Hey everybody, the first week of UGC highlander has come to a close with a few good matches this week. These are power rankings for the top 8 teams. Enjoy.
1. Bonus Points!
At this point I think that bonus is the best team, the most driven team, and one of the most coordinated teams. They practice a large amount every week, and they have great coordination as a team. They have a plentiful amount of underrated players on their roster such as the medic firefly who is one of the best highlander medics in UGC. He has seemed to really been able to tie his team together, especially on the teams uber pushes. He really knows what to be doing which was shown evidently in their badwater match. They also have pudding cup, the best pyro in platinum who has proven time again that he is a key player for their team. Badwater is a fairly important map for pyro to right click on, and he did his job well last week. They also have a brilliant engineer that I absolutely hate playing again, as well as a strong scout with very crazy movement. All of these factors really came into play on badwater to beat tangerine who is supposed to be the best team because of their invite players, etc etc. Bonus proved they are a much more coordinated team and that means a lot more especially in highlander, than just having b4nny. Payload is the strongest format for Bonus (from experience), so I’m not surprised to see them take a strong win. Had it been 5cp or koth, I’m not as sure. But for now they have proven to be a very strong team deserving of the number one spot.
2. Looking Handsome
I picked them for number two over Gangsta Gang since they beat GG, and it wouldn’t really make sense the other way around, but still GG is really weak on payload compared to everything else. Looking had a pretty poor offense throughout the match, but there defense was able to win them the game. In the second round their scout got a key pick on the gg medic to make him drop uber, basically winning them the round right there as it gave the rest of the team enough time to build up everything on the roof at the second point. This match was very even though, as in the last round the cart was inches away from the point as time just ran out. Looking has a strong heavy medic combo, but the main force of their team seemed to be a lot more of the picking classes. The spy for looking armed with the spycicle never died and got constant picks, as well as the sniper and bman the scout. I don’t see looking being this high up the ranks for much longer unless they can work on their offensive ubers, but I’m not too sure how they stack up on 5cp and other maps so that may not matter as much as on payload. Overall though they have proven to be pretty good from that badwater game and beating GG earned them a second place spot.
3. Gangsta Gang Gaming
GG this season so far has been a bit out of it after winning the championship last season. We are always either really into it and we get a win, or we are out of it and lose. At many points we kind of stop caring to the level we did last season, but after losing to looking that garbage is over. GG is going to start playing as much as we were last season and after taking an early loss already the drive is already there to win again. GG is filled with strong DM’rs in every position. Raz is the most impressive spy ive ever played with and seems to always get the medic pick at the right time. Blaze and comatose constantly make a big move that coordinates with the combo to make a strong play. Also (last minute I am editing this in), the GG demoman Bio was cut for various reasons, and the new GG demoman is the very strong UNF who will bring a lot more to the team than just cabering enemies. GG can be extremely coordinated when we are focused, and our focus is coming back. Payload has never been exceptionally strong for GG (excluding upward), we lost badwater to proN in etf2l as well as many other occasions of payload losses. We have never been able to win a swiftwater game ever. Hopefully GG will be able to grow stronger on payload this season, but even though we lost to looking early on we still have many weeks to start winning. GG is playing Cat Ranch next week, and they are not a team to take lightly. This would be a strong chance for GG to “redeem” themselves so to speak.
4. Tangerine
Tangerine is a very strong team in theory, but is that theory relevant to actual games? I feel like tangerine already feels they have the league locked up since they are fielding tragic, b4nny, and cyzer. However, their raw DM, gamesense, and experience didn’t apply to badwater highlander. Tangerine is going to have a tough time throughout the season on these kinds of maps against any fairly experienced highlander team, because of the little experience many of their star players have on them. They’re going to have to scrim these maps a bit more than something like granary, as well as realizing that just having a bunch of good player’s means nothing in highlander if you can’t work together. B4nny put out crazy damage (the most overall) in their badwater game, but they seemed to be out of it. They have a strong individual team, but they need that individual strength to move into a team effort. Although they have work to do to, they are still very close to the top and could get a higher spot soon.
5. The Syndicate
I think that the syndicate is a pretty underrated team this season. I don’t really know how much they practice, but so far they seem like a very solid team; especially after defeating field 5-0 and even better, BRB,U 2-0 on badwater. I can’t be completely surprised at that; since I’m sure stabby had a field day on that map as he has proven time and time again to be one of the best spys in the game. –ts- Also has other strong players on their roster including Seymour, who is a powerful dm’r, and TMP who is arguably one of the stronger DM pyros. The roster seems to be a bit changed up this season, but so many of their players have so much highlander experience at this point that I feel like once they continue playing together they will be a very strong team, possible even a top 4 final team. I’m not sure how much they practice or anything like that, but if they really put in the extra effort this season I’d watch for them to go very far. They are playing nine cuties next week which will be an interesting match, and it should really show off where the two higher platinum teams stand.
6. Unbelievably Brave Sweethearts
They have a pretty good combo, and by that I mean they have polk. They have a pretty decent team all around with pretty good coordination, pretty good DM. Nothing with them is really an issue; it seems they are all around just a pretty strong team. I’d have to say you should watch out for them on payload after impressively beating GG2, and if they continue to build chemistry throughout the season they will go pretty far in the league. I feel like sometimes though polk just wants to much of the teams heals and will be so aggressive with no support. This is because he needs so much of the medics time healing, that the teammates don’t get enough health to support him. That’s really the only thing I could call their team out on, and to not dribble in players that are dying when they are about to push. Overall though they are a strong team, and I feel like they could pull off some upsets.
7. Blunderful
I remember at the end of the last season a bunch of teams were saying things like “watch out for blunderful next season” and things like that, which I’m not surprised at now. Blunderful has grown to be a very strong team very quickly. The thing about this team that I’ve noticed through countless scrims against them, and a couple matches is their teamwork. Whenever we play this team I never really notice any one player who is just carrying or something of that sort which is great to see. After one season this team improved so much just because of their teamwork, and I could see them going pretty far into the playoffs if they continue this great teamwork play. The one person I do have to point out though is useoftoaster the scout. He really impressed me with his play in our all-star match a few weeks ago, as well as the matches we played against him the previous season. I consider him almost to be a spy with a scattergun; he always seems to find his way behind the enemy to pick the medic. The team really plays off of his key picks, and if this team continues to improve at the rate they are right now they could certainly move up a few spots.
8. Team Player
The Reason I am putting in Team Player here is because I felt that a win over DON’T CARE is pretty impressive, and they also have a very stacked lineup. DON’T CARE Is a new team but they are strong, and Team Player’s win over them is pretty impressive. They have a powerful roster, with some notable players like Puff who is playing demoman and always puts out really big damage stats for the team and seems to be a strong leader on the map throughout their games, as well as doggles (who I’m not sure is playing), but would be a very strong addition. They also have Sal, who I know is a very strong scout as well as an amazing sniper. Overall this team has a strong roster, hopefully they can continue to put it to good use and have so far.
That’s basically how I feel the top 8 is stacking up after the first week. Things can obviously change a lot since it’s only one week into play, and I’m sure they will. Thanks for reading.
-Ma3la
Originally published on CommunityFortress on Friday, 03 February 2012 11:51 by Ma3la.
Archived from UGC Power Rankings Going into Week 2 as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of CommunityFortress's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and CommunityFortress; reposted for historical reference.