ESEA-O 6’s – S22 Playoffs Week 1

August 5th, 2016

ESEA-O 6v6 S22

Playoffs Week 1 Predictions

by whymeo

Well playoffs is finally upon us! We’ve got a number of exciting match ups to start it off, such as Not Around Bears vs. Can’t Predict Stupid and Egg Salad Dressing vs. system 2. I’m especially excited to see what teams will end up being in the top four this season, as it’s far from written in stone unlike many previous seasons. It will definitely be interesting to watch these match ups unfold! Good luck to all the teams, and now onto the predictions:

 

 

#1 No Johns vs. #16 Bobby and the Bobbettes

Player(s) to watch: No Johns – demoted, cookiejake | Bobby and the Bobbettes – freddo

Meo’s prediction:

Snakewater: 5-0 No Johns

Sunshine: 5-0 No Johns

 

Writeup: Saying this is going to be a lopsided match up is a bit of an understatement. However, this really isn’t any different from what we normally see between the #1 and #16 seed teams for open playoffs. Bobby and the Bobbettes is a solid team that had a respectable season, most notably picking up wins over Bring back the funk and The MerCanaries, but the weren’t able to contest any of the top teams in the East Conference. Having not taken any rounds in their matches against The Westbrook Effect, Every Villain Is Lemons or Hurricane Watch I don’t expect their match against No Johns to be any different. We should see a clean sweep from No Johns on both Snakewater and Sunshine.

 

#2 Every Villain Is Lemons vs. #15 Bob-omb Squad

Player(s) to watch: EVIL – faust, troopo  | Bob-omb Squad – mirrorman, jaaay

Meo’s prediction:

Snakewater: 5-3 EVIL

Sunshine: 5-1 EVIL

 

Writeup: This should be an interesting match up. Both these teams have made a number of roster changes throughout the season, plus they played in separate conferences, so it’s hard to say exactly how they’ll pair up. Based off EVIL’s impressive win over The Westbrook Effect in week 5 I think the win will most likely go to them, but Bob-omb Squad won’t bow out without giving EVIL some trouble. Mirrorman and jaaay especially should perform well in this match, but despite them both being very good at their class EVIL’s overall dm is much better than that of Bob-omb Squad’s. My overall impression of EVIL is that they’re rather uncoordinated, so I’d expect a map like Snakewater which both teams are familiar with and coordination can play a bigger impact on to possibly be close, but on a map like Sunshine that the teams won’t be as familiar with I expect EVIL’s superior dm to make it a fairly easy win for them. Either way I’m expecting a 2-0 for EVIL, but Bob-omb Squad should grab several rounds in the process.

 

#3 The Westbrook Effect vs. #14 Wut Dude

Player(s) to watch: The Westbrook Effect – gardener, madoff, joe | Wut Dude – bwelp

Meo’s prediction:

Snakewater: 5-2 Westbrook

Sunshine: 5-2 Westbrook

 

Writeup: This one should be an easy game for The Westbrook Effect. Wut Dude has relied very heavily on bwelp throughout the season and I just don’t see him being able to make much headway against a team like Westbrook which has plenty of talented players themselves. Really everyone on Westbrook is a solid top open player and I’ll be shocked if they don’t make quick work of Wut Dude.

 

#4  Not Around Bears vs. #13 Can’t Predict Stupid

Player(s) to watch: Not Around Bears – moy, zacice, ed  | Can’t Predict Stupid – duke

Meo’s prediction:

Snakewater: 5-3 Not Around Bears

Sunshine: 5-3 Not Around Bears

 

Writeup: If Not Around Bears 4-3 win over Can’t Predict Stupid early on the season is a precedent, this should be rather close. However, seeing as Not Around Bears has suffered many roster shakeups throughout the season and only recently settled on a more stable, and stronger, roster I think they’re in a bit better of a place than they were early on in the season. As a result, I’d say NAB simply has Can’t Predict Stupid outclassed both dm and coordination wise. Can’t Predict Stupid will make this game relatively close, but I think a 2-0 for NAB is still the most likely outcome.

 

#5 Egg Salad Dressing vs. #12 System 2

Player(s) to watch: Egg Salad Dressing – keith, tiptoes | System 2 – yipyapper, punisher

Meo’s prediction:

Snakewater: 5-3 System 2

Sunshine: 5-4 Egg Salad Dressing

Granary: 5-3 Egg Salad Dressing

 

Writeup: With Egg Salad Dressing having had a rather shaky season and system 2 recently improving their roster with the addition of yipyapper on demo and punisher on scout I really could see this match going either way. However, Egg Salad Dressing definitely has the scout combo advantage with keith and wolves – which should prove a huge boon for them. If I had to guess (which I suppose I do, that’s the point of these articles after all) then I’d give this one to ESD. System 2 will probably start out strong, but faced with dropping out of the bracket Egg Salad Dressing will dig deep and pull through with a win. This is definitely my match of the week though, if you have the opportunity hop in the stv for this one!

 

#6 malicious activity vs. #11 kawaii sexu desu desu

Player(s) to watch: malicious activity – assorted hackers/sandbaggers | kawaii sexu desu desu – Br0nze, Space Ghost’s Coffee

Meo’s prediction:

Snakewater: 5-1 malicious activity

Sunshine 5-1 malicious activity

 

Writeup: It must really suck knowing if you’d had a worse seed you would have had a better match up. Kawaii sexu desu desu has improved so much throughout this season, ending off the season with a great win over milters. Sadly, all their effort is likely to be for naught as they have to play the unholy alliance between hackers and sandbaggers that is malicious activity. If anything is to save kawaii sexu desu desu it would be Br0nze, but I doubt even he’ll be able to make this very close. Things look even more grim for kawaii sexu desu desu considering that one of their most valuable assets, Space Ghost Coffee’s sniping, likely won’t be very effecting against a team of hackers. This should be a pretty painless win for malicious activity, sadly.

 

#7 Milters vs. #10 Hurricane Watch

Player(s) to watch: Milters – fubuki, lights | Hurricane Watch – averted, the_savior

Meo’s prediction:

Snakewater: 5-3 Milters

Sunshine: 5-4 Milters

 

Writeup: I’m willing to bet this match hinges on fubuki. His performances this season have been all over the place, sometimes looking like the next shamoo and sometimes looking like a mid-open scout and Milters has clearly won some games because of fubuki being on point and clearly lost some games because he hasn’t been doing well. Either way this match should be close.

 

#8 Minty Fresh vs. #9 Bote 6v6

Player(s) to watch: Minty Fresh – dev, conky | Bote 6v6 – penguin, bo4r, rightjustify

Meo’s prediction:

Snakewater: 5-0 Bote 6v6

Sunshine: 5-1 Bote 6v6

 

Writeup: Perhaps the least close #8th vs. #9th seed in ESEA open history, I have no clue how this happened. Well, minty fresh getting a win over a dying mario gang combined with the fact that the East Conference was weaker than the Central Conference is probably how it happened, but it’s still a bit ridiculous. Now, perhaps minty fresh will prove me wrong and make this close, after all there’s nothing in their record that suggests they’re bad, but Bote just seems on an entirely different level than them. Bote should make quick work of them.