Week 9

In Challenger sheph won the first four games en route to a 7-1 victory over degran, plastikqs defeated motionblur 7-2 on the strength of three spy wins, pox beat tarekmak 7-4, and dowsey continued to hold first place with a definitive 7-2 win over turnipboy (casted here). dowsey’s performance has gotten stronger as the season has progressed even as the opponents have gotten tougher, presumably thanks to the steady accumulation of data available on Challenger’s challengers. His last three match wins have featured a sparkling 21-4 margin.

We should see a sheph-dowsey matchup here in Week 10, which will be the last opportunity to dethrone dowsey. In Challenger, first place is just for bragging rights, but making it into the top two ensures automatic promotion. pox, sheph, incnone, platikqs, and turnipboy are all within a point of each other, and only one of can join dowsey at the top, skipping the seeded post-season tournament.

No Iron matches were played this week.

No Copper matches were played this week.

In Bronze jyaty fell behind sgnurf 4-1, but won the final six games to snap a three match winless streak. catnip kept her chance of making the finals alive with a 7-4 win over arturiax. She’ll need to defeat first place nanthelas in week 10 and hope jyaty loses to arturiax. Anything short of that, and it’s nanthelas and jyaty in the Bronze Championship.

In Silver, last week’s win over wodar gave teetery a chance at the finals in Silver, but a loss to turnout8 in week 9 all but ruled it out, and the final nail came when wodar defeated checker 7-4 in their overdue week 7 match. It’s been very likely for weeks, but now it’s official: it’s wodar and yerand in the Silver finals. Too many matches outstanding for the latter to say who’ll get the #1 seed.

In Gold, pwndnoob bested sharper 7-3 to remain undefeated. The finalists in Gold are now mathematically assured: it’s pwndnoob and the similarly unvanquished falconhit. Both have multiple draws to their name, including one to each other in week 3. They’ll face off in Week 10 with nothing but seeding on the line, but the higher seed in the finals gets a one-game advantage. It’ll be interesting to see what tricks they employ to win that advantage, and what they save for the final showdown.

Huge news in Platinum, as pires, currently in second place and one of the preseason favorites, has dropped out of the SCL. Because he played exactly half of his matches, each remaining opponent will be granted a forfeit. This leaves cleetose alone with a significant margin at the top of the division, but gives new life to last season’s runner-up slappydavis, who now has to slug it out with varanas for the second spot in the finals.

No actual Platinum matches were played this week, but expect a number of forfeits to be processed soon, primarily from cameraman. Between the two absent players, there are only a handful of meaningful matches left to determine who’ll play cleestose in the finals. Literally every remaining match in Platinum other than week 7’s cleetose-drawnonward matchup has major implications for the division.

In Diamond, canadiabacon narrowly missed clinching a spot in the finals in a dramatic casted match, tying krazycaley 6-6 thanks to a Spy win on Library.

warningtrack defeated magician1099 7-4 by sweeping a doubled High-Rise, keeping his slim hope of making the finals alive. The win ensures that magician1099’s Hazard Match opponent will be either bloom or kcmmmmm, who have yet to play their week 9 match. That match isn’t quite a proxy for who plays Hazard, but it’s close: a bloom win rules him out, and a kcmmmmm win leaves him needing just a point against magician1099 in the final week to avoid it.

The situation in Diamond right now is this:

If canadianbacon wins or ties his week 10 matchup against bloom, he’s in the finals. If canadianbacon loses and warningtrack defeats krazycaley, warningtrack is in the finals. If canadianbacon loses and warningtrack loses or ties, bloom needs to win both his remaining matchups (kcm and bacon).

Welcome to Diamond, where you can find yourself simultaneously trying to fend off a Hazard match and fighting for a chance at the finals in the same match.

For full standings and replays, visit the SCL Manager.