Core Miracles Way Into Playoffs, Despite Another Loss

Posted by: MarkDolven

The Carolina Core snuck into the 2008 North America playoffs despite losing their last five games. Their latest defeat was this afternoon when the Venom racers stole the franchise match for Dallas in the very last turn from Carolina. The day started off strong for the Core as Offbeat Ninja handed Master his first loss of the season. The Venom got some momentum back in the second game when Barmoa scored a late goal to send the game to a penalty shootout, which he subsequently won. In DOA Female, it was the showdown everyone expected, but Phoenix eventually managed a 5-4 victory over Mystik. In the CSS match, the Venom came out unstoppable in the first half with a 8-1 defensive side on Inferno, but the Core was able to slightly rebound with a 7-2 of their own. This meant that Dallas won the CSS game, but the Core kept it close enough to put it in the hand of the Core's league-leading racers. The race went down on Tsukuba with Chaos taking a lead into the final lap. Phantom was able to take him out which allowed GEL into the lead, but but on the following turn, Chaos returned the favor when he slammed Phantom into GEL. Phantom escaped the mayhem in first and started to take the final turn of the race, but all of the crashing had allowed Muffinman back into the race and he tapped Phantom into the wall. This meant that Dallas won the race and the overall franchise match.

The Core's playoff hopes were then on hold until the following game between Chicago and San Francisco. Because of the Core's loss, Chicago would be the fourth seed in the playoffs with a win of their own. The Optx rallied behind Vanessa and their CSS team and booked the Core's trip to the playoffs with a victory over the Chimera. The Core will now enter the playoffs as the #4 seed and they will face off against #1 3D New York on Wednesday night.

CGS Region 1 Season 2

Carolina Core [4-8]

22

Dallas Venom [9-3]

24

CSS:

Core

(8)

Venom

(10)

Forza:

Phantom

(2)

MuffinMan

(4)

Forza:

General E

(1)

Chaos

(0)

DOA M:

Offbeat Ninja

(5)

Master

(2)

DOA F:

Mystik

(4)

Phoenix

(5)

FIFA:

Anomaly

(3)

Barmoa

(4)