(GotFrag) - ESEA seems bent on lending a hand to the little guy - ie. every team's lowly, useless-on-most-other-maps sniper - with back-to-back snipe-happy maps koth_viaduct and cp_follower. The position isn't quite as critical as it proved to be on koth_viaduct, since cp_follower is so much larger with the more traditional cp_push layout, but I have no doubt that more than a few of the dominating snipers in the scene will get to play their less used class.

Week 1 didn't have too many surprises in it, with
EG & coL cruising and the lower-5 teams beating up on each other a little. dynamic and
Immortal 7 start the season slow out the gate, getting swept in their respective first weeks - though both matches dyn played in winnable, and i7 kinda got schedule-screwed. One of them will get a win this week though, since they're paired up for Week 2:1 and are slotted to go tomorrow.

Aside from that, Week 2 offers few really marquee matchups - which is good, in my opinion, since you don't want deciding matches to happen on such a flawed map - but Pandemic probably has the most crucial week of the lot, with matches against MoB-Gaming (2:1) and Blight (2:2). A lot of the credence to this team's legitimacy (or their fallacies, depending on your point of view) will be rooted in these two matches, against teams who stand directly between them and the big dogs of our beloved game. If Pandemic wants to be considered a legit team, beating a playoff team and a former champion 2 season removed is a good way to do it.

As always, ESEA SpecTVs will be provided on their results page, which you can find here.

I'll be rolling out preds as the matches come, so for now just MoB vs coL - which is going live soon.

UPDATE: coL has proven to be too strong for MoB, claiming a relatively easy 5-1 win thanks to a combined 59 frags from their scouts, however that one round was enough for MoB to officially avoid "TOMAHAWKED" status... I'll have to plunder my Family Guy references knowledge for a more appropriate title ;)

Only one match tonight as Pandemic-MoB has been postponed till the New Year and Pandemic-Blight was moved to tomorrow. Tonight features the battle of the two winless (aka. LOSERS) teams, Dynamic vs
Immortal 7, with a new pred written for your viewing pleasure.

2ND UPDATE: i7 has rather thoroughly thumped dynamic 5-1 and earned their first win of the season -- even without cbear ;)

Tonight's matchup is the big one for Week 2, Pandemic vs Blight, with new pred et al.

3RD UPDATE: Pandemic has come up big, holding off Blight in a close 4-3 match - though Blight was sporting a fella named bLackstar as medic, after Ruwin left the team.

Two final matches are in store for us Wednesday night, which will finish up Week 2 for the most part, aside from a couple matches that have been moved to the New Year.


ESEA-Invite Season 5 - Week 2 on cp_follower
compLexity vs. Immortal 7
rk: Big win for i7 last round - getting rid of that goose egg always feels good - but coL is a whole other kettle of fish with very few weaknesses and a lot more weapons to fend off. I can see i7 hanging in there for a round or two - maybe after some lucky picks by stamjally or ducky - but otherwise, this'll be a pretty quick spankin'.

coL [ 5 : 0 ] i7

Evil Geniuses vs. Dynamic
rk: It looks like it's gonna be a long, hard season for dynamic, especially with what their schedule is for the next few weeks (1xBlight, 2xPandemic, 2xcoL) - not sure what happened last round against i7 as I haven't had a chance to watch the demo, but I was kinda hoping to get more out of this roster of guys who've always kinda been on the peripheral of things. At any rate, the turnaround isn't going to happen here, with EG being EG, so here's hoping dyn sticks it out in what might be an 0-fer season.

EG [ 5 : 1 ] dyn

Pandemic vs. Blight
rk: Blight had two of the most opposite matches in Week 1 as I've seen in a while - they came out flat and droopy for the coL match, never for a second making me think they had a shot at taking the match, then they pop right up against i7 with a long, thick, hard attack that thrust again and again into the i7-sweetspot. And I'll leave it at that.

Seriously though, I find it hard to believe the difference in talent between coL and i7 is the reason for Blight's remarkably better play the 2nd time around - but, whatever the reason, they're going to have to play that good again if they want to remain the #3 team.

As for Pandemic, I still don't quite know what to make of them after only 1 match on a sniper-happy map, but as I stated in the intro, follower can be just as sniper-friendly as viaduct (to justin's delight, no doubt), so how Blight counter's that will be a big part of this match. If Vegas had odds on this, it'd be a straight up pick-em, so i'mma flip a coin and do the same.

pand. [ 3 : 5 ] Blight

Dynamic vs. Immortal 7
rk: I was really trying to pull together some sort of dynamic immortal-penis joke for this pred but they all end up being about Tiger Woods, so I decided just to move on. Speaking of Tiger though, does anyone else think he's quite possibly the biggest asshat ever? Dude, you're married to a blond Swedish nanny... how do you not wanna be on her all day every day, let alone even think of another woman?

/facepalm

Anyhoo, we all know the story for these two teams - it seems like wins will be coming less than the aforementioned-Mr. Woods this season, so matches such as this are pretty crucial if either team wants a shot at the playoffs. I find it tough to balance out who's been performing better so far - i7 had the much tougher schedule but were never really in their matches, while dyn put up two solid efforts in back-to-back 4-2 losses... but against weaker teams.

For this one, I think a lot rides on a) whether cbear plays and b) who i7 pairs with stamjelly, who had two strong performances and doesn't seem to have lost a step in his post-LIGHTNINGBOLT downtime. While Dynamic can do a few interesting things in terms of lineup, I think if i7 can give jelly - and ducky, to a certain extent - the support they need for their aggressive playstyle, dyn might find themselves on their heels more than a few times.

dyn [ 3 : 5 ] i7

compLexity vs. MoB-Gaming
rk: I think, based on my past comments/preds/news stories, that it's fairly evident I'm a MoB-fan... their first season in Invite under the Strickland name was something you could get behind - I mean, really, who doesn't like cheering for the underdog at least a little, right? So, bearing that in mind, please understand that I mean no disrespect when I make this pred.

MoB is gonna get TOMAHAWKED. Like BAD. This map is BUILT for feisty, fiery, freakishly talented scouts (like, umm, I dunno, CARNAGE & ENIGMA?!?!) and they will rape, pillage, and plunder MoB's combo like it was their JOB. Which it technically is, since their "contracts" were apparently "bought" by "coL" - those words all mean money, right?

Anyway, good luck to SureShot & Platinum in keeping Grillz alive, but don't hold your breathe. And if wo0t pulls off a double-pipe on coL's scouts, I'll give him a lolly.

coL [ 5 : 0 ] MoB