It is March and there are a few things that are guaranteed: winter in Canada and March Madness. This past week was the start of March Madness with 68 teams making the prestigious NCAA Basketball Tournament. With 68 teams instead of the normal 64 team bracket, the week started early with what they are calling the First Four. One standout from the First Four were No. 11 Syracuse, a.k.a. The Orange Crew, along with coach Jim Boeheim started off the week by beating No. 11 Arizona State, then No. 6 TCU, and finally continuing their hot run by beating powerhouse No. 3 Michigan St. It wouldn't be March Madness without buzzer beaters and upsets and No. 11 Loyola Chicago were able to do both in the 1st weekend of the tournament. First, they beat No. 6 Miami with a buzzer beater from the logo and then continued their Cinderella run upsetting No. 3 Tennessee with another last second game winner. Upsets didn't stop there as No. 13 Buffalo destroyed No. 4 Arizona even with one of the best prospects, DeAndre Ayton; and then No. 13 Marshall defeated No. 4 Wichita State with some controversial video review at the end of the game. Then the most surprising upset was No. 16 UMBC pulling off a miracle and demolishing No. 1 Virginia. This is the 1st time a No. 16 beat a No. 1 in the NCAA Tournament. A couple of other teams that advanced to the Sweet 16 were No. 7 Nevada, who came back from 22 points down to knock off No. 2 Cincinnati, and No. 3 U of Michigan. Jordan Poole of No. 3 U of Michigan repeats history with another buzzer beater to beat No. 6 Houston; he did it once in high school and now again in March Madness.
The Inaugural Season of the Overwatch League is currently in Stage 2 Week 4. Personally, the hype has kind of died for me as my favourite team, Dallas Fuel, have been struggling to say the least. I am still following along with the league week to week, but I can tune-in every week unless there is an all Korean matchup; a match between London, New York and/or Seoul. These matches are always highly entertaining and played at the highest level as Koreans are still considered the top players in Overwatch. This week, we were spoiled with 2 all Korean matches: New York vs Seoul on Wednesday and then Seoul vs London on Saturday. Seoul came into the week at 6-0 and 1st place in Stage 2, but they were facing arguably the best 2 teams in the league. New York and Seoul battled it out 5 maps, where New York outlasted Seoul taking the series 3-2. This propelled New York into 1st place in Stage 2 by having a better map differential than Seoul. Seoul had 2 days to recover and bounce back against London, but it didn't turn out so well as they were swept 4-0, dropping them to a 6-2 record and falling to 4th place on map differential. Seoul missed out on on the Stage 1 Playoffs on map differential as well, so they will be focused on dominating their Week 5 matches to not let that happen again.
The League of Legends Spring Split came to an explosive ending with Week 9 this past weekend. The Top 6 teams were all separated by 2 games, so there was a mad scramble for the playoffs. Echo Fox and Cloud9 were looking to keep their first round byes in the Top 2, Clutch Gaming and 100 Thieves were looking to steal a spot in the Top 2, while Team Liquid and Team Solo Mid were looking to improve their positioning. Almost every possible outcome of Week 9 would result in tie-breakers and it was mathematically possible for all teams to finish tied at 11-7, which would force a crazy 6 team tie-breaker. Echo Fox secured their Top 2 position with a win on Saturday and Counter Logic Gaming were officially eliminated from playoff contention with wins by Team Liquid and Team Solo Mid. Sunday came and gone, but nothing was settled after 18 regular season games. 100 Thieves defeated Echo Fox to join them in the Top 2, while Cloud9 lost to drop down to 3rd. Clutch Gaming, Team Liquid, and Team Solo Mid all did their part to force a 4 way tie for 3rd place. This meant that there would be 5 tie-breaker games that would need to be played. First up was the battle for 1st place with 100 Thieves taking down Echo Fox once again to steal 1st place away. Next, we had a randomly drawn tie-breaker bracket to determine 3rd to 6th place. Maybe not surprisingly to many, Team Liquid and Team Solo Mid won the first set of tie-breaker games to secure at least a 4th place finish. In a battle between two early season favourites, Team Solo Mid won out against Team Liquid and took 3rd, while meme team Team Liquid finished 4th. Cloud9 and Clutch Gaming faced off for 5th place, where Cloud9 were able to win out, dropping Clutching Gaming to 6th. After a crazy Sunday with 10 games played, we finally have our playoff picture.
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