By Ruglord
Crit Kickers took it 2-0 over Spooky Ghosts
Game 1: I don’t usually talk about draft order, but I really love the last pick Thrall from the kickers here. It’s quite solid into Genji + LB as it beefs up your 4 man more than a more traditional ranged DPS would. I am sad we missed out on the Trash Lightning pick, since this is one of the better maps for it, but the pick itself was already solid. Spooky Ghosts still had a very workable draft of 5 solid characters, but it was rare they got to execute it. Early game they were very solid, I loved Greymane going top to get top camp and play a 2-1; I actually wished they had committed to that harder and just run down top. Things were going fine until shortly after the first objective ended at which point no one on Ghosts checked a bush that ETC was allowed to sit in for a really long time, long enough that he was able to find the perfect slide into Anduin. That pick would cause a cascade of events in Crit Kickers favor: they would win the next obj, get a pick on Blaze, turn a somewhat awkward engage from Spooky Ghosts, and basically snowballed the game to a win. Ghosts made a strong attempt to come back when both teams had 16, but it was just too late at that point.
Game 2 was on Towers and I do think while Spooky’s draft was solid albeit slightly flawed last game, this game they really overcooked. I’m not getting the Zagara with Varian pairing tbh; I feel like Varian wants to blow someone up ASAP while Zag wants to slowly chip away with her absurd %damage 16. Picking Varian into Anduin is also a little ballsy but it can work since Taunt is a lower CD than pull. Regardless of draft, I think Spooky Ghosts were way too intimidated after game 1. They correctly did not fight into a Garrosh with their pre level 4, but they didn’t even try to cheese any siege damage with Zag, instead they just waited until lanes approached. Safe for sure, but a bit passive. After that, they played this awkward 1-1-3 into a Vikings comp. There is definitely something to be said about teams overvaluing bottom lane on Towers, but not if you are also not getting value elsewhere. Into a traditional offlaner you can force them to miss some soak with two characters soaking, but Vikings is one of the few where you actually can’t do that. So Hogger and Zagara were soaking two lanes, doing the job that Crit Kickers were doing with one hero slot, and occasionally taking top camp. I would’ve loved if they just gave up bottom and hard pushed top since Vikings are really bad at defending pushes, but instead, the Ghosts basically got nothing done in the two lanes they were committing two heroes for, while obviously not winning the 3v4 bottom. I do actually like that they didn’t try to play the traditional 4v4, since I think they lose that even harder, but the way they played their 1-1-3 was just too passive in my opinion. It was a slow grind but eventually Crit Kickers got bottom fort and the game was over.
Can’t Pause Wont Pause took it 2-1 over Gen.M Esports
Game 1: So I just finished roasting the Ghosts on their Varian + Zagara draft, so imagine my face when I download the next game and find that GenM did the same thing! Now there are a couple things in the Varian’s favor this time. For one thing, CPWP has Deckard, which is a cleanseless healer. Stukov is also probably about as good of a Taunt followup as you can ask for. Still, I’m not a huge fan of GenM’s draft of Varian, Stukov, Zagara, Junkrat, and Blaze. What did end up mattering, however, was the macro. The first fort would fall at level 16, but it wasn’t due to any punishers, but instead to Blaze solo pushing. Letting GenM get this fort was a CRITICAL mistake for CPWP, as it would hand them a heavy loss when the objective actually spawned top, since they had no fort to run to while GenM still did. The punisher then softened up top keep enough that even after CPWP killed several of GenM, Junkrat was able to backdoor the keep. Later, CPWP even took core damage due to the pressure from that lane. And when they won a decisive late game team fight, guess which lane GenM ended through? This is why I love macro so much in this game: small things can have MASSIVE impacts later.
I will also talk about one interesting thing I saw, which was CPWP putting Diablo in the offlane at the game’s start. I think non-bruisers in the offlane at points in the game is a very underexplored concept and I like that CPWP tried something different, but I can’t help but feel that keeping CPWP from the 4 man at a stage in the game where your 4 man is double soaking just denied Diablo about half the souls he normally would’ve had.
Game 2: I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it is what what GenM was thinking because they busted out the Zag + Junk backline again for game 2, this time guarded by a Johanna. But the real spicy was CPWP’s Probius and Chen. I know waterlong loves the probe but the main tank Chen was completely out of left field and even after watching the game I’m not sure what it did better that an Anub couldn’t have done. There were some big ups, tbf, such as Chen’s dive ability into such a low mobility comp and the shields at 13 (I assume) stack with Probius’ shields at 13 to create a hard to stop push. When it came to actual team fights, it felt more like a main tank Dehaka game with how many tongues were landed. At that point all Chen had to do was pop open a cold one with the boys. I guess I can’t deny results because CPWP cruised to a very easy victory with their comp. I will still just spread some Keg propaganda and point out that while SEF was very strong, Keg would’ve also been very scary for Zag and Junk and Auriel while also having less than half the cooldown + no channel time.
Game 3 was very confusing to me to watch because I games 1 and 2 I had GenM And CPWP’s names completely swapped. So I was just left sitting there, wondering how tf GenM could’ve possibly thrown a game they were playing so cleanly, only to be very confused when they actually won; turns out they were actually CPWP! Anyway, this was probably the best Braxis game I’ve seen all season. CPWP ran another double bruiser comp, this time with Rexxar top and Main Tank Leo bottom. They also ran back the Probius. More importantly though, they did not play the honorable “respect the 1v1” 1-4 comps everyone runs, and instead played the very dishonorable and effective 2-3 comp. With Leo and Probius bottom, they had ample macro to stop any push GenM’s 4 man could get; by the time CPWP had gotten top wall, their wall had barely taken damage. The Falstad would prove a pivotal aspect of CPWP’s game plan as it was regularly the one shifting either top or bottom lane in CPWP’s favor. By the time the first objective had been won, GenM had already lost one fort and the zerg pushing top meant CPWP had ample space to just take bottom fort. With a whole level up, they forced a 13v12 fight, won it, and got boss and the objective. It’s a tale as old as time and while as a player I definitely hate Braxis with a burning passion, as a viewer it is satisfying to see a team convert a solid lead into an unstoppable victory.
So it turns out the confusion was that the games are in the wrong order. So Braxis (what I have labeled as game 3) was actually game 1, then Shrines, then DShire. If you go by my ranking, it was actually game 3, game 1, game 2!
Wrapping Up Our Week
We have a very exciting upset, with gillyShark at !Bingo night taking it 2-0 over the #2 team currently, The High Inquisitors!
Game 1, this was a classic 6.5/10 moment. High Inquisitors was winning all game, and personally I love the Tassadar pick into Lucio. Yes Lucio can run you down, but Tass can also really mess up Lucio’s wall riding with a wall of his own. I actually think High Inquisitors overall won the draft. I’m a diehard Leap fan, but I think Wrath with Spin to Win would’ve 1v9ed here, given that the only CC was Diablo and I guess Olaf at 16. Speaking of, I’m not sure how I feel about the Vikings pick. The objectives on Shrines are actually pretty powerful and Vikings can do nothing to stop them nor even help you win them since they are pretty weak in team fights pre-16. You are basically gonna have to give all your early game objectives and try to stem the bleeding with split pushing, which is perfectly viable but I don’t think gillyshark actually played that way at all. It wouldn’t really matter though because once they did get 16 they won two critical team fights, both of which were bottom lane. The first got them an objective and most of the keep and the 2nd was a 5 man team wipe that got them the game.
Game 2 was on Towers a more tried and true Vikings map; so tried and true in fact that gilyshark picked it before the 2nd round of bans! I do love Vikings on this map, but picking it that early seemed a bit ballsy; I think Inquisitors was one hammer pick from bringing this to game 3. Instead they took offlane Zagara which I think was a big mistake. You should try to push into Vikings but Zagara is an offlaner that takes permanent damage since she has no heal; every Erik rock she takes sticks for the long haul and when you’re on an island soaking top and mid, you’re gonna be in for a looooooong haul. In the 4 man, gillyshark had a classic Stitches + Junkrat comp, which is also very scary and would gillyshark most of the early game. A failed gorge attempt on Diablo, however, would result in a Lucio pick and gillyshark losing their bottom lane. From there, Inquisitors completely flipped the script, bringing the core health from 12 – 24 against their favor to 12-1 in their favor. But it is stitches and a couple hooks here and there brought Gillyshark back into the game. Even then, they still had the daunting prospect of having to finish the game on the enemy’s side of the map trying to capture Inquisitor’s top right objective, a common QM tactic I’ve seen fail many times even up a person. The objective just forces you into awkward chokes that are very difficult to fight in. But that’s where Stitches came in, who was basically shooting fish in a barrel. A hook on Tassadar all but sealed the series.
Overall a very close two games, with both teams flexing their strength. Don’t let the 2-0 score fool you; in playoffs this will be a very close best of 5. I even see Inquisitors getting their revenge.
Final Notes
A couple other things to note, that y’all may already know.
- At some point during my 2 week absence, Fancy Flightless Fowl sadly forfeited the season. I am sad to see them go, since they were secretly my favorite team name, but it is what it is.
- There is still one more game to be played this week but as of right now, all of the top 4 teams have 23 or 22 points, and then a 5 point gap to #5, which is Magnitude: Epicenter at 17 points. Keep an eye to see how the “4 gods of Div A” play out!
- In fact, with 17 points, the 5th place team is currently 4 points above the 6th place team, who is very close to 7th, 8th, and 9th. It’s a small sample size, but we have sort of a reverse bell curve in points in Div A. Very interesting!