Today we see the Clanbase Call of Duty 4 Eurocup XVIII playoffs going live with the 8 teams who have made it into the playoffs nd we will see who will be fighting over the honour to call themselves the champions of Eurocup XVIII.

None of the teams that have gone through are that suprising really, and all usual suspects have made it out of their groups, some easily, others less so. On first glances the Dutch side Bbashers look like clear favourites, having recently taken gold at MaxLan in France, dominating all opposition. Neophyte, CrackClan and the German SPEED-LINK were all present at the event so in theory these should be a walkover for the Dutch powerhouse.

However, this is the Eurocup, and upsets have and will always happen at prestigious cups like this, so let's not count anyone out just yet. The rest of the teams are not to be taken lightly either, with teams such as Epsilon, Vicious and Evil and probably the most dangerous competitor for the title, Reason Gaming. Every single one of them will put up a strong fight and will do all possible to grab this chance for eternal glory(!)

The first round sees the teams playing mp_strike, which is as said before, a quite evenly balanced map which can really go both sides. Since most of the top teams are not really active again, teams who kept on practising will have the edge over those who haven't so there could very well be some monster results between the teams. All matches + predictions can be found below, under the brackets. Also all matches will have to be played this week and it seems HeadshotTV will be shoutcasting some matches once again, so keep tuned to Cadred for updates and shoutcast dates/times!

Round 1	Round 2	UpperBracket Final		Grand Final
CrackClan 2
mp_strike	BBashers 13
BBashers 13
	mp_crossfire	BBashers
VaE 16
mp_strike	VaE 5
SPEED-LINK 12
		mp_citystreets
Neophyte 16
mp_strike	Neophyte 10
Epsilon 13
	mp_crossfire	WWI
WWI 13
mp_strike	WWI 13			mp_
Reason 8
Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Consolodation Final
	Neophyte
CrackClan	mp_citystreets		mp_?
mp_crossfire
Epsilon		mp_?
	VaE
SPEED-LINK 9	mp_citystreets
mp_crossfire	Reason
Reason 13

CrackClan vs Bbashers will probably be a relatively easy win for Bbashers as Crack have been struggling with getting a suitable 5th (also see the Ozwald interview on cadred here) while Bbashers have been going strong and strike seemingly fitting their style of play. But what do I know, we might just see an unleashed Crack with their new 5th/merc giving them a new impulse and renewed motivation to give their all. 13-9 to the Dutch side.

UPDATE:

What can I say.... the Dutch side just completely steamrolled the French team in such convincing fashion that the French side has nothing to complain about with things as bad luck/bad server etc. Screenshots are not avaiable at this time, but from what we can see, strike suits the Dutch side like a custom made tuxedo, while it was more off a straightjacket to Crack. Only comment left by Ares from Crack was that they were completely outlucked, which can be explained by having Stevy on your team, who is seen as the luckiest player alive by the CoD community. Button Bashers will move on to face VAE in the Upperbracket, Crack will try to recover from this devastating loss and will face Epsilon in the Lowerbracket.

The second match sees Neophyte taking on Epsilon, a match which is very evenly balanced in my opinion, so this one is going to be a real nailbiter. In the end I think Epsilon will pull through, especially as they have slwx on their team, who is just a one man army (team is described at times as Slwx + 4 randoms). Scores will be close though so I predict 13-11 to Epsilon.

UPDATE:

The match which I had predicted to be close, turned out to be very close, in fact going to over time even. In the end Neophyte pulled throuh with an amazing performance by King who dominated with a stunning 11-1 score in overtime, with several of his team mates not far behind. It seems like Epsilon just did not have the means to counter Neophyte in the moments it matters most, which will cost them their place in the 2nd round of the upperbracket. Neophyte will go through and will face WWI, who dominated Reason, while Epsilon will go on to face the team who suffererd the fury of the Dutch side, Crack Clan.

Next match is the Swedish team Vicious and Evil vs SPEED-LINK. The Germans seem to be dominating online and have been called onliners at many occassions, but VAE have showed some stable and impressive results over the last few weeks so this surely won't be a walkover. I can't really tell you why, but for some reason I think SPEED-LINK will take this fairly easily, probably just because its online again, but since this is not really a solid reason, I might very well be wrong and VAE will beat SPEED-LINK 13-1. But for now I will go with 13-8 to the German side.

UPDATE:

The Swedish side have just beat SPEED-LINK with 16-12 after overtime, which is a little suprising to me, but well deserved anyway. The Swedish side will go on to face ButtonBashers in the 2nd round on crossfire, while SPEED-LINK will face Reason in what could be a sick match for survival in this cup.

The last match features We Were Immortal vs Reason, a game which really should be a win for Reason. No offense to WWI, but I think Reason are just one size too big for them, although they might just give them a close game, with mp_strike being played. On the other hand, If Reason get their tac nades up to scratch, WWI will stand no chance at all. Since most teams don't really practise that hard anymore, I think they will be slacking a bit, giving WWI some room. Final score 13-10 to Reason.

UPDATE:

We Were Immortal have just beat Reason Gaming 13-8, which is quite a suprising result to many. It seems that recent issues within the Reason camp have effected them seriously, and has had some bad influence on their performance. WWI played a strong match and according to Lighters they just got outplayed by the czech side. WWI will now face the winner of Bbashers vs CrackClan in the 2nd round of the play-offs, while Reason will go down to the lowerbracket.

2nd Round of Playoffs:

UPDATE

Tonight most of the matches for the 2nd round have been played, except the one between CrackClan and Epsilon for the lowerbracket. Matches for this round included WWI vs Neophyte, our Czech matchup, Bbashers vs VAE and Reason vs SPEED-LINK in the lowerbracket. None of the match results have been a shocker, although you could say that some people rated WWI over Neophyte, but by beating Reason in the first round, they have shown they are not to be underestimated, which Neophyte found out in person.

Before the matches for the next round start, we will have to wait for the match between CrackClan and Epsilon to be played, which should be in one of the coming days. We will keep you updated!