RAGL Frontline Reports :: S08.6

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netnazgul
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RAGL Frontline Reports :: S08.6

Post by netnazgul »

Obviously, a lot has happened during the last week, practically half of the season of games.

Weekly highlights

:: Dualwarhead 0-2 goat
Most likely a first place match (or at least one of the two, depending on how eskimo copes with his pile of games).
On Blitz, picked by goat, he took the map control early on, rushing to the middle and opting for a Kennel; Dualwarhead just took a corner oil and sat on his buildtime advantage, also selling a ref and making it even bigger. There followed a flamer drop by Dualwarhead, and goat was exactly ready for it with an army nearby and a Flame Tower ready. The drop died immediately, netting goat a 2K advantage added to a complete domination over map oil. Assets were more or less even at that point, but economy was overall better for goat as he also took the nearest doublemine patch and basecrawled to the next one, locking Dualwarhead out into the bottom-right side of the map. Dualwarhead's main ore depleted, and he was left with only bottom patch and a bit of gems to grab. This was the time goat chose to do a diverting attack at opponent's main, and Dualwarhead bought it moving all his forces back and leaving his only expansion vulnerable to another attack that targeted all the Ore Trucks available. Unable to deal with both fronts at the same time and with no cash on the account, Dualwarhead called it after trying a suicidal counter-attack.
The rebound on Mountain Ridge could have had a similar scenario. This time though both players picked the same oil to get first, with goat bringing much more rifles to it, as Dualwarhead's infantry hanged out at main. Dualwarhead then tried a very aggressive buildup with 3 barracks and 3 refineries before War Factory, but his early attack was to be aborted because of a single scout in the middle, and then he wasted a lot of time doing mostly nothing with an army, didn't have enough money to utilize the production and then got all that army obliterated while picking on an oil. The rest of the game was quickly becoming a mere formality as goat already had a 6K asset lead and then also got 2 armies into Dualwarhead's eco lines again like he did in the previous game.


:: Barf 2-0 Blackened
First spot match here too between two ex-Masters players.
On Onyx, Blackened went in with two grenadiers that targeted Barf's oil, not being stopped by a rifle guard. Barf then was first to expand on the north path; Blackened picked the same route, but was late though he opted to go to the edge of the map and successfully set an outpost there as Barf's forward base got quite exposed. Still, Barf had an advantage by also getting an actual army there, so the base war was swift and merciless; Blackened's MCV was finished off by a Mobile Flak.
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The game looked bleak for Blackened at that moment, with his only option to withstand the main base assault while getting as much profit from counter-attacking Barf's main as possible; even then he was practically without economy and needed a miracle to save the game. Blackened indeed succeeded on both fronts and expanded to the closest patch next to his main, as well as got some Thieves into Barf's Refinery (though both were broke at the time so thihs didn't produce any effect). The miracle didn't happen though.
Game on Blitz should have been different for Blackened to win; he decided it's as good time as any to do a 4-Ranger rush that was spotted early, largely misplaced and thus fought off by Barf. 3 Rangers survived to continue draining micro time from Blackened as that was probably the only thing those got in that game (also killing a bit of infantry and providing some vision, but Blackened could have done all that with just 1). All the while Barf just played safe and expanded through the bottom, again being there first on the south-west doublemine patch. Fight for the turf commenced, and again Barf prevailed while Blackened being Allies against Soviet didn't help him here with a base war. Though he continued to hold his ground, this battle was long since lost for Blackened, only wasting time and resources in a futile attempt. The strategy behind this showed itself a minute later when Blackened crossed the map all the way around with another squad into Barf's unprotected main base. Having an infantry army in the middle of nowhere and hesitating on where to place defences between two fronts, Barf lost precious seconds, 2 Ore Trucks and Service Depot. Infantry came in late and cleared off the attack, while base war south-west turned into a standoff with neither player able to get value from the ore patch.
Blackened had quite the number of Ore Trucks, but should have expanded with that attack. Instead Barf did it and was now gaining map control with the expansion north-east. That one required a move of his main base MCV, which should have been proved a costly mistake, but Blackened wasted some time being elsewhere and not attacking the main base immediately when he had a chance with yet another unspotted army, so only one War Factory fell (Barf had 2). North of the map was then a hot spot and coming into another base standoff, but this time Barf got a substantial army to his side as well as better positioning overall; Blackened lost his MCV, army and any chances at getting north expansions. Next confrontation would have to be the last for him if he were to lose it, but time was also against him cause of lost map, and transition to Artilleries was too late a move, unable to turn the game.


:: Upps 1-1 BigBadBain
Short for "uppset", Upps has done it once more and took a point from a [then] potential top4 candidate yet again here.
First game on Trapped, Upps unleashed a full-fledged attack into Bain's base straight away, but even as Bain went a subtle ref-wf he fended that off easily and went on dominating the map with Rangers, onlyl to get partly stopped a minute later by 2 Flaks. Game took its usual course with Bain getting the upper hand at first expansion south-west (Upps rallied troops there but was unlucky to get it too late). Corner southwestern ore patch was a subject for base standoff, with Upps being again a bit late with his tanks, but enough to kill Bain's attack army. At the same time Upps went expanding over the north half-blind, and that's where Bain's secondary dispatch was, swiftly bringing that MCV to a standstill. Upps continued the motion with his main MCV, supporting that with an army, while Bain went around the cliff north and attacked the top part of Upps' main base that didn't have a base radius. Meanwhile, the standoff southwest was strangely over as Upps retreated everything and MCV upwards for unknown reasons; this move left him with no money sources as Bain continued attacking on the west side while also cutting off Upps from the northeast patches. The game continued for some more time while Bain searched for a finishing move and Upps didn't accept defeat.
Second game, understandably being played on River Crossing, Upps had prepared a special strategy that he wasn't willing to reveal prior to this match. Bain expected something and cautiosly sat at double-ref buildup before expanding with an infantry backup, a protected MCV being a very rare feat from him as you may well know. Both players got their opposite 1mine patches in the middle basecovered, as Upps has already progressed to Radar by min5 as well. Not sensing any immediate threat, Bain took his expansion MCV into a common midmap basepush which was stopped and reverted by Upps, though a Yak was shown prematurely by him, allowing Bain to build a counter Radar and cover most of his base with AA. A trio of V2 Rocket Launchers was uncontested though, destroying a Conyard and keeping Bain's army in check, while Bain didn't opt for Light Tanks and had Hinds built late. A change of tactics was due, and Bain went straight to Upps' main base with a whole army while expanding southwest with his then only remaining mainbase MCV. It actually could have been a base trade were Upps to counter attack, but he decided to get his forces back and destroy Bain's army, so this seemed to be a net positive for Bain as Upps had all his tech and production destroyed, and that army advantage didn't mean much as the army was out of position, giving Bain time to regroup.
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Probably if Upps knew that Bain's main wasn't protected and had no base radius the game might have been over already. Instead, there was a couple of engagements in the middle that cost Upps his then second MCV at his gem patch (he had Bain's gem patch already defended and mined out). Bain thought correctly and teched up to T3. At this time Upps finally spotted a slip in Bain's main base defences and went there with no opposition while Bain was busy attacking the northwestern gem patch again, this time backing his attack up with Tanya. Radar and SD was lost for Bain, as Upps rebuilt his own tech and a Tech Center. Attack northwest drained a lot of assets for both players before Upps finally retreated and allowed Bain to mine there. Army value was almost 3 times advantage for Bain at that moment (Bain actually had an army, Upps just had scattered troops here and there); finally Upps put up a Refinery northeast to catch the economy levels of Bain, so assets-wise they were more or less close. Migs, Tesla Tanks, Tesla Troops, Longbows, Radar Jammers, even Mobile Gap Generators - both players really started to build up, opting for occasional raids instead of main army clashes. GPS was also up for Bain, as was a Missile Silo, already counting 5 minutes.
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That went all the way down to zero, though Upps got a better deal from an engagement he forced and then traded two of his Migs to snipe a GPS-pointing Radar Dome in the middle of the map. Bain lacked proper scouting and didn't even know where Upps' tech was, so his Nuke target options were limited. He chose that same northwestern gem patch as a target; it got some infantry and an MCV, but not a dealbreaker otherwise, and with an amassed number of Mammonths Upps got further and further as Bain just didn't have the means to deal with that, also losing Tech Center and not rebuilding Radar Dome. Air investment also went sour for Bain, losing a lot of Longbows needlessly and having Helipads in the middle of the map that was now being assaulted by Upps. Bain surrendered a minute later.


At this point (midday Sunday) the league situation was the following:
Orb, ZxGanon and FiveAces guaranteed their playoff places, meaning Punsho and BigBadBain had to fight for the last ticket against Anjew who had already finished his group stage matches. Anjew was at 9 points, Bain at 7 and a match to play against Punsho who had 8 points and yet additional match versus Orb.
In Minions Alfa, Barf held the first spot after getting the victory described above. Blackened still had a chance to overtake him, as did Misery were he to win at least 7 points out of his 8 remaining games. Blackened-Misery matchup had the main stage at this point. JackoDerp had already finished the games and was only 3 points up from Misery, probably hoping for him to either throw or forfeit or both.
Minions Bravo had a close situation to Alfa, as eskimo had a lot of work ahead of him, 3 points down to TiTo and 10 games to play. Goat comfortably sat at 1st spot.


Masters Playoffs spots resolution was somewhat anticlimactic. Punsho took a surprise win against Orb (either really commited to win it or Orb not really caring for the result, or the combination of two). Probably a match worth watching either way, so go grab replays of that in the archive. Importantly though, this meant Bain-Punsho match didn't matter anymore as Bain didn't have points to reach Top4. It ended in a draw and Bain's ultimate 6th place.
Strikes were dealt in Minions for unreported matches, Misery, eskimo and Chaosgrunt22 getting the bitter end and DoDoCat evading disqualification just barely cause of the strikes dealing sequence. Barf and goat got 1st places in Minions Alfa and Bravo respectively, and we are to watch a best-of-three Minions Championship clash between them. Blackened and JackoDerp got to promotion spots, same as Dualwarhead and TiTo, this group of 6 being welcome in the next Masters season.


A number of streams to rewatch, first-person perspective too:
FiveAces weekly stream
Bain's sketchy stream
Orb's backup on Saturday's RAGL day


Agenda
Further stage of the league will be announced shortly.


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Upps
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Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S08.6

Post by Upps »

Nice report, the second match me against Bain was a really nice back and forth, it was from my 16 played games this season the most intense one also the last of my season. Even if I would have lost it I would say it was minimum my second most intense match of the season. That is for what I playing in RAGL Masters!

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