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Invite Week 8 Review & Week 9 Preview

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   Alto   - 11/5/2018

Week 8 Match Reviews


Sorry for no article last week, had a bunch of stuff come up for work but more importantly these have started to feel more like a chore ever since faction died, since there’s no longer any real excitement to the season until we get into playoffs. Hopefully I’ll be able to find that spark again come postseason, but until then you’ll have to excuse the uninspired articles.


IRENE vs. Fast Forward

Map: pl_swiftwater_final1
Predicted: 2-1 IRENE
Result: 2-0 IRENE
Logs

IRENE came into this match with a bit of a roster shakeup after their earlier loss to KND, and some noticeable upgrades at that: Ender on engineer and feint on spy. With b4nny missing speedy filled in on scout, so I’m not sure how permanent either of those changes are once he comes back, but both are some pretty storied players and it’s really cool to see them returning. As for the actual match, I thought the game would be a close 2-1. The first half was anything but, with feint announcing his return quite triumphantly as IRENE held >> at 3rd, exploiting >>’s combo quite heavily in the process. The aforementioned feint and habib were keys here, finding figsy repeatedly on 2nd and just not allowing any offensive pressure to be generated at all.

The second half more than made up for the first in terms of excitement, though; >> regrouped and adapted as we’ve seen them do all season. Figsy wasn’t dying and feint wasn’t going off, allowing >> to set a blazing pace of just over 5 minutes through the first four points, before stalling on last for an eventual time of about 8:40. IRENE took up to 3rd in short order, before the chaos really broke out. >>’s 4th hold can only be described as frantic, with both teams thinking the point was capped no short of 3 times before it finally ran over the checkpoint. Seriously, IRENE was able to get the cart up the ramp until it was level with the ground but still not capped more times in 2 minutes than I’ve seen all season, and it was an absolute joy to watch. Unfortunately, IRENE was able to catch figsy out on last while she was at 99% to eventually 2-0 the match with 20 seconds left on the clock. Would’ve liked to have seen a 3rd half given how compelling the second was, but IRENE just wasn’t going to let it happen.

MVPs: feint, habib, carcin

Apolodosh vs. TEAM

Map: pl_vigil_rc4
Predicted: 2-0 AD
Result: 2-0 AD
Logs

Gotta say, I’m a little disappointed that Bv let Vigil through. It’s arguably AD’s best map, and you can look no further than dev’s combined 43/9 k/d to show why. No one on AD went negative, and after a close first half AD completely slammed the door in the second. Bv thankfully has a week off to regroup before their big steel match next week, looking to maybe swipe a half off KND on their best map to go out with a bang.

MVPs: Dev, shaayy, Mad



Week 9 Match Predictions


While next week may be the final week of the regular season, this is the week to have your eyes on as the playoff seeding order will likely be determined this week. Both matches should be fairly close, especially due to IRENE’s map choice.


Fast Forward vs. Galactic Kids Next Door - Match of the Week

Bans: Lakeside (>>), Ashville (KND), Cascade (KND), Warmtic (>>)
Map: koth_product_rc9

>> comes into week 9 needing a convincing victory over KND and maybe a little help from the other teams if they want to reclaim their #1 spot in the standings they held a few weeks ago. It’ll be a tough task, though, as KND’s looking to be in prime form given their last match against IRENE. Having dropped a round to Bv and failing to take any rounds off of IRENE last week, >>’s early season dominance seems to be slipping (or the other teams are catching up), which was somewhat predicted to happen given their roster’s early coordination but overall lower potential. We saw them take IRENE to match point back in week 1 on this map so it’ll be a good comparison point, and we know that its a map >>’s at least capable on. Unfortunately, KND’s also capable on the map, and given their performance against IRENE and that oblivion coming back to the lineup seems to have revitalized KND, I think they should be favorites to take it.

Prediction: 4-1 KND
Gamechangers: Fallen, rain, Jacob


IRENE vs. Apolodosh

Bans: Ashville (IRENE), Lakeside (AD), Product (AD), Warmtic (IRENE)
Map: koth_cascade_rc1a

If this were League of Legends, I’d be throwing some ? pings at IRENE’s map bans here. Even with habib missing, they should’ve seen what >> did to AD on Ashville, meaning it’d be a perfect map for them to play given their DM and bo4r’s ability to thrive on Ash compared to other snipers in the league. With that in mind, they first banned it, giving AD the window to leave only the ‘cheese’ maps open in Warmtic and Cascade, in which IRENE again strayed from their sniper strength and DM and went to Cascade, AD’s best koth map. While their performance on Cascade against KND in week 3 was definitely stellar, but I question if that was more off of KND’s inability to play Cascade than IRENE being gods at it. It’s possible we see IRENE pop off and do the exact same thing again, but given AD’s performance so far this season I expect we’ll see a lot closer of a game than IRENE is bargaining for.

Prediction: 4-2 AD
Gamechangers: Shaayy, RonnieJ, carcin




Power Rankings


1. Kids Next Door
2. IRENE
3. Fast Forward
4. Apolodosh
5. Chill Penguins

No change this week. >>’s inability to take a round off of IRENE widens their gap a little bit, but this week has some potential for changes if the underdogs are able to come up big.