 8-4 margin.	It looks like finalDestination has really picked up their game for the playoffs and are looking for some blood. I think that fd will take this match easily moving them on to the second round of playoffs.	This has the potential of being very close, drp will pull it out in the end.

Rising Storm and Mug N' Mouse both had very decent seasons as shown by their 6-2 records. These guys met last week on River Basin in the only head-to-head match they had this season. rS were victors in a 14-0 sweep, although I'm not sure the details of whether MNM played short or played out the rounds. It's possible MNM didn't even make an effort since both teams were already playoff bound. rS only lost to the 2 division winners jCp and i9, whereas MNM lost to rS and i9. The top players on each side should be mugNmouse.chrones and rS.jonny.

Mr.Clean	wh!z	jeee
Rising Storm has the advantage in roster depth, but if Chris gets some support it could be close at least. 8-4 win for rS.	I don't know what's been going on with mNm lately but, I think that they are losing some of their steam. This will be a good match, but rS will pull out the win in the end. rS beats mNm despite Chris' valiant efforts..	This can go either way, but I'm rooting for the home team on this one, MNM takes the win.

Fragweiser has taken advantage of a weaker main division and rolled over most of the teams. Their only loss came to New Era Gaming. Elite Tactical Unit barely slipped into the playoffs by virtue of the fact the Version 3 got smoked by New Era Gaming in the final week. v3 could have quite possibly taken that 4th and final spot in their division if they played out the final week's match vs neg instead of conceeding the last 4 rounds, but perhaps they were not aware of this. Based on the way Fragweiser has played this season, they are the clear favorites with their 7-1 record vs eTu's 3-5 record. It is playoffs and you just never know what might happen!

Mr.Clean	wh!z	jeee
If Sniper is on he can dominate and lead this team to a lopsided victory. eTu plays more passive which could hurt them on this aggressive natured map. 8-2 frag > eTu.	This is another matchup where I don't know that much about the teams that are playing. I think that I will flip a coin and choose fragweiser for this one. Frag takes out eTu in a close match.	If Fragweiser can get their starters back on the field, they will have a pretty easy win.

The good thing for iNNo is this is a map that they can do well on without a whole lot of practice. Originally iNNo was supposed to face a team of x-hackers who also do very well on this map. They also used to pub it like no tomorrow when they cheated. New Era Gaming got smacked down by the admins recently, and I've heard about some trick where you bind a macro button to your fire key making your fire rate faster which there was speculation this team uses, it seems that might have been the case based on their suspensions. iNNo's record shows how weak this division was, and version 3 just squeaked into the playoffs with a 4-4 record. Version 3 will need to put in some good practice and execute their shots to beat iNNo.

Mr.Clean	blu1ce	jeee
Even though iNNo doesn't seem practice, sadly they can still win on Mout vs most teams. I'll take the underdogs Version 3 just for fun 8-6.	inno should win because v3 isn't really impressing me this season, but then again, inno hasn't scrimmed much, but i'd go with inno just based on their roster.	If iNNo shows on Thursday they could win this one, having already beat Version 3 this season, so I'll go with that.

epiC dominated Unreasonable Ownage when they faced off in week 1 on Insurgent Camp. Since then Unreasonable Ownage played a whole lot better, especially on CQB maps. epiC only had 1 blemish all season when they got smoked 10-4 by nH, but WC is not their specialty. Other than that one match, epiC has rolled over their competition this season. If Unreasonable Ownage puts in the effort and comes up with decent strats/pushes, they can pull off the upset here. They played pretty well at the LAN and if they play confident they won't be a pushover either way.

Mr.Clean	wh!z	jeee
I can see this match going back and forth with epiC finding the groove and eventually taking the momentum using good teamwork and stealing a round or 2 with last second objectives. 8-5 win for epiC.	Lately, epiC has been playing great while uO is just a shadow of its former self. Most likely, epiC will win this one without too much trouble at all. epiC easily triumphs over uO.	epiC will continue their winning streak into the playoffs without too much trouble.

FightClub has played as expected for the most part, winning matches they were expected to, and losing against the top teams. No Hesitation has plenty of invite experience on their roster which showed during the season as they won every match except the last one. This will be a huge test for FightClub, they have a deep roster, but the talent level is pretty even across that roster aside from 1 or 2 players. If they want to win this match they'll have to field their best 4 and pull of some nasty stuff. No Hesitation won the only head-to-head matchup between these teams when toby and mofo lead the way with double digit kills and perfect shooting.

Mr.Clean	wh!z	jeee
Being a member of fc I don't like predicting my own match, but just based on the fact that we don't scrim top teams enough we will likely lose to top team of No Hesitation. We'll try to make it close 8-5.	I haven't played with fc in ages since they don't tend to scrim us. Concurrently, I don't know what is going on with them. Judging by nH's recent play I think they will take the win. Look for some epic laz vs. Toby battles.	No Hesitation has had a very successful season, and they will continue it in the playoffs.