EPTWelcome to Bracketology.
Western Conference Bracket
UCSB vs Arizona State
Arizona State has been mistaken for their rival, UArizona, in the standings since the initial CSL+ post. A quick check of the cstarleague.com reveals that "Arizona" actually means Arizona State University, and their tag is even [ASU]. Arizona State was fine with the mistake though and went 3-2 in conference play, securing an ace match win against Rice to secure them a playoff spot despite having an inferior set record to Rice.
Replay to watch: Their ZvP Ace Match against Rice on God's Garden that got them into the playoffs, of course.
http://www.filefront.com/14962745/Game 5.rep
Player to follow: Brandon "Atrioc" Ewing (Z). Won ASU's crucial game and is currently 4-1.
UCSB was just nuked from the iccup world, so their game against undefeated Victoria is apparently canceled for the time being. If they get to play it anyway, and Victoria wins, Victoria will take UCSB's spot against Arizona State and UCSB will get Texas in the first round. For the time though, the banning seems to have helped UCSB, as UCSB gets a higher seed in the playoffs due to their higher set record, and the ban expires at the end of the season, so UCSB will likely still be able to play in the playoffs.
If e-drama prevents UCSB from competing in the playoffs, Berkeley will likely take their spots, leading to a rematch of last year's Berkeley vs Texas final in the first round.
Replay to watch: moto, the guy who got them banned, played a nice TvZ on Shades of Twilight.
http://www.filefront.com/14963221/2924 uCT UCZ uT UZ uP uT uZ.rep
Player to follow: Amos "arsenic" Lin (Z). He's 5-0, although he hasn't played a ZvT yet, but there aren't that many Terrans in CSL anyway.
Victoria vs Texas
This should be an epic set. Victoria has the player with the best record in CSL+ and Texas is the defending runner-up. No drama here, just two undefeated teams with a combined 29-11 set record.
Replays to watch:
Victoria: baechigi vs Zeko on Neo Medusa. PvP ace match of Victoria vs Berkeley.
http://www.filefront.com/14962835/Set 5 UVic vs UCB.rep
Texas: peter vs garshop (Rice) on Destination. Texas' sole terran beats a good toss in a difficult matchup on a map that doesn't exactly favor his race.
http://www.filefront.com/14963261/vs rice ivan.rep
Players to follow:
Victoria: Geoffrey "baechigi" Lee. 9-0. Best record in CSL.
Texas: Allen "joLin" Van, Texas' 5-0 captain, ace, and 4-0 ZvZer.
Chicago vs UC Riverside OR UCSD
Northern Illinois vs UC Irvine OR UCSD
Division 4 of the Western Conference is wrapped up, with the Chicago MICRO taking the top spot and Northern Illinois taking the second. Division 2 still has one crucial game to be played, UC Riverside vs UC Irvine. If Irvine wins (which the UCSD team highly doubts) they will get the top spot and face NIU while UCSD takes on undefeated Chicago. If Riverside wins UCSD gets NIU in the first round while Riverside has to take on Chicago.
UCSD is confident that Riverside will win, but note that Irvine is 13-5 in sets while Riverside is 12-6 and that they've played the exact same opponents.
UC Riverside vs UC Irvine (TOMMOROW)
Ritha (Z) (1-0) vs Fira (P) (5-0) on Neo Medusa
JiYan (P) (1-3) vs darrenc (P) (4-0) on Heartbreak Ridge
Dino (P) (3-0) vs rabbiT (Z) (3-0) on Outsider
Han (T) (4-1) vs _Novella (T) (0-2) on God's Garden
With both teams starting 3 undefeated players and a playoff spot on the line, you can't not watch this match.
Eastern Conference Bracket
Duke vs Princeton
What hasn't been said about Duke? They've got Nony, they're undefeated in sets as well as games, and they're probably the favorite to win it all in January.
Replay to watch: Nony vs MasterAsia. Nony goes into beast mode and beats one of the best Chinese players in game one of Duke vs Georgia Tech on Ride of the Valkyries.
http://www.filefront.com/14962937/Nony vs MasterAsia.rep
Players to watch: All of them.
Princeton's a tricky case, as their best player is a merc, and as such will not be able to play in the playoffs. At 6-1, magneus will definitely be missed in the playoffs.
Replay to watch: agony vs redtooth (CMU), ZvZ on Neo Medusa.
http://www.filefront.com/14962933/Set 4 (Pat ZvZ).rep
Player to watch: Patrick "Agony" Park (Z) will have to try to fill mag's shoes. He's currently 4-0 in the CSL.
Georgia Tech vs Rutgers
Rutgers will be 6-0 with a win against Binghamton tomorrow. However, that in no way makes them the favorite against Georgia Tech, whose only loss this season was to Duke.
Georgia Tech has probably the best Asian in CSL until Nongmin arrives at Johns Hopkins. MasterAsia is supposed to be one of the top Chinese Zergs and can be mentioned in the same sentence as PJ. Also playing for GT is
Assem, who's been to Korea and taken games off Anytime and [NC]Yellow, yet hasn't played a CSL game yet.Replay to watch: MasterAsia vs Princess (Emory) on Shades of Twilight. Dominant ZvT.
http://www.filefront.com/14962969/emory vs GT set 5e.rep
Players to watch: Ruodu "Masterasia" Wang (Z), who is 4-1, and Brian "Assem" Fransioli (T), who will hopefully see some action in the playoffs.
Rutgers' mercs have not necessarily carried, but definitely helped Rutgers to their perfect record, and with Clazz at 4-2 and fanaticist at 3-1, they will be missed in the playoffs, especially against a strong team like GT.
Replay to watch: nexus vs jaleo (CMU) in a PvT on Shades of Twilight.
http://www.filefront.com/14963003/set1 [RU]nexus vs el.jaleo
Player to watch: Kishan "nexus" Pandya (P) is 4-1 and likely Rutgers' best non-merc.
The East Division 2 Clusterfuck
With one week to go, there are still 4 teams competing for the 2 remaining playoff spots. Tomorrow, the games will be decided through two games, Toronto vs Western Ontario and Ohio State vs Waterloo.
Who advances to the playoffs? Well, if:
Toronto and Ohio State win, then both advance.
Toronto and Waterloo win, then Toronto advances and best set record out of Western Ontario, Ohio State, and Waterloo advance.
Western Ontario and Ohio State win, then I have no idea because Xeris says this won't happen.
Western Ontario and Waterloo win, then Western Ontario and Toronto advance.
Now for the games themselves, both being played tomorrow:
Western Ontario vs Toronto
o3Power91 (P) (4-1) vs DenialS (R) (3-1) (1-1 as random) on Neo Medusa
DrAgOOnPK (Z) (3-3) vs Jcu (P) (2-1) on HBR
Zortch (Z) (3-3) vs LegendaryDreams (T) (2-1) on Outsider
durrrr (P) (0-1) vs genius (P) (0-0) on God's Garden.
Notice that Toronto is confident enough not to send out
IefNaij, who is 6-0 is CSL.Waterloo vs Ohio State
jackass (Z) (3-1) vs bibidi (T) (1-1) on Neo Medusa
monk (Z) (2-2) vs TestSubject894 (Z) (1-3) on HBR
master (P) (1-1 as Terran, 0-0 as Toss) vs Azriel (Z) (4-1) on Outsider
assault (Z) (3-0) vs OrdrlyChaos (Z) (3-0) on God's Garden.
Now, whoever comes in second in East Division 2 will play McGill, who's gone undefeated in conference play.
Whoever comes in first in East Division 2, likely Toronto, will face the winner of Tufts and MIT, the final game to be previewed. Now, MIT's A-team recently lost 1-6 to Caltech, who aren't even in the playoffs. Because of that, I'd have to peg Tufts as the favorites. And because they have l10f, a name I recognize from reading TL, who is actually Xin, and GhostWriter is Tufts.L10F. Also they have two terran starters when lots of CSL teams don't even have one.
MIT vs Tufts (tomorrow)
Aischarm (Z) (3-1) vs L10F (T) (4-0) on Neo Medusa
Muirhead (P) (1-1) vs recon (T) (3-2) on HBR
Reaverie (P) (0-3) vs voice (P) (3-0) on Outsider
olXor (Z) (3-0) vs xin (Z) (1-1) on God's Garden.
That concludes Bracketology! Once the final playoff spots are decided there will be another edition with previews as well as past replays and players to watch for those games.
Oh, and if this is TLDR, here's the bracket in condensed form:
Duke
Princeton
East Division 2 winner
Tufts/MIT winner
Rutgers
Georgia Tech
McGill
East Division 2 Runner-up
UCSB
Arizona State
UCSD or Irvine
Northern Illinois
Texas
Victoria
Chicago
UC Riverside or SD
