We've made it, well... some of us have made it, to the end of the first regular season. I'll personally never understand how people can pay to enter a league just to forfeit a ton of matches but, that is purely on you guys, not me. Over the next two days we'll be seeing which teams will be sneaking playoffs, and which teams will be sitting around and watching from the sidelines. Let's get down to it.


The Playoff Picture...
A number of the teams have already clinched their position in the playoffs, in one way or another. In simple form, there will be sixteen spots open in the playoffs. The top two teams out of each division will be making it into playoffs, and after those twelve teams, there are four wildcard positions. The wildcard positions will be decided by overall record, head to head if applicable, and then point differential, if it comes down to it. Looking at the standings at a glance, it seems as if we'll have a pretty simple process for seeing who the wildcard teams are likely to be.

Looking at the clinched teams, it's safe to say that out of Alpha, Gravitas Gaming and Paragon of Virtue are both secure. Given the fact that in best case scenario, all Alpha can offer up after those two teams is a 5-3 team, it's unlikely that you'll see a wildcard from here. Bravo is a similar story, Frag Dominant and plugNplay have their playoff spots, and it's unlikely that any wildcard teams will be wandering out of Bravo.

Charlie group gets a bit more complicated, but not by much. Clearly, underestimated has clinched their position, and quite possibly, a top seed into the playoffs. Sway Gaming has clinched their playoff spot, as they beat EFFECTED on the head to head, and I'll just be honest, I'd be shocked if Sway Gaming doesn't end the season 7-1. Now EFFECTED becomes one of our likely candidates for a wildcard spot. It's extremely unlikely that EFFECTED will lose to an inactive team, and 6-2 seems to be the magic record to qualify for a wildcard spot. Sadly, cpd is already out of the running.

Down in Delta, X3O has clinched a playoff spot. There's also a good chance they'll be in the running against ue for the top seed. ATP has also clinched their playoff spot, as they have the head to head advantage over iDemise, who could possibly join them as a 6-2 team. If iDemise is able to beat the name rotating TEC team, they'll be joining EFFECTED for a bid for a wildcard spot.

Echo has an interesting situation brewing, with North Star United having clinched their spot, even in the worst case scenario of losing to zetsumei tonight. The reason the situation is so interesting is because snailtrail still has two matches to play. Looking at the remaining two matches, snailtrail is likely to end up 6-2, in the scenario that they aren't able to beat atrocity, which I have a feeling they will. If snailtrail wins both matches, they have clinched the other playoff spot. If they split the matches, they're still in good shape, as they have the head to head on zsm, who can at best, end the season 6-2. If zsm wins their match against NSU, they've pretty much locked down a wildcard spot, but if they lose, they've opened up the floodgates to then move the wildcard race to the 5-3 teams. Chaos shall ensue.

Our last group, Foxtrot, has a bit of a screwy situation, but it doesn't quite have the implications of Echo's debacle. Even though all three of the leading teams, Green Berets, iNsurrectioN, and Statutory Rape, have a chance of ending their seasons 7-1 through a variety of different scenarios, Statutory Rape is likely to find themselves taking a wildcard spot. They have already lost the head to head on iNsurrectioN, who is likely to end their season 7-1 as iNsurrectioN is up against level, a team that has struggled massively against the stronger teams in the division. Even if Statutory Rape was able to beat GB, they're still taking a wildcard position. Statutory Rape's only hope at an actual playoff position as opposed to a wildcard, would be to beat GB while iNsurrectioN lost to level, which are two unlikely events.

At this point, it looks as though at least fifteen of the sixteen spots are claimed, although anything could happen. What you're really going to have to focus on for the next two nights are, the way the seedings play out. The majority of what happens between now and Friday will be determining the seeds of the playoffs, so stay sharp.


Match of the Night
If only for the implications the match holds, North Star United versus zetsumei. As I stated above, this match likely holds the key to the final wildcard position, and the playoff dreams of the teams that end their season 5-3. Beyond the playoff situation, this is a match that has been brewing in Echo the entire season. While NSU had been outstandingly dominant throughout their entire schedule, zsm has been scraping by all along the way. They're essentially the working man's team, doing whatever they can to survive, and barely pulling it off. I wouldn't mind seeing zsm take down NSU, especially for the fact that it would make the playoff situation a lot more cut and dry, which I have to say, would make my life that much easier.


Matches on the Radar
If it weren't for the messy scenario in Echo, I'd have made this my Match of the Night. Green Berets versus Statutory Rape. I've followed the ESEA allstar team the entire season, and I've had fun doing it, and that's worth something. Green Berets however, have been straight up dirty. They've somehow changed their whole aura of being this hard working team that was just trying to keep their head above the high profile waters, into becoming like the heel wrestlers of the ESEA league, over the short course of a few weeks. Jame^s has been accused of basically being a villain, and the guy seems to be comfortable with it. Hopefully, the Statutory Rape boys can take GB down a peg.

Last match on the regular season radar, snailtrail against atrocity. While I already stated that I believe snailtrail has the advantage here, anything can happen, especially considering the pressure of the situation and the fact that atrocity is coming off of a pretty big win over zsm. The monkey wrench in that concept is the fact that zsm has made a good portion of excuses about the match, which in the very least, seems to show that they didn't take it seriously. If atrocity can catch snailtrail in that same state of laziness, we could see that doomsday scenario that we talked about earlier really unfold.