Week 2 Summary

...Whisper it quietly, but rumour is spreading that there is no longer a clear-cut favourite in the Premier league. This week saw some great games across the leagues; but as usual the Premiership will be our focus.

No set "match of the week" in the end- saunamen/bte, rage.ns/storm and Insane/EoD were all great matches to watch. Giving a report on just one would be unfair on the other two matches- I suggest you scour this site and IRC to find demos. As expected, Levitacus dispatched el'pheer with consummate ease.

Player of the Week - wltrs (rage.ns). We already knew wltrs was a class act, but he dragged rage.ns kicking and screaming into a highly competitive match against storm. Almost single-handedly, for 5 minutes he held off a siege/SG rush on SatCom.

Team of the Week - Evolve or Die. The Spaniards gave Insane a run for their money- almost coming away with two rounds. Indeed- our fickle spectators predicted EoD to be "the best team in Europe". Whilst I won't go that far- they have improved and are contenders for a mid-to-high finish.

Moment of the Week - ray k and Cortex. You couldn't do this if you tried. Whilst defending Biodome against an EoD onslaught, ray k as lerk brought one of the lifts up... Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Insane's sole-remaining Fade, Cortex, made an ill-fated decision to blink up the rapidly closing lift. The result? Worldspawn kill. Ouch!


Week 3 Predictions

ns_origin... Go see last week's predictions for info! Yes I'm lazy. To sum up: aliens win, lifts bring pain to Fades.

ns_lost A sexy map that I enjoy playing on. History lesson (pay attention, class!): introduced as a 2.0 map; lost was a 12-month job by Greedo386. Currently at v2.0 (who remembers v1 with the exploitable-weldable RT near MS?), lost is a nicely balanced map that allows multiple strategies. Temperature control (central RT) is a crucial point on the map. If the marines take it, Equilibrium is as good as theirs, and it's a great foot-hold on Cargo. As for the hives, I fear giving my opinion on what I feel are the good/bad ones, but what the hell: Cargo is positioned a good distance away from the MS, and the RT outside it has a handy vent for easy defense... but that's about as good as it gets. The sheer size of the room means JPs have a field day here, and a PG/siege spot on the north-west ramp usually reaps dividends. Equilibrum is just a damn weird hive. Marines can reach it in no time flat, and it's anyone's guess whether the HL Gods will decide to let the weldable siege-lift work. On the other hand, the layout of the room favours Lerks and Fades- it's flat enough to make celerity movement easy, and the change of height half-way across the room allows the Kharaa to get out of danger quickly. Alpha is a fairly nasty hive- whilst I've seen many SG rushes fail, I rarely see a siege fail. Defending when the marines are in the weldable corridor is hellish, and the Southern side is too open- marines can see the Kharaa come at them from a great range.

saunamen - storm (Match of the Week)

To be blunt: saunamen are doing better than I expected, with the reverse being true for storm. Still, I'm not sure that saunamen can win this one. storm can if they play well, although I think a draw is most likely- despite the form book favouring storm.

Prediction 2-2. saunamen to frustrate storm.


[EoD] - Levitacus

Levitacus will be looking forwards to this one. They will be hoping to use their demolition of el'pheer as a stepping stone to improved performances. EoD, on the other hand, will feel hard done by to only take one point away from Insane last week, and will want a better result this time. Although it's no secret that I'm a bit of a Levi fan-boy, I expect EoD to edge this one.

Prediction 3-1 to EoD. The Spaniards to take another victory against Finnish opposition.


bte - Insane

A loss and a draw for bte, so far- and I feel they may have to wait another week for a chance of first victory. The Germans are a top clan- no doubt- but Insane are sitting pretty, perched at the top of the table. A position they deserve.

Prediction 3-1 to Insane. Another victory here may well confirm Insane as the favourites for the title.


Select lower league prediction

Evil | - own? (Division 2)

The non-UK amongst you may not be well versed with these clans, but a quick check of their rosters should show familiar names. Whilst I can't help but feel that the addition of "Premiership mercs" to the squads has killed the once-billed "UK derby" feeling, this will nevertheless be a good game to watch outside of the Premiership. Evil now have a plethora of European players, and with "tah" they have a new aimbot-marine. Rumours abound of an ex-rage player joining their ranks, too. omgwtfns don't rely on one player, but they have three or four great marine players, and a solid, if unspectacular, alien round.

Prediction 3-1 to Evil.


Other News

- el'pheer and miau have gone inactive from the leagues. I'm hoping these will be the only casualties. If it makes any difference- I'd be surprised if we were still playing 3.0 by this time next week...

- Please don't all cram your matches into the weekend. We don't have enough servers to supply you with- this creates a nasty back-log of matches (this post was delayed until the EoD/Insane match was finished)

- the CAL plug-in that generates screenshots on clients does not affect your gaming. All screenshots are generated once the server sees that you have 0hp.

- Here you go Fana. Waste sucks. Bring it.