Thursday, October 6, 2011

North Central Regional - Preview

So far the regional scene has largely played out as we expected, with a few exceptions.
1) Rose City finally managed a berth into the championship tournament.
2) Texas managed to best Kansas City and reclaim the No. 1 spot in the South Central tournament, while Nashville managed to hold onto their No. 3 spot against Atlanta, and return to the championship rounds.

Three of the regional tournaments have finished, and now we head to Indianapolis for the North Central Regional Tournament, hosted by Naptown.

Monumental Mayhem, Oct. 7-9, will see the best of the best from the North Central Region compete for the last three remaining spots in the championship tournament.

The No. 1 seed Windy City, looks to improve on their 10-2 record, likely adding three more victories in route to Denver, where the top 3 seeds of each region will compete for the coveted Hydra trophy as the best team in the world.

From here the metagame is a bit tricky. Both Detroit and Minnesota managed better finishers than last year’s NC2 team, Madison, who’s been on a bit of slide since their 2010 Championship tournament appearance. Madison’s 1-6 record includes their only win against Brewcity and three other losses to fellow North Central Region teams -- Detroit, Minnesota and Naptown – with a 122 point differential loss to Detroit and a 152 point differential loss to Minnesota.

Arguably the middle eight spots are anyone’s to grab. Detroit, Minnesota and Naptown are looking to represent the region as the No. 2, 3, 4 seeds respectively. Like Windy City, Detroit gets a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed, and will play the winner of Brewcity versus Ohio. Naptown takes on Cincinnati, and Minnesota will get first crack at Madison. One loss can send any team back to the consolation rounds, and with Naptown, Arch Rivals and The Chicago Outfit in the pool, this tournament has the makings of being a bracket buster.