Coming off a hot LAN season this past summer Pandemic looked geared to return to the North American scene guns blazing. Unfortunately, a number of computer problems and real life obligations hindered the team in their first few CEVO-P matches back, however, after two consecutive losses in week 4, Pandemic looked to turn things around. With two nail biting 13-11 victories in week 5 on mp_crossfire and two tough matches week 6, Pandemic once again looked in prime position amongst the CEVO-P standings with the tentative 3rd seed.
In week 7 Pandemic knew they would have a tough match against 50 Calibre who had been preforming quite well throughout the season. Playing the match on mp_strike, Pandemic quickly fell behind in the first half, starting the second with a 4-8 deficit. Despite being down four rounds, Pandemic battled back against 50 Calibre taking one round at a time. Unfortunately, it just wasn't enough as 50 Calibre closed the match 14-10 in their favor.
Pandemic needed a win in their second match of the week to keep their seed high for playoffs, however, scheduled against a very unpredictable Awakening team, the AEF champions had their hands full. Once again, the first half didn't go quite as planned as Awakening managed to bring Pandemic to a 6-6 standoff. Fortunately, Pandemic was able to convert in the second half with a narrow lead to clinch the match by small 13-11 margin.
With a single win and loss in week 7, putting Pandemic at a 10-4 record, the team's week 8 would be all important for playoff seedings not only for the win, but also because it was scheduled against Team EG, who currently topped the division with 14 wins and not a single loss thus far. The last time these two teams had officially played each other in competition was in Denmark at The eXperience, where EG knocked Pandemic out of the tournament in the consolation finals on mp_citystreets.
As if a twist of fate, the two North American champions would be playing that same map for their final match of the season, however, with the continued absence of Jason “crzg” Pielemeier, Pandemic would be fighting an uphill battle against the eXperience champions. In the first half, Pandemic managed to keep the game close, evening things out at a 6-6 tie. While a tie is certainly not the best score at halftime as defense is considered the easier side of the two, it was certainly an improvement over their past performance in Denmark. Unfortunately the juice ran out there as EG mounted a comeback on their defensive end taking round after round to close the match with a 14-10 victory.
This loss put Pandemic at a final 10-5 record and 4th seed going into playoffs, meaning Pandemic would not get the bye that 1st or 2nd seed would. Pandemic's first playoff match is scheduled agianst 50 Calibre on mp_crash, a team who had previously beaten Pandemic during the regular season. Pending the result of that match Pandemic will either drop to the lower bracket or advance to once again meet Team EG on mp_strike.
In regards to playoffs and their 4th place seed, Pandemic.CoD4 team captain Joe “nabore” Amorosa comments, “First I would like to thank Ian for postponing the matches to a later date. This helps us and a few other teams who have had scheduling issues over the past few weeks. We are slowly getting all of our teammates back into action since Europe. As for expectations, I always shoot high. We have been around the scene for quite some time and all of us are fully aware of what needs to be done to win. It is no secret this time around that we have been playing some sub-par Call of Duty since we got back from Europe, and I plan on changing that for the Playoffs.”
CEVO-P playoff schedules have been postponed for the time being as multiple teams have expressed real life obligations interfering with the current schedule. Check back here at TeamPandemic.net for dates/times for all of Pandemic's playoff matches!
|
