[b](#2)We&#039;re All Doomed (8-1) vs (#3) Super Chargers (5-2-2)[/b]<br /><br />Season series: WAD 2-0 (map06, 2-0, Map02, 2-1)<br /><br />WAD Roster: Nostar, Chaindude, Shakal, Fastidious<br />SUC Roster: Ralphis, Oath, Tony, Delusion<br /><br />A match-up of two all-time great players goes down here. Ralphis has 2 masterbowl championship, Nostar has 4. The road to the masterbowl always seem to go through one of these two so it&#039;s awesome to watch a play-off match with them competing. <br /><br />There&#039;s no question this match-up certainly favors WAD the way the other two previous matches did. SUC hung tight with them without their starting 3rd, Tony, in both match-ups. SUC showed in both games they had the ability to score on Nostar, but they were never able to truly stop them and ended up getting outscored. Nonetheless, expect Tony to see a return back to the line-up. Whether that makes a difference or not remains to be seen.<br /><br />[b]What SUC has to do to be victorious:[/b]<br /><br />Oath, Oath, Oath, Oath and OATH. Assuming Oath is going to run, he [b]must[/b] beat WAD&#039;s flag defense if he has power-ups with minimal damage. WAD&#039;s mid will be incredibly strong, so every opportunity he gets with close to 200/200 and 1vs1 with their defender need to result in captures. Ralphis is going to have to be a man on fire in mid. Out of all of the SUC players, he is by far the most qualified to mid. He should not take any runs at the flag at all. He needs to focus all of his time on beating down their powered up runner as best he can. If he can manage to continually damage their runner enough while keeping their mid player from harassing Oath, SUC has a real chance. Every SUC player will need to bring their A+++ game and if Ralph can keep mid at a stalemate, it&#039;s there for the taking as long as Oath doesn&#039;t botch. <br /><br />[b]What WAD should do to win:[/b]<br /><br />Don&#039;t get too cute. Chaindude is a great runner, having shattered the single season flag capture runner, this much is evident. At times though, he tends to get too cute with backwards rocket spamming rather than just get the fuck out and trust his support. He has the ability to beat any defender SUC throws at him without sustaining substantial damage. He simply cannot get stay in their base and play - that&#039;s how you lose captures. On the flip-side, whoever ends up playing mid for WAD needs to be aware of Ralphis. If Ralphis is bullying WAD&#039;s mid, it will be a long day for them. Nostar is capable of winning the battle in mid against Ralphis but if SUC goes with an aggressive push once they&#039;ve cleared Chaindude, Nostar needs to recognize when to defend the flag rather and keep Oath from coming in with 200/200. Overall, this match-up favors WAD, so they don&#039;t need to do anything special. <br /><br />[b]Prediction:[/b]<br /><br />Unfortunately, I think SUC is doomed. They haven&#039;t practiced at all and I don&#039;t see Oath managing much pressure on their flag. While I think SUC can slow them down somewhat, I doubt they will be able to muster much offense. Nostar practically wrote the book on how to play this map and with the more talented squad and his prior knowledge of it, SUC isn&#039;t going to win. <br /><br />WAD cruises to conference finals 2-0<br /><br /><br />[b](#1)Brokeback Cowboys(6-3) vs (#4)Fnordy Niners(4-5)[/b]<br /><br />Season Series: KNF 1-0 (map02, 1-0)<br /><br />BBC Roster: ThatsJustPrime, Mantis-X, Ourhero, Armour<br />KNF Roster: Strangle, Whiteboy, Legion, Majik<br /><br />Prime is back in the WDC&#039;s with another #1 seed. Strangle also makes a return to the post-season with an incredibly scrappy team. Strangle is still looking for his first post-season victory as captain of KNF and Prime looks to start on his journey to return to the Masterbowl. <br /><br />I&#039;m concerned for BBC. I don&#039;t think this is a map that favors them against a team like KNF. Even without practice, Whiteboy is something fierce in a map like this. It&#039;s fraggy, it&#039;s chaotic, it&#039;s fast paced and all that&#039;s the sort of game White excels in. Strangle is no slouch as a fragger or defender and I certainly expect him to perform well. The X-factor is obviously Legion as it has been all season. KNF will live and die off of Legion&#039;s performance. <br /><br />[b]How KNF can pull off the upset:[/b]<br /><br />It&#039;s simple: frag, frag, frag and FRAG! They probably have an edge as an overall unit in a frag-fest map like this. Their team is much stronger in that department with Whiteboy and Strangle. Legion has definitely took up another notch this season, so if he can get past Prime, KNF will win. They simply need to use their stronger fragging power to keep control of mid. <br /><br />[b]What BBC should do to advance:[/b]<br /><br />As I noted, this map does not favor BBC over KNF at all. But, that doesn&#039;t mean they can&#039;t win either. Prime emerged as the best defender in the WDC this season and strangely enough, Strangle has probably ascended to the second best. Prime is going to have to be on fire to keep Whiteboy/Legion from going nuts. And the recent revival of Mantis as a fragger needs to continue it&#039;s life in order for BBC to not get kicked around. These two have a good chemistry with each other and Hero can be a real threat if these two or clicking on all cylinders. Their collective job is simple: try to always keep a presence in mid with both Mantis/Prime. They&#039;ll be using voice, something KNF doesn&#039;t use. This gives them an edge in coordinating and if they communicate well, they won&#039;t have to individually outperform KNF, they&#039;ll be able to gank Legion and Whiteboy in mid or en route to their base collectively. <br /><br />[b]Prediction[/b]<br /><br />I&#039;m really torn here. I want Prime to win but I also have a former teammate in Whiteboy who has made a return to the post-season without forfeiting this time! I also have love for Strangle and want to see him finally get a win and shut mike the fuck up. Ultimately, I think KNF will have the edge with fragging but BBC&#039;s communication might be an equalizer. However, I think KNF will probably be too strong with their fragging power and bury BBC. <br /><br />KNF pulls away in 2 close rounds to get to the WDC finals. <br /><br /><br />[b](#2)Mass Destruction(4-5) vs (#3)Ricochet Rockets(5-3-1)[/b]<br /><br />Season Series: RR 1-0 (map08, 2-0)<br /><br />RR Roster: RustInPeace, Gilgamesh, MassVC, Reck<br />MAD Roster: Doomguy666, Xenaero, Xyltol, Dew<br /><br />In his reappearance to the IDL scene, Doomguy has led MAD to the postseason. In his first season as captain, Rust moves over to the WDC and powers RR to the WDC post-season. Rust is still looking for his first play-off victory after two previous devastating losses. Meanwhile, Doomguy wants to take another shot at making his first masterbowl appearance since Season 2. <br /><br />RR won an ugly match-up against MAD in week 5 (map08). Both teams have decent fragging units but I&#039;d say RR has the edge when it comes to offensive potency. Rust and Gilga are two guys who have experience running and have been incredibly successful doing it. While this map features a diverse set of fragging with Blue Armor control factoring in, I don&#039;t think one team has much of an edge over the other. RR is more talented though and that is probably the only thing they have an advantage over MAD with.<br /><br />[b]What RR needs to do to stifle MAD:[/b]<br /><br />It&#039;s really not that complicated for RR. Can they finally find someone willing to carry the defense load? They&#039;ve been a good offensive team all season but their defense has been a major weakness. They have 3 players willing to do it yet none of them have performed that well this season while doing so. The tunnel is going to huge. If they put Rust on O and let Mass do the tunnel, I think this is the right approach. Mass can do enough damage/frag/control blue armors to practically shut Xyltol down. However, if Xen emerges in the same spot of the map, I could see Mass having trouble. Mass should really only focus on keeping Xyltol from getting into their base with a lot of health because the combo of his mid/tunnel control and Gilgas D should all but shut him down. And I could see Rust managing a few hero flags on Doomguy so if they do that, they should win.<br /><br />[b]What MAD needs to do to keep surprising people:[/b]<br /><br />Find ways to utilize Xen. Xen has a very strong fragging game and if him and Xyltol can be on the same page, Xen can carry the load and give Xlytol lots of quality touches. When those instances arrive, they need to be communicating. If Xen manages to keep control of their base while RR is respawning, Xyltol won&#039;t need to be a hero. Just go in and go out. Meanwhile, DG will need to man up to hold Rust down. Rust has an incredibly annoying running style that bothers the shit out of every defender. I don&#039;t think MAD can get many captures if they don&#039;t go with an aggressive offensive push with Xen/Xyltol, so this puts all the pressure on DG to outperform Rust and prevent himself from being burnt. If DG does this, MAD can win. The only question, the biggest question and concern I have in fact, is can MAD find a way to muster offense? That will be the tell-all. <br /><br />[b]Prediction:[/b]<br /><br />As I noted, I just don&#039;t see MAD having the offensive fire-power to get flags. Map14 would have been great for this team, I&#039;m not sure map26 is. When it boils down to it, I see Rust being more likely to beat DG than I see Xen/Xyltol beating Gilgamesh and Mass. It&#039;s going to be another slobber-knocking, low-scoring grindfest, but it&#039;s one I see RR prevailing in. <br /><br />RR wins 1-0 <br />