Crunch's DOA4 Predictions, Week 2

Posted by: crunchtime

Written by Adam "Crunchtime" Minx, Assistant GM of the Carolina Core

After a week of interesting match-ups, the franchises are at it again this time with a stronger understanding of what they are really getting themselves into this season. Sandbagging is still an issue that plagues the matches, but hopefully not all divisions. Overall: Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas have looked fairly dominant in week one with their diverse and strong play. Will the other three cities be able to prove their contention this season?

*** These predictions are assuming each franchise will play their starting line-up, which is likely not the case ***

Chicago Chimera vs 3D New York

Dead or Alive: 4 Male

Jeremy and Manny duked it out last week in a close win by Master 5-4 on Gambler's. It was a very back and forth match and really could have gone either way, but Master capitalized in the end. Cheppelle comes off a deep cut from Complexity’s Perfect Legend, almost making it perfect, 5-1. BlackMamba and DChapp take their beef to Helipad this week, as I foresee Jeremy re-bounding and Cardell’s wound not completely healing.

Chicago Chimera 5 > 3 New York 3D

Dead or Alive: 4 Female

Kasumi and Cools are also coming off losses from their first week of preseason. Kasumi Chan had a closer bout with newcomer Phoenix, but was unable to finish with a win. As for Ms. Underwood, I am a little confused? At first I was wondering if you may be one of the handful who had been sandbagging to hide your true potential before the regular season blossoms. Yet, after losing to Belle… 5-1? Come on! One could speculate one way or the other, but if you are going to hide your skill for the real matches, at least make a showing against an opponent who had an abysmal first season (kudos by the way Megan). I can’t say that I see Tanya doing that well here either, as Kasumi’s loss may have fueled her fire to protect her image, regardless of match worth.

Chicago Chimera 5 > 2 New York 3D

Los Angeles Complexity vs Carolina Core

Dead or Alive: 4 Male

Even though this is preseason and alternates are being used, last week turned my head a little. OffBeat’s loss makes me wonder how strong his alternate play is going to be this season. Granted, I am not an in depth expert with Dead or Alive, but the hope is that his alternate practice is more focused on an overall style of play versus single characters such as GenFu. This is still preseason tho, and I refuse to speculate on anyone that one match that doesn’t count will really have an adverse effect on the outcome of the regular season. Unfortunately this week Ryan goes up against a strong PL. GenFu has been the “flavor of the moment” as of late, so this will be good practice to see if Ryan’s counter initiative against this character is really up to snuff, but I still see Carl edging out Ryan by a point.

LA Complexity 5 > 4 Carolina Core

Dead or Alive: 4 Female

Is Belle for real? She comes off a strong win against a quiet Coolsvilla who has been rumored holding back her true game. I do not want to jump the gun on this as much as I want to see Megan do well. If she continues her strong play through the preseason and not hide her skill like the others may have been, I think it will benefit her having positive momentum going into the season and striking some early fear into her opponents. Mystik on the other hand comes off a loss against last year’s champ, Vanessa. The match looked pretty close until the third round as Mystik may have got caught up in old habits. Mystik needs to go back to the tapes this week if she wants to welcome Belle to the runner up team of CGS’s World Finals. Kat needs to work on her nerves this week and not get frustrated if she encounters a Megan she has never seen before. If Mystik stays on her game and can overcome her last match flaws, I see her walking away with a win. I will say this though, if Belle wins I am going to have a hard time not seeing her as a contender this season.

Carolina Core 5 > 3 LA Complexity

San Francisco Optx vs Dallas Venom

Dead or Alive: 4 Male

Manny and Chris are coming off good wins against veteran players. Master edged out a win against BlackMamba as we watched NinjaCW take home a solid win for the Optx against Core’s OffBeatNinja. This will be one of the two most interesting games to watch during the preseason as far as Dead or Alive goes. This match up really depends on the alternates each use, if NinjaCW uses Bass I have a hard time seeing an experienced Manny lose. Beyond that, I am starting to hop on the NinjaCW bandwagon and watch a close one as Chris strikes another win in his favor against The Master.

San Francisco Optx 5 > 3 Dallas Venom

Dead or Alive: 4 Female

Hooray! Probably the best female match up of the week, as Vanessa takes on a hot to trot Phoenix. Pleet made a statement last week by working World Finals Champion Kasumi Chan 5-3 and looked to be in strong form. For Arteaga on the other hand it was business as usual drilling Mystik 5-1. I am normally a fan of the underdog; I want Michelle to give us a metaphoric display of what it would look like if the Great Wall of China came down. At this point in time though I think we will see another close one but Vanessa’s experience may be too much for Phoenix at this point in time. This is a reputation match for sure, as even Tom Brady may feel the sting of the losing bet at the combine. (Just kidding Bill!)

San Francisco Optx 5 > 4 Dallas Venom

The matches begin tonight at 7:00 PM EST, stay tuned to CarolinaCore.com for live updates including the post game video!