Afterthought (1-2) vs. The Peeps (1-2)





Prediction: The Peeps win 3-1





The Peeps (1-2) vs. Plot Twist (3-1)





Prediction: The Peeps win 3-2





Afterthought (1-2) vs. Pittsburgh Embers (1-2)





Prediction: Afterthought wins 3-1





RBG Esports (0-1) vs. Upper90 Esports (1-3)





Prediction: RBG Esports wins 3-2





Rival Esports Stream (Saturday)





The D00ds (1-1) vs. Afterthought (1-2) & RBG Esports (0-1)





Predictions: Afterthought beats The D00ds 3-2; The D00ds beat RBG Esports 3-1





With front-running Birds and the Beez idle this week, the spotlight will shine on the five teams who have only won a single series thus far. Among them, a pair of teams at 1-2 that many thought would be in the hunt for first or second, and a place in the Promotion Tournament at the end of the season. Afterthought and The Peeps will finish Friday's Rival Series action in a match that will likely resign the loser to setting its sights on the top four for a free pass into next season.While Afterthought had to use a sub for the first game of its series last Saturday against Plot Twist, that one game went their way. It was the final two games of the series, where Plot Twist outscored Afterthought by a total score of 8-1, that proved to be the real problem. While Afterthought has an even 7-7 record in games this season, three of those losses have come by 3 goals or more - the other coming against Birds and the Beez on opening day. That is largely why Afterthought's goal differential is -5, only one better than Upper90 Esports at the bottom of the list. The biggest reason for that goal differential is undoubtedly the fact that the team has a shot differential of -33. That is by far the lowest in the league, nine worse than Upper90's. At its core, Afterthought is a very well-rounded team. No one player stands out as the pure striker, defender, or setup man piling on assists. While shock sits behind a three-way tie all at 1 goal per game with 0.79 of his own, he also accounts for 2 saves per game alongside TyNotTyler. The problem is, collectively, it's not good enough. All three starters for Afterthought rank in the bottom 10 starters in shots per game, ranging from Shock and Hato at 2.14, to TyNotTyler at 1.85. The offense will need to pick up in a major way if Afterthought hopes to stay in the running for the ultimate prize at the end of the season.On the opposite end of the pitch will sit The Peeps. While also sitting at 1-2 with a similar number of games played, The Peeps average a league-best 8.27 shots per game. While Afterthought struggles to get shots on the net, The Peeps struggling to put shots into the net. Afterthought's 1.79 goals per game is second only behind Birds and the Beez at 2.0, and The Peeps are just in the middle of the pack at 1.55 per game. But when you look at the defensive size, Afterthought's 2.14 goals allowed per game is the worst in the league, while The Peeps are, again, very average at 1.45. The question is, of course: why? Why does the team with far more shots than its opposition trail so far behind a team that gets outshot all the time? Perhaps it has to do with how much extra Rocket League the teams have played. The Peeps have played four overtime games spanning 3:53, to just a pair of extra periods combining for 1:18 for Afterthought. Both teams have played Birds and the Beez, both teams had epic 5-game series with them. Both lost. Last season, Arsenal was the guy for The Peeps. This season, it's Gyro. Leading the team with 0.64 goals and the league at 2.55 saves per game, Afterthought will need to find a way to make somebody else beat them. There's just one problem with that: Either Retals or Arsenal just might do it.Before The Peeps can focus on potentially breaking Afterthought's spirits, they'll have to do a favor for the rest of the league: bring Plot Twist back down towards everyone else and ensure that 5-2 could still be good enough to reach the Promotion Tournament. Last season, it was not good enough in either region with Savage! (now FC Barcelona), Red Reserve (now Triple Trouble), Bread (now Spacestation Gaming), and Splyce (...now Splyce) all creating a clean cut at the top at 6-1. This match in particular provides for a reunion between Pirates and his former Peeps teammates. Pirates ultimately left the team following last season's third place finish. After an off-season spent deciding whether or not to seek another run with the old squad, Pirates ultimately ended up with a new team.So what's up with Plot Twist? Yes, that same Plot Twist team that began its season being laughed off the field by Birds and the Beez, being shutout in all three games by a total of 8-0. In two of those games Plot Twist either managed a single shot, or no shots at all. That changed dramatically when RBG Esports challenged the team an hour later. Plot Twist averaged nearly 9 shots per game in a sweep, rudely welcoming its opponents back to the Rival Series. That was followed by the aforementioned 3-2 victory over Afterthought, where Plot Twist finished incredibly strong to come from behind to stun Afterthought. Pirates has fit in nicely with an already deadly duo of Mectos and Taroco. Much like Afterthought, no one player stands out statistically for Plot Twist. Everything is a full team effort for the second place team, which collectively sits in the middle of the table in every major stat except saves per game. In that category, Plot Twist is dead last at 3.33. You may think then that Plot Twist lets a lot of shots by. Exactly the opposite. At 1.27 goals allowed per game, Plot Twist is number one in the league. It's also the only team facing less than 6 shots per game (5.53). And that, right there, is your matchup: The most shots in the league, against the fewest shots allowed. Plot Twist may very well be forced to make some saves. If that turns out to be the case, it should be a very difficult task remaining all alone in second place.Before getting too far into breaking down the Embers, it is my responsibility to add a disclaimer to this section. I am a paid commentator for the Rival Series, by Psyonix. Any opinions - of which there will be very few on this site - regarding the actions and subsequent suspension of Demonator (or Demon), are solely my own. With all of that said, I am not privy to any of the discussions surrounding Psyonix's decision, nor do I have any details of its investigation outside of what has been stated publicly in the competitive ruling posting. My job is to tell the story of the players whoplaying.Now that we have that out of the way, yes Demon was suspended for the remainder of 2019. That means Kai99jr will step in to finish this season for the Embers. This places even more pressure on Sosa and Grills, with the team already second-lowest in the league only scoring 1.17 goals per game. The only team behind Embers is RBG Esports, which has only played three games it would rather forget. Despite that low offensive output, Pittsburgh is only allowing 1.42 goals per game - third behind Birds and the Beez and Plot Twist. The shoes Kai will have to fill are not gargantuan by any means: Demon averaged only 0.42 goals, 0.25 assists and 1.5 saves per game while putting an average of 2.17 shots on the opposing target. Those are numbers that could very well be replicated by a substitute. When Upper90 called on Slvshi to replace Shadow for a series, the substitute managed 3 assists and 5 saves in a 3-1 loss. If Sosa and Grills can pick up the slack, the Embers could very well remain competitive with Afterthought. But with this news coming just a day before the match, it will be difficult for Embers to get Kai up to form in time for kickoff. Actions have consequences: A message sent, and heard, loud and clear.There still isn't much to go on for RBG. The returning contingent from last season will be looking to go the way of Plot Twist, erasing its opening match from memory and turning the season around. Upper90 has gone the exact opposite direction. After a sweep over The Peeps to pick up its first win of the season, U90 has dropped 3-1 decisions to both Plot Twist and The D00ds. Now sitting with three losses, Upper90 will be watching the scoreboard hoping that a potential 4-3 finish is enough to reserve a spot in season 8.Rapid joins RBG after an abysmal season with The Magicians last year. Aeon and Astroh called on Rapid to replace Moses, who provided a valuable veteran experience to the team. Rapid resigned himself to a very passive, defensive role last season. Last week he was technically the team's leading scorer. Not a high bar to clear, as RBG only managed two goals in the loss to Plot Twist. RBG faced nearly 9 shots per game and only saved barely half of them. Upper90 is comparable to Plot Twist in almost every major statistical category. The old Aeon and Astroh will need to show up if RBG has any chance of contending with the offensive firepower Shadow brings for Upper90. While missing one whole series, Shadow leads the league with 1 goal per game and sits near the top of the league contributing 2.82 shots each game. Shadow also gets it done on the defensive end, usually good for at least 2 saves every game.The D00ds will watch everything unfold Friday night and come in Saturday morning knowing exactly what they must do to keep pace in the league. The D00ds "D00bleheader" begins with Afterthought, followed by RBG Esports immediately after. D00ds are another case of "Jekyll and Hyde", as is almost everyone else in North America. So far the team has been on both ends of 3-1 decisions, falling to Embers on opening night and beating Upper90 last week. With the rest of the teams likely to beat up on each other and rack up losses Friday night, there's a very good chance that D00ds could be the outright second place team by the end of the week.To do so, Ralph and JoeFreshness will need to step up and take a lot of pressure off of Skillz's shoulders. Last week against Upper90, Skillz scored all three of The D00ds' overtime game-winners, with 6 goals in total and a pair of assists to carry The D00ds to a 1-1 record. Ralph is currently the lowest-scoring starter in North America, with only one goal in eight games (0.13 average). The only other players with just 1 goal or less: Aeon and Rapid (1 goal, 3 games), Astroh (0 goals), Dino (Afterthought sub) and Slvshi (Upper90 sub).The defense of TyNotTyler and Shock may prove to be far too much, while the offense everyone expected of Aeon and Astroh could prove problematic for The D00ds if RBG manage to right the ship by Saturday morning. As is often the case, previous results in the week may play a huge role in how mentally prepared a team is for any matchup. If Ralph and Joe can step up to the challenge this weekend, The D00ds could really set themselves apart from their opponents. The best thing The D00ds have going for them: Playing back-to-back, similar to complexity on the European side this weekend.Friday's North American Rival Series coverage kicks off Friday with The Peeps and Plot Twist at 6:00 PM Eastern Time, 3:00 PM Pacific, on www.twitch.tv/RocketLeague - Saturday's action begins at 12:00 noon ET, 9:00 AM Pacific on www.twitch.tv/RivalEsports