CAL-M Finals Introduction
At last we have reached the very last step of the season in which the two teams who earned it the most made their ways to the very end to face each other. Unreachable has been dominant this entire season and it appears that this match will be their last hurrah, with over half of their team quitting the game after the CPL and this season. irawrgamers has emerged as the Cinderella because, though nobody doubted that they were good, I don't think many of us expected them to down SE, Jetty, AND noLuck to get to the finals.

There have been a variety of bumps in each team's road to get here, and I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that it's a bit of relief to see these two teams in here. Year in and year out we see a variety of teams that rub us the wrong way, whether it's because they cheat or because they're giant assholes through and through. This year is different. It won't be like last season with the entire community hoping that someone will knock careface down and out. I'm sure there are a few people who feel differently, but I would personally be happy seeing either team celebrate after tonight's match.

Let's take a look at how each team's run has gone thus far, and what kind of matches they've won to get here.

[1] Unreachable

vs. [8] ARMY Gaming
After a first-round bye on perhaps the most widely loved map on DoD, Unreachable came out in their first match of the playoffs with a very strong win over ARMY gaming. As I said before, it seemed that Unreachable was truly able to do exactly what they wanted to do and play how they wanted to play en route to a giant win that eliminated any doubt that anyone had about the team. L1mit and martyr were completely unstoppable in the apartments, exchanging 40-frag halves, and girkins showed why he is perhaps the most feared sniper in Main right now with a dominant performance at long. To lead them on rifle, clutch lived up to expectations and turned in another strong performance. These four took care of a lot, but whatever they couldn't do, rickman and KiLeN cleaned up perfectly. No flashy performance from either of them, but they did exactly what Unreachable needed them to do.

vs. Losgueros
After their seemingly effortless match on Lennon they moved on to Railroad2 to face a Losgueros team which had just taken down Schweisstropfen in a somewhat close decision. Losgueros seemed strong, but they started off by not playing chuck, which I believe hurt them a lot. I think it was Fleener who said, "If you bench chuck, you bench a W," and he was right. Losgueros started off the match well and were able to take the initial rush for the most part, but it was only a matter of time before martyr and L1mit started pressure from the apartments. martyr was the first to hit 20 frags, by the way, which landed yours truly a nice prize of 50 pangya in a friendly SPARKLES vent bet. I win. From then on, Unreachable lived up to their ever appropriate name, and held Losgueros to 7 points in the first half. The lead proved insurmountable and a better 2nd half by Losgueros was not enough to close the gap. Unreachable moved on convincingly, and the story here was once again Unreachable's heavies.

[7]irawrgamers

vs. SystemElite
I don't think most people expected irawr to lose here, and frankly I'm somewhat surprised that SE was able to keep it this close given their troubled end of the season, but irawr won nonetheless. The map was harrington, the same map on which SE was able to upset Losgueros earlier in the season to make a name for themselves, so that may have contributed to the close contest. At this point in the playoffs I don't think irawr convinced anyone. They were expected to win and they did, albeit not by much, but if anything this match proved that irawr was going to live up to their potential or at least hover around it, rather than completely fall apart.

vs. Jetty
THIS is the match in which irawr came alive and proved their skill. Most people expected Jetty to pull this one out, myself included, but irawr made us all eat our words and this became the biggest upset of the playoffs. Jetty was missing stiffmaster, which hurt them a fair amount and forced pumpkin to play, but I sincerely doubt that stiffmaster would have made a 100+ point difference to win the match. From irawr, it was their heavies who put up the big numbers and made the difference in this match. Lennon caters to strong heavy play in the apartments, of course, but xpx and norecoil had to get through surge and buzzbee first, and they were able to do that to earn each player a spot in the Top Fraggers list. In this match irawr's rifles had some problems. endofOne landed on the Lowest Frags list while WickedPete ended up on the Highest Deaths list, neither of which are complimentary. To finish out the trio, garyb had a quiet match.

vs. noLuck
This was their most recent match on Railroad2 in which the recently suspended iorio decided he would push his luck and play the match. In noLuck's blatant disregard for CAL's rules, his suspension was extended and jceh, jackson, and distortion all joined him on the suspended list for allowing a CAL-suspended player to play. Why them of all people? I don't know. Maybe it was those three who argued with CAL or admitted to knowing or something. I'm not entirely sure that I get it. Unfortunately, I was busy that night and unable to watch the match, so the goosegg on noLuck's side of the CAL match report does little to tell me how the match actually went. All I can say is that irawr was given a free trip through the semifinals after having earned their way through the first round and subsequent quarterfinals, and I'm sure that's all right with them.

Next Season
With the end of the season quickly approaching as well as the CPL, it's worth looking ahead a bit to see some quick changes that may or may not take place. First, the amount of teams dying in these playoffs is unusually high. Unreachable has announced that they'll be dying, Losgueros has moved to Redphive but I believe that they'll be keeping their Main (and probably Invite) spot, irawr could potentially die with the recreation of TAP, I'm fairly certain that noLuck won't be playing in CAL, and I've heard that Aborted is done after the CPL. Of the top eight teams in Main, also the final eight in the playoffs, I've heard that only Schweisstropfen and Redphive intend to keep going, and nobody from ARMY has mentioned anything yet. Given that a couple of teams will need to be moved up to Invite most likely, what will CAL do? It's hard to say, but it's not up to us. It should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Additionally, with CEVO and GGL both taking on Day of Defeat (though we haven't heard much from GGL recently), what role will CAL play? I've heard that Escher has come back to lead the league, filling InSaNe and Schmiggs' shoes better than I think anyone could have imagined, but with InSaNe, Schmiggs, and Moriar leaving, it won't be easy.