In round 3 eight more teams get knocked out of this competition. Knights, Insane Rebels, United 5, Animus, Team 69, Defenders of Glory, Headshot City, and Native Elite Order were all beaten for the 2nd time and thus eliminated from the tournament. This week four more teams will be victims, leaving only 12 teams remaining after the completion of this week's matches.

Upper Bracket Round 3 Recap

8 teams were still undefeated and were set to face-off in round 3 on Mountain Ambush.
The 4 winners of this round would advance to the upper semi-final and inch closer to the tournament finals. The 4 losers would drop to the losers bracket and join the other teams in a much longer road to the final, but at least these 4 teams will have a bye for next week.

No Hesitation was without there MVP Kilatoby who lost his net for 2 hours during match time and nH forfeited to the top dogs jCp. Even Flow also forfeited their match, perhaps they didn't realize the match was to be played this week considering other leagues postponed play for a week.

Conviction > Mug 'N Mouse 8-2

Conviction was evidently the more prepared team this week. They started on Ambush and were able to take out the VIP every round except 1 and were confident at half-time. Heading over to Escort it was evident that practice does pay off, as they took 2 of 3 rounds and clinched the victory much sooner than expected.

Lost Cause > Team Exigence 8-5

In this case 2 much less experienced teams went head-to-head. Lost Cause likely were favored to win with their edge in league experience and a little more success. They showed they weren't messing around when they took a 6-1 lead into half-time. Switching to the tougher side of escort the score was 3-1 for eXg until Lc finally broke through a 2nd time to win their 2nd round on escort and clinch the match. Congrats on Lost Cause advancing to the upper semi final and good luck to them against overRated.


Lower Bracket Round 3 Recap

Quickly we'll list the matches that were forfeits or sweeps and move on to the rest. Version 3 swept Insane Rebels. Either iR just gave up and pubbed it down the stretch, or v3 just showed they are the superior squad. Rising Storm swept United 5, which was to be expected since u5 is pretty dead and rS is just that good. IceNine swept Animus 8-0 as well, one would expect a little more out of Animus, but it wasn't to be. Based off i9's performance vs rS on this map less than a week ago it wasn't a surprise they won. The only forfeit reported was Adversity over Defenders of Glory, but we all know what would have happened there anyways, unless Adversity wanted to screw themselved over by using another exploit.

FightClub > Knights 8-5

FightClub started on escort and had a hard time breaking Knights solid Ambush strat, Knights quickly went ahead 3-0. They finally pulled through by taking over B quickly and finishing off the last 2 dudes at C in the final seconds in a 2v2. They took another round later to make it 2-4, but that's all they could manage as the only other close round Balla clutched a 1v4 at C solo. Ambush was a much different story for FightClub as they Knights were only really close to winning a round on 1 occasion and took all 7 rounds.

Team 69 < Disturbing the Peace 8-1

I'd have to say the results here were somewhat of a surprise. Team 69 has to deal with high pings as they are mainly a Brazilian clan, but they can hold their own long range against many clans since the ping disadvantage isn't as important. They managed 1 round on escort, but lost the first 2 round of ambush. Perhaps they couldn't hold back a B rush.

Final Destination > Native Elite Order 8-4

This is also somewhat of a surprise. FD-I is far better and more experienced than NEO, so a blowout was the expected result here. NEO actually held their own against an invite team and secured 4 rounds, impressive. Wait wait wait, after checking the FD website, they won the match 2v4 with conman and firebird, plus conman went 15-3 LOL!

No Urgency > Headshot City 8-5

Both these teams are pretty young and like to talk a big game. They have decent reflexes for CQB fights, but are lacking in experience as a team. As is the case for most clans, these 2 clans would rather scrim on CQB maps, so it's highly likely any preparation was done for this match. In the end, No Urgency played better on Ambush and swept it after taking 2 rounds on Escort.

Upper Bracket Round 4 Preview

Conviction vs just Cause project

A week ago Unknown of Conviction was discussing with me on xfire how upset he was that Adversity beat jCp and his team con wouldn't get the chance to face jCp on Sandstorm. It was his dream to face the best team in AA on this map to see if they could beat them on what is Conviction's best map. With just Cause project winning their dispute vs Adversity, and both these teams victorious this week, Unknown's dream will now become a reality. This would be a fantastic match to cast, if only the casting companies had the hardware to do it.

Conviction will be looking to redeem their most recent loss and perhaps only loss on Sandstorm which came not too long ago against IceNine when wh!z pulled off some crazy shot on braindamage upper central obj. Both these teams jCp and con have a pretty passive, but effective, style on this map for the most part. Will they mix things up a little to throw each other off? We'll find out next week.

Prediction: jCp > con 8-5.

overRated vs Lost Cause

This match will be a huge test for Lost Cause, they have already managed a win against Animus, but if they can pull off the upset against overRated this week that would be astounding. Sandstorm is a map that often produces surprises, but when push comes to shove, oR will dominate this match IMO.

Prediction: oR > Lc 8-3.

Lower Bracket Round 4 Preview

FightClub vs Version 3

v3 and fc have had tons of 4v4 and 6v6 ladder matches in the past few months. It's always a fair game, and always very close. This week should be no different. With v3 being quite strong on SF maps in general, and fc being a strong team on SF Sandstorm most nights, anything can happen here. Coincidentally v3 and fc will battle it out on the same map on the same night for first place on the 6v6 ladder once again. By the end of the night both teams should be hard of hearing from the deafening wind.

Rising Storm vs IceNine

Truthfully this should be an even more anticipated match than the one between jCp and con. With i9 and rS down to their last lifeline, and considering how well both these teams are playing in competition recently, this has the making of an epic match. Rising Storm has the capability of beating anyone on Sandstorm. IceNine has recently beat Conviction on Sandstorm, who is now considered one of the top teams to beat on this map. The depth of experience and talent on the rS roster will most definitely give them the edge in this map. Unless wh!z has some more crazy shots up his sleeve, and unless i9 can come up with some crazy strats which they can execute perfectly, I really don't see them taking this one. The puck stops here for IceNine.

Prediction: rS > i9 8-3.

Adversity vs Disturbing the Peace

Adversity, or at least the same core of players under a different tag, have upset some big-time teams in the past months. Unfortunately for them, not all those upset have stood up as victories after disputes have been sent in. Whether it be for circumventing bans, or exploiting, they have had some disappointments with matches being turned over. dTp is an up-and-coming team, but they haven't beat anybody that worthy yet. Look for a lopsided win for Adversity here.

Prediction: adv > dTp 8-1.

Final Destination-I vs No Urgency

The last match of the loser's bracket is between the invite caliber FD-I squad and the open caliber nU squad. No Urgency hasn't had much trouble against any open teams, but Final Destination is no open team. If FD-I shows up with 2 guys this week, I don't think they'll stand a chance, but if they field 4, they should manage a relatively easy win even without much practice.

Prediction: FD-I > nU 8-4.