Anyway, I decided to continue and attempt to do a couple more of these style articles before the relegation matches start. I was kind of stuck for a team to choose, so in the end I decided to go with another team I interact with occasionally. The profile today, is TCM gaming.

TCM Gaming is a European team, owned by 2 UK gentlemen, however the team itself is almost completely french, even the manager! The history of TCM is pretty small as the organizations involvement in LoL is only a year old ( They celebrated their 1 year in February 2013 ). They originally had a Swedish team for a few months in 2012, not a huge amount of achievements out of this team led to multiple roster changes before they eventually dropped the team entirely.

The important stuff started in January of this year when TCM Gaming picked up the roster of Heyijustmetyou after they qualified for the LCS promotion tournament in Warsaw. In a harsh group, TCM were able to defeat TheMightyMidgets, but would falter against Copenhagen Wolves and Against All Authority, causing them to drop out at the group stages after finishing 1-2. Since then, only 1 change has been made. Narkuss the former jungler departed the team, while it was planned that former DragonBorns jungler Brokenshard would step inf or the LCS relegation matches, however after his health prevented playing, TCM picked up ImSoFresh, the former jungler for Millenium.

So that’s a brief history of the team itself, let’s take a look at the roster!

Top lane – Andy ‘Zoller’ Zoller

Zoller began his LoL playing career GSU Gaming. After a few wins in several French LANs, he joined TCM with the new roster. He’s known as a pretty solid top laner, similar in a way to Dyrus, in which he is very proficient at not losing his lane.

karim ‘ImSoFresh’ Bahla

Possibly the most recognizable name on the roster, the latest addition to the roster has had a pretty good career in League of Legends before joining. Starting at Sypher, he then moved onto Eclypsia, before finally settling at Millenium. After some decent results at various IEMs and only just missing out on promotion last time around, ImSoFresh joined TCM after Millenium disbanded. They key in having ImSoFresh on the roster is that he has key experience in important matches, that could be vital for TCM.

Mid lane – geoffrey ‘GeoGeo’ Durand.

Geo actually started his career at aAa, at the time he was teammates with the now well known SK Kev1n. After leaving aAa he kind of faded into nothing, playing mainly soloQ. He is now a member of TCM Gaming and hopes to contribute to their chances of promotion to the LCS with his aggressive play style in the mid lane.

Ad Carry – Charles ‘Nanouk’ Le Mero

Nanouk actually started his Esports career as a top Starcraft 2 player in france. After switching to League of Legends mid way through season 1, he has been a part of a few partially known french teams, and has played in a couple of French LANs. He is now a part of TCM and will be looking to show off his impressive micro skills in the upcoming tournament.

Support – Maxime ‘migxa’ poinssot

Migxa started playing League just as season 1 finished, and within a year had hit top 10 on the soloQ ladder in EUW. TCM is his first proper team, and the LCS tournament a few months back in Warsaw was his first ever LAN event.

So you know the history, you know the roster, let’s take a look at the path TCM have to take to reach LCS glory.

Quarter Final vs Sinners Never Sleep (SNS)

This is going to be a pretty good match in all honesty. TCM have more experience together than SNS do, however the roster of SNS is very strong. Boasting former mMe players, and even the current substitute jungler for SK gaming, Noonia. The main battle here though will be between ImSoFresh and Tabzz who will meet for the first time since Millenium disbanded.

personally, I think the experience that TCM have on their roster will be enough to drag them across the line and get themselves into the BO5 promotion match vs aAa, but it will certainly be very difficult for TCM.

Promotion match vs aAa.

If TCM are able to overcome the challenge of SNS, the promotion match will be a 8/10 Frech affair! ( Poor Fredy122 and ImSoFresh ). This again promises to be a great game if it happens, aAa were dropped down to this tournament via DQ after Dioud was unable to attend the playoffs. A few people even said that aAa would’ve beaten SK Gaming had they been able to play. People can speculate, all I know is that both teams are good, but aAa will have the advantage in my eyes due to weeks of LCS practice they just had.

Thanks for reading everyone! I will hopefully be able to release another 1 or MAYBE 2 of these so if you have a request for a team, comment it here, on reddit, or tweet me! @Howspiffing . Also go follow the TCM Gaming manager @Ruliooz

Had I known these were going to be popular I would’ve started last week and got 1 for each team done!

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Company Results

Here are the highlights of the 246 companies in the 2013 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings:

• Advantage earns top spot. With an excellent score of 61%, Advantage earned the highest rating.
• USAA dominates forgiveness. USAA grabbed the next three spots for its banking, insurance, and credit card businesses.
• The rest of the top 10. H.E.B., Blackboard, Aldi, Alaska Airlines, credit unions and Publix round out the top 10
• No industry owns the top. The top 25 companies in the ratings comes form a variety of industries: Four grocery chains, three airlines, three retailers, two banks, two hotel chains, two investment firms, two software firms, one appliance maker, one auto dealer, one credit card issuer, one fast food chain, one health plan, one insurance carrier, and one rental car agency.
• HSBC dominates the bottom. HSBC earned the bottom two spots in the ratings for its credit card and banking businesses.
• Many TV service providers are at the bottom. Six of the bottom 12 companies are TV service providers: Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Verizon, Charter Communications, and Optimum (iO)/Cablevision.
• USAA most outperforms its peers. We compared company ratings with their industry averages and USAA came in the top three spots, 36 points above in banking, 31 points ahead in credit cards, and 28 points ahead in insurance. Three other companies are more than 20 points above their industry averages: Advantage (car rentals), credit unions (banking), and TriCare (health plans).
• HSBC most underperforms. HSBC fell the farthest below its industry average in two areas, 23 points behind its peers in banking and credit cards. Five other companies had scores that were 15 points and more below their industry: US Airways (airlines), Motel 6 (hotels), McAfee (software), Kia (auto dealers), and Hertz (rental cars).

We also examined year-over-year results for 204 companies that were in both the 2012 and 2013 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings. Here are some highlights of that analysis:

• Chrysler improves the most. With a jump of 29 percentage points, Chrysler is the most improved company.  Six other companies gained 20 points or more: Continental Airlines, Citigroup, Avis, EarthLink, Ameriprise Financial, and Alaska Airlines.
• US Cellular declines the most. With a drop of nearly 20 percentage points, US Cellular dropped the most in 2013.  Nine other companies fell by more than 10 points: Bright House Networks, HSBC, Cox Communications, Hertz, PNC, SunTrust Bank, Dollar Rental Car, Hyatt, and TD Ameritrade.

Industry Results

Here are the highlights of the 19 industries in the 2013 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings:

• TV service providers are unforgivable. TV service providers, as an industry, earned the lowest Temkin Forgiveness Rating of 12%. It was five points below Internet service providers and seven points below wireless carriers.
• Grocery chains are the most forgivable.  With an average rating of 39%, grocery chains are the highest scoring industry. Three industries are just four points behind: hotel chains, auto dealers, and rental car agencies.
• Credit cards make the most improvements. Credit cards made the largest improvement, nine percentage points, over the previous year.  Auto dealers, rental car agencies, and airlines also improved by more than five points.
• TV service providers head in the wrong direction. Led by TV service providers that dropped three points between 2012 and 2013, three industries earned lower scores in 2012. The other industries are retailers and appliance makers.

Calculating the Temkin Forgiveness Ratings

Download entire dataset for $295

To see all of the companies in the Temkin Forgiveness Ratings as ell as all of our other Temkin Ratings and sort through the results, visit the Temkin Ratings website

The bottom line: Forgiveness is an asset that you accumulate by consistently meeting customer needs.

we are a small developer, two staff in house, 3 freelance and we need all the  help we can get so If can spare a moment please vote for us to get into E3

http://indiescrashe3.com/nomination/23900AC9-A482-3DE8-7AF5-CCD418FBFDCA

Alex.B

From the office of Falchion Games: Go To Hell Dave

With that being said and without further ado, I present to you…

Thanks for hanging on with us anyway and if you happened to have missed a post the first time or intentionally avoided them, here they are again for your reading and eating pleasure.

This ain’t gonna make you Happy Meal

Between Mayberry and Mayhem

These Nests I Notice

Betty Lou-Who? The seasons of life

beans and greens

touché crochet

Who’s a control freak?

12 things I do to make my hair look “Natural”

DIY-byp part 1 of 1,000

How much do you love your husband?

What AAA doesn’t talk about

Honestly, what is my American Dream?

What I learned when I had to stop thinking

What a lovely winter we’re having this spring!

Finger Lickin Kickin Fried Chicken!

I was a missionary to St. Vincent for 10 days – part 2 

The Mushroom Whisperer

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Whew, that was a lot.

What would you like to see on here in May?

Sincerely Sara & Honestly Amy

A falta de unos días para la salida del nuevo álbum en vivo de Justice, se actualizo su fan-page de facebook mostrándonos una galería de fotos por Kim Chapiron, cineasta y fotógrafo francés encargado de la sesión de fotos para “Access All Arenas” que se estrena el próximo 6 de Mayo firmado y grabado en Nimes.

Again, officials with AAA in Western Pa. say gas prices have gone down – this week by another 4 cents, making the average price per gallon in the area $3.52.

The drop in price comes after officials said last week that gas had dropped by 8 cents per gallon.

Gas prices in our area are close to the national average of $3.51, which has continued to drop as well.

While gas prices have been falling, AAA says the price of crude oil has recently gone up again.

RELATED LINKS
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English: United States Auto trail sign for the National Park-to-Park Highway. The sign design was taken from actual Association logos designed prior to 1923. The Association has long ceased to exist. The sign was used to mark the automobile trail. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are so many different ways to approach grief and mourning. Some say there are 5 stages, others 7. One place mentioned 10. None of them fit exactly, but I’m not going through a regular breakup or normal grief.

I think I’m somewhere around the angry and/or sad stage. I’m out of denial. I’ve been slowly moving closer towards acceptance. I really feel like it, anyway. There are things I do to remind myself how much better it will be when I’m finished with my car and thoughts of driving. I tell myself it will be easier. My boyfriend and I’ve worked out that he’ll buy my car and sell his, so my car will still be close to me.

But then I go and watch something called Paving the Way: The National Park-to-Park Highway and it’s like all my good feelings go out the window – I’m angry and sad all over again.

Park-to-Park Highway

The show was a two-part series on PBS from 2009, but it aired again last night when I was itching for something to watch after my busy day.

Paving the Way details the beginning of the motor age in the US around the 1910s. The idea was begun to link up the National Parks of the west by one circular highway. The roads of that time were more like the NH back-roads of my youth – badly kept, mostly dirt. It was before the days of gas stations, fast food, or motels – people carried everything with them, like motorized wagon trains.

The first group of travelers of the Highway took two and a half months to make the loop in 1920. They started in Denver with Rocky Mtn, up through Yellowstone and Glacier, out to WA for Mt Ranier, south through OR and CA, stopping in Crater Lake, Lassen Volcano, Yosemite, General Grant and Sequoia. Then back east for Zion, Grand Canyon, and Mesa Verde. And turning north again, they finished in Denver.

One of the historians interviewed commented that people in that era felt like prisoners of the railroads and their timetables. Someone else pointed out that in a car you had the freedom to go where you wanted. So the great west was an unexplored terrain, doubly desirable in post-WWI era when Europe was rebuilding.

Cars & roads

This is some of what I learned:

• at that time, an average train ticket to visit the parks the same way would have cost 1/3 of the average annual salary of most Americans
• in 1900 only 8,000 cars were registered in the US – a number that exploded by twenty years later
• even in 1920, most roads weren’t really good for driving being most were still dirt and built for wagons
• AAA was already in existence
• many auto clubs like AAA were for hobbyists – as auto interest was seen as a hobby
• the auto clubs were responsible for much of the road signage

Cars for Conservation

One of the most interesting moments in the program came when discussing the building of the roads through the parks. In some instances, they were built to give people the grand views of scenery. In some instances, they cut through things and destroyed some, but on the other hand the roads could be seen as a tool of conservation. Because people never get out of their cars, the only land touched was that of the roads. People didn’t get out to trample around the land, they only observed it from the car, limiting destruction.

I traveled across country twice on my own, twice with my family. It’s true that I rarely got out except at overlooks or to stretch legs. And when I went to Australia, I had the same experience. If I hadn’t been able to connect with another traveler with a car, I wouldn’t have seen much of that continent, either. We spent hours driving, drove more through the park and landscapes, and only stopped for short walks.

Parks Without Cars?

When the auto first came into the American landscape, only the wealthy could afford it. But like current technologies, the price came down to where more could buy it and it became commonplace. Along with falling price the known corruption of the railroads of the time helped put the allure of the automobile on a shortcut to Americans’ hearts. But now, I don’t feel like I have the same freedom as I’ve been sold on all my life. Without a car, it’s nearly impossible to get to these things.

I remember this feeling when I got to Australia and realized how little I would see without a car. No trains or bus services would get me anywhere scenic. Bus tours were quick and by timetables and limited. I needed a car in Australia to see anything, and now, I realize, the same goes for the US. In this century, the car is the everyman transportation; the train is still expensive, and there are fewer options to get anywhere with it.

Parks Highway (Photo credit: Travis S.)

End of the Road Trip

At the end of the program last night, the various people being interviewed were asked about road-trips and to offer a phrase or a single word to define how they felt about them. The American connection to the automobile was further solidified with phrases like opportunity, creativity, non-conformist, freedom, representative of life’s journey-the discovery, and exploration of the outside and inside.

Hearing this, recalling my own relationship with cars and road trips, I feel like a little piece of me faded out, like a candle being snuffed from lack of oxygen, like the feeling you have when someone you love is gone.

I haven’t been to more than a handful of the parks. And now unless someone else drives me, I won’t see any more. It makes me think that I’ve been lucky to see any of them at all. And I realize how unfair it is that without a car, I can’t be part of the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’. My days of American Freedom, of road trips with me behind the wheel have ended.

That was before my car wouldn’t start. Then I had to leave the garage, because there is no service there. I was trying to call my Dad  since I didn’t really know what to do in this situation. Now, my roommates complain of service issues in our apartment, but I really haven’t experienced any problems, except for while I’m in the garage.

But of course today, when I actually needed to make an important call, my phone wouldn’t work. I walked into the lobby: nothing. I walked outside: nothing. I walked up the stairs and out onto the sidewalk: nothing. I basically had to walk down the block to get any bars. Figures.

I was finally able to get ahold of my Dad and he had to sign me up for AAA because we hadn’t done that yet. Then, I had to call them and explain my situation. At this point I had gotten fed up and just gone back up to my apartment. And now it was basically the time that I usually get to work, and I hadn’t even left my apartment.

So AAA told me that the driver would be by soon, so I decided to wait outside since I would have to let them in. About a half hour later I got a call from AAA letting me know that the driver was in the area and would be there in about 15-20 minutes. Okay, so why was I waiting out here already? Update: SO late for work.

They finally get there and of course my battery isn’t just dead, it’s a bad battery. Sure, I would love to throw away more money. I haven’t done enough of that this week. Adios, $100+. Finally, after the new battery was installed, I could head off to work.

The rest of the day was pretty normal, minus the fact that I had another hour and a half – two hours to make up on top of everything that I missed on Friday. It’s going to be a long week.

After the looong rehearsal Friday night and a good amount of time picking out my outfit for the big show, I hit the hay, absolutely exhausted.  However, I found that I could not sleep.  It wasn’t because I was excited about RUNWAY the next day (and I was, let me tell you!), but I just kept tossing and turning.  After very little sleep, my alarm went off at 8am.  I managed to pull myself out of bed and mill about for a little while.  I decided to shower, which was something I had not originally been planning; I had wanted to get a hair stylist to put me in some sort of up-do or at least something more than just my normal hair, which is best done with not-so-clean hair, since it holds better than freshly washed locks.  Instead, I decided that I would just wear my hair down and not worry about it.  So I took that shower and blow dried my hair, which is something I had not originally planned for, which put me a little behind schedule.  I grabbed up my things and headed out.  I had three stops on the way: Wegmans, gas and JoAnn’s.  On the way to my first stop, my car stalled out.  All the little lights on the dash went on (you know, the engine light, the battery, the oil, that exclamation point in a gear) while I was on the highway.  Luckily, I was close enough to the next exit that I was able to coast off the highway and onto the street.  I knew exactly what had happened: on my way to get gas, I ran out!  HA!  Only me!  I couldn’t help but laugh as I called AAA and requested a truck with a gallon of gas; I actually told the guy that answered the phone that I was an idiot.  I could tell that he was holding back laughter, as laughing while on a recorded service call isn’t the most professional.  I was quoted a time of about an hour, but luckily the truck showed up within 15 minutes, and Ken, the service guy, was really nice.  He gave me a gallon and I went off on my way.  I got snacks and water for my models from Wegmans, put $20 in my tank, and then headed off to JoAnn’s to get ribbon for corset lacing.  I got to Buffalo State later than I had planned, but with enough time to oversee everything I needed to in regards to hair and makeup for my models.

My girls showed up one or two at a time, and they were each able to get hair and makeup done, no problem.  I even have a couple pictures of them eating and doing homework to pass the time (yes, models eat, too!).  Here’s a fun one of Holli.  You can kind of see the hair and makeup I chose to have done as well: a bronze kind of cat-eye with a french braided exaggerated mohawk.  I know it’s hard to see, so the next pic shows the inspiration pictures that my stylist and I put together for my line; you can see it a lot better there.  Anyhoo, there was a lot of waiting around; that happens before fashion shows.  Everyone has to get hair and makeup done, and there are final adjustments to be made to the runway and lights and sound, etc. etc., yadda yadda.  I won’t go into all the boring details about that.

The first show was at 3pm, and went off pretty well.  There were a couple hitches, but we were able to get everything figured out before the 8pm show.  There was drama coming from various sources, but, as I said to my friends and my professor, what’s a fashion show without drama?  Am I right?

VIP started at 6:30, an hour and a half before the main event.  Ken from Cotton Inc. was present, and those of us that had done cotton challenge courses over the past year or had fabric printed through Cotton Inc. (they donated it to us!) were able to sit down and chat with him.  I was quite excited to meet him, and he is a really nice guy.

We were all anxious for the show to start.  Whatever drama there had been earlier in the day was forgotten about, at least temporarily, as the adrenaline and butterflies started going through everyone.  When it finally did start, it went by in a flash.  It was over too quickly, and before I knew it, I was on stage with some fellow cotton challenge students along with Erin Habes, professor and MC as she announced the winners of the cotton challenge categories.  My professor and friend Shantell Reid won for creativity.  My friend Brittany Chapman won a prize, for what I can’t remember.  Another girl who I don’t know also won.  And then my name was called; I had won second place for student cotton collection!  I had not seen that coming!  The garments that won this category for me were made over the summer when I took my first class with Prof. Lynn Boorady, who quickly became one of my favorite professors.  These are the two garments; yes, they’re sitting down, but as of right now I don’t have a picture of just the two of them standing.  For the top on the left, I did the designs by hand.  Apparently, my idea had impressed Ken from Cotton Inc.!  My friend Rachel won first place for student cotton collection, and boy did I cheer for her when her name was called.  She did amazing work with a houndstooth pattern; she had lined up the pattern over every seam in her garments, and that alone takes so much time and talent to do!  I’m very proud of her for her achievement.

After the announcements for the cotton categories, the senior designers were called onto the stage along with the models who were wearing their feature piece.  This was the part that everyone was waiting for: who was going to win RUNWAY 6.0?  We waited in anticipation as Erin called the second place winner: Kaitlin Russo!  She did a line of lingerie, which fit very nicely and was quite cute.  And finally, the winner of RUNWAY…*insert drum roll*…  Lucile Ragot!  She did corsets, hoop skirts, and about a bajillion hand-made fabric flowers along with a few less complicated pieces.  Her line was, by far, the most professional out of all of ours, the most intricate.  Aside from that, she also made the purses and clutches that the models carried/wore down the runway.  I knew that she had it in the bag the first time I saw her garments, and I was and am SO incredibly proud of her!  She deserved to win more than anyone, and she did!  I was cheering at the top of my lungs when they called her name, and  clapped so much that my hands got sore.  After that announcement, the show was pretty much over.  The models and designers went backstage and stripped, packed up and left.  My mother loves taking pictures, so my girls had to stay in their outfits a little bit longer to appease her.  As everyone was filing out of the main room, we went in, hopped back up on that runway and posed ever so goofily.  After snapping some shots, I let my girls loose.  I cleaned up my garments and my stuff, threw on my Vibrams and my Under Armour track jacket over my outfit, and my friends Lindsay and Dan and myself headed out to Pano’s to grab some food.  My friend Danielle, also a senior designer, met us out with her friend Steve, and Lucile and her boyfriend Jimmy along with a friend whose name I cannot remember also came out.  There was good conversation over good food and good drinks with awesome company, and much celebrating to be had!  I didn’t get home and in bed until 1:30, which I know is not late for the average college student, but after getting little sleep the night before and being up since 8am, I was bushed!

Now to fill you in on yesterday and today, and why I didn’t post about all this earlier.  Again, I barely got any sleep Saturday night, as exhausted as I was.  I woke up at about 8:30, and my boyfriend came to pick me up some time after for celebratory breakfast since he hadn’t been able to come out with us the night before.  After that, he dropped me off at home (it was about noon then I think?) and I finished my research paper.  That took a good chunk of time, and I pretty much went straight to bed after I was done, sometime around 8, 8:30.  I honestly don’t remember what else I did yesterday aside from breakfast and working on the paper.  I did get a pretty bad headache, I remember that, which is one of the reasons I went to bed so early.  However, as tired as I was, I barely got any sleep (again).  I got up this morning with the headache still in tact, showered and went to work.  After work, I went to Bridals by D and tried on my bridesmaid’s dress for my best friend’s wedding, and then I had to go to another store called Dyed to Match to get shoes.  After all that, I came home and made up the PowerPoint presentation that goes along with my research paper; I’ll be presenting it in class tomorrow morning at 8.  I finished that up at about an hour ago.

So yeah!  It’s been a busy 72 hours!  I can’t believe that RUNWAY is already done.  That one event I was looking forward to for the entire semester, more so than my graduation even, and it’s already over and done with.

What will I sew next?

It’s been a long time coming. Ten brutal weeks on the Summoner’s Rift can change a player, change a team even, but the European group that started this season remains largely untarnished. They haven’t been afflicted with as much drama as their North American counterparts. It’s more pure on the EU side of things. There are no reality TV shows or stunning roster changes for the top teams to worry about; there is only the game.

The focus and purity that is brought about by this serene setting will create some incredible matches. The EU Playoffs have finally arrived, and this is how they work: The top six teams from the LCS Spring Season will be competing for $100,000 in prize money. First place wins a smooth $50,000, second place secures $25,000, third place takes home $15,000, and fourth settles for $10,000.

Although not eligible for the playoffs, seventh and eighth place (GIANTS! Gaming and DragonBorns) were automatically entered into the 12-team Summer Promotion Qualifier (SPQ). The teams that lose the quarterfinals in the playoffs are also dropped into the SPQ where they will compete against eight other teams for one of the four spots up for grabs in the LCS Summer Season.

Expect the quarterfinal games (SK vs aAa and EG vs CW) to be intense with potential relegation on the line for the losers. The winners of the quarterfinals will clinch their Summer Season qualification, but they will face a challenging semifinal match against first place Fnatic or second place Gambit Gaming, who each earned a bye through the quarterfinal round as a result of their Spring Season performances. The winners of the semifinals will battle for the $50,000 prize pot and the right to call themselves the LCS Spring Champions.

Quarterfinal 1: SK Gaming vs. against All authority

Head-to-Head Record: 3W-1L, in SK’s favor

Leaguepedia Staff Poll:

SK Gaming: 90%

aAa Gaming: 10%

SK Gaming (ranked #3) is good at capitalizing on mistakes of their opponents, and that’s exactly how they’ve snatched three wins from #6 against All authority. aAa’s early game impresses, but their endurance leaves something to be desired. They have the ability and champion pool to push down towers–after that they flat-line. Unable to resuscitate themselves, they let SK slowly push lanes and objectives. Risky and ill-advised plays from aAa follow. Their impatience stuffs SK’s wallet with gold and kills. aAa always seem to battle themselves and SK, making these matches particularly difficult.

Even aAa’s Week 5 win was a grueling affair. The game was full of peculiar picks, with ocelote’s mid lane Jarvan IV falling flat at 2/8/19, and ViRtU4l’s jungle Taric dazzling with 26 assists. Still, SK battled fiercely enough that the game could have swung in their favor. The playoffs are an unlikely place to see such unconventional picks from either team.

aAa should be wary of ocelote’s Kayle. He boasts a monster KDA of 15/2/24 in three games versus aAa. Everyone else bans Kayle against ocelote. It would be wise of aAa to follow suit.

aAa’s Top Laner fredy122 needs to step up if they are to have a chance. SK have lane swapped against him in the past and made it difficult for him to keep up with the #3 ranked Top Laner, Kev1n. A smart pick from fredy can make a difference, but aAa need to stop contributing to their own defeats by eliminating their mistakes. If they can’t overcome themselves, SK Gaming may move on to the semifinals to face Gambit Gaming.

Update: Sadly, aAa was disqualified for not being able to field enough players, despite both teams desperately trying to make accommodations.

Quarterfinal 2: Evil Geniuses vs. Copenhagen Wolves

Head-to-Head Record: 3W-1L, in EG’s favor

Leaguepedia Staff Poll:

Evil Geniuses: 75%

The Copenhagen Wolves: 25%

A stumbling #4 Evil Geniuses team clashes with the revitalized #5 Copenhagen Wolves. The first two weeks saw the Wolves licking their wounds with a 0W-5L record. Mid Laner Bjergsen returned in Week 3 and took a few weeks to get into the swing of things. However, since Week 6 they’ve checked in at 10W-4L. That is not a statistic to be taken lightly, but it may mean little in this match.

EG were rarely troubled by their current leaderboard neighbors, racking up three convincing wins over the course of the season. In their last match against the Wolves, EG had a a whopping 49 assists among them, with four out the five members of EG in the double digits. EG’s motto should be “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Their late-game style has worked wonders for them in the past.

Nevertheless, the matches between these two have been entertaining. The game that went to the Wolves in Week 6 was one of the most memorable of the season and deserves a watch.

Wickd and Froggen will be major roadblocks for the Wolves to overcome. Wickd holds a respectable 16/9/31 KDA against the Wolves, while Froggen is 13/6/29. EG must keep these two involved in the match if they want to advance in the playoffs. Failure to do so gives CW an opening they are sure to exploit.

The Wolves need to act like their namesakes in order to pull out a win. They should prowl the Summoner’s Rift and pick off isolated targets. Suppressing, or at least stalling, EG’s late-game ability should be their number one priority, and frequent ganks from Svenskeren and Bjergsen can aid in this endeavor.

The wild card in all of this is TheTess. He was 8/5/7 on Varus in their win against Evil Geniuses, but he’s 3/9/7 in their losses. If CW can keep TheTess relevant in these matches, they stand a fighting chance to drop EG into the Summer Promotion Qualifiers.

EG won’t make it easy, though. Look for Twisted Fate, Syndra, or Kassadin bans against Bjergsen and a Jarvan IV ban against Svenskeren, which would cripple his mobility. Severely hampering those two allows EG to stick to their game plan, giving them a strong chance to take on Fnatic in the semifinals.

Keep an eye on these quarterfinal matches on Friday, April 26 at 17:00 CEST (8:00 AM PDT) and 20:00 CEST (11:00 AM PDT). They may be the most intense matches of the entire weekend.

Catch the semifinals on Saturday, April 27 at 13:00 CEST (4:00 AM PDT) and 16:00 CEST (7:00 AM PDT). Tune in on Sunday, April 28 at 13:00 CEST (4:00 AM PDT) for the third/fourth place showdown followed by the Best of 5 championship clash at 16:00 CEST (7:00 AM PDT).