(ESEAnews) - It's everyone's favorite week and we have none other than BUICK to give everyone a rundown of this week's MOTW, Mixup vs. Quantic.
ESEA TF2 INVITE SEASON 11 - WEEK 7:1
GOIN HEAVY vs Pinball Wizards · cp_badlands · Thu, May 24th at 1:00pm
Makes Sense is riding high from their two in a row upset against the Ducks and that confidence gives them a glimmer of hope against the now 12-0 Mihalys. Boulder’s proven that he’s more than capable of playing in invite and the rest of the new acquisitions don’t seem too out of place either.
The most worrisome prospect of this matchup isn’t really the difference in individual player skill, but the vast disparity in overall experience of the players. With the exception of shrugger, all of Mihalys have been playing since at least the start of ESEA-TF2.
If MS wants a shot at winning, they’ll need to run reverse-picks the entire game and bait Mihalys’ aggression. If they can’t, then expect this to be ugly.
Mihalys [ 5 : 1 ] mS
Spacewhales vs High_Rollers_Gaming TF2 · cp_badlands · Thu, May 24th at 1:00pm
It’s hard to say that HRG’s roster shakeup was the right move when they’ve been on a crushing 5 game losing streak since the changes. It doesn’t look like their luck is about to change this week either, as they face a br0 that just narrowly lost to Quantic.
HRG’s performance can only be described as strange, since every player on the team is plenty capable of playing on a top4 team. Something or someone just doesn’t fit though, and until they figure this out, look for them to extend their loss streak to the end of the season.
Mixup [ 2 : 0 ] LG
Classic Mixup vs Dont Trip · cp_badlands · Thu, May 24th at 1:30pm
MOTW Prediction by BUICK:
You know I want to say this game carries heavy implications in regards to the lan, I really want to be able to. I want to be able to say if Quantic loses there is a decent chance they won’t make lan.. but I just can’t. The team biting on their heels is Makes Sense, and the issue with this being that they (MS) have 2 matches left against Flow. Even if Quantic drops the rest of their games, it would just seem to much for MS to be able to 2-0 flow and overtake them.
Hell, anything’s possible. I won’t say this doesn’t have any lan implications though, because it sure does. It’s all about seeding at this point for teams 2, 3 and 4. Just like in any final playoff the seeding is quite important. Both teams want to win this stand a better chance of nabbing that second seed. Also its god damn badlands, this is the map where you team shows that they’re big dick playas.
Quantic hasn’t lost a regular season badlands match since early 2011
Mixup hasn’t lost a regular season badlands match since mid-2011, almost a year ago.
Interestingly enough both lost to the experiment.
Let’ have a go at it shall we?
Scouts:
Cyzer and clockwork - jesus Christ. Every single CP map so far this season has seen them scoring 2nd and 3rd… time after time after time. These aren’t just garbage CP capture points either, look through the matches up to this far. They are fucking fragging like crazy. They’ve almost caught up to the medic in a few of them even. Badlands is their bread and butter as per usual and I don’t expect much less to change.
Enigma and mo0se – We’ve got enigma as solid as he ever has been. I know that’s a cop out calling someone solid but really you can’t say much more. No truly bad matches this season let along mediocre. He’s set this next man up for so many med picks it’s been incredible. This next man being mo0se, I’d like to see a over-the-season stat for medic picks in regards to a scout, because after watching him score so many points every single match, you’d think they gave 4 extra points for a medic pick. His frags aren’t the highest out of any scout, but they are the most devastating at the right times.
Edge to Cyzer and Clockwork:
I’d give the edge to enigma and mo0se for their 1-2 punch of stopping pushes dead in their tracks with key medic picks, but there’s someone who joined Quantic recently who just doesn’t die to scouts.
Medics/Combo:
Shade/tyrone/dave_ac – Quantic has truly seemed to gel after shade joined them. He’s got the least deaths per minute in regards to medics still playing this season and the LEAST ubers dropped. People always say you could throw whatever medic you can into the Quantic system and it’ll be hard to fuck up but Shade easily goes above and beyond the call of duty. Tyrone.. tied for the least deaths/minutes.. as expected. The cool commander has been even cooler this season managing from what I’ve seen to take a few more risks while still keeping his head in the game. These aren’t the crazy risk/reward situations dave_ac puts himself into but Tyrone knows better than anyone how far he can push himself without dying. Let’s move onto the roaming soldier. I have to admit I was happy once heard quantic picked up Dave. He’s up to his standard tricks and now he has scouts that can finish the job EASILY if anyone survives.
Quite a trio my friends.
Kbk/plat/lansky – The roster changes worked, oh my they did. Since switching things about they have only lost a match to Flow. Yes, that says A LOT. Plat and lansky are both top of frags per minute and there seems to be no stopping their offensive firepower. They both are actually top 4 in frags, frags/minute, and points per minute. Hell platinum is even leading the league in ASSISTS as a soldier. He’s found his stride and if things time up well for them, they are going to be riding on mega high momentum going into lan. Let’s move onto kbk though, in my opinion the most questionable part if this roster. I don’t mean that in a ‘he’s bad’ way either, just hell. You all know of the drama that happened, and in the end.. it worked for the better? I think kbk feels much more realized with plats leadership and his comfort levels haven’t really had to change that much because he’s got his old pal lansky shooting bimbos for him. He has half as many ubers dropped than Shrew in half as many matches. Not too bad eh?
These guys are pretty unstoppable now.
Edge to the mixup combo: They are rolling hard now, and I think regardless of how good shade can dip, duck, dodge and dive http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhVn4fhac...
the badlands will be ruled by plat and lansky.
Demoman:
Banny – I know it’s cliché to call the man Jesus at this point, but if he’s Jesus then cp_badlands is his Nazareth.
Smaka – Can smaka put and end to Banny’s reign on badlands? I’m not sure, he’s just GOT to make it to middle faster than Banny. He REALLY has to.
Edge to Banny: I know it might be another copout only writing a few sentences about the demo matchup, but to be honest it’s all that can be written. I can go into damage stats, etc for these 2 guys but all they are going to say is that one guy is good and one guy is better than good.
Overall score: 5-3 Quantic
Let’s just sum it up with this middle fight.
Banny makes It there before smaka, (who goes balcony) hits a sticky on mo0se which makes him play more passive. Enigma gets caught by clockwork and cyzer and nearly dies. Now we have both scouts for mixup begging kbk for heals, which he does. The mixup death machine of their combo moves aggressively onto point, but just can’t take it without their scout. Cyzer goes under the bridge and meets smaka head on in Mixup’s house. Smaka manages to kill him, but is left with 20 hit points and no health pack (mo0se got tired of waiting for heals and took it 2 seconds ago.) Dave bombs, dies but looks good doing it. Tyrone gets aggressive and air shots lansky, who decide fuck it I’m going for shade. He hits shade with a good rocket but that’s all. Shade then get’s the health pack and move back out with Tyreezy. Smaka who just got the new health pack sees an opening and goes for shade. Clockwork, who just survived a fight in the yard against enigma spots him and stops him though. Clockwork then says on mumble ‘it’s all gravy baby.’ Quantic caps middle.
Mixup [ 3 : 5 ] Quantic
INVITE POWER RANKINGS - WEEK 5
1. Mihalys Flow -- (~)
2. srsly br0 -- (~)
3. Classic Mixup -- (~)
4. Quantic Legacy -- (~)
5. Mighty Ducks -- (~)
6. High Rollers Gaming TF2 -- (~)
7. Leviathan Gaming -- (~)
8. Makes Sense -- (~)
HRG's new roster hasn't quite lived up to expectations, so they remain below the Ducks. mS has come back from the dead so it's only fitting they be placed last. Nothing else seems poised to upset the balance of power yet, save for a potential upset Quantic against Mihalys.
Originally published on ESEA on 5/9/2012, 5:44 AM by 11enigma.
Archived from ESEA TF2 Invite S11 - Week 5 Predictions as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of ESEA's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and ESEA; reposted for historical reference.