Hey guys, so this is essentially the first of many weekly reviews of everything ZYM. For future reference these updates will usually come on a Friday or Saturday, when there are no matches and there can be time for reflection.

Matches and Highlights of the week

This week saw a few close matchups as the ladder starts getting properly sorted. There were two matches that stood out from the crowd this week those being Quackteam vs. Dragon Knights and Khemistry vs. Xlayer Legion.

The first cab off the rank was Quackteam vs. Dragon Knights. While QT looked strong going into this war, we could not discount Dragon Knights to cause an upset as they almost did with sc. Playing on inferno the first two rounds went to QT who started as CT. After losing 4 rounds something appeared to snap with DK and they went on to win 5 rounds straight to bring the half to 9-6. The Second half started off similarly to the first with QT winning the first 3 rounds and looking to finish the match early, but DK were not done yet, firing back they won 3 rounds and tried to get on the comeback train.

Unfortunately for them the ticket inspector was already waiting for them and they got themselves kicked off the train closing the match out at 16-11 for Quackteam. Overall there was some big frags made from both teams, particularly by Sai from DK who managed to get a total of 28 kills, including one team down and two 4 downs finishing with a DPR of 130, despite being on the losing team. Unfortunately DK could not piggy back all the way to the win.

	Teamname 1h 2h OT Final
Quackteam 9 7 16    Dragon Knights 6 5 11  Map: de_inferno

The next matchup during the week we saw was Khemistry vs. Xlayer Legion and was picked to be a doozy. While the match was not as close as predicted there were some decent frags to be had. Khemistry came out guns blazing starting as Terrorist on de_train, which is commonly known to be a dominantly Counter-Terrorist map. Khemistry took 8 of the first 9 rounds in spectacular fashion, but the fight was not yet out of XL winning the next 5 rounds straight to take the first half to 9-6 with some nice frags including a nice 3 headshot deagle rampage by jdn.

The second half started off with Khemistry taking out the first two rounds before XL fired back with two rounds of their own. From there on out it was domination by Khemistry taking the match to a final score of 16-8. Laying down some impressive stats was Jing with 27 kills, including one 4 down and a DPR for the match of 130.8.

	Teamname 1h 2h OT Final
Khemistry 9 7 16    XlayerLegion 6 2 8  Map: de_train

Upcoming Matches worth a look

As week’s progress and the rankings start to match people of roughly the same skill level, the matches will become more interesting. This week should be the best week that we have seen thus far, provided there are not many forfeits.

Challenger	Defender	Time	Map
Quackteam	Xlayer Legion	12/07 9pm (Sun)	de_tuscan
Versatile	FragZone	14/07 9pm (Tue)	de_inferno
Exile 5	Dragon Knights	15/07 10pm (Wed)	de_dust2
Vehement	Khemistry	16/07 8pm (Thur)	de_train

Predictions

Quackteam vs. XL should be a high fragging match. With both teams making a run for the victory and both to pull out some frags that make you spit out your Nacho’s onto your monitor. While XL will be keen for the win, Quackteam will more than likely come out on top with my prediction being a final score of 16-12. The ones to watch will be Dao, Ghost and Jdn if he is having a good day.

Versatile vs. FragZone. A high stakes match that could knock the current Rank 1 champs off of their podium. FragZone is a mixture of different lan players that have proved they have what it takes to be the best, however Versatile have before caused upset by beating Khemistry in one of the first wars of the ladder. My predicted final score is 16-13 to FragZone. Make sure you keep an eye out for Fishballz, shadz, unleashk(if he plays) and nezza.

Exile 5 vs. Dragon Knights will be another fantastic match to watch with some of Australia’s favourite big fraggers. Dragon Knights will be looking at Sai for another big performing match but the decider will be if they can sort themselves out and get the team work down. Exile 5 should take this out with a score in the range of 16-11. Players to watch will be anyone from X5 and Sai.

Finally we have Vehement vs. Khemistry. This match will be too close to pick, with Khemistry looking like they are in form and Vehement always playing consistently it will come down to who will be playing on the night for Khemistry. If Albz plays for Khemistry I think they will take it over the edge. Purely because this one will be intense I think the final score will be 15-15. Players to watch are Albz, jing, nameci and anyone from Vehement.

You can check out all the the stats and matches on the ZYM Ladder here.