The ICPL Old Bay Classic drew 48 teams: 16 Pro 10 Versus 10; 18 Amateur 10 Versus 10; 7 Open Division 5 Versus 5; and 7 Amateur 5 Versus 5. Even the team counts for ICPL events are similar to the mid-1990s NPPL events, where events like the 1994 DC Cup, 1997 Las Vegas and others drew between 36 and 48 teams.
Pro Teams & Games
Being the first ICPL even of the season, everyone has a fresh start as the standings are reset to zero for all teams. Ac: Empire, last year’ s Pro rankings winner did not enter this first event for 2025. Image( 2nd place last season), Smoke( 3rd), Aftershock( 4th), Farside( 5th), Infamous( 6th), MVPS Dark Ops( 7th) and All Americans( 8th) all returned for this first 2025 ICPL event.
Ten Versus Ten Pro Games
Out of the gate the OG Hurricanes won a close, low-scoring game versus Chicago Aftershock 19- 13. This would be telling as the Hurricanes, with Pro players Billy Bernacchia, Francis Antetomaso Jr, Kyle Nicholaou and bunch of Division One, Two and Three players would go undefeated the remaining six game of the preliminary rounds. Likewise won five of their remaining six prelim games. Both teams advanced.
Farside, with only one rostered Pro player( Conner Kelley), tallied five max( 90 points-plus) wins in the preliminary rounds. Adrenaline, Infamous and the All Americans each maxed four of their seven preliminary rounds games.
The ICPL semifinals consist of three brackets with three teams in each. The three brackets each play a two-game round robin set, with the winner of eac moving onto the finals. Typically, round robin games are played much more slowly and carefully. One elimination can be the difference between making the finals and going home early. And these Pro semifinals were no different.
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