It's the second round of the playoffs here at Multiplay's i40 LAN event, and we have our first big match up.

That's right, second seed Fragmasters will be facing off against FORIN BEGGARS for a spot in the semi-finals. The astute amongst you will wonder why the 2nd and 3rd seeds are meeting in the second round of the Upperbracket. The astuter still, however, will point out that this is because of Fragmasters' unexpected second place in the groups. Fragmasters were beaten by watch and learn for the top spot of group B, losing out on round difference after a disappointing draw.

Whilst Fragmasters have stumbled, FORIN BEGGARS have excelled themselves. Coming through the groups without a single loss, they drew Aero.TGT in the first round of playoffs. Starting badly and giving the advantage to Aero, they slowly recovered to take the match home in style, 13-9.

Fragmasters' first round match was against Zero Empathy. They took a hard hit on the attacking side, going down 1-4. They pulled this back slightly to 4-8 at half time. they only really got going in the second half, forcing an overtime and taking it 16-13.

FORIN BEGGARS are not as inexperienced as Zero Empathy, and so if Fragmasters bottle the first half i can't see them staging a dramatic comeback. That said, for all the praise we laud upon FORIN BEGGARS, they can't match fragmasters man for man. if fragmasters hold their nerve and play consistently, they should be able to win this comfortably. However, if they start poorly, i can only see this going downhill.

The map is mp_citystreets, notorious for it's one-sided nature. This could be especially dangerous for fragmasters, as they risk allowing FORIN BEGGARS to gain a foothold on the weaker side, and then fighting an uphill battle to win it.

*UPDATE* - It looks like fm! sapphire held their nerve! They lost what many consider to be the harder side (attack) 7-5, and from there on they took to the game with a vengeance. They stormed to victory, not dropping a single round. "It was literally impossible," Harry "METAL" Forrestal commented; "they had every single site locked down."

07		13
Map: mp_crash
FORIN BEGGARS  Gavin "Rework" Rackley  Andy "Andehh" Yates  Paul "WELLSY" Wells  Harry "METAL" Forrestal  Aaron "SWAGGA" Haslam		Fragmasters Mark "Mark" Horner Chris "Stylez" Hart Leonidas "Killzx" Kyrkos Dan "VAE" Ball George "rAIVZ" Marsh