Days have gone by. Matches have been played. Opportunities to win have come and gone. None of those things has been a pressing issue throughout most of the season, but time is no longer a luxury with Championship Weekend less than a month away.

Some teams already know where they’re headed once the regular season ends. The Chicago Wind have already planned their flights to Fremont, Calif., while the Los Angeles Spinners will be watching from home. As for the other eight teams, their Season 3 fate still hangs in the air. And when Week 14 ends on Sunday, all eight of these remaining teams could know where they will be from April 18-19.

This weekend, four teams have the power to decide the playoffs. The Portland Paddlers hope to earn the final spot in the West Division. The Bay Area Blasters are fighting to stay alive. The Carolina Gold Rush and New York Slice sit at the top of the East Division, and they could lock those spots in with a bit of luck.

Winning would not only put these four teams in prime playoff position, but it would cripple any rival not scheduled to play in Week 14. Whether or not they do so depends entirely on how many points they score.
‍

‍Locking Up the West Division

The Portland Paddlers should have the number “54” in the back of their minds all weekend.  That’s the number of points they need to clinch the final postseason spot in the West Division. It won’t be easy; that’s the equivalent of finishing every match with 18 points. But if they can reach that number, there’s nothing anybody else can do about it. The Bay Area Blasters can score their maximum point total of 222 points and would still finish their season behind the Paddlers in that scenario.

That doesn’t change the fact that 54 is a daunting number, regardless of how fortunate they would be to make it there. There’s good news for Paddlers fans, though. Fifty-four the absolute highest number of points that Portland needs to score, and the number will go down with every point Bay Area drops. If Bay Area loses three points, then Portland only needs 51. If Bay Area loses five points, then Portland just needs to score 49. And if Bay Area manages to score less than 26 points … the Blasters eliminate themselves from the playoffs.

The latter scenario would remove Portland’s biggest obstacle to a guaranteed playoff spot. If that happens, Portland would only need to score 16 points to secure a spot at Championship Weekend. That would eliminate the Texas Smash from playoff contention, which means Portland would automatically assume that final playoff spot.

These numbers will almost certainly change as the week goes on, but Portland has a real chance at earning a spot at Championship Weekend before Sunday ends. It’s up to Portland to take that spot for themselves, but Bay Area should know its marching orders if they want to keep their hopes alive for another week.

‍

A Race in the East

If Championship Weekend started today, the Carolina Gold Rush and New York Slice would represent the East Division. They lead the division with 164 points and 161 points respectively, and they’re well-positioned to earn more this weekend. And because they are the only teams playing this weekend, the worst that could happen is that they remain in a top-two spot in the division.

Their best-case scenario for the end of the weekend? Both teams could earn a spot at Championship Weekend. For that to happen, Carolina needs to score 50 points, and New York needs to finish with 53. That would eliminate Princeton, Atlanta and Florida all in one weekend, locking both Carolina and New York into top-two seeds.

These two teams possess incredible power over the East Division throughout the weekend, even without a playoff spot on the line. Florida will miss the playoffs if Carolina scores 14 and New York scores 17 this weekend. Atlanta’s season ends in Week 14 if Carolina scores 27 and New York scores 30.  If both teams eliminate Atlanta, that leaves only them and Princeton eligible to make the playoffs. In that scenario, whichever team finishes Week 14 with a better record earns a postseason berth. If the better team scores enough points this weekend to eliminate Atlanta, but the lesser team does not, then the team with the higher point total will compete at Championship Weekend.

 If these two teams want to book their tickets to Championship Weekend a little early, they must score as many points as possible. One-third of their remaining points can be earned on Saturday at 4 p.m. EST … against one another. Given how close these two teams are in the East Division race, the winner of that match likely locks up the East’s top spot until Week 15 begins. And if both teams score enough to eliminate Atlanta and Florida, the winner of that match will make it to Championship Weekend.

In that scenario, winning that match would add to each team’s legacy and rewrite MLTT history. New York has a chance to make its first postseason in team history. Carolina could earn a chance to defend its Season 2 title. Both teams could achieve these lofty goals by the end of this weekend, but with no more matches left to play for either squad after Week 14, this will be their last chance to head to Fremont, Calif., in the driver’s seat.

‍

Active Rosters

‍

‍Carolina Gold Rush:

‍Available: Enzo Angles (SPINDEX: 2770), Eugene Wang (2811), Chen Sun (2602), Wei Wang (2672), Kai Zhang (2621)

Questionable: Edward Ly (2710)

Out: Mohamed Shouman (2655), Siu Hang Lam (2701)

‍

New York Slice:

‍Available: Tao Wenzhang (2747), Kaden Xu (2690), Jessica Reyes (2389), Koki Niwa (2788), Yiran Wu (2692), Haaeun Choi (2562)

Out: Jishan Liang (2693), Haocheng Wang (2720)

‍

Bay Area Blasters:

‍Available: Elsayed Lashin (SPINDEX: 2737), Taehyun Kim (2735), Senura Silva (2600), Kwang-il Baek (2608), FA Angela Guan (2489), FA Johan Hagberg (2615)

Out: Lily Zhang (2606), Jinbao Ma (2756), Ge Chi (2507), Yang Cheng Huang

‍

Portland Paddlers:

‍Available: Minhyung Jee (2491), Nikhil Kumar (2780), Sid Naresh (2683), Min Hyeok Kim (2728), Hampus Nordberg (2732), Kotomi Omoda (2590)

Out: Jens Lundqvist (2751), Kang Dong-Soo (2788)

‍