(ESEAnews) - With viaduct now over we say goodbye to four of our open playoff teams. The teams that got knocked out last round were Playground Tactics, Team Echelon, Cosmic Brownie Swag, and Old School Ballahs. The only result that came as a bit of a shock to me was Sunday Funday beating Playground Tactics 4-1. I figured there would be a small potential for an upset, but would have never guessed Funday to take the match so dominantly. Overall my predictions did quite well last round, don't know if I can top them. Some site and server issues Monday night set back one of our matches this round, nothing too serious. All of the matches this round will take place on snakewater.
And I thought LAST week's matches looked tight. This round we have even tougher results to predict with close calls in both upper and lower brackets. I think if I had to pick one match that I'm the most excited about, it would have to be Hard 2 Kill vs. Disposable Heroes. This game between the 2nd and 3rd seed is one you won't want to miss. Still, I'm willing to be bet a good number of our snakewater matches end with only a round or two gap between teams. Here are this round's predictions.
ESEA TF2 OPEN S12 PLAYOFFS - UPPER ROUND 3
Community Clown College vs There Will Be Justice · cp_snakewater · Thu, Oct 25th at 1:30pm
Prediction: cc > fvck 5-3 by Deathanchor
I'm not sure if Community Clown College happy to see Brackets as their round 3 opponents, or if they were hoping to play Srvr Depopulation Squad here. The popular opinion right now seems to be that Brackets is the strongest they have been all season. While I might not yet be convinced that is true, either way I am still picking Community Clown College as the favor for this match. These teams have faced off before, but the match was on gravelpit. CCC won that 2-1, but am not basing my prediction off of that result at all. Both team's regular season snakewater matches went smoothly against lower ranking teams which doesn't give me a whole lot to work with on their map strength. I do know that CCC prefer and have seen the most success on 5_cp maps as whole. Brackets is still going to be a struggle for them and know that CCC is no longer as invincible as they seemed early on in the season. Calling a close 5-3 win for CCC.
The Preservation Project vs Dragonball Jav · cp_snakewater · Thu, Oct 25th at 1:30pm
Prediction: sadzone < dbj 3-5 by Deathanchor
This is my match of the round to watch. Hard 2 Kill and Disposable Heroes have met before on gravelpit with Heroes taking the win 2-0. This time around I think that Hard 2 Kill will have the upper hand. H2K played Heroes pretty early on in the season when they were still working out some of the kinks in their lineup. At that point H2K did have their new pocket in place but were still getting accustomed to their changes. Now over a month later I think H2K has strengthened across the board and will be able to take down Heroes on snakewater. H2K should be about even with Heroes on scouts but think they will have a slight advantage on their combo as well as with their risk taking roamer Mangachu. I meant to predict H2K winning 5-4, but I accidentally typed 5-3 on the prediction page and can't change it. Should be close either way.
ESEA TF2 OPEN S12 PLAYOFFS - LOWER ROUND 2
Monstarss vs Sunday Funday · cp_snakewater · Wed, Oct 24th at 2:30pm
Prediction: MON < ask4 4-5 by Deathanchor
As if Sunday Funday's last match against CCC wasn't impressive enough, they kept the fire going against Playground Tactics and won the upset 4-1. Funday is no doubt on a streak now and am raising the bar for them here against eGO. I'm expecting big things from them here and am not going with the higher seeded team for this match. eGO has beaten Sunday Funday 5-3 before on ashville, but can't expect that to mean too much coming from such a different (not to mention bad) map. I think snakewater will give them a much better chance to upset eGO. eGO are no pushovers, and won't be an easy win by any means. My player to watch would have to be TheTree on Funday. He has been putting out impressive stats on demo since the beginning of the season. Together with his former medic experience, he is going to be a big part of this possible upset. Calling a 5-4 clutch win for Funday.
ill vs swagswagswagswagswagswag · cp_snakewater · Wed, Oct 24th at 1:30pm
Prediction: ill > swags 5-2 by Deathanchor
Next up is Pwr Rangers vs. If You Had Fun You Won. These teams have actually already played each other on snakewater before, which ended 5-1 for Pwr Rangers. Since that match, Ranger's starters have remained unchanged, while If You Had Fun has swapped out Cheap on soldier in favor of Dash. I don't see this small roster chance being a huge match changing factor that would give If You Had Fun an edge. Instead I think that If You Had Fun has actually seen more improvement overall and should be able to do better against Rangers this time around. I don't think the match will be nail-bitingly(wow that is actually a word) close, but If You Had Fun should come closer this time around. On snakewater, Pwr Rangers should be able to throw around their powerful combo a bit more which should end up being their main advantage. Predicting Rangers win 5-2
6cuties_ vs Koala 6 · cp_snakewater · Wed, Oct 24th at 1:30pm
Srvr 5 > Koala 4
This was the one match that was scheduled for Monday that ended up getting pushed back due to server and site outages. The match comm page wouldn't let me submit a prediction for it, so I just have it typed above instead. So yeah I think that Srvr Depopulation Squad vs. Koala 6 is going to be one hell of a show. Koala's infamous scout duo shouldn't be troubled by this round's map choice with snakewater not being notably difficult for scouts. On the flip side, Srvr Depopulation could be one of the few teams to match Koala 6 in terms of scout strength. Haruki and Lambert have been able to walk over the rest of open's scouts, and am expecting a fairly even battle between duos here. In their previous meeting on ashville, Depopulation won 5-0 while Koala was running one of their backups. This time around with both scout starters playing, the match is bound to be a lot closer. Depopulation's heavy classes should be able to seal the deal, and I'm predicting they win 5-4.
blank and the meisters · cp_snakewater · Wed, Oct 24th at 2:00pm
Prediction: heh > haboob 5-2 by Deathanchor
Hmm, Normalcool vs. Gank and the Meisters. Not the most confident on my prediction here, as we know how up and down Normalcool can be with their performance. I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt though and side with them for this match. Meisters did clean up Old School Ballahs quite handily handily last round, and am honestly not sure to credit that result more to Meisters improvement or Ballahs poor showing. Meisters DID beat a weakened Koala 6 lineup on viaduct, so it's quite possibly just a very strong map for them. Going to say that Normalcool will win this one 5-2.
Originally published on ESEA on 10/24/2012, 5:56 AM by Deathanchor.
Archived from ESEA S12 TF2 Open - UR3 / LR2 Predictions as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of ESEA's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and ESEA; reposted for historical reference.