Three Up | Three Down: Playoffs Round 2 - Your Home for Everything NHL Esports. Good morning y'all, Wzia here. With Round 1 completed, we move onto Round 2 with zero Main Stage series going to game 5. While it may have been disappointing from a drama perspective, This past round was still highly entertaining to watch. With a new day of matchups comes higher expectations, so let's get into it. ================================================================ Wzia's Prediction Record: 12-4 Main | 4-4 Contender's (yikes) Clearly my rushing of the Contender's Cup matchups was a poor decision because my record is definitely a representation of that. Let's look for some improvement going forward. ================================================================ MAIN STAGE ===== (22) Just Tap It vs. (1) The Underdogs The Underdogs only faced 6 shots in two games before Finestry had enough of all of that, so now it's time for Just Tap It to enter the ring against Goliath. Just Tap It had a very impressive showing against Ohana (three straight 1gg victories, including a Double OT thriller), but The Underdogs are simply a different team. Series Prediction: The Underdogs in 3 ===== (10) Scary Hours vs. (8) Momentumm In our first top 10 matchup of the playoffs, Scary Hours comes in as the lower seed against a Momentumm team that took the season series 2-1. This series looks like it has revenge written all over it for Scary Hours, but I wouldn't quite write Momentumm off just yet. Momentumm is a team that has been an elite defensive unit throughout the showcase, and have had some truly elite goaltending from @MyLittleRevvy to back it up. But at the same time, @Sitful @Jxson71 and @McLxvinn are an elite offensive unit that I can't see dropping two sets in one event. It'll be a close series, but the offensive firepower of Scary Hours gets the job done. Series Prediction: Scary Hours in 4 ===== (32) Dahlia vs. (4) SJSharks Gaming Dahlia moves on by making Monarchs the first Division 1 team to fall in the Showcase, and they did so pretty convincingly. @Dangs92 stepped up in a big way, and it very much looked like Monarchs - aside from Game 3 - didn't have an answer to break Dahlia's defensive setups. Things will continue to get tougher though, as SJS is a team that has shown they know how to win defensive battles. SJS is a team that is 13-2-0 in one goal games so far, and they've been extremely balanced on the high side of the ice as well (all players between 27 and 43 points in reg season, all between 5 and 8 round 1). Monarchs was a team that was heavily defense oriented in the offensive zone, and I don't think Dahlia has the manpower to answer to SJSharks' balanced attack. Series Prediction: SJSharks Gaming in 4 ===== (14) Unknown Talent vs. (5) Caps Gaming After choosing an Interstellar team that beat them in the regular season, Unknown Talent backed up that decision in a huge way. After outscoring Interstellar 17-4 in the three-game series, they enter a huge matchup against Caps Gaming absolutely rolling. For Caps Gaming, they had their own highly impressive offensive performance against R X T S by putting up 19 goals of their own in the 4 game series. The 19 goals were so impressive, that it was almost 2/3rds of the goals R X T S had given up all Regular Season. Both offenses are steamrolling the competition, but something feels different about Unknown Talent in this event. Call me crazy, but I'm thinking that we see our first major upset in a 5 game series. Series Prediction: Unknown Talent in 5 ===== (9) 9thhh vs. (2) IslesGT In a get-right matchup, IslesGT made quick work of T H R A S H E R S, putting up 21 goals and holding their opponent scoreless for the first 7 periods of the series. 9thhh, on the other hand, had to claw through their series against Origin with 3 one goal wins to take them to this matchup. 9thhh has had a great run, but IGT has been so dominant against every non-Division 1 opponent that I can't see this series ending any other way but with an IGT dominating performance. Series Prediction: IslesGT in 3 ===== (12) vs. (7) Tolerance With both teams coming off quick 3-0 victories, I do feel this is going to be a pretty close series. Tolerance has had a ton of success with @YuungMat and @ChelCat08 running the offense, but will it continue against such a highly experienced unit? 's goaltending has been outstanding with @J0SHx13 back between the pipes, so what's gonna give first? Special Teams will be the deciding factor in this series, and that's why I see taking it. They outpace Tolerance in both PP% (29.3% to 19.4%) and PK% (92.3% to 82.4%) by a pretty substantial margin. If Tolerance can find success on their PP opportunities, we may be talking about a different series, but ultimately I find that will prevail and move on. Series Prediction: in 4 ===== (20) All Odds vs. (3) Never Unlucky All Odds blaked Turning Point twice en route to a 3-1 series win. A great performance to watch, they'll now face a Never Unlucky team that just played in 3 one goal games against a Young Gunz team that, on paper, they should've rolled. Never Unlucky's Game 3 win (7-0) was the sole blowout, with the boys in green only managing 6 goals combined in the other 3 games. With both offenses looking a bit hit or miss at the moment, this looks to be a defensive bloodbath. Those kinds of series are always hard to predict, so I'll have to give the edge to Never Unlucky. Series Prediction: Never Unlucky in 5 ===== (27) Legends Never Die vs. (6) One Nation In a competitive series, LND finally gets past Couch Kings in a series with three more overtime games. Where LND was clawing for victory, One Nation got to enjoy a tune up performance against WILDMAN HOCKEY, taking them down in straight games without too many issues. The seeding difference may make it seem like a One Nation domination, but I'm not quite convinced it'll turn out that way. This is a LND team that has three players above 83% passing in round one, and four players who were at 78% or higher in the Regular Season. Their TOA differential was a +153:25 in the regular season, which was first place by over 60 minutes and 86 minutes more than One Nation's differential. One Nation's only series where they faced a team above them in TOAD was against Monarchs, where they lost 3-0 and 2-1 in OT. LND's offensive pressure will prevail, and move them onto the quarterfinals. Series Prediction: Legends Never Die in 4 ================================================================ CONTENDER'S CUP ===== (10) S O L D vs. (1) Highlife After giving up 3 goals in game one, S O L D proceeded to have three shutouts en route to a hotly contested 5 game series win against BeAn ToWn BraWleRs. But now they face a Highlife team that just shutout Dunk Dynasty twice in three matchups. @Zaramoan @Kro l17l and @Ozzy9041 have been playing together for a while now, but Highlife is a team that just beat S O L D in straight games during the last week of the regular season. I'll be picking Highlife to eek by in a close series. Series Prediction: Highlife in 5 ===== (6) Area 51 Aliens vs. (5) Efficacity My personal bias may get in the way of accurately assessing this matchup, but I honestly believe Area 51 rolls Efficacity. Area 51 Aliens know how to limit high octane offenses (only one game with >3 goals allowed), and they held Efficacity to 3 goals a game in their regular season series. Yes, Efficacity won the series, but they're a team that's predicated around a two man forward game that I don't see having playoff success. Their perfomance against Break The Cycle was impressive, but Area 51 Aliens is a different kind of animal. Series Prediction: Area 51 Aliens in 4 ===== (4) Rezervation vs. (2) Off The Record Both teams aim to impose dominating offensive pressure to have success, so what happens when they match up against each other? Both teams had TOAD's of +50min, while Rezervation's shot differential of +102 dwarfs OTR's +18. I feel that this kind of series will almost definitely be decided by the goaltending, which OTR has a significant advantage at. I think OTR rolls Rezervation and find themselves in the semifinals pretty comfortably. Series Prediction: Off The Record in 3 ===== (9) kinda electric vs. (3) Constancy kinda electric made me look kinda dumb this past round, as they dropped Accuracy in three straight 2-1 games. Constancy had an insane matchup against Toxic Legends, where any sort of consistency went out the window with both teams winning close games, followed by blowouts of their own. kinda electric's performance against Accuracy was highly impressive, but this series is gonna be a toss up. Constancy, despite the up and down performances, is still a tought opponent to beat in a 5 game series. I think kinda electric will get the job done in large part to their PK%. Constancy got to face a Toxic Legends team that was just 70% a man down. kinda electric excels on the PK, and it'll get the job done. Series Prediction: kinda electirc in 5 ================================================================ And now we've reached the end of T|T's Round 2 preview. I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to read this, as I truly appreciate it every time y'all come out to support my media. Thank you again to @xFUNKx-_- for the graphic, let's have an entertaining Round 2 tonight! ===== Your very own Enforcer Enthusiast, Wzia ================================================================ Interested in more from Caps Gaming? Check out their socials for everything NHL Esports! Twitter/X Twitch Instagram Support the news team, like, comment & share your thoughts on their work
