I realized that I neglected to actually offer up any real predictions for this weekend.
1 Condors
2 Strike-Slip
3 Monster
4 End Phase
5 Army of Darkness
6 Santa Cruz
7 The Buddies
8 Seduction
9 Club Sac
10 Pirate Bay
I'm gonna call a Strike-Slip vs End Phase finals right now.
I'm pulling for Strike-Slip to not only win Discos, but also to take that coveted 2nd bid to Natties out of the Southwest. They have some really good young talent bolstered by a strong veteran core. Sucks that they didn't get their shit together soon enough to get into Labor Day, so I guess they'll have to slum it with us. They should be able to get some good experience against End Phase (YR 4.0), Condors, and SC.
End Phase lost 808 to Strike-Slip. Not sure who else they lost/gained. They do have a lot of experience playing together. If they do lose before finals it will probably be to either Condors or SC.
The Santa Cruz team beat Strike-Slip at Cal States in June, but that was in June. This is August. Plus Strike-Slip actually has some tournament experience under their belts already (3rd place at Colorado Cup a few weeks ago.) So I don't think there will be another repeat of that 13-6 loss from Cal States. But based on the teams attending they have a solid chance to make semi's.
It will also be interesting to see how good the revamped Condors are this year. They have a lot of UCSB college talent who are fresh off a pre-quarters appearance at Nationals (hard loss too, especially after a solid pool play performance.) Plus they picked up The Arbiter from UCLA. But they also lost a lot of older talent. So we'll see how well they have picked up. Look for them to at least make semi's.
As for Monster? I'm not so sure. We are missing a few studs for this weekend, and we don't actually have any real experience playing together. But we'll see. We have some strong players, and hopefully a good system. Plus playing with Ed is always fun (not to mention Fish and Stig.) I'm hoping we can get a few solid wins in against some good teams, but I'm not expecting to win the tournament. Should be fun regardless. (Sucks that Danny and Steve won't be there though.)
In the mixed division we have (top 8 seeds only):
1 Brown Chicken Brown Cow
2 LA Metro
3 Brass Monkey
4 Night Train
5 Team Bag
6 Classy
7 Bidwell Nuts
8 Humboldt
The mixed division has 22 teams, but I don't see anyone else making any noise (besides maybe Merge, Diesel's new LA team.) Not that I really know much about most of the teams in the mixed division. Anyways. Of course I'm hoping its a LA Metro vs BCBC final, with Metro pulling out the bagel*, but who knows. From what I heard, the mixed bracket play is going to be late on Sunday, and I'm sure quite a few people might have to leave early (flights home, etc.) Oh well. Hopefully they still play in the showcase game Saturday night. Although Calle mentioned that BCBC might forego that game so they can eat a homemade dinner at a castle (jealous).
Weather.com is claiming temperatures in the mid 90's. Wouldn't be Discos Calientes if it wasn't freaking hot all weekend.
So that's it. We'll see how it goes.
*I feel like I should add a disclaimer. I have friends on both BCBC and Metro. And I know that this will only rile them up to provide a better game for the fans. So hopefully they tear it up in the finals (and showcase) game. I'll buy a case of beer to anyone who callahans Calle. But only him. ;) And only against Metro.
