(ESEAnews) - Two weeks left and there are at least two LAN spots up for grabs. Chess Club, xensity, and Fully Torqued are in the tightest race ever seen in TF2 Invite. Lucky for us viewers, FT gets to play both of them! We should know who is in and who is out once this week ends, but with as crazy as this race has gotten, we might be looking at THREE spots up for grabs by next week!
ESEA TF2 INVITE SEASON 13 - WEEK 7
Vector Gaming vs froyotech · cp_badlands · Wed, Feb 13th at 3:00pm
Prediction: vec < 4G 0-5 by djc- With only pride left to play for, Vector Gaming are probably just looking to close out the season with a string of decent games to let them know that there is something worth playing for next season. bp meanwhile are trying to repeat the great feat of Check Six Gaming and Classic Mixup before them - the undefeated season. Do not expect bp to rest back in their comfy chairs and let the last four games pass them by; they will come out strong and aggressive, and look for Lansky and cyzer to pull off a big game in an easy 5-0 win.
tri hards · cp_badlands · Wed, Feb 13th at 3:04pm
Prediction: PLEASE < WANG 2-5 by djc- Chess Club are to the point where they cannot take bad losses. Losing to the playoff eliminated Apocalypse Gaming would definitely qualify. CC looked surprisingly adequate up against the new Mixup lineup last week, in spite of the 5-1 score, but have had it easy with two forfeit wins against Don't Trip. AG ran into a double 5-1 against two of the top three teams, and just look a little outclassed and out of gas. I expect a pretty comfortable Chess Club win, with some pro tier gaming coming from boomer and tri.
SMTM vs xensity · cp_badlands · Thu, Feb 14th at 3:00pm
Prediction: SHOWME < xen 4-5 by djc- Switching it up a little for Badlands, we will be seeing our ESEA Match of the Week on a Thursday, and it's a doozy. Xensity are half a game out of the final LAN spot right now, with FT sitting up in third. Xensity cannot afford to lose to FT with matches against bp and Mixup still waiting in their future. Last week's match against bp was crucial to their playoff success and was "almost" a must-win; this IS a must-win. They cannot afford to go into a match against bp in the final week needing a win against the world's best team to make the playoffs. And FT have looked a little shaky in scrims lately, dropping some rounds and maps to Vector Gaming. I have stuck mostly to picking the expected winner all season long, with a few coinflips coming in - here, I am taking the upset. Relic has been having a fantastic season on soldier and Ma3la looks like an all star player on pocket. Seagull and PYYYOUR will put up a good fight, but I'm taking the Xensity upset.
Vector Gaming · cp_badlands · Fri, Feb 15th at 3:00pm
Prediction: vec > PLEASE 5-3 by djc- The two bottom ranked teams get to fight off in this penultimate week, and it should be a close one. Vector have looked much improved in the past few weeks with jaybenaduchi slotting in comfortably to the pocket role; rando is definitely a match for him, but word is that rando has lost a little bit of his passion for these final few games. Expect a lot of caps to come out from Ggglygy and some big plays from hibachi in a close match that could go either way.
xensity vs Classic Mixup · cp_badlands · Wed, Feb 13th at 3:00pm
Prediction: xen > mix 5-2 by djc- There are three candidates for match of the week right now, and Xensity are starring in two of them. Mixup looked pretty strong with their new lineup, with Yz50 and Ruwin obviously being a great combination, and the only real weakness being that they are so aggressive that they wind up playing too loose and care-free. To punish that, Xensity will need big games out of Relic and spadez; if they push some good counter-aggression in on Mixup's transition plays, there could be a lot of LAN champion gibs lining the chokepoints. The upset, sadly, looks a lot more likely in Xensity's FT match than this one. I think that Xensity once again impress, pulling off decent games against the top two teams in back to back weeks, but ultimately come up short.
tri hards vs SMTM · cp_badlands · Thu, Feb 14th at 3:55pm
Prediction: WANG < SHOWME 3-5 by djc- It sounds like this match will be played as a double header on Wednesday, with FT's other match against Xensity. If that is the case, then ESEA TV gets a double header for probably the two most important matches for the LAN seedings - and that is awesome. Sometime early in the morning hours on Thursday, we should know which two teams are in the playoffs. Fully Torqued will be bringing their A-game to the table, with Justin trying to make round deciding headshots on last and PYYYOUR having to defend himself from Visitor's big bombs on to the train. Chess Club will be under an assault from Zbryan's creative jumps, and tri will have to hope for some airshot magic to keep kbk safe. Alfa's got some nasty pipes, but people have been questioning his sticky placement and general game awareness so far this season. I think FT have too much of an edge and too much experience to go down without a tremendous fight, and I expect them to take it by a narrow margin in the end.
INVITE POWER RANKINGS - WEEK 7
1. bp -- (~)
2. Classic Mixup -- (~)
3. Fully Torqued- -- (~)
4. Xensity -- (~)
5. The Chess Club -- (~)
6. Apocalypse Gaming -- (~)
7. Vector Gaming -- (~)
8. Don't Trip -- (R.I.P.)
Nothing has shifted all that much yet; Xensity still look like a slightly better team than Chess Club, who are benefitting in the standings from their double forfeit win off of the dead Don't Trip. With AG/Vector matching up this week, the lower part of the standings could see a bit of a tumble, and of course there is the three team cluster I have been talking about for two weeks now. With only one week of power rankings left to go, the time for change is now and Xensity at least look like they control their own destiny.
Originally published on ESEA on 2/13/2013, 8:31 AM by djc-.
Archived from ESEA TF2 Invite S13 - Week 7 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.