It was a memorable 4v4 Intermediate season with great teams and battles for playoff spots. In the end, 8 very good teams made the playoffs and the rest were left to wonder what went wrong. A couple of squads dropped along the way and a few merged to hopefully perform even better in the upcoming 6v6 league, but overall, it was a great and very interesting season.
PLAYOFFS
The Rules: Eight teams enter. Only four teams leave. The Location: Weapons Cache The Teams: Quietus vs BaD KarmaImminent Threat vs Team Point Blank
area51 vs Blood Brothers
Allied Assault Force vs Team Special Forces
Weapons Cache is a very defense-oriented map with most teams, in general, employing a primary objective defense camp to ensure they win their defensive rounds. This often leads to a situation where just one assault break-through can determine the outcome of the match. However, a number of teams were not afraid to try protecting the entrances to avoid the well-known nade spam into primary that almost always accompanies this map come match time.
Quietus (#1) vs Bad Karma (#4) - Honor Conference
Background
Over the season, Quietus slowly and steadily built momentum. Despite two ties (one to Slow Reaction and one to area-51), they remained undefeated and led the league in rounds won. They added a few quality members from other top teams to help round out there game and that clearly showed when, in the rematch with SR, they handily beat them 11-1 on River Basin.
BDK won four of their last 5 matches, including an absolutely critical one over TrewKungFuPlayas in the final game of the season. Despite this, BDK was watching the scoreboard all night long praying for Operation Mayhem to "upset" SR. Their wishes came true as OM dominated the match and BDK slipped into the playoffs just ahead of SR.
Playoff Match
As the home team, Quietus started out on defense and shut down every attack that BDK threw their way. For the most part, they played a slightly forward prime defense and fell back to the objective only if they lost a player. Unfortunately, BDK could not break through and they switched at half-time with Quietus leading 6-0.
On defense, BDK attempted to use a door defense but Quietus broke through shipping and receiving; eventually both the north end and the vent fell before the final BDK player was shot down.
Wrap-Up
Final Score: 7 - 0 Quietus Players: Quietus: Legend, slydell, Ghost, and Antepilani BaD Karma Dreamer, Psydude, Roughrider, and MitsumiTeam Point Blank (#3) vs Imminent Threat (#2) - Honor Conference
Background
Imminent Threat won the Airbourne division fairly easily; their only loss was a close, 5-7 match on Mountain Ambush against BDK. They had a couple of close 7-5 wins, but overall, they dominated their division and took the second seed in the conference.
Team Point Blank came into the playoffs as the third seed with two losses; both came against Quietus, the number one seed in the conference. Other than Quietus (and a couple close 7-5 wins against SR), they didn't face any serious competition and some felt that this was going to be the match of the week and sure enough, it did not disappoint.
Playoff Match
iT started on defense using a standard primary camp tactic. However, to their surprise, pb rushed prime early and unexpectedly, catching them off guard and they lost that first round. After that, iT was better prepared and managed to hold primary successfully for remaining rounds giving iT a 5-1 lead at half-time.
Wanting to finish the match in 12 rounds (and avoid an overtime situation), pb decided to lock down primary and not take any chances with forward positions. As usual, teams traded nades, flashes, and smokes into and from the stairs, but in the end, iT was not able to break through and pb was able to hold every defensive round.
Wrap-Up
Final Score: 7 - 5 Team Point Blank Players: Team Point Blank Shock, Diehard, Redeemer, and Combat Imminent Threat Bull3t, Bass, CrimsonRed, and killemallarea-fifty-one (#1) vs Blood Brothers (#4) - Loyalty Conference
Background
area-fifty-one, a top european team, came into the North American scene with their desire to play in the intermediate league and to test how well they could do against some of the better NA teams. They were forced to play on NA servers but in the end, they did as well as most people expected. They won the division fairly easily with no losses and two ties (one to Quietus and one to Blood Brothers). In their other match against BB, early in the season on Pipeline SF, they spanked them to the tune of a 12 - 0 win. This was to be the third and final match and only one would have the chance to move on.
Blood Brothers is a team that's been in three previous leagues including the last 4v4 invite league and was one of the teams expected to make the playoffs. They didn't disappoint and generally played very well. Their record was 6-3-1 with only one loss to a non playoff-bound team (nootalP tsirorreT itnA) and that was by a one round margin (5-6). They had tied a51 on Mountain Ambush but their early season loss on Pipeline SF where they hadn't won a round didn't bode well for another indoor, CQB battle.
Playoff Match
Trusting in their CQB skills and shots, a51 used an upfront defense preventing access to either objective by holding them at the doors at all three entrances. When BB did take out one of their players, they would fall back to hold prime. This worked extremely well and they held BB away from the objectives most of the time with one clutch game by Creep to ensure that a51 would go into assault with a 6 - 0 lead.
Knowing that they had to win every round, BB took no chances and used a hardcore primary camp with the goal of simply outlasting a51 and trying to use time to their advantage. This worked very well for the first three rounds as a51 only got close once when it was 2v1 against dtraf who managed to get BB member before getting shot by the other. Unfortunately for BB, a51 changed up tactics somewhat in the fourth round and they decided to try and collectively eliminate one person at a time through teamwork and misdirection. This was effective and they were able to break through and secure the win. After the match was decided BB went with a more aggressive approach and a51 won the final two rounds.
Wrap-Up
Final Score: 9 - 3 area-fifty-one Players: area-fifty-one don creep, dtraf, Freakstar and Desolation Blood Brothers veteran, ironmatrix, legend, and zionsacAllied Assault Force (#2) vs Team Special Forces (#3) - Loyalty Conference
Background
Allied Assault Force had a very strong first season winning their division with a record of 7-2-1. Their two losses were bad ones early on in the season (1-11 to Team Special Forces on Swamp Raid and 1-11 to God's Infantry on Insurgent Camp). However, they finished strong with a record of 6-0-1 in their final 7 games. Athough they had a couple of close matches (including the tie against QRF on Weapons Cache SE), they had also blown outa few opponents and were looking for a strong game against SF.
This was Team Special Force's second NA league experience. They ended this season with a 6-3-1 record having lost tight CQB matches to both GI and AAF as well as an 4-8 beating on Insurgent Camp by QRF. However, they finished very strong winning the last 2 matches by a combined score of 18 rounds to 5 to earn a spot in the playoffs.
Playoff Match
AAF started on defense and in the first round attempted to cover the entrances. Unfortunately for them, SF had the better shots and won the round. From there, AAF switched back to a prime camp for a few rounds and won the next two before SF started becoming more effective with their nades into the primary area. After that, AAF couldn't hold either primary or the doors and the score going into half-time was 2-4 in favor of SF.
Once on defense, SF started with a prime camp hoping to win the round and set them up for a surprise door tactic in round 2. Both worked extremely well and SF had a commanding 6-2 lead. In the ninth round, SF attempted to push to the doors again, but Nimrod naded himself and then suddenly the plan fell apart and AAF won the round with no deaths at all. In the deciding round, SF gave Nimrod the M249 and allowed him to roam on the second floor where he took out three AAF members before being shot by Exodus. He didn't last long and the match was called with SF winning 7-3.
Wrap-Up
Final Score: 9 - 3 Team Special Forces Players: Team Special Forces Newb, ShtanD, Nimrod, Redhat Allied Assault Force Showtime, Exodus, Healer, 2ndChanceSemi-Final Matches
The Rules: 4 teams enter. Only 2 teams leave. The Location: River Basin The Teams:Quietus vs Team Point Blank
area-fifty-one vs Team Special Forces
Predictions
I predict both matches to be fairly one-sided. Quietus, even though they lost Prototype, is very strong outdoors and has some excellent RB players. Although pb has shown some strengths both indoors and out, they simply cannot match up with the depth and outdoor skills shots of Quietus. I predict a final score of 8-4 with Quietus moving onto the finals.
In the other semi-final matchup, my crystal ball shows that Team Special Forces will have a very hard time with area-fifty-one. Few teams match up well with the top European teams on outdoor maps and I don't see any reason to think differently here. I predict a final score of 9-3 with a51 meeting Quietus on Pipeline in the finals.
Post edited by JCMatador at 4/9/2005 3:16:06 PM
SR | JCMatador
TeamWarfare AA Community Liaison & News Staff
Email: JCMatador@teamwarfare.com
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