UPDATE: Xensity squanders an early lead as Devastation moves on to face Sway Gaming in the consolation finals, the winner of which will move on to the Grand Finals versus Pandemic.



(GotFrag) - cp_fastlane? Really? Not exactly the best time to test out a new map, eh? Oh well, nice experiment, but the fun of a respawn right beside the last cap is now behind us and competitors can move on to a more traditional.. wait.. cp_junction.. nevermind.

Alright, so I'm not the biggest fan of junction (something about not having a sky above me to rjump.. guess I'm a claustrophobic Soldier), but I will admit it's a map that makes you work together to win - instead of jaw-dropping air shots that your opponents bow down before, you have a map that can't really be taken over by any one player. The tight corners and intertwining halls give a surprising amount of cover for ambusing classes (Pyro anyone? Please god no) and give more options to the defense, rather than the set spots on cp_gravelpit which gets more formulaic by the scrim. However, it's been a while since I've watched a map on junction, so it'll be interesting to see what each team does on this one.

As for last round, Xen's win just leaves me with questions more than anything; I fully expected them to be challenged, but to overcome those challenges without much effort. Instead, I saw them get shut down for a full round, then suddenly wake up thanks to some great performances by yaug & Solid Snake. If anything, it reminded me again to never count Xen out, regardless of how down they look. And ferv? I just don't know what to say.. the Dev match on cp_badlands is a perfect comparison - they were rolling, something unexpected came up, and then they suddenly floundered. They're some talented dudes, to be sure, but it seems that they're a momentum team - if they can keep it, they're untouchable, if something unexpectedly goes wrong (like there having to be a 2nd round (badlands), or the first round not stopping when it should have (fastlane), which would have secured them a 2-0 lead for R2), they're toast. I might be looking too closely at these two matches, so I won't go as far to say that ferveNt chokes - and lets face it, both Dev & Xen played extremely well with their backs to the wall - but.. well, lets just say ferv's still gotta prove themselves.

NOTE: Just in lieu of a fun little chat last match in the P.TV IRC chan, we traditionally call this match the "LB Finals" here at GotFrag and call the next match against Sway the "Consolation Finals" - not that I or anyone else really cares what they're supposed to be called, just saying to avoid all the "there's still one more match" comments that'll inevitably pop up in the comments. On to the pred!




Xensity v Devastation

Judging only by the score, I seems the Devastation match went pretty much exactly as animeman thought it would - GZOS's individual talent had taken them as far as it would, unable to overcome an actual cohesive team in Dev (that's not a shot at focaL, btw). I wish I could see how that match went, if only to compare it to the stalemate-pace of the Xen-ferv.

I've already spoken at length on Xen's last match, so I'll avoid repeating myself and just say I think Xen's gonna have a little more fire for this match after that strong comeback.. that, and I'm not totally convinced a REM-less Dev is ready to pull out a big win (that, also, is not a shot at pokey or cyzer).

Xensity [2:1] Devastation

GotFrag Brackets can be found on the next page. Official CEVO Brackets can be found here.