This is it, the moment everyone has been waiting for. It is the game of the year, the match up everyone has been waiting for, the holy grail. It is the ETF2L Nations Cup Final, Sweden versus Finland.
FakkelBrigade STV: fakkelbrigade.eu:27100
Stream: http://www.levelupyourgame.net/
OVERALL
Finland [2:1] Sweden
cp_badlands
Finland [6:1] Sweden
cp_granary
Finland [1:4] Sweden
(decider) cp_gravelpit
Finland [2:1] Sweden
Finland
Team Finland. The reigning champions of the ETF2L Nations cup, as well as 2nd place finisher in the ESL Nations cup. The country regarded by many to be the best TF2 nation. They also have the best pair of nipples this game has to offer. This is Finland.
Roster:
Moose
Haza
kyynel
hocz
Darn
Rebeli
växjö
Bash
hymzi
Masiina
paavi
snap
Agron
Confirmed Lineup
Agron (medic), hocz & Darn (soldiers), hymzi (demo), Haza & Rebeli (scouts)
Sweden
One look at the roster of team Sweden and I'm already shitting my pants. I mean there are good players, and then there are GOOD players. Their roster contains 3 players from Team Dignitas, 2 from Power Gaming, 2 former TCM players and 1 former excello player. And it's not just their names that are good, they have excellent results as well, including winning the ESL nations cup and placing 3rd in the first ETF2L nations cup. Now they are hungry for vengeance, as last season it was Finland breaking their dream of winning the ETF2L cup. Zlatan is hungry for blood...
Roster:
bybben
appe
ryb
lezek
sommie
wltrs
Glufse
weqo
Confirmed Lineup
Lezek (medic), appe & weqo (soldiers), ryb (demo), bybben & wltrs (scouts)
Personal view
Teamwork
I believe the teamwork of Sweden is slightly better than Finland's at the moment, mainly because they have played a few more games than Finland has. The roster of Finland has also been through various changes, while the lineup of Sweden remains pretty much the same from the last cup, which has allowed them to continue on the same tracks as last time. Underestimating Finland however, could be fatal to Sweden. Both teams are able to bring forth their teamwork when it's time to separate the pussies from the real men.
Player analysis
The only real problem I see for Finland, besides their lack of teamwork, is their scouts. Sure, rebeli and växjö are both reliable players, and will do their job. But their problem starts when they play their first game against a top-notch team. Their lack of games played together can prove to be a problem against Bybben and wltrs, who always do their job, and they do even more than that. Both of them are apt thinkers and have an amazing aim. When you add bybben's capability to coordinate with his scout partner almost to a level that could be compared to telepathy, these two could turn out to be the deadliest scout combo there is. Now would be the best time to pull haza back from retirement...
Sweden only really has 2 big problems. One of them is their lack of a 2nd strong soldier to back appe up. The 2nd problem is lezek's inactivity. He has been shown to be a brilliant medic in the past, but his inactivity has likely lead to his skills being rusty. Finland, on the other hand, has got 3 brilliant medics to choose from, paavi, Agron and kyynel. All 3 of them are able to provide Finland with different styles of playing, particularly Agron. His tendency to play really aggressive, and sometimes like an utter retard, isn't seen that often in division 1. Yet it seems to fit with the rest of Dignitas extremely well, as he is still playing in the number 1 team of Europe. Kyynel, on the other hand, can provide a stable performance each time he enters the game. He plays things safe and doesn't take those unnecessary risks that Agron would. The safety he brings into the game suits Moose well, as he has been known to play things nice and slow (and I mean really slow), which might lead to conflicts within the team. Paavi is similar to kyynel in many ways, but he can also be quite an aggressive player. He is an able caller when required,and all things considered he is one of the more reliable medics around. Unfortunately for him, with Agron and kyynel in the team, it is unlikely he is going to get to play in the final. On a personal basis, I would love for Agron to play in the final, as he is always able to make things interesting and can really turn the game in the opponents' favor.
As I mentioned earlier, Sweden doesn't have a wide variety of soldiers to choose from. As a matter of fact, their 2nd soldier, weqo, despite being a valuable player, isn't even a soldier himself. Despite being one of the best soldiers in Europe, Appe is going to have a really tough time without the support of another immensely talented soldier. Finland, on the other hand, has 3 awesome soldiers in Darn, hocz and Moose. Out of these 3, I would say Darn and hocz would be the best soldier pair Finland could pick. Both of them are extremely talented, aggressive players, who are able to turn the tides with surprising killing sprees. Moose's ability to handle calling for his team in a firm manner can be seen as a huge bonus, but he tends to turn the games a bit slow by making his team wait in absurd situations where there is no need to wait. If Darn and hocz were playing, Darn would likely be the one to handle all the calling. This would lead to Finland taking full advantage of the aggressive play styles of hocz, hymzi and Darn, which would, in turn, make the game more entertaining to watch.
There is one thing, however, that neither of the teams lack. A top division 1 demoman. Both hymzi and ryb are said to be the best of their kind, being able to deliver huge amounts of damage, whether it's with the rest of their team or without. Ryb tends to play in more of a passive way, relying a lot on his team to provide him the cover for him to kill everything off. Hymzi is more of a ''Straight to business''- type of demo, who just jumps in when he feels like it and destroys the entire opposing team. There is going to be a big competition between these two, and it should be a thriller to watch.
Final Prediction
Despite Finland's lack of teamwork, I believe they are able to get things together when it's most needed. Although they haven't practiced too much together, they are on the same boat as Sweden. Neither of the teams have been able to practice anything more than one pcw before an official, which is a shame as the games could prove to be even more entertaining if the teams had time to practice. Despite this, the game is bound to be epic, truly worthy of the title “Match of the year”. Finland will win the final 2-1!
We asked the teams how they were feeling before the big game
Sweden's weqo
What is the lineup you are likely to play the final with?
weqo: appe,bybben,lezek,ryb,weqo,wltrs
Who do you consider to be your strongest players?
weqo: rybben
What are your strongest maps?
weqo: As we haven't practiced at all we'd probably perform equally on most maps. We'll remove maps from pool in order of how boring the maps are, not how well we can perform on them.
How well have you prepared/are you going to prepare for the final?
weqo: I'd like to say that we want to get some games played this week, but I don't believe that will happen. More likely we will try to rely on me and lezek not being able to do shit like last game through awesome astrologic lucky days and do a pcw before the actual game, and the others will take care of the rest.
What do you think are the strongest points of Finland?
weqo: Active medic and soldiers, also they are Finnish and therefor awesome.
Who will win?
weqo: http://www.google.com/trends?q=sweden%2C+finland
Seems we have the slight upper hand
Finland's Rebeli
What is the lineup you are likely to play the final with?
Rebeli: Not sure, probably with the lineup thats available at the time
Who do you consider to be your strongest players?
Rebeli: Darn and Hymzi, Darn because his attitude alone can carry a team and Hymzi because on a good day he is a comparable to Ryb, enuff said.
What are your strongest maps?
Rebeli: In my opinion that depends on our lineup. But in general we do good in maps like Gravelpit and Granary.
How well have you prepared/are you going to prepare for the final?
Rebeli: I think we have played all our matches with a slightly different lineup so we pretty much go with the flow so to speak. Practice match before the finals is the standard way to go I think.
What do you think are the strongest points of Sweden?
Rebeli: In general they have great scouts and demoman so we have to play nice and tight as a team or we might be in trouble. I also think that their team might be a bit more coherent then ours.
Who will win?
Rebeli: The better team of course
We asked for the thoughts of 5 community members, to see what they are going to expect from the final.
Depch , leader of Team Fruit:
Let's start with a cliché "this game could go either way". Sweden has the better scouts and better demoman but Finland comes up with the better soldiers and medic, so it really comes up to their daily form. Agron (which I believe he will be playing as Darn will probably be in the lineup and Hocz is also an obvious pick) will provide his heavy classes with heals that will dominate Swedish soldiers & medic. After that the question is can Bybben-Walters duo dominate the Finnish scouts. If Finnish scouts can play one of their better games I'd say Finland has the advantage even though we're so missing Haza here. If he was playing a scout, I'd say Finland is in favor here.
In Badlands I'm expecting Hocz getting insane stats like around 26-13 while Darn will make a few awesome medic pickups. Agron will have a few funny deaths by his risky moves which often pay out. In the middles, the patience of Bybben will help him get his counterparts from Finland and distract Finnish heavies who occasionally will go down by 3-4 with Ryb doing what he does best. This is gonna be as good and I'll predict a Finland 4-3 win.
Granary for me is much harder to predict. Big clashes and many will die in middle fights, expecting long rounds. Predicting a Sweden 3-2 win here lead by Ryb & Bybben.
What comes up to Gravel as the decider, I'd say I would maybe use Kyynel-Moose duo here instead of Agron-Darn (Just remembering lots of funny stuff from Agron in Gravel ), but they wouldn't be warmed up then so it might not be a good idea. At this point it's taken already over 70min so some players will be starting to get tired. We'll see which team will be more on focus, it's gonna go for the third round in this one and it's a coin flip who will go with the title after this close 2 hour spectacle!
nvc, a lvlup tv caster:
Had Sweden not lost to idk? before their semi final win against England (who subsequently lost to rawr in their pcw before the game), then the logical choice would be to vote Sweden to win as all of their team, as individuals, overpower the Finnish side (especially the scouts). It's a tough one to call but if Sweden can run their ubers coherently with lezek (who has been inactive for the last 15 years)... then as mentioned before, individually they are going to be far too strong and will take this game 2-0.
Also, if anyone has any features to suggest for the cast, then you can post here http://etf2l.org/forum...-7518/page-1/#post-117835
We will try and make it as good as possible for the final!
Jimmybreeze, ETF2L admin:
Sweden look great on paper. I love the Rybben synergy, how Bybben plays so smart and protects Ryb's weak-side which allows him to make every pipe and sticky count, Wltrs is one of the most entertaining to watch when he is feeling it. Vaxjo and Rebeli are going to have to work really hard to better Sweden's scout duo.
As for the soldiers, Appe has the rare ability to just take over games and do as he pleases. But even though Appe can be so dominant, Moose and Darn are the stronger couple compared to Appe and Weqo.
If Hymzi starts well and stays focused, the battle between him and Ryb should be fascinating.
Where Finland have a clear advantage is at medic, and I think that will hurt Sweden badly.
Finland's potential for teamwork, discipline and efficient play combined with experienced calling from Darn and Moose will make the difference against Sweden, who despite their flair and talent were often scattered against England in the semi-final. Sweden even had moments where they looked like a glorified pick-up team in that game, losing a few rounds from CP5 positions.
I think Finland will win, especially with the format being best of five.
bumlocked, Team England's demoman:
In our game against Sweden, they seemed to be weak, but as dunc has said in a few conversations, all of them play for the big games. I'm fairly sure the Swedes can turn their skill up for the finals.
Finland, on the other hand, seem to be having trouble picking up a main 6 lineup, without 6 players that have consecutive games with each other, their team work won't be there. Even if it was, I think the individual players of Sweden are better than the ones of Finland.
So, Sweden will win!
Torden, Team Norway's medic:
Looks to be a close game. Both teams are heavy on firepower, but rely on old habits in terms of team play. I honestly wouldn't be able to pick one over the other. Finland without Haza is weakened, which may compensate for Sweden´s lack of a second main soldier. They've also been quite up and down in terms of performance and making errors at critical points. I think whats going to make the difference in who wins and who loses is down to which team makes the most mistakes.
Judging from past performances, I think many are surprised Sweden are sticking with an inactive Lezek. Forsaking active medics such as codcrille and Hate. Finland are in a bit of a medic battle themselves. They have 3 active div1 medics, but don't have a very stable lineup with them.
It takes time for a medic to practice movements according to the team, something that became quite apparent in the game vs Norway
It's going to be interesting to see what soldier/medic lineup Finland chooses, and if Lezek will find back to the shape he was in when he was active. In my opinion these lineup decisions will be one of the biggest things to impact the battlefield.
May the best team win!
Originally published on Resupply.eu on 18.11.2009 - 18:25 by Perry.
Archived from ETF2L Nations cup Final as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of Resupply.eu's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and Resupply.eu; reposted for historical reference.