Not all is decided in the CEFL yet, and not all will after this week, but Ljubljana has a chance to clinch first place, and the Cowboys will try to stay alive.

The hottest team in the league, the Ljubljana Silverhawks, host the, it’s almost safe to say, former champions, the CNC Gladiators in a decisive week for them. If they win, it would give them a home playoff game — and it would give the league the biggest season turnaround to date, as the Silverhawks came back from an 0-3 start to the season.

For the Gladiators, slim hopes remain. They’re even slimmer when it’s considered that the reigning champions lost to the Silverhawks 0-39 at home two weeks ago, but still, it’s not over yet. On the plus side, they still play the Dukes, and if they manage to win in Vrhnika, a town just outside Ljubljana, where the Hawks will play their final regular season game, they’ll host the Serbian team with a tie breaker advantage in case of another win.

Tie breakers will probably come into play in the North, and the Cowboys could chip in to make things even more complicated if they beat the Wolves this week. The Budapest derby is a big game for both teams, as it counts for the Hungarian league too, but it’s a little bigger for the Cowboys, since they need to win to stay alive for at least the second playoff spot in the CEFL.

The Cowboys will be eliminated even if they win, in case the Dukes win in Austria next week, since the Dukes beat them twice. They’ll be eliminated even if the Silverhawks lose this week, and three teams — the Silverhawks, the Dukes and the Cowboys — finish with a 4-4 record, because they’re only 1-3 in mutual games against those teams.

They will advance however if the Dukes lose in Austria, and the Gladiators lose this week. A complete mess will be guaranteed if the Gladiators win both their remaining games — in that case, the Silverhawks, the Cowboys and the Gladiators will be tied at 4-4 with a 2-2 mutual record. Of course, a win is a must for the Cowboys.

The least interesting game will be played in Belgrade, where the league’s currently best team will host the worst. The Vukovi host the Zagreb Thunder, in what is safe to say will be light practice for the Vukovi for their biggest game of the fall — next week’s away game against the Blue Devils that will decide the best team of the South.