The playoffs went on last week, not without a little drama, as can always be expected in this community. CAL admins were under the impression that all matches were to be played the default night/time, with no exceptions. This caused a fair amount of outrage. Rising Storm wasn't able to field some of their star players jonny/wp, and lost their match to Mediocrity. Dropouts and FD managed to reschedule their match the next day, although they were supposed to do it Monday when both teams could field their best, but the admins shot down this request. Final Destination still managed to win in OT, not sure what the rosters ended up being though. In main, Fragweiser's best player Sniper was suspended 1 week for not taking a demo the previous week but they still rolled over their opponent, iNNo was able to avoid the FF against v3 and win the match, FightClub lost to No Hesitation in OT playing 4v3 and some rounds even 4v2. The last match was epiC beating Unreasonable Ownage, but I don't think there was anything interesting to report.

After 1st round byes in invite, IceNine Gaming and just Cause project are back in action this week. The semifinal matches will be played on another top competitive and pub map of Pipeline. The assaulting team needs to either eliminate all the opfor, take all 3 valves, or take the Main Control Panel. This was once a heavily defensive sided map, but teams have learnt how to win rounds on assault more often now, by proper use of smoke and securing all the valves with team cover, and well timed attacks on the main pump room. Our predictors this week were myself, rbk, and scorpian of Fragweiser.

The good news for jCp is they were the best team in CAL-i this season with a 7-1 record (no forfeit wins). The bad news is their only loss was against Final Destination. Luckily for them, this won't be a rematch on tunnel. Pipeline used to be a top map for the FD players as well, but that may not be the case anymore. It's safe to say that jCp will be the more prepared team for this match. If both teams can field their best 4, this will be a fantastic match. Both teams have had impressive seasons, but it's playoffs and 1 of these teams will be knocked out on this night.

Mr.Clean	rbk	Scorpian
After watching the LAN finals jCp has improved on this map, but still make crucial mistakes, if they play mistake free this could be a convincing win for them. I'll go with jCp > FD 8-4.	jCp wins because they just dome all around, allthough fd is pretty good, jCp is a ton better and comes out on top.	This should be an easy one for jCp as they have been scrimming regularly and of course they have the firepower to blow fd-i out if they field sTan, banana_gun, RaF and dTraf. jCp wins 10-4.

Mediocrity is going through some changes right now with the addition of 3 conviction members. They will be in tough against a solid IceNine squad and will need to field a full roster to take this match. Chrones and rabb should lead them to victory if that's the case. Otherwise, whiz & sani will be too much to handle especially if they have the backup roster members they need, possibly haunter and redeye are good choices for i9 on pipe. Even with activity issues for matches, chris has been able to carry his team. IceNine has been ready for every match all year, and it shows with their 6-1 record (taking away bye wins) which is surely the best they've done at any league invite level, will the playoff curse continue though? Mediocrity should be the favorites if they field 4, but don't count out this solid i9 team.

Mr.Clean	rbk	Scorpian
I will probably be wrong no matter who I pick, so I'll go with mediocrity taking the victory, chris with 18 kills, whiz and rabb with 15, the rest staying just under 10. Final score 8-5 med.	I think i9 will beat med cause i9 has some dope a$$ strats and unless med has all their players show up with their A game its not going 2 be close, they're all done :P	This will be a close match considering med recently lost 2 of their starters - noofy & spanker. I would say med still wins this by a narrow margin 8-6.

Fragweiser won their quarter-final match with ease. They've come a long way in CAL and showed they not only deserve to be in main, but they are also contenders for the title. iNNovation started the season strong, they had some close matches in week 4 and 5 which shouldn't have been close, then finally lost in week 6. iNNo looks to be back on track right now, so don't count them out. These teams did play head to head already and Fragweiser won 8-6 on WC.

Mr.Clean	rbk	Scorpian
Based on the nature of the map and the teams playing it should be a close battle, Fragweiser > iNNo 8-5 with frag starting on D.	Frag comes out on top of inno because they will have better strats.	Last time these 2 teams battled during league round match on weapons cache, fragweiser took it 8-6. Although pipeline has been one of the weaker maps for Fragweiser, if they put in enough prep-time during the week and field in the right roster they should be able to pull it off by a narrow margin. Fragweiser wins 8-6.

These teams faced each other twice in the final 3 weeks of the season. No Hesitation romped epiC 10-4 on WC the first time around, but epiC got revenge 11-3 on River Basin. nH is the better CQB team, but you can never count out epiC, they are a team who practices/prepares more than almost every team out there. If they are well prepared on this night, they could pull off the victory. No Hesitation has experience at the top level and they have some very skilled players. They can't expect to field less than 4 this time and still win. This match should really be the finals match, hopefully we can get it casted.

Mr.Clean	rbk	Scorpian
From what I've seen nH has the better shooters, but epiC are always prepared, it could go either way really. If nH fields 4 they take it 8-6.	epiC will beat nH because epiC has been going strong all year and they got mad strats, allthough nH has picked their game up a ton at end of year i think it will be a close one but epiC comes out on top.	The young jedi's of epiC have been practicing really hard for the pipeline battle against the strong sith team - nH. Both teams have defeated each other convincingly during the league round matches, but this one should turn out to be a nail biter. Considering the fact that nH is having activity issues and had problems fielding 4 in their last match, epiC should be able to take this one, say 8-6.