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Advanced Week 4 Write-Up and Week 5 Predictions

RGL-Advanced

   Bonesaw   - 11/4/2019
Week 4 was Lakeside and perhaps the most lethal week so far with 2 different teams dying. The first being The On God team, one of the better mid-Advanced teams, and the second being catch the chach, one of the better low-Advanced teams. While I do not think the loss of either of these teams will dramatically shift the outcome of the season, it is sad to see two fellow squads in the division die. I hope that, going forward, all team leaders are able to work with their team as best as possible in order to make sure that their team has the best chance of survival.

Week 4 Write-Ups

gotta blast vs. division dysphoria (0-4)

A bit surprising, but not totally. Brandon's team is a powerhouse on DM maps, especially ones where piney can actually do anything, and their DM classes did put in a lot of work. While I was expecting the flank classes for g2b to be able to deal with the flank of dysphoria, it seems that the combo of josh and myk for g2b was not able to beat Diego and Cheers as handily as I thought they could. Furthermore, the rest of g2b, with the exception of new pickup animus, just struggled to really do much as their team was outfragged by 30 with every class besides josh and Guy getting outperformed by their counterparts on dysphoria. This match was a pretty one-sided testament to dysphoria's dominance as the season drags on.

MVPs of the Match: piney, Cheers, animus, josh

The On God Team vs. marker and e-boy (0-4)

A forfeit win for marker and e-boy. Congratulations for On God for doing very well up to this point in the season despite being Main move-ups. I was not expecting very much out of the squad but you guys did do surprisingly well and it's unfortunate that the team had to die before you guys finished (most of) your first season Advanced.

MVPs: Joey Lemons for managing to assassinate a team with a scrim.

1 Korean, 9 Keyboards, vs. The Oprah Winfrey Network (4-2)

The only upset of the week was a big one, as one of the best mid-Advanced teams crumbles against 1 Korean. It may have been the map, or maybe I was just underestimating 1 Korean, but this was a very convincing win by their squad. On the flank matchup you had a stand-out performance by rk but a lackluster one by r4t against the solid performances of both sparhawk and Kami. While the combo matchup was fairly even, the biggest difference (and probably the most important one) was the difference in Medic Deaths with sailor for OWN having 6 more deaths and 3 less ubers than x for 1 Korean. Perhaps most surprising is that this death difference is accounted for almost entirely by san antonio 1998 green mustang, who managed to kill sailor 5 times, more than double the amount of medic frags of anyone else on his team. 1 Korean is looking hungry for that 4th spot in the playoffs bracket.

MVPs of the Match: tua, rk, Kronky, Constantly, san antonio 1998 green mustang

Home Depot eSports vs. Turbo Alcoholics (4-1)

By almost all accounts, this was a fairly expected outcome. With the exception of kitty (smh) and Ness (at least he outfragged the other medic), all of Bopis managed to outfrag almost all of Turbo Alcoholics. The only players on Alcholics who really seemed like they were able to contest Bopis were rosario, msh and deadpixel. This match more or less reaffirms the fact that Alcholics are still not quite ready to contest the top of mid-Advanced as well as the fact that they still have room to de-rust and improve as a team before the season ends.

MVPs of the Match: zbra, Wubs, tosm

catch the chach vs. Banned from RGL (3-4)

The match which killed my pick for the best team is low-Advanced :(. Despite an incredible performance by J_Peg for chach (wherein he dropped 74 kills!) and a great showing by WiLLmaTiC, chach was just barely unable to take the W in this match. Banned played by far the most solid game they have played this season, with none of their players struggling to stay relevant across an excellent 2nd-fragging performance by fabulous, phone managing to go more or less even with WiLLmaTiC and 2K managing to shut down one of the best players for chach in mn by killing him 17 times. The biggest difference maker here was probably in the relative weakness of the flank of chach with StarTard managing to drop only 8 kills in a 41-minute game, leading to what I can only imagine was a very hard time denying the flank of Banned whenever J_Peg was not there to frag out.

MVPs of the Match: J_Peg, WiLLmaTic, {c_Heavy] fabulous, phone

STARDUST CRUSADERS vs. Bye Week (4-0)

Shoutout to SC for not dying (yet). Since I have space here I also wanted to say thank you to catch the chach for sticking it out as long as they did and for having the courage to move up to Advanced. You guys have plenty of solid players and, if you keep trying to improve over the course of this season and the pre-season, I am sure that you can all come back ready to play at an even higher level of Advanced. Good luck to you guys but also to all the other Main players who were confident enough to challenge themselves in the next division rather than trying to win Main, again.


New Power Rankings

I think that the top of Advanced will more or less remain as it is but note that g2b and marker could swap depending on just how good their new pickups of animus and tacos are as well as swapping classes and putting josh on Scout and nazara on Soldier. With the win of 1 Korean, 9 Keyboards over Oprah Winfrey Network, they will also be swapping positions.


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


Week 5 Predictions

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

While 1 Korean has been on a tear, I am not sure that that will be enough to overcome the power of division dysphoria (but they have proved me wrong in the past). It seems possible, though unlikely, that 1 Korean could contest the flank as Kami and sparhawk both performed well last week although I think that the flank of Cheers and Diego is a bit stronger. The big strength difference is between the combos, and this map is definitely a combo-centric map. extrasolar and brandon have been very powerful this whole season and I am not sure that san antonio 1998 green mustang and Bz will be able to do much to shut them down. piney for dysphoria will also pose big problems for Kronky for 1 Korean whose solid performances have done a huge amount of work for 1 Korean these past few weeks.

Players to Watch: piney, brandon, extrasolar, san antonio 1998 green mustang, Kronky

marker and e-boy vs. Home Depot eSports (2-1)

I still remember when Home Depot managed to kill a team when they pulled an upset win on (an earlier version of) this map in UGC. I do not think it is smart to underestimate these gamers on this map, but I still think that e-boy is favored. norphel08 and Luigi for Bopis have been doing well these past weeks and have been putting up solid numbers, but so have Avian and Bonesaw for e-boy. The flank matchups are also destined to be close as the combo of zbra and Wubs are looking to continue their excellent performance-streak to this match against another over-performing flank in Lehcs and pup. The largest advantage in this map is probably in the pick classes of e-boy in Markers and agb for e-boy, both of whom are in the running for best-in-class in the division while they are facing up against admittedly solid players in tosm and BustaMcNasty who I am not sure will be able to perform at quite the same level. Overall, this looks like it will be a close matchup against two teams who will lose or win based on who plays the map better rather than one just being better than the other.

Players to Watch: Markers, agb, Avian, Luigi, zbra

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

Banned from RGL is coming off their first win of the season and are immediately placed against one of the strongest teams in Advanced who are looking even stronger now than before. This will probably be the most one-sided match of this week with g2b simply looking stronger on (actually) every class, both from a DM and gamesense perspective. g2b has shown the ability to contest high-Advanced and even low-Invite teams while Banned from RGL nearly lost to a low-Advanced team on the type of map (KOTH) where they should be highly favored. This will be a proof-of-concept map for g2b's new roster which I can only predict will show just how strong the team can be when they are playing their best classes.

Players to Watch: animus, tacos, josh, nazara

STARDUST CRUSADERS vs. Turbo Alcoholics (1-2)

The match to determine which team is the worst in Advanced (to put it bluntly). I believe that Turbo Alcoholics is overall the better team especially with the loss of June for SC. With that loss, I do not believe that Rushie and Glaistig for SC will pose much of a threat to rosario and msh who both showed last week that they could, at the very least, not get farmed by better teams. Rue and TeatsMcGee will likely have more trouble beating the new pickup of messiah as well as Noomi. While messiah may be even rustier than TeatsMcGee, I believe that he is capable of performing better than TeatsMcGee in a match, especially because his team has been scrimming vigil more than Turbo Alcoholics. The other axis of power for SC is podgy713, who I believe will be able to at least go even with, but probably outperform deadpixel for Alcoholics. This match may not have a ton of bearing for playoffs this season, but it will give a better insight into how the non-playoff teams compare to each other.

Players to Watch: podgy713, Messiah, deadpixel, rosario, TeatsMcGee

Oprah Winfrey Network vs. Bye Week (2-0)

While I'm sure OWN would rather reset after their tough loss last week by winning a match this week, it appears they will get the next-best thing in a free win. Hopefully they will make sure to come back even stronger if they want to make sure that the 4th playoff spot is theirs.

Players to Watch: sailor and r4bbit since they did not get a shoutout before. Sorry not sorry support class mains.

Conclusion

And with that being said, I look forward to watching the matches this week and I hope that no more teams will die because even a losing season is still experience you can use to learn and improve, and improving your gameplay is always quite epic.