I thought I'd better get my predictions done before the first match was played. Harlsom's predictions are a lot more in depth, most likely due to them coming from a player that actually has skill and knows what he's talking about, but here are mine anyway -

Fuck off and Die
These guys are looking very solid after only dropping one map during all of their group games, and that was to Rb. Their regulars have been Darkone, Charlie, Reign and Hashie though we saw Orion and Vindictiv make the odd appearance...the latter is likely to more active in the finals. Beating Rb shows that they're definitely in the running for one of the top two spots, but having a few guys on Optus and a few on BPA means that they'd need the link to be good (or for the match to start late) or else half of them are bound to be lagged wherever they play.

Reborn
Another favourite to make the top two, Reborn have looked good so far this season. They went down fighting against Foad with Tim and Jac leading a comeback on the tiebreaker map before they ran out of time...but when playing the other teams they were rarely troubled. Tim and Jac have been a threat for opponents to (try) deal with as they're played in all of their games, the other two spots seem to be filled with whoever is available on the night which isn't really a problem as they're all highly skilled. Rb have played a few unofficial games with some of the other big teams and the results confirm that they're certainly in the running to be in the top two once these games have been played.

Mal Azul
Somehow this team has made it into the finals despite me playing in all but one of their matches. BM and Porto have been the two constants in this team with gs, Thermal, Frog and myself stepping in when needed. We've had a couple of close results in the group games as we required 3 maps to defeat Lies and AoK, and put in decent efforts against Rb and Foad on e3m7...we'd have to do that a few more times with the quality of teams that have made it into the finals. Depending on who's playing for Azul on the night there's always a chance of an upset but making the top two will require a fair few of them.

Fallen Angels
Just like Foad, FA have won all of their group games but have gone one better by not losing a map along the way. We've seen a number of different players from their line-up take part in each match so far (with the same result every time) but they will probably look to the more active ones to see out the season...these being Harlsom, Spice, Blind, Beasil, and Vile. The number of forfeits last year caused a few people to question whether FA really earned their victory but if they are to do it again this season they'll have to beat some handy opposition. A place in the top two is a likely possibility, but you never know what might happen on each night.

Icey
Forming just before the season began didn't give iC much time to work on teamplay but it turns out that they didn't need to. Losing only to FA, iC picked up valuable experience as they took care of the remaining teams in their group and have looked very impressive in some unofficial games. These guys could also get a top two spot though hopefully bad connections don't play a part in any of their matches as they should give each of the other teams a good contest. If they do make the finals then that'll be a pretty good effort considering the standard of the established clans in the finals.

Try Hard DM'ers
It looks like I had no idea when it came to estimating where THDM would finish when I did my pre-season predictions. E1m2 turned out to be a good map for THDM as they controlled it nicely against PoC and Dx and also kept up with iC for a while before going down. They've used the same four players in every game (Melt, Drizzy, Nevamind and Tones) so the other teams should have a good idea of what they're up against when they face THDM. Even though it backfired on me the last time, I'm afraid I don't see THDM progressing to the Grand Final due to the quality present.

When I first noticed that the List vs THDM game would decide who went through to the finals I felt that the result was too close to call. I have the same feeling now when it comes to picking the two teams that will go on to play in the Grand Final as any two out of Foad, Rb, FA and iC could take the spots. There might be some doubts as to iC's experience but when they fielded a strong team against Rb one night many people saw that they are definitely up to standard. One factor that might influence results (besides bribeing me) will be the players' connections. Rb are all on Optus, the majority of FA and THDM are on BPA while Foad, iC and Azul have an even spread of players on both. I'm praying that no one gets any lag during each of these matches.