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QF1: Demonic vs. Haze
The first quarter finals of the year would see the new star of Trench Wars, inter-zone superplayer saiyan against his old captain, Rough.
Drafting from the last spot and seeing the results from the early games, Rough didn't gather as many big names under Haze's banner as he may have wanted. They would come into the playoffs with 6 wins in the division – the second to least!
Demonic on the other hand was only 1 win away from first place. However, they would play with only a 675 star rating due to.. somebody tell me why.
Let's first take a look at the Haze team. The first key to Haze's victory in my analysis lies in top individual play. We have players like tj hazuki (122-79 and 140-81) and blt_12 (91-43, 1 TeK and 96-49, 1 TeK) playing very aggressively, with tj's signature high death count (but also kill count). They together with wbm (122-76 and 111-67, 1 TeK) being paved the way by Sprackle (9-121, 2.75 RPD and 18-111, 1 TeK, 2.92 RPD) allowed the team to execute a presicion strike to prove the old adage. You only have to win the playoff games.
Trasher (104-57 and 117-45) didn't lead the stats, but was this more of a team play on his part? He might have had to down-adjust his skill to match the teams. banzi (80-71, 1 TeK and 86-67, 1 TeK) also flew very aggressively, fitting the team's do-or-die gameplan.
Gleaning the stats, I think it might have been Zizzo (55-5, 1 TeK and 63-4, 1 TeK), though, who had the strongest game. His stat line indicates consistency, and also efficient aggressiveness. Needless to say those two attributes, especially consistency, is a key terrier trait. To be fair, Heaven (55-4 and 47-5) of Demonic had a similar high intensity game, not falling too far apart.
Game 1 Results: Demonic vs. Haze (14:38-15:00)
The first game ended in a very narrow victory for Haze, and here is where I think we see Rough's psychological acumen come into play.
Whereas Rough kept his line intact, saiyan (120-81, 2 TeKs and 98-79) switched in zeebu (98-69) to replace poseidon (90-63) from the previous game. Besides being a 5 star drop several questions can be asked to as to why.
Demonic already had hellkite (110-68 and 95-76, 1 TeK) and qaws (72-56 and 75-72) putting in work, so why would saiyan mess with the lineup? A 14:38 result isn't very far from a victory you know. Bacon (97-73 and 113-88, 2 TeKs) at least seems to have improved during the second game.
I'm not sure if saiyan made a mistake with the sub-in of poseidon, but it does seem a bit panicky, and so he might have overplayed his cards. Rough, on the other hand, I'm sure benefitted from the optics of the second game. He's a TWDT and a TWL champ within the last year, knew his plan, and stuck to it without unneeded second-guessing.
While morph (14-129, 2 TeKs, 2.94 RPD and 11-133, 2.83 RPD) was a great pick for saiyan this season, he wasn't enough to turn the tide this game. The other shark was liz (8-133, 1 TeK, 2.89 RPD and 3-130, 1 TeK, 2.9 RPD).
Final shoutout to Riverside (16-124, 1 TeK, 2.88 RPD and 17-117, 3 RPD), Haze's other shark and the teams #1 draft pick of the season. I wasn't familiar with his play, thought he did shark as a hobby outside of wb'ing, but his consistent outings seem to be making a name for him.
Game 2 Results: Demonic vs. Haze (14:12-15:00)
Final result: Haze wins.
HOT: Zizzo (55-5, 1 TeK and 63-4, 1 TeK)
HOT: Riverside (16-124, 1 TeK, 2.88 RPD and 17-117, 3 RPD)
Asteroid Watcher Award: Zizzo (2560x1440 resolution)
QF2: Blast vs. Malevolent
This quarterfinal game was more lopsided as Blast's terrier Mikkiz (28-3, 2 TeKs and 29-6, 2 TeKs) simply coasted to their team's first victory.
When it comes to Malevolent's terriers, last time Malevolent faced Blast they lost with their captain on the ship so I guess that is why turban (55-28, 1 TeK & 1-25, 2.88 RPD and 114-81, 1 TeK) refused to fly the transport ship here for a second time. Instead it was maketso (26-7, 1 TeK and 56-9, 2 TeKs), but not reacting to his alarming first game performance may have been the team's first mistake. I'm sure the whole Blast team crammed, and some efforts had to be made even by the terrier to incur risk in order to break it but this is too much.
Let's look at Blast's line for a bit. FROZEN THRONE (68-35, 1 TeK and 127-62), CELLY (50-48 and 70-71, 1 TeK) and JOESES (6-88, 1 TeK, 2.86 RPD and 16-122, 4 TeKs, 2.81 RPD) proceeded to type their name is caps which of course raises their skill level by 5 stars minimum. Note the 4 TeKs by JOESES there in game two. The other top shark a2m (3-85, 2.89 RPD and 11-124, 1 TeK, 2.77 RPD) has now won a quarterfinal game but has the rust completely worn off? We will see.
I guess temujin (38-22, 1 TeK and 1-0) and Kira_Yamato~ (18-17 and 71-68) were in the first game for a short time, making their victory lap. Lockdown (86-43, 1 TeK and 136-70, 1 TeK) was NOT a letdown at all and I award Dutch Baser (99-44, 1 TeK and 123-75) the first game's outperformer as the kill leader.
Game 1: Blast vs. Malevolent (15:00-4:57)
HOT: Dutch Baser (99-44, 1 TeK)
NOT: maketso (26-7, 1 TeK)
NOT: ro (81-45). High KD ratio during a big loss, could indicate lack of pushing.
Now let's look at Malevolent's team and game 2. Were they able to turn things around? Well, they certainly did not lose in as lopsided a fashion as the first time. Another returning shark Dwopple (5-85, 2.94 RPD, 5-128, 2.92 RPD) performed adequately as did Omega Red (8-57, 2.98 RPD and 5-124, 2.9 RPD).
ro (81-45 and 134-58, 1 TeK) and autopilot (76-47 and 144-66) were floored in the first game but turned the dial waaaay up in the second. The other spiders retroaction (58-42 and 76-70) and Lee (48-44, 1 TeK and 61-53, 2 TeKs) drew mostly unimaginative scores. RUCCI (21-19) was in for a short time during game one.
The piece I can see that Malevolent could have moved was the terrier. Maketso had an unfortunate first game, and at that point alarm bells should have, and probably did go off. But they didn't lead to swift action. Maketso finished the season with 8-5 record which is nothing to cling to with tooth and nail, while turban proved with his 2-1 record that he is serviceable in the ship as well. Turban has an unfortunate tendency to not switch things up until it's too late like sharking for 4 TWDTs in a row, but to be fair making calls in the 5-10 minutes between games is a totally different thing and harder to assess in the moment.
Game 2: Blast vs. Malevolent (15:00-13:43)
Final result: Blast wins.
Game 2
HOT: JOESES (16-122, 4 TeKs, 2.81 RPD)
HOT: temujin (1-0). Acing a quarterfinal, holy shit!
NOT: maketso (56-9, 2 TeKs)
That concludes this week. Good luck to everyone in semi-finals!
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