Hydra-Foil tops the league at an impressive 3-0, not to mention 14 wildcard points tallied. That's twice the count of the next closest team (RPN). Eden's team holds a record of 7-2 in duels and is an obvious favorite for post season festivities. If they win two of the remaining 3 matches, or win 1 and the Misfits fail to go undefeated in the back half of the season, they're in.

Royal Pain sits just below Hydra-Foil at 2-1, their loss coming at the hands of Eden's crew in week two. The two are set up to meet again this week with entirely different matchups, so we'll see if Jewell's team can even the score or if the Foils take one more step towards a spot in the final. A win puts the Pains in good shape to make the final, but they have the potential still either way. Lacking a big run by the Rock Hards in the weeks to come, this could come down to a week 5 re-match with the Misfits.

Kirost's Misfits dropped 2 of 3 in the opening weeks, their one victory coming in week 2 with a dominant shutdown of the Rock Hards. Week three against the Pains was awfully close though, losing by 2 points in a split decision. If Noah can rally the troops to another W against Kruger's team this week they can be set up for a week 5 Pains battle that could decide who moves on.

The Rock Hards have had better seasons. Dropping all three of their matches so far makes the road to the playoffs an uphill climb and then some. It can be done, but they're going to have to be close to perfect from here out. They hit week 4 with a rematch against the Misfits and this is going to be big for them. Lose that and have RPN pull out a win over the Foils and that'll be the end for Kruger's team.

We're halfway through and getting to a point where every duel counts. Don't miss the action!

Chemical Burn holds a commanding lead over Hydra-Foil after wins in both the swords duel and 3 WC value fists bout. Layla and Bile brought their A game and only gave up a combined 4.5 points to Eden's underdog crew, taking their lead up to an near insurmountable 13 - 4.5. Juliane Smith takes the ring against Xanth tonight at 9:30 needing to keep Xanth off the board entirely in order to push her team into the second round. That's no easy task against any duelist, let along the league individual stat leader. Juliane is a respectable 1-1 with a +2 differential in magic, but Xanth is 2-0 and +6 1/4, holding more WC points to his individual accomplishment than three full teams secured this season. I wish her luck, but have already chalked CHM into the next round.

At 10pm, Matt and Spider take the ring to conclude a much more closely contested Team Fist vs The Rock Hards match. Kruger started his team off nicely with a fists win over Lilith earlier in the week, but Apple made up the ground and then some with a drumming of Noah Bird in swords to give the Outback favorites a 2 point advantage. Both the previous bouts held a 3 WC value, so this final duel carries no extra weight. Matt finds himself in much the same position as he did in week 1 when TMF bested ROC; holding his team's hopes in a duel or arcana. Of course, the last time he was matched up against Kruger, who doesn't have quite the same arsenal as does the reigning Archmage. On the upside for the brawlers though, Matt doesn't actually need to win this one. If he can put up 4 points in a losing effort, TMF will still take the match. The smart money is probably on the drow here, but I like Matt's chances for making round 2.

In the battle for first place, Chemical Burn and The Rock Hards fought their final two duels. The first fight was Bile v Red in a fists bout that carried no extra weight. The pair started out slow, tied at 1 through six rounds before Red went on a scoring spree to bring the score to 4-2 in the 10th. It looked over, but Bile staged an impressive three round comeback to take the match 5-4 in 13 and extend CHM's match lead. The second bout was Deathlord's Minion and Kruger in swords. The Anvil was slow out of the gate, allowing Minion to take an early lead and keep it through a 2-1.5 fifth round. Starting in the sixth though, this was his show. In the 13th round he caught Minion cutting low with a well timed thrust and took the duel 5-3. Add in the three extra WildCard points and that was enough for ROC to win the match by a single point and seal up first place for the season.

The Rock Hards will move on to face the 4th seed in the playoffs and right now that's looking like its going to be Team Fist. TMF, by the way, is the team to account for the 1 in ROC's 4-1 record. Will Kruger and team be looking to make up for that mark on an otherwise perfect season, or do the Outback's favorites know something about this crew that the rest of the league wasn't able to figure out?

Chemical Burn earns 2nd place on the season, despite having the best duels won and PDPD stats in the league. Their shortfall? Wildcard points. Bile's crew played lowball this week and only put a single point up on the magic duel. Had they thrown a full three point value at that one it would have been the 2 points they needed to take the match. They're most likely facing the winner of the DCK v HFO match, which is still in progress. They beat both those squads this season, so probably aren't all that worried. Given their match against HFO was the most dominant victory by any team recorded this season though, I expect they're hoping for Eden to pull out the win.

In the lower seeds, the most important duel of the night was Matt v April in a 3 WC fists bout. News of a renewed playoff hope had Matt firing on all cylinders from the jump and he sailed to a 4-0 lead in the first four rounds. Perhaps kicking himself for pulling back on a snapkick in the fifth that would have closed things out, he faltered slightly in the next few rounds, allowing April to get 2 on the board with a snapkick in the 6th and a nice duck and counter combination in the 8th. It proved too high a hill to climb for April though and Matt brought this to a close in the 9th with a chop to take her out of the air. Team Fist takes the match 21-6 and pulled in 6 WC in the process, practically ending the aspirations of Royal Pain.

TMF and RPN end the season tied at 2-3 and holding 9 WC a piece. Matt's brawlers secured the higher points per duel differential though and, with that, secure themselves a playoff bid!

The final playoff spot is up for grabs still and hinges on tonight's Sal v Eden fists bout. This fight carries a league maximum 6 WildCard points and should be enough to catapult the winner into 3rd place on the season, while the losers begin a long off season vacation. There is one small caveat though and it's the one slim chance Jewell has of seeing her ladies make the post season. Sal and Eden could fight to a draw. If that happens, neither of their teams make the playoffs! TMF would jump up to 3rd and RPN would find renewed life at the 4 seed, since they would then hold the WC tie-breaker over the DCK squad.

I'll end with the quick wrapup of what the first round of the playoffs may look like based on the Deathcake v Hydra-Foil outcome, for those that weren't following along.

If Sal wins:

• ROC (1st) vs. TMF (4th)
• CHM (2nd) v DCK (3rd)

If Eden wins:

• ROC (1st) vs. TMF (4th)
• CHM (2nd) v HFO (3rd)

If they tie:

• ROC (1st) vs. RPN (4th)
• CHM (2nd) v TMF (3rd)

Hit the Outback tonight folks, this ought to be a good one!