Hey everyone, it’s Toxin! In this week of musical content creators, I will be doing the playoff previews for the entire gold league. Unfortunately, IRL things are hitting Wakka and I hard lately, but never fear! I am here to outline all of the storylines heading into the playoffs. This week, we have the wild card teams duking it out to see who is given the chance to compete in the main playoff stage. Four will enter, two will leave. Who will come out on top? Let’s get into it!
Wildcard 1: NSG Gold vs Monkeys Rising First, let’s talk about NSG Gold. Heading into the Wildcard match, in the last two weeks they have a 1-1 record. They were able to handedly take down Revolution Gold in two quick games, but they also got beat by Singed’s Crab Shack in the same fashion. To be completely honest, I never know what to expect out of this team. They have weeks such as Week 4 where they were able to beat one of the top teams in the entire league, but on the other hand, they lost to a 6th place team in a 2-0 fashion. If they play at their best, I think there is a good chance they can win this. But if they come out cold, they will get stomped. Now let’s get into Monkeys Rising. This team also enters the Wildcard match with a 1-1 record in the last two weeks in the same exact fashion as NSG Gold. Yes, they were able to get a 2-0 victory over the 8th place Nitwits in Purgatory. The difference is that their 2-0 defeat was at the hands of Imperial Gaming, the top team in their division. In addition, they had to use an esub top laner in that matchup. I think that coming into this matchup, Monkeys Rising is my favorite to win. This team has a set playstyle that they have been refining throughout the entire split and even for the split prior to this one. I feel like they have a clear identity and that as long as Vxpir is able to show up, this team should be able to shut down NSG’s win conditions. That being said, NSG has shown that they can beat any team as long as they flip enough coins. I think SOM specifically is a player that has joined this lineup and completely boosted the ceiling of this team. At the end of the day, I personally will predict Monkeys Rising to win due to the fact that they are the more consistent team.
Prediction: Monkeys Rising
Wildcard 2: Nails and Day Spa vs Literal Monkeys
Getting into the second Wildcard matchup, we have Nails and Day Spa playing against the Literal Monkeys. Let’s start off with NADS, a roster that has been a roller coaster of emotions throughout this split. Heading into the Mid Season Tournament, this roster was mentally checked out. Tensions were high, and the belief around the league was that this team might just drop out of the league. Then, this roster was reforged in the ashes of the old one, and it hasn’t been the same since. The swap of KizerCoolness to support and reuniting the dynamic duo of Warhead852 and Diete has done wonders for the team, as they are undefeated since the swap. I will point out that they did lose to Conduit, however KizerCoolness was not there for that match. I think that if the new NADS roster shows up, there’s a very strong chance that they win this matchup.
On the other hand you have the Literal Monkeys, otherwise known as Literally filling the roster change channel every week. Jokes aside, this team’s ceiling is actually really high. I think that their best possible roster, if it had played together for the entire split, definitely would not have found itself in a wild card spot. That being said, this team has been anything but consistent with the roster that they are throwing out there. They have had a roller coaster of Mid Laners and Supports come in and out of their lineup, including Hide in Shrouds having multiple stints at both roles. If Just Bobo is able to play, I think the Literal Monkeys absolutely bot kingdom NADS to a win.
Unfortunately though, I have received confirmation that Bobo is not playing tonight. That information has led me to predicting NADS winning this matchup. I think that the mid/jungle duo of Warhead and Trajen will prove to be too much to handle for the Monkeys. I also think that 7ruX’s signature champion is now the OP pick ban champion in the bot lane, so if that pick is left up, I want to see him bring it out and show us a glimpse of his S4 championship winning self.
Prediction: Nails and Day Spa
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