Same story in all leagues, quarterfinals turned out of the be pretty onesided event with 2 teams clearly outshining their opponents. Power, having a bye week, chose Ethereal as their semifinal opponent, while Pure Luck faces Cloud.
This twdt-j also saw quite unusual situation, where one of the best jav teams, terrorist, was eliminated already before playoffs. From other higher predicted teams, bunnies of course missed out on rough, while Tiny did some smart trading and Ethereal of course added Jurassic from FA to make their team stronger.
Power vs Ethereal
Power was the best team for main season, but their biggest issue may be, that they havent really had that much action in recent weeks. With bye week and no-show win vs bunnies and against low morale terrorist in last main season week, power has not really had that much gametime together. Power has used a variety of lineups entire season, but what is common is having zidane, iron survivor and beam in the lineup. Alongside with them, there is possibility to use draft/lee combo, but draft has been on and off entire season with low showups, while also FA draft pick rampage with zizu has been used. Not to mention jack and skatarius, who were used more often in early season. So zidane has loads of options, what is common about all lineups, is that they have worked really well, with last loss power had to face was as early as week 4 of main season. So one thing power has, depending on showups, is possibility to test different lineups and find that winning combination.
Ethereal best player of the season has been yeh, but even without him (and there are questions about if he can show to semis), they had no big issues beating stray. Jurassic has been impactful also in jav, together with another high star vys. Jz, Ekko and banks were used in quarterfinals, but also dare as low star, has made regular appearances entire season. Ethereal games vs Power have both ended with losses. First one being very narrow 49-50, while second one was less close with Jurassic facing lag-issues. I can see Power being a favorite here, but strong quarterfinal performances have certainly boosted Ethereal morale. Those 2 teams are also only teams still to be in competition for all 3 leagues, so wb game results may determine if either, at the time of games taking place, are still in competition for making it to finals in all 3.
Prediction: Power beats Ethereal 2-0
Pure Luck vs Cloud
Pure luck has been the team on fire for later part of league. They are now on 6-game winning streak in jav and had no issues beating Prime in quarters. Cloud benefitted from terrorist being eliminated from playoffs as they managed to get that 2nd seed on last week of main season. They have had good season and definitely deserve their place in semis.
Their main season matches are not telling much. Cloud beat pure luck during week 1, week 5, pure luck got its revenge, but that was week when Myth was missing, so that game result does not really tell much.
Pure luck lineup is based on having 4 really strong players in tiny, hellkite, ardour and cape alongside yogi and it has worked really well, as it is still undefeated. Yogi of course is the weak link, but he has managed to stay alive for games, while both cape and tiny have had several mvp performances. Without much possibilities from bench, we can expect this lineup to show up next Sunday as well.
Cloud is setup in a similar way. Mythril, mikkiz, creature, stayon, tpz form the strong core, with recently rabbit!, taking role of lone low-star, but also rylo making it to lineup at times. Cloud strength relies in their very experienced core, you rarely see a bad game from any of them and similar to Pure Luck, low vp survival is something they need to work on. Really difficult to see any advantage for either team, but based on Pure Luck having 2 extra games on weekend and having overall a bit better season end, I am going to go with them.
Prediction: Pure Luck beats Cloud 2-1
This twdt-j also saw quite unusual situation, where one of the best jav teams, terrorist, was eliminated already before playoffs. From other higher predicted teams, bunnies of course missed out on rough, while Tiny did some smart trading and Ethereal of course added Jurassic from FA to make their team stronger.
Power vs Ethereal
Power was the best team for main season, but their biggest issue may be, that they havent really had that much action in recent weeks. With bye week and no-show win vs bunnies and against low morale terrorist in last main season week, power has not really had that much gametime together. Power has used a variety of lineups entire season, but what is common is having zidane, iron survivor and beam in the lineup. Alongside with them, there is possibility to use draft/lee combo, but draft has been on and off entire season with low showups, while also FA draft pick rampage with zizu has been used. Not to mention jack and skatarius, who were used more often in early season. So zidane has loads of options, what is common about all lineups, is that they have worked really well, with last loss power had to face was as early as week 4 of main season. So one thing power has, depending on showups, is possibility to test different lineups and find that winning combination.
Ethereal best player of the season has been yeh, but even without him (and there are questions about if he can show to semis), they had no big issues beating stray. Jurassic has been impactful also in jav, together with another high star vys. Jz, Ekko and banks were used in quarterfinals, but also dare as low star, has made regular appearances entire season. Ethereal games vs Power have both ended with losses. First one being very narrow 49-50, while second one was less close with Jurassic facing lag-issues. I can see Power being a favorite here, but strong quarterfinal performances have certainly boosted Ethereal morale. Those 2 teams are also only teams still to be in competition for all 3 leagues, so wb game results may determine if either, at the time of games taking place, are still in competition for making it to finals in all 3.
Prediction: Power beats Ethereal 2-0
Pure Luck vs Cloud
Pure luck has been the team on fire for later part of league. They are now on 6-game winning streak in jav and had no issues beating Prime in quarters. Cloud benefitted from terrorist being eliminated from playoffs as they managed to get that 2nd seed on last week of main season. They have had good season and definitely deserve their place in semis.
Their main season matches are not telling much. Cloud beat pure luck during week 1, week 5, pure luck got its revenge, but that was week when Myth was missing, so that game result does not really tell much.
Pure luck lineup is based on having 4 really strong players in tiny, hellkite, ardour and cape alongside yogi and it has worked really well, as it is still undefeated. Yogi of course is the weak link, but he has managed to stay alive for games, while both cape and tiny have had several mvp performances. Without much possibilities from bench, we can expect this lineup to show up next Sunday as well.
Cloud is setup in a similar way. Mythril, mikkiz, creature, stayon, tpz form the strong core, with recently rabbit!, taking role of lone low-star, but also rylo making it to lineup at times. Cloud strength relies in their very experienced core, you rarely see a bad game from any of them and similar to Pure Luck, low vp survival is something they need to work on. Really difficult to see any advantage for either team, but based on Pure Luck having 2 extra games on weekend and having overall a bit better season end, I am going to go with them.
Prediction: Pure Luck beats Cloud 2-1
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