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TWLB HOT or NOT -- WEEK 1
Revenge vs. Pandora
15:00 - 14:30
***Match of the Week***
Two of the four basing heavyweights faced off today, setting the tone for the season. This match-up was a litmus test for the plethora of holes poked through early-favorite Pandora's roster. Plagued by loss of star spiders (Spezza, Renzi, Cripple), inactivity, and general ennui, squaring off against a strong cohesive team like Revenge would no doubt show how much damage Pandora has suffered over the past several months.
And boy did the light shine through those holes. Revenge came out of the gate like a bat-out-of-hell, as glavitik (102-70), M_M God (114-62), skatarius (109-69), squallFF8 (114-74) and Mean Gene (103-68) applied immediate pressure behind the vociferous aggression of menelvagor (2 teks, 2.8 RPD) and hellkite (1 tek, 2.8 RPD) in shark, taking an early 5-1 lead.
While Shayde (115-87), Ease (92-84), sarger (106-74) and Undercut (100-64) put up solid resistance (and, importantly, managed to break Revenge's merciless cram), Revenge battered away at the hatches as an out-of-form diakka (18-9) in terr had to be switched with Cape (17-2) as Revenge took a seemingly insurmountable 13-7 lead.
However, Revenge's biggest question mark, its terring, reared its ugly head as Alterra (37-9) faltered multiple times in the midway section of the game, letting Pandora's veterans claw their way back, leading to those in spec to refer to him as Alterrible.
Alterra managed to steady the ship, however, as the scores neared, regaining the flagroom and managing a 14:58-13:00 lead, whereupon Cape pounced onto the flat despite all of Revenge hovering over it, managing to capture it at the last second (as he's done so many times before), bringing the game to an epic conclusion as a fierce FR battle ensued!
When it seemed like Revenge, closed off in the lower was about to be assailed and complete the choke, Alterra regained his composure with a port and some nifty moves and managed to give his team a shot at the flag, which they darted for and claimed to secure the win!
Mattey (2 teks, 2.8 RPD) and Vatican Assassin (2.9 RPD) played well and Mattey especially was crucial in breaking said aforementioned Revenge cram, but ultimately it was not enough.
All told, it was a lot closer game than it should have been, once again exposing a potentially fatal flaw in Revenge's otherwise solid line-up. With a more seasoned terr at the helm, the match would've likely ended up around 15-8 given the strong play from Glav and co.
That said, Alterra recovered nicely later on, but so many errors in such a short span are definitely cause for concern. More onerous was the state of Pandora's LB hopes, as their spider line is disjointed, inactive and forced to dig deeper into its roster, including, but not limited to, spidering Cape, and names that would not have considered Pandora starters two months ago, such as Undercut and Omega Red, have now come to the front.
MVP: glavitik, 102-70, 3 teks, and leading the push whole game
Cobra vs. Spastic
15:00 - 3:05
Cobra started out the season well, easily supplanting the (sadly) roster-depleted Spastic, crippled by JAMAL's absence due to the 1-week waiting period, not that it would have made enough of a difference to change the inevitable outcome.
A safe, 10-1 performance in terr by turban was a launching pad for dominant performances by Lionheart (74-17), necromotic (87-42), infrared (68-22), humid (47-16) and flared (46-26), as the venerable duo of Creature (1 tek, 3.3 RPD) and Dwopple (4 teks, 2.8 RPD) led the assault.
A multitude of subs ensued on Spastic's side to try to curb the tide of battle, but is was in vain as Executed, Pyroblast, and TJ Hazuki negged in spider, with slightly more palatable scores from TheWadoRooster (30-21) and Prox (49-39).
All told, Spastic when through four sharks (dsb, Flion, Gran Guerrero and SPRAINED), while Pure_Luck (21-15) assumed the unenvious task of terring the sinking ship. Here's hoping JAMAL's return can provide a much-needed boost.
Cobra, meanwhile, looked comfortable in the driver's seat, taking home their first win as a squad, albeit vs. the worst squad in the league. A good metric for estimating their playoff chances will come in the form of Sage in Week 2.
MVP: Dwopple, great sharking and 4 teks!
MVP: necromotic, 87-42 and 5 teks!
Sage vs. Dudgeon
15:00 - 10:38
Sage looked shaky early on, despite being spearheaded by the fearsome twosome of a2m (3.0 RPD) and cranium (2.8 RPD), falling behind early on as lag problems forced NL>Trigger (subbed by Gazo) and Gazo (subbed by Ogron) out, incurring a 4:00-8:00 deficit.
Dudgeon capitalized with a strong performance from hired gun Megaman89 (109-63), followed by Zizzo (84-77), Dreamwin (81-75), Sakke (70-54) and Melanoma (66-62).
While their strong team chemistry and quality terring from the always-potent Mikkiz (38-6) gave them a 4 minute lead midway through the game, Stayon (127-44), spikey (102-82), kess (90-48, 2 clutch teks), KAWRAE (96-47) and Ogron (59-24) took charge on the final sub-in and went on an 11-2 run to clinch the victory and avoid the upset.
Sage managed a strong second-half led by Zizu (44-2), who would like everyone to know Stayon robbed him of MVP, edging him out 35812 to 35419 -- he's currently inconsolable and non-responsive -- no word yet on whether he'll recover in time to start next week.
Despite solid sharking performances from nokkonen (1 tek, 2.9 RPD) and Pardon (3.0 RPD), it wasn't enough to hold down the basing juggernaut. Dudgeon's task won't get any easier next week as they face-off against red-hot Revenge -- My recommendation to Mikkiz: lots and lots of port traps!
MVP: Zizu, in hopes of bringing him out of his catatonia
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Penetrate vs. Raid
15:00 - 3:55
The perennial basing giants Penetrate dismantled a respectable line from Raid this week, despite sitting Solacer, Cintra, and Fermata, not to mention playing Royst in shark, Blahhy. in spider, and Domi in terr -- although all 3 are more than competent in those ships, they generally tend to play Spider, Terr, and Spider respectively (then again, Penetrate has more role versatility in its ranks than any other squad in Trench Wars.)
Acidbomber (73-26) and Zhou (61-21), once again, dominated the Under going a combined 134-47, causing Raid unending problems and making victory all but a certainty. Domi (31-3) played with his trademark veracity, attacking the enemy terr at every opportunity with his bursts before porting to safety, and despite only managing 1 tek, it unsettled Thix and forced several undesired warps and chaos in the Raid camp.
Trasher (61-27), Blahhy. (80-32) and Minotar (75-45) took up over duties for Pene, whilst Best (63-42), Poxy (61-51), Steep (52-49), Vys (49-46) and Reaver ((31-27) subbed in for an afk Dald, then subbed back out for Dald) put up a decent fight against the two-time former champs, while MAX B (2.9 RPD), Dald (2.4 RPD), and Matter (2.5 RPD) took on sharking duties, with a seemingly rattled Pressure (10-9) in ship #5.
The 15-3 defeat was in contrast to their excellent showing in preseason versus Sage, where they narrowly lost 15:00-14:52 behind excellent sharking from Eelam and Dald and their aforementioned spiders. Unfortunately, Thix subbed Eelam out of LJ causing him to leave, as the non-stop captaining blunders continue to cost Raid any chance of making a mark on this LB season.
MVP: Acidbomber/Zhou, for their bonecrushing undering
Next Week:
The revamped Sweet makes its LB debut next week with an easy match against Spastic to get their feet wet, while Pandora looks likely to notch their first win against Raid.
Look for tighter matches between Cobra and Sage, which will no doubt test Cobra's basing mettle, and Revenge to keep their momentum going against Dudgeon, who are always dangerous.
Revenge vs. Pandora
15:00 - 14:30
***Match of the Week***
Two of the four basing heavyweights faced off today, setting the tone for the season. This match-up was a litmus test for the plethora of holes poked through early-favorite Pandora's roster. Plagued by loss of star spiders (Spezza, Renzi, Cripple), inactivity, and general ennui, squaring off against a strong cohesive team like Revenge would no doubt show how much damage Pandora has suffered over the past several months.
And boy did the light shine through those holes. Revenge came out of the gate like a bat-out-of-hell, as glavitik (102-70), M_M God (114-62), skatarius (109-69), squallFF8 (114-74) and Mean Gene (103-68) applied immediate pressure behind the vociferous aggression of menelvagor (2 teks, 2.8 RPD) and hellkite (1 tek, 2.8 RPD) in shark, taking an early 5-1 lead.
While Shayde (115-87), Ease (92-84), sarger (106-74) and Undercut (100-64) put up solid resistance (and, importantly, managed to break Revenge's merciless cram), Revenge battered away at the hatches as an out-of-form diakka (18-9) in terr had to be switched with Cape (17-2) as Revenge took a seemingly insurmountable 13-7 lead.
However, Revenge's biggest question mark, its terring, reared its ugly head as Alterra (37-9) faltered multiple times in the midway section of the game, letting Pandora's veterans claw their way back, leading to those in spec to refer to him as Alterrible.
Alterra managed to steady the ship, however, as the scores neared, regaining the flagroom and managing a 14:58-13:00 lead, whereupon Cape pounced onto the flat despite all of Revenge hovering over it, managing to capture it at the last second (as he's done so many times before), bringing the game to an epic conclusion as a fierce FR battle ensued!
When it seemed like Revenge, closed off in the lower was about to be assailed and complete the choke, Alterra regained his composure with a port and some nifty moves and managed to give his team a shot at the flag, which they darted for and claimed to secure the win!
Mattey (2 teks, 2.8 RPD) and Vatican Assassin (2.9 RPD) played well and Mattey especially was crucial in breaking said aforementioned Revenge cram, but ultimately it was not enough.
All told, it was a lot closer game than it should have been, once again exposing a potentially fatal flaw in Revenge's otherwise solid line-up. With a more seasoned terr at the helm, the match would've likely ended up around 15-8 given the strong play from Glav and co.
That said, Alterra recovered nicely later on, but so many errors in such a short span are definitely cause for concern. More onerous was the state of Pandora's LB hopes, as their spider line is disjointed, inactive and forced to dig deeper into its roster, including, but not limited to, spidering Cape, and names that would not have considered Pandora starters two months ago, such as Undercut and Omega Red, have now come to the front.
MVP: glavitik, 102-70, 3 teks, and leading the push whole game
Cobra vs. Spastic
15:00 - 3:05
Cobra started out the season well, easily supplanting the (sadly) roster-depleted Spastic, crippled by JAMAL's absence due to the 1-week waiting period, not that it would have made enough of a difference to change the inevitable outcome.
A safe, 10-1 performance in terr by turban was a launching pad for dominant performances by Lionheart (74-17), necromotic (87-42), infrared (68-22), humid (47-16) and flared (46-26), as the venerable duo of Creature (1 tek, 3.3 RPD) and Dwopple (4 teks, 2.8 RPD) led the assault.
A multitude of subs ensued on Spastic's side to try to curb the tide of battle, but is was in vain as Executed, Pyroblast, and TJ Hazuki negged in spider, with slightly more palatable scores from TheWadoRooster (30-21) and Prox (49-39).
All told, Spastic when through four sharks (dsb, Flion, Gran Guerrero and SPRAINED), while Pure_Luck (21-15) assumed the unenvious task of terring the sinking ship. Here's hoping JAMAL's return can provide a much-needed boost.
Cobra, meanwhile, looked comfortable in the driver's seat, taking home their first win as a squad, albeit vs. the worst squad in the league. A good metric for estimating their playoff chances will come in the form of Sage in Week 2.
MVP: Dwopple, great sharking and 4 teks!
MVP: necromotic, 87-42 and 5 teks!
Sage vs. Dudgeon
15:00 - 10:38
Sage looked shaky early on, despite being spearheaded by the fearsome twosome of a2m (3.0 RPD) and cranium (2.8 RPD), falling behind early on as lag problems forced NL>Trigger (subbed by Gazo) and Gazo (subbed by Ogron) out, incurring a 4:00-8:00 deficit.
Dudgeon capitalized with a strong performance from hired gun Megaman89 (109-63), followed by Zizzo (84-77), Dreamwin (81-75), Sakke (70-54) and Melanoma (66-62).
While their strong team chemistry and quality terring from the always-potent Mikkiz (38-6) gave them a 4 minute lead midway through the game, Stayon (127-44), spikey (102-82), kess (90-48, 2 clutch teks), KAWRAE (96-47) and Ogron (59-24) took charge on the final sub-in and went on an 11-2 run to clinch the victory and avoid the upset.
Sage managed a strong second-half led by Zizu (44-2), who would like everyone to know Stayon robbed him of MVP, edging him out 35812 to 35419 -- he's currently inconsolable and non-responsive -- no word yet on whether he'll recover in time to start next week.
Despite solid sharking performances from nokkonen (1 tek, 2.9 RPD) and Pardon (3.0 RPD), it wasn't enough to hold down the basing juggernaut. Dudgeon's task won't get any easier next week as they face-off against red-hot Revenge -- My recommendation to Mikkiz: lots and lots of port traps!
MVP: Zizu, in hopes of bringing him out of his catatonia
)Penetrate vs. Raid
15:00 - 3:55
The perennial basing giants Penetrate dismantled a respectable line from Raid this week, despite sitting Solacer, Cintra, and Fermata, not to mention playing Royst in shark, Blahhy. in spider, and Domi in terr -- although all 3 are more than competent in those ships, they generally tend to play Spider, Terr, and Spider respectively (then again, Penetrate has more role versatility in its ranks than any other squad in Trench Wars.)
Acidbomber (73-26) and Zhou (61-21), once again, dominated the Under going a combined 134-47, causing Raid unending problems and making victory all but a certainty. Domi (31-3) played with his trademark veracity, attacking the enemy terr at every opportunity with his bursts before porting to safety, and despite only managing 1 tek, it unsettled Thix and forced several undesired warps and chaos in the Raid camp.
Trasher (61-27), Blahhy. (80-32) and Minotar (75-45) took up over duties for Pene, whilst Best (63-42), Poxy (61-51), Steep (52-49), Vys (49-46) and Reaver ((31-27) subbed in for an afk Dald, then subbed back out for Dald) put up a decent fight against the two-time former champs, while MAX B (2.9 RPD), Dald (2.4 RPD), and Matter (2.5 RPD) took on sharking duties, with a seemingly rattled Pressure (10-9) in ship #5.
The 15-3 defeat was in contrast to their excellent showing in preseason versus Sage, where they narrowly lost 15:00-14:52 behind excellent sharking from Eelam and Dald and their aforementioned spiders. Unfortunately, Thix subbed Eelam out of LJ causing him to leave, as the non-stop captaining blunders continue to cost Raid any chance of making a mark on this LB season.
MVP: Acidbomber/Zhou, for their bonecrushing undering
Next Week:
The revamped Sweet makes its LB debut next week with an easy match against Spastic to get their feet wet, while Pandora looks likely to notch their first win against Raid.
Look for tighter matches between Cobra and Sage, which will no doubt test Cobra's basing mettle, and Revenge to keep their momentum going against Dudgeon, who are always dangerous.
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