TWL Playoff Round 1 Hot or Not

[Black Mage]

Hot or Not

TWLD

HOT

In the TWLD games this week, missed opportunity was the clear theme. Sage came off a terrific regular season, but unfortunately 3 or 4 of their starters (Ground Zero, Kawrae, Marnix, Hermit) could not or did not show. They missed the chance to continue surprising the TW community and take out everyone’s favorite villain, Quicksand. Quicksand won the first round easily (50-29) with Kyou (13-4) and Weak (13-7) leading the way. Kid Kaos chipped in an impressive score (11-6) as well, as Zizu did his best (12-10) as the lone Sage regular warbird playing. In the second round, Sage blew yet another opportunity. NL>Trigger (13-10) helped them take a 34-27 advantage before a2m (7-1 to 7-6 to 15-10 MVP), Kid Kaos (13-10) and Quicksand stormed back following Kyou's sub of the positive PeteyMcNasty. Clearly that signaled to his squad that it was time to try. Golden Sun I (11-10) and Jari10 (9-10) gave a great effort and actually maintained a tie game with a 2v1 man advantage, but Kyou (4-4) split them up and took them down one after the other to lead his squad to the next round against Epidemic.

Fatal also blew a nice opportunity after they vaulted back for a huge comeback (14-22 to 50-39) using great teamwork against Thunder. Thunder’s experienced warbirds surprisingly seemed a little shell-shocked during the comeback, and Fatal had all the momentum. Chuckle was the only member of Thunder to maintain an even rec in Round 1, whereas Femur (anyone know who this is?), Jones, and Terian put up nice scores with 7 deaths for Fatal (12-7, 11-7, and 13-7 respectively). Also props to Riverside. for being the catalyst of the comeback, going from 0-7 to 8-7 and finishing 10-9. In the next round, Fatal grabbed the lead (21-19) after trailing early, Riverside. was dominating the match (11-4), and you could sense a similar 2nd half runaway about to happen. Unfortunately, it was not to be for Fatal. Raspi (15-8), B4sERmaN94_X (9-7), and Thunder seemed to wake up, or shake off the rust, or something, and they dominated the next round and a half. Riverside. finished poorly (11-10) after his teammates let him down and died out. In the final round, Jones (13-10) tried his best to take advantage of the opportunity, but Thunder, led again by Raspi, B4sERmaN94_X (both at 11-7) and Chuckle (13-10), overwhelmed Fatal and advance to the next round to face Mad. Ease also contributed with a +5 (9-4), surprisingly his only positive game of the 3.

NOT

I’m not sure who is to blame for the poor attendance of Sage’s warbirds. Whether a time was not negotiated properly and led to Sage’s demise, or just an unfortunate coincidence that none of them could make it this week, we the spectators were robbed of a potentially quality matchup. Back in Week 8, Sage beat Quicksand with pretty much their top line in (which led to the falling out between Geio and the rest of the squad). I know Sage’s main priority is probably TWLB, but this was a disappointing development from them anyways. Low scores from some of their non-warbirds who showed up include Dutch_ (3-10), Jari10 (4-10) Golden Sun 1 and NL>Trigger (both 5-10) in round 1. Zizu had a disappointing (8-10) round 2 by his standards, where he must feel that if he just got to even they might have won the round. H.M.S Stargazer took a break from hosting games over New Years to go 0-5 in quick fashion for Quicksand in round 2.

In the other series of games, any NOT discussion starts with Spaceship. He posted quality numbers in TWDT and in qualifying, but he has had a very mediocre TWL and it got much worse on Sunday. His rounds of 4-9, 1-10, and 5-10 (6-29) may have single-handedly lost the match for Fatal, especially in the 2nd round when they had the lead and the momentum but he did not contribute kills and died out first. He also died out first in the 3rd round, although Riverside. (5-10) and Femur (4-10) were right behind him. Jones sandwiched two solid rounds with a dud (6-10) in round 2. In the only NOT for Thunder, Burnt and Obi contributed equally to a 4-10 (although Burnt was running for his life 5v1 for most of it) in the first round.

HOT Player of the Week – Raspi (9-10, 15-8, 11-7) earns it over Kid Kaos/Kyou thanks to quality of competition and importance of the scores.
Runners up – Kid Kaos (11-6, 13-10), Kyou (13-4, 4-4 1v2 win), Chuckle (10-10, 8-6, 13-10), B4sERmaN94_X (7-10, 9-7, 11-7)

NOT Player of the Week – Spaceship (4-9, 1-10, 5-10) because he was bad and I have no idea why Sage didn’t show.
Runners up – Sage warbirds failing to show, Dutch_ (3-10, 8-10)

[Black Mage]

TWLJ

HOT

I’m not going to lie, these were pretty bland games. In the first match, Boss edged Shinobi in 3 rounds, but although the games were tight most of the way through in each, one team pulled away by the end and made them boring by the end. Although the squads and records seemed even, it never came down to 1v1 or 2v2. Shinobi came out of the gate quickly in the first round using aggressive teaming coupled with a lagout from Lorko. However, it became clear that Shinobi could not create separation even with the lagouts from Lorko, so it became clear that Boss would gradually pull away. Contradict actually MVP’d this round, but he was out very early in the match to his team’s detriment. Shinobi was unable to eliminate members of Boss on 9, and Boss benefitted from evenly distributed scoring, with Toxie (12-7) leading the way. In the next round, TiduZ (18-8) absolutely took over. He had at least 3 2-fers from the middle stage of the round onwards (although one may have included a teammate), and along with Shan (13-8) led Shinobi to a fairly easy victory. Locket followed up a nice round 1 (12-10) with an even round 2. In the final round, Boss again used solid team-play and scoring to slightly edge Shinobi. Scarce (11-8) was the Boss in the round, but nobody went negative, whereas for Shinobi, nobody made it positive (although TiduZ managed to break even).

In the other matchup, or should I say, the other mismatch, Thunder completely dominated Respect in straight sets. All members of Thunder went even or better during both rounds, with Fludd (12-4) scoring the best round in the first round and Amputate (9-1), Ease (12-7), Marge (11-6) and waven (11-5) all doing well in the second round. Dreamwin’s first round (8-10) was the best round for Respect. If Thunder wins next week, I promise to give them much more credit.

NOT

As hard as it was to give out HOTs for the first game, it’s just as hard to give out NOTs. Shan had the lowest score of 6-10 in the first round for Shinobi followed by TiduZ with 7-10, Contradict had a 4-9 in a winning effort for Shinobi in round 2, while Lag Killer and Wax both got 6-10 in the last round. They really spread the suck around. The only real NOT for Boss was Statis’ round 2 (4-10), where he subbed in shortly into the game for Lorko when he did not come back quickly from a lagout. I guess you could say in general that Lorko’s lagouts were NOT as well.

All I will say is that Respect is getting none from me for their jav line. It doesn't help when more than one of your better/most used javs during the season is no longer on the squad by the time playoffs roll around.

HOT Player of the Week – Locket (12-10, 10-10, 10-9) gets it for being only player even or better in all 3 rounds.
Runners up – Thunder, Toxie (12-7, 8-10, 9-7), TiduZ (7-10, 18-8, 10-10)

NOT Players of the Week – Respect (28-50, 26-50) needed to make it respectable at least.
Runners up – Lag Killer (8-10, 7-8, 6-10), Wax (10-10, 7-8, 6-10)

[Black Mage]

TWLB

HOT

In the first match of the TWL season 13 playoffs, dicE took it hard to Brainwave (15:00-4:54). DicE took control of the contest early and kept it up. They extended their lead throughout (4:00-0:30 to 10:00 to 2:00) and were generally the better team. The cram failed them a surprising number of times, allowing Brainwave to take some flag-time, but Tim was always able to stay alive in base (27-1) and let his superior spiders eventually prevail. I’m going to give credit here to Brainwave for playing hard til the end; There was no quit to BW. Dwopple and Cig Smoke were the winning sharks and should be commended for their terr dying only once. Dwopple actually averaged 3.1 RPD (which is the first time I’ve seen that stat, but that would seem to be ideal). As far as Spiders go, JAMAL led the way once again with a greater than 2:1 (102-49), but Megaman89 actually toped that ratio with an almost 3:1 (95-32).

In the later contest, most thought this match would be closer than it was. Instead, Penetrate handled Mad rather easily (15:00-6:38). According to PH, the problem was Mad’s “pussy spiders”. From my untrained basing eye, however, I saw Dead_Rain and his sharks play a heck of a game. In one superb play, Dead_Rain was under duress and warped. He immediately dodged under fire out of the FR so his squad could come to his aid, but just as Mad was setting up its cram, Dead_Rain sneakily ported back into base on a port I have no idea how he had time to leave (and a good job of whoever ate the green that gave him the port) when he was getting chased out of base. Penetrate took control of the game when they were losing (3:30-4:00) and dominated it the rest of the way. Jeenyuss (playing only the 2nd game of the season) and velOce (3.0 rpd) took care of business and outplayed their shark counterparts, while Fit of Rage MVP’d (95-44) and broofus was not far behind him (93-43).

NOT

Brainwave struggled without AcidBomber or Milpitas to provide a competent 2nd shark. They tried Racist Fuk (ok), Pappa (bad), and Aleman (worst) to protect Mikkiz (who suffered because of it). Unfortunately they didn’t use Racist there until they were already down by 10 minutes; it might have made the game more competitive, but it was not likely to have swung the outcome. Brainwave was also simply outgunned, as dicE’s spiders were far superior (and that’s not a shock).

Besides Mad’s pussy spiders, M_M God was not very effective in this match. He notched 10 teamkills to only 1 terrier kill. He did have one spider 3fer that I saw, but he also had a big teamkill that cost his squad the base and a lot of momentum in the match. Confluence had a very low RPD (2.4), and more than one baser in spec more knowledgeable than me criticized his play. That could have led to how poorly Zizzo looked in comparison with Dead_Rain, and his squad seemed to notice too as they replaced him with Scoop by the end of the match.

HOT Player of the Week - Dead_Rain
Runners up – Dwopple, JAMAL, velOce, Tim, Fit of Rage

NOT Player of the Week - M_M God
Runners up – Aleman, Confluence, Zizzo, Mikkiz, Brainwave spiders

[Izor]

Thunder really let Fatal back into round 1. A LOT of individual poorly aimed suicides let Fatal back in it. Even Riverside can get kills when people are throwing themselves at him and three of his teammates. I think over the next 2 rounds thunder settled down and realized not to take the terrible wbs for granted.

[Turban]

turbs pro hon

TWLB:

penetrate penetrated through mads shitty defenses and raped us. gg, u deserved it. hope our newb appeal works so we get a replay LOL

TWLJ:

didn't see.

TWLD:

couldn't care less, gg chokle and ease.

[Kid Kaos]

Its too bad sage could not show its starters. I wanted a better warmup for epidemic. Oh well one newb is as bad as the other for sage anyways. The only reason they beat us early was because we underestimated them and also how rusty we were with our teaming. GG to Thunder for beating Fatal though that was a better watch im sure.

[Jones]

Thunder really let Fatal back into round 1. A LOT of individual poorly aimed suicides let Fatal back in it. Even Riverside can get kills when people are throwing themselves at him and three of his teammates. I think over the next 2 rounds thunder settled down and realized not to take the terrible wbs for granted.

how many duels have you been humiliated in by River already? I lost count.

[Burnt]

Hot
Unfortunately, it was not to be for Fatal. Raspi (15-8), B4sERmaN94_X (9-7), and Thunder seemed to wake up, or shake off the rust, or something, and they dominated the next round and a half.

And Burnt (9-5)

In the only NOT for Thunder, Burnt and Obi contributed equally to a 4-10 (although Burnt was running for his life 5v1 for most of it) in the first round.

So then it wasn't equal was it Blackmage


Nice write up though Blackmage (although it totally sucked)

[Epinephrine]

Wish I could have been there... stupid work

[Turban]

if there will be a replay for TWLB, I'll promise we'll add a real lineup. :wub:

which wouldn't change much.

[Dwopple]

hollaaa

[Turban]

Pandora going to win this season.

[PH]

as they have every season

please give us more incredibly bold predictions kunkkue

[PH]

And Burnt (9-5)



So then it wasn't equal was it Blackmage


Nice write up though Blackmage (although it totally sucked)

you aren't funny

[Black Mage]

And Burnt (9-5)



So then it wasn't equal was it Blackmage


Nice write up though Blackmage (although it totally sucked)

In the first part I was trying to emphasize players who got better as the round went on, whereas you started out 4-1. And you both equally contributed to the 4-10 because you both went 2-5.