Throughout the weekend we saw a large spread in forfeits from teams in the first round. This, coupled with the bye teams for the two top seeds, resulted in only three Round 2 Loser Bracket matches being played out.
The Winners Bracket is no surprise as usual in the upper bracket we have the favourites to win who are now facing off in the semi-finals, [oo7]We Are Spies face [DonD]DoberOnDamp tuesday after today's Loser's Bracket Matches. In the lower Winners Bracket we see the runner up teams [vdT]Vietnamese Dream who are looking very strong this weekend, they face [F4NG]Fntastic4nGombos who most recently defeated [SdS]SdS in a 2-1 series so overall they must be feeling pretty pumped to of knocked SdS into the Losers Bracket.
Looking into the Losers Bracket it seems to be a mixture and mash-up of many quality teams this week. Mostly are the surprising and improvement of certain teams to get this far, including Team Blazin EU who defeated teams [y5]Yoshi 5 and Perfection Esp to get where they are, having to face off versus [TKAG]Team Kagge later today. Another team that is surprising is [Sirz]Like a Sirz who has defeated both [euni]Eunis 5 and [ISS]InvisibleSeaSerpent where they now face [REMI]RemigijusBubblus.
Through a certain man's effort and will to play Caspae and [Dmsn]AnotherDimension managed to get a roster together in the hour before deadline was up. They came strong even with low expectations and currently they are set to face [MOE]Moes Tavern in the Ro8 Losers Bracket today. AnotherDimension has defeated Wardeded, Wards Overrated and [DrDz]Druidz eSport to get where they are, certainly a tough route for a team that was just put together.
Finally we have [BYE]A HonTour Team, after losing their second round match to We Are Spies they fell to the Losers Bracket and defeated [L00K]L00K AT MY HORSE and [WSD]Slash Defenders, both very respectable Gold Division teams showing that these boys are playing for keepsies, but now they face SdS a team that wants to be Diamond again and will be playing to win. Let's just hope that SdS doesn't underestimate the BYE team boys.
In the end I hope we get to see some good matches play out and the teams who have been having a good cycle will continue to do so in the end. Although a team like Team Blazin EU may not last in Diamond for example, I'd be happy to be able to get to 5th/6th place in Gold. From there you just have to practice more and get better as a team because playing in Diamond is a different ball game.
- "Crowslaw"
.
.