Red Alert Global League: Season 14 - Weekly Highlights

[TTTPPP]

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Weekly Highlights

As in previous seasons I'll be posting some of the most entertaining matches I watched each week.

If you want to watch any match (spoiler free) then you can download them from the RAGL site: https://ragl.org/games

Week 1

Masters Highlight of the Week

Masters got off to a great start this season, with nine of the matches taking place and everyone taking part in the Masters channel chat in some way. This ties with Season 7 for the most active first week in Masters. Potentially this is a result of this season's most significant rule change - matches can only be delayed for one week by each player. Regardless of the cause let's hope it continues through the rest of the season!

The biggest pre-season discussion was about the division assignments which saw Mint, Mo and Sigil all promoted from Minions. The schedule meant that Mo and Sigil met this week, and they were my pick for match of the week.

Mo vs Sigil (Masters)
Cast by Nilhall (Chinese): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Eg4y1c7pc/
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/20fd9850e9ddfa3 ... 4e55c708e1
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/754c9ae0657751c ... 955bc5a618

One of these games was long - really long! It's managed to make it's way to number eight in the top ten longest RAGL games of all time.

Code: Select all

87:16: abcdefg30 vs barf_openra (RAGL-S02-MASTER-R02-ABC-BRF.orarep)
68:31: abcdefg30 vs Testosterone Rex (RAGL-S01-MINION-R09-TRX-ABC.orarep)
68:19: dragunoff vs SeaCucumber (RAGL-S04-RECRUIT-R06-SCR-DRG.orarep)
67:40: Declan vs barf_openra (RAGL-S01-MASTER-R04-DEC-BRF.orarep)
64:37: Smitty vs FiveAces (RAGL-S04-MASTER-R08-SMT-FIV.orarep)
56:51: Han vs Fenix (RAGL-S01-RECRUIT-R06-HAN-FEN.orarep.orarep)
55:19: SeaCucumber vs manu200 (RAGL-S04-RECRUIT-R02-MAN-SCR.orarep)
53:52: Mo vs Sigil (RAGL-S14-MASTER-ra-Server-2023-05-05T001319Z.orarep)
53:28: 3.Lucian vs mechANIC (RAGL-S04-RECRUIT-R04-LCN-MCV.ORAREP)
52:51: Pvt_Leaf vs TTTPPP (RAGL-S13-MINION-ra-Server-2022-11-01T212934Z.orarep)

Best of the Rest

Also scheduled for the first week was the match between two of the favourites. Current RAGL champion Kav faced off against the current ladder champion Fazzar. Additionally these two are the top two rated players coming into the tournament.

Fazzar vs Kav (Masters)
Cast by milkman: Game 1 Game 2
Cast by Nilhall (Chinese): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Ak4y1x7FW/
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/c757b5bf29fbac5 ... 64cca1971a
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/086ebdc030db324 ... 2a1f851a48

Mo and Unano wanted to get some of their matches played early so, despite being scheduled for Week 7, they played each other this week. Unano finished second in Masters last season and Mo was second in Minions.

maceman vs Mo (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/2da8eeee367b6c9 ... 132252638f
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/2e930135045137c ... 09b2637c44

Honourable Mentions

Meanwhile the first week in Minions saw twelve matches played. Tux, Bain and Upps came down from being in Masters last season, and there were a handful of new players joining up. The first game here features one of those new players - Rossie (aka RowdyRuckus) who's not a new player, but has only recently started on the ladder.

milkman vs Rossie (Minions)
Cast by milkman: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1814542693?t=01h12m26s
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/15b4abbdf9f501f ... 29899abaa7
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/36b7cdc18f29eb1 ... 18435e4a32

Finally here's the match I played against Hans Nilhall. There are plenty of mistakes, but it turned out to be a great match.

Nilhall vs TTTPPP (Minions)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/921770603206a0b ... 55ec2efd22
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/2be11eb55b73916 ... 59165656da

As always feel free to post other suggestions for this week's highlights! I'm sure there must be some that I missed.

Other Casts

milkman has included links to casts of these games in the next post:

• Mo vs Kav (Masters)
• Mo vs Fazzar Game 2 (Masters)
• Rossie vs Upps (Minions)

tux vs milkman (Minions)
Technically played in Week 0, this match caught the attention of both FiveAces and Hans:
Cast by FiveAces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMnJsdgKhqo
Cast by Hans (Chinese): https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1kM4y147C8

BigHALK vs toiletbreakbrb (Minions)
Cast by FiveAces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH-QG88mOLY

[milkman]

Thanks, Trip!

I actually casted some of these games in the last few days on twitch, here's shortcuts to the RAGL content:

Kav v Fazzar G1 Replay (casted a day later than game 1) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1814542693?t=00h28m22s
Kav v Fazzar G2 LIVE https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1814542045?t=00h35m02s

Rossie vs milkman both replays casted https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1814542693?t=01h12m26s
Rossie and I played 2 training games in the week before featuring a base trade situation and some tier 3 tech plays - both of which Rossie won. Stakes and tensions were high going into this RAGL match =)


Extras:

Admiral Mo vs Kav both games LIVE https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1814542693

Admiral Mo vs Fazzar G2 LIVE https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1814542045?t=02h48m18s

Rossie vs Upps both replays casted https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1814542693?t=00h41m11s

[TTTPPP]

Week 2

Masters Highlight of the Week

Last week I was very upbeat about all participants actively organising matches, and particularly about the potential for Masters running smoothly this season. Shortly after I posted the highlights then Eugenator announced he needed to forfeit this season. Towards the end of the week we had another forfeit, this time from Bain in Minions (this was predicted multiple times before the season had started).

There were some good matches this week in Masters but due to the quality of Minions matches then the only Masters highlight I'm including is this match from Duke Bones and anjew.

anjew vs Duke Bones (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/e409b0efc3d8d63 ... da80393f22
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/8f4558ed7197dde ... 4687e1c068

Best of the Rest

Minions saw a glut of great games this week, with several players trying to get ahead of the schedule. Near the top of the table Margot took on Upps.

Margot Honecker vs Upps (Minions)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/00a3c5422b3bd0d ... 283f763e21
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/06a19b45e9050af ... 54062e7792

Tux is one of the players who was in Masters last season and, since Bain has forfeit, is now the second highest rated player in Minions. This week his match against spetsnaz went the distance.

spetsnaz84 vs tux (Minions)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/5a42e1ffddc2c9f ... 370b926961
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/4e593cf42d252e8 ... af79d636df

I'm including a third match in the "Best of the Rest" section, because chouchani took on newcomer Rowdy Ruckus (Rossie) in a bid to end his record-breaking 50 game losing streak in RAGL.

chouchani vs Rossie (Minions)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/b58721fb290bdd8 ... c379b0bc18
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/55c8c86b58b3544 ... 3f219f16ea

Honourable Mentions

A couple of matches had one incredible game which the highlight algorithm went mad for, and one fairly average game. Rowdy Ruckus gets another entry in the highlights for this game against Hans:

Nilhall vs Rossie (Minions)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/856aa0e8fcd29b0 ... c06256fdce
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/98d71eef2129e9a ... 8b85d6432c

A non-game "highlight" was the dispute over scheduling between Hulk and tux which spilled over into the public chat. Hulk was awarded with this season's first strike for that match. Meanwhile Hulk's match against spetsnaz makes it into the highlights for the right reasons.

BigHALK vs spetsnaz84 (Minions)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/189fb2a121b7942 ... 24c328b7e5
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/138e4520c44fd38 ... 9456ae2359

Other Casts

milkman has been busy with live casts and some of these matches would easily have been highlights in other weeks.

creo vs maceman (Masters)
Unano finished second last season, and creo is new this season, but had the fourth best pre-season ranking.
Cast by milkman: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1815631363 (0 mins)

Margot Honecker vs TTTPPP (Minions)
This could have been a highlight simply for the match length.
Cast by milkman: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1815631363 (1 hr 14)

milkman vs TTTPPP (Minions)
This match was played early in the week and was only pushed out of my highlights list with the final match this week.
PoV Cast by milkman: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1815631363 (1 hr 34)

TTTPPP vs Upps (Minions)
Cast by milkman: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1815631363 (2 hr 18)

milkman vs Margot Honecker (Minions)
PoV Cast by milkman: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1815631363 (2 hr 52)

Sigil vs anjew (Masters)
Cast by Blackened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IhJnebQOkk

Next week is a single game week, so the schedule has half the number of matches on it. However this should give a chance to catch up on delays, and we'll hopefully have several matches from Blackened to look forward to.

[TTTPPP]

Week 3

Masters Highlight of the Week

There was only one scheduled match per player this week, and since Bain and Eugenator had forfeit then a couple of players didn't have any matches at all. Despite this then Week 3 was a busy week in Masters. The highlight of the week was a repeat of the Season 13 final.

Kav vs maceman (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/e2a61a62db5a0bc ... 1ef31de9d0
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/ad9252c9cea9e94 ... cfab549ddf

Best of the Rest

Blackened delayed all his matches in Weeks 1 and 2, so this week was trying to catch up with the schedule. What better way to kick things off than by playing his Week 7 match early?

Blackened vs Kav (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/ee0934b58df1e2c ... 023bfb4ad2
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/336c241ec84e3b3 ... 857314bed6

Blackened didn't just play Kav though, he actually played four matches this week. This one against Mo was also really interesting.

Blackened vs Mo (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/2e7bee0c0e05c6f ... 126f154718
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/e0b2dc6047506d1 ... 817aa46d1b

Honourable Mention

Blackened's other two matches were notable for their incredibly short lengths; they were four of the top ten shortest games this season. I was looking forward to Blackened vs Fazzar in particular, but other than the duration then it's hard to call it a highlight.

There were only three matches this week in Minions, and probably the best of these was chouchani vs milkman - chouchani returning after his first RAGL victory. However the one other match I thought should be included as a highlight was again in Masters:

anjew vs creo (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/bfb572ba76995c9 ... 15e79f78c7
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/ee1343e48f3fd5e ... 249862ffcc

Week 4 is another double gameweek, and players are going to start getting strikes if they haven't played their earlier matches. All of this means we should have an action packed week ahead!

[TTTPPP]

Week 4

Masters Highlight of the Week

The end of this week saw a sudden surge of matches in Masters, with a total of twelve played this week. We haven't seen more than this since Season 11. Blackened was again busy and this match against Mint is my pick for Master's highlight of the week.

Blackened vs Ekanim (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/d6a4b7817e02eed ... 4a163c3a69
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/429f95e4f9c0941 ... 48038081f2

Best of the Rest

Minions was also busy this week. Last week we had three games, but this week we had ten. A couple of great matches, both of which could have implications in the title race.

milkman vs Upps (Minions)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/f58efbd5a78b73c ... 1d946dae94
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/a11e9aaa7c8891d ... ad012e5b10

This second match is particularly interesting since it was actually live commentated by the players in the in-game chat (ok, mainly by tux).

Margot Honecker vs tux (Minions)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/f94044b01c4e498 ... de21b2a508
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/1e6a435a53f52dc ... 85d0d1fba1

Honourable Mentions

I mentioned last week that Blackened had played some short games, but the same seems to be true across much of Masters this season. Minions tried hard, with a short game between Radical Centralist and upps, and an even shorter (20th shortest of all time) between Spetsnaz84 and milkman, but in Masters Duke Bones and Mo managed to come in 8th in the all time list.

Code: Select all

0:51: Smitty vs Gatekeeper (RAGL-S04-MASTER-POF-GAT-SMT-GAME5.orarep)
0:52: SirCake vs Fahrrad (RAGL-S03-RELEGATION-FHR-SIR-3.orarep)
1:29: Goremented vs ioverthoughtthis (RAGL-S09-MINION-GROUP-GOR-IOT-G1.orarep)
1:40: goat vs i like men (RAGL-S09-MASTER-GROUP-GOA-ILM-G2.orarep)
1:53: Kav vs Mr Cloudy (RAGL-S11-MASTER-ra-Server-2021-11-25T165911Z.orarep)
1:56: anjew vs goat (RAGL-S11-MASTER-ra-Server-2021-11-23T143808Z.orarep)
1:57: anjew vs Upps (RAGL-S10-MASTER-ra-Server-2021-03-12T155239Z.orarep)
2:20: Mo vs Duke Bones (RAGL-S14-MASTER-ra-Server-2023-05-28T165949Z.orarep)
2:25: OMnom vs Doomsday (RAGL-S03-RECRUIT-R01-DDA-NOM.orarep)
2:25: SirCake vs WhoCares (RAGL-S06-MINION-R05-WCS-SIR-G1.orarep)

Duke Bones vs Mo (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/c2ae3bbfc87f530 ... 2ff85da5d1
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/cc1011dc80c4272 ... 9be789b3d6

Finally there was a great game between creo and mint, but there was a crash near the start of the second game which meant it was abandonned.

Edit: They also played the second game, but the website hid this until the crashed game had been deleted. The second game was also brilliant and this match would have been highlight of the week if I'd seen it earlier! Enjoy:

creo vs Ekanim (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/cc19360fa4a0618 ... 2081b93e11
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/21027c4c62e731d ... 3f1cff08dd

Other Casts

Mo vs creo (Masters)
Cast by FiveAces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZJEBXaGlj8

Week 5 is another single game week and it might be a quiet one since so many matches have been played early.

[milkman]

2nd game between creo and Mint available now and well worth checking out from a quick glance =)
https://ragl.org/replay/21027c4c62e731d ... 3f1cff08dd

[TTTPPP]

Week 5

Masters Highlight of the Week

This week started with another player eliminated from the season. JustSomeGuy had played no matches and those that were overdue caused him to collect a third strike resulting in disqualification. This meant that Blackened, Mo and Unano became the first players to complete the group stage. Blackened has already secured a playoff spot while Unano has missed out this season (barring further forfeits). Mo has won a reasonable number of games, but it's hard to call whether he's done enough for a Masters spot next season.

Due to the disqualification and the high number of matches played early then there were only four matches due this week in Masters. There were also six due in Minions, but ultimately only seven matches were played in total. These seven did contain some gems, and the best was anjew against Mint:

anjew vs Ekanim (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/e71b4f1fbdfb0c7 ... fae541f7f2
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/5dc4e8b5330f1a5 ... afd1804056

Best of the Rest

Mint became the fourth player to finish the Masters group stage this week with his match against Kav.

Ekanim vs Kav (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/364ac7dd7ca5455 ... a6d699d6b4
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/6217861e043d009 ... b2b4d8eb12

We've become accustomed to Minions finishing their matches before Masters, but so far only Margot has achieved this. His last match was this one against Hulk and he needs two points to stand a chance of beating Upps.

BigHALK vs Margot Honecker (Minions)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/ac1357b03c15c87 ... 46c4dfebdd
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/5122efd2f844456 ... e5b4e4e742

Dishonourable Mentions

Upps actually needs quite a few shock upsets for Margot to finish on top; the closer competitors are Radical Centralist and tux. Radical Centralist had some irl issues to deal with and failed to delay his matches against Ruckus and chouchani. This resulted in him receiving two strikes which puts him perilously close to a disqualification.

The other dishonourable mention was definitely worth casting - last season's champion plays bottom of the table:

Kav vs Sigil (Masters)
Game 1: https://ragl.org/replay/0d296323973dc90 ... 6dd00704ab
Game 2: https://ragl.org/replay/3f2a48b9f88b251 ... c3de315664

Coming up

Week 6 is theoretically a double game week for both divisions, but many of the matches have been played early. The group stage matches need to be finished by the end of Week 7 and so there's a chance we'll see some of those played this week too. At the top of Masters Creo has two matches against Fazzar and Kav which could decide the playoff seedings, but it's currently nail-bitingly close. There's still a possibility that the top four all finish on 14 wins and 4 losses each! Potentially we could see a Best-of-3 to determine the pairings for the semifinals too.