Grand Finals are finally here! (The road thus far)

2012-04-27 23:36 by rkd

It's been a bit of a bumpy ride this first season of the Salvation draft, with a great start and attraction in the groupstage but some sloppiness from both players and admins caused a bit of delay, rescheduling and remaking of the playoff-system.
Definetly things for us to look into come next season, but nonetheless the season is not over just yet, we still have The Grand Finals left and what a game it promises to be.

We have the rather unexpected finalist in Nitram's Rams who barely even made it to the playoffs, getting there on a technicality (better frag avg than zero's Heroes since there was no rule about head-to-head) and clinching the last playoff spot in Group B.

On the other side they are facing who most considered the favorites to win the tournament and they haven't disappointed at all so far, Milton's Militia is surely still most peoples favorite to win.

Road to the finals:
Nitram's Rams had attendance problems throughout the groupstage missing either phrenic or TheEvilDog which was a big reason they went overlooked as a contendor for the title.
They started of their season with a 1-2 loss against Zero's Heroes where both maps lost was with 30 frags or less. In their second game they defeated Carapace's Nutcases 2-1 after surprisingly dropping dm3 by a large margin they came back to take e1m2 by 7 frags and then a comeback dm2 win with 40 frags after Nitram let go of the breaks and carried his team to victory with 84 frags while his mates stood at 45.

On day 2 of groupstage Phrenic was not able to attend and Nitram's Rams only managed to get a single map win in their remaining 2 games, falling 0-2 to Murdoc's Muppets and 1-2 to En_karl's Snarl.
It looked like the season was over for the team and their chance to reach the playoffs now lied in the hands of Carapace's Nutcases, they had to beat Zero's Heroes for Nitram's Rams to be able to make the playoffs.
After a 2-1 win for Carapace's Nutcases it was still unclear for most of us which team had made the playoffs or not and alot of people figured that since Zero's Heroes beat Nitram's Rams in the groupstage that they would be the ones to make the playoffs, but no such rule was to be found (HAHA ZERO HAHAHAHA), instead it was frag difference which decided and there Nitram's Rams had the clear advantage.

After the change of the playoff-system Nitram's Rams were to be faced against ParadokS' Rocks, at the time the only undefeated team in the draft and considered one of the favorites alongside Milton's Milita to make the finals.
However, having phrenic back meant that this team was far from a pushover and they showed instantly that they deserve some respect by taking map1 dm3 in a rather convincing fashion.
But after losing the next two maps (including a dm2 blowout) the tides had turned and it looked like ParadokS' Rocks would be able to take this one home as expected.
But the two superstars of ParadokS' Rocks was performing below their standards and even though the 4th round pick rkd played superduperamazinglygreat getting 67 frags on both e1m2's (and 8/1 rl stat and more dmg than para) they weren't able to seal the deal and Nitram's Rams could take home the last dm2 with over 100 frags and make it to the semifinals.

In the semifinals it would be alot easier for Nitram's Rams, facing a handicapped En_karl's Snarl who was missing Krab.
For En_karl's Snarl to have a chance at the now rolling and confident team of Nitram's Rams then En_karl would've had to put up yet another amazing performance like we saw in the earlier stages of the tournament, but such performances don't always come out and it didn't this night either and Nitram's Rams had made it to the finals.

Noticeable: Nitram has averaged 73.6 frags per map so far and has topfragged for his team in every single map they've won, being perhaps the most consistent out of all captains able to always put up a strong performance. This team doesn't win games on even team performance but rather on how well the other 3 can support Nitram.


Milton's Militia have had a strong presence and put up convincing performances throughout the tournament.
They started of their first game a bit shaky, escaping with a 2-0 win against Dimman's Dimension that easily could've gone 0-2 instead.
Diki being a questionmark before the tournament regarding his activity showed that he was rusty, getting only 41 and 45 frags in the first game.
Luckily however for Milton's Militia they were able to face Darkki's Bliss without key player Fix and the unpracticed team didn't stand a chance against Milton's Militia where Milton managed a 131 frags dm2, highest in the tournament.
On day 2 of the groupstage Milton's Militia suffered their one and only loss so far against ParadokS' Rocks in a dramatic 1-2 defeat with alot of slowspawning involved.
After taking a convincing 2-0 win against bps' Evilness the 2nd place in Group A was secured.

In the quarterfinals Carapace's Nutcases was waiting, a very strong swede/SD team (practically all swedes are, have been or will be part of SD at some point) with the combination of new up and coming div0 Carapace together with old veteran div0 Razor this matchup was expected to be alot tighter than what actually became of it.
Carapace's Nutcases just weren't able to shut Milton down and by now the rust on Diki from the groupstage had mostly shaken off, not to mention Skillah's solid and consistent play throughout the tournament with a 61.4 frag avg.

In the semifinals waited Murdoc's Muppets, the second highest seeded captain, just after Milton (what were we admins thinking putting murdoc there lol!?) and also the groupwinner of the very tough group B.
Yet again a surprisingly easy win for Milton's Militia where Diki now really starts to show that he's just not a tVS player by name but he can really back that tag up.
Just individually too strong on all positions compared to Murdoc's Muppets in this game, there was nothing they could do but watch Milton's Milita head to the finals.

Noticeable: Diki had a rough start, he had a good map here and there in the 2nd day of groupstage, showing what he's really capable of and in the playoffs he has started to come into form and could very well be the key to leading Milton's Milita to a victory.
Also keep track of Skillah in this game, haveing played consistently very good this far, will he keep it up in the finals or will we see some "skillah" quad moments?


Interestingly enough, arguably the 2 best Captains in the tournament have made it to the finals (maybe we should make their draft order even worse next season mohahah) and their wins have mostly been lead by strong "single hand" performances from the captains, taking on most of the responsibilites and armor/weapon/powerup pickups while alot of other captains tried to go with more of a "teamplay, get everyone involved" tactic.
Perhaps something for captains to think of come next draft.

Don't forget to check upcoming games and my game predictions! and plz commentate, you don't have to have anything to discuss just tell me I'm awesome =)

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