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Advanced Grandfinals

RGL-Advanced

   Micahlele   - 8/3/2019
Grandfinals The Money Team vs Super Handsome Inteligent Team

Maps
The map pool this season has been Ashville, Swiftwater, Cascade, Vigil, Product, Upward, and Steel. TMT bans, S.H.I.T. bans, S.H.I.T. picks, TMT picks, TMT bans, S.H.I.T. picks.


1. TMT bans Cascade

TMT starts off with a ban that looks to influence them towards payload, as historically TMT has been shown to lose on koth moreso than payload. This is also possibly related to the fact TMT barely scrimmed the map in the regular season and had a very disappointing performance trying to shut down ItsyAcore in their match against manybrandons.

2. S.H.I.T. bans Steel

Arguably a map that would’ve guaranteed TMT their first map win in a bo3 playoffs match, S.H.I.T. is smart in banning Steel, due to their team being primarily made of sixes players who struggle to do rotations fast enough and hold well. This ban allows S.H.I.T. to relax a bit, as they hadn’t had to play an official on Steel this season, while TMT has been able to 2-0 every other team in scrims on Steel.

3. S.H.I.T. picks Product

Quite possibly the best pick S.H.I.T. could’ve achieved, this map plays very well to Moist Master’s ability to keep up damage, while neum is able to gain lots of space rotating in and out of china and pocket. S.H.I.T. had played TMT when TMT had kamil and tom servo on Heavy and Pyro respectively, a considerably worse combo compared to guava and civ, which might affect S.H.I.T. dropping rounds. However, with pantherr and RandomCookie on flank, and with the map punishing snipers and demos for playing too aggressively, S.H.I.T. could possibly get a second win against TMT in their rematch.

4. TMT picks Vigil

The payload map that S.H.I.T. struggles on the least after Swiftwater, is the same map that promotes aggressive flanks and pick classes to go on sprees. Vigil is also the same map that Bruh Team almost beat TMT, after gaining a reverse roll on Swiftwater. S.H.I.T. has been consistently winning scrims throughout the season on Vigil, but TMT have also beaten Rebel’s new invite team on it, showing they are prepared and ready to win. S.H.I.T. is confident they can get a win, as their match against Bruh and scrims have shown on this map.

5. TMT bans Ashville

The last koth map in the map pool to be banned out of playoffs, TMT has now gotten the advantage of having payload dominance and a favored map pool in this match, at least in their eyes they have. While Ashville does play toward S.H.I.T.’s more passive playstyle regarding waiting for picks to happen, Makkabeus and d3nny suffer a bit from this, as they both play off each other in order to close off the combo and get free damage. S.H.I.T. doesn’t lose too much as this is reportedly their 2nd worst map and they had the worst luck with scrims this season on it.

6. S.H.I.T. picks Swiftwater

The last map out of two to be picked after Ashville’s ban, S.H.I.T. picked their best payload map and got a few benefits out of this pick. TMT played Nine Trey Gangsters on this map, a now dead team while S.H.I.T. had a slightly harder matchup in the regular season. S.H.I.T. has had overall good consistency on this map in scrims, while also being able to come very close to beating TMT near the beginning of the season on a much weaker roster and with less synergy. TMT also lost 2-1 against Bruh Team in semifinals on this map, something S.H.I.T. is looking to exploit. If the match was to conclude on this map in a bo3, it would be a spectacular showing of aggression and uber trades.


Players

Scout: RandomCookie vs XBS

Both scouts are 6s players who haven’t had the carry ability like Blank or animus, but they get the job done. XBS has shown that he understands when to rotate between combo and flank effectively, being able to deal with the pesky Scout and Soldier, while also protecting his med from bombs and taking ubers. RandomCookie has great combo abilities, but plays a bit baitier flank scout, often leaving his soldier in the dust when he was needed most.

Verdict: Advantage XBS

Soldier: Pantherr vs Mono72

Pantherr has shown to be a top 3 soldier from the minute he played for S.H.I.T’s flank. Mono on the other hand has been absolutely wreaking havoc this season, most recently top fragging with 132 kills across 3 maps in their Semifinals match against Bruh Team. Pantherr may have great bombs and DM, but currently Mono is driving a snowplow through advanced that won’t be stopped very easily.

Verdict: Advantage Mono72

Pyro: june vs Guava

Both june and Guava have proved to be good pyros this season, even for the short time Guava has mained. Guava being a new addition to TMT shows his power in being a bomb denier and passive protector of his combo, something that should be a thorn in Pantherr and Hino’s side. June’s strength is their aggressive playstyle and decent fragging ability, while guava has the benefit of being super aware of his surroundings at the cost of being considered the worse of the two fraggers. I believe Guava’s pyro better fits his team’s playstyle, so he has the advantage here, even if only slight.

Verdict: Slight advantage Guava

Demo: kinetic vs Makkabeus

Kinetic and Makkabeus are both 6s demos that have transitioned over to highlander very well. Makkabeus tied Mono’s top frag in their most recent match against Bruh Team with 132 kills and top damaged the server with just under 500 dpm. Kinetic has been showing huge damage numbers every match and has shown that she is a force to be reckoned with on Demo. Unfortunately, Makkabeus is in the same boat Mono is in, or should I say snowplow? He’s on fire and his frags won’t diminish by Grand finals.

Verdict: Advantage Makkabeus

Heavy: Moist Master vs civ

Moist Master and civ have been the top 2 heavies this season, with Moist’s aggressive playstyle giving him tons of frags and opening his team to endless opportunities. Civ on the other hand has the experience and game sense necessary to keep his combo safe from the French and bombers alike. Civ compliments Makkabeus’ aggression when needed and protects his team when needed. Both players provide what their team needs and can be considered equal in what they excel at.

Verdict: Tie

Engie: GreenKing vs tuba god

One of the worse matchups for this match, GreenKing’s ability to stay alive and frag is outclassed by tuba god’s ability to play for frags and keep his gun alive longer. While GreenKing is the much harder engineer to kill when he wrangles the gun, tuba god’s ability to stay live for a much longer time in his matches and his transitions on payload are what allow him to keep far ahead of GreenKing. GreenKing loves to flex about his fragging ability, but most of GreenKing’s frags come from a mini killing a person at 1hp. If he wants to even compete with tuba god, he’s going to need to step it up big time.

Verdict: Large advantage tuba god.

Medic: Rebite vs hotwax

Rebite has more mechanical skill than hotwax on med, being a 6s med main who joined HL and still needs to gain the Sniper and Awareness that hotwax already has from playing highlander last season (albeit on pyro). The two weaknesses of each med balances each other out in my opinion, and leaves them equal in my books.

Verdict: Tie

Sniper: neum vs d3nny

Both snipers have had exceptional seasons thus far, but I think d3nny edges in slightly over neum in frags. Not to say neum doesn’t have his strengths too, neum edges over d3nny in the SvS, and both snipers can compete in low invite. With d3nny’s great performance against Markers in Semifinals, I’m looking forward to seeing how he competes against neum in Grand finals.

Verdict: Slight advantage d3nny

Spy: Hino vs 5perm

Both spies are at the top of their division, each playing extremely well in all their matches. Hino opts to use his gun more with a more passive spy and can sometimes get caught with his pants down. 5perm plays a more aggressive knife spy and can easily catch teams out with aggressive decloaks and get key picks at the right time. Both excel at their respective playstyles, and in my opinion are completely equal.

Verdict: Tie

Overall

This match is going to be the closest of the season, and both teams are going to have to rely on their DM and game sense to carry them throughout this BO3. Hopefully they won’t have to play highlander for 4 hours straight like the AD vs Specimens playoffs match with double payload coming into play. Good luck to both teams, and the match will be casted by Flare here.

Product: 3-2 S.H.I.T.
Vigil: 2-1 TMT
Swift: 2-1 TMT

Hino assisted in writing this article.