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So some of the regular caps like me and Draft decided to sit out this season, which resulted in Ease making his first return to TWDT captain after his awful team "Underground" from a few seasons ago. While it seems Ease may have fared alright, the same could not be said of many of the other captains today...
At any rate, here's a quick breakdown of the warbird lineups - I'm not going to talk about other leagues, because they're terrible and I don't know anything about them.
Baby Eater (Super Bozo)
All I really know of Aura is that he's a baser, and he emo'd out on me like 3 seasons ago when I didn't add him over Dead_Rain in base or something. He went ahead and made great choices for his first three picks (Myth, vys, shayde), and then started making some random basing picks. Rounding out his warbird lineup appears to be badjob, high templar, rasaq, sir spider, and sirius.
Likely starters: mythril, vys, rasaq, sir spider, ayn
Notes: this is probably the winning team in warbird. mythril shows up to every game and is good enough to keep vys happy, and the other players are team-first types that can also push the pace. My only critique is lack of depth, and if Bozo can be quick in free agency, he can patch those holes up and field a solid 5 wbs every game.
BONK! (Vehicle)
Not much to say here, except that Zidane clearly wasn't going for warbird. I'm seeing Claushouse, Esau, and MM89 as the only people that can hold their own. Maybe he can pick up Sika and Scoop in FA...
Likely starters: whoever asks to be added in wb
Boner Soup (Jerome)
Another team that doesn't seem to be focusing on wb, Jerome did pick up some good TWDT warbirds in Guero, Mattey, Poxy, Ricko, and Trasher. Again, not enough power or depth here unless he does something big in FA.
Likely starters: whichever 5 show up
Dun vs Me (Hulk)
I always thought Hulk was like a younger, smarter version of i.d., cuz she actually plays well and doesn't draft people like Mikes and Caos who never show. Some nice picks here with Engineers, Riverside, Raazi, Turban, Unabled, Zagis, Iron Survivor, Rookie, and picking up Geio in trade for... Kira~yamato and Euforia. The same Kira who never showed last season and the same Euforia who had trouble keeping a 5-10 average in javs.
Likely starters: Riverside, Engineers, Unabled, Turban, Geio
Notes: Unabled might not be able to show every week, and Geio definitely won't be showing to a lot of games, but there's still enough depth with guys like Raazi and Zagis on this squad to play well, especially if Eng and Riv show to most games. You do have to wonder if last-spot LD playoffs Riverside or LD champ Riverside will show up, but either way, this team should be contending with Baby Eater for the top spot.
Lemon Tree (Dral)
Oh boy... let's list the damage here... Chuckle, Flop, Jaa, Joyrider, Wiibimbo, and um... Bietje. We had Geio but he pulled the "I have work on Sundays, I can't show" trick for the 5th straight season and forced his way off. Quote Dral: "I picked Chuckle first because he was 4 stars and should be higher". If the point of TWDT is to give newer players a chance to play against vets, this is the squad to do it on. Yep, Bietje was drafted before Engineers. Unless Dral is saving those points for Demonfaze and Fireballz, I don't see anything else that can buy this lineup a win.
Likely starters: whoever has over a 1:1 ratio in pub 0
Nimrook (Ease)
Ease got burnt last time when he picked vys first... never again. He stuck with mostly his Thunder people again, and it should work out pretty well. Alphabetically, he's got beam, crimsonx, ease, jones, necromotic, oops, qpr, rainbow seeker, saetep, zizu, and zyphen, which probably makes this the deepest team and the one most likely to consistently show every week with a full lineup. He's got maketso and fludd in javs and the only two people left in the zone who seem to know how to play base jav (m_m and necro), and I figure he'll find some way to fill out his basing lineup.
Likely starters: ease, crimsonx, jones, saetep, zyphen
Notes: There's a lot of players on this team who can do well in wb, including beam, necromotic, oops, qpr, rainbow seeker, and zizu, and it just depends on who shows up. Ease is mad cocky so he'll probably sit a few games just so he doesn't risk his reputation on this nerdy draft league. This team should easily be in the top 3 for warbird.
Calculus Crusaders (royst)
Besides the terrible name and awful picks, royst actually came out with some decent players by the end... if they ever show up. From the top, ardour, burg, cres, keith, paska, skepsis, and spikey seems to be their birds.
Likely starters: cres, keith, skepsis, spikey, ???
Notes: lack. of. depth. if paska and burg ever show up, they should be solid additions to the lineup. I wasn't aware of the fact that ardour even played anymore. can cres finally live up to his self-awarded twld rookie of the year title?
Reign (fahrenheit)
Apok's always been considered a pretty popular player and typically known as one of the top warbirds in the zone for at least the last several years - the thing is, he doesn't squad with many people. Usually he's the cap of whatever squad he's on, and that squad is almost always exclusively warbird. The net result is that while he's known in name, not many people actually know the guy or know how he plays. The TWDT application is that he usually gets drafted by someone who overvalues him and expects Apok to carry an otherwise normal lineup. They always get burnt when he doesn't show up.
Likely lineup: Apok, dak, a2m, spaceship, starweaver
Notes: rednaz and demonic also capable. I can tell you already, apok is going to get mad at players like dak and demonic, when he starts getting triple teamed while his teammates are a full screen behind him lobbing shots. Still, one or two more active warbirds who can push the pace could make this a dark horse in twdtd.
Eight teams, with 4 legitimate contenders for the TWDTD crown, 2 teams who didn't draft enough warbirds, 1 team that can go either way, and 1 team that doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell. I don't think we've ever seen this kind of imbalance in the past - maybe it's because we've lost a lot of the competitive warbirds of the last few years, and not as many have stepped up to fill the void - but either way, if the point of the league was to give more players a chance in organized 5v5, it's as good of a time as any.
Keep in mind that weekday games are still in effect, and even if you don't get a chance to play in the early weeks, know that if you continue to show up, you will get your shot eventually!
At any rate, here's a quick breakdown of the warbird lineups - I'm not going to talk about other leagues, because they're terrible and I don't know anything about them.
Baby Eater (Super Bozo)
All I really know of Aura is that he's a baser, and he emo'd out on me like 3 seasons ago when I didn't add him over Dead_Rain in base or something. He went ahead and made great choices for his first three picks (Myth, vys, shayde), and then started making some random basing picks. Rounding out his warbird lineup appears to be badjob, high templar, rasaq, sir spider, and sirius.
Likely starters: mythril, vys, rasaq, sir spider, ayn
Notes: this is probably the winning team in warbird. mythril shows up to every game and is good enough to keep vys happy, and the other players are team-first types that can also push the pace. My only critique is lack of depth, and if Bozo can be quick in free agency, he can patch those holes up and field a solid 5 wbs every game.
BONK! (Vehicle)
Not much to say here, except that Zidane clearly wasn't going for warbird. I'm seeing Claushouse, Esau, and MM89 as the only people that can hold their own. Maybe he can pick up Sika and Scoop in FA...
Likely starters: whoever asks to be added in wb
Boner Soup (Jerome)
Another team that doesn't seem to be focusing on wb, Jerome did pick up some good TWDT warbirds in Guero, Mattey, Poxy, Ricko, and Trasher. Again, not enough power or depth here unless he does something big in FA.
Likely starters: whichever 5 show up
Dun vs Me (Hulk)
I always thought Hulk was like a younger, smarter version of i.d., cuz she actually plays well and doesn't draft people like Mikes and Caos who never show. Some nice picks here with Engineers, Riverside, Raazi, Turban, Unabled, Zagis, Iron Survivor, Rookie, and picking up Geio in trade for... Kira~yamato and Euforia. The same Kira who never showed last season and the same Euforia who had trouble keeping a 5-10 average in javs.
Likely starters: Riverside, Engineers, Unabled, Turban, Geio
Notes: Unabled might not be able to show every week, and Geio definitely won't be showing to a lot of games, but there's still enough depth with guys like Raazi and Zagis on this squad to play well, especially if Eng and Riv show to most games. You do have to wonder if last-spot LD playoffs Riverside or LD champ Riverside will show up, but either way, this team should be contending with Baby Eater for the top spot.
Lemon Tree (Dral)
Oh boy... let's list the damage here... Chuckle, Flop, Jaa, Joyrider, Wiibimbo, and um... Bietje. We had Geio but he pulled the "I have work on Sundays, I can't show" trick for the 5th straight season and forced his way off. Quote Dral: "I picked Chuckle first because he was 4 stars and should be higher". If the point of TWDT is to give newer players a chance to play against vets, this is the squad to do it on. Yep, Bietje was drafted before Engineers. Unless Dral is saving those points for Demonfaze and Fireballz, I don't see anything else that can buy this lineup a win.
Likely starters: whoever has over a 1:1 ratio in pub 0
Nimrook (Ease)
Ease got burnt last time when he picked vys first... never again. He stuck with mostly his Thunder people again, and it should work out pretty well. Alphabetically, he's got beam, crimsonx, ease, jones, necromotic, oops, qpr, rainbow seeker, saetep, zizu, and zyphen, which probably makes this the deepest team and the one most likely to consistently show every week with a full lineup. He's got maketso and fludd in javs and the only two people left in the zone who seem to know how to play base jav (m_m and necro), and I figure he'll find some way to fill out his basing lineup.
Likely starters: ease, crimsonx, jones, saetep, zyphen
Notes: There's a lot of players on this team who can do well in wb, including beam, necromotic, oops, qpr, rainbow seeker, and zizu, and it just depends on who shows up. Ease is mad cocky so he'll probably sit a few games just so he doesn't risk his reputation on this nerdy draft league. This team should easily be in the top 3 for warbird.
Calculus Crusaders (royst)
Besides the terrible name and awful picks, royst actually came out with some decent players by the end... if they ever show up. From the top, ardour, burg, cres, keith, paska, skepsis, and spikey seems to be their birds.
Likely starters: cres, keith, skepsis, spikey, ???
Notes: lack. of. depth. if paska and burg ever show up, they should be solid additions to the lineup. I wasn't aware of the fact that ardour even played anymore. can cres finally live up to his self-awarded twld rookie of the year title?
Reign (fahrenheit)
Apok's always been considered a pretty popular player and typically known as one of the top warbirds in the zone for at least the last several years - the thing is, he doesn't squad with many people. Usually he's the cap of whatever squad he's on, and that squad is almost always exclusively warbird. The net result is that while he's known in name, not many people actually know the guy or know how he plays. The TWDT application is that he usually gets drafted by someone who overvalues him and expects Apok to carry an otherwise normal lineup. They always get burnt when he doesn't show up.
Likely lineup: Apok, dak, a2m, spaceship, starweaver
Notes: rednaz and demonic also capable. I can tell you already, apok is going to get mad at players like dak and demonic, when he starts getting triple teamed while his teammates are a full screen behind him lobbing shots. Still, one or two more active warbirds who can push the pace could make this a dark horse in twdtd.
Eight teams, with 4 legitimate contenders for the TWDTD crown, 2 teams who didn't draft enough warbirds, 1 team that can go either way, and 1 team that doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell. I don't think we've ever seen this kind of imbalance in the past - maybe it's because we've lost a lot of the competitive warbirds of the last few years, and not as many have stepped up to fill the void - but either way, if the point of the league was to give more players a chance in organized 5v5, it's as good of a time as any.
Keep in mind that weekday games are still in effect, and even if you don't get a chance to play in the early weeks, know that if you continue to show up, you will get your shot eventually!
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