USA - It certainly was an exciting first day of playoffs for CEVO's Professional Nationvoice $10,000 CSS Tournament. We saw the first two seeds, as well as a once-dominant favorite, get eliminated, and when all was said and done, 3 teams found themselves in the money: 3rd-seed Dallas Venom, 4th-seed San Francisco Optx, and 6th-seed Pandemic. Venom and Pandemic will be playing in the Lower Bracket finals for a chance to face Optx in a best-of-three maps, to determine the champion. But there's so much to talk about, so let's get right into it.

Changing of the Guard(ians)

Team Guardians was THE dominant force this regular season. The former electronic Gaming evolution surprised everyone by losing only one match(and just barely), en route to the 1st seed and an amazing 12-1 record. But come playoffs that same dominance just wasn't there as Guardians lost their only two matches in the playoffs.

The Guardians lost a close match to San Francisco 10-7 in their first match of the tournament. In that match, the Guardian's Keven "AZK" Lariviere's +6 frag ratio and 91.1 DAR were not enough to overcome the imposing 107.4 DAR and +8 frag ratio of the Optx' Moe Assad.

In the lower bracket, the Guardians were eliminated in convincing fashion by the Dallas Venom 10-4, ending their Cinderella season and a run at the championship. The Venom's David "zid" Chin had an incredible match against the Guardians here, going +7 with a 116.6 DAR and an awesome 1.143 average frags per round.

How the Mighty Fall (and How Hard They Hit the Ground)

For nearly as long as there has been Counter-Strike, LA compLexity has been at or near the top of the game. They have a standard of excellence that very few can maintain, and enough trophies to fill several walls. They were THE team in 2007. But it's now 2008, and LA has not been invincible by any means. They had a disappointing season (by classic coL standards), and controversy marred their entrance to the playoffs and a fifth place seed. They, like Team Guardians, had an early exit in the first day of the CEVO Pro Season 5 Championship.

Complexity lost a tough first round overtime match to San Francisco in which the Optx Ryan Pham led the scoring with a +6 frag ratio and an impressive 102.8 DAR (damage per round). Complexity's Danny "fRoD" Montaner led the scoring for coL in the match with a +6 frag ratio and an also impressive 104.2 DAR. Montaner's efforts were not enough as the rest of Complexity could not get out of negative numbers in frag ratios.

In the Lower Bracket, compLexity was eliminated in another close match with the Carolina Core, thus ending any hope of a three-peat. The core's Sam "Devour" Chamma took coL to task in the match with a 104.4 DAR, 1.222 average frags per round and a +11 frag ratio.

Venom and Pandemic: Mini-Rivalry

Dallas Venom and Team Pandemic are facing off for the right to take on San Francisco in the Grand Finals. To get there, they have already had to play each other once, as well as work through some of the favorites to win this tournament.

Playing each other in the first round, Pandemic dominated Dallas en route to a 10-4 victory. Pandemic's Jon "juan" Mumm racked up and impressive +8 frag ratio and a 106 DAR in the match. Venom's David "zid" Chin had a very "un-zid-like" performance with a -7 frag ratio and a DAR of only 53.9.

Pandemic then manned up and took down second-seeded Carolina by a score of 10-8. Pandemic's Mike "Paradox" Stanowski led the pack in that match with a 110.5 DAR and a +5 frag ratio. Pandemic's Upper Bracket streak was stopped cold via a 10-3 thrashing at the hands of San Francisco. The Optx' Laurent "warmach1ne" Keoula run amok with an overwhelming +14 frag ratio and 103.8 DAR in the match.

Venom, meanwhile, was stuck in a poor situation, having to take down the number one seed, Team Guardians. They shrugged the pressure off and won by a solid 10-4 margin. The Venom then faced down Carolina, and after dropping the first half 8-1, came all the way back to win it in overtime and send the Core packing. Dallas' Eric "brawwwr" Neer had a good match here, leading the team with a +6 frag ratio. This would pit Venom once again with Pandemic, with the stakes even higher.

So it's San Francisco, Dallas, and Pandemic. Who will emerge victorious? Find out today! As always, Scorebot and SourceTV information will be available in this melee as it is received. Please keep your browsers pinned on GotFrag.com for the best and most comprehensive CEVO coverage around including previews, predictions, reviews, match recaps, interviews, GotFrag's GameSense Statistics, match demos, live scores and more!