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TWL-B Week 3: 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 3 Preview: Spastic and Fire desperately need wins this week in order to increase their chances at making playoffs, and playing each other really stirs the pot for week 3. With Zizu transitioning to Spastic, wins appear within reach this weekend for Spastic, who face a difficult game in Fire and an even more difficult game in Plade. Fire's schedule this weekend is no easier and face an increasingly dominant Pandora. Gun sit uneasy toward the top of the ladder with a 3-1 record, and look to dethrone Pandora this weekend. With newly acquired and highly skilled EG rookie BOMBED (CARDI B), Plade's top spider line now looks ready to face Spastic and Rapid and look to improve to 5-1 at week 3's end. You know that when different teams win every week and result in a shift in the standings, that things are getting intense. With playoffs quickly approaching, who will make it? Who won’t?
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Gun vs. Pandora (13:00 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: 3:nowon> how does major play without bullets! Although the quality of this recording is a known risk factor for retinal cancer (thanks for trying Major), I was able to make out for the most part what happened. However, I was unable to tolerate the video quality enough for details, so don't expect much in-depth analysis or many plays of the game. The majority of the game was neck and neck, with small lapses in in-game awareness by Gun that lost them the game. For the most part, top and under control was evenly spread by both teams, with slight advantage to Gun for most of the flagroom fights. There were multiple instances where Gun was cornered in the ear or coffin moments for prolonged periods of time (hello 4:48-6:25). In a normal game these disadvantageous moments wouldn’t be consequential, but in a tight game like this those moments additively led to their loss.
At some point, the decision was made to make a change since Gun started to noticeably lose advantage, and Rough was substituted for turban. The game remained evenly matched, with slight advantage to Pandora due to the momentum they amassed, and the Rough-for-turban sub had no bearing on the game's outcome. Pressure had some really stupid deaths that lost Gun flagroom control and subsequent flagtime. You can see Pressure anticipating predictable Tim ports over flag multiple times this game (for example from 11:35-11:50), and yet he still dies from a flag port trick (22:30-22:40). You can see Pressure make a decision in the moment to press Tim, since he thinks Tim has missed his planned burst. However, the burst lagged and Pressure ran directly into it. Mistakes like this cost Gun the game, which is why Pressure is the NOT player of this game. Spiders and sharks weren't really the difference here. It was Tim's clutch plays and Pressure's subpar responses that won Pandora the game, which is why Tim is the HOT player of this game.
HOT: Tim (26-6, 3 TeK)
NOT: Pressure (32-5, 2 TeK)
Plays of the game: Did not pay close enough attention to recall notable plays due to unbearable video quality.
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Fire vs. Spastic (15:00 – 4:18) | LINK
Review: This was a highly anticipated match, with Fire stuck in the middle of the standings and competing for the 4th playoff spot with their opponent Spastic, who recently acquired Zizu. Fire came out strong, establishing top control relatively quickly until cripple and JAMAL made their way up there to counter. With Zizu in terr, Oder was able to shark with porkjet, leaving Cripple, Stayon, and JAMAL in spider. With wbm out, Stayon shifted to under and Undercut took over. This Spastic line looked great on paper and was poised at the start until Zizu died easily from spider bullets one minute into the game. From there, Spastic fell apart and never recovered. Kado and Ro ran train on under, with particular pressure from Ro all game and good support from and a few solid pushes by kado. TPZ had slight advantage to cripple at top bar this game, most likely attributable to TPZ's sharks, with Ease controlling flag way better than Undercut and JAMAL could respond to (again, likely due to per usual sharking excellence from zidane and mcvicar). claushouse's positioning and drops were on point this match; he looked really good here. Zizu didn’t.
Fire’s cram looked really strong throughout the match and they dominated most flagroom fights. Either something just didn’t click here for Spastic, or Fire just stepped up because they fully knew that playoffs were at stake and ultimately wanted the win more. As dominant as Fire spiders looked and as comfortable as claushouse seemed to be, this game was all zidane and micvicar. All game they made fantastic cram recoveries (for example, 10:35-11:00) and pushed Oder and porkjet around easily in flagroom. There were multiple instances where Spastic spiders did not capitalize on obvious openings for cram breaks, and Zizu sat way too low to drop his sharks close to cram to force entries. Every time Fire spiders died in cram, Spastic spiders sat back camping and let Fire's cram regroup and recover. Zizu looked apprehensive all game; just watch from 11:30-11:57, where there was a wide open entry into a weak left side of flagroom while claushouse chilled far back on the right. In this play, Zizu took slightly too long to enter, which granted claushouse and Fire enough time to reposition and regroup over flag. This led to Spastic scrambling and to subsequently being cornered low in the left side of flagroom, losing 20-30 seconds while trying to regroup, with Fire already set up on top over flag and waiting.
Although there is a lot to be said about Zizu's general hesitancy and subpar performance behind an equally subpar overall Spastic performance, claushouse isn't completely out of the water. claushouse made a really bad, yet ultimately inconsequential play at 13:25-13:45 that temporarily lost his team presence in and control of the flagroom. If not for mcvicar's clutch reps (that were nearly out of proximity to register for those 15 bullets), this stupid play would have ruined his ace and could have given Spastic the unlikely chance to gain momentum and comeback. Either way, Spastic’s below mediocre effort only yielded 4 minutes of flag time and they were never able to take full control for an extended period of time at any single point in this game. The zidane and mcvicar shark duo, along with claushouse who flashed a perfect 43-0 ace, all share this week's HOT player of the game. Zizu, you're way better than that bullet line death at 20:45-20:55, and although this loss cannot be blamed entirely on you (since your entire team looked really uncoordinated and essentially shook throughout the game), you've earned this week's NOT player of the week. Spastic, you have your new terr, you have your legendary spids, now fix your sharks so Zizu can thrive, or you won't make playoffs. Period. Note: I'm commenting on these games as if I don't know what happens in their later matches.
HOT: zidane (11-84, 3 TK, 0 TeK, 2.9 RPD), mcvicar (10-82, 5 TK, 1 TeK), claushouse (43-0, 0 TeK); honorable mention goes to Best for trying to convince Heaven to wingman him while he macks Heaven's sister
NOT: Zizu (26-6, 0 TeK)
Plays of the game: zidane pushes flag solo while his entire team is sitting back, mines flag, emps Zizu, and forces his retreat (8:35-8:50); hellkite rushes Zizu, forcing a warp and TeK by mcvicar (9:30-9:48); nice repped burst evasion by claushouse (10:55-11:05); great top push by Ease to regain flag and top control twice (12:37-13:24); awesome escape by Zizu until he chokes (15:00-15:20), Ro leaves under to rush top bar, kills attaching shark, and gets the TeK on Zizu (22:27-22:38)
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Gun vs. Rapid (15:00 – 2:54) | LINK
Review: Great, another super high-quality video with amazing music to enhance the viewing experience of this highly competitive game /s. Uh, anyway, Gun vs. Rapid, I wonder who will win? Jack finally got his TWL-B season 23 debut and Ricko got another chance at under. The rest of Gun's lineup looked the same as in prior games. New recruit Dwopple bolstered sharking capabilities for Rapid, who were previously using variable combinations of Morph, Riverside, and violence. With Zizu gone, aprix got behind the wheel in terr, but there is not much aprix and his sharks could do behind their to-be-completely-out-finessed spider line.
Gun came out hot, with overt dominance both over and under flag starting from the very beginning of the game. Rapid as a whole looked out of place, situationally unaware, and generally clueless. Still, Rapid broke cram numerous times this game, which is more a testament to Gun’s consistently weak cram and sloppiness than to Rapid's performance. Just as an example, Pressure actively flew out of cram and got repped even further out at 9:48 and lost cram, but other than giving Rapid another flagroom fight, this bad play had no contribution to the game overall. Pressure had an otherwise easy game in the hot seat, as expected, and went 13-0 with the baby ace. Hulk and WillBy were flawless.
I still believe wholeheartedly that had Rapid been given a single additional week to build their roster before the season started, they’d be just as much a contender as any other team. We can't really throw excuses or blame around, though, considering Rapid only formed in the final week of pre-season with whatever players were available in the wake of the intense pre-season recruiting wars. If they were really serious about competing they would have formed weeks-months earlier than they did, but I digress, and I am thankful that they still show every weekend and give it their best shot. It's just a shame that they had to rush to recruit because all they’ve been met with this TWL-B season are blowouts with no end in sight. On the bright side, I’m glad some of their lesser known players are getting TWL-B experience, because I see guys like Banks making their way deep into the post-season at some point in their career with more time, experience, and practice. Unfortunately, it’s looking less and less likely like Rapid will have such a chance this year.
Finally, saiyan, skatarius, and Jack applied unabated and ruthless pressure for the entirety of the game, while racing each other (without much resistance) for best stats. These three completely owned this game and are therefore this week’s HOT players of the week. On the other hand, Rapid’s spiders put up no more than 60 kills each in a 17 minute game, totaling 252 kills, just 19 more than Gun’s over trio, with skatarius, saiyan, and Jack totaling 233 kills. Therefore, again, Rapid’s spiders are cumulatively this week’s NOT players of the week.
HOT: skatarius (81-30, 1 TeK), saiyan (80-25, 1 TeK), Jack (71-26, 2 TeK)
NOT: Banks (56-38), Creature (55-40), FROZEN THRONE (46-36), hypocrit (51-42), RUCCI (44-41)
Plays of the game: violence greens a 4th rep and slices opens cram for aprix and team to enter (3:17-3:30); great in-game awareness by Jack, who simultaneously touches flag and avoids ramming two mines in order to open the field for hulk and WillBy to rep enemy mines over flag (3:55-4:05); great under play by Banks, who wins a 1v2, rushes under, forces hulk to rep early, lures 4 over spids, and opens top bar and over flag, which would have led to Rapid establishing flag control had Rapid been more aware (4:45-5:10)
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Pandora vs. Fire (15:00 – 13:22) | LINK
Review: On paper, this game had all of the pieces to make an interesting game. Pandora was comfortably at the top of the standings and a loss here would not be as impactful as a loss would be to Fire, who entered week 3 in the middle of the standings, fighting for the last playoff spot. Pandora and Fire fielded their typical terrs and sharks in Tim and claushouse and Markmrw/Joeses and zidane/mcvicar, which on paper heavily favored Fire. Sarger, MousE, and diakka were put against Ease, hellkite, and TPZ over flag, which despite slightly favoring Pandora, looks much more even on paper. Renzi and EG rookie Azuline looked to challenge the clearly favored and newly minted under combination Ro and kado. After taking spiders into account, this game really looked mostly even on paper, maybe even slightly favoring Fire. A great game was definitely about to ensue...
Until Pandora started without a terr (nice job Pandora caps and Tim). Fire’s cram looked strong against Pandora’s arguably best cram breaking strategy/spiders in the league, with their incessant corner camping. It really bothers me that no one has figured out how to counter sarger's easily predictable corner shot, but if you want a hint, just watch TPZ dodge and then take him out from 1:40-1:50 with so much ease that it makes me cringe that anyone ever dies to this shot. Ro, TPZ, and zidane/mcvicar looked great at the start and were the real anti-camp forces that consistently took down sarger and Azuline, neutralizing Pandora’s corner attack. Tim and Joeses looked shaky at the beginning of this game - just watch Joeses drop 2 reps that led to Tim’s death that at 2:42-2:48. Tim, come on man, 3:42-3:52, 5:08-5:14, what’s going on here? You just gave Fire at least 6 free minutes at the start of a crucial game. At the 6 minute mark, Tim finally made an amazing escape and out-survived claushouse, which allowed the game to actually begin. Tim then TeK’d claushouse after an amazing cram break by hellkite (see Plays of the game below), giving Pandora more time to regroup and recover from the early 6-0 shutout. Both teams started to look good around the 6-3 mark, but Pandora was markedly handicapped due to consistently dropped reps by an obviously nerve-ridden Joeses. Multiple times throughout the game, Ro stacked as 4th spid over flag while kado held under alone, giving Fire huge advantages at crucial moments in the early flagroom battles.
At around 7-3, Pandora’s under game really stepped up and renzi/Azuline started reeking complete havoc on Ro/kado. At the same time that Pandora’s unders started to wake up, sarger, diakka, and MousE began to explode. claushouse did not look as loose as he did in his game versus Spastic. His spiders were overwhelmed, and zidane/mcvicar could only do so much to give cover to their spiders under the constant lag pushes and thunderstorm of red bullets. Renzi, sarger, Mouse, and diakka did a great job at forcing zidane and mcvicar to rep instead of giving them free reign to aggress and mine/bomb all over the flagroom, limiting zidane and mcvicar to a total of just 15 combined kills and zero combined TeKs against an underperforming terr; when was the last time zidane and mcvicar had kill counts this low in a TWL-B match, with zero combined TeKs? Tim, again man, 14:25-14:34. Just bad dude. You still clearly have a knack for making 1-on-1 plays against the enemy terr and staying alive in really high-pressure situations, but your general lack of awareness in more stable moments, and your inability to stay alive in easier, low-pressure situations is really questionable considering you are the starting terr on a team that is beginning to look like they may make a TWL-B finals run. I could probably take my own advice here, but just play a little bit safer, time your sharks better, and let your spiders do the rest. Don’t worry, though, claushouse had his own lapses in awareness (16:19-16:25), though I guess the ancient burst (historically used in point race games to kill terrs who were dropping spiders on the right to set up their "line") employed by Tim wasn’t as predictable as it looked from a spectator’s point-of-view.
Despite how surprising this game turned out to be, it really seemed like Pandora was the better team all around, all game, yet Fire accumulated a ton of time because of a really bad start and multiple easily avoidable deaths by Tim. This could have easily been a 15-6 game if not for Tim. Joeses shaped up and stopped dropping reps mid-game, making a great comeback to finish the game with a 3.0 RPD. claushouse, did someone get in your head? Because you're playing way differently than you played in TWDT-B and basing cup. You look passive and hesitant. I mean, 18:20-18:25? Anyway, once Pandora finally gained the lead at the 10-9 mark, claushouse and Fire tried to turn up and made a solid cream break, but were halted by a huge shark gap caused by a dropped rep by zidane (19:20-19:30), which forced claushouse to warp out of flagroom. Fire re-entered anyway and took control because of another wonderful Tim death to the single most predictable under burst in basing (19:55-20:05). ?buy eyes, bro. Tim, 21:46-21:52, I mean really, you can’t make this stuff up. You're a good guy, but every time I want to stop trashing you, you die to something even more stupid. Tim you may have made some good plays that won you the game, but overall you cost your team upward of 10 total minutes of flag time. Since Tim and claushouse were both really bad in this game, they are both the NOT players of the week, with more emphasis on claushouse, who lost a game where the opposing terr gave him 10 free minutes of flag time.
At the 11-10 mark, Fire started to make a strong comeback with a solid cram, but it simply wasn't enough. Pandora had too much momentum and their cram break was too good. A solid shark drop on flag by Tim (22:50-23:00) allowed Pandora to regain flag control, and around 11-11 there was a fierce back-and-forth flagroom battle, with solid attempted TeKs by hellkite and kado, and even better responses by Tim (24:28-24:34, 25:30-25:38). claushouse made a fatal error at 26:25-26:32, by running away from a newly spawned 3-rep zidane and getting slapped by a redemption-seeking Joeses, which put the to-be nail in the coffin for Fire. Fire made one last effort at 27:53, only to have claushouse die another careless, and likely tilt-related death to spider bullets on flagroom entry. In my opinion, all of the spiders on both sides played very well, but sarger and hellkite were animals this match. Sarger demonstrated significant versatility, covering whatever position his team needed at any given time, whether it was corners, flag, top bar or under during various points throughout the game. Just watch sarger stay composed, recharge, wait for his teammates to attach and regroup, and lead his team out of being cornered from 26:00-26:20. With Fire in the lead at 13-12, sarger ultimately went on to kill Ease and hellkite in this play and helped his team acquire top control. claushouse died seconds later, winning Pandora the game. Big plays like these earned sarger the HOT player of the week. However, the only consistent responses Fire had this match were from hellkite and Ro, with definite focus on hellkite, who made so many plays of the game that I just cannot leave him out of the HOT seat.
HOT: sarger (105-74, 0 TeK), hellkite (102-62, 2 TeK)
NOT: claushouse (45-7, 2 TeK), tim (33-8, 3 TeK)
Plays of the game: renzi enters cram unopposed, kills hellkite in cram, rushes over flag, kills kado, and enables Pandora to take flag control (6:06-6:25); originally meant to be an Ease highlight, how does Tim survive here? incredible (lucky?) play (6:28-6:50); vicious solo rush by hellkite to enter flagroom and allow his team to break cram (7:40-7:50); big rush by Tim to TeK claushouse at top bar (8:05-8:14); another great cram break and push sequence by hellkite (8:56-9:23); big under rush by renzi and Azuline to force claushouse to lose positioning, allowing Pandora to take flag control (10:14-10:35); huge under rush by Azuline to force claushouse into a corner, subsequently making him warp out and give flagroom to Pandora (11:27-11:48)
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Plade vs. Spastic (12:37 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: Learning from their errors against Fire, Spastic came into this game with solid managerial decisions and lineup changes. JAMAL and porkjet were set to shark, with Undercut coming in to replace JAMAL in spider. Plade fielded the same line as weeks 1-2, questionably leaving out their highly anticipated EG rookie, CARDI B (BOMBED). Zizu was set against Mikkiz, JAMAL/porkjet lined up against Commodo/Mythril. Trasher led the way with dreamwin and bram against cripple, Stayon and Undercut over flag while kess/Bacon looked to face off under against wbm/JURASSIC. Spastic seriously needed this win, since losing to Fire put them at 1-4 (W-L), dangerously close to missing playoffs. This looked like Spastic’s chance to finally make a run for the final playoff spot, but can they deliver? If they do, will it be too little too late?
Right off the bat, Spastic looked great with a formal 3 over, 2 under set up and demonstrated complete dominance. Mikkiz had no where to go but hide behind the chair and in the corner early on, until Stayon, wbm, and JURASSIC decided to suicide under and die at 1:06, allowing Bacon free reign to flank and open up top for Plade to take flag control. JAMAL looked incredible this entire game, pushing around enemy sharks Commodo/Mythril with ease, and with the help of his spiders, essentially negated every rep Commodo and Mythril put up. Despite the pressure from JAMAL and porkjet's impactful reps and their supporting spiders, specifically cripple who appeared to be amping up the aggression this game, Mikkiz made some good escapes (see Plays of the game below) to keep Plade in visibly outclassed early flagroom battles. Like Stayon said in yellow chat, Spastic was finally Stayon> playing like a team. Somehow, although Spastic seemed to have control throughout the beginning of the game, Plade kept the score close. Cripple was a monster over flag, not just with his top bar control, but also as previously mentioned he was making some big rushing plays. Finally, after a solid starting flagroom battle, Mikkiz’ luck finally caught up with him and after a sick under push by Stayon, wbm, and JURASSIC at 4:35, was cornered and died.
Spastic’s cram looked great. Mythril had some lag issues. Loved seeing Spastic’s chat and how seriously they’re taking this game. At the 6-4 mark, Plade broke Spastic’s cram and Zizu died a careless death to a bullet line at 10:43. Plade started to gain some momentum with dreamwin and Trasher turning up, but their cram couldn’t handle Spastic’s push and upon retreating Mikkiz died with critical energy to a single under bullet at 11:30. Even though I know the outcome of this match, Spastic looks too solid and too composed for Plade to match for the rest of the game, so although they may put up the time to make this game look close, Spastic had this one in the bag from the start.
JURASSIC really locked the camp shots under, mostly left unopposed to annoy Plade's top control for most of the game. After the first flagroom battle, Mikkiz looked timid and hesitant and played a very vanilla game, with consistently erratic/low flagroom drops and “safe”/hiding positioning. He was clearly outmatched and just looked understandably overwhelmed all game. He did clutch Zizu with a port trick at 25:13, but I think the league knows my opinion on how skillful these moves really are and so I don’t have much else to say. Zizu got him right back at 26:32 anyway. Zizu played well (for the overtly better team), but also had some shaky moments and shouldn’t have died for at least 3 of those 6 deaths.
I hate to come down on this guy since he is a legend and I used to really look up to him 10+ years ago, but despite hitting 100+ kills I’m not sure what bram was doing for most of this game. Plays like at 14:26-14:34, 15:50-16:00, and 16:45-16:53 are tough to watch, where you just die for no reason, give up spider regroup advantage on cram break, give up top control, let repless sharks recharge and bomb freely, and with 82 deaths spent at least 4 minutes of game time dead/respawning. In a close game where your team is clearly out-controlled in flagroom, staying alive is key, and just by watching you I can tell that you aren’t aware of the importance of recharging while waiting for your sharks or repositioning to survive while waiting for your team to regroup. For example, you make a nice play to kill cripple and take top bar at 17:16, giving your team top control. Then Mythril drops a rep, and when you’re vulnerable, you poke out and shoot a few times (at what, I’m not sure) instead of backing off, recharging, maintaining your position, and waiting for the next shark. Then you die, and Zizu escapes out of ear. I mean, just overall lack of in-game awareness there. Like, at 19:06-19:15, or 22:22-22:31, what were you doing? In my opinion, given the previously mentioned reasons, you were the weak link in your spider lineup, letting Cripple, Stayon, and Undercut run train 3v2 on Trasher and dreamwin, and therefore are unfortunately the NOT player of the week. I see your 87 deaths dreamwin, but you consistently made use of the majority of your deaths when you were alive, so I can’t say the same for you even though you definitely over-rushed and partially contributed to your team’s inability to establish any semblance of control in this one.
Judging by the numbers, Plade’s spiders didn’t have much trouble evenly spreading kills and out-killing Spastic (with the exception of cripple), but Spastic’s sharks and overall positioning in flagroom were what led to this win. Although Spastic as a whole played great, the clear differentiator in this match was JAMAL, which is why he has been chosen as a HOT player of the game. Cripple was so significantly ahead of his team in kills (138, next highest 98), was the obviously domineering spider in Spastic's line, and was a part of nearly every big Spastic play, so he too has been chosen as a HOT player of the game. If Spastic continues to play like this for the rest of the season, the push for that 4th playoff spot is going to get even more and more tight. Plade, on the other hand, have been fluctuating in performance since the season’s start and need to to field a better 5th spider if they want to have a chance at the title.
HOT: JAMAL (18-123, 6 TK, 1 TeK, 3.0 RPD), cripple (138-74, 0 TeK)
NOT: bram (104-82, 0 TeK)
Plays of the game: Mikkiz makes a few unbelievable (lag-enabling) escapes (2:32-2:50); Stayon, wbm, and JURASSIC triple under, pressuring Mikkiz to warp into a TeK by JAMAL (4:35-4:50); big reps by porkjet to preserve cram (6:44-6:55); godly 6-rep by Mythril to preserve cram (9:45-9:52); sick under push by Undercut to finish Mikkiz for the TeK (13:58-14:06); Zizu warps, rushes top bar, and disrespects the fuck out of Mikkiz (19:02-19:15); enormous bomb by Commodo to force Zizu to warp and subsequently get TeK’d after an excellent escape effort (20:26-20:47); big shark doa and cram break by JURASSIC (21:55-22:04); crucial game-finishing TeK by Zizu at top bar (26:30-26:35)
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Rapid vs. Plade (3:33 – 15:00) | - video unavailable
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Week 3 Recap: What a week. Pandora finessed both Gun and Fire and established themselves as the #1 seed after week 3. Spastic upset Plade, finally showing life and interest in making a playoff run. Plade and Gun looked rocky and head into week 4 with tough matchups against Fire/Pandora and Fire/Spastic, respectively. The fight for playoffs ensues, and the top 4 truly are up in the air right now. Will Spastic go 2-0 and make a real playoff run? Will Fire go 2-0 and knock one of the top 3 from a comfortable playoff position? Will Gun hold a cram for more than 11 seconds? Tune in Sunday at 4:30pm EST to find out!
HOTW: diakka (121-57, 0 TeK) (118-50, 1 TeK)
NOTW: Rapid (squad)
POTW: Enormous bomb by Commodo to force Zizu to warp and subsequently get TeK’d after an excellent escape effort (20:26-20:47)
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 3 Preview: Spastic and Fire desperately need wins this week in order to increase their chances at making playoffs, and playing each other really stirs the pot for week 3. With Zizu transitioning to Spastic, wins appear within reach this weekend for Spastic, who face a difficult game in Fire and an even more difficult game in Plade. Fire's schedule this weekend is no easier and face an increasingly dominant Pandora. Gun sit uneasy toward the top of the ladder with a 3-1 record, and look to dethrone Pandora this weekend. With newly acquired and highly skilled EG rookie BOMBED (CARDI B), Plade's top spider line now looks ready to face Spastic and Rapid and look to improve to 5-1 at week 3's end. You know that when different teams win every week and result in a shift in the standings, that things are getting intense. With playoffs quickly approaching, who will make it? Who won’t?
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Gun vs. Pandora (13:00 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: 3:nowon> how does major play without bullets! Although the quality of this recording is a known risk factor for retinal cancer (thanks for trying Major), I was able to make out for the most part what happened. However, I was unable to tolerate the video quality enough for details, so don't expect much in-depth analysis or many plays of the game. The majority of the game was neck and neck, with small lapses in in-game awareness by Gun that lost them the game. For the most part, top and under control was evenly spread by both teams, with slight advantage to Gun for most of the flagroom fights. There were multiple instances where Gun was cornered in the ear or coffin moments for prolonged periods of time (hello 4:48-6:25). In a normal game these disadvantageous moments wouldn’t be consequential, but in a tight game like this those moments additively led to their loss.
At some point, the decision was made to make a change since Gun started to noticeably lose advantage, and Rough was substituted for turban. The game remained evenly matched, with slight advantage to Pandora due to the momentum they amassed, and the Rough-for-turban sub had no bearing on the game's outcome. Pressure had some really stupid deaths that lost Gun flagroom control and subsequent flagtime. You can see Pressure anticipating predictable Tim ports over flag multiple times this game (for example from 11:35-11:50), and yet he still dies from a flag port trick (22:30-22:40). You can see Pressure make a decision in the moment to press Tim, since he thinks Tim has missed his planned burst. However, the burst lagged and Pressure ran directly into it. Mistakes like this cost Gun the game, which is why Pressure is the NOT player of this game. Spiders and sharks weren't really the difference here. It was Tim's clutch plays and Pressure's subpar responses that won Pandora the game, which is why Tim is the HOT player of this game.
HOT: Tim (26-6, 3 TeK)
NOT: Pressure (32-5, 2 TeK)
Plays of the game: Did not pay close enough attention to recall notable plays due to unbearable video quality.
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Fire vs. Spastic (15:00 – 4:18) | LINK
Review: This was a highly anticipated match, with Fire stuck in the middle of the standings and competing for the 4th playoff spot with their opponent Spastic, who recently acquired Zizu. Fire came out strong, establishing top control relatively quickly until cripple and JAMAL made their way up there to counter. With Zizu in terr, Oder was able to shark with porkjet, leaving Cripple, Stayon, and JAMAL in spider. With wbm out, Stayon shifted to under and Undercut took over. This Spastic line looked great on paper and was poised at the start until Zizu died easily from spider bullets one minute into the game. From there, Spastic fell apart and never recovered. Kado and Ro ran train on under, with particular pressure from Ro all game and good support from and a few solid pushes by kado. TPZ had slight advantage to cripple at top bar this game, most likely attributable to TPZ's sharks, with Ease controlling flag way better than Undercut and JAMAL could respond to (again, likely due to per usual sharking excellence from zidane and mcvicar). claushouse's positioning and drops were on point this match; he looked really good here. Zizu didn’t.
Fire’s cram looked really strong throughout the match and they dominated most flagroom fights. Either something just didn’t click here for Spastic, or Fire just stepped up because they fully knew that playoffs were at stake and ultimately wanted the win more. As dominant as Fire spiders looked and as comfortable as claushouse seemed to be, this game was all zidane and micvicar. All game they made fantastic cram recoveries (for example, 10:35-11:00) and pushed Oder and porkjet around easily in flagroom. There were multiple instances where Spastic spiders did not capitalize on obvious openings for cram breaks, and Zizu sat way too low to drop his sharks close to cram to force entries. Every time Fire spiders died in cram, Spastic spiders sat back camping and let Fire's cram regroup and recover. Zizu looked apprehensive all game; just watch from 11:30-11:57, where there was a wide open entry into a weak left side of flagroom while claushouse chilled far back on the right. In this play, Zizu took slightly too long to enter, which granted claushouse and Fire enough time to reposition and regroup over flag. This led to Spastic scrambling and to subsequently being cornered low in the left side of flagroom, losing 20-30 seconds while trying to regroup, with Fire already set up on top over flag and waiting.
Although there is a lot to be said about Zizu's general hesitancy and subpar performance behind an equally subpar overall Spastic performance, claushouse isn't completely out of the water. claushouse made a really bad, yet ultimately inconsequential play at 13:25-13:45 that temporarily lost his team presence in and control of the flagroom. If not for mcvicar's clutch reps (that were nearly out of proximity to register for those 15 bullets), this stupid play would have ruined his ace and could have given Spastic the unlikely chance to gain momentum and comeback. Either way, Spastic’s below mediocre effort only yielded 4 minutes of flag time and they were never able to take full control for an extended period of time at any single point in this game. The zidane and mcvicar shark duo, along with claushouse who flashed a perfect 43-0 ace, all share this week's HOT player of the game. Zizu, you're way better than that bullet line death at 20:45-20:55, and although this loss cannot be blamed entirely on you (since your entire team looked really uncoordinated and essentially shook throughout the game), you've earned this week's NOT player of the week. Spastic, you have your new terr, you have your legendary spids, now fix your sharks so Zizu can thrive, or you won't make playoffs. Period. Note: I'm commenting on these games as if I don't know what happens in their later matches.
HOT: zidane (11-84, 3 TK, 0 TeK, 2.9 RPD), mcvicar (10-82, 5 TK, 1 TeK), claushouse (43-0, 0 TeK); honorable mention goes to Best for trying to convince Heaven to wingman him while he macks Heaven's sister
NOT: Zizu (26-6, 0 TeK)
Plays of the game: zidane pushes flag solo while his entire team is sitting back, mines flag, emps Zizu, and forces his retreat (8:35-8:50); hellkite rushes Zizu, forcing a warp and TeK by mcvicar (9:30-9:48); nice repped burst evasion by claushouse (10:55-11:05); great top push by Ease to regain flag and top control twice (12:37-13:24); awesome escape by Zizu until he chokes (15:00-15:20), Ro leaves under to rush top bar, kills attaching shark, and gets the TeK on Zizu (22:27-22:38)
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Gun vs. Rapid (15:00 – 2:54) | LINK
Review: Great, another super high-quality video with amazing music to enhance the viewing experience of this highly competitive game /s. Uh, anyway, Gun vs. Rapid, I wonder who will win? Jack finally got his TWL-B season 23 debut and Ricko got another chance at under. The rest of Gun's lineup looked the same as in prior games. New recruit Dwopple bolstered sharking capabilities for Rapid, who were previously using variable combinations of Morph, Riverside, and violence. With Zizu gone, aprix got behind the wheel in terr, but there is not much aprix and his sharks could do behind their to-be-completely-out-finessed spider line.
Gun came out hot, with overt dominance both over and under flag starting from the very beginning of the game. Rapid as a whole looked out of place, situationally unaware, and generally clueless. Still, Rapid broke cram numerous times this game, which is more a testament to Gun’s consistently weak cram and sloppiness than to Rapid's performance. Just as an example, Pressure actively flew out of cram and got repped even further out at 9:48 and lost cram, but other than giving Rapid another flagroom fight, this bad play had no contribution to the game overall. Pressure had an otherwise easy game in the hot seat, as expected, and went 13-0 with the baby ace. Hulk and WillBy were flawless.
I still believe wholeheartedly that had Rapid been given a single additional week to build their roster before the season started, they’d be just as much a contender as any other team. We can't really throw excuses or blame around, though, considering Rapid only formed in the final week of pre-season with whatever players were available in the wake of the intense pre-season recruiting wars. If they were really serious about competing they would have formed weeks-months earlier than they did, but I digress, and I am thankful that they still show every weekend and give it their best shot. It's just a shame that they had to rush to recruit because all they’ve been met with this TWL-B season are blowouts with no end in sight. On the bright side, I’m glad some of their lesser known players are getting TWL-B experience, because I see guys like Banks making their way deep into the post-season at some point in their career with more time, experience, and practice. Unfortunately, it’s looking less and less likely like Rapid will have such a chance this year.
Finally, saiyan, skatarius, and Jack applied unabated and ruthless pressure for the entirety of the game, while racing each other (without much resistance) for best stats. These three completely owned this game and are therefore this week’s HOT players of the week. On the other hand, Rapid’s spiders put up no more than 60 kills each in a 17 minute game, totaling 252 kills, just 19 more than Gun’s over trio, with skatarius, saiyan, and Jack totaling 233 kills. Therefore, again, Rapid’s spiders are cumulatively this week’s NOT players of the week.
HOT: skatarius (81-30, 1 TeK), saiyan (80-25, 1 TeK), Jack (71-26, 2 TeK)
NOT: Banks (56-38), Creature (55-40), FROZEN THRONE (46-36), hypocrit (51-42), RUCCI (44-41)
Plays of the game: violence greens a 4th rep and slices opens cram for aprix and team to enter (3:17-3:30); great in-game awareness by Jack, who simultaneously touches flag and avoids ramming two mines in order to open the field for hulk and WillBy to rep enemy mines over flag (3:55-4:05); great under play by Banks, who wins a 1v2, rushes under, forces hulk to rep early, lures 4 over spids, and opens top bar and over flag, which would have led to Rapid establishing flag control had Rapid been more aware (4:45-5:10)
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Pandora vs. Fire (15:00 – 13:22) | LINK
Review: On paper, this game had all of the pieces to make an interesting game. Pandora was comfortably at the top of the standings and a loss here would not be as impactful as a loss would be to Fire, who entered week 3 in the middle of the standings, fighting for the last playoff spot. Pandora and Fire fielded their typical terrs and sharks in Tim and claushouse and Markmrw/Joeses and zidane/mcvicar, which on paper heavily favored Fire. Sarger, MousE, and diakka were put against Ease, hellkite, and TPZ over flag, which despite slightly favoring Pandora, looks much more even on paper. Renzi and EG rookie Azuline looked to challenge the clearly favored and newly minted under combination Ro and kado. After taking spiders into account, this game really looked mostly even on paper, maybe even slightly favoring Fire. A great game was definitely about to ensue...
Until Pandora started without a terr (nice job Pandora caps and Tim). Fire’s cram looked strong against Pandora’s arguably best cram breaking strategy/spiders in the league, with their incessant corner camping. It really bothers me that no one has figured out how to counter sarger's easily predictable corner shot, but if you want a hint, just watch TPZ dodge and then take him out from 1:40-1:50 with so much ease that it makes me cringe that anyone ever dies to this shot. Ro, TPZ, and zidane/mcvicar looked great at the start and were the real anti-camp forces that consistently took down sarger and Azuline, neutralizing Pandora’s corner attack. Tim and Joeses looked shaky at the beginning of this game - just watch Joeses drop 2 reps that led to Tim’s death that at 2:42-2:48. Tim, come on man, 3:42-3:52, 5:08-5:14, what’s going on here? You just gave Fire at least 6 free minutes at the start of a crucial game. At the 6 minute mark, Tim finally made an amazing escape and out-survived claushouse, which allowed the game to actually begin. Tim then TeK’d claushouse after an amazing cram break by hellkite (see Plays of the game below), giving Pandora more time to regroup and recover from the early 6-0 shutout. Both teams started to look good around the 6-3 mark, but Pandora was markedly handicapped due to consistently dropped reps by an obviously nerve-ridden Joeses. Multiple times throughout the game, Ro stacked as 4th spid over flag while kado held under alone, giving Fire huge advantages at crucial moments in the early flagroom battles.
At around 7-3, Pandora’s under game really stepped up and renzi/Azuline started reeking complete havoc on Ro/kado. At the same time that Pandora’s unders started to wake up, sarger, diakka, and MousE began to explode. claushouse did not look as loose as he did in his game versus Spastic. His spiders were overwhelmed, and zidane/mcvicar could only do so much to give cover to their spiders under the constant lag pushes and thunderstorm of red bullets. Renzi, sarger, Mouse, and diakka did a great job at forcing zidane and mcvicar to rep instead of giving them free reign to aggress and mine/bomb all over the flagroom, limiting zidane and mcvicar to a total of just 15 combined kills and zero combined TeKs against an underperforming terr; when was the last time zidane and mcvicar had kill counts this low in a TWL-B match, with zero combined TeKs? Tim, again man, 14:25-14:34. Just bad dude. You still clearly have a knack for making 1-on-1 plays against the enemy terr and staying alive in really high-pressure situations, but your general lack of awareness in more stable moments, and your inability to stay alive in easier, low-pressure situations is really questionable considering you are the starting terr on a team that is beginning to look like they may make a TWL-B finals run. I could probably take my own advice here, but just play a little bit safer, time your sharks better, and let your spiders do the rest. Don’t worry, though, claushouse had his own lapses in awareness (16:19-16:25), though I guess the ancient burst (historically used in point race games to kill terrs who were dropping spiders on the right to set up their "line") employed by Tim wasn’t as predictable as it looked from a spectator’s point-of-view.
Despite how surprising this game turned out to be, it really seemed like Pandora was the better team all around, all game, yet Fire accumulated a ton of time because of a really bad start and multiple easily avoidable deaths by Tim. This could have easily been a 15-6 game if not for Tim. Joeses shaped up and stopped dropping reps mid-game, making a great comeback to finish the game with a 3.0 RPD. claushouse, did someone get in your head? Because you're playing way differently than you played in TWDT-B and basing cup. You look passive and hesitant. I mean, 18:20-18:25? Anyway, once Pandora finally gained the lead at the 10-9 mark, claushouse and Fire tried to turn up and made a solid cream break, but were halted by a huge shark gap caused by a dropped rep by zidane (19:20-19:30), which forced claushouse to warp out of flagroom. Fire re-entered anyway and took control because of another wonderful Tim death to the single most predictable under burst in basing (19:55-20:05). ?buy eyes, bro. Tim, 21:46-21:52, I mean really, you can’t make this stuff up. You're a good guy, but every time I want to stop trashing you, you die to something even more stupid. Tim you may have made some good plays that won you the game, but overall you cost your team upward of 10 total minutes of flag time. Since Tim and claushouse were both really bad in this game, they are both the NOT players of the week, with more emphasis on claushouse, who lost a game where the opposing terr gave him 10 free minutes of flag time.
At the 11-10 mark, Fire started to make a strong comeback with a solid cram, but it simply wasn't enough. Pandora had too much momentum and their cram break was too good. A solid shark drop on flag by Tim (22:50-23:00) allowed Pandora to regain flag control, and around 11-11 there was a fierce back-and-forth flagroom battle, with solid attempted TeKs by hellkite and kado, and even better responses by Tim (24:28-24:34, 25:30-25:38). claushouse made a fatal error at 26:25-26:32, by running away from a newly spawned 3-rep zidane and getting slapped by a redemption-seeking Joeses, which put the to-be nail in the coffin for Fire. Fire made one last effort at 27:53, only to have claushouse die another careless, and likely tilt-related death to spider bullets on flagroom entry. In my opinion, all of the spiders on both sides played very well, but sarger and hellkite were animals this match. Sarger demonstrated significant versatility, covering whatever position his team needed at any given time, whether it was corners, flag, top bar or under during various points throughout the game. Just watch sarger stay composed, recharge, wait for his teammates to attach and regroup, and lead his team out of being cornered from 26:00-26:20. With Fire in the lead at 13-12, sarger ultimately went on to kill Ease and hellkite in this play and helped his team acquire top control. claushouse died seconds later, winning Pandora the game. Big plays like these earned sarger the HOT player of the week. However, the only consistent responses Fire had this match were from hellkite and Ro, with definite focus on hellkite, who made so many plays of the game that I just cannot leave him out of the HOT seat.
HOT: sarger (105-74, 0 TeK), hellkite (102-62, 2 TeK)
NOT: claushouse (45-7, 2 TeK), tim (33-8, 3 TeK)
Plays of the game: renzi enters cram unopposed, kills hellkite in cram, rushes over flag, kills kado, and enables Pandora to take flag control (6:06-6:25); originally meant to be an Ease highlight, how does Tim survive here? incredible (lucky?) play (6:28-6:50); vicious solo rush by hellkite to enter flagroom and allow his team to break cram (7:40-7:50); big rush by Tim to TeK claushouse at top bar (8:05-8:14); another great cram break and push sequence by hellkite (8:56-9:23); big under rush by renzi and Azuline to force claushouse to lose positioning, allowing Pandora to take flag control (10:14-10:35); huge under rush by Azuline to force claushouse into a corner, subsequently making him warp out and give flagroom to Pandora (11:27-11:48)
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Plade vs. Spastic (12:37 – 15:00) | LINK
Review: Learning from their errors against Fire, Spastic came into this game with solid managerial decisions and lineup changes. JAMAL and porkjet were set to shark, with Undercut coming in to replace JAMAL in spider. Plade fielded the same line as weeks 1-2, questionably leaving out their highly anticipated EG rookie, CARDI B (BOMBED). Zizu was set against Mikkiz, JAMAL/porkjet lined up against Commodo/Mythril. Trasher led the way with dreamwin and bram against cripple, Stayon and Undercut over flag while kess/Bacon looked to face off under against wbm/JURASSIC. Spastic seriously needed this win, since losing to Fire put them at 1-4 (W-L), dangerously close to missing playoffs. This looked like Spastic’s chance to finally make a run for the final playoff spot, but can they deliver? If they do, will it be too little too late?
Right off the bat, Spastic looked great with a formal 3 over, 2 under set up and demonstrated complete dominance. Mikkiz had no where to go but hide behind the chair and in the corner early on, until Stayon, wbm, and JURASSIC decided to suicide under and die at 1:06, allowing Bacon free reign to flank and open up top for Plade to take flag control. JAMAL looked incredible this entire game, pushing around enemy sharks Commodo/Mythril with ease, and with the help of his spiders, essentially negated every rep Commodo and Mythril put up. Despite the pressure from JAMAL and porkjet's impactful reps and their supporting spiders, specifically cripple who appeared to be amping up the aggression this game, Mikkiz made some good escapes (see Plays of the game below) to keep Plade in visibly outclassed early flagroom battles. Like Stayon said in yellow chat, Spastic was finally Stayon> playing like a team. Somehow, although Spastic seemed to have control throughout the beginning of the game, Plade kept the score close. Cripple was a monster over flag, not just with his top bar control, but also as previously mentioned he was making some big rushing plays. Finally, after a solid starting flagroom battle, Mikkiz’ luck finally caught up with him and after a sick under push by Stayon, wbm, and JURASSIC at 4:35, was cornered and died.
Spastic’s cram looked great. Mythril had some lag issues. Loved seeing Spastic’s chat and how seriously they’re taking this game. At the 6-4 mark, Plade broke Spastic’s cram and Zizu died a careless death to a bullet line at 10:43. Plade started to gain some momentum with dreamwin and Trasher turning up, but their cram couldn’t handle Spastic’s push and upon retreating Mikkiz died with critical energy to a single under bullet at 11:30. Even though I know the outcome of this match, Spastic looks too solid and too composed for Plade to match for the rest of the game, so although they may put up the time to make this game look close, Spastic had this one in the bag from the start.
JURASSIC really locked the camp shots under, mostly left unopposed to annoy Plade's top control for most of the game. After the first flagroom battle, Mikkiz looked timid and hesitant and played a very vanilla game, with consistently erratic/low flagroom drops and “safe”/hiding positioning. He was clearly outmatched and just looked understandably overwhelmed all game. He did clutch Zizu with a port trick at 25:13, but I think the league knows my opinion on how skillful these moves really are and so I don’t have much else to say. Zizu got him right back at 26:32 anyway. Zizu played well (for the overtly better team), but also had some shaky moments and shouldn’t have died for at least 3 of those 6 deaths.
I hate to come down on this guy since he is a legend and I used to really look up to him 10+ years ago, but despite hitting 100+ kills I’m not sure what bram was doing for most of this game. Plays like at 14:26-14:34, 15:50-16:00, and 16:45-16:53 are tough to watch, where you just die for no reason, give up spider regroup advantage on cram break, give up top control, let repless sharks recharge and bomb freely, and with 82 deaths spent at least 4 minutes of game time dead/respawning. In a close game where your team is clearly out-controlled in flagroom, staying alive is key, and just by watching you I can tell that you aren’t aware of the importance of recharging while waiting for your sharks or repositioning to survive while waiting for your team to regroup. For example, you make a nice play to kill cripple and take top bar at 17:16, giving your team top control. Then Mythril drops a rep, and when you’re vulnerable, you poke out and shoot a few times (at what, I’m not sure) instead of backing off, recharging, maintaining your position, and waiting for the next shark. Then you die, and Zizu escapes out of ear. I mean, just overall lack of in-game awareness there. Like, at 19:06-19:15, or 22:22-22:31, what were you doing? In my opinion, given the previously mentioned reasons, you were the weak link in your spider lineup, letting Cripple, Stayon, and Undercut run train 3v2 on Trasher and dreamwin, and therefore are unfortunately the NOT player of the week. I see your 87 deaths dreamwin, but you consistently made use of the majority of your deaths when you were alive, so I can’t say the same for you even though you definitely over-rushed and partially contributed to your team’s inability to establish any semblance of control in this one.
Judging by the numbers, Plade’s spiders didn’t have much trouble evenly spreading kills and out-killing Spastic (with the exception of cripple), but Spastic’s sharks and overall positioning in flagroom were what led to this win. Although Spastic as a whole played great, the clear differentiator in this match was JAMAL, which is why he has been chosen as a HOT player of the game. Cripple was so significantly ahead of his team in kills (138, next highest 98), was the obviously domineering spider in Spastic's line, and was a part of nearly every big Spastic play, so he too has been chosen as a HOT player of the game. If Spastic continues to play like this for the rest of the season, the push for that 4th playoff spot is going to get even more and more tight. Plade, on the other hand, have been fluctuating in performance since the season’s start and need to to field a better 5th spider if they want to have a chance at the title.
HOT: JAMAL (18-123, 6 TK, 1 TeK, 3.0 RPD), cripple (138-74, 0 TeK)
NOT: bram (104-82, 0 TeK)
Plays of the game: Mikkiz makes a few unbelievable (lag-enabling) escapes (2:32-2:50); Stayon, wbm, and JURASSIC triple under, pressuring Mikkiz to warp into a TeK by JAMAL (4:35-4:50); big reps by porkjet to preserve cram (6:44-6:55); godly 6-rep by Mythril to preserve cram (9:45-9:52); sick under push by Undercut to finish Mikkiz for the TeK (13:58-14:06); Zizu warps, rushes top bar, and disrespects the fuck out of Mikkiz (19:02-19:15); enormous bomb by Commodo to force Zizu to warp and subsequently get TeK’d after an excellent escape effort (20:26-20:47); big shark doa and cram break by JURASSIC (21:55-22:04); crucial game-finishing TeK by Zizu at top bar (26:30-26:35)
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Rapid vs. Plade (3:33 – 15:00) | - video unavailable
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Week 3 Recap: What a week. Pandora finessed both Gun and Fire and established themselves as the #1 seed after week 3. Spastic upset Plade, finally showing life and interest in making a playoff run. Plade and Gun looked rocky and head into week 4 with tough matchups against Fire/Pandora and Fire/Spastic, respectively. The fight for playoffs ensues, and the top 4 truly are up in the air right now. Will Spastic go 2-0 and make a real playoff run? Will Fire go 2-0 and knock one of the top 3 from a comfortable playoff position? Will Gun hold a cram for more than 11 seconds? Tune in Sunday at 4:30pm EST to find out!
HOTW: diakka (121-57, 0 TeK) (118-50, 1 TeK)
NOTW: Rapid (squad)
POTW: Enormous bomb by Commodo to force Zizu to warp and subsequently get TeK’d after an excellent escape effort (20:26-20:47)
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