Justin “JustiN-_^” Danielson on sweet: We haven’t played sw33t before so we aren’t going to be coming into this with any expectations. They have a pretty evenly skilled roster with a lot of long time DoD players, so they won’t be leaving any wide-open holes we can take advantage of. If we have an advantage coming into this match, it’s definitely going to be communication, and teamwork, which has been a key factor to our success in cal this season since most of the teams are, more or less, pugs. If we can keep the rage, and useless chatter down to a minimal in vent, we should be able to pick up a win.

 

Scott “sf” Fleener on Vindicate: Well I’ve played Flatout in the placement tournament with 3h. To be honest I questioned why they were even in the placement tournament. We beat them easily without really trying. That being said I guess they have added a few more players to pull themselves to 7-1 in Cal-main. Our strategy to obtain a victory over these kids is to not show up. We don’t scrim because a lot of us go to college, work full time, or have friends. Three things that the Flatout kids don’t understand. We tried to reschedule but they said no… that’s fine. Then they said that they wouldn’t let us play them 5 vs. 6. This shows how much they care about an ff win to not even play in the match. It’s pretty sad, but when dod is all these kids have in their life, I guess they have to do whatever they can to keep it going.

 

Nick: From what I understand sweet is still playing the “too cool for video games” card and will not only barely have 6 for Thursday but have not bothered practicing at all. Flatout on the other hand has made up for sweet’s lack of dedication in spades, proving that there really is a team other than Thunder that cares about this game. There has been some recent drama between these two teams, but rather than try to explain it myself, we will now turn to each team’s representatives:

 

[GI`trickstuf] so what’s the lowdown between you and Flatout

[sw33t|Scott] to be honest I’m not sure lol. Well everyone dislikes Flatout… a lot. When I was on 3h, I pooped all over them in the placement tournament... I never really even talked to them until yesterday’s threads on Gotfrag

[sw33t|Scott] the problem is... d3kin in the last two weeks has like… 80 hours of dod and dod source.. I’ve got 5 hours in the last two weeks… Flatout plays a ton... sweet doesn’t... so if they don’t beat us on Thursday (if we even can get 6), that’d be sad

[GI`trickstuf] So how do you feel about dekin, and be honest

[sw33t|Scott] if d3kin and I met at a lan, I bet we wouldn’t argue like this.

[GI`trickstuf] but we could assume that he would be fat and ugly, while you would still be popular and gorgeous, even at lan, right?

[sw33t|Scott] lol well I agree with the 2^nd part. I’ve never even seen a picture of d3kin, so I can’t comment on what he would look like

 

[GI`trickstuf] So there’s some drama between you and sweet

[GI`trickstuf] how do you feel about Scott fleener

[Vindicate-DoD-nugz`] lmao

[GI`trickstuf] be honest

[Vindicate-DoD-nugz`] I think Scott fleener is a homo who’s mad because it’s obviously our fault his team might not have six.

 

Dekin was not available for comment, but lets just assume he shares his teammates sentiments. Flatout is coming into this match with something to prove, while sweet is coming into this match with less than nothing to prove. It’s called “being good at this game when it actually mattered.”

 

 

 

 

 

Blake “kalevra” Wehman on HLG: We played happy lizard gaming with a pretty ghetto lineup to be honest. Bewton wasn’t playing, nor did polak. We had rebirth zoltan hectiK Jeremy arn and myself. Still a strong lineup; tactical genius, Jeremy to be benching 300 pounds in the bottom of church, and for me to shoot anything else running around that isn’t already wounded 99 hit points with a sniper. Hell I might just use a grease gun, cause it doesn’t seem like ill have many opportunities to shoot at anything but my own team.

 

Kyle “lockdown” Brosnan on Focal: I didn’t play the solitude match because I was getting tan in Puerto Rico, and we used 2 backups, but from what I heard arn was a beast. They have a stacked roster, and if were going to beat them were going to have to have flawless teamwork and avoid dying in bunches because we’re not going to out skill them, and if it turns into a fragfest we’re going to lose by a lot. We need to slow the game down and play to our strengths, making good holds and coordinated pushes.

 

Nick: Ok unbiased preds start… right now. GI beat HLG in a scrim on anzio the other day, so they lose this one by default. When we beat you in scrims, you know you’re awful.

 

But seriously, this is gonna be an intense one. HLG has two of the better heavies in main in wok and bosley, while penos sports one of the most terrifying rifle lineups to ever grace dod. It’s a toss up. The general consensus is that penos is going to win main, but this could arguably be one their harder matches this season. The breakout players for this match will most likely be zonosaurus and arn. Man I tell you, these guys are flawless. With the strafing and the shooting and the good looking ness, oh my.

 

 

 

 

[w0k`[sk He makes one hell of a Pho soup, and word around the street is he used to be a dance dance revolution master performing blazing dance steps to 80’s infused trip hop tracks at his local chuckie cheese. I love the kid and I know he is capable of dishing out the Vietnamese Nike© sweatshop whip. If our rifles play smart at bridge we should be able to contain this raging stallion’s erection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nick “OdiuM” Heidecker on GI: Ah, the playoffs. That time of the season when try pants are pulled from the closet and dusted off. That time when everyone is busy coming up with the best and most original excuses for why they lost. That time when the gaming gods look down upon us all and chuckle at how much we care about playing videogames. Yes, it is a glorious time indeed. Gotfrag? ace reporter extraordinaire sp0rk was assigned the unenviable task of interviewing a member from each team participating in the CAL-M playoffs, and like the true professional he is, he decided to instead have people write out paragraphs about their opening round match-ups so that he would be doing as little actual work as possible. I commend him. On to the good stuff. This week my team and I face off against the 6th seeded squad of General Infantry. I honestly can’t say anything bad about this team, because they let me use their server, and if I did then that privilege would surely be revoked. No, instead I want to focus on what my soldiers need to do to come out of this one with a win. Looking at their record would be a poor indication of the talent level these guys bring to the table. And the fact that they are only a 6 seed is baffling in itself, since they were one of the early favorites this pre-season. GI brings a lot to the table. They have skill on every class, and the only weakness I could possibly see is Compton on the sniper rifle since he’s been a rifle for most of my tenure in this game. He’s had weeks to get good with it, though, so I’m sure he will be up to speed on a sniper-friendly map like Anzio. Another important factor they bring is their teamwork. Most of them have been playing together for a good while, and they actually scrim on a regular basis. These facts alone could prove big trouble for my team. When looking at my own team, a lot of people ignorantly say we stacked the lineup at the roster lock and the team isn’t the same as it has been. Of course, those people are idiots since the only people we picked up at the roster lock were dorito and fusion, both backups for the team – not starters. It’s no lie that we’ve got a ton of experience from top to bottom, but we could have some problems with chemistry and teamwork, as seen by our loss to osK. We also have trouble getting 6 people on to scrim, which only hurts our teamwork even more. And on a map like Anzio, coordination will be key. Lucky for us, we also have skill on every weapon, except for sniper if Till plays. Let’s just hope for our sake his flight is delayed and he doesn’t make it back to the states in time for the match. But I digress. For all intents and purposes, this should be the best match of the opening round, and I hope GI increases their HLTV slots to accommodate our many fans. This will be a war of attrition. Soldiers will die. Then respawn. Then die again. An endless cycle that will only be saved the time limit. Oh yes, this one won’t be won in the first 5 minutes. It will take a full 40 minutes from start to finish before a victor has been declared. Get your game faces on. Map up, mount up, and roll out.

 

Tony “as himself” Compton on g4n: G4n's a great team with some serious skill. They could probably play 5v6 and beat most teams in main. Well I guess they pretty much do that anyways: D. Anzio is a big teamwork map, so I think it should be a pretty good match seeing as how neither of us have great teamwork. We definitely plan on practicing A LOT more, so hopefully we wont disappoint. I think if we can contain their elusive rifles from getting too rowdy, we definitely have a chance. Should be a great match!

 

Nick: Battle of the progamers right here folks. I’m shakin in my boots just thinking about this match, but how does legendary gamer Joey “jhartz[dd][1g][st][dt][vd]” Harter feel?

 

 

 

 

The man is clearly unrelenting in his quest to destroy noobs. God save us.

 

Robert: Not my pick for match of the week but a close second. The reason being I feel that g4n’s roster still isn’t really set teamwork wise, and therefore the overloading amount of ridiculous team will backfire this week. Tony Compton will more than likely have trouble not with till, but with whatever group he’s running with, because I’m sure most of them can either bar snipe, rifle, or pick up till’s scoped weaponry and make short work of tc. SeveN may have little faith in dyelife’s ability to rifle, but there’s no denying this superstar’s gift of NEVER 90ing with a garand. G4n will get a scare this week but should be able to pull out a very close win.

 

 

 

NihilisT: No players were available for comment. One team member is quoted as “no interviews. We let our playing do the talking.”

 

Matt “turtz” Coppard on NihilisT: Well we played NihilisT on donner in Week 5, it was a very close match, donner hasn't always been our strongest map and NihilisT aren't the easiest team to rack up big wins against as they are generally consistent in many areas. Now we have them on Anzio, which is without a doubt our strongest map, probably due to our roster being swarmed with euros with much love and talent on the map. NihilisT doesn’t have many big players other than Scream but their roster is full of players that can hold their own against the best of players. So despite the map favoured towards us we will not being taken anything for a given. Our team has been playing with back-ups for the past couple of weeks so will be good to have our full lineup back for play-offs and bringing our a-game. We will try to hit NihilisT hard with our rifles at bridge and hope Zuq can bring up some big numbers on plaza and take the win, but should be an interesting aggressive match hopefully.

 

Nick: I like to compare osK on anzio to dth on donner, you just can’t beat them. But, nihilist has scream the one-man team. Let me tell you something about this kid, he wakes up and pisses victory. Scream will never stop pushing through street, which will allow epoxy to set up shop there and make Chicago’s life hell.