The San Francisco Optx are two games away from once again making the playoffs. And with the race for the last two spots as tight as ever with Carolina (4-6) and Chicago (4-5) breathing down their necks, it is paramount that the Optx emerge victorious in these last two contests to ensure their appearance for a second straight season. Their first game is against the winless LA compLexity, coming off probably the most painful loss of their season, a 25-19 loss to second place Dallas that saw them leading all the way into the second half of CSS. With any hopes of a playoff appearance dashed until the next Combine and Draft, Los Angeles is looking to play the part of spoiler, damaging as many teams' playoffs chances as they can. Here's the game-by-game breakdown:

Dead or Alive 4 Male:

NinjaCW (6-4) vs. Perfect Legend (3-6)

Season: 1-1
Our first match up pits a pair of rookies against each other, NinjaCW and Perfect Legend. Perfect Legend has been anything but, as nerves and poor play have damaged not only his record, but his team's franchise point total. Meanwhile, the second-ranked NinjaCW has been a great investment for San Francisco thus far, beating Season 1 mainstay's Offbeat Ninja of Carolina, Cheppelle of 3DNY, and playing toe-to-toe against 10-0 Master of Dallas. A surprise is in store for this match, as rather than a Gen Fu mirror match, Perfect Legend is electing to use alternate character Hayate. This late in the game, however, it could do even more harm than good. Go Ninja go Ninja go:

NinjaCW > Perfect Legend 5-3

Dead or Alive 4 Female:

Vanessa (9-1) vs. belle (0-9)

Season: 2-0
There's nothing that can be said about belle this season that hasn't been said. Likewise, most have exhausted all superlatives when speaking about Vanessa, except one: in her last match against Carolina, she showed a champion's spirit to come back from 4-1 down to beat Mystik 5-4, to maintain her dizzying career record. Vanessa keeps it going against LA:

Vanessa > belle 5-0

FIFA 08:

stermy^ (7-3) vs. KreeganBG (3-6)

Season: 2-0
LA's Kreegan is coming off of two big wins in CGS play, against Dallas' Barmoa and Chicago's eafra, and he recently took the Bronze Medal at the Pan-American World Cyber Games. He's adjusted to the gameplay changes in FIFA 08, and he's set his sights on OptX Captain stermy^, ranked second, a half game behind the aforementioned eafra. Stermy^ has proven more than deserving of being protected for this season, and his highly offensive style of play is a big reason for it. When these two meet, expect a FIFA match for the ages, but stermy makes it 3-0 against the Bulgarian Bruiser:

stermy^ > KreeganBG 2-0

CSS:

Optx.CSS (2-8) vs. coL.CSS (4-5)

Season: 0-2
Two games. Two losses, 13-5 and 10-8. That is the body of work San Francisco's fivesome has to show in two franchise matches against LA. And really, that's been the story the whole season. With only two wins to date, San Francisco has either struggled to keep it close, or been completely blown out of the water. On the other hand, when they keep it close, it has proven quite fruitful, but every single CSS player on this team knows that they want to finish the season 4-8, and get some momentum heading into the playoffs should they make it. But even at 4-5, compLexity is compLexity, and they'll win against tonight. OptX.css goes 2-9:

coL.css > OptX.css 10-8

Forza 2:

SACKAMONJARO/Miximup (4-6) vs. chavisan/GTO (2-7)

Season: 2-0
Like Kreegan, the LA racing duo has been cold for the majority of the season, but they too were able to score a big win against Dallas, denying #1 draft pick Muffinman his first win on Live TV. However, they're a career 0-2 against San Francisco, by scores of 6-1 and 5-2 respectively. LA GM Jason Lake needs his Forza duo to step up big against San Francisco to set up his CSS squad, but it won't come against San Francisco. Sack and Mix do it again:

SACKAMONJARO/Miximup > chavisan/GTO 5-2

Showdown!

LA's woes continue, as San Francisco goes to 6-5 with a 25-15 victory. Stay tuned to #optx on the Gamesurge IRC network, as well as the official San Francisco Optx site, and the Optx groups on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, the Steam Community, and Youtube, for the latest in Optx news, features, and scores! And tune in Wednesday at 10PM EST/7PM PST, as after Chicago and 3DNY battle, your San Francisco Optx take on the Los Angeles compLexity LIVE on DirecTV channel 101! Happy fragging, and GO OPTX!