Re-Live the 3rd Season of the CSL with Duran Parsi!

Following a highly successful Season 2, with the University of Waterloo fresh off their win, there was a fresh air of anticipation of Season 3. Registrations exploded and the number of participating teams increased by 20 – Season 3 featured 73 teams at the beginning. Canada had a much bigger representation this time, and many smaller schools also joined in the fray. While some playoff teams such as Texas and UCSB left the league, the amount of new teams would prove to provide a surprising stimulus. With the expansion of the league, the playoffs also grew, tallying 24 teams instead of the previous 16.

The Season
The season went down to the wire, with many teams barely scrapping through to the playoffs due to tiebreaks. McGill managed to beat out Tufts to take the third and final playoff spot in the first Eastern Conference Division despite having a worse set-record, their clutch play in the final match against Tufts was enough to seal the deal. In the Western Conference, the University of Michigan saw a striking revival, topping their Division and seeding directly into the Ro16 after missing out on the playoffs entirely in the 2nd season. Ohio State managed to secure the tiebreak for the final slot, while rival school Michigan State failed to pull through in the final week.

Back in the Eastern Conference, Waterloo, Toronto, Duke, and Georgia Tech stormed through the regular season, each preparing to avenge their previous seasons’ disappointing performance… well, except for Waterloo who was looking to repeat as champions! Not to be outdone, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, and U Vic out West were looking to secure their reputations from last season. The third season saw the resurgence of UC Berkeley, the Season 1 champions, who had a disappointing 2nd season. Berkeley took UCSD to the edge during the regular season and was able to snag a playoff spot.
Where there are winners however, there are bound to be losers, as Harvey Mudd and Caltech were unable to advance to the playoffs in a stacked Division 4 out West (with UCSD, UCI, and UCB taking the top three slots).

East Playoffs

The Eastern Conference playoffs pitted last-season rivals Toronto and McGill against each other in the first round. McGill, lead by their fearless captain Freaky barely managed to make their way and had to deal with the power of IefNaij. Unfortunately, McGill’s season was once again cut short, as Toronto moved on to the second round to face fellow their Canadian and Season 2 champion Waterloo. The match ended predictably, with Waterloo winning easily. Ottawa (more Canadians?!) awaited in the Eastern Semi Finals.

On the other side of the bracket, Duke managed to avenge their loss against Princeton in Season 2 by winning commandingly. Georgia Tech, Division rivals of Duke for two seasons defeated Cornell and went on to face Duke in the semis. Duke once again showed that they were serious about backing up their trash talk and committing to victory – knocking off the Yellowjackets, despite having the all-powerful Masterasia.
In a shocking turn of events, Ottawa managed to defeat last season’s champion in stunning fashion. After splitting the pre-set matches 2-2, dRaW faced Waterloo’s second best player (Jackass, the team stalwart was curiously missing from the match) Master in the ACE match. In a powerful display of Protoss mastery, dRaW emerged victorious, and Waterloo stood wondering what went wrong.

This set up a Cinderella match in the Eastern Conference finals, with Ottawa taking on the goliaths, Duke University. Unfortunately, Ottawa’s tournament run ended at the hands of the Blue Devils, as Duke easily took the match. Back atop the Collegiate world, Duke awaited the winner of the Western conference in the Grand Finals.

West Playoffs

UCSD, last season’s Western Conference champions were in for a tough road. Up first was Season 1 champion UC Berkeley, reinvigorated after a disappointing second season. Berkeley pushed UCSD to the edge, who ended up being saved by a familiar hero, Jaeyun, defeating Berkeley’s top play Chotazza in the ACE match. Next up for UCSD was long-time rival school UC Irvine. The match went smoother, with UCSD winning with a 3-1 score, with Andrew being the team’s only loss. On the other side of the bracket, two surprise schools met in the second round – USC and Washington. While USC, the home-school of the famous Day[9] was favored, Washington pulled off an upset to advance to the semi finals. The University of Michigan, another new face to the playoffs, also advanced to the semi finals after defeating UVic in the Ro8.

The semis proved to be a rout, with UMich easily defeating Washington with a 3-0 score. Michigan next squared off against UCSD in the Western Conference finals. The match began with UCSD’s Jaeyun taking the first win, followed by two crucial losses by Cheese and Andrew. Michigan found itself in a position to upset last season’s Western champs and make a surprise run to the finals, leading 2-1. In a surprisingly epic 30 minute bloodbath on Tornado, Xeris defeated Kevin from UMich to even the score at 2-2 and give UCSD another chance to advance. Jaeyun once again proved why he was the team’s ace, winning against former USA A team member CrAzY in the ACE match – UCSD once again advanced to the Grand Finals.

Stay tuned for a recap of the Grand Finals!