Welcome to Week 2 of UGC Platinum Highlander! A rather eventful Week 1 has passed for a few teams, with some teams taking wins against teams expected to win, while others made short work of teams who couldn't put up much against them. Week Two features Process, a map whose history is deeply rooted in the competitive community. A good map for both Highlander and 6s, it'll be interesting to see how the matches play out, with 5CP by nature being more DM based than Payload.

Week 1 Results

However, before discussing the Week 2 matchups, a review of Week 1's Upward matches will provide some background to the Week 2 matchups.

Menace To Society played Hateful 8, and took a 2-0 victory, although the match was a lot closer than the numbers looked. Dead Ringer Storage took a stunning loss versus bote team, which no doubt sent a few shockwaves throughout mustard's gang.

Kids Next Door and Just Kidding played teams ('92 Dream Team and A Million Ways) who weren't quite the level they were, resulting in some fairly easy wins. Chill Penguins, Tree Forest and Bring Your ESports all took home a win, much to the dismay of Wu Tang Killah Bees, Route: Reborn, and Independant Fighters Alliance.

Week 2 Matches

Just Kidding vs bote

On the path to the top of Platinum, the boat of bote will cross Just Kidding!. When it comes down to rosters, bote looks to be a lot more powerful than jk, with possible exceptions in Marioman and flintstone. Both teams are well coordinated and know what they want to be doing, which should result in a match where the winner is whoever can adapt the fastest and is able to pull off their strategies more successfully.

It's certainly conceivable that jk could take rounds or games off of bote, especially if it happened during the recent offseason, but bote are in a really confident position right now, with complete right to be. Should the two meet up again in the playoffs, a more experienced and cohesive jk could take a win, but for this week, it's unlikely at best. 5-2 in favor of bote.

Menace To Society vs Kids Next Door

Menace To Society, after taking a win against Hateful Eight, are gearing up to play against yet another top team, this time in the form of Kids Next Door, who did not have as difficult of a first match as their opponents did. While in theory the two teams are closely matched, Kids Next Door have proved themselves to have issues on 5CP, and mTs are certainly a team who know how to play Process.

Ibby and Harbleu will probably be the MVPs for their teams, as both their strategies will be more effective on a 5CP map then otherwise. Katsy will be playing against her old team, which might give a boost to MTS if the strategies knd. use are similar to the ones they used when Katsy played for them. If m4risa shows up on Monday like she did last week, knd. should have signifigantly more issue than if they didn't have to worry about her. Similarily, Acooma on Spy may be enough to wreak havoc on knd.'s combo, moreso than Storm Erion will be able to. 5-4 in favor of Menace To Society.

Other Matchups

Elsewhere in Platinum, Hateful 8 and Dead Ringer Storage are hoping to pick up a victory against Route: Reborn and A Million Ways, after a Week 1 loss. Neither match should be too close, although DRS vs -aMw- should be a closer game than Hateful Eight's game against Route: Reborn.

Bring Your Esports and Tree Forest 2 match up, and the winner of such will be 2-0 and likely face the winner of one of the highlight matches. However, depending on how the scores end up, it's entirely possible that the winner of that match will face Chill Penguins, assuming they win their match against IFA, which is by no means a foregone conclusion. If Chill Penguins lose, however, then the winner of BYE vs ♣F2 will end up facing one of mTs, knd., bote, or Just Kidding, which doesn't bode well for the team that wins.

The final match, Wu Tang vs '92 Dream Team, will cause the winner to receive a signfigant moral boost with a win, as wu^ may find it difficult to find more wins later in the season, and '92 could use the boost a win gives them after a rough Week 1.