Okay folks, enough time has passed, and enough voices heard.  There is clamor for a playoff.

After Swiss, the standings are as follows:

J ...   4 ... 0.640
S ...  4 ... 0.600
L ...  4 ... 0.560
K ...  4 ... 0.520
O ... 4 ... 0.460
F ...  3 ... 0.720
A ...  3 ... 0.560 -- tie for 7th place
E ...  3 ... 0.560 -- tie for 7th place
G ...  3 ... 0.520 -- tie for 9th place
T ...  3 ... 0.520 -- tie for 9th place
M ... 3 ... 0.400
Q ... 3 ... 0.360
H ... 2 ... 0.520
N ... 2 ... 0.480
R ... 2 ... 0.440 -- tie for 15th place
U ... 2 ... 0.440 -- tie for 15th place
P ... 2 ... 0.400
B ... 1 ... 0.560
C ... 1 ... 0.440 -- tie for 19th place
I ...  1 ... 0.440 -- tie for 19th place
V ... 1 ... 0.360
D ... 0 ... 0.400

The top 4 is clear given OMW%.  So, there are no problems there.  Following established protocol, therefore, the matchups are as follows:

1) K ............. versus ........... J
Kolyarut x3                    Rakshasa
Sacred Watcher x2        Astral Stalker x3
Earth Mephit x1             Bat Familiar
Aramil, Adventurer x1    Timber wolf x2
Farmer x1                      Dire rat x2
Ratfang Sewers             Dragondown Grotto

2) L ............. versus ............. S
Kolyarut x2                   Marilith x2
Sacred Watcher x3       Tiefling Captain
Aasimar Favored Soul   Orc Wardrummer
Eberk                            Timber Wolf
Aramil                           Orc Warrior x3
Bat Familiar                   Hellspike Prison
Ratfang Sewers

I'm inclined to go with some speed voting, so we can get the challenge over and on to the next one.  But, I want everyone to have a chance, and, since Maxminis has been down, I won't go too fast.ÂSo preliminarily, I'm setting a deadline of midnight between Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th, New York time for this first playoff round.  Deadline extended to midnight between Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th.

Enjoy!

And, please, while it can be fun to vote for some bands for all kinds of weird reasons ("Hey, I really like the fact the Gelatinous Cube starts with a "G" instead of a "J" so I'm going to vote for band G), now that we're in a playoff, if you have reasons for your choices, please feel free to include them for everyone else to see.  That said, hopefully they'll be good reasons.

Dave

Please vote as follows:

1) A
Lots of interesting reasons why A beats B.

2) C
Lots of interesting reasons why C beats D.

Etc.

Thanks.

Dave

1) K
2) L

1)K
I consider this to be a very balanced game. Comparing the core of the 2 warbands,  3xkoly+2xsacred wathcers would probaly prevail against the rakshasa and stalkers. However, J could probably take advantage of superior speed(8 vs 6, although the watcher's incorporeal could compensate for that up to a point) and attempt to make the most of it's ranged attacks. How long can J run before K catches up it's debatable. Also, if any of the stalkers or the rakshasa fails saves for either morale or  hold monster things might get quite ugly for J.

2)L
I think that between 2 kolys and aramil there is just too much nerfing potential in order for S's mariliths to do much of an impresssion, Also,  the aasmiar's sound burst could be used to pick off fodder, ginving L's the activation control quite early in the game.

J) umm... Flipped a coin as this is a total toss up.

L) what LOB said +
L has better fodder
L's rebuffs means one marie at +11 for 5 dmg!!! It could happen to both!!!
L brought mw
L's only loss is to S... It won't happen again.
ratfang!!!
dual marie is a regular warband at one time, it doesn't belong in a WBC champ round.

1) J
2) S (Gotta be loyal here)

I could probably go back and count the votes cast by people in previous rounds in similar matches and skip the whole requiring-people-to-vote thing.



Dave

maries would near auto lose then due to 2nd marie band... L would win over J... But what about the L vs. K matchup?

1. J

Assume fight happens on the Grotto (with +4 commander advantage), J can probably get shots off as K approaches. Stalkers have Hide, K lacks anything with Illuminator. Will be a long match.

2. S

Commander 4 means a much greater chance of the action taking place in Hellspike than Ratfang. It also means that, so long as the Tiefling stays alive, S will win most Inits. Smoke and SR greatly reduce Aramil's chance to nerf a Mari.

1) J
2) S

K
S

What Damian said.

K
L

Promotes the virtual mirror match, but what the heck, I think that's the band build that owns this challenge.

1. K
2. S

1: J
2: S

1)K
2)L

1. J
70% odds of playing on J's map where K will have almost no chance to hit anything and will not be able to target the hiding stalkers. No targeting = no nerfs.

2. S
70% chance of landing on Hellspike really weakens the nerf rays of L. Even if a lone maralith gets nerfed they still have enough attacks to win out.

Present votes:

K8 > J6 (J is gaining)
S8 > L6 (S remains a little ahead)

I'm going to drag this one out until midnight--eastern time, US--between Wednesday/Thursday. The votes may end up the same (that is, with K and S winning), or they may change (they are close), but, all the other rounds got a week.

Dave

This round of the playoff is now finished. The final match, for the winner of WBC 14, will be K versus S.

See the appropriate thread to cast your vote.

Dave

boo I say... Until the next wbc at least.

Go k