1. dead babies mad gunz vs turd noises

DBMG
scouts: phlps and saam
soldiers: marmaduke and trip
demo: rikachu
medic: slin

turd noises aka grill urself my dog
scouts: vari and yimi
soldiers: tambo and kanon(TheKing)
demo:mustardoverlord
medic: pops

Prediction: 2-0 for DBMG

This should be a close match between both teams, as both have insane dming abilities. I think just from sheer experience and coordination from DBMG will beat out mustards team, but I could be wrong as I have no clue how good mustards team is on snakewater and granary. However, turd noises did crush paradise cafe 5-0 by mostly capitalizing on mistakes PC made and punished them greatly from that, so sunshine will definintely be a close match.  The other thing to really note is just the tilt factor of maybe losing snakewater coming into play, but overall the 2-0 scoreline doesn't dictate how close this match can really get.


2. Good players ft Skeez vs 6 guys off

GP
scouts: kawa and knuckles
soldiers: slamberg and froot
demo: pelt
medic: skeez

6GO:
scouts: tatuwah and skag aka tristin
soldiers: farnsworth and Sideways Whoopi GodBerg
demo: Hooli(?)
medic: topshot

Prediction: 2-0 GP
6GO has fell off a considerable amount from what people were expecting at the start, and until I watch their match vs Blanc I can't really say how close matches might be. The players are all seasoned IM and some invite experience, but it seems like the team doesn't feel like improving after this season. GP however has improved considerably since they cut luxor, picked up kawa(former 6GO player), and moved skeez to medic. The new pickups re-invigorated this team, even beating dog2 on gullywash. A crumbling team vs a confident team makes me think this match will be relatively uninteresting with nice rockets from the soldiers but otherwise a roll.

3. megawac me off vs blanc esports

MMO:
scouts: fuzion and glukkon
soldiers: marmaloo and megawac
demo:vaati
medic:maev

BE:
scouts: SmashySmashy and Meus(brujeria)
soldiers: SpaceCadet and Kryptonite
demo: exile
medic: radeon

Prediction: 2-1 for MME
Blanc has had some of the better scouts of all of IM and nobody really has said anything about it, at least not to my knowledge. Smashy is currently ranked 4th on esea for scatter frags(basically one of the most frags in all of esea, trailed only by knuckles), whereas there is a lack of experience with the pocket and demo on the team might be a bit of the downside as it's going to be dependant on exile at middles and kryptonite on exchanges and transitions to make the game close. Watching MMEs last few matches, the team seems to play super passively and want to outdm most teams which I think can happen. I hope they get their confidence back and are able to experiment more on pushes and not do a standard sack, but otherwise MME's experience and overall dming ability should pull through the matches for round 1.

4. Paradise Cafe vs MAELSTROMBOLI
PC:
scouts: spamfest and mu
soldiers: rolling and june
demo: max
medic: stochastic

MS:
scouts: awful and shamoo
soldiers: maelstrom and super
demo: yuice
medic: extracrispy

PC: 2-1
After a recent swap of pocket and medic for MS, they've gone back to super pocket and crispy medic. My preds are that snakewater goes to PC, sunshine goes to MS, and granary goes to PC. I feel like for the most part PC has more coordination to win out snakewater, but their performing on sunshine was really disappointing against turd noises and I think MS's better scouts will bring the W on sunshine. Granary will be a far-out roll though as MS has never been strong on that map both last season and this one, and PC has much better soldiers overall.