Of the five games played today, three involved possible upsets that could propel one of the second tier basing squadrons into the top ranks. Going into today's games, it seems to me that there were three tiers in TWLB, and they were as follows:
Tier I
Pandora (2-0) With their top 8 in they are a finals possibility, they may have trouble if someone lags out or can't show.
Sage (2-0) Virtuous Respect Players have been improving steadily the last couple years and are a force to be reckoned with. They are the recipients of countless accusations of lag inducing and bot hacking so you know they are doing something right. All of TW's hatred for Pandora seems to have been transferred to Sage, nice.
Dice (1-0) Was outplayed by Spastic mainly due to lacking 2 of their star spiders; fortunately for them their 3rd and 4th spiders are better than your squad's first.
Penetrate (1-1) I put them last only because they received a loss, but it was to Dice in an epic match so don't think that they any worse than the other top squads. Luck, who can show and will power are what will differentiate these top squads, but it will take more than luck for one of these squads to make the semi-finals:
Tier II
Thunder (1-1) Solid line up, but lacks the experience and needs an all-star to stand out.
Spastic (0-1) Their 0-1 does little to represent how well they are playing so far. With tough matches againstg Pene and Dice, they will own the next squads:
Tier III
Anti-Scrub (1-1) Almost a tier II squad, we will see if they can get some upsets. Sharks need work, just sayin.
Paladen (1-1) Decent line up, they will have to fight with A-S and get an upset to make it to tier II.
Hit (0-2) A few good players who may receive a heisman trophy.
Disoblige (0-2) Tier IV?
Pandora vs Thunder
So we need some upsets to shake things up, namely Thunder or Spastic to take advantage of a weak line up from one of the top squads or the semi-finals will involve the usual suspects and Sage. The best opportunity today came for Thunder (1-1) as they played Pandora (2-0). In fact it was a damn good chance for Thunder as I was beeping and hoping for 8 to just show up 5 minutes before the game started. Ph, Sarger and Renzi were a few of guys Pandora was hoping to play today, and by the looks of things Thunder had their starting line in.
Thunder came out hot and was able to control and win the first flag-room battle. After 6 minutes of complete bull shit I took a hard four second look at our stats, saw Dizzy struggling with 12-18 and subbed in Zeebu who started to turn things around. Thunder was ahead through most of the game, but Pandora was steadily returning, holding a couple 3 minute crams to tie the game at 10-10. Thunder pushed hard and was able to regain the flag room, killing Tim in an under push by Confluence who was able to put pressure on Tim throughout the game. As they took the lead going past their 13th minute it looked like thunder might be taking the upset they were looking for when a critical mental mistake led them to allow Tim to shoot right up the tube, through one of the small doors, and zip into the Flag room completely uncontested. Pandora was able to take out Raples before Thunder had time to slap their foreheads in shock, and it was the last time they would see the flag as Pandora held out the last few minutes to win the game 15:00-13:52.
Hot: Tim: Each team had exceptional spider play, with Leitz and Lionheart matching well agianst Ease and Confluence, and each side had great sharking, but the one player who stood out and may have tipped the balance in his squad's favor was Tim. Twice he was able to break into cram by himself, and his other breaks were accomplished quicker than Thunder's with high ports and well-timed, controlled aggression.
Not: Renzi: Guy comes online with game tied at 13 minutes, subs himself in and lags out immediately, though his one kill may have won the game I'm not sure, I was busy rubbing my eye sockets with my fists in disbelief. In all seriousness everyone on Thunder played so well that I can't think of a single player that might have lost it for them. They went up against the best shark in the game and lost, what are you gonna do.
Spastic vs. Penetrate
The second featured match of the day involved another opportunity for an upset as Spastic comes off a tough loss to Anti-Scrub last week. This match started off very well with each team fighting for control of the flag in a heated flag room battle. At 3-3 Spastic had Penetrate cornered in an ear and looked like they may have them outgunned when out of th depths rose Zhou who made a fantastic push out of the ear canal, collecting a full charge along the way and eliminating most of Spastic's spiders. Pure-Luck kept his squad alive multiple times with squad-saving ports onto the flag as he switched sides and got behind Penetrate's pushing spiders. An exciting first flag room battle ended with Spastic taking advantage of a bad port location by Wingzero and winning the flag after 7 minutes of play, but it could not last forever. Penetrate's spiders simply out-pushed Spastic who seemed unwilling to move forward or let go of the control key. Since 2 other games were going on simultaneously I left to check them out, and when I came back 5 minutes later it was pretty clear that Penetrate was beginning to dominate. Spastic was able to eventually break their crams but it took much longer for them to get in then it did for Penetrate who controlled the flow of battle and came out on top 15:00 - 8:10.
Hot: Tsumetai: Although Trasher got more kills and snatched the MVP, his camping abilities would be quite useless if not for Tsumetai sacrificing himself time and time again for the good of the squad.
Not: Usoi: I watched you for 3 minutes, and I mean only you during a flag room battle toward the end of the match. You moved forward 1 inch, shot 3 times, and then you moved backwards 1 inch as you regained energy, and you went on to repeat that for three straight minutes. Sometimes you have to get your ass out from behind that rock and realize you aren't doing shit and try to take that hill soldier.
Sage vs. Anti-Scrub
The last game worth noticing took place between these two teams, once again it was a chance for a good team to fail and a decent team to succeed, but that did not happen today. For the first time this year Sage had their top starting line in and A-S was simply outgunned, out sharked, out terr'd and out played. Since this game went on during 2 other more exciting games I only watched the tail end of it and bits and pieces along the way, but one thing that certainly stood out was anti-scrub's sharks being completely bewildered by Spikey's bull shit wb level 10 bullets with rep and ship piercing abilities. If Spikey is within 2 inches of your ship, don't even bother repelling, it will not save you or your terr that is a ship length behind you as Ephemeral found out during one of the few times A-S was able to penetrate Sage's cram defense. Even when he wasn't hitting their players, Spikey made A-S's sharks rep so fast out of fear that huge holes were left between their rushed rotation, during which Sage's spiders felt free to advance and wipe out A-S's defenseless spiders and terr. Would Sage have won this game as easily with Spikey in spider? Maybe so, but it will be VERY interesting to see if they choose to put a wb in against Pandora next week. I fucking dare you faggots to do it and secretly hope you don't.
Hot: Spikey: Well he made such an impact that I got to give it to him, but it was so cheap that this will be the last time you will hear about him from me, except after next week when I give him the Not for getting manhandled, ship-changed and subbed after he costs his team a loss against Pandora. God wills it.
Not: Ephemeral and teh Super: Sorry guys, but you got owned pretty bad, next time rep before, during and after Spikey shoots and save 3 reps for the spiders, too.
Hit vs. Disoblige
Well I thought this would be a close game, but poor, poor Disoblige. Does Thix think he's good? I think he does. I mean what can I say about this game? I watched it and I took some notes for the other games but all I wrote down during this game was the word Why? over and over. I'm pretty sure each time I wrote it down there was a corresponding catastrophe that Disoblige committed but they all just began to mesh into one big WHY? by the game's end. A long story short, Disoblige is just, well, I mean, you come here and read this and each week it's the same thing, me making fun of you, but what else am I supposed to say? Talk about how good Hit is? They suck, and yet they still owned you. All I can really say is, I'm sorry.
Hot: bender rodriguez: I have no idea who you are but you stood out as the guy who shot the most guys from the other squad, so that's something.
Not: Flared: 8 teams next year allllllrighty then.
Paladen vs. Dice
Dice won, gg.
Actually Paladen played fairly well and was able to get over 7 minutes off of Dice, I almost thought megaman89 was going to have to switch out of jav and back to spider in utter disgrace. Paladen put up a good match, and they should be proud of their performance; Dice should be sort of wondering what happened a little bit but not really. Nothing to really write home about, nothing extraordinary happened, Paladen needs to beat A-S or Spastic or someone to get a chance at reaching the playoffs.
Hot: Meh.
Not: No one on Dice played really well because they didn't have to, no one on Paladen played poorly and they put up a good fight, ggs all around.
Looking Forward
A new look at the standings presents us with the following rankings:
1. Pandora (3-0)
2. Sage (3-0)
3. Dice (2-0)
4. Penetrate (2-1)
5. Anti-Scrub (1-2)
6. Spastic (0-2) A near almost sort of win against Dice puts them above the following squads.
7. Thunder (1-2)
8. Paladen (1-2)
9. Hit (1-2)
10. Disoblige (0-3)
Predictions
Pandora vs. Sage: predicting you will lose is not a good idea, but this is without doubt the featured match of the week. Will Spikey play WB? Will Pandora be able to take advantage of the extra spider, did PH quit TW? These are questions that will be answered soon.
Spastic vs. Paladen: This is it Paladen, your chance at playoffs is right now! Oh, and this is it Spastic! Your chance to miss playoffs is right now! Paladen will play well, but Spastic is fucking due for a legit victory so watch out.
Thunder vs. Hit: Look for this game to be a sort of but not really close one, Thunder should be able to pull it off.
Penetrate vs. Anti-Scrub: Considering how poorly A-S faired against sage, this one should be a shoe-in.
Dice vs. Disoblige: Another bye week for Dice, and when you think about it, for Disoblige too.
Tier I
Pandora (2-0) With their top 8 in they are a finals possibility, they may have trouble if someone lags out or can't show.
Sage (2-0) Virtuous Respect Players have been improving steadily the last couple years and are a force to be reckoned with. They are the recipients of countless accusations of lag inducing and bot hacking so you know they are doing something right. All of TW's hatred for Pandora seems to have been transferred to Sage, nice.
Dice (1-0) Was outplayed by Spastic mainly due to lacking 2 of their star spiders; fortunately for them their 3rd and 4th spiders are better than your squad's first.
Penetrate (1-1) I put them last only because they received a loss, but it was to Dice in an epic match so don't think that they any worse than the other top squads. Luck, who can show and will power are what will differentiate these top squads, but it will take more than luck for one of these squads to make the semi-finals:
Tier II
Thunder (1-1) Solid line up, but lacks the experience and needs an all-star to stand out.
Spastic (0-1) Their 0-1 does little to represent how well they are playing so far. With tough matches againstg Pene and Dice, they will own the next squads:
Tier III
Anti-Scrub (1-1) Almost a tier II squad, we will see if they can get some upsets. Sharks need work, just sayin.
Paladen (1-1) Decent line up, they will have to fight with A-S and get an upset to make it to tier II.
Hit (0-2) A few good players who may receive a heisman trophy.
Disoblige (0-2) Tier IV?
Pandora vs Thunder
So we need some upsets to shake things up, namely Thunder or Spastic to take advantage of a weak line up from one of the top squads or the semi-finals will involve the usual suspects and Sage. The best opportunity today came for Thunder (1-1) as they played Pandora (2-0). In fact it was a damn good chance for Thunder as I was beeping and hoping for 8 to just show up 5 minutes before the game started. Ph, Sarger and Renzi were a few of guys Pandora was hoping to play today, and by the looks of things Thunder had their starting line in.
Thunder came out hot and was able to control and win the first flag-room battle. After 6 minutes of complete bull shit I took a hard four second look at our stats, saw Dizzy struggling with 12-18 and subbed in Zeebu who started to turn things around. Thunder was ahead through most of the game, but Pandora was steadily returning, holding a couple 3 minute crams to tie the game at 10-10. Thunder pushed hard and was able to regain the flag room, killing Tim in an under push by Confluence who was able to put pressure on Tim throughout the game. As they took the lead going past their 13th minute it looked like thunder might be taking the upset they were looking for when a critical mental mistake led them to allow Tim to shoot right up the tube, through one of the small doors, and zip into the Flag room completely uncontested. Pandora was able to take out Raples before Thunder had time to slap their foreheads in shock, and it was the last time they would see the flag as Pandora held out the last few minutes to win the game 15:00-13:52.
Hot: Tim: Each team had exceptional spider play, with Leitz and Lionheart matching well agianst Ease and Confluence, and each side had great sharking, but the one player who stood out and may have tipped the balance in his squad's favor was Tim. Twice he was able to break into cram by himself, and his other breaks were accomplished quicker than Thunder's with high ports and well-timed, controlled aggression.
Not: Renzi: Guy comes online with game tied at 13 minutes, subs himself in and lags out immediately, though his one kill may have won the game I'm not sure, I was busy rubbing my eye sockets with my fists in disbelief. In all seriousness everyone on Thunder played so well that I can't think of a single player that might have lost it for them. They went up against the best shark in the game and lost, what are you gonna do.
Spastic vs. Penetrate
The second featured match of the day involved another opportunity for an upset as Spastic comes off a tough loss to Anti-Scrub last week. This match started off very well with each team fighting for control of the flag in a heated flag room battle. At 3-3 Spastic had Penetrate cornered in an ear and looked like they may have them outgunned when out of th depths rose Zhou who made a fantastic push out of the ear canal, collecting a full charge along the way and eliminating most of Spastic's spiders. Pure-Luck kept his squad alive multiple times with squad-saving ports onto the flag as he switched sides and got behind Penetrate's pushing spiders. An exciting first flag room battle ended with Spastic taking advantage of a bad port location by Wingzero and winning the flag after 7 minutes of play, but it could not last forever. Penetrate's spiders simply out-pushed Spastic who seemed unwilling to move forward or let go of the control key. Since 2 other games were going on simultaneously I left to check them out, and when I came back 5 minutes later it was pretty clear that Penetrate was beginning to dominate. Spastic was able to eventually break their crams but it took much longer for them to get in then it did for Penetrate who controlled the flow of battle and came out on top 15:00 - 8:10.
Hot: Tsumetai: Although Trasher got more kills and snatched the MVP, his camping abilities would be quite useless if not for Tsumetai sacrificing himself time and time again for the good of the squad.
Not: Usoi: I watched you for 3 minutes, and I mean only you during a flag room battle toward the end of the match. You moved forward 1 inch, shot 3 times, and then you moved backwards 1 inch as you regained energy, and you went on to repeat that for three straight minutes. Sometimes you have to get your ass out from behind that rock and realize you aren't doing shit and try to take that hill soldier.
Sage vs. Anti-Scrub
The last game worth noticing took place between these two teams, once again it was a chance for a good team to fail and a decent team to succeed, but that did not happen today. For the first time this year Sage had their top starting line in and A-S was simply outgunned, out sharked, out terr'd and out played. Since this game went on during 2 other more exciting games I only watched the tail end of it and bits and pieces along the way, but one thing that certainly stood out was anti-scrub's sharks being completely bewildered by Spikey's bull shit wb level 10 bullets with rep and ship piercing abilities. If Spikey is within 2 inches of your ship, don't even bother repelling, it will not save you or your terr that is a ship length behind you as Ephemeral found out during one of the few times A-S was able to penetrate Sage's cram defense. Even when he wasn't hitting their players, Spikey made A-S's sharks rep so fast out of fear that huge holes were left between their rushed rotation, during which Sage's spiders felt free to advance and wipe out A-S's defenseless spiders and terr. Would Sage have won this game as easily with Spikey in spider? Maybe so, but it will be VERY interesting to see if they choose to put a wb in against Pandora next week. I fucking dare you faggots to do it and secretly hope you don't.
Hot: Spikey: Well he made such an impact that I got to give it to him, but it was so cheap that this will be the last time you will hear about him from me, except after next week when I give him the Not for getting manhandled, ship-changed and subbed after he costs his team a loss against Pandora. God wills it.
Not: Ephemeral and teh Super: Sorry guys, but you got owned pretty bad, next time rep before, during and after Spikey shoots and save 3 reps for the spiders, too.
Hit vs. Disoblige
Well I thought this would be a close game, but poor, poor Disoblige. Does Thix think he's good? I think he does. I mean what can I say about this game? I watched it and I took some notes for the other games but all I wrote down during this game was the word Why? over and over. I'm pretty sure each time I wrote it down there was a corresponding catastrophe that Disoblige committed but they all just began to mesh into one big WHY? by the game's end. A long story short, Disoblige is just, well, I mean, you come here and read this and each week it's the same thing, me making fun of you, but what else am I supposed to say? Talk about how good Hit is? They suck, and yet they still owned you. All I can really say is, I'm sorry.
Hot: bender rodriguez: I have no idea who you are but you stood out as the guy who shot the most guys from the other squad, so that's something.
Not: Flared: 8 teams next year allllllrighty then.
Paladen vs. Dice
Dice won, gg.
Actually Paladen played fairly well and was able to get over 7 minutes off of Dice, I almost thought megaman89 was going to have to switch out of jav and back to spider in utter disgrace. Paladen put up a good match, and they should be proud of their performance; Dice should be sort of wondering what happened a little bit but not really. Nothing to really write home about, nothing extraordinary happened, Paladen needs to beat A-S or Spastic or someone to get a chance at reaching the playoffs.
Hot: Meh.
Not: No one on Dice played really well because they didn't have to, no one on Paladen played poorly and they put up a good fight, ggs all around.
Looking Forward
A new look at the standings presents us with the following rankings:
1. Pandora (3-0)
2. Sage (3-0)
3. Dice (2-0)
4. Penetrate (2-1)
5. Anti-Scrub (1-2)
6. Spastic (0-2) A near almost sort of win against Dice puts them above the following squads.
7. Thunder (1-2)
8. Paladen (1-2)
9. Hit (1-2)
10. Disoblige (0-3)
Predictions
Pandora vs. Sage: predicting you will lose is not a good idea, but this is without doubt the featured match of the week. Will Spikey play WB? Will Pandora be able to take advantage of the extra spider, did PH quit TW? These are questions that will be answered soon.
Spastic vs. Paladen: This is it Paladen, your chance at playoffs is right now! Oh, and this is it Spastic! Your chance to miss playoffs is right now! Paladen will play well, but Spastic is fucking due for a legit victory so watch out.
Thunder vs. Hit: Look for this game to be a sort of but not really close one, Thunder should be able to pull it off.
Penetrate vs. Anti-Scrub: Considering how poorly A-S faired against sage, this one should be a shoe-in.
Dice vs. Disoblige: Another bye week for Dice, and when you think about it, for Disoblige too.
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