Another year, another reminder why we love THE TICKET. 15 teams duking it out for two playoff spots is recipe for glorious disaster and thankfully, we got just that. After surviving multiple best-of-ones and a couple of tech delays, Knicks Gaming took home their third TICKET banner. We’ll have a playoff preview coming later in the week, but since it was a short week, let’s go three hot topics and recap THE TICKET.

1. Kings of THE TICKET, Knicks Gaming

 

It’s a title that you may not necessarily want, but aren’t too disappointed to have. Knicks Gaming, for the third time in sux seasons, has made the playoffs through the last-chance qualifier. They last made it this way back in Season 4, a year that represented the end of their rebuild and supposedly, the end of their time in this tournament. However, plans change, and Knicks Gaming again needed to use its usual outlet to get back into the big money games. Their key this time around was a new defensive strategy, a 3-2 zone as it’s more commonly referred to. Stick playing the key cog in the middle defending the lane with Radiant and Malik flanking him trying to nab steals and get out on the break. Doesn’t hurt to have Burch and Type off the weakside either to get some blocks when needed. The real question is whether this strategy will work against Gen.G or heck, will it even be USED against the Tigers. Regardless, they survived and advanced. Onto the next.

 

2. DUX Catches Fire

 

THE TICKET is built for a team like DUX Infinitos. Over the course of two months, DUX put together a 7-10 record. They had a near 0 point differential, average defense, average offense, really nothing too special. But, going up against the fellow non-playoff teams, they flourished. Killeyy and Vandi came alive, the defense aligned itself, and they drove a three-game win streak into the playoffs. I’m not sure what to really expect out of them this week. They get Bucks Gaming in Round 1 and based off past TICKET winners, they will likely lose that game. But, anything is possible. I don’t doubt we will see a few upsets this week in general.

 

3. How I’m Voting For MVP This Year

 

We covered THE TICKET, so let’s do a little work on awards. Lots of talk this week about who could be MVP, but really it’s been based around, “how are people voting for MVP this season?” It’s a different set up this year, we’ve played two full game modes and have already been through the 3v3 playoffs, so you really can’t use the usual “it’s a regular season award” idea. Here is how I am doing it: every single game, playoffs and regular season, will help determine who I am voting for. I’ve thought about this probably more than is necessary and for me, I don’t see a better way to make it fair. We already have the 3v3 playoffs in our memory, we can’t just ignore the biggest week of the season so far for the sake of keeping the “regular season award” concept alive. All games count. Other people will vote differently and that’s okay! As long as we end up with the right award recipient at the end of the year, that’s all that matters.