Aah, and here we are again. Things just got serious, guys. The Cogs are full. All nine active spots are now filled by the brave and the bold, the proud and the plucky... But they're worried, and they're right to be. From this point on, there are no second chances, no lucky breaks. The Newcomer's Proving Ground is now a graveyard, where the unworthy, the unfit or the just plain unlucky will see their loss rewarded with ejection and shame.
That's right, it's all to play for now. Match 1's consequences are now live and the punishment for a loss at this stage is ejection from The Cogs*. To those teams unlucky enough to have either joined late or fallen into the rotation of the Upcomer's Cog, I'll say this: Good Luck.
Here are the brackets for Week 5. (Click to enlarge)
Match 1 sees the stalwart roster of
Corvus Marauders facing off against the latest Ducks entry of
The Dover around the corroded metallic skeleton of the leviathan in the
Battle on the Dunes. Will the practiced and drilled roster of Corvus maintain it's position within The Cogs, or will the unorthodox insanity that is Dover prevail through sheer versatility and willpower? One thing's for sure, Dover are bringing something crazy to the party, and both of us on The Cogs casting team are looking forward to seeing exactly what the latest offering from The Ducks can do.
Match 2 features the dapper excellence that is
The Gentlemen sturggling to prove their worth after the humiliating defeat at the hands of the Ducks in their own domain in Week 3. In a cruel twist of fate, however, they must now defend their veteran position against the relative newcomers
The Brood, who slaughtered their sister team in the previous week in a serious demonstration of the dangers of Duck-on-Duck violence to earn their shot at the Challenger's Cog. Defeat is not an option for the Gentlemen but with the sheer volume of Ducks within The Cogs at this stage, there's a real chance that the toffs could end up being compeltely overwhelmed by our would-be feathered overlords. In an even crueler twist of fate, guess which map this avian bloodbath rolled? That's right, the Gentlemen are returning once again to the site of their greatest triumph and their most recent loss.
Northern Fjords. Excited yet? I am.
Match 3 is going to be a showcase to remember and potentially one of the defining matches within competitive GoIO as we know it. The undefeated champions with of The Cogs with a winning streak of
five victories in as many weeks,
The Paddling, are the undisputed masters of sniping tactics. Many have tried to take them down at pretty much every range imaginable, and all have failed. Even the pure aggression of Merry Northern Storm was parried and dispatched last week with a metaphorical backhander from the Ducks. They've systematically cut their way through almost every team within The Cogs and seized the top-spot. Now though, they face what could be their greatest challenge so far. Enter
Polaris Company, the Russian powerhouse that overwhelmed the Muse team and sent the illustrious Pastafarians back down to the Upcomer's Cog with one of the most unorthadox and meta-breaking builds we've seen so far, the BlenderSpire. Now, they smell blood. The Russians are so close to the topspot and so close to doing what Pastafarians couldn't and rising to the champion spot in a single brutal combo. But to do that, Polaris will have to do what
the entire community has so far been unable to do; bring down the Ducks. It's gonna be a brutal and unforgiving match for both teams as they're sent into the murky mists that surround the rubble and wreckage of
Duel at Dawn. Will the Ducks be able to keep their bills firmly clamped around the Champion Cog, or will the merciless Russian onslaught prove too much for the community favourites?
Match 4
(!?) is something of a special event. Veteran forum-goers will by now be familiar with the
Museosaurs's regular and futile attempts to defeat a community-selected organised team. Picked by an open vote on the official Guns of Icarus Online Facebook page, Muse will thrown down the gauntlet to whomever the community deems worthy of the dev's fury... And this week, it just so happens that Muse have gotten desperate. You heard me, they've gotten bored of picking on their superiors within The Cogs, and have conspired to come up with an opponent that they feel might prove their equal, or even their lesser. Us. Yes, us.
Occasionally Effective, the Casters. Set over a monsterous
Best of Three, with the loser picking the maps after an initial coin toss, we here are Occasionally Effective would like to wish our counterparts within the Muse team the best of luck with the maps they will inevitably be picking.
Tune into the Occasionally Effective stream on Saturday, 4pm EST to follow all the action with our resident caster, Qwerty2Jam, and don't forget to stick around to watch us attempt to curbstomp the Muse team. How hard can it be? We'll see.
That's all for now. But enough from me, what's your view? With three Duck teams in the three matches of today, who are you rooting for? Will you clap for their rivals, the Russians, the Gentlemen and Corvus, or are you quacking for the Ducks all the way?
Either way, that's all you get until Saturday.
Good luck, and stay safe.
-Swallow
*Quick note for those of you who are worried about this: Teams are eligible to sign up for a newcomer spot immediately after their ejection. They're not permanently removed... They just have to prove themselves again.
