Excellent work by one of CTFDL’s star staff members, Salov! Enjoy!
Care Bear Countdown (CBC) : 2-0
With no suprise, CBC is the unanimous #1 pick for this week after two strong showings. They won both their matches decisively and quickly, thanks to a solid defense and some elite flagging ability by Chuckie. Many noted that CBC’s success comes from picking players who are accustomed to playing together in different fashions over the years, with a good chunk of its core coming from reputed former teams such as BDS and Darkslayers. It was also a pleasant surprise to see returning players Captain Ax and Plaps playing their important support roles without skipping a beat. Some also commented that some of its skirmish player picks such as Colossal and Sabotage are faring well and add extra value to their already deep roster, so much so that even captain Decker himself were comfortably leading from spec for much of the night.
Coming from Behind (CFB) : 1-1
After CBC, many voters picked CFB as the safe 2nd pick. With so much hype from picking first in the draft, many expects CFB to shine with many accomplished skirmish transports on the team. As our commentators indicated, CFB was hampered by the lack of attendance to play its likely starters, a reality that forced 1st overall pick Sov to play off roles to fill out its roster (it was interesting to see their decision to rotate their engineer with a D infil while the turrets are healthy). Chompy also lived up to the hype and demonstrated why he was drafted relatively high as a newer CTF player. Many were surprised by their decision to stall for sudden death in most of the later half of their match vs Fangs Out, which ended up backfiring as they lost their flags during a swing in offense attempt with minutes remaining in regulation. We will look forward to see what new tricks they may pull out when they are regroup for the lower brackets.
Fangs Out (FO): 1-1
Fangs out came out strong as they come out with solid defense efforts in their matches. Like 7P, they have experimented with different O setups between variations of power and JT offense, with some mixed results. Unfortunately their win over CFB was overshadowed by the controversy of Raygun (Revenge), who was convicted to be playing under a concealed identity, though being instated by the captains to continue for the rest of the tournament. It will be interesting to see whether their offense will further gel as they go deeper into the tournament and find the chemistry to make some serious impact.
We Are All Friends Here (WAAFH) : 0-1
WAAFH was heavily crippled this week as many of their core players did not show due to timezone difficulties. WAAFH put up a good fight, but its defense could not match up against a more complex JT offense put together by CBC. As they only played one match so far, many voters are basing this team on potential rather than performance, as we see a wide spread of votes between 2nd and last spot. We will have to wait for next week to see how they will square off the other mid tier teams if they are able to field a roster to their full strength. 5…..
[5:23 PM](TIED) Takuteko DraculaKushyon (0-1) & 7th Plague (1-1) It was a bit of a surprise that both teams received not just identical points, but identical breakdown of votes as well. TD was drafted top heavy with strong support and defense players, and some voters indicated Tactical was playing exceeding his draft expectations. TD suffered a heartbreaking loss in sudden death, and it exposes some of the challenges they had on offense. 7th plague came out with a strong showing by winning the first draft league match on sudden death, thanks to off the board 2nd overall pick Zmn who lucked out on the flag drop. Their first game also demonstrated how strong having an aggressive medic Got Tsolvy?, who pounced on every opportunity to disrupt FO’s rookie SL. Their second match, however, was quite polarizing as they were stumped by CBC in 6 minutes. Some commented that the choice of D7 and 3 D infs against Chuckie may not have been a good choice, as it creates so much window of opportunity for the JT to flag. As another team who plays a vehicle JT (hed), 7P may be a watch to see how they may bounce back when they face another power offense. Notable player mentions this week who exceeded draft expectations by our voters: 1992, Tactical, Nos,… and someone did pick Raygun That’s it for this week. See you all at next week’s matches!
by in
