Filed under: Premier League

Last week's predictions saw me going 2-1 again (still waiting for that 3-0). I called the BU/SFA game wrong. BU only showed three, then ebola lagged out after 1m 40secs of game play and SFA cruised to a 12-0 win inside 12 minutes. In the other two games Fly-NDie took care of Warlords easily 12-4 and SkyRakers showed some post-JackMove signs of life before going to down 12-8 to ReDS.

For the round MVP I'm going to go with FnD's Medicus who went 6-2 with 1 KO and 1 forced rep. The round LVP comes from the same game. North Star, who was coming off a 5-2 MVP performance in round 4, managed to go 0-3 with 1 forced rep and a dire 5 wasted rep in 8 minutes of sucky game play. The rest of WL weren't that much better. ZoAnimus (4-3) was the only player who managed to get any kills for them.

With the first third of the season over the standings are as close as most expected. With all teams playing each other once FnD, BU and ReDS lead with 3-2 records and SR, SFA and WL are all only one game behind at 2-3. Remember there's still the matter of the two SkyRakers games to be replayed or forfeited to take into account.

I promised myself to keep off the sports analogies this season and so far I've managed to, but I'm about to slip up. Premier League seasons are usually like the NFL. You play a regular season with the squads normally split into divisions, then you have the playoffs and then you have your final. This season of AML is more like MLB. Each squad is playing a three game series against the others. And those series' results are going to decide the top two squads as I'd be very surprised if tiebreakers weren't used to split the teams. So this section of the regular season is going to see squads looking to take two game leads or tie their series up and keep in contention for the final third of the season.

So on with my round 6 predicts, which this week is brought to you by fisting and God's will.


Fly-NDie (3-2) vs ReDS-AML (3-2)
$$$ Game of the week $$$
(previous game: 12-6 ReDS)

A win here for ReDS will give them a two game lead in their regular game series over FnD and a real boost for their chances of making the finals. But it could prove to be an even bigger game for FnD. With a loss to BU already, another loss to ReDS could force them to win out the rest of the season as their two main rivals for a finals spot will hold the tiebreaker advantage over them.

More bad news for FnD is that ReDS now look to have the most settled starting line in AML. With Army, Papa T, Super Bunny and Zhule set as their starters ReDS are starting to become the squad to beat this season. FnD are coming off a big win over WL so their confidence is going to be high and Burnt Special is a smart enough captain to make sure that his squad knows how important it is to them not to give two wins away to ReDS, but with those question marks against their bench still there after the BU loss (FnD made no subs last Sunday) I think ReDS will just pull away to take it at the end. I'm expecting one of the closest games in AML so far this season, well worth your time speccing.

Vorbometer: 10-7 ReDS-IML
Key players: Zhule (ReDS), Zash (FnD)
Watch out for: FnD subs. They have to make one eventually.


StarFire Academy (2-3) vs SkyRakers (2-3)
(previous game: 12-5 SR)

That win for SR is one of the JackMove games so it's not clear what's going to happen. I think these middle games are going to decide SR's season and if they'll replay those first two games. If they can pick up a couple of wins I think they're more likely to take the option of replaying them in the make-up round. If they continue to lose I think they'll just take the forfeits.

And going to on their performance last week they could get those wins. They still miss JackMove leading the line and they have problems with their #4 slot, but with a real lead-by-example performance from captain kawika (5-3 with 1 KO) last round they almost upset ReDS. The biggest disappointment for me so far has been the performance of GeminiGirl who again played well below her ability going 1-3 and dying out at the 28 minute mark. Looks like she's running on hempty (geddit?!?!?).

I can't really rate SFA from their win last Sunday. Four monkeys randomly hitting the keyboard would of put up a better performance than BU did. I know I keep calling a SR upset in these predictions, but this week I think they're going to do it as long as GeminiGirl steps her play up and becomes the heart and soul (geddit?!?!?) of their starting line.

Vorbometer: 12-10 SkyRakers
Key players: Thizzen (SFA), GeminiGirl (SR)
Watch out for: More hints by me that are as subtle as a sledgehammer


Warlords (2-3) vs BENCHERS UNITE (3-2)
(previous game: 12-2 BU)

BU are still proving impossible to predict. Coming into last weekend with wins already over ReDS and FnD BU were starting to look like title favourites. So what happens? They show three, have one lag out to make it 2v4 and get royally stomped. Still no sign of squad caps Beef and Phil which I think is starting to hurt them. You can only turn up and play a couple of minutes before each game and win so many times before you end up with what happened last Sunday. I can't see them having two bad showings in a row though which is going to be bad news for Warlords.

In their first game against each other Warlords did exactly what BU did last Sunday. They showed three, then one lagged out to make it 2v4 and they got royally stomped. I'm expecting both teams to show this Sunday and I'm also expecting more royal stompage. This time by BU over WL to take an unassailable two game lead in their series. Unassailable, that's a good word. I need to use it more.

Vorbometer: 12-3 BENCHERS UNITE
Key players: Darq (BU), ZoAnimus (WL)
Watch out for: The return of the unassailable a terrier. Can you believe he missed last Sunday's games and so did I. What are the odds of that?