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TWLJ Season 17 Rankings / Predictions
TWLJ invites have just gone out so I figured I would hop on the opportunity to comment on TWLJ throughout the season yet again. I do plan on writing Hot or Nots during the season but cannot commit to the Preseason as it is the beginning weeks of the semester. All the good partying takes place during the first 3-4 weeks of any law school semester, and I plan on taking full advantage of them.
With that being said what follows are the Preseason ranks / TWLJ predictions for the season. The 12 (sigh really?!) invited squads are judged based on objective and subjective qualifications not limited to: their JD ladder ranks, history of their players, my personal experiences in JDs against them, and others' perceptions of the players. Please note I do NOT offer TL;DR versions of my threads. The collective IQ of the TW population is severely weighed down by many individuals. At the very least I view this opportunity to write as a public service. My goal is to educate you morons on proper usage of the English language. As you may already know, I do add in a bit of trolling. What fun is this game if we can't all laugh at each other? With that being said here it goes:
TWLJ Champions
1. Pandora
Starters: Zidane, Ease, Amputate, Rough, Children (as of now)
Bench: Tsunami, Marge, EvilDeed, Cape, Fludd, Cross
As a prefatory statement, I would like to note that despite my affiliation with Pandora, given the aforementioned factors I feel as though Pandora is the favorite to win TWLJ. Being accused of hoarding javs, the amount of skill Pandora has in ship 2 will prove to be insurmountable for the rest of the league.
To start, Pandora has the best jav to ever play the game. Ease has proven his skill time and time again. Any squad that Ease joins instantly becomes contenders (see: Thunder, Sk8).
Amputate and Rough (Syndicate Butt-Buddies) are back in prime form. Amputate's dodging is almost perfect at times, and his absolute will to win is exemplified in his jav play. Rough, as always, provides solid backup and has developed chemistry with Amp as well as Ease throughout the years, despite having some sort of mental retardation.
Zidane compliments these three, as he has extensive experience playing with all 4 of Pandora's starters. At times I am not sure who is the bigger try hard between Amp and Zidane as both rage compulsively about the rest of the team's jav play even when we are winning by a good margin. This pursuit of perfection will prove to be valuable in TWL, even though I am hard pressed to qualify these two as anything but nerds.
Children, despite being unbearably annoying at times, is aggressive in a league where records are more important than winning to some. With his forward arrow taped down with the strongest of duct tape, Children has (unfortunately) lead in stats for all of TWLJ for the past couple of seasons as even the most confident of players play passive when TWLJ starts.
Outside of the starting five, Pandora has incredible depth: EvilDeed, Fludd, Marge are all TWLJ veterans that have won many medals and know how to provide solid back-up. Many of you may laugh that I have listed Cross as a potential player, but my recent JD experiences with him have shown me that this wily veteran still has some skill left in him. When I am not in my own head, I too provide solid backup and good vulches for my team.
All in all, Pandora has shown in the off-season that it dominates and will continue to dominate ship 2. Pandora's greatest enemy has and always will be its own cockiness however. Several TWJD losses are evidence of this. Pandora’s javs have a strong attitude of entitlement when it comes to matches. If this attitude is allowed to permeate throughout the season, look for Pandora to unwind at the seams.
Runner-Ups
3. Raid
Starters: Reaver, Roiwerk, NowYouDie, Eelam, Saving
Bench: Plob#f, vys, Kira_Yamato~,
Despite being a little less skilled than Fierce, I believe Raid will pull out an upset and play Pandora in the finals. Raid at times presents superb teaming with annoying strays and insane lack of aim. When this trifecta is formed, Raid is hard if not impossible to beat.
Reaver, despite starting as a warbird, has great aim when it comes to warbird shots in ship 2 (any good jav will tell you that straight warbird shots are the life-line of a solid jav game). As a product of his wb style, he is very susceptible to levs and wall shots.
With the very recent pickup of Roiwerk, Raid increased its TWLJ chances greatly. Roiwerk has improved on his baseelim style javing in JDs. His insane lag makes his dodges very efficient and annoying. However he has always struggled when it comes to finishing simple shots. But based on the offseason JDs, Roiwerk is a very strong jav and provides solid kills and backup.
Nowyoudie, despite losing more than a few steps from his Syndicate days, is slowly regaining his Jav back. His passive Euro style is very complimentary to the various personalities on Raid. Eelam and Saving provide a very suicidal style of jav play that allow more passive players like Reaver and Roiwerk to capitalize on enemy mistakes. If Eelam and Saving can keep up their aggressive jav in TWLJ, Raid will no have no problem cruising to the championship game.
What Raid lacks in individual jav talent, they more than makes up for in team situations. If Raid can cover for each others’ individual mistakes, look for them to possibly even upset the jav behemoth, Pandora.
2. Fierce
Starters: Waven, 24, Tiny, Singer, Havok
Bench: Aprix, Morph,
Fierce was VERY strong in the earlier parts of the offseason. I, along with Pandora, found myself struggling to deal with their teaming. However, as the offseason progressed and there was more of a sense of finality to squads in terms of their rosters, Fierce diminished in skill.
24 is undoubtedly a strong jav. He is probably one of the biggest tryhards in TW. However, the biggest weakness I see in 24's game is his compulsive wall-shooting. In one JD, 24 shot 14 out of 18 bombs (that I counted) off of a wall. The 4 that did not get lobbed off a wall were grossly misaimed. 24 thrives in situations where people shoot bombs first and he can follow the vulch with a lev.
Having seen waven in action and actually squadtagged, I added him instead of Apok as one of Fierce’s starters. Waven seemed to be playing up to speed. Waven has always been good but very passive in clutch situations. It is easy for teams to capitalize on this but at the end of the day Nemo. has always been a great jav.
Admittedly, Tiny has improved. However, he is streaky as ever. When his rush is on, Tiny is a force to be reckoned with. Luckily for squads in TWLJ, this is a rare occurrence.
Outside of these three, Fierce's line falls apart. Singer is at best a moderately acceptable jav that has some breakout games. I decline to comment on Havok, as his 6.4:7.0 JD average despite repeated re-rosterings on the TWD site speaks for itself. Aprix and Hunt have lost their stride and Morph has never really been an impact player in the javelin. Fierce as a whole NEEDS to ditch the compulsive bulleting. It is very easy to shift momentum in your favor when they passively tape down the control button.
Also, Havok and 24 are EXTREMELY selfish players when they are -3 or on 9. I have seen 24 tape down shift and run far away from his team to avoid deaths. More often than not, this has had the effect of getting his team demolished while 24 runs away. Fierce cannot afford their javs having a selfish mentality.
All of this does come with one caveat: do not take them lightly because they will ALWAYS have the potential to completely dismantle the competition with their random lobs and strays. In addition, Waven still lurks on their roster.
4/5. Sage
Starters: Stayon, Spikey, Kawrae, Da1andonly, euforia
Bench: Struck, Chad Ochocinco, Aimbot, a2m, kess
With Dice dissolving over the offseason, Stayon exponentially increased Sage's TWLJ/B chances. Over the years Stayon has grown as a player and his jav game is not to be messed with. His aim is very good and he provides a solid game, which Sage has complimented with like-minded javs. Spikey and Kawrae have Euro-lag along with Euro-chemistry. Both of these guys have developed solid play through years of practice dating back to the days of -FINAL-. Da1, my personal favorite from Disoblige, is back providing solid backup along with well-timed bullets. The fifth spot for Sage becomes a little unpredictable as kess, euforia, struck, and a2m are not the most consistent.
To say anything more would be outright speculation, as I do not have much to go on. I only have a few JDs worth of experience against Sage and in these numbered encounters, they did not present their best lineup.
4/5. Dudgeon
Starters: megaman89, Zizzo, dreamwin, maketso, Mikkiz
Bench: nokkonen, Sakke
The first word that comes to mind when playing Dudgeon despite repeated victories is: Irritating. Zizzo and his European cohorts all have insane lag. Put them together on one squad and the outcome is literally mind-blowing. Along with their insane lack of aim, these Finns have shown repeatedly that their baser-luck in ship 2 is unconquerable at times. Dreamwin’s lag and his Children-esque rushes, Zizzo’s random warbird strays, Mikkiz’s tanks and maketso’s moronic jav all play a key roll in Dudgeon’s style. Now with the recent financial outlay for megaman, Dudgeon is looking pretty solid. Without megaman, these Euros have gaping holes in their teaming scheme. In the two JDs that I watched megaman since his acceptance of Dudgeon’s PayPal transfer, he filled these holes nicely with his TWLJ experience. His years on Dice were not wasted and it will be interesting to see what Dudgeon does throughout the season. If any squad will upset the top 3, I believe Dudgeon has the best shot. I give them their current rank based off of what I have seen from the rest of the lineup. Megaman has caught some flack from various javs in the community for being carried to several TWLJ rings. We shall see if he has what it takes to carry an underdog deep into the playoffs.
Trolling aside, I wish Dudgeon the best of luck this TWLJ season (except for when they play Pandora). Ignoring dreamwin obsessively pming players about “eating” his bombs (in actuality he is just missing by a mile), Zizzo and his teammates have always been respectful and have seldom resorted to trash-talking after a victory or loss. For that they get what little respect I can give over a 2d spaceship game.
6. Cobra
Starters: Flared, Infrared, Turban, Creature (?), Raples
Bench: Revolt, Lionheart, renzi, torcher
To be honest, Cobra does not belong at number 6. However this particular group of Ex-Thunder (or Gunmin, however they choose to affiliate themselves) is prone to colossal chokes. In a recent JD, Cobra forwent a 15+ kill lead and ended up in a 1v1 situation with Raid. Infrared, a seasoned player, should have easily wrapped it up against the warbird Best. For some reason or another, Infrared has always been prone to simplistic deaths. Following suit, Infrared lost the JD for Cobra. This JD is a perfect parallel to Cobra’s LJ pursuits. If they can get over their propensity to have stupid losses, Cobra can easily be among the top 4 jav squads in the league.
Flared, having finally made up his mind, is the marquee Cobra javelin. He in turn has extensive chemistry with his “?” brother Infrared. Together with Turban and Raples, these four have countless JDs under their belt from their Thunder years.
Cobra should be wary of Creature starting himself in jav. I strongly believe his ego far surpasses his jav talent, but should he feel the need to start himself I do not have any gripes. Who else will I spam during LJ games?! All jokes aside, Creature provides solid teaming and chooses more often than not to be the aggressor in an otherwise passive lineup.
Cobra’s bench is a little weak as Loki23 (torcher) has never really been....good? Revolt and renzi are adequate at best and Lionheart is still shaking the rust off from the yesteryears of Mambo.
Having said all that, I wish the Cobramin the best of luck, as they are fellow Thunder compatriots.
Outside of the top 6 squads, the Jav talent falls precipitously
7. Sweet
Starters: Spawnisen, hulk, Vitja, Mjollnir, ???
Bench: Riverside, Jones, Eric Clapton, Sphinktor, Wax MhZ
First thing to note is hulk in the starting lineup. Sure jokes can be made that hulk is a no shipper, a warbird, or a baser but in my time in Thunder, whenever we needed a serviceable jav against semi-decent squads, we always went to hulk. Hulk has shown considerable improvement in ship 2 and fills the spot of a key role player.
Unfortunately for Sweet, a role player is only useful insofar as you can use him to surround a marquee or star player. In Sweet’s case, there is none. Spawnisen is back looking rustier than ever. Vitja is not the same as he once was (See: Sk8) and the same can be said of Mjollnir.
To top it off, Sweet does not have a 5th jav that is a surefire starter. Accompanying this is Sweet’s lackluster bench that consists of warbirds and/or basers that play ship 2 out of a necessity. They will not have a hard time dealing with the lower tier of TWLJ, but I do not see them making any moves among the top 6.
8. Revenge
Starters: Zazerick, Mean Gene, skatarius, pizikius, M_M God
Bench: tmac
Revenge’s javs are nothing but lackluster. Though they pulled out a few offseason victories over some top squads (Pandora included), these victories were more of a byproduct of the other team’s unraveling as opposed to Revenge asserting its dominance.
Zazerick, accosted by Pandora during his stay there, does nothing but lob from behind his teammates. In key 4v2 situations where his team is rushing, he will lob a bomb and tk a teammate along with killing the enemy. This type of selfish play belongs on Fierce and will in no way aide Revenge’s question to attain wins over squads during the regular season.
Mean Gene might as well be a full time baser nowadays as his jav in JDs as well as elim (where it is much easier to be better, trust me I would know) has suffered.
Skatarius and pizikius are best defined as useless and though M_M God is an awesome basejav, that aspect of his game does not translate well into the TWJD map. I do not foresee Revenge turning any heads come regular season.
9. Sixies
Starters: Slum, Fork, immortal rites, Lorko, Jaguarus
Bench: Demonking99, Ruler, Rendered
It is fitting that this collection of javs are unknown to the community as their talent in the ship is nonexistent as well. Having been brought together just days before TWL qualifications, Lorko managed to put a misfit group of javs in TWLJ. I firmly believe that this happened only because of the diluted pool of squads (12 total teams) that are being allowed to qualify.
Nonetheless, Sixies has potential to upset a few mid-tier squads. They are all not completely lost in ship 2 (unlike qpr) and can hold their own 30% of the time. Fork always tries his heart out and in this league all you really need is one person to rally around provided your backup is consistent. I would not be surprised if Sixies takes a top-tier team into a relatively close match (50-40ish).
10. Potenza
Starters: Iron Survivor, qpr, okyo, Bietje, forces
Bench: Tarnish, Dezmond
I am very happy that Potenza is back for this season of TWL. Iron Survivor can easily bring his lag rush to a top-tier warbird squad but instead chose to stick it out with his core group of players that exemplify the underdog. It is good to see some people do not rush to join a contender squad when given the option to reside with friends.
With that being said, Season 17 presents yet another long road for Potenza in TWLJ. Iron Survivor will be called on to carry qpr’s heavy load yet again as qpr looks very rusty.
Okyo and Bietje both are below average javs that are a detriment to Iron Survivor’s lag rush at times. Forces, however is a good jav. I am not sure who this guy is, but he put up solid numbers for a jav in his position last season. I hope him and Iron Survivor can pull together for some upsets this go around as they deserve it.
On another note, I had to edit this thread to add in the fact that qpr got 8 people to ?message me. Someone please help this kid.
11. Unicorns!
Starters: Andy Steel, Via, Riksa, sieni, trouble
Bench: exe
I am not sure if they are dissolving or not, but at any rate Unicorns! takes the second to last spot in this season’s TWLJ rankings. It is unfortunate to see a great guy and jav like via wasted on a non-contender squad. Via could easily be a starter in one of the top-tier jav squads in the league. However inactivity will be the undoing of Unicorns! despite all of their players being decent at the ship at one point or another in their subspace careers.
12. Cougars
Starters: herbalist yangyun, lag killer, shaun, evasive, demonking99
Bench: Eh well, who the hell cares
So I had to recant my earlier statement about Penetrate as they denied their invitation to TWLJ (thanks RednaZ). In their place will be Cougars. They have a jd rating that currently sits at, 908.
I’m done.
TWLJ Season 17 Commentary:
Rankings and Predictions aside, I would like to comment on the overall organization of TWLJ this season. To allow for more squads to participate in TWL, and thus hopefully garner more Trench Wars constituents, TWL Staff has allowed 12 squads to participate in this season. This is a huge mistake in my opinion:
If we assume my rankings are an accurate reflection of jav talent and we further assume the population of Trench Wars will be consistent for the season, allowing 12 squads to participate in this season will have the effect of diluting the league. Any member of the community will tell you that outside of the top 6 squads, the caliber of javelins takes a nose-dive. What you will then have are matches between these top 6 and the bottom 4 that are complete blowouts. Records will be inflated, and overall interest for weeks that involve mismatches will wane. In addition, this provides an incentive for squads to enter TWLJ as a way of increasing roster space for other leagues given the new Roster Rules for this season.
Overall, allowing 12 squads with limited roster space based on their participation does not address the underlying concerns that many individuals had in the off-season. The top three squads will continue to reign supreme over TWLJ and the talent will not be dispersed.
If you think I am speaking without any foundation, I would like to propose to the community to keep track of how many lopsided matches there are this season. Lopsided can fairly be defined as any game in which the score is 50-38 or below.
Best of luck to all squads in TWLJ and I look forward to writing Hot or Nots as the season begins.
-Tsunami
TWLJ invites have just gone out so I figured I would hop on the opportunity to comment on TWLJ throughout the season yet again. I do plan on writing Hot or Nots during the season but cannot commit to the Preseason as it is the beginning weeks of the semester. All the good partying takes place during the first 3-4 weeks of any law school semester, and I plan on taking full advantage of them.
With that being said what follows are the Preseason ranks / TWLJ predictions for the season. The 12 (sigh really?!) invited squads are judged based on objective and subjective qualifications not limited to: their JD ladder ranks, history of their players, my personal experiences in JDs against them, and others' perceptions of the players. Please note I do NOT offer TL;DR versions of my threads. The collective IQ of the TW population is severely weighed down by many individuals. At the very least I view this opportunity to write as a public service. My goal is to educate you morons on proper usage of the English language. As you may already know, I do add in a bit of trolling. What fun is this game if we can't all laugh at each other? With that being said here it goes:
TWLJ Champions
1. Pandora
Starters: Zidane, Ease, Amputate, Rough, Children (as of now)
Bench: Tsunami, Marge, EvilDeed, Cape, Fludd, Cross
As a prefatory statement, I would like to note that despite my affiliation with Pandora, given the aforementioned factors I feel as though Pandora is the favorite to win TWLJ. Being accused of hoarding javs, the amount of skill Pandora has in ship 2 will prove to be insurmountable for the rest of the league.
To start, Pandora has the best jav to ever play the game. Ease has proven his skill time and time again. Any squad that Ease joins instantly becomes contenders (see: Thunder, Sk8).
Amputate and Rough (Syndicate Butt-Buddies) are back in prime form. Amputate's dodging is almost perfect at times, and his absolute will to win is exemplified in his jav play. Rough, as always, provides solid backup and has developed chemistry with Amp as well as Ease throughout the years, despite having some sort of mental retardation.
Zidane compliments these three, as he has extensive experience playing with all 4 of Pandora's starters. At times I am not sure who is the bigger try hard between Amp and Zidane as both rage compulsively about the rest of the team's jav play even when we are winning by a good margin. This pursuit of perfection will prove to be valuable in TWL, even though I am hard pressed to qualify these two as anything but nerds.
Children, despite being unbearably annoying at times, is aggressive in a league where records are more important than winning to some. With his forward arrow taped down with the strongest of duct tape, Children has (unfortunately) lead in stats for all of TWLJ for the past couple of seasons as even the most confident of players play passive when TWLJ starts.
Outside of the starting five, Pandora has incredible depth: EvilDeed, Fludd, Marge are all TWLJ veterans that have won many medals and know how to provide solid back-up. Many of you may laugh that I have listed Cross as a potential player, but my recent JD experiences with him have shown me that this wily veteran still has some skill left in him. When I am not in my own head, I too provide solid backup and good vulches for my team.
All in all, Pandora has shown in the off-season that it dominates and will continue to dominate ship 2. Pandora's greatest enemy has and always will be its own cockiness however. Several TWJD losses are evidence of this. Pandora’s javs have a strong attitude of entitlement when it comes to matches. If this attitude is allowed to permeate throughout the season, look for Pandora to unwind at the seams.
Runner-Ups
3. Raid
Starters: Reaver, Roiwerk, NowYouDie, Eelam, Saving
Bench: Plob#f, vys, Kira_Yamato~,
Despite being a little less skilled than Fierce, I believe Raid will pull out an upset and play Pandora in the finals. Raid at times presents superb teaming with annoying strays and insane lack of aim. When this trifecta is formed, Raid is hard if not impossible to beat.
Reaver, despite starting as a warbird, has great aim when it comes to warbird shots in ship 2 (any good jav will tell you that straight warbird shots are the life-line of a solid jav game). As a product of his wb style, he is very susceptible to levs and wall shots.
With the very recent pickup of Roiwerk, Raid increased its TWLJ chances greatly. Roiwerk has improved on his baseelim style javing in JDs. His insane lag makes his dodges very efficient and annoying. However he has always struggled when it comes to finishing simple shots. But based on the offseason JDs, Roiwerk is a very strong jav and provides solid kills and backup.
Nowyoudie, despite losing more than a few steps from his Syndicate days, is slowly regaining his Jav back. His passive Euro style is very complimentary to the various personalities on Raid. Eelam and Saving provide a very suicidal style of jav play that allow more passive players like Reaver and Roiwerk to capitalize on enemy mistakes. If Eelam and Saving can keep up their aggressive jav in TWLJ, Raid will no have no problem cruising to the championship game.
What Raid lacks in individual jav talent, they more than makes up for in team situations. If Raid can cover for each others’ individual mistakes, look for them to possibly even upset the jav behemoth, Pandora.
2. Fierce
Starters: Waven, 24, Tiny, Singer, Havok
Bench: Aprix, Morph,
Fierce was VERY strong in the earlier parts of the offseason. I, along with Pandora, found myself struggling to deal with their teaming. However, as the offseason progressed and there was more of a sense of finality to squads in terms of their rosters, Fierce diminished in skill.
24 is undoubtedly a strong jav. He is probably one of the biggest tryhards in TW. However, the biggest weakness I see in 24's game is his compulsive wall-shooting. In one JD, 24 shot 14 out of 18 bombs (that I counted) off of a wall. The 4 that did not get lobbed off a wall were grossly misaimed. 24 thrives in situations where people shoot bombs first and he can follow the vulch with a lev.
Having seen waven in action and actually squadtagged, I added him instead of Apok as one of Fierce’s starters. Waven seemed to be playing up to speed. Waven has always been good but very passive in clutch situations. It is easy for teams to capitalize on this but at the end of the day Nemo. has always been a great jav.
Admittedly, Tiny has improved. However, he is streaky as ever. When his rush is on, Tiny is a force to be reckoned with. Luckily for squads in TWLJ, this is a rare occurrence.
Outside of these three, Fierce's line falls apart. Singer is at best a moderately acceptable jav that has some breakout games. I decline to comment on Havok, as his 6.4:7.0 JD average despite repeated re-rosterings on the TWD site speaks for itself. Aprix and Hunt have lost their stride and Morph has never really been an impact player in the javelin. Fierce as a whole NEEDS to ditch the compulsive bulleting. It is very easy to shift momentum in your favor when they passively tape down the control button.
Also, Havok and 24 are EXTREMELY selfish players when they are -3 or on 9. I have seen 24 tape down shift and run far away from his team to avoid deaths. More often than not, this has had the effect of getting his team demolished while 24 runs away. Fierce cannot afford their javs having a selfish mentality.
All of this does come with one caveat: do not take them lightly because they will ALWAYS have the potential to completely dismantle the competition with their random lobs and strays. In addition, Waven still lurks on their roster.
4/5. Sage
Starters: Stayon, Spikey, Kawrae, Da1andonly, euforia
Bench: Struck, Chad Ochocinco, Aimbot, a2m, kess
With Dice dissolving over the offseason, Stayon exponentially increased Sage's TWLJ/B chances. Over the years Stayon has grown as a player and his jav game is not to be messed with. His aim is very good and he provides a solid game, which Sage has complimented with like-minded javs. Spikey and Kawrae have Euro-lag along with Euro-chemistry. Both of these guys have developed solid play through years of practice dating back to the days of -FINAL-. Da1, my personal favorite from Disoblige, is back providing solid backup along with well-timed bullets. The fifth spot for Sage becomes a little unpredictable as kess, euforia, struck, and a2m are not the most consistent.
To say anything more would be outright speculation, as I do not have much to go on. I only have a few JDs worth of experience against Sage and in these numbered encounters, they did not present their best lineup.
4/5. Dudgeon
Starters: megaman89, Zizzo, dreamwin, maketso, Mikkiz
Bench: nokkonen, Sakke
The first word that comes to mind when playing Dudgeon despite repeated victories is: Irritating. Zizzo and his European cohorts all have insane lag. Put them together on one squad and the outcome is literally mind-blowing. Along with their insane lack of aim, these Finns have shown repeatedly that their baser-luck in ship 2 is unconquerable at times. Dreamwin’s lag and his Children-esque rushes, Zizzo’s random warbird strays, Mikkiz’s tanks and maketso’s moronic jav all play a key roll in Dudgeon’s style. Now with the recent financial outlay for megaman, Dudgeon is looking pretty solid. Without megaman, these Euros have gaping holes in their teaming scheme. In the two JDs that I watched megaman since his acceptance of Dudgeon’s PayPal transfer, he filled these holes nicely with his TWLJ experience. His years on Dice were not wasted and it will be interesting to see what Dudgeon does throughout the season. If any squad will upset the top 3, I believe Dudgeon has the best shot. I give them their current rank based off of what I have seen from the rest of the lineup. Megaman has caught some flack from various javs in the community for being carried to several TWLJ rings. We shall see if he has what it takes to carry an underdog deep into the playoffs.
Trolling aside, I wish Dudgeon the best of luck this TWLJ season (except for when they play Pandora). Ignoring dreamwin obsessively pming players about “eating” his bombs (in actuality he is just missing by a mile), Zizzo and his teammates have always been respectful and have seldom resorted to trash-talking after a victory or loss. For that they get what little respect I can give over a 2d spaceship game.
6. Cobra
Starters: Flared, Infrared, Turban, Creature (?), Raples
Bench: Revolt, Lionheart, renzi, torcher
To be honest, Cobra does not belong at number 6. However this particular group of Ex-Thunder (or Gunmin, however they choose to affiliate themselves) is prone to colossal chokes. In a recent JD, Cobra forwent a 15+ kill lead and ended up in a 1v1 situation with Raid. Infrared, a seasoned player, should have easily wrapped it up against the warbird Best. For some reason or another, Infrared has always been prone to simplistic deaths. Following suit, Infrared lost the JD for Cobra. This JD is a perfect parallel to Cobra’s LJ pursuits. If they can get over their propensity to have stupid losses, Cobra can easily be among the top 4 jav squads in the league.
Flared, having finally made up his mind, is the marquee Cobra javelin. He in turn has extensive chemistry with his “?” brother Infrared. Together with Turban and Raples, these four have countless JDs under their belt from their Thunder years.
Cobra should be wary of Creature starting himself in jav. I strongly believe his ego far surpasses his jav talent, but should he feel the need to start himself I do not have any gripes. Who else will I spam during LJ games?! All jokes aside, Creature provides solid teaming and chooses more often than not to be the aggressor in an otherwise passive lineup.
Cobra’s bench is a little weak as Loki23 (torcher) has never really been....good? Revolt and renzi are adequate at best and Lionheart is still shaking the rust off from the yesteryears of Mambo.
Having said all that, I wish the Cobramin the best of luck, as they are fellow Thunder compatriots.
Outside of the top 6 squads, the Jav talent falls precipitously
7. Sweet
Starters: Spawnisen, hulk, Vitja, Mjollnir, ???
Bench: Riverside, Jones, Eric Clapton, Sphinktor, Wax MhZ
First thing to note is hulk in the starting lineup. Sure jokes can be made that hulk is a no shipper, a warbird, or a baser but in my time in Thunder, whenever we needed a serviceable jav against semi-decent squads, we always went to hulk. Hulk has shown considerable improvement in ship 2 and fills the spot of a key role player.
Unfortunately for Sweet, a role player is only useful insofar as you can use him to surround a marquee or star player. In Sweet’s case, there is none. Spawnisen is back looking rustier than ever. Vitja is not the same as he once was (See: Sk8) and the same can be said of Mjollnir.
To top it off, Sweet does not have a 5th jav that is a surefire starter. Accompanying this is Sweet’s lackluster bench that consists of warbirds and/or basers that play ship 2 out of a necessity. They will not have a hard time dealing with the lower tier of TWLJ, but I do not see them making any moves among the top 6.
8. Revenge
Starters: Zazerick, Mean Gene, skatarius, pizikius, M_M God
Bench: tmac
Revenge’s javs are nothing but lackluster. Though they pulled out a few offseason victories over some top squads (Pandora included), these victories were more of a byproduct of the other team’s unraveling as opposed to Revenge asserting its dominance.
Zazerick, accosted by Pandora during his stay there, does nothing but lob from behind his teammates. In key 4v2 situations where his team is rushing, he will lob a bomb and tk a teammate along with killing the enemy. This type of selfish play belongs on Fierce and will in no way aide Revenge’s question to attain wins over squads during the regular season.
Mean Gene might as well be a full time baser nowadays as his jav in JDs as well as elim (where it is much easier to be better, trust me I would know) has suffered.
Skatarius and pizikius are best defined as useless and though M_M God is an awesome basejav, that aspect of his game does not translate well into the TWJD map. I do not foresee Revenge turning any heads come regular season.
9. Sixies
Starters: Slum, Fork, immortal rites, Lorko, Jaguarus
Bench: Demonking99, Ruler, Rendered
It is fitting that this collection of javs are unknown to the community as their talent in the ship is nonexistent as well. Having been brought together just days before TWL qualifications, Lorko managed to put a misfit group of javs in TWLJ. I firmly believe that this happened only because of the diluted pool of squads (12 total teams) that are being allowed to qualify.
Nonetheless, Sixies has potential to upset a few mid-tier squads. They are all not completely lost in ship 2 (unlike qpr) and can hold their own 30% of the time. Fork always tries his heart out and in this league all you really need is one person to rally around provided your backup is consistent. I would not be surprised if Sixies takes a top-tier team into a relatively close match (50-40ish).
10. Potenza
Starters: Iron Survivor, qpr, okyo, Bietje, forces
Bench: Tarnish, Dezmond
I am very happy that Potenza is back for this season of TWL. Iron Survivor can easily bring his lag rush to a top-tier warbird squad but instead chose to stick it out with his core group of players that exemplify the underdog. It is good to see some people do not rush to join a contender squad when given the option to reside with friends.
With that being said, Season 17 presents yet another long road for Potenza in TWLJ. Iron Survivor will be called on to carry qpr’s heavy load yet again as qpr looks very rusty.
Okyo and Bietje both are below average javs that are a detriment to Iron Survivor’s lag rush at times. Forces, however is a good jav. I am not sure who this guy is, but he put up solid numbers for a jav in his position last season. I hope him and Iron Survivor can pull together for some upsets this go around as they deserve it.
On another note, I had to edit this thread to add in the fact that qpr got 8 people to ?message me. Someone please help this kid.
11. Unicorns!
Starters: Andy Steel, Via, Riksa, sieni, trouble
Bench: exe
I am not sure if they are dissolving or not, but at any rate Unicorns! takes the second to last spot in this season’s TWLJ rankings. It is unfortunate to see a great guy and jav like via wasted on a non-contender squad. Via could easily be a starter in one of the top-tier jav squads in the league. However inactivity will be the undoing of Unicorns! despite all of their players being decent at the ship at one point or another in their subspace careers.
12. Cougars
Starters: herbalist yangyun, lag killer, shaun, evasive, demonking99
Bench: Eh well, who the hell cares
So I had to recant my earlier statement about Penetrate as they denied their invitation to TWLJ (thanks RednaZ). In their place will be Cougars. They have a jd rating that currently sits at, 908.
I’m done.
TWLJ Season 17 Commentary:
Rankings and Predictions aside, I would like to comment on the overall organization of TWLJ this season. To allow for more squads to participate in TWL, and thus hopefully garner more Trench Wars constituents, TWL Staff has allowed 12 squads to participate in this season. This is a huge mistake in my opinion:
If we assume my rankings are an accurate reflection of jav talent and we further assume the population of Trench Wars will be consistent for the season, allowing 12 squads to participate in this season will have the effect of diluting the league. Any member of the community will tell you that outside of the top 6 squads, the caliber of javelins takes a nose-dive. What you will then have are matches between these top 6 and the bottom 4 that are complete blowouts. Records will be inflated, and overall interest for weeks that involve mismatches will wane. In addition, this provides an incentive for squads to enter TWLJ as a way of increasing roster space for other leagues given the new Roster Rules for this season.
Overall, allowing 12 squads with limited roster space based on their participation does not address the underlying concerns that many individuals had in the off-season. The top three squads will continue to reign supreme over TWLJ and the talent will not be dispersed.
If you think I am speaking without any foundation, I would like to propose to the community to keep track of how many lopsided matches there are this season. Lopsided can fairly be defined as any game in which the score is 50-38 or below.
Best of luck to all squads in TWLJ and I look forward to writing Hot or Nots as the season begins.
-Tsunami
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