In the weeks ahead, sixteen teams from Divisions 1 and 2 will duke it out over the question of who will be allowed to call themselves the Heroes Lounge Season 6 champion. Not all of them are known just yet, so after yesterday’s Cup feature, this is all about those potential Championship winners. As per the last post, there are a few points of order. Standings are as of when the post went up, the earlier a team shows up in their division write-up, the better their chances, and uncertainty is a thing. One new thing is that some teams are marked with an asterisk in the standings. This means that they have missed a match this season and that they therefore have one less match played than from what you’d think based on standings.
Now that I’ve done all the boring stuff, let’s grab a drink and get ready to dive into the top two flights.
Ah, Division 2. My old haunt is naturally near and dear to my heart, and unlike most of the Cup write-up, there actually aren’t a lot of games left in Round 9. Sure cuts down on the crazy scenarios, though there are always some doozies left available. It is also a division in which a high-flying team just dropped out, leaving a bit of a vacuum as teams scramble to secure the seeds.
So far, two teams have qualified in this division. Throw The Advantage
were unable to live up to their name, and are joined by Heroes of Inclement Weather
in taking two of the six seeds. The latter team actually qualified by winning a single map in their most recent series, showing that even in defeat, there can be victory.
General Raynor's Interdimensional Exploration of the Frightening, Incredible Nexus where he's Gathering Skulls!!! aren’t yet qualified because they have two series to go still. It’s a pitch black timeline in which they do not qualify: they need just one map to be gained in the last two rounds, and if they don’t, there is still an option for them to outright qualify on head to head results. Pretty doable, but perhaps we will finally witness nomen est omen for these griefers. CLN Giants are in the same position as Griefings are, down to the head to head results if things work out in one specific way. They’ve missed one round, so they have one less series to get the crucial win, but it certainly appears that four of the seeds have already been locked.
On six, teams need wins. A minimum of six teams are mathematically guaranteed to get up to seven wins. Deadly Penguin Squad are the only team of this lot to be certain of making it if they win their last round, because their score would bring them to where TTA and Heroes are right now. The Forever Alones and Duo Abuse Gaming Inc are next in line, needing a win and with the added caveat that Duo Abuse would and TFA would not qualify in the same head-to-head result timeline that was referred to in the previous paragraph. Keelah Se’Lai, Health Angels, and Gaming in the Rhythm are all in need of a win and then some additional results going their way. It’s not impossible, but certainly improbable.
Lastly, the fly in the ointment that stops both Griefings and CLN from having already booked their tickets for the Championship: Trust Issues. If they win both their series, they reach the same score as those two, potentially ruining what would otherwise be a tie that could be perfectly broken by head to head results, even when Duo Abuse and TFA join the party. It’s a long shot for them, but if you want a dark horse to bet on, there you have it. Just be forewarned that their Round 9 match is against Griefings.
A four way tie being perfectly broken on head to head in a Swiss system, how often do you see that? It is an option, albeit one of many, in Division 2. I am certain Robb appreciates the irony after the last two seasons required extensive playoff tiebreakers in this division.
With ten spots available, Division 1 has always been fairly easy to qualify in based on pure scoring, dipping down into the peloton, rather than having break-aways secure a lead. However, easy is not a term readily applied to the competition, and qualification will have been hard-fought in general as it will have required teams to have dispatched multiple teams with multiple high masters or grandmasters in their midst.
If you want to make it to the Championship, the magic number for this division is 6 matches won and 13 maps won. Memeldor’s Meme Machines and Zenon Esports were qualified already over the weekend. Grief Gaming and EPG Frozen joined the ranks of guaranteed Championship participation after results went their way. It didn’t even need to happen by their own hand: EPG’s qualification was a result of the a Tuesday match shaking out in a specific way, though even before that, winning one map would have sufficed. Battle Beasts Boys do actually only need one map to qualify, but with MMM being their opponent in the last round, that is no easy feat.
Skipping a few teams for later, we come to Diablo Needs Affection and Water Dragons. They are facing off against each other in Round 9, winner qualifies, loser gets a second chance in Round 10. DNA have actually missed two matches this season, though they did get one map from one of them as it was ruled a tie. For them to be in this position is pretty decent, all things considered.
Joining the club of needing one win to have guaranteed qualification, we find a menagerie of memers. Chen Needs Nerfs, Don Our Fedoras, and Team of Dans all find themselves here after their various exploits in the division. CNN will face Team Upheaval and Team of Dans will face Senior Citizen Club, both of whom would not be guaranteed qualification in the case of a win, and Lounge’s favourite prayer targets, Pocket Toads, are in that boat as well. Can they sneak in a third consecutive Championship appearance? The odds aren’t in their favour, but as we’ve seen before, the Toads generally find a way.
Jumping around even more, we come to the other team that is causing the Lounge stat sloths headaches by being able to complicate the standings. Raging Xpress are only on 4 wins and 9 map wins as of right now, but that means they can still reach the magic number. That isn’t the problem. The grief happens when they do win their Round 9 match versus the Fedoras, but do not win their Round 10 match. If this happens, a charity stream for Robb’s sanity might be required.
Coinflip and Greybeard’s Gangsters are the longest of long shots to make it. Due to the rigs, at least three more teams will pass Coinflip’s score, which the Gangsters can only tie. There are timelines in which Coinflip qualify without tiebreakers being needed, but they are very finicky and easily avoided. The Gangsters lose head to head to Coinflip, meaning that their qualification is even more convoluted, and not without playing at least one match in the weekend following the next.
Direct battles for qualification are rare phenomena, and to have several in the same division is even rarer. All eyes will be on Division 1, even more than they already are, thanks to an indeterminate mix of skill and memes enticing everyone into watching. Will Chen truly need nerfs? Will there be exquisite ‘daaaaaaaaans’ spread throughout the Discord? The answers to these and other questions will be found out in the coming ten days.
Six teams have qualified, ten are yet to do so. Be sure to keep an eye out on the Discord and the Twitch channels to see which teams will show up in the drawing show (ft. Narsha’s tiny balls)!
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