Breaking It Down: Week Six
by Garren the Barbarian
December 11, 2013
The final week of the regular season is underway, and Week Six has left us drooling into our beards with anticipation. We saw shutouts, we saw sweeps, we saw epic team collapses, and we saw two dark-horses rising to contend for a shot at the play-offs.
Let's break it down. Let's break it all down.
Power Rankings
#1 Badside Brawlers [last week, ranked #1] (5-1 in matches) (18-6 in duels)
The Brawlers almost swept the Champions in Mythos in Week Four, vaulting themselves into the top ranked position in the league. In Week Five, they scored their second sweep of the season, this time against #2 Asian Invasion. This was a massacre. AZN put their best line-up against BAD, and couldn't win a duel. BAD's continued to look better every week so far this season, and there is no question that they look like the best team in the league right now.
While everyone who fought for the Brawlers won this week, it was Jake Thrash in the Iron Fist bout that dominated previously undefeated MVP-hopeful, Lena Choi, by a score of 5-2. The half-orc's going to coast through the regular season without letting any duelists score more than two points against him, and once again, he's BAD's Team MVP of the Week!
BAD just needs to win one duel in this final week to secure their number one ranking going into the play-offs. While Jake's not using his strongest line-up this week, I still can't see them not winning at least two bouts. BAD is going to the play-offs with a first round bye, and rightfully so.
#2 Top Flight [last week, ranked #5] (4-2 in matches) (14-10 in duels)
While Asian Invasion floundered, Top Flight put together an impressive, dominating victory over Team Fist. While TMF won the Iron Fist match in over-time, the rest of Harris' crew cruised to 3-to-1 victory that puts them in position to climb back up the standings before the regular season is over. I'm not certain that TOP is the second best team in the league, but at this point in the season, they have a little more momentum than the other two-loss teams.
Harris D'Artainian, at the apex of an MVP-worthy season, shut down Koyliak VanDuran-Simon in the Push bout. Harris fought a rare, perfect duel against her, and his 5-0 shutout made it almost impossible for TMF to recover. He looked crafty, using defense and speed to counter every attack that Koy threw at him, and blue-hair-or-not, he's TOP's Team MVP of the Week!
With one week remaining, TOP's still not in as strong of a position as Asian Invasion. That's because TOP's the only team remaining in the league to not have the misfortune of fighting the Badside Brawlers. No team's won more than two duels in a match against the Brawlers this season, and for Top Flight to hold the #2 ranking and secure the bye in the first week of the play-offs, they are going to have to do what no team's done so far this season. They are going to have to beat BAD and win three or four duels. They have a shot, as BAD's sitting all three of its undefeated fighters to protect their ranks for next season.
#3 Asian Invasion [last week, ranked #2] (4-2 in matches) (14-10 in duels)
AZN was swept by the rampaging Badside Brawlers last week, and drops one spot in my rankings. They would have dropped further, but all logic seems to point towards this team having the best chance of finishing the season with a number two ranking and a first round bye in the play-offs. That's because, while the other rivals for the #2 position face each other this week, or face BAD, Asian Invasion gets to go up against the win-less Rock Hards -- who are sitting their best duelist, Rachael Douglas.
It's always hard to find the silver lining in a week where a team gets swept. However, for being the only team member to reach match point in their duel, I'll give the Team MVP of the Week award to Hoi Mei. She did keep it close!
Kimone Kidd is sitting Lena Choi in Week Seven to protect her rank for next season. I can't blame her. Even after the sweep, AZN has to feel good about their chances to get a bye in the first round of the play-offs. The Rock Hards have yet to win, and even a weak AZN line-up looks like a good match-up against ROC on paper. If they do falter again this week, they could drop down as far as third or fourth in the rankings. Morale is key moving into the play-offs, so not tripping over ROC is going to be very important for Asian Invasion this week.
#4 Team Fist [last week, ranked #3] (4-2 in matches) (12-12 in duels)
Team Fist Nation's hopes of securing a bye in the play-offs have all but been dashed. After being routed by Top Flight last week, Team Fist is still in a strong position despite having lost as many bouts as they've won. This is nothing new for Team Fist. They tend to under-achieve in the Iron Fists League, but still retain a respectable record; this is because they often-times win by a narrow margin, and lose by a large margin. They'll have to shake off the sting of losing hard to TOP this week, as they'll be up against another long-time dueling team in the Champions of Mythos.
Darik Warchild won a nail-biter of a Main Event in over-time against Melanie Rostol. His 6-5 victory makes him TMF's Team MVP of the Week, if only because the rest of his team laid down and let TOP walk all over them.
Team Fist still has a small chance of jumping up into the #2 ranking, but it's very slim indeed. This week, they'll pit their strongest line-up against COM's, as both teams make one last play for a first round bye. Both of these teams will go on to the play-offs regardless, and both of these teams will need the help of the Badside Brawlers and dead-in-the-water Rock Hards to have a chance at jumping over Top Flight and Asian Invasion.
#5 Champions of Mythos [last week, ranked #4] (3-3 in matches) (13-11 in duels)
After losing to both TOP and BAD, the last thing that the Champs wanted to do was to put up a poor showing against Mercenarii, a team that spent its first four weeks of the season looking like it would never win a match again. That's what happened, though, as COM lost three sudden-death matches to the current Iron Fist League dark-horses. It's going to be tough to recover from the three-loss streak that has shaken the foundations of the team that looked like the best in the league in the first half of this season.
Elaine Aqua continued to be a bright spot for COM, as her undefeated season reached 3-0 after a 5-4 win over Dio Carcin. Elaine's not dominated her fights this season, and Dio almost managed to come back against her. Still, as the only win this week for the Champs, she's the Team MVP of the Week!
Look for a key throw-down next week against Team Fist. COM tends to consistently be a top contender in various team leagues, while TMF tends to consistently fail. Still, this week, both teams have manuevered their line-ups cleverly in an attempt to do whatever they can to snatch at a higher rank before moving into the play-offs. The key for COM? Winning the Iron Fist match. They are 2-4 on the season in Main Events, and that's the primary reason why they are sitting at 3-3 instead of 4-2 or 5-1.
#6 Mercenarii [last week, ranked #6] (2-4 in matches) (12-12 in duels)
Mercenarii's now won two weeks in a row, and is in position to move into the play-offs despite a terrible start to their season. Last week, they upset the Champions of Mythos in a series of very close matches. If they continue to win, they will have a significant amount of momentum moving forward into the play-offs, and could surprise there.
Jin Sin took down a previously undefeated fighter, in Shadow, with a narrow 5-4 win in the Main Event. While Rena's comeback against Xanth and Charles' upset over Aenlyn were all keys to Mercenarii winning the week, Jin's Iron Fist victory makes him Mercenarii's Team MVP of the Week!
This week, MRC will face Team Dirty in a bid for the last play-off spot. While Mercenarii could jump up into the number five rank this week, if Team Fist wins, it's really do-or-die for Cassius' crew. Team Dirty's managed to get swept three times and still win two team matches, proving that Claire Farron's crew of young fighters is capable of winning -- but not consistently. This is going to be an exciting match to watch, so don't miss it!
#7 Team Dirty [last week, ranked #7] (2-4 in matches) (6-18 in duels)
Team Dirty proved that it wasn't the worst team in the league last week, when it scored a solid win over the Rock Hards. Winning both of the overcard bouts put DRT into the position to still have a shot at the play-offs, while ROC's loss was the nail in their coffin this season. DRT will need to kill the play-off hopes of another team this week, if they want to continue fighting past the regular season.
Claire Farron's had an inconsistent season, like the rest of her team. Still, she's proven capable of shining ocaissionally, while Jonas Drava has had the misfortune of facing some of the leagues all-time best fighters. This looked like a bit of a mismatch on paper, and Claire proved it with a solid 5-2 win in the Iron Fist match, making her DRT's Team MVP of the Week!
This week, against Mercenarii, Claire has created a solid line-up. She just has to hope that, after all of the beatings her fighters have taken this season, they are still healthy enough to surprise a much more experienced team in Mercenarii. Claire is facing off against Vanion Shadowcast in the Main Event this week, and there are a hundred rumors flying around about the nature of their personal relationship. What I do know is that Vanion's a mean fighter who tends to duel well against women. Claire has to beat him if she wants to carry Team Dirty into the play-offs.
#8 The Rock Hards [last week, ranked #8] (0-6 in matches) (7-17 in duels)
The Rock Hards just haven't been able to string together enough duels to win all season. Re-watching some of these matches, I have to say that the primary reason why this young team isn't challenging DRT and MRC for a play-off bid is due to Iron Fist matches. New Captain Kruger has very fairly rotated his fighters through the Main Event cards, oftentimes pairing his weakest up against the best of opposing teams. The use of Jonas Drava and Minam Go in those key bouts may come back to haunt Kruger, as they could have been the difference between two close wins for ROC and the big margin losses that occured.
While ROC struggled against Team Dirty last week, Dust Cameron continued to prove that he is one of the two best fighters on this young team with his close win over Julianne Smith to prevent the shut-out. With little else to celebrate, he's ROC's Team MVP of the Week!
While the Rock Hards are officially out of the play-offs, they do play an important role this week for the fans of Team Fist Nation and the Champions of Mythos. As most pundits believe that BAD will continue its steamroll over Top Flight this week, ROC can play spoiler by upsetting Asian Invasion and earning its first win. To do so will mean a chance for the winner of TMF vs COM to steal up to a number two ranking and earn a bye in the first week of the play-offs.
Power Fighters of the Week
#1 Harris D'Artainian
Harris is having the best league season of his career, and he punctuated it this week with a perfect shutout against veteran Koyliak VanDuran-Simon. There's not anything more that needs to be said. He's your Power Fighter of the Week!
#2 Jake Thrash
Jake continued to duel at the top of his game, as he has all season, with a powerful 5-2 victory. He's not fighting in Week Seven, but by handing Lena her first loss of the season, he's once again earned himself special mention as one of the most impressive fighters of the week.
#3 Claire Farron
While Jonas Drava is not an impressive opponent, Claire's strong 5-2 win over him kept Team Dirty's play-off hopes alive this week. If DRT goes on to the play-offs, Claire can proudly look back to that win as the turning point for her team this season. If she had lost, DRT would be out of the play-off race right now.
MVP Watch (sponsored by the Jade Dragon Chinese Buffet)
With only one week left in the season, the picture for MVP is not much clearer. We have seven undefeated fighters this season, none of whom will duel more than four times this season, and four of whom are sitting out in Week Seven to not risk losing their Powerhouse rank next season. This is entirely unprecedented, and makes the picture for MVP a little fuzzy. Still, here are three fighters who stand out among the crowd before we see the results of Week Seven.
Jake Thrash (4-0, 9.00 PDPB, 2 Iron Fist wins, 1 Push win, 1 Crutch win)
Jake has not allowed more than two points to be scored against him all season. While most of his opponents have not performed well this season, this past week he did beat MVP-hopeful, Lena Choi. And he beat her like a gong. Does she play gong? At any rate, at the moment, Jake is the obvious front-runner for the IFL Season Three Most Valuable Player.
Harris D'Artainian (3-0, 9.00 PDPB, 2 Iron Fist wins, 1 Push win)
While Harris has only fought three times this season, he is one of the three undefeated fighters who will be fighting in Week Seven. Besides Jake, he's the only fighter to score a shutout this season, and he's looked very impressive. Going beyond just the numbers, Harris' Iron Fist win against the Champions of Mythos in Week Four was the tie-breaker that put his team into contention for the number two ranking at the end of the season. If Harris carries TOP into an upset against BAD in a week where BAD benched all three of its undefeated fighters, he has to be considered a top contender for MVP this season.
Lilly Hyde (4-0, 5.25 PDPB, 1 Iron Fist win, 2 Push wins, 1 Anchor win)
Lilly's sitting out the final two weeks of the season, most likely to protect her rank for next season. While her impressive comeback wins have been a major contribution to BAD's dominant season, this does leave the door open for some other names to enter into the larger conversation after Week Seven.
Rookie-of-the-Year Watch (sponsored by the Jade Dragon Chinese Buffet)
Dean Reighland (3-0, 4.67 PDPB, 2 Push wins, 1 Crutch win)
Harris has sat Dean for the final two weeks of the season, which will lock him in for a Powerhouse ranking next season. Being one of only two rookies to remain undefeated after Week Six does keep his name in contention for Rookie-of-the-Year, though.
Elaine Aqua (3-0, 4.33 PDPB, 1 Push win, 1 Crutch win, 1 Anchor win)
Elaine has been a bright spot on a struggling Champions of Mythos in this second half of the season. This week, she'll face undefeated Kheldar in another Push bout. If she wins, she very well could end this season top among the rookies.
Lena Choi (4-1, 3.40 PDPB, 2 Iron Fist wins, 2 Push wins)
After a big loss to Jake Thrash, Lena's position in the ROTY race is weaker. Additionally, she will not be dueling in Week Seven, which weakens her position as well. Still, she's had a hell of a season, and has been a stand-out amongst rookies over the past six weeks.
And that's it for Week Six! Next week, look for two articles from me: a special Power Rankings edition for the play-offs, focused more on late-season momentum than statistics, and an expanded MVP and ROTY Watch before the ballots are sent out to be voted on. Until then, make sure to get out there and watch some of the explosive action as the regular season winds down. This is the week where some teams step up, some fighters become heroes, and others are sent packing until next season. Don't miss it!
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