- Interested in helping out RGL and being a part of the staff team? Open staff positions and applications for SUMMER 2024 can be viewed here.

- Click here to complete S17 Post-Season Survey #1! Survey closes in on Apr 9th @ 11:59PM EDT!

- Click here to complete RGL LAN 2024 Survey! Survey closes in Apr 7th @ 11:59PM EDT!

Advanced Weeks 5 and 6 Write-Up and Week 7 Predictions

RGL-Advanced

   Bonesaw   - 11/17/2019
Considering that I did not upload an article for last week (I will blame the website being down). I'll write about both the Week 5 and Week 6 matches in this article.

Week 5 Write-Up

A week of fairly predictable results with the only surprises occuring at the very top and the very bottom of the division.

division dysphoria vs. 1 Korean, 9 Keyboards (0-2)

A result that I really didn't see coming but makes sense considering that two of the key players for dysphoria, extrasolar and piney, are European and thus have probably never played vigil outside of the scrims they played the weekend before the match. This probably helped allow Kronky for 1k9k to absolutely dominate piney, beating him in the SvS 15 to 7 and outfragging piney by 19, almost doubling his frags. Kronky was not alone in his dominant performance however, it seemed like almost all of 1k9k simply played better, or at least performed better, than dysphoria taking the top 4 spots in frags. Notably Bliztank top fragged with 42 kills and J_Peg, who was picked up after the death of catch the chach, fragging out with 37 kills on a payload map. More than anything, this result seemed to be determined by the inability of the combo of brandon and extrasolar, who have been dominant so far this season, to get the work done that their team needs them to do against the apparently very solid 1k9k roster.

MVPs of the Match: Kronky, Bliztank, J_Peg

marker and e-boy vs. Home Depot eSports (2-0)

A predictable result, but nonetheless probably a disappointing result for Bopis. e-boy had been looking strong in their scrims on this map, and it does not look like they performed much worse in this match, with strong performances from the combo of avian and Bonesaw, the flank of lehcs and pup, and the pick classes of Markers and agb. I would say more about this match but it just was one-sided with the only real exception being a surprisingly solid showing by new pickup funky for Bopis.

MVPs of the Match: lehcs, agb, funky
Negative MVP of the Match: avian (sub-open on a good day)

gotta blast vs. Banned from RGL (2-0)

One of the better teams in Advanced versus a team who barely managed to beat a low-Advanced team was never going to be a close match. I could not find any logs of the match but I do not expect that I need them. If this was 6s Banned from RGL would probably have been able to win but they, class-for-class are simply not good enough to contest HL mains at an Advanced level.

MVPs of the Match: animus, NicKk, nazara

Stardust Crusaders vs. Turbo Alcoholics (2-1)

While I had thought that this would have been a 2-1 win the other way, I am not surprised by this result. Both Turbo Alcoholics and Stardust Crusaders have been cemented as being at the bottom of Advanced but, despite that, they both deserve credit for improving over the course of the season. This is most evident in the truly standout performance of ghost for SC, who managed to topfrag with 58 kills and always solid perforamance of podgy713 (together topfragging for their team). I can only assume that Turbo Alcoholics must have simply been out-coordinated considering that they managed to get almost 100 more kills over the course of the match than SC. On a different map the solid performances of deadpixel, Rue, TeatsMcGee, and galaxy (as well as ringer antlers) would have been enough to probably secure the victory for Alcoholics here.

MVPs of the Match: ghost, deadpixel, Rue

Josephus Citrus versus Literally No One (2-0)

Another Simple Victory For Oprah Winfrey Network Highlander.

Week 6 Write-Up

With another week came another upset victory by 1k9k, who have now firmly secured their spot in the playoffs. With the results of this match the playoff teams seem like they will be division dysphoria, marker and e-boy, 1 Korean, 9 Keyboards, and gotta blast. The only team able to shake this up is Home Depot eSports.

1 Korean, 9 Keyboards vs. marker and e-boy (4-3)

While I thought that my team might drop 2 rounds, maybe even three, I certainly did not think that we would lose this (very close) game. With a bunch of very close rounds, and very even performances by both teams, this was certainly the match of the week. Markers for e-boy asserted his dominance in this match, second damaging in the server and taking home the top fragger spot with 58 kills (10 more than the next). The big outliers in this match were in Bliztank and J_Peg who both proved in this match, just like in their match against division dysphoria, that they are more than good enough to play against the best players in Advanced on their classes with both handily outperforming their opposing classes in Plurl and Lehcs for e-boy. Of note, Bliztank topped the charts in Medic frags this match, securing 5 picks on raisins. Those picks probably had a bigger impact than they might seem on paper as the most likely game-losing problem for e-boy seemed to be their inability to even out uber charges with 1k9k with x! for 1k9k never losing Advantage at any point in the match and getting 7 more ubercharges than raisins for e-boy (despite raisins running kritz for a round). Overall, this was a match that definitely could have gone either way but 1k9k simply played it better than e-boy and showed the fact that they deserve the playoff spot more than seemingly any other team coming out of mid-Advanced.

MVPs of the Match: Markers, Kronky, agb, J_Peg
Negative MVP of the Match: avian (the man has 1 brain cell what can I say)

division dysphoria vs. Oprah Winfrey Network (4-1)

An unfortunate lopsided loss for the squad of Joey Lemons. However, the score is mostly due to the dominance of piney (despite being killed by Stardust 10 times) for dysphoria in his matchup against tua for OWN as well as good performances by cookie and the flank of Cheers and Diego. Surprisingly, the combo of extrasolar and brandon did not play well, with both getting outperformed (especially brandon) by Joey Lemons and Secretly Satan. However, despite this combo differential, OWN seemed to be unable to really turn the match in their favor, losing the first half 0-2 and taking the first round of the second half before losing another two rounds in a row.

MVPs of the Match: Joey Lemons, Stardust, piney

gotta blast versus Turbo Alcoholics (4-0)

In a result that probably surprised no one, Turbo Alcoholics loses an unfortunately tough matchup against a top Advanced team. TeatsMcGhee for Alcoholics did a lot of work for his squad but Alcoholics were simply unable to keep up with solid performances coming out of the skilled gamers on g2b, leading to a decisive defeat.

MVPs of the Match: TeatsMcGhee, josh, NicKk, Guy

Stardust Crusaders versus Banned from RGL (4-3)

The other closest match goes to Stardust Crusaders for the second week in a row. A victory that could have easily not gone their way did largely due to an incredible showing by podgy713 who dropped 72 kills (almost 20 more than the next person) and almost 600 dpm over the course of the map. Product may be a sniper map, but he truly showed just how dominant a good sniper can be on it. While messiah, Rushie, and ghost all managed to do okay, podgy713 was the only player who put a stop to the dominant flank of phone and reflecto as well as another killer showing by fabulous. Stardust Crusaders, with this win, have shown that they are certainly the strongest team in low Advanced.

MVPs of the Match: podgy713, fabulous, ghost

xLuigiSlayer9624 versus Miku Mondays (4-0)

Luigi shall not be defeated, even by Miku herself.

New Power Rankings

The top of Advanced is looking very competitive. It is a shame that we will not get to see a matchup between all of the top Advanced teams before the end of the season, but I think we have seen enough to have a good idea. While I am not sure if 1k9k is actually the strongest team, they have both top-level skill and a lot of momentum behind them going into playoffs. They will be, at the very least, a tough team to beat. division dysphoria has not been looking strong these past two weeks and especially in a playoff format where one can exploit the maps a team is weakest on, I do not expect dysphoria to have an easy time rebounding. Also, despite the roster changes for g2b, I am not sure how much they have improved their overall skill level. It seems to me that they simply went from having the best flank in the division to an even more best flank in the division. The biggest change going forward for them is the unbanning of NicKk, a more solid demo than their previous gamer of PsychoPsyduck.


1. 1 Korean, 9 Keyboards
2. marker and e-boy
3. gotta blast
4. division dysphoria
5. Home Depot eSports
6. Oprah Winfrey Network
7. Stardust Crusaders
8. Banned from RGL
9. Turbo Alcoholics

Week 7 Predictions

For the sake of my mental health, and considering the length of this article already, I will only go into detail for the one match which may affect playoff standings: division dysphoria versus Home Depot eSports. For the others I will give a few thoughts, but not much detail.

Home Depot eSports versus division dysphoria (2-1)

I doubt that a team which struggled as much as dysphoria did on vigil will be able to out-coordinate the veteran combo of Home Depot eSports. We will likely see them instead rely on the ever-powerful piney as well as the superior DM ability of their flank ( Cheers and Diego) and combo ( Brandon and extrasolar) to take the win here. However, the flank ( zbra and Wubs) and combo ( norphel08 and Luigi) are no slouches. I doubt they will get out-DM'd so hard that they would be unable to win if they played the map better. The biggest question marks are in whether or not tosm and especially funky will be able to outperform the pick classes for dysphoria, or at least do enough work to secure the W. These two easily have the ability to make or break this match depending on whether they do well or poorly. In order to make it into playoffs, Home Depot must win this 2-0 and, while I am unsure if they will be able to pull it off, I am confident that they have the ability to surprise all of us.

Players to Watch: norphel08, Luigi, piney, brandon

1 Korean, 9 Keyboards versus Stardust Crusaders (2-0)

1k9k is looking to be the one of the strongest teams in the division and I doubt that they will drop a round even to the strongest team in low Advanced. Barring another godly performance by podgy713, I doubt SC will be able to secure a round here.

Players to Watch: Kronky, san antonio 1998 green mustang, J_Peg, podgy713

marker and e-boy versus Oprah Winfrey Network (2-1)

Oprah Winfrey Network is shaping up to be a strong team after having had this season of experience in Advanced. While it is not possible for them to make playoffs at this point, they will no doubt put up a struggle although they will likely be thwarted, especially with the pickup of randyw by e-boy following the departure of lehcs.

Players to Watch: Joey Lemons, rk, randyw, agb
Players to Not Watch: Avian (a worm)

Banned from RGL versus Turbo Alcoholics (0-2)

On a different map I would have probably given this to Banned but I sincerely doubt that they will be able to overcome the hurdle that is trying to coordinate 6s players on a map like Steel. Furthermore, I expect that we will see another solid performance by TeatsMcGhee who will surely be able to guide his team of veteran HL players through a map they all know (at least a little).

Players to Watch: TeatsMcGee, Rue, deadpixel, fabulous, phone

gotta blast versus Bye Week (2-0)

Can Bye Week Secure The 2-0 W And Allow Bopis To Maybe Make Playoffs? I think not.

Conclusion

Sorry for the long article this week, and not getting one out last week. I'm a bit sad that there is not a more realistic chance for any teams to make it into the top 4 spots they need for playoffs but I think that simply speaks to the degree of difference between the current 4 top Advanced teams and the rest of the division at both an individual and team level.