Hot or Not Week 1

[Izor]

So, I can only write up one game seeing as how I was spending time with my parents for most of the games or playing a dd. It will come as soon as I find people that actually watched...sorry, but I dont like commenting on games based solely off of stats

[Black Mage]

Well, since I actually watched all of the LD games this week (in addition to chatting and watching football, so I may have missed some things), I’ll take a crack at the Hot or Not for LD this week. Feel free to post this on the TWL site if you want to use it.

HOT

In the season opener, dice squared off against Rapid, facing 2 of its recently departed LD starters. Rapid took an early advantage, perhaps the javs/spiders that dice threw in for its lineup needed some time to get reacquainted with ship 1. Dice took control of the game thanks to some strong play from Caos (12-10) and led as the game came to the end. However, Rapid’s subs of Saetep (8-4) and Ns (3-2) took back the lead and helped herbalist yangyun (10-5) finish them off.

In the game of Shinobi vs. Wolf, it was never really close. Shinobi jumped out to an early lead and controlled the game throughout, with the final score being closer than the game really was. Hercules flexed his muscle (15-8) and Quartz proved equally mighty (15-8 also) as only Paky Dude (10-10) managed to stay even of Wolf’s starters. However, Flew (defying all odds) pulled a nice sub for Wolf (9-6). Shinobi had a few players ineligible this week, so if they keep playing this well look for them to continue making waves and challenge for a playoff spot before everything is said and done.

Thunder beating Sage was the only game I didn’t catch all of (took place the same time as mine), but I saw the end. Sage put up a valiant effort, but they were overmatched by Chuckle (13-9), Reaver (14-7), and a nice sub from Yakuza (9-5). Marnix, like Paky Dude before him, continued the trend of the best starter on the losing team managing to go even.

If Warpath vs. Serenity had been played last week, it may have been a more even contest, but Serenity lost a few of its best WBs in the week leading up to this match, and we were able to overwhelm them using good teaming. It was fairly even early on as we had three players on our squad lagout at least once, but we were able to knock out Drastwing very early on. Seemingly right after, Jaa lagged out for an extended period, and Sir Spider (13-6), Iron Survivor (11-6), Hellborn (10-5), and co. took over 5v3 with pressure.

I billed Mad vs. Quicksand as the Game of the Week because it would be a good test of who might compete for the title this year. As the game played out, it looks like Mad is that team. Quicksand got off to a pretty quick start thanks to Racka (around 5-1 early before finishing 9-10), as Mad suffered from some lag issues (especially Deez Nuts who had to be subbed). Mad rallied quickly though and controlled the game from the middle to the end thanks to good killing by Apok (13-9), Scoop (10-5) and a strong finish from my TWLM signee Unabled (9-7). As for Quicksand, Izor (10-10) finished even and Racka was close, but they clearly need to improve their depth. Fortunately, they recently acquired a2m and PureOwnage hoping to do just that.

In the last game, Epidemic cruised to a pretty easy victory over Fatal. Fatal put up a good fight, but the game always seemed in Epidemic’s favor. Delectable led the way (12-5), with Deluge right behind him (11-6 despite 2 lagouts), and the rest of the squad not far behind them. Foreign finished positive in his one logon of the month (11-10), but the rest of the lineup was very mediocre.

MVP: Delectable – of the players who scored a +7, he played the toughest opponent

Honorable Mentions: Hercules (15-8), Quartz (15-8), Sir Spider (13-6), Reaver (14-7), Saetep (8-4), Apok (13-9), Deluge (11-6), Iron Survivor (11-6), Scoop (10-5), Chuckle (13-9)

NOT

Dice’s primary NOT has to be letting many of their talented warbirds go. In addition, Mess (5-10) was unable to get kills to prevent Rapid from turning the game around. For Rapid, one of their key additions, Mega Newbie, failed to impress and was subbed out at 2-6.

In the next game, self-proclaimed Rookie of the Year, Cres, got off to a slow start, subbed out with a negative record (4-8). There was some controversy in the line for Wolf as (so the speculation says) golden duck added himself, before promptly going 0-4 to start and was subbed out.
Again I missed most of this game, but somehow Misled struggled mightily (0-5) for Thunder despite success all around. Kawrae (one of Sage’s few capable warbirds) lagged out 3 times in the loss, and Ground Zero turned in the worst score (6-10) of their line.

Serenity was defeated primarily due to the quick elimination of Drastwing (5-10) and Jaa’s unfortunately timed lagouts (4-10 and). None of their squad scored over 7 kills, and let’s face it, Warpath is not exactly Siege from however many years ago, so they will need to improve pretty much across the board, especially with their teaming.

Quicksand was humbled a bit on Sunday, and much of the blame rests on the shoulders of Weak (1-5 quickly and subbed out very early), kthx (4-10 with 2 lagouts), and Geio (6-10 not going to get it done if he wants to consider himself one of Quicksand’s big 3). They lost the momentum halfway through and were unable to get their teaming back and unable dictate the pace of the match.

Unfortunately for Fatal, Riverside suffered from some crippling packet loss, so one of their top players was unable to play. In addition, Spaceship, who had shown pretty good warbird form of late, was embarrassed (3-10 and not sure why he was not subbed out), and Lockdown was rendered useless (5-8 and 3 lagouts). They’ll need to play better if they want to make the playoffs.

LVP: Spaceship- Worst record of the day (3-10) and did not play well

Dishonorable Mentions: Jaa (4-10), Drastwing (5-10 and early exit), Mess (5-10), Cres (4-8), golden duck (0-4), Ground Zero (6-10), kthx (4-10), Weak (1-5), Misled (0-5), Lockdown (5-8), Mega Newbie (2-6)

[Regen]

Thank you for taking the time to write this. Good read.

A lot of squads have a lot to prove in the next couple weeks.

Though a rough week for half of the squads in twl, anything can still happen.

[Lock]

Lag killed us :/

[Crescent Seal]

Thank you for taking the time to write this. Good read.

A lot of squads have a lot to prove in the next couple weeks.

Though a rough week for half of the squads in twl, anything can still happen.

^ :greedy:

[Foreign]

Not a bad assessment, but it was my 2nd logon of the month you insensitive clod!

[Ricko]

river makes comments about my laggings out in my LD game (bloody housemates trying to stream nfl) and cant even play due to his own packetloss issues...classic

[Izor]

Thank you very much! ill make an effort to watch more games but football will almost always win