TWL-B Week 2: HOT or NOT
Disclaimer: I will update this each time that I finish a game and subsequent writeup. While this will not be my priority, I will do my best to finish them all by Friday. Also, I’m skipping through subjectively boring parts of games and therefore may miss big plays or important moments.
Week 2 Preview: The league is heating up. Plade swept week 1, taking down Gun (6:11) and Spastic (6:44), seemingly with ease. Pandora smashed through week 1 going 2-0 including an upset against Fire, which caused slight interval increase in size of zidane’s right temporal artery aneurysm. This shocked the league and demonstrated just how unpredictable this season may indeed turn out to be; though I did warn you not to underestimate Pandora spiders. Spastic, Gun, Rapid, and Fire are in dire need of week 2 wins as the fight to make playoffs starts early in this shorter than usual season.
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Fire vs. Gun (10:01 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: With both Fire and Gun coming off 1-1 week 1 performances and with tensions high as squads attempt to solidify their rosters and finalize their starters this was a highly anticipated match. Gun switched it up, spidering turban and sharking WillBy this week. On paper, both team's over spiders were quite even with Fire fielding Ease, hellkite, and Ro and Gun fielding turban, Skatarius and saiyan. However, Gun brought it back half a decade with new acquisition Spartan (Kate Upton) partnering with nowon (Spezza), who proved too much for Poseidon (mainly) and kado.
Gun came out hot with a 7-0 start with near-complete control of the game, specifically under as Poseidon just could not keep up with the Spartan, nowon, or even his partner kado. In the flagroom, turban, saiyan and skatarius locked over and applied the pressure all 3 are known for (see one of turban's big plays below). Once mcvicar finally made a sick rushing TeK on Pressure (followed by 1-2 really stupid deaths off-screen, hello radar @ 8:00 :s), Fire took control and started to breathe life to this game. Around the 12-5 mark, Fire gained momentum and brought the game to 12-10 before claushouse died off screen (that r cameraman heafin). WillBy and hulk pretty much shut the rest of the game down after that. All in all a good effort by Fire, who may have made the match even closer (or won) had it not been for a better under partner for kado and prolonged cram breaks.
HOT: saiyan (101-43)
NOT: Poseidon (62-56, 1 TeK)
Plays of the game: turban pressures/kills shark with 1 remaining rep and leads to terr warping (3:45), skatarius aimbot sequence (5:28), mcvicar rush TeK (7:28), hulk bomb TeK (7:33), gun shark ignore mcvicar and enter (8:40), claushouse escapes certain death (9:30)
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Fire vs. Plade (11:33 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: Overall really solid game from both teams. Fire came out strong after learning from their loss against Gun, switching Ro to under and removing Poseidon for TPZ over. They seemed to have the game locked from the start, but somehow Plade kept striking back with solid fr fights and good crams, inching their way back each time they were down. Kess and Bacon had control of under early until Ro and kado started to acclimate to one another and ultimately match them. Ro made some great plays and will probably continue to improve with an intimidating ceiling as he adjusts to his new position.
Sharks were without issue for both teams, although Plade had serious problems breaking zid/mcvicar’s cram and despite Mikkiz constantly finding his way high into the corner on attack, they were seldom able to find a hole to enter (not an uncommon problem for these guys). Mikkiz didn’t play his best game and couldn’t counter claushouse who had a solid outing. While Ease dominated top bar/over flag for the overwhelming majority of the game, Trasher was an absolute slayer this one, pushing hard and countering the onslaught despite fighting a seemingly uphill battle. Regardless of trisha’s best efforts, Fire was the better team for the entire game and they proved it. Watched about 80% of this and didn't catch any major mistakes or overall abhorrent gameplay from anyone in particular, so not much negative to say about the 16 who participated in this one.
HOT: Ease (130-75), Trasher (122-58, 1 TeK)
NOT: Maybe I'm too soft, but I don't really have a NOT for this game. I guess this season we're dealing with week 2 regular season matches where the lines are high caliber and less prone to individual mistakes
Plays of the game: Trasher cram break (4:40), Trasher TeK (20:36), huge under sequence by Ro with TeK (22:23)
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Rapid vs. Spastic (5:02 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: The recording for this one began with Spastic in the lead 4-1. Considering this was a 14 minute video, I already knew it would be a massacre. Spastic chose to throw their big three in Cripple, JAMAL, and (welcome back!) Stayon over flag, who looked dominant and hungry. wbm and JURASSIC under is a new combo to me, and they performed well and clearly had control all game. As far as I knew, Pure_Luck was intent on terring this season, but it seems Oder got stuck in the role for this game against his to-be replacement Zizu. Despite a solid game from Zizu, who was playing well throughout pre-season, Rapid looked cornered in this one. Their spiders just couldn't touch Spastic's over trio. Honestly, which team can?
Oder you played well, but that bullet line you ate at 3:58 was pretty bad. Not only were Spastic's spiders all over Rapid, but porkjet single handedly teamferred multiple times (see big plays below), getting 11 kills and 1 TeK with only 1 TK. Rapid spiders did show some life during a few moments in the flagroom like from 4:48 - 5:22, but overall they just could not compete with the seasoned spaS spiders. Since Riverside/morph and Zizu played fine and were not the problem here, Rapid's spiders are cumulatively this week's NOT players of the week. Cripple and JAMAL absolutely worked this Rapid team, and after Spastic broke Rapid's only cram, the game was a shutout and there is not much more to say about it.
HOT: cripple (102-31, 1 TeK), JAMAL (99-45, 2 TeK)
NOT: Creature (53-49), FROZEN THRONE (53-50, 1 TeK), hypocrit (73-51), RUCCI (63-54), Banks (65-53)
Plays of the game: porkjet cram bomb (4:30), porkjet bomb TeK (5:52)
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Spastic vs. Gun (9:12 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: This game started out as a 7-0 shutout, with Gun dominating flagroom fights and holding durable crams. Both teams fielded the same lines they used in their other games. Oder vs. Pressure; pork/jr5 vs. hulk/WillBy; Cripple, Stayon, JAMAL vs. turban, skatarius, saiyan; JURASSIC/wbm vs. nowon/Spartan. Even though Gun looked slightly stronger on paper, SPASTIC had a great line here and there was every possibility this could have been an upset.
The real deal proved to be different, as Gun were just too consistent in their top and under control and cram. You know Gunmin must have had some serious flag and top bar control when cripple is yelling at his team to control top bar. turban and skatarius put relentless aimbot-assisted pressure on Oder and his sharks all game while saiyan applied close to that level of pressure and made a few highly aggressive plays, contributing more to overall control by locking the top bar and flag. There isn't much to say about nowon and Spartan, Spastic had no answer for these two at under. jr5 got pushed around by hulk and WillBy all game. porkjet played well, but there is only so much you can do with an average partner who was in over his head. Cripple and JAMAL are usually capable of 100 kills in 20 minutes, but neither broke 90 kills in 24 minutes since they couldn't control top bar as they usually do.
Although jr5 is the NOT player of the week, Spastic just really needs a better terr so that Oder can shark. Cripple, JAMAL, and Stayon cleared and took over top multiple times, but couldn't maintain control since Oder couldn't trust jr5 and his spiders couldn't survive behind him. This dynamic forced Oder to hide for most of the game instead of fighting for proper positioning to provide advantageous drops. Even in cram, watch what happens from 14:00-14:28. These huge shark gaps created by precipitous and/or dropped jr5 reps occurred all game and contributed largely to Spastic's inability to maintain control when obtained, and ultimately led to their loss. This game would have been closer with Zizu in terr and Oder in shark, since top control would have been more attainable and sustainable for their spiders. Once Gun hit 14:58 flag time, something clicked for Spastic and they went on a futile 6 minute run. Had they played that way all game, maybe they'd have had a better chance.
HOT: skatarius (118-52, 1 TeK), turban (109-55, 1 TeK)
NOT: jr5 (5-103, 2.8 RPD)
Plays of the game: Stayon great under push and lure opening top for Spastic to take flag (0:55-1:10), wbm great under push forcing Pressure into ear and opening top for Spastic to take flag (4:13-4:26), saiyan recovers from right ear and goes on overflag rampage resulting in TeK by skatarius (4:35-4:56), great escape by Pressure to keep Gun in the flagroom (7:05-7:22), porkjet absolutely destroys Pressure to force spawn race (8:50-9:02), Spartan and nowon dominate under and Spartan gets TeK (15:26-15:40)
Pandora vs. Plade (2:49 – 15:00) - video unavailable
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Pandora vs. Rapid (15:00 – 5:00)- video unavailable
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Week 2 Recap: It is widely agreed that this season is fierce. All captains and assistants know the reality that were the pre-season "recruiting wars". Now, hard lock has occurred and teams are done scrambling. The season is short, every team plays each other twice, and every game counts. When was the last season in 10 years that week 2 matches yielded a crowd of 120 spectators and carried so much weight for playoffs? When was the last time a forum post got 80+ mostly heated replies in 48 hours (shoutout to Poseidon)? It's definitely long overdue. Zizu lost faith in Rapid and left for Spastic, freeing Oder to shark and making Spastic an even more legitimate contender for the title. Most other lineups are set. Gun, Pandora and Plade lead the way, while Fire has advantage for the 4th playoff spot over Spastic and Rapid who are fighting to get out of the danger zone. Only 4 teams will make it. Will Fire or Spastic go 2-0 and increase their chances at making playoffs? Which of the current leaders are going down this coming weekend? I have so many questions, but since I have no answers here are the HOT players, NOT players, and play of the week!
HOTW: Trasher (122-58, 1 TeK) (94-25, 1 TeK)
NOTW: Poseidon (62-56, 1 TeK)
POTW: porkjet absolutely destroys Pressure to force spawn race (8:50-9:02)
Disclaimer: I will update this each time that I finish a game and subsequent writeup. While this will not be my priority, I will do my best to finish them all by Friday. Also, I’m skipping through subjectively boring parts of games and therefore may miss big plays or important moments.
Week 2 Preview: The league is heating up. Plade swept week 1, taking down Gun (6:11) and Spastic (6:44), seemingly with ease. Pandora smashed through week 1 going 2-0 including an upset against Fire, which caused slight interval increase in size of zidane’s right temporal artery aneurysm. This shocked the league and demonstrated just how unpredictable this season may indeed turn out to be; though I did warn you not to underestimate Pandora spiders. Spastic, Gun, Rapid, and Fire are in dire need of week 2 wins as the fight to make playoffs starts early in this shorter than usual season.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _________________________
Fire vs. Gun (10:01 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: With both Fire and Gun coming off 1-1 week 1 performances and with tensions high as squads attempt to solidify their rosters and finalize their starters this was a highly anticipated match. Gun switched it up, spidering turban and sharking WillBy this week. On paper, both team's over spiders were quite even with Fire fielding Ease, hellkite, and Ro and Gun fielding turban, Skatarius and saiyan. However, Gun brought it back half a decade with new acquisition Spartan (Kate Upton) partnering with nowon (Spezza), who proved too much for Poseidon (mainly) and kado.
Gun came out hot with a 7-0 start with near-complete control of the game, specifically under as Poseidon just could not keep up with the Spartan, nowon, or even his partner kado. In the flagroom, turban, saiyan and skatarius locked over and applied the pressure all 3 are known for (see one of turban's big plays below). Once mcvicar finally made a sick rushing TeK on Pressure (followed by 1-2 really stupid deaths off-screen, hello radar @ 8:00 :s), Fire took control and started to breathe life to this game. Around the 12-5 mark, Fire gained momentum and brought the game to 12-10 before claushouse died off screen (that r cameraman heafin). WillBy and hulk pretty much shut the rest of the game down after that. All in all a good effort by Fire, who may have made the match even closer (or won) had it not been for a better under partner for kado and prolonged cram breaks.
HOT: saiyan (101-43)
NOT: Poseidon (62-56, 1 TeK)
Plays of the game: turban pressures/kills shark with 1 remaining rep and leads to terr warping (3:45), skatarius aimbot sequence (5:28), mcvicar rush TeK (7:28), hulk bomb TeK (7:33), gun shark ignore mcvicar and enter (8:40), claushouse escapes certain death (9:30)
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Fire vs. Plade (11:33 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: Overall really solid game from both teams. Fire came out strong after learning from their loss against Gun, switching Ro to under and removing Poseidon for TPZ over. They seemed to have the game locked from the start, but somehow Plade kept striking back with solid fr fights and good crams, inching their way back each time they were down. Kess and Bacon had control of under early until Ro and kado started to acclimate to one another and ultimately match them. Ro made some great plays and will probably continue to improve with an intimidating ceiling as he adjusts to his new position.
Sharks were without issue for both teams, although Plade had serious problems breaking zid/mcvicar’s cram and despite Mikkiz constantly finding his way high into the corner on attack, they were seldom able to find a hole to enter (not an uncommon problem for these guys). Mikkiz didn’t play his best game and couldn’t counter claushouse who had a solid outing. While Ease dominated top bar/over flag for the overwhelming majority of the game, Trasher was an absolute slayer this one, pushing hard and countering the onslaught despite fighting a seemingly uphill battle. Regardless of trisha’s best efforts, Fire was the better team for the entire game and they proved it. Watched about 80% of this and didn't catch any major mistakes or overall abhorrent gameplay from anyone in particular, so not much negative to say about the 16 who participated in this one.
HOT: Ease (130-75), Trasher (122-58, 1 TeK)
NOT: Maybe I'm too soft, but I don't really have a NOT for this game. I guess this season we're dealing with week 2 regular season matches where the lines are high caliber and less prone to individual mistakes
Plays of the game: Trasher cram break (4:40), Trasher TeK (20:36), huge under sequence by Ro with TeK (22:23)
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Rapid vs. Spastic (5:02 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: The recording for this one began with Spastic in the lead 4-1. Considering this was a 14 minute video, I already knew it would be a massacre. Spastic chose to throw their big three in Cripple, JAMAL, and (welcome back!) Stayon over flag, who looked dominant and hungry. wbm and JURASSIC under is a new combo to me, and they performed well and clearly had control all game. As far as I knew, Pure_Luck was intent on terring this season, but it seems Oder got stuck in the role for this game against his to-be replacement Zizu. Despite a solid game from Zizu, who was playing well throughout pre-season, Rapid looked cornered in this one. Their spiders just couldn't touch Spastic's over trio. Honestly, which team can?
Oder you played well, but that bullet line you ate at 3:58 was pretty bad. Not only were Spastic's spiders all over Rapid, but porkjet single handedly teamferred multiple times (see big plays below), getting 11 kills and 1 TeK with only 1 TK. Rapid spiders did show some life during a few moments in the flagroom like from 4:48 - 5:22, but overall they just could not compete with the seasoned spaS spiders. Since Riverside/morph and Zizu played fine and were not the problem here, Rapid's spiders are cumulatively this week's NOT players of the week. Cripple and JAMAL absolutely worked this Rapid team, and after Spastic broke Rapid's only cram, the game was a shutout and there is not much more to say about it.
HOT: cripple (102-31, 1 TeK), JAMAL (99-45, 2 TeK)
NOT: Creature (53-49), FROZEN THRONE (53-50, 1 TeK), hypocrit (73-51), RUCCI (63-54), Banks (65-53)
Plays of the game: porkjet cram bomb (4:30), porkjet bomb TeK (5:52)
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Spastic vs. Gun (9:12 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: This game started out as a 7-0 shutout, with Gun dominating flagroom fights and holding durable crams. Both teams fielded the same lines they used in their other games. Oder vs. Pressure; pork/jr5 vs. hulk/WillBy; Cripple, Stayon, JAMAL vs. turban, skatarius, saiyan; JURASSIC/wbm vs. nowon/Spartan. Even though Gun looked slightly stronger on paper, SPASTIC had a great line here and there was every possibility this could have been an upset.
The real deal proved to be different, as Gun were just too consistent in their top and under control and cram. You know Gunmin must have had some serious flag and top bar control when cripple is yelling at his team to control top bar. turban and skatarius put relentless aimbot-assisted pressure on Oder and his sharks all game while saiyan applied close to that level of pressure and made a few highly aggressive plays, contributing more to overall control by locking the top bar and flag. There isn't much to say about nowon and Spartan, Spastic had no answer for these two at under. jr5 got pushed around by hulk and WillBy all game. porkjet played well, but there is only so much you can do with an average partner who was in over his head. Cripple and JAMAL are usually capable of 100 kills in 20 minutes, but neither broke 90 kills in 24 minutes since they couldn't control top bar as they usually do.
Although jr5 is the NOT player of the week, Spastic just really needs a better terr so that Oder can shark. Cripple, JAMAL, and Stayon cleared and took over top multiple times, but couldn't maintain control since Oder couldn't trust jr5 and his spiders couldn't survive behind him. This dynamic forced Oder to hide for most of the game instead of fighting for proper positioning to provide advantageous drops. Even in cram, watch what happens from 14:00-14:28. These huge shark gaps created by precipitous and/or dropped jr5 reps occurred all game and contributed largely to Spastic's inability to maintain control when obtained, and ultimately led to their loss. This game would have been closer with Zizu in terr and Oder in shark, since top control would have been more attainable and sustainable for their spiders. Once Gun hit 14:58 flag time, something clicked for Spastic and they went on a futile 6 minute run. Had they played that way all game, maybe they'd have had a better chance.
HOT: skatarius (118-52, 1 TeK), turban (109-55, 1 TeK)
NOT: jr5 (5-103, 2.8 RPD)
Plays of the game: Stayon great under push and lure opening top for Spastic to take flag (0:55-1:10), wbm great under push forcing Pressure into ear and opening top for Spastic to take flag (4:13-4:26), saiyan recovers from right ear and goes on overflag rampage resulting in TeK by skatarius (4:35-4:56), great escape by Pressure to keep Gun in the flagroom (7:05-7:22), porkjet absolutely destroys Pressure to force spawn race (8:50-9:02), Spartan and nowon dominate under and Spartan gets TeK (15:26-15:40)
Pandora vs. Plade (2:49 – 15:00) - video unavailable
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Pandora vs. Rapid (15:00 – 5:00)- video unavailable
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _________________________
Week 2 Recap: It is widely agreed that this season is fierce. All captains and assistants know the reality that were the pre-season "recruiting wars". Now, hard lock has occurred and teams are done scrambling. The season is short, every team plays each other twice, and every game counts. When was the last season in 10 years that week 2 matches yielded a crowd of 120 spectators and carried so much weight for playoffs? When was the last time a forum post got 80+ mostly heated replies in 48 hours (shoutout to Poseidon)? It's definitely long overdue. Zizu lost faith in Rapid and left for Spastic, freeing Oder to shark and making Spastic an even more legitimate contender for the title. Most other lineups are set. Gun, Pandora and Plade lead the way, while Fire has advantage for the 4th playoff spot over Spastic and Rapid who are fighting to get out of the danger zone. Only 4 teams will make it. Will Fire or Spastic go 2-0 and increase their chances at making playoffs? Which of the current leaders are going down this coming weekend? I have so many questions, but since I have no answers here are the HOT players, NOT players, and play of the week!
HOTW: Trasher (122-58, 1 TeK) (94-25, 1 TeK)
NOTW: Poseidon (62-56, 1 TeK)
POTW: porkjet absolutely destroys Pressure to force spawn race (8:50-9:02)
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