nothing 2 prove

vs.

Phrenetik

I have played both teams on railroad2. n2p i played in a cal-m match right before they got moved up to invite, and ive scrimmed pk twice on it. n2p has had a couple roster changes since i last played them, but for the most part they are the same. PK has also had some roster/class shakeups, which were for the better imo. PK now has wedo on the utility position, replacing crutch's spot in the line-up. Crutch's kar goes to wint0fresh, who has been 3rd rifling for PK all season long. Appartments is going to be pretty 1 sided in pk's favor, who will be sending cableguy and habib up there. n2p will most likely be sending kroD and Hero, or maybe 1 of those 2 players plus one of their kars. I'm not sure what strat they're using, but i do know that PK is really solid in the appartments thanks to cableguy. The rifle battle at middle will be a lot more even, and will have a lot to do with wether or not wint0fresh is going to be on his game or not. If he is, expect pk to have control of middle most of the time, but watch out for eXt. He plays from the windows as axis and does a pretty solid job of it. NickPatten will have his work cut out for him, at least on his allies half, sniping against eXt. Long will be all PK, with e-machine going there with a kar/garand. I'm pretty sure n2p will send eXt blueroom/long as allies with his sniper, and a kar underpass/long as axis. Whoever they send, though, will most likely be outplayed by e-machine who will be all over the long area. Look for PK to have appartments most of the time, which means they'll be taking mid most of the time, which means they'll most likely be taking this match. Don't count n2p out just yet, though, players like Hero and eXt can make it close if they're on their A game.

revamped

vs.

compLexity

Enervate Gaming

vs.

Butt Naked Gamers

Damn, here is yet another 1 sided matchup. ENE is on fire this season, having only lost once to a strong skull team, and doesn't plan on adding another loss here this week against BnG. BnG's house team, which will most likely be triumph and bEE+, will be going up against kazin and pie in the appartments. This is a perfect mixture of passive and aggressive players in house for ENE. Pie will be pushing and making frags while kazin holds down the house when pie dies. triumpH will not hesitate to prone, so that may save BnG a little bit in the house, but expect ENE to be rolling over the BnG house team for most of the game. Middle will be really 1 sided in favor of ENE, with vasily and ace going there with kars and garands. Middle will also be supported by the ENE sniper bogart from 4way and long area. BnG will be sending body and InSaNe middle with kars via the 4way and underpass, which is not a bad middle team but does not hold a candle to vasily and ace. Long will be interesting, seeing as we have our 1st sniper vs. sniper battle. Bogart of ENE will be going up against Que of BnG. We pretty much have the ping battle of doom here, with both of these players having very poor connections and sporting 150+ constant ping. Bogart has never failed to impress me, so i'm going to go with him on this one. Now that ENE has bogart sniping and not bennyP, i don't really see any weaknesses in their lineup. Railcar is going to be a [dd] fight to the death, with MissioN playing against warchyld. warchyld, as most of you probably know from pugs, can get his knees dirty and prone it up. MissioN on the other hand doesn't even have his prone key bound. I still feel MissioN is going to win this railcar fight, but watch for him to run into a proned warchyld quite a few times. ENE is going to run up the score this week, so i hope BnG brings the lube. Don't get your hopes down BnG, the score wouldn't be half as bad if this were played on LAN.

BnG is a great group of guys, all whom I love, but when matched up against a team like ENE online, is a prediction really even needed? ENE is pushing with full force to help ensure their position in the CAL championships, and hopefully that push does not end with them being unable to attend CPL and subsequently giving the team scheduled to play them in the championships, which will be held the first day of CPL, the win. Hopefully ENE is making that possible for them.

dicE

vs.

Pandemic

Early in the season, this would be MOTW material, but neither team has been on their game in recent weeks. dicE has suffered 2 poor losses in a row to PK and rSport, partially due to not being able to keep 6 in either match. Pandemic also took a hard hit to a newly formed Check-Six team by about 300 and will be looking to come back with a vengeance this week. dicE plays a lot of dota, and have been having a few problems with emoness/activity, so i dont expect to see them with thier gamefaces on this week. Middle will be held by dicE, at least on axis, with royAMAZING being a total monster from the sniper window. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing a direct battle against Money-B and roy, who will both be playing from the same spots on both sides of the half. Expect both players to be sniping axis window, and allied spawn stairs. dicE's kars also have a few notches over Pandemic's, so Middle should be on lockdown. Long will most likely be shiftypowers rifling against maingoes or DyeL!fe. I'd normally go with dicE here, but i have a feeling that Pandemic's chicago server is going to really get to the dicE rifles and they're going to have an off game. House is going to be a thriller, as we see shotgunbill and L7NX facing off against clonerizzo and batman of Pandemic. I'm going with dicE in this one, and watch for dicE to prone quite a bit to make up for the poor Pandemic chicago server. Going railcar for dicE is going to be shotgunderek, but i'm pretty unsure of who Pandemic will send. I'm fairly sure it is going to be parkus if he plays, but it could also be clonerizzo or rogueverve as well. Either way, i dont think any 3 of those players will be able to out lurk the #2 underrated rifle in the united states. No i'm not talking about roy, i'm talking about shotgunderek! In the end, i think Pandemic's chicago server will give them the edge here. dicE will be going into this match with the server already in their heads, which is probably the worst thing they can do. Pandemic will take this in a close one against a semi-active dota playing dicE team.

seveN's Prediction: dicE by 40

Overall, Pandemic hasn't looked as strong as they have in the past as many of their matches are either heavy losses or close wins. But, dicE too have seemed to acquire a slump in performance over the past few weeks. With only a month left until CPL, numerous dicE players have picked up on playing dota over practicing a game they are paying money to compete for. Even if Pandemic is still trying to come together with their newer lineup from last CPL, they cannot be underestimated. There's a lot of players from both teams that could bust out of their shell and roll over the other team, but it's a matter of on which team will those players do that. If dicE decides to practice for the match, I will give it to them on the win. Otherwise, I feel they may underesitmate Pandemic or simply not care about the match, in which Pandemic will pull out a win with effort.

Check Six

vs.

Revolution Sports

This is a pretty good matchup of skill between both teams. The question is, has x6 been able to get the practice time in to acquire better chemistry? If they have, expect a very good matchup with some intense battles and closely scored game. With a map like rr1 where a core amount of teamwork is required to capture and hold middle, rS may have the upper hand. Either way, x6 holds two players that are known to cause some headaches with their ability to strongly hold an area down - MaX for the apartments and Netherhell in the ruined house at long. On the flipside, rS has cRus and Aether as two strong and aggressive players. I wish I could predict for my friends on the x6 team, but rS seems like the stronger team.

cypher's Prediction: rS by 50

Players to watch
x6: sevEN, ninjuh
rS: rookie, EricG, Aether, cRus