CSL Playoffs: Where Titans Fall

Throughout the 17 week regular season there were a great many teams that separated themselves from the rest of the 140 plus universities we saw at the outset. They battled and fought and climbed their way to the top of the standings. A brief snapshot of the top teams in each division shows that this is the season in which titans were born.

Indiana and Toronto: two CSL titans

These are the teams that have the star players, the multitude of “top 200” players, and a big student backing. The University of Toronto for example houses the God of Reaver and TSL 1 champion IefNaij. IEM NA finalist vVvMurDeR and VTgiX call Indiana University their home, and UBC graduate student coLStalife is one of the top terran players in North America. Despite the fact that most of the “non contenders” do not feature the same star power as the top teams, one must note that the skill disparity in the CSL this year is a lot less than last year: average skill level throughout the league has risen and as much as this was the season of titans, we have seen in the playoffs that it is possible for them to fall.

The first two are downed
Harvey Mudd College was the first to fall – despite the presence of the famous Qxc. His move to Spain hurt his team's chances and soon after the losses began piling up, what seemed like a mortal lock to make the playoffs turned into only a fleeting hope.

Duke? The 2nd place finisher last season in the CSL was unable to recapture their dominance and struggled from the outset of the season, quickly becoming something of an afterthought. Without Tyler, the team finished under .500 despite a victory against longtime rivals UNC.

The RO32 – revenge of the titans
A few surprises from the regular season aside, the CSL Titans seemed to be in a strong position entering the playoffs and the first round proved to validate many CSL Bracket Contest entries. Underdog teams like Stanford (made the playoffs in a tiebreak scenario), NYU (made the playoffs with a 3-0 victory in the final week of regular season play), Twin Cities, and U. Hawaii faced off against some of the heavy hitters in the CSL.

Stanford and NYU put up a collosal fight in the RO32, taking their opponents, RPI and Houston, respective, to the brink of defeat. Clutch ace play from xixeo (Houston) and Gensulitor (RPI) of those titans secured victory. Hawaii and Twin Cities however, were not so lucky, as the combined might of Toronto and Irvine were too much for them to handle.

The University of Toronto flexed their muscles and dominated the underdog team from Hawaii

Heavy favorites? Not so much...
Almost everyone picked Indiana University and the University of Toronto to advance to the quarterfinals and beyond in their CSL Bracket Contest entries. This past weekend though, their hopes of winning the contest were dealt killing blows, as both of these monstrous schools were eliminated from playoff contention. Season 3 champions, UCSD, took on Indiana University on Saturday. Despite starting the match 0-2, the Tritons were able to battle back, winning the 2on2 decisively and taking down the 4th set with a well executed cheese. The ace match pitted all star player vVvMurDeR against UCSD's Cheese, a player who has performed well on the ladder, but has had spotty performances so far in the CSL.

His two gate rush was thwarted, his DT tech was scouted, and things were not looking good for Cheese. When his first five templars were sniped by well placed tank fire, UCSD's season looked over – however MurDeR was unable to deal with an early templar tech and Cheese managed to win the ace match.

The University of Toronto quickly won the first set against RPI, but the second set saw an interesting unit mix by VPStreet taking down the Toronto player. Star player IefNaij and Bekho, a strong 2on2 team was set to play the RPI team. In the game lobby, IefNaij asked “what uni are we playing against?” and soon enough, he found out. RPI dominated the 2on2 to score a second win and all of a sudden, Toronto's back was against the wall.

The final match saw IefNaij against Gensulitor on Tal'Darim. Gensulitor's three barracks play proved to be the perfect counter to IefNaij's two gateway blink stalker opening. As a handful of stalkers spent its time harassing the wall off of Gensulitor, a scouting observer quickly revealed what was in store, as a huge throng of marines and marauders flooded out of his natural expansion, forcing IefNaij to retreat and scramble in defense. Unfortunately, the lack of reavers in Starcraft 2 took away the most feared weapon of the Canadian Protoss and Gensulitor was able to score the game-winning victory, sending Toronto home early.

Two more remain...
Although UCSD has largely been ignored in the “titan” discussion throughout the season, their two playoff wins against Georgia Tech and Indiana have served to restore their position of prominence. This leaves two powerhouses still on the field in the quarter finals. Waterloo, the Season 2 champions, and UCSD, the Season 3 champions are still deadly and hungry for a second championship.

The contenders are UC Riverside, Houston, UC Irvine, and UBC – all want to show that they deserve to be called the CSL's best.

The underdogs remaining in the event are McGill University, who only managed to advance to the playoffs due to the last minute withdrawal of UMCP, and RPI. RPI's performance last year in the CSL was underwhelming at best, but so far they have shown to be eager to prove themselves – their win against Toronto will surely put them in the discussion heading into next season.

Will UCSD be crowned champions of the CSL once again?