Ahhhh granary, I missed the familiarity and comfort of a map like granary. Everyone on the team knows their job, no excuses for not knowing the map well enough. If you beat a team on granary, you REALLY beat that team. Can't really say that about the results from the first 3 weeks. Viaduct and gpit matches are always upsets waiting to happen, and coldfront was just filled with issues. But granary, I love you granary, you'll never leave me unlike the other floozie maps that comes into my life for one week and then disappears forever, leaving me only with a rash and the memory of low fps.
This week, we approach the biggest slut of a map as we can get this season. This map stood out on the schedule as much as Joey Fatone on stage with N Sync. It's tearing up my heart that we have to play this map instead of freight. I mean, I'm already screaming "I want you back" to follower. I might be driving myself crazy, but I might even entertain cp_well to avoid mainline. Oh well, I'll just play through this week, but I can't wait until I can say "bye bye bye" to this bad map.
Wow, that was dumb. Here are the power rankings.
1. Hostile Faction - LW: 1 (8-0)
Hostile Faction proved this week why they are undoubtedly the #1 team in open this season by beating two of their biggest threats for that #1 spot in Vicious Gaming and Apoplexy Industries 5-2 on granary. Surprisingly, the team drama has been at a low as well, which makes this team very dangerous. Of course, after taking out VG, AI and PC, there are talks of a perfect season. Do I think they will do it? I think they have a good shot at it. There are still 6 teams they haven't played yet that can put points up against them, HF still could drop the ball one night. But honestly, their egos and passion for domination won't let them take a whole night off. Fuck it, I'm calling a perfect season. (watch them drop the last match just to piss me off)
2. Vicious Gaming - LW: 2 (7-1)
VG's week almost went from average to really bad, but they dodged a bullet and held on against coolstory to win 5-4. But that was after they were demolished on granary by Hostile Faction. The scouts just didn't look good at all, and sheep's damage input was definitely higher than his damage output. I talked to the team after the match and they had a great attitude about the rest of the season. They're still going to play it game by game, and they will worry about Hostile Faction when they see them in the playoffs. No use worrying about HF in the regular season now. Two big showdowns this week on mainline to protect this #2 spot. You know unrestricted and Apoplexy Industries are both hungry to get another big win under their belt.
3. Lightning Bolt - LW: 3 (6-2)
Did you guys feel that? Yea, sureshot is back. He rocked nearly a 3:1 k/d on granary. The rest of the team looked good as well, just demolishing and outfragging the hell out of thrick or treat and logjammin. I am very curious to see how these guys will do against better competition. 8 games in, and they have yet to play a team in my top 10 (except a ffl to coolstory). So if these guys will have a very tough road ahead if they want to stick around as one of the top seeds on open. First stop on that tough road is a match with the #4 Purple Cobras on mainline. That match will prove very quickly if these bolts are contenders or pretenders.
4. Purple Cobras - LW: 5 (6-2)
5. unrestricted - LW: 10 (7-1)
A 8-8 team last season that pretty much kept the same roster for this season. So how the hell are they one of the most surprising/dangerous teams in open right now? It's simple, they put a lot of time into this game as a team. Like I've said before, you might be a mid player, but your team can play at a mid/high, even a high level if your chemistry and teamwork is there. I casted their match against immortal 7, and they simply out-smarted and out-worked the other team. They also took down an expertise team that just played a hour long 5-4 match. Not taking all the credit away from unR, but I would have liked to see that match when both teams are fresh. Oh, catastrophe is one hell of a gunboat roam, teams will need to start working out gameplans to contain the dude or he will keep pulling off 3:1 kd matches. HUGE match against Vicious Gaming on mainline. If they can pull that win out, they might find themselves at the #2 spot at the end of next week!
6. Harmonic - LW: 8 (6-2)
Again, a crew that will get mad at me no matter what I say about the team. So here's a video of their demoman waking up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3teVYkhcx00
7. Blight - coolstory - LW: 4 (5-3)
Coolstory is quickly dropping on mine and everyone else's open rankings as they are currently on a three game losing streak. Blackstar is still on the roster, but he has not played in two weeks. Pokey also only played one out of the last three matches. ekos, their starting roam soldier also decided to leave the roster last night. Damn, what a messy situation. If Bstar and pokey comes back to the starting roster, these guys can easily be playoff contenders. But if they don't play, look for this coolstory to become a sadstory.
Doubleheaders are already tough enough. But when you lost a closely matched 5-4 game where you made some dumb mental mistakes to lose the game, and THEN have to play a second match 5 minutes later, you expect a quick loss in the 2nd match. Not a good week for these guys at all. Their new scout pickup, hell, has not contributed as much as expected. Not worried about these guys though, they have a few easier matches lined up during the next two weeks.
9. Focus Gaming - LW: 9 (6-2)Just when I thought these guys were getting their shit together, they get taken down by The Legion, a .500 team. Not taking anything away from Jewbagel and the crew, they played a great match, but those are not the matches a top 10 team should be losing. This is an exciting week for Focus though. As whispers of effectiveness of heavies on mainline swirl around the comp community, you know itisgreen and Focus will be the first ones to jump on that bandwagon. Their first big test of the season will be against Hostile Faction.
10. Cause of Death - LW: 7 (5-3)
That win against unrestricted is looking better and better with unr making such a good run at the top. I can't say that CoD will be making a smiliar type of run, as they lost 5-1 to a Purple Cobra team that pretty much put their roster together a few hours before the match. Now sting decided to leave the roster due to internal issues, which makes it even harder for CoD to become contenders. They have a pretty light schedule in the next two weeks, so look for them to recover from the cobras loss and get their roster figured out. Here is a nice fun stat tho. 8 games in, their medic dbw has not dropped one uber. Great work..OR it just exposes how conservative their combo is. Idk, conservative might not be the word for it, but you get what I mean right? Fuck.
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if you had to rank em
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