Stephen "SasquatcH" Csikos gives us a round up of ESEA week four.

Week four is officially over and the playoff picture is becoming clearer as the days pass. Dynamic is still an undefeated powerhouse and the 3DMAX squad seems to have hit stride this week with their performances. As I predicted earlier in the season Cyber Revolution is sitting in third and everyone’s favorite team One-Eyed Zomblerz is holding fourth. The real fight is for the fifth and sixth playoff spots as JCP holds fifth, but has the hardest schedule remaining of any playoff hopeful. The current sixth place team is High Rollers Gaming and they are holding on by the skin of their teeth. The remaining teams are all sitting at 3 and 5 looking to take that last playoff spot.

Unlike earlier this season teams are finally putting in more hours in practice and the results have shown it thus far. We have had two matches go into overtime this week and unlike last season where we saw more blowouts than a club on the Jersey Shore we have matches that look competitive.

Standings:

Results for this week:

Week 4:1

3DMAX > Fighting Irish FFW
Dynamic > Icons of Vanity 16-5
Cyber Revolution > Frag Machines 16-6
High Rollers Gaming > Vindicated 19-15
One-Eyed Zomblerz > SWOLEPATROL 16-11
Just Cause Project > Your Company Here FFW

Week 4:2

Vindicated > Your Company Here FFW
3DMAX > Icons of Vanity 16-2
One-Eyed Zomblerz > Frag Machines 16-11
Dynamic > High Rollers Gaming 16-12
Just Cause Project > Fighting Irish FFW
Cyber Revolution > SWOLEPATROL 22-11

Three Stars of Week 4:

The first star of week 4 is Ryan “ryan” Romba of the One-Eyed Zomblerz. Ryan came to the zomblerz after having no home with 3DMAX due to the unbanning of DaZeD. Having considered being at one time extremely inconsistent Mr. Romba has shown a consistency to perform well even when his team is not. Ryan picked up 49 frags over the two matches on Cache and is a huge part of the Zomblerz team which sits at 5 and 3, currently in fourth place.

Ryan 'ryan' Romba on the right (Image courtesy of ESEANews)

The second star this week is Michael “ghoul” Ramia, a relatively unknown to most, the awper for High Rollers Gaming. Michael picke dup 49 frags over the two matches this week and is a big reason why his team considered by some to be less talented and experienced than many of the other teams in the league is sitting in sixth place. Even though they sit at 4 and 4 HRG has done a good job of beating teams that are under them in the standings and this will allow them to make the playoffs if they keep this pace. In addition, it will be the awp of Michael “ghoul” Ramia that leads them to Dallas.

Third star this week is Eric “adren” Hoag of Dynamic. Eric has been quietly putting up efficient numbers this season sitting at .798 fpr for the season. However, this week he was instrumental in both wins on de_cache. Eric is considered by many to be the most complete player in CSS and does a lot of things that are unseen by the casual player. His positioning and team play is impeccable and will continue to be so the rest of the way until Dallas.

The Good the Bad the Ugly:

Good: Team Dynamic picking up two wins on the map de_cache which was created by their player Volcano is an expected occurrence. It would be upsetting if a team that boasts the creator of the map loses on his own playing field. In addition, sitting at 8-0 the magic number for dynamic to make the playoffs is only 4 now.

Bad: The math game has begun as there is only 4 weeks left in the season. There are multiple teams who will be on the good side of lady luck as with dead teams populating the league there are free wins to be given out like gifts under the Christmas tree. Cyber Revolution receives four free wins, Icons of Vanity receives three, SWOLEPATROL and Vindicated receive two, Dynamic, 3DMAX ,Frag Machines and the Zomblerz get one, but High Rollers Gaming and JCP receive zero. This is a problem with leagues scheduling every match and then having teams die. I believe that leagues should either require a deposit upon each player, or punish players who leave teams dead after quitting said team. In the ESEA-Invite division, teams have only four roster additions per season. Thus, when teams die it makes the league look terrible.

Ugly: Each week it’s usually easy to pick the ugliest player, team or event that stands out for the week, however, there were so many options, but the ugliest of the week is the self-proclaimed best looking team in invite, SWOLEPATROL. The team boasts a plethora of experience over a large span of years, but they can’t seem to put it together. Sitting in last place does not bode well for this team as they have just lost their star fragger freakazoid. Even though they have two free wins coming up against deceased Fighting Irish they will have to win 4 other matches of their 6 remaining to assure playoffs and I don’t see this in their future. Perhaps they should begin looking for modeling jobs since they won’t be in Dallas playoff weekend.

Conclusion:

The season is growing in intensity, but there are underlying problems that have begun to rear their ugly heads. A team with upcoming forfeit wins looks to have easier rides to playoffs than teams who do not have such a scheduling luxury. I think the professionalism demanded by ESEA should be increased to preserve their league’s competitive sanctity.

Teams drop out of a league that is considered the pinnacle of CSS in the NA scene due to loses and lack of drive. How can we as a scene ask sponsors to deliver upon prizes and larger tournaments? Until we take these leagues serious enough to suck up a losing season we will not see the rewards of a professional sport.