GOTN S1 Playoffs are down to the final four teams. Janitorz, Bricked Up, Plus Forward, x6. Despite different paths, it’s the four teams we expected. Its the top two pre-season seeded teams from Groups A and B, a perfect balance. The admin group got something right when they were breaking the groups down into two. If you haven’t been obsessively watching and following like the rest of us over the last 4 months, this is how we got here.

RECAP & RECENT RESULTS

Janitorz

(harold, nytrix, hostage, Gl4d, jay)

GGEZ: 4th; NightCup 10: Groups; GOTN S1 Regular Season: 13-1

There is no arguing the hottest team at the moment; it’s the cleaners. MOPPED came into GOTN S1 with a new roster, swapping woody and zyk for Jay and Gl4d. After a tough nightcup post lan where the team underperformed, they came back with a vengeance, and back to the cup winning days of this corps pre-lan. This team was two rounds away from being absolutely perfect. They only dropped one map in the regular season, and have not dropped a map in the playoffs. This is the team to beat at the moment, and they’ll be waiting for one of the three below in the grand finals. (August 2025)

We will be ready for anyone in grands, so I don’t have anyone we particularly want. If bricked, it’ll be a rematch of the winners finals match and yet another classic J vs GOTEM matchup, it’s the classic NA rivalry here. If +forward, would be cool to see if Panthers presence on that team is legit or not. And would be cool to see if panther can hang on tg or crumble (1-14). If x6, it’d be exciting because we would get a legitimate salty runback from LAN. This time we don’t plan to crumble from 11-6. – harold

Bricked Up

(dougski, myLo, 1ShoT?, dirty_german, polo)

GGEZ: 1st; NightCup 10: 1st; GOTN S1 Regular Season: 12-2

The team to beat until they can be beaten. Yes, they dropped two maps in the regular season, but the back to back titles in the last two big events speak for themselves. They’ll tell you, A championship isn’t won in the regular season, or in groups; and they’d be correct. This group as an unchanged starting 5 from their LAN victory back in February, and has firepower and experience up and down the board. They will be an opponent nobody will want to face in the LBF.

We’re feeling very good right now. We’ve sufficiently licked our wounds from our loss to Janitors and we’re no strangers to that harsh sting of a fat L. We’ve dealt with x6 and +f previously in this playoffs, and we’re feeling confident and comfortable in our ability to repeat our previous success against either team. We won’t take any opponent lightly and we’re cumming for 1st place with everything we’ve got. It’s going to get messy, king. – doug

We’ve learned that we’re most comfortable when our backs are against the wall. While most teams shy away and crumble from the pressure of the losers bracket, it makes us sharper, faster, better. It forces us to play as if every second of every round counts, and that’s when we play our best. We don’t get emo around here, the Bricked Up boys take our L’s in stride and then adapt and overcome. Some of these teams are more concerned about winning battles, but Bricked Up is concerned about winning WARS. This isn’t new to us. Our collection of chips proves that. We’re about to make a very BIG mess. #BrickedUp – doug

Plus Forward

(shell, zack, kosmo, brisk, cruizer, panther)

GGEZ: 3rd; NightCup 10: 4th; GOTN S1 Regular Season: 12-2

Plus forward pulled off an impressive regular season in a tough group. With three top teams in Group A all going 1-1 against each other, it was a 3-way tie for first place. It was Plus Forwards consistency and attention to detail, never giving a round up that gave them an impressive overall round tie breaker cushion to win the group. In turn, that has translated into a top 4 guaranteed finish. This team does not lack firepower, and can go all the way if you doubt them. They will take on x6 next week in the fourth place match. The winner will take on Bricked Up for the last spot in the finals.

x6

(eric, willzki, zondo, lex, telly)

GGEZ: 2nd; NightCup 10: 2nd; GOTN S1 Regular Season: 11-3

The team that has arguably been the model of consistency recently, built up their game on hard work. As one of the newest teams formed right before LAN 1, the team had a surprising UB run in Dallas that ended just short of victory. Times haven’t been as smooth recently, with the group dropping maps to Janitorz, Nemesis, and UP in the regular season, but the 5 have stuck together and remain unchanged. x6 will look for their first breakthrough as a group, searching for that elusive first place.

YAMATATO’S TAKE/RANT

All these teams have had questionable performances at best, and are poor benchmarks for the Euro teams who take a peek at our streams, before leaving for their dead-end jobs.

Sure, Janitorz took out Bricked easily, without breaking a sweat. The defending champs were a step behind, uncoordinated, missing shots. If Bricked are on? Yeah, most likely they can spank teams. But seriously, are you that good, when you’re that questionably inconsistent? Disappointing. Especially when you get a quick 2-0 when the community expects a solid matchup. Hours have been played. Teams have caught up. The ‘order out of chaos’ strat might be overplayed. Or maybe this editor knows jackshit. A little counterplay wouldn’t hurt them. Call me.

Plus Forward, out of all let downs, is probably THE biggest let down of the playoffs. They look discombobulated, and only edged out an extremely thin victory on the back of their old man cru!zer. That should not happen. Ever. They look like five individuals running around playing for themselves, and that’s exactly how they looked like at Lan 1. Roster changes, sure, leadership changes sure. But when shit hits the fan, nothing actually looks like it has changed. They can pretend they are next level by winning scrims consistently, but when matches come around, they get similar results to mid-tier teams, and something’s gotta give. Panther ‘The Cuck’ Disantis might show up for his first playoff match, but at this rate, he’s a myth. A fart in the wind. He’s a non-factor until proven otherwise, and arguably only hurts his team by dragging them along like a scumbag boyfriend who says ‘I’ll change baby…’, and robbing his teammates of practice time. On the other end, Kosmo needs to start playing with the team and not nading himself in matches. He’s a good guy, great father, awesome human being, but he’s gotta step up his game, and start helping, not actively baiting, his teammates. You got it vanilla gorilla. Stop randomly firing through smoke for no apparent reason and you got it.

X6 might be the only team that positively surprised this playoff. They actually switched around their strategies and weren’t as predictable as they were in the last months, taking a map off Bricked on their funky looking Matmata. Lex upholstered his game into playing ONE more spot on some maps, and honestly, that’s a reasonable boost for them. Willzki keeps dropping high 20s, and he should show up to take Shell’s MVP title in the next series. No question about it, they have the emotional edge against +F, right up until the round where Zack shoots two of them in smoke, and they lose all confidence in his online legitimacy. That might be the breaking point for either team.

Honestly, a disappointing playoffs. Janitors aren’t getting challenged. Bricked UP isn’t playing like a team that can ‘beat top Euro teams’, and +F is looking like the shell (lol) of their team at Dallas Lan. And possibly throwing the whole NA cod2 community in disarray, X6 might actually take advantage of these piss-poor performances, and carve themselves a top 3 finish. Ridiculous. All this for a 3 month long playoff with a random 2-0 every other week. Wake up. Shape up. We look like idiots out there.