North American Finals Preview!

Posted by: bootman

CGS Region 1 Season 2

Dallas Venom

20

Carolina Core

21

CSS:

Venom

(12)

Core

(6)

Forza:

CHA0S

(2)

GEL

(4)

Forza:

MuffinMan

(0)

Phantom

(1)

DOA M:

Master

(1)

OffbeatNinja

(5)

DOA F:

Phoenix

(5)

Mystik

(4)

FIFA:

Barmoa

(0)

Anomaly

(1)

Match Overview

The match that everyone has all been waiting for is finally here, the North American finals. As most of you know the Dallas Venom will be battling it out with the Carolina Core for the title of North American champions. This is going to be Carolina's second showing in the North American final, and last year they were only one point away from the victory. Then there is the Dallas Venom who finished in 6th place in 2007, and they are now a team that has the chance of being #1 if they can bring the heat tonight in the finals.

Dallas has had an amazing season thus far with a 9-3 record overall. Their first two losses of the season were against 3D.NY and the OPTX where they lost both by one point, one of them even went into an overtime round. Since then, the entire franchise has stepped up huge. “How?”, you may ask. Dallas has not one, but two of their games being the region 1 representatives in the individual World final, and that well be Dead or Alive 4 male, Master as well as their Counter-Strike: Source team. General Manager Alex “JaX” Conroy has six fresh new faces on his lineup that have proved to be very big this season, and they will need to finish the season strong tonight against Carolina who is playing very well right now.

When Mark Dolven made his selections at the 2008 draft, I don't think he even thought of the way his team performed this season. With only three changes from his 2007 roster, he expected a #1 team in the regular season, unfortunately that did not happen. Much like the Chicago Chimera, the Carolina Core had very inconsistent and unpredictable play from their roster throughout the season. Big players that he expected to dominate all season, all had their ups and downs. One of the huge factors was his franchise player OffbeatNinja that had a slow start to the season, but finished it off strong by being the first player in the second season to give Master a loss, thus shattering his dreams of a perfect season during the 12th and final match of the season.

Expect a very close match tonight from these North American finalists and keep an eye out for the big matches to be the ones that choreograph which franchise team wins. If Mystik can upset Phoenix, or Offbeat can take another win over Master, this will be huge for Carolina. Then there is the Source match showcasing the #1 Source team the Venom and if they can have a huge 12-6 or even 11-7 win over the Core it will play a lot into the points, or vice versa for the Core.

Dead or Alive 4

Men: Manny “Master” Rodriguez (11-2) vs. Ryan “OffbeatNinja” Ward (8-5)

This is probably the hardest match-up to predict of any other matches that have taken place this season. These two are currently tied with one win and one loss against each other, and it's really anybodies match. The first time these two met, Master squeezed out a 5-4 win over OffbeatNinja, but Offbeat was able to answer back huge with a 5-2 win over Master during the last game of the season.

The main reason why it's hard to say who is going to win this match, is because their play styles are exactly opposite of one another. Master is one of the most aggressive players in the league, and plays with a very quick character and tries to keep the pressure on constantly. Then there's OffbeatNinja who plays as a character who is much slower, but more powerful. Offbeat likes to play back and get his wins based off of counters and big hits, so with Master constantly coming in for attacks, it leaves Offbeat with multiple opportunities. Offbeat's biggest weakness is small, close quarter stages where he doesn't have as much room to breathe and read his opponent. If the match is played on a smaller stage, it could be a big win for Master, but a bigger stage will make it a very close match.

bootman: 5-4 Master
weenus!: 5-2 Master

Women: Michelle “Phoenix” Pleet (9-4) vs. Kat “Mystik” Gunn (6-7)

Both of these women are coming into this match with a lot of momentum from their previous matches. Mystik, who didn't live up to expectations during the regular season, but brought in a huge 5-0 win over coolsvilla in the playoff match versus 3D when coolsvilla looked like she was untouchable. Phoenix is in the same situation. Not only is Phoenix the only female to beat Vanessa in a CGS match, she proved that it was no fluke when she had a repeat performance during he last match where she met Vanessa again in the playoffs. These two ladies are very evenly matched and a big win from either of them is going to be huge in tonights overall match.

bootman: 5-3 Phoenix
weenus!:5-4 Phoenix

FIFA 08

Bardia “Barmoa” Moayedi (3-10) vs. Andrew “Anomaly” Brock (6-7)

To the naked eye, this match looks extremely lopsided in Anomaly's favor if you just look at these two on paper. One factor that people need to take into consideration though, is that two of Barmoa's wins were against Anomaly, and he is actually 2-0 this season against him. Although Barmoa does have the head to head, both of the matches ended in penalty kicks. Barmoa is going to have a very tough match against Anomaly tonight. Anomaly is the veteran and is used to the stage and is known for coming up big when it counts. Expect a game of very strong defense from both players, and it just may come down to penalty kicks once again.

bootman: 2-1 Anomaly
weenus!: 3-1 Anomaly

Counter-Strike: Source

Venom (10-3) vs. Core (6-7)

The Venom Source team has come up big for the franchise all season long. Much like Master, when the overall match is resting on their shoulders, they come through every time. The Venom will be representing North America in the individual World finals, and they will need to show why against the Core tonight. The Core's squad are definitely no pushovers though, and will be coming into this match off of a very close win over 3D that helped the Core knock them out of the playoffs. Tonight the match will be played on de_dust2, and that means both teams are very experienced and it could come right down to the wire. The Venom are on a 9 game winning streak at the moment and hope to finish off the North American finals with a 10, the Core are going to need to come up huge if they hope to take this match.

bootman: 11-7 Venom
weenus!:11-7 Venom

Forza Motorsport 2

Venom (6-7) vs. Core (9-4)

This matchup is very similar to the FIFA game that we will see tonight. The Core have secured their spot in the individual World final as the #1 team after meeting in a 3-way tie with New York and Chicago, but managed to edge it out with the head to head wins. The Venom squad has had a rough season nonetheless, and is probably the only branch of the franchise where nobody really thought they would have such a rough season. With MuffinMan being the #1 overall pick at the draft, and CHA0S being one of the top individual racers last season, people expected much more from these two, but one quality they do have is that they step up to the plate when it counts and come up big for the franchise. Despite the losing record from the Venom team, they seem to be the kryptonite to the Core. The Venom are currently 2-0 in the head to head against the Core, and tonight another win from them could prove very helpful to the franchise. Anything can happen in this race, it will be nothing short of exciting until the very end.

bootman: 4-3 Core
1st: GEL
2nd: MuffinMan
3rd: CHA0S
4th: Phantom

weenus!: 4-3 Venom
1st: MuffinMan
2nd: GEL
3rd: Phantom
4th: CHA0S

bootman's overall prediction: 24-20 Venom
weenus!' overall prediction: 26-19 Venom