This CAL season turned out to be very organized and ran more smoothly than I can remember, even with a short staff. Sure there was issues with suspensions for players cheating, or circumventing bans, or harbouring past cheaters, but in the end it was handled quite well. It's nice to see all 3 levels of competition (Invite, Main, Open) will all finish the same week. CAL is using a common format used in other leagues for the finals. Rather than 1 predefined final map, each team gets to pick 1 map to play (likely from the season maplist). The first to take 8 rounds wins the set, if the sets are tied 1-1 after 2 sets are complete, the winner will be determined on the overtime pick of Urban Assault.

To recap the past weeks matches I happened to get checking in what was going on by watching the scorebots on htgh.net. In invites, it seemed IceNine was having trouble getting a roster together. They started with whiz, donmai and scripts (web designer) for a couple of rounds after mediocrity had waited long enough, soon after a drunken flik showed up to be the 4th. Mediocrity took it to this weaker roster bby winning 4 rounds assault, and winning the match 8-4. The jCp vs FD match started with FD on assault, and doing very late pushes on main pump room, which allowed them to cause enough havoc to take the obj they needed to win or kill all of jCp and led to a 4-3 half-time lead. FD took this momentum to defense and built their lead to 7-3, but disaster struck plus jCp picked it up and took the final 4 rounds of assault. jCp took this momentum to OT and swept it. FD decided to dispute for smoke violations and won the dispute so they will advance. In main, nH faced epiC and showed how strong they are CQB by taking them on aggressively and winning 4 rounds on assault, they finished them off on defense winning 8-4. The other main match featured a solid iNNo roster vs a weakened Fragweiser roster when their star sniper wasn't able to play. They stole a couple on assault and won a couple more with aggressive tactics leading to a 4-3 halftime lead, on defense iNNo showed them what's up and frag only came close in 1 round, final 8-3 iNNo. In Open it was nd > DoG 9-5 and dTp > Si 8-7.

This week my helpers for the write-ups and predictions were chrones from mediocrity, pimpin from Rising Storm, scarface from overRated, and tactics of Above Average (after a short stint with cov3). None of us knew a whole lot about the open teams so we mostly played a guessing game there.

This finals match should be an interesting one especially since neither team will know what map the other is going to pick until right before the match. With AA's giant list of official maps God knows what maps we will see being played, but hopefully they will stick to the standard competitive maps. The first challenge for these teams will be to pick a map that they are confident they can beat the other guys on. The second challenge will be to make sure their best starting rosters are available come game time. After a poor showing on Pipeline in CEVO by med vs rS, it might be a good idea for Final Destination to pick this map. Their last head to head match was 3 months ago on Insurgent Camp where Med took the win. This has always been a solid map for med so they may decide to choose this, although Final-D is definitely no pushover on IC. This should be the last match for a while that med has to worry about roster issues. With the addition of bdmg, jee, and bama, they'll be in better shape in future leagues as long as those 3 stick around. Final Destination also has no other leagues going on at the moment, so they will surely be prepped and ready to play at their highest level to go for this title. Good luck to both teams.

Mr.Clean	pimpin	scarface
The obvious thing to note is med will definitely need to field a starting 4 to have a chance in this match. As it is a finals match, I foresee they will make the commitment to make it and med will edge FD in set 3 on Urban (if that's the map).	FD for the win. More deep roster than med! that plays a little bit more together. Although Chris will try to get back on top after a 1-9 performance against Rising Storm on pipeline, im sure he has to get something off his back.	Since cal has poor anticheat the advantage must go to med due the fact that they start 2 cheaters in hendrix and rabb. The one advantage that fd has going for them now is that chris went 1-9 in a match which makes him even worse than epic who once went 2-8 in a match.

It has been a bit of a cake walk for both these teams. Almost too easy for iNNo, really not facing the best teams or best rosters in Main, but they surely took advantage of this and strolled to the finals. Truthfully I'm amazed that iNNovation has survived an entire season. No Hesitation walked all over their opposition all season long as well. Without an ounce of fear they took on all their enemies in savage like fashion, spitting in the faces of the dead after each battle. If King Zeratul can step away from his chambers and his many wives who bath him and feed him all day, he can take the time to lead his soldiers on the battlefield. Tempers will flare, blood will shed, lives will be taken. In the end only 1 clan will stand up high and proud to raise their arms in victory. No Hesitation will be considered the favorites in this final match, but they can't take iNNo lightly as iNNo is quite capable of pulling off some nasty shots themselves.

Mr.Clean	chrones	tactics
No Hesitation will surely take this match, but iNNo will keep it close enough to make it interesting.	nH > iNNo - iNNo could practice all they want and still lose this match.	Although I haven't played iNNo I have played No Hesitation and I have to give them an edge. They have made our clan look like we've never practiced before every time we play.

These Open kids have been demanding coverage so I finally gave in. Nervedamage started the CAL season with a tough OT win vs Hostility, but ever since have strolled through the season without much difficulty. They finished the season 8-0, although 3 wins were by forfeit. They continued their hot streak into the playoffs, their quarterfinal opponent was scared to show, then they beat Defenders of Glory on Pipe in the semis. Disturbing the peace didn't have it quite as easy as Nervedamage. dTp started by winning the first 4 matches in dominant fashion by hitting double-digit rounds each time, but they faltered towards the end of the season against the tougher competition. dTp lost to Si on both MA 9-5 and Tunnel 10-4, then barely squeaked by Trigger Happy in OT on River Basin. dTp turned things back around come playoff time. In the quarters they faced one of the favorited USMC and beat them real bad 12-2 on Mout. This gave them confidence when they faced Si Gaming in the semis. They got their revenge against rival Si and beat them in OT in the match that counts, playoffs! Both teams are riding high, with a chance to pick their best maps in the first 2 sets, the match can very likely go to OT on Urban. Good luck to both teams!

Mr.Clean	chrones	tactics
As little as I know about these teams, they should be able to win their home map pick. I've heard that nd is a better Urban team so I'll give them the slight edge for the win here.	dTp > nD - Dont know much about the "new" nD-aa and know enough about dTp that they should take this in a close one.	Although dTp finally pulled off a win against si it will not be enough to carry them over nd. I have to give nd the edge in overtime since it's on Urban Assault.