Today starts the North American playoffs. As is standard with a four-seed playoff bracket, the #1 and #4 seeds will play each other, and the #2 and #3 seeds play each other. The winners will move on to the North American Finals, as well as receive automatic berths to the World Finals. The losers play each other to determine who ends up as #3, as the #3 team will receive a chance to make the World Finals as a Wild Card. Each of the four North American teams battled each other and the other two N.A. teams to make it this far, and through their success and failures, shocking defeats and come-from-behind upsets, your four playoff teams are as follows:

From left to Right, it is Game, Record, Point Differential, and Game Rank.

New York 3D: 10-2, plus-25 (#1)

CSS: 8-4, plus-15 (#2)
DoA Female: 7-4, plus-13 (#3)
DoA Male: 2-10, minus-23 (#6)
FIFA '08: 6-6, plus-3 (#3)
Forza 2: 8-4, plus-17 (#1)

It's easy to see why New York is going into the playoffs as #1. Tanya “coolsvilla” Underwood is undefeated in her last 4 matches, going an amazing 20-2 along the way. The Counter-Strike: Source squad has completely re-invented itself, thanks to rookies Jon “juan” Mumm and Nick “n0it” Nowakowski. The rookie Forza duo of Nick “Dark Storm” Brownrigg and Dan “ComeBackDan” Otto were also an integral part of New York's success. Even Cardell “Cheppelle” Thomas had his own share of clutch performances when New York needed it most, despite his dead last 2-10 record. New York, with top-3 performances in four of their games, is running on more than enough cylinders to easily make it to, and through, the CGS World Finals.

Dallas Venom: 9-3, plus-52 (#2)

CSS: 9-3, plus-36 (#1)
DoA Female: 8-4, plus-6 (#2)
DoA Male: 11-1, plus-33 (#1)
FIFA '08: 3-9, minus-8 (#6)
Forza 2: 5-7, minus-15 (#4)

The second-ranked Dallas Venom have the highest point differential of any playoff team, an astounding plus-52, thanks in large part to their two top-ranked games, Counter-Strike: Source and Dead or Alive Male. Manny “Master” Rodriguez went from a pretty-good 8-4 record last year, to nearly finishing the entire season undefeated. Meanwhile, the infusion of top Source talents Eric “brawwrski” Neer and Kyle “Mustang” Cummings, as well as the legendary Justin “sunman” Summy, enabled Dallas to overcome their last-place FIFA player Bardia “Barmoa” Moayedi, as well as the surprisingly underwhelming Justin “Muffinman” Anderson and Kevin “Cha0s” Parrish, as they hold the biggest deficit of any team in Forza with minus-15. And let's not forget that rookie DoA Female Michelle “Phoenix” Pleet holds the distinction of being the only player to beat Vanessa to date. Like New York, Dallas has more than enough tools to bulldoze their way through the playoffs.

San Francisco Optx: 7-5, plus-1 (#3)

CSS: 4-8, minus-25 (#5)
DoA Female: 11-1, plus-33 (#1)
DoA Male: 6-6, minus-1 (#3)
FIFA '08: 8-4, plus-2 (#2)
Forza 2: 4-8, minus-8 (#5)

Statistically, San Francisco is the the most inconsistent of the four playoff teams. The team begins and ends with Franchise Player Vanessa Arteaga, who like Master, carries an 11-1 record and a plus-33 point differential. OptX Captain Allesandro “stermy^” Avallone has proven worthy of his title, bouncing back from a 4-8 record in 2007 to a top-3 performance in 2008, overshadowed only by Chimera super-rookie eafra. Rookie Chris “NinjaCW” Harris has proven an able upgrade from Cheppelle, battling the likes of Offbeat Ninja, Black Mamba, and Master, and coming through with a 6-6 record and a marginal minus-1 point differential. Balancing out those successes, however, have been the poor play of the retooled CSS lineup, who struggled all season with coming together as a team to play to their potential. They showed signs of that in their last two matches, a 13-5 victory over Los Angeles and a 10-8 victory over Chicago. Interestingly, San Francisco is not dead last in any of their games, but they need their CSS and Forza squads to step up if they want to surprise the top two teams and make it to Worlds.

Carolina Core: 4-8, plus-17 (#4)

CSS: 5-7, plus-3 (#4)
DoA Female: 5-7, plus-1 (#4)
DoA Male: 7-5, plus-8 (#2)
FIFA '08: 5-7, minus-3 (#4)
Forza 2: 8-4, plus-8 (#3)

While San Francisco is most inconsistent, Carolina on paper is the weakest. Though they were the only team to beat 3DNY before Los Angeles, unlike New York and the other teams, Carolina lacks a #1 game, a top-3 in at least three franchise games, and perhaps most telling, a double-digit positive point differential in any game. Even “Mr. CGS,” Ryan “Offbeat Ninja” Ward was only able to manage a 7-5 record and plus-8 point differential, despite a #2 ranking in his game. The CSS team, featuring newcomer Cyrus “org” Habibi, talked a big game thanks to Hoang “s0nny” Tran's infamous Blog Heard 'Round the World, but in the season, they were outdone by the very players he trashed, including a vicious 15-3 shellacking at the hands of New York early in the season. On the bright side, they have no game ranked lower than fourth, and their Forza duo of Joe “Phantom” Tackett and rookie Eric “General E Live” Earley have come through for a franchise-best 8-4 record. Carolina's biggest problem, however, is the lack of a standout game or individual. Championship runs may be more than mere statistics and head-to-head matchups, but when the chips are down, who will Carolina be able to count on?

These are the four teams who will be battling for the right to call themselves CGS 2008 North American Champions, as well as the chance to play for the 2008 CGS World Championship. New York will play Carolina, while San Francisco battles Dallas. Will New York have an easy time of their match, or will Carolina prove to be more than the sum of their parts and stun the #1 team? Will Dallas and Master dominate, or will San Francisco's CSS squad continue to play to their potential? All the drama, the heartache, and the jubilation will take place live on DirecTV channel 101, so stay tuned!