Playoff Update - Aug. 9th
by Kalamere
August 10, 2015
Sunday fight night was huge for Hydra this week! All but one of the remaining Week Five bouts took place and answered a host of our playoff questions. We now know the top two seeds and have a pretty solid idea of who's fourth, leaving only third to be settled tonight in the Outback.
In the battle for first place, Chemical Burn and The Rock Hards fought their final two duels. The first fight was Bile v Red in a fists bout that carried no extra weight. The pair started out slow, tied at 1 through six rounds before Red went on a scoring spree to bring the score to 4-2 in the 10th. It looked over, but Bile staged an impressive three round comeback to take the match 5-4 in 13 and extend CHM's match lead. The second bout was Deathlord's Minion and Kruger in swords. The Anvil was slow out of the gate, allowing Minion to take an early lead and keep it through a 2-1.5 fifth round. Starting in the sixth though, this was his show. In the 13th round he caught Minion cutting low with a well timed thrust and took the duel 5-3. Add in the three extra WildCard points and that was enough for ROC to win the match by a single point and seal up first place for the season.
The Rock Hards will move on to face the 4th seed in the playoffs and right now that's looking like its going to be Team Fist. TMF, by the way, is the team to account for the 1 in ROC's 4-1 record. Will Kruger and team be looking to make up for that mark on an otherwise perfect season, or do the Outback's favorites know something about this crew that the rest of the league wasn't able to figure out?
Chemical Burn earns 2nd place on the season, despite having the best duels won and PDPD stats in the league. Their shortfall? Wildcard points. Bile's crew played lowball this week and only put a single point up on the magic duel. Had they thrown a full three point value at that one it would have been the 2 points they needed to take the match. They're most likely facing the winner of the DCK v HFO match, which is still in progress. They beat both those squads this season, so probably aren't all that worried. Given their match against HFO was the most dominant victory by any team recorded this season though, I expect they're hoping for Eden to pull out the win.
In the lower seeds, the most important duel of the night was Matt v April in a 3 WC fists bout. News of a renewed playoff hope had Matt firing on all cylinders from the jump and he sailed to a 4-0 lead in the first four rounds. Perhaps kicking himself for pulling back on a snapkick in the fifth that would have closed things out, he faltered slightly in the next few rounds, allowing April to get 2 on the board with a snapkick in the 6th and a nice duck and counter combination in the 8th. It proved too high a hill to climb for April though and Matt brought this to a close in the 9th with a chop to take her out of the air. Team Fist takes the match 21-6 and pulled in 6 WC in the process, practically ending the aspirations of Royal Pain.
TMF and RPN end the season tied at 2-3 and holding 9 WC a piece. Matt's brawlers secured the higher points per duel differential though and, with that, secure themselves a playoff bid!
The final playoff spot is up for grabs still and hinges on tonight's Sal v Eden fists bout. This fight carries a league maximum 6 WildCard points and should be enough to catapult the winner into 3rd place on the season, while the losers begin a long off season vacation. There is one small caveat though and it's the one slim chance Jewell has of seeing her ladies make the post season. Sal and Eden could fight to a draw. If that happens, neither of their teams make the playoffs! TMF would jump up to 3rd and RPN would find renewed life at the 4 seed, since they would then hold the WC tie-breaker over the DCK squad.
I'll end with the quick wrapup of what the first round of the playoffs may look like based on the Deathcake v Hydra-Foil outcome, for those that weren't following along.
If Sal wins: - ROC (1st) vs. TMF (4th)
- CHM (2nd) v DCK (3rd)
If Eden wins: - ROC (1st) vs. TMF (4th)
- CHM (2nd) v HFO (3rd)
If they tie: - ROC (1st) vs. RPN (4th)
- CHM (2nd) v TMF (3rd)
Hit the Outback tonight folks, this ought to be a good one!
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