It’s all over but the cryin’. And the playoffs. And the playoff cryin’.
Like a triumphant, entertaining phoenix screaming from the ashes of the OPL, the LCO will close the doors on its first regular-season today with a locked playoff five, but still oh so much to play for.
First on the docket is the tantalizing Dire Wolves/Chiefs clash which can put the Dire Wolves in with a brief hope of forcing a four (FOUR!) way tie at the top.
Next up is Gravitas/Pentanet.GG in a matchup where, unless the impossible happens again, the four-way tie will promptly die again.
And closing the split is a piece of fixturing that really sings the praises of the NFL’s feature of flexible scheduling, in which the already-eliminated Legacy and Mammoth will clash in a matchup that I won’t be watching, and neither should you.
Instead, go cook a healthy dinner.
Perry’s Pick of the Week: ORD vs PCE
But before that, let’s settle down for the tasty, tasty morsel that is Order/Peace. In my heart this is a perfect split-closer (and hence the call for flexing it to the final match).
Tuesday’s results makes this matchup all the more appealing, as Peace have stumbled into a mote of late form, and the previously high-flying Order stumbled against Dire Wolves’ veteran presence.
The paper-matchup favours Peace. But we’ve fallen for this too many times to make it that simple. Shane “Kevy” Allen’s play for Order this split has marked him out as being an equalizer of paper disadvantages – a true force multiplier for their lanes. So you can throw out the paper matchup basically out of hand. This is not the right favourite, and not the right underdog to consider such a thing.
The top lane matchup is as volatile as could be. Apiii has not played as well as could be expected this split, and as I’ve said previously, Maximize is not the most consistent and staple part of Order’s lineup. Both teams have strengths in their bottom lanes, and their mid laners play roles that more than closely resemble each other. I would argue that Chungy is a budget Tally, with a pocket Ahri.
Order have brought their parts together this split better than Peace have at any point since the grand final of split 1, so for Peace to combat that, they’ll have to match Order in their skirmishing and map play.
They’ve been better at that in very recent times, but it’s a long way back from which they have to bring things, and again, it’s not the easiest opponent to do it against. I’m backing Order to win. I think we’ll need to see a Peace player step up and carry so hard as to outshine Kevy to take down the Melbourne squad, and while that is definitely not out of the question, I see it as the less likely of the outcomes.
Perry’s Week 9 Day 2 Predictions
- Dire Wolves def. Chiefs
- Pentanet def. Gravitas
- Order def. Peace
- Legacy def. Mammoth
LCO Split 2 ends today: Dire Wolves vs Chiefs kicks off last-day proceedings at 6pm (AEST). Catch up on all the split details in our ultimate coverage hub.
