Written by: Chris Luong
With an interesting couple of matches to happen at 11:30 AM EST, 10:30 AM CST, 8:30 AM PST tomorrow morning between the lower four seeds, here's a quick look and prediction of the matches:
Loaded vs. DINC US
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Loaded: zid, Lim, chE, iNERTIA, steno
DINC US: djibouti, sfX, Adrenaline, synikaL, Xp3
On paper, Loaded looks like they’ll get an easy win over DINC US especially with the change of former EG.ca and Canadian star Jimmy ‘LiN’ Lin for Paul ‘Adrenaline’ Baker. But Loaded is actually the lower seed of the two teams. Loaded finished the season with a 9-7 record (#5 seed) while DINC US surprised many by ending the season strong with an 11-5 record and in turn the #4 seed. Loaded is filled with veteran players with years of experience while DINC US has rising stars that each have a respectable past. The way that DINC US finished the regular season with nine wins in eleven matches (the two losses were to EG and coL) if Lin [LiN] was able to make it to the event, all signs would point to a DINC victory. However Lin [LiN] wasn’t able to make it out and in turn Loaded gets the slight edge.
Prediction: Loaded comes through with the match victory although DINC challenges them on all three maps; 16-10 Loaded, 16-14 DINC US, 16-11 Loaded
Turmoil vs. Excello
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Turmoil: goodfornothing, impulsive, ben, perez, evolution
Excello: cJ_B, demos, projeckt, hazard, jstone
I just cannot see the best of the west with one eastern player in Scott ‘evolution’ Cavallero (Turmoil) losing a single map to a subpar performing Excello team. Alex ‘hazard’ Martins, who was under the Back2Back banner (the core of that team is now on Loaded) in July when the last ESEA event was held, was heavily scrutinized for not being able to put up the same type of fragging numbers offline as he had online. He’ll get another chance to show that he’s the real deal this weekend. Unfortunately he and Excello are facing a Turmoil team that’s going to fully rested (Note: As I was covering Turmoil [then-Gravitas] in July, I know they were not fully rested and Ediz ‘goodfornothing’ Basol actually landed at DFW less than an hour before their match against eMg/Ruins – a match eMg won, 2-1). A prepared Turmoil team is probably the last team that you want to face in the first round of any tournament. With consistent play led by strat caller Basol [goodfornothing], Turmoil will keep Martins [hazard] and Excello in check especially with the addition of top notch AWP play by Cavallero [evolution]. Although Turmoil has had an odd practice schedule switching back and forth between Joe ‘perez’ Perez (the main 5th who is the starter, however is unable to attend the WCG Grand Finals in Chengdu, China next week) and Dan ‘mehLer’ Mehler (the 5th that is going to WCG GF in place of Perez), their level of play is just one step above that of Excello’s.
Prediction: Turmoil takes it in two straight maps; 16-9 Turmoil, 16-11 Turmoil
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