By Ruglord
Spooky Ghosts took it 2-0 over Points Donation Squad!
Scaling was the name of the game in Game 1 where after losing several team fights and down two forts, the Ghosts found a massive engage opportunity right as they hit 16s as PDS was retreating from a push. This was a really good recognition from the Ghosts, who knew their win condition with Zeratul would be 16s. PDS simply were unable to deal with the VP + Apoc combo of Ghosts who would seal the deal two team fights later.
Game 2 was on Braxis, and it was very dynamic Braxis. Both teams regularly rotated 4-5 people between lanes for ganks. I think these rotations probably could’ve been a bit more conservative in number, but hey it did yield kills. It was the Ghosts that would ultimately get the upper hand on these ganks, which would secure them a massive level lead. It is notoriously hard to come back on Braxis. I do think Ghosts took a couple unnecessary fights late game when they could’ve waited for 20s, but they did win all those team fights. And with that, Boss + Zerg cemented both teams’ NGS season.
Magnitude: Epicenter took it 2-1 over Gen.M Esports!
Game 1 was at least the 3rd time I’ve seen Epicenter bust out the Azmodan on Tomb tech. I’m still not fully convinced by it; did it really win the game or was it the insane Stitches hooks and Uther anti-burst into a Varian comp that also had no cleanse for Sylv’s Mind Controol. That said I did see a Varian + Zagara gank on Azmodan almost result in Az getting a zag kill so maybe the lord of greed really is more than we make him out to be.
Game 2 was an absolute banger on Shrines. Stop reading now if you want to go watch it. But if you don’t care, this was a very clean game from GenM early. I say that because a lot of less disciplined teams often give up their advantage once they are even levels. GenM, after a very sucessful early game, found themselves in a very familiar position: up two levels 18-16. That unusually large 4 level gap between 16 and 20s is the death nail for many teams who end up taking an even team fight, only to lose and throw their whole advantage. GenM, instead, gave up a whole objective for 20s and it paid dividends: they instead opted to push Epicenter’s top keep, which would utlimately retain their level lead and nab them a keep while Epicenter’s own objective would not get the same value, as it still had to chew through a whole fort. Epicenter did do a very good job backing off though and for two levels, GenM struggled to convert their level 20s into anything more than some fort damage.
Epicenter would get their own 20s and then the game was completely on its head as Epicenter had a nasty trick up their sleeve: Sonya level 20 leap + Stukov silence, a silence Entomb you can’t walk out of on a shorter cool down. I will say, I think if you pick Leoric you get the same combo without even having to wait for 20s but Leap does have more range and size. From here the game was completely flipped as GenM had nothing to deal with the combo. They lost team fight after team fight after team fight. Soon GenM had lost nearly everyone adn Magntiude was knocking on GenM’s core. But suddenly, just as Magnitude was sealing out the game, the camera panned to THEIR core, now at 0% and the FIVE catapults that had backdoored them in all that excitement. What lane were they backdoored in? The same top lane GenM had snuck from them when they were still not quite 20s. A beautiful game, absolute cinema.
Game 3 would close out the Bo3 on BOE. With LiMing Valla, Magnitude had a lot more race than GenM’s Tassadar Tychus. But with a Varian into Magnitude’s Stukov, GenM had a lot more kill pressure. And I think that was perfectly shown by how despite losing every objective, GenM was up on kills. The problem was that when Magnitude got kills, it mattered so mjuch more. For example, first objective GenM lost the race but got several kills to compensate. However, what should’ve been an easy defense turned into a whole fort lost because Magnitude managed to kill of Tychus during the push. That would cost GenM their whole fort, making that one kill far more valuable than any of GenM’s.
The game ended in a similar fashion. By the time of the last objective, GenM was up a whopping 7 kills. But Magnitude execute a wonderful Stukov combo and got an early pick on Tassadar, which left GenM severely crippled for the rest of the fight. They ultimately got 5 man team wiped and lost the game.
We had another elite 4 clash, this time with Under Newb Management taking it 2-0 over The High Inquisitors!
Game 1 was very strange to watch as someone from the future who knew who would win the game. 99% of the game was the Inquistors show. In fact the push that would give UNM the game was UNM’s first and last time even taking any of the Inquistors’ buildings as they had not even taken a fort before then. But it did happen. All game the Inquisitors got all the engages they wanted and UNM were left scrambling. UNM had some moments but they were never able to get more than a small toehold, until a final fateful objective netted them a massive Ring of Frost + Apoc combo that would take 4 of the Inquisitors. Recognizing the opportunity, UNM pushed through the lane, through a fort and keep, to finally seal the game.
Game 2 was a lot less swingy than game 1, with UNM holding the reigns for all of Garden of Terror. Between Auriel, Joh blinds and D, and Gust, it was so hard for the Inquisitors to actually get kills. Come 20, Joh even had a 2nd layer of shields with Storm Shield. What I found really funny was that Inquisitors had a Varian to shut down both UNM’s Illidan and Joh, but it felt like he could only do one. If he taunted one, the other would go to town. I’m not sure if that’s what actually decided the game, but it was an interesting dynamic nonetheless.
Finally, wrapping up week 11 and the regular season, we have Crit Kickers going 2-0 over Came From Behind!
Game 1 was a pretty smooth Tomb game from Crit Kickers. A VERY successful hard camp would get Crit Kickers kills and a ton of seige damage, on par with what you would expect from an early objective. It is very difficult to play into Stitches when you are behind and that was mostly the story of this game. Came From Behind were simply unable to come back from behind as Crit Kickers slowly took the whole map.
Game 2 was a much closer Dragon Shire game, wiht both team having ample time in the spotlight. However, outside of the big flashy dragon knight moments, you could see Crit Kickers slowly chipping down CFB as they were making grounds even without the objective. Slowly but surely, CFB came crumpling down as Crit Kickers tore throught their buildings and netted themselves kills with very solid Johanna flanks.
Wrap Up
And with that, the regular season for Div A is over! The matches this week were actually very interesting because they showcased the relative strength from all over the division. We had two lower teams duking it out in Spooky Ghosts vs Points Donation Squad, two elites in The High Inquisitors vs Under Newb Management, two middle of the road games in Gen.M Esports vs Magnitude: Epicenter, and an elite vs a lower team in Crit Kickers vs Came From Behind. You’ll notice that every game except for one is a 2-0, and arguably that one should’ve been a 2-0. Personally my experience with NGS has been that bo3s are extremely volatile. You’ll have one top 1 team that is creaming everyone, only to get upset by a random 8th seed team in playoffs. And it’s the Bo5s that are the most nuanced, as they allow a much larger sample size and demonstration of each team’s skill.
So normally, this is the part where I’d say to disregard the regular standings and that all 8 teams have a chance against anyone else. That being said, I do think Div A might have a bit of a skill gap. Even though the reverse bell curve trend of the last couple weeks has somewhat stabilized with the Inquisitors dropping to 4th, that could be argued to be more due to them having to forfeit a game due to scheduling than their actual skill. If we give them an extra 2-3 points, you’ll once again see the chasm that is between 4th and 5th. Now again, Bo3s are volatile so maybe it was all a fake gap. But after spending a whole season watching the teams, I do feel there is a bit of a gap. I could totally still see maybe one of the top 4 be upset in the first week of playoffs but I’d be VERY surprised if more than that don’t make it through.