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Dice (7-1) vs. Penetrate (7-1)
Round 1
Winner: Dice
15:00-07:08
The much-anticipated finals began with Dice throwing the opening salvo with a hard spider push and a lightning quick barrage earning a TD, immediately setting the tone for match. A more practiced Dice side aggressively took away time and space from Penetrate, led by an in-form Tabarnak!! (3.3 RPD) and a2m (3.0 RPD) against more eclectic performances from Veloce (2.8 RPD) and fermata (2.8 RPD). A ?find veloce about 30 minutes before the game turned up "last seen 3 days ago", which didn't bode well.
I played Cripple earlier in the week, and he was campy and useless and got steamrolled playing in a mediocre Dice line in bd, so it was somewhat of a surprise to see him leading the push over and dominating the top bar and crunching spiders left and right. After Dice took a commanding lead, Penetrate found its footing and led by regular season-MVP Solacer, Trasher and Tsumetai, winning battle-after-battle in the flagroom.
This was definitely the turning point in the game, as an in-form Cape (38-2) performed flawlessly against a competent but unspectacular Cintra (44-5), with expert port after expert port, perfectly timing them with shark attaches and deftly avoiding the onslaught and simply refusing to die (where was this in the TWDTB final, you useless fuck?) This changed the momentum and psychology of the game, I think, as Pene never seemed to really put up as much of a fight, even in Round 2.
The other front was under, where a rusty and inactive Zhou paired-up with down syndrome-esque Acidbomber's unique style. The duo had performed well vs. a Thunder squad absent of undering spiders (Mattey says that was their strategy from the start, to give up under to overload top), but fared poorly against Stayon and megaman89. While setting up shots and remaining in a fixed position might work against most squads, the fluid always-moving Dice pair punished them for their complacency. Acid's duck-into-mid dodge was countered by mega/stayon either isolating him or zhou (on the other side), working in tandem to win the majority of the skirmishes.
While Dice edged Pene out in every area, the biggest factor in Round 1 was Cape's amazing two death performance.
OVERSPIDS:
108-59 Cripple
91-39 Domi
90-71 Tsumetai
87-54 Jamal
85-47 Trasher
73-62 Solacer
UNDERSPIDS:
70-47 Megaman89
66-50 AcidBomber
64-46 Stayon
48-57 zhou
MVP: Cape
Round 2
Winner: Dice
15:00-10:58
Penetrate stepped up their game in the second round as a noticeably more human Cape (28-7) emerged, as both terrs accrued 7 deaths apiece. Acidbomber and zhou played a lot better under, managing to swoop in and surprise the overspids, whilst an early sub of a2m for LF gave Pene's overspids more room to manouver and resulted in more substantial gains on Dice's all-star spider line.
While the first round saw very conservative mining efforts, RPD went down across the board as sharks on both sides upped their kill counts and disruptive effects, led by tabarsmashing Tabarnak!! (19 kills) and veloce (18 kills). Cintra (48-7) played a more aggressive game, notching 20 more kills than a recalcitrant Cape, forcing Cripple to once again step up his game, and proving to be the difference as under was neutralized, sharks and terring were even, and spiders on both sides managed similar kill counts. Crip went commando, amassing a ridiculous 140 kills while pushing, almost 30 kills more than the next spid.
With top-level players on both sides, it really came down to 'athleticism'. Both teams know all the shots, all the angles, what needs to be done, and how to do it, but Dice was definitely more active throughout the week. Both teams did the right things, but the 5-time champs just did them a bit quicker, a bit sharper, a bit more fluidly, more aggressive, and with so much talent on each side in a game of millimeters that can make all the difference.
While there were some interesting moments, this definitely was not anywhere near as exciting as the Thunder/Pene game in the semi's or the Dice/Sage final last year. What certainly made this TWL 16 unique was the awful cramming throughout the entire playoffs. The majority of the battles all took place in the FR, unlike last year where whole games were won on massive crams.
If I had to guess, I'd say people have just gotten a lot better at breaking and clearing out corners. While the sharking on both sides was very strong, the comfortable spider scores (K
) of the Dice spiders is really a credit to the quality of repping from a2m/tab/LF -- nice work guys.
Great seasons from both squads.
OVERSPIDS:
140-79 Cripple
113-65 Trasher
108-56 Domi
104-71 Jamal
102-99 Tsumetai
101-69 Solacer
UNDERSPIDS:
97-69 AcidBomber
90-67 Megaman89
83-61 Stayon
66-63 zhou
MVP: Cripple
Round 1
Winner: Dice
15:00-07:08
The much-anticipated finals began with Dice throwing the opening salvo with a hard spider push and a lightning quick barrage earning a TD, immediately setting the tone for match. A more practiced Dice side aggressively took away time and space from Penetrate, led by an in-form Tabarnak!! (3.3 RPD) and a2m (3.0 RPD) against more eclectic performances from Veloce (2.8 RPD) and fermata (2.8 RPD). A ?find veloce about 30 minutes before the game turned up "last seen 3 days ago", which didn't bode well.
I played Cripple earlier in the week, and he was campy and useless and got steamrolled playing in a mediocre Dice line in bd, so it was somewhat of a surprise to see him leading the push over and dominating the top bar and crunching spiders left and right. After Dice took a commanding lead, Penetrate found its footing and led by regular season-MVP Solacer, Trasher and Tsumetai, winning battle-after-battle in the flagroom.
This was definitely the turning point in the game, as an in-form Cape (38-2) performed flawlessly against a competent but unspectacular Cintra (44-5), with expert port after expert port, perfectly timing them with shark attaches and deftly avoiding the onslaught and simply refusing to die (where was this in the TWDTB final, you useless fuck?) This changed the momentum and psychology of the game, I think, as Pene never seemed to really put up as much of a fight, even in Round 2.
The other front was under, where a rusty and inactive Zhou paired-up with down syndrome-esque Acidbomber's unique style. The duo had performed well vs. a Thunder squad absent of undering spiders (Mattey says that was their strategy from the start, to give up under to overload top), but fared poorly against Stayon and megaman89. While setting up shots and remaining in a fixed position might work against most squads, the fluid always-moving Dice pair punished them for their complacency. Acid's duck-into-mid dodge was countered by mega/stayon either isolating him or zhou (on the other side), working in tandem to win the majority of the skirmishes.
While Dice edged Pene out in every area, the biggest factor in Round 1 was Cape's amazing two death performance.
OVERSPIDS:
108-59 Cripple
91-39 Domi
90-71 Tsumetai
87-54 Jamal
85-47 Trasher
73-62 Solacer
UNDERSPIDS:
70-47 Megaman89
66-50 AcidBomber
64-46 Stayon
48-57 zhou
MVP: Cape
Round 2
Winner: Dice
15:00-10:58
Penetrate stepped up their game in the second round as a noticeably more human Cape (28-7) emerged, as both terrs accrued 7 deaths apiece. Acidbomber and zhou played a lot better under, managing to swoop in and surprise the overspids, whilst an early sub of a2m for LF gave Pene's overspids more room to manouver and resulted in more substantial gains on Dice's all-star spider line.
While the first round saw very conservative mining efforts, RPD went down across the board as sharks on both sides upped their kill counts and disruptive effects, led by tabarsmashing Tabarnak!! (19 kills) and veloce (18 kills). Cintra (48-7) played a more aggressive game, notching 20 more kills than a recalcitrant Cape, forcing Cripple to once again step up his game, and proving to be the difference as under was neutralized, sharks and terring were even, and spiders on both sides managed similar kill counts. Crip went commando, amassing a ridiculous 140 kills while pushing, almost 30 kills more than the next spid.
With top-level players on both sides, it really came down to 'athleticism'. Both teams know all the shots, all the angles, what needs to be done, and how to do it, but Dice was definitely more active throughout the week. Both teams did the right things, but the 5-time champs just did them a bit quicker, a bit sharper, a bit more fluidly, more aggressive, and with so much talent on each side in a game of millimeters that can make all the difference.
While there were some interesting moments, this definitely was not anywhere near as exciting as the Thunder/Pene game in the semi's or the Dice/Sage final last year. What certainly made this TWL 16 unique was the awful cramming throughout the entire playoffs. The majority of the battles all took place in the FR, unlike last year where whole games were won on massive crams.
If I had to guess, I'd say people have just gotten a lot better at breaking and clearing out corners. While the sharking on both sides was very strong, the comfortable spider scores (K
) of the Dice spiders is really a credit to the quality of repping from a2m/tab/LF -- nice work guys.Great seasons from both squads.
OVERSPIDS:
140-79 Cripple
113-65 Trasher
108-56 Domi
104-71 Jamal
102-99 Tsumetai
101-69 Solacer
UNDERSPIDS:
97-69 AcidBomber
90-67 Megaman89
83-61 Stayon
66-63 zhou
MVP: Cripple
) Great write up, claushouse!
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