RAGL Frontline Reports :: S08.3

Announcements and discussion about community-run events.
Post Reply
User avatar
netnazgul
Posts: 507
Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2017 7:32 am
Location: Minsk
Contact:

RAGL Frontline Reports :: S08.3

Post by netnazgul »

And we are past the half season mark, with the number of unplayed matches dwindling each day (with Masters just starting to score points).

In Masters, FiveAces won the half time with 9 points out of 12 games, but not dropping a 0-2 loss anywhere yet, so this is a serious Top4 bid. The rest of the field has more than 10 games still to play, with Orb and ZxGanon yet undefeated, Bain and Punsho dropping some points (more on that below) and Anjew again holding a consecutive Delay King title, with AUS timezone being the main reason for not playing unfortunately.
JackoDerp took the intermediate first in Minions Alfa, a match and a point ahead of Barf, with Misery and Blackened closely following behind them. What was initially predicted as a boring 1-2-3 deal in this group turns out to be a hype Top4 finale next weeks. Of course only 3 players get a direct promotion ticket here (as well as in Bravo), so the fight would be fierce.
Minions Bravo retains the disposition from last week as Dualwarhead, goat, TiTo and eskimo at the top of the table, but TiTo unlikely to present any threat to the other three later into the season as he's already 6 points down.


Weekly highlights

:: FiveAces 1-1 Bain
Finally, a top of the table match in Masters!
First on Marigold Town, both players with aggressive double-ref, Bain being more effective on oil capture and FiveAces going in with a couple of grenadiers and rifles. Were he to kill Barracks that might have sealed the game right there cause Bain didn't have a defence queued; FiveAces attacked a Power Plant instead and only delayed Bain by 8 seconds, losing all his forces into the attack. Later on, Bain tried a basepush into top-left, didn't win that completely, but did some damage nevertheless. The game continued with Bain aggressively closing in the middle with a base crawl, while FiveAces teched into V2s. A short window of opportunity was there for FiveAces to get the middle back and he used it, putting Bain to 1 MCV count. FiveAces missed Bain's tech-up and didn't respond in time with a Mobile Flak buildup, but that didn't pose any major threats, and as FiveAces gained a huge eco advantage by freely exploiting the most of the map, T3 from both players changed nothing, with FiveAces doing a number of Yak crushes, downing the whole Hind fleet and never stopping the [more or less passive] pressure.
Onyx was the second pick. Quite delayed double-ref from FiveAces, not really explained by a Kennel; Bain got a fast Ranger in and denied the oil grab. Scales tipped the other way yet again when FiveAces got a couple of nice crushes with APC and sniped Bain's engineer just before him capturing the middle oil. Map control was in FiveAces' favour with a bigger army presence, but no scouts around the lower half of the map meant he missed Bain's expansion into the middle there and went in with a very bold basepush onto Bain's main. If that wasn't enough, FiveAces moved his original MCV north for an actual expansion, leaving his own main completely open; this allowed Bain to reign there freely and win the base trade fight, leaving FiveAces with only Barracks on the map. Game ended soon after.
Image


:: JackoDerp 2-0 Kernel Panic
This match was labeled entertaining and cast-worthy by both players, so let's take a look.
First game on Forgotten Plains, Kernel Panic went for fast duo of dogs that didn't do anything except dying, so he switched to more normal double-ref. Oils were split, Mobile Flaks appeared on the field, center oils got simultaneously destroyed. Both players continued to mirror each other further, with same expansions and same army composition, though around min7 the small trade differences resulted in an overall 7K army lead for JackoDerp. Mirror play continued into base trade, were Jacko was a bit more proactive and Kernel Panic troops wasted a lot of time looking at enemy structures. Trade was more or less even, but JackoDerp rebuilt his tech and production faster and was able to close the game a minute later.
Next game on River Crossing saw Kernel Panic doing buildorder experiments again, with Refinery before Barracks and into War Factory, while JackoDerp continued with a good old double-ref. Surprisingly he got SD and MCV faster than his opponent, though the moveout was not good as Kernel Panic put MCV into yellow health and finished it off with an infantry squad nearby, followed by a flamedrop and SD kill. This might have been the deal right there as Jacko's main MCV was almost destroyed, but it kept on from a deep red. Still, the game was all up to Kernel Panic to win or lose at this point. Didn't look like a "win" yet, with a missed expansion time slot and lacking economy, which allowed JackoDerp to recover and build up a substantial force that won him the middle. Ultimately it turned out to be a "lose", as T3 didn't save Kernel Panic here (a good Demo might have saved him, but Russia doesn't have those).
Image


:: goat 2-0 Tailix Killa Mentor
Tailix was the last person in the league to stall the matches and not play any. His first match turned out to be a battle against a rookie predicted to reign the group in the end, goat.
First game on River Crossing gave Tailix early advantage from faster War Factory and better first engagement. All this was however negated by an overreaching infantry-only attack at goat's early gem expansion. Tailix did the same gem expansion on his side and continued into midmap natural with his MCV. Unfortunately for him (as well as lack of scouting) that's where goat was already going in with his main army, leaving Tailix one MCV short and on the defensive. Goat didn't give his opponent any time to breathe, grabbed the expansion for himself, razed Tailix' army and attacked the main from two sides.
On Marigold Town goat got Soviet and utilized dogs to some extent, losing oils to Tailix positionally though (and to a Ranger). That Ranger soon perished in a mid-map engagement for little purpose, and Tailix lost the army yet again on a futile expansion attack. Goat's move then was to do a double-front onto Tailix' forward mining operations, which netted him 2 Ore Trucks and almost getting another 2; Tailix answered with another blunt force into goat's middle ore patch, this time with a much better army though so it worked. The attack ran out of steam by the time it reached goat's main base. Pendulum swing had hit Tailix right in the head afterwards when goat launched a basepush-battered assault top-right killing the emerging eco spot and then finished Tailix off with a complete clearup on the right.


FiveAces' weekly stream was linked in the previous report issue and the following one is happening somewhere around when you read this (October, 22, 17:00UTC), so no new streams here; a couple of videos and highlights that I didn't feature before:






Agenda
Today's weekly FiveAces stream might see some interesting action depending on players showing up. FiveAces himself is playing ZxGanon this week, and seeing that this one is unlikely to be delayed it might be the match of the week easily. Upps taking up on Orb and Admiral Mo can also spring surprises. In Minions Alfa, we might see the group deciding fight as well, cause it is Blackened vs Misery, though EU might not have the luxury to see that one live as both are of US origin with a relevant timezone.


________________________________________________________________
RAGL is a casual tournament, but still providing some real money prizes for the winners. It is community funded with 100% of donations go into prize pool, and you can support the league by contributing to paypal account: https://www.paypal.me/openraragl

Follow the competition on OpenRA Discord Server, with live RAGL scores updates and stream announcements

User avatar
Upps
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 2:54 pm
Location: Germany

Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S08.3

Post by Upps »

I watched the match Dualwarhead vs Tailix on Tailix stream https://www.twitch.tv/videos/497360008. The first match was close if someone want to see a good match from Tailix from his view :)

Post Reply