A week later and the unofficial is pretty much official. Side 1 vs Side 2. A lot has happened/is happening at the time of writing. So much so that I'm actually kinda excited to write this one. I will warn that I was pretty busy last week, so if I miss a detail here or there, feel free to correct.
1) Just For Laughs/EmotionalBaggageBandits/Just For Giggles- I'd say that it's been a pretty solid week for them. But I'm biased, obviously. They've made some progress on the SP front, picking on some of the weaker players and taking cities in the UNC core of O44 and (presumably) causing some of them to get dropped. But up north, its pretty much stalemated with JFL making slow, steady progress, but UNC getting their own licks in. Their break through moment has been down south, where Coaching, The 99, and Bandit70 ghosted. The current score I've honestly lost count of and could be interpreted a few ways. From Grepolife, its 53-7 assuming that you include Supervisors/Diamond. If you count ghosts/kicked under siege/dropped from the alliance/etc. Its 85-7. That's obviously healthy and there's momentum but they've also faced their own set backs with Moungthong being perma banned. The main question that I'd have is if they can keep it moving after the event. I think that's where the world will largely be decided. If they can keep it rolling, then yeah, UNC will have to work some magic. If not... well I need something to talk about for UNC so I'll talk about that below. SWIM.
2) UNDEAD CORPORATION/Surprise Party/Surprise of Aegis/Tag Team/Supervisors- Yeah so I'm not gonna BS this one. Rough week. Tom Tom Tom quit and bled cities all over the place, 3 ghostings the majority of which ended up in JFL hands, and Diamonddogz banned into 6 cities lost to JFL/EBB, and a lot of cities now in JFL hands as a result and likely more will be on the way. They do also have some highlights in the Moungthong banning and in taking a city off of Charlie (more CIA nonsense by Yoro). I'm not ready to write them off, but I do have some concerns. The post event will be huge for them. If they can get going when the flyers are off, they're back in business. Alternatively, if they can't and worse, JFL kicks it up a notch instead, then this is going to get rough. If outright winning a fight isn't possible, then the worst case that they can allow is making this into a dom management game, which based on EN173, is something that I think they have an advantage in. But all of that aside, my very candid opinion is that these guys probably should have landed in O54, with only their core group, and just gone for it all out of the gate. Either they win and cruise this world or they're out enjoying the weather right now. Its kinda odd to see a team with a handful of Meme/Koany2012 players not hard push to do that. FLOAT.
3) GOT- Lion needs to drop a new music video. That said, they are starting to make their way back down into O44 and O54. Maybe they will try to play for dom? FLOAT.
4) Ocean Warriors- They have fellow noob team enjoyer in Hirvanix. This could be a team that pushes to merge into a dom team and picks up some secondary spots. But otherwise, they just kind of exist. FLOAT.
5) Shadow- Seems to be mainly O55. Has Lord Prometey. That's about all I know. Don't see them lasting indefinitely. SINK.