The past week has been interesting in Gold Division. Since some of the former Diamond teams were unable to rank up again, we will be seeing some new blood entering Diamond next cycle in [SdS]SdS and [Dmsn]AnotherDimension. [oo7]We Are Spies remains the only Diamond team left of the four who came last cycle in Winner’s Bracket, set to face AnotherDimension who finally are entering Diamond and have broken being 'Forever Gold'.
We Are Spies has struggled to stay in Diamond but they have remained consistent at the top of Gold. Their goal should be to seek more improvement and perhaps stick in Diamond as a result. In their lone Diamond appearance during Cycle 3, they lost both their matches to [LION]Lions eSportsKlubb and [PNIS]Pencils, who represented a hostile welcome to the top division. Now, they find themselves in Gold again, joined by Pikachu, Dendis jungldevos and Absolute Legends, all of whom were playing in Gold Division for the first time.
Unfortunately for those Diamond teams, the brackets didn’t work out to allow them all a return trip to Diamond. Pikachu and Dendis jungldevos were knocked out by Absolute Legends after those three teams took unexpected losses to send them to the Loser’s Bracket. With this level of talent remaining in Gold and more Diamond level teams falling down, we may see some very high quality matches next Cycle. Gold is shaping out to be the place for teams who haven’t quite reached the level of polish needed to stay in Diamond. Until they can consistently win versus some of the lower level teams in Diamond, they’ll stay in Gold Division, allowing them to hone their skills.
With falling Diamond team [vtL]Vitriolic Gaming disbanding, we will see [C1K]Call It Karma and [FyKu]Fack You Kurdi return to Gold after their good run in Diamond. They will now have to fight through the Gold Division once again to make it back to Diamond. They are joined by [QsQ7]QsQ 777 who had the bad luck of having to face their sister team, [357]QsQ, in the first round and the talented Pencils who knocked them to Gold.
The few teams who have disbanded both in Gold and Diamond now will open up free slots to be filled by rising teams. It is an unfortunate process, as it will take a few cycles to refill the positions. If it were possible to avoid this, I would like it to be done but if they follow the rules, there cannot be additional teams promoted/demoted than what the minimum/maximum are. For example, [DonD]DoberOnDamp placed 9th-12th while Vitriolic was 13th-16th. Now, Vitriolic gets demoted to Gold due to their finish but, if they were removed from the standings, then DoberOnDamp should logically be demoted in their stead because their only “win” of the cycle was by forfeit. If we are seeking to keep the same amount of teams playing, you would also need to promote an extra team to Diamond to fill the position that Vitriolic and the demoted DoberOnDamp would fill.
With [SOZO]Team Please disbanding, this also opens up slots in Gold where we could potentially promote the 9th and 10th place teams in Silver to fill positions while bringing up the 5th or 6th place teams from Gold. There could even be a playoff between Dendis jungledevos and Slash Defenders for the position.
Maybe it's too much. Besides, it’s just food for thought for those who are in charge of these decisions. With the system we currently have, the brackets will eventually even out regardless. It just may take more time instead of an immediate fix coming out to correct the imbalance.
Match score summaries
LB Ro8
Absolute Legends 2-0 [cTi]Perfection Esp
PIkachu 2-0 [AR]Aids Reinfected
Endemic 2-0 [TZES]Twilightzesports
Slash Defenders 2-0 [PPWN]Pwning Pwnies
WB Ro4
Another Dimension 2-0 SdS
We Are Spies 2-0 Dendis Jungledevos
LB Ro4
Absolute Legends 2-1 Pikachu
Slash Defenders 2-0 Endemic
LB Ro4
Absolute Legends 2-1 Dendis jungledevos
SdS 2-1 Slash Defenders
Today's Matches
Winners Bracket Finals
Another Dimension versus We Are Spies
Losers Bracket RO2
Absolute Legends versus SdS
- Crowslaw
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