Crunch's CSMII Round 2 Overview
Heals, 16-Jan-10 » Crunch's CSMII Round 2 Overview
Round 1 ended in predictable fashion with all of the seeded teams with the exception of beastin progressing to the top bracket with straight map victories under their belts.
-A- vs Rewound
I am quite looking forward to this match. I believe -A- are going to cop quite a surprise at this new rejuvinated rewound and their newfound aggression. This match will most likely be decided by the map choices of each team since both teams have very definite weaknesses. After a fair amount of jostling and rule changing, follower, gravelpit and freight (in order) were chosen. The interresting choice of 2 custom maps should play fairly well into rewounds hands since they have had far more experience on these maps than almost any team in this competition. Recently, rewound have been working on their aggressive plays to compliment their well honed defensive positioning, and will be looking to throw -A- on the back foot early in this match.
We can all expect -A- to enter this match with confidence. Their round 1 destruction of the jedi order firmly stamped them as a real contender for the title however, their insistance on not using nomey in their matches has left them with a fairly understrength soldier pair. -A- will most likely be trying to maximise their damage potential by jumping them on top of rewound very early, relying on yuki, bowt and gore to hold the line. Expect rewound to be waiting for this early aggression from -A- and attempt to quickly shut aporia and cruger down for a quick stomp of -A-
-A- should not be discounted however. They hold one very large trump card in the sense that their scouts are largely unmatched in both fragging ability and gamesense and -A- will be looking to them to be the glue that holds their team together if the shit hits the fan. If jmh and subtitled cannot keep them in check, bowt and gore will use any distraction caused by their heavies to quickly run rings around rewound.
Players to watch:
Greyhunter the mighty wizard seems to have found a new spellbook and has learned the art of aerial attack. Expect to see him making some uncharacteristicly aggressive plays in conjunction with subtitled.
Aporia pulled off some great plays vs jedi's last week. Expect him to rise to the occasion and give creedence to the fact that he is one of the most underrated soldiers in this competition.
Watch out for the "flying prime"
(REWOUND: 2 - 1)
Famous vs BEASTIN
Ive watched these teams scrim each other quite a few times and there only one thing i can say. This one's gonna be close.
Famous came out of round 1 with an easy 2 map whitewash of we-r. they will need to bring their A game for their round 2 match because with the addition of nesk to their roster (apparently as a backup), beastin will not suffer from the same player weaknesses that caused them to drop a map to fray in round 1. With vic and jezo at the wheel, beastin seem to have the monopoly on fragging power in this competition. If moz can keep remembering how to do his rollouts, there is not much to stop beastin from walkin away with the title.
While on paper it seems that beastin has this match in the bag, they do lack a lot of the coordination necessary to play consistantly at a high level.
Fortunately for us spectators, famous, under the steady hands of no mercy and povohat, are a tight ship and can be counted on to drill into any weaknesses that beastin present on the night. With giraffe's dependably high damage output and amril's well timed aggressive play, famous have the fragging power to kick beastin where it hurts.
This match, much like the rewound vs -A- game, will most likely be decided by the map choice. Famous seem to be aware that beastin are all about the gravelpit (eliminating gpit in the first elimination round). Both teams will probably opt for a "better the devil you know" attitude and play the more generic maps this round.
While i think famous will really stick it to beastin, the extreme power of vic and jezo in their respective classes will eventually overpower famous.
Players to watch:
Beastin's round 1 game was all about jezo. I have no doubt that round 2 will simply be another episode of the jezo show with a cameo performance from vic the monster soldier.
While giraffe has a habbit of walking dangerously out of position for a potential kill, he plays a very exciting game and often pulls of some freakish sprees.
(BEASTIN 2 - 0)
Jedi Knights vs ESM
This first fight of the lower bracket will be an interresting one. Both teams took some heavy losses in their round 1 matches and need to show some real improvement if they are going to be viable contenders for a spot in the top 4.
Renaming under the tag of Sequential Gaming, the jedis appear to have put round 1 behind them with their sights firmly locked on winning the lower bracket. With the addition of ex bitchbanger, scotty to their lineup, jedis have the strong caller they've always needed to focus all of their huge potential into a decent unit. With their choice of gravelpit it seems as though they are starting to realise where their strengths lie and are banking on zeroin's dynamic aim to control the B roof and completely shut ESM out of the game.
As predicted in round 1, ESM seems to be suffering from their lack of practice comming into this comp. The scene in NZ is certainly not conducive to team improvement, and the majority of Australian teams just dont scrim early enough to give ESM the constant practice they need. It's quite unfortunate seeing ESM slowly decay due to unfortunate geography as they have argueably one of the best pocket soldiers seen in the aus/nz scene. Even as his team crumbles around him, derelict has the uncanny ability to shine and pull his team through just about any situation.
These two teams have never played each other and this lack of knowledge about their respective opponents will lead to an interresting match. Jedis are probably the stronger and more balanced team comming into this match, they still lack a lot of the micro skills to stop the ESM playmakers from periodically punching holes in their team.
Players to watch:
As per usual zeroin and hellscream are the playmakers in the jedi team. With the addition of scotty, they should have a much higher impact on the game.
Don't let size fool you. Derelict has mighty powers to match those of gandalf the greyhunter.
(jedis 2 - 1)
Fray vs We-r
After the release of the OWLSE divsions and seeing we-r in division 2 i had to question the CSM admin's decision to invite a team that is clearly intent on playing the game for shits and giggles rather than striving to be the best. Don't get me wrong. I love we-r. They are just about the most friendly team around and have enough talented players to still push a div1 team. they are slowly but surely being left behind by the other, more committed teams in the competition.
we-r will no doubt play with as strong a lineup as they can muster, meaning that baboon and battleship will once again will carry ir from their respective positions of soldier and demoman.
Comming off a disappointing loss to beastin, fray have shown that they have the pluck to really push one of the better teams in this competition. Comming into this competition as somewhat of a dark horse, fray showed they have great playmakers in warlock, riki and gee, who can all perform strongly independently of their team's performance. If fray can stick to their natural playstyle and not choke horribly under pressure they should easily knock we-r out of the competition.
Players to watch:
Watch the 2 man team of battleship and baboon do their utmost and possibly pull a few rounds off fray
Watch warlock and gee work in closely together and pull off some dramatic kill sprees
(fray 2 - 0)
Round 1 ended in predictable fashion with all of the seeded teams with the exception of beastin progressing to the top bracket with straight map victories under their belts.
-A- vs Rewound
I am quite looking forward to this match. I believe -A- are going to cop quite a surprise at this new rejuvinated rewound and their newfound aggression. This match will most likely be decided by the map choices of each team since both teams have very definite weaknesses. After a fair amount of jostling and rule changing, follower, gravelpit and freight (in order) were chosen. The interresting choice of 2 custom maps should play fairly well into rewounds hands since they have had far more experience on these maps than almost any team in this competition. Recently, rewound have been working on their aggressive plays to compliment their well honed defensive positioning, and will be looking to throw -A- on the back foot early in this match.
We can all expect -A- to enter this match with confidence. Their round 1 destruction of the jedi order firmly stamped them as a real contender for the title however, their insistance on not using nomey in their matches has left them with a fairly understrength soldier pair. -A- will most likely be trying to maximise their damage potential by jumping them on top of rewound very early, relying on yuki, bowt and gore to hold the line. Expect rewound to be waiting for this early aggression from -A- and attempt to quickly shut aporia and cruger down for a quick stomp of -A-
-A- should not be discounted however. They hold one very large trump card in the sense that their scouts are largely unmatched in both fragging ability and gamesense and -A- will be looking to them to be the glue that holds their team together if the shit hits the fan. If jmh and subtitled cannot keep them in check, bowt and gore will use any distraction caused by their heavies to quickly run rings around rewound.
Players to watch:
Greyhunter the mighty wizard seems to have found a new spellbook and has learned the art of aerial attack. Expect to see him making some uncharacteristicly aggressive plays in conjunction with subtitled.
Aporia pulled off some great plays vs jedi's last week. Expect him to rise to the occasion and give creedence to the fact that he is one of the most underrated soldiers in this competition.
Watch out for the "flying prime"
(REWOUND: 2 - 1)
Famous vs BEASTIN
Ive watched these teams scrim each other quite a few times and there only one thing i can say. This one's gonna be close.
Famous came out of round 1 with an easy 2 map whitewash of we-r. they will need to bring their A game for their round 2 match because with the addition of nesk to their roster (apparently as a backup), beastin will not suffer from the same player weaknesses that caused them to drop a map to fray in round 1. With vic and jezo at the wheel, beastin seem to have the monopoly on fragging power in this competition. If moz can keep remembering how to do his rollouts, there is not much to stop beastin from walkin away with the title.
While on paper it seems that beastin has this match in the bag, they do lack a lot of the coordination necessary to play consistantly at a high level.
Fortunately for us spectators, famous, under the steady hands of no mercy and povohat, are a tight ship and can be counted on to drill into any weaknesses that beastin present on the night. With giraffe's dependably high damage output and amril's well timed aggressive play, famous have the fragging power to kick beastin where it hurts.
This match, much like the rewound vs -A- game, will most likely be decided by the map choice. Famous seem to be aware that beastin are all about the gravelpit (eliminating gpit in the first elimination round). Both teams will probably opt for a "better the devil you know" attitude and play the more generic maps this round.
While i think famous will really stick it to beastin, the extreme power of vic and jezo in their respective classes will eventually overpower famous.
Players to watch:
Beastin's round 1 game was all about jezo. I have no doubt that round 2 will simply be another episode of the jezo show with a cameo performance from vic the monster soldier.
While giraffe has a habbit of walking dangerously out of position for a potential kill, he plays a very exciting game and often pulls of some freakish sprees.
(BEASTIN 2 - 0)
Jedi Knights vs ESM
This first fight of the lower bracket will be an interresting one. Both teams took some heavy losses in their round 1 matches and need to show some real improvement if they are going to be viable contenders for a spot in the top 4.
Renaming under the tag of Sequential Gaming, the jedis appear to have put round 1 behind them with their sights firmly locked on winning the lower bracket. With the addition of ex bitchbanger, scotty to their lineup, jedis have the strong caller they've always needed to focus all of their huge potential into a decent unit. With their choice of gravelpit it seems as though they are starting to realise where their strengths lie and are banking on zeroin's dynamic aim to control the B roof and completely shut ESM out of the game.
As predicted in round 1, ESM seems to be suffering from their lack of practice comming into this comp. The scene in NZ is certainly not conducive to team improvement, and the majority of Australian teams just dont scrim early enough to give ESM the constant practice they need. It's quite unfortunate seeing ESM slowly decay due to unfortunate geography as they have argueably one of the best pocket soldiers seen in the aus/nz scene. Even as his team crumbles around him, derelict has the uncanny ability to shine and pull his team through just about any situation.
These two teams have never played each other and this lack of knowledge about their respective opponents will lead to an interresting match. Jedis are probably the stronger and more balanced team comming into this match, they still lack a lot of the micro skills to stop the ESM playmakers from periodically punching holes in their team.
Players to watch:
As per usual zeroin and hellscream are the playmakers in the jedi team. With the addition of scotty, they should have a much higher impact on the game.
Don't let size fool you. Derelict has mighty powers to match those of gandalf the greyhunter.
(jedis 2 - 1)
Fray vs We-r
After the release of the OWLSE divsions and seeing we-r in division 2 i had to question the CSM admin's decision to invite a team that is clearly intent on playing the game for shits and giggles rather than striving to be the best. Don't get me wrong. I love we-r. They are just about the most friendly team around and have enough talented players to still push a div1 team. they are slowly but surely being left behind by the other, more committed teams in the competition.
we-r will no doubt play with as strong a lineup as they can muster, meaning that baboon and battleship will once again will carry ir from their respective positions of soldier and demoman.
Comming off a disappointing loss to beastin, fray have shown that they have the pluck to really push one of the better teams in this competition. Comming into this competition as somewhat of a dark horse, fray showed they have great playmakers in warlock, riki and gee, who can all perform strongly independently of their team's performance. If fray can stick to their natural playstyle and not choke horribly under pressure they should easily knock we-r out of the competition.
Players to watch:
Watch the 2 man team of battleship and baboon do their utmost and possibly pull a few rounds off fray
Watch warlock and gee work in closely together and pull off some dramatic kill sprees
(fray 2 - 0)
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| Category: | Team Fortress 2 |
| Posted: | 16-Jan-10 9:25:46 pm |
| Author: | Heals |