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With Extreme Cues out of the race (in due time, thanks to such brilliant management at the top over there,) the National League has become a 7-team battle for five playoff spots. So we look at the three at the bottom of the NL - Lucky Shots, Pool Pals, Break and Run. Talent-wise, they're all together. And they're not as bad as their records would indicate.

The question surrounding Lucky Shots is will they keep their team for the full 14 weeks or will people just play for a month or so, and then quit and leave the dedicated ones to mop up the mess?

For Pool Pals, it's whether or not if/when trustneo returns, will too much damage already be done? Will this Pool Pals team be like the last PP group that started a season 0-5?

Break And Run has the same question every season - they always look like such an improved team... Will they ever actually deliver and make anything that resembles a Playoff run?

Perhaps two of those questions will be answered, or at least have some light shed on them, simultaneously on Tuesday night. While Break And Run will have the tall task of trying to overcome Pool Fiction, Pool Pals and Lucky Shots will also be playing... Each other. A combined record of 1-7 may never have had this much significance in all of MLP's 11 (soon 11.5) seasons. Two leagues that have underachieved at a level that would force pity from some who have had the misfortune of watching their matches. Pool Pals had its best shot to turn everything around on July 22nd. A 3-1 lead, with everything going their way, it looked like Pool Pals were about to avenge their opening night loss to Extreme Cues. Instead, Tourney Pool rallied for an amazing 4-3 victory, and the frustration in Back Spin started to mount.

Lucky Shots has had a similar fate. In their opening match, they battled Pool Fiction in what has turned into a Duke/UNC-esque rivalry. And again, as has happened many times before between PFN and LS, controversy and drama reigned supreme. Forgotten would be the 3-2 lead that Lucky Shots held over the 2-time defending Champs, when a tape was disqualified and a win reversed, giving Pool Fiction the 3-2 lead instead. PFN would win that match 5-2.

Lucky Shots does have the lone win between these two, however. A 5-2 win over the soon-to-be dead Extreme Cues, which was already on life support at the time, despite the 2-0 record. In that match, we saw the guys Lucky Shots needs, in order to win. Ray, Joey, Simon, etc.

Well, something's got to give this week. Someone actually has to win this match. For Lucky Shots, a win would spell what at this point would look like an insurmountable 2-game lead over Pool Pals and, presumably, Break And Run should Pool Fiction take care of them. This matchup will come down to simply who shows up, so I have two predictions just to cover myself. IF Ray, Joey, and Simon play this match for LS, they will win 4-3. IF even one of them does not play, Pool Pals by a small miracle will be on the winning end of that 4-3 score, and will, 36 days later, have win #1 on the season.