RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.3

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netnazgul
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RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.3

Post by netnazgul »

It were quick three weeks, as we are surprisingly into a mid-season point already, with only 5 Rounds left for Masters; 7 Rounds for Minions, but the delay count in Masters levels the field in this regard.

Quick scoreboards analysis gives the usual suspects of Orb and Barf raising to the top of the table slowly, with ZxGanon and Happy giving them a fair fight on the points. Unano is also around, but 4 games lost mean that currently he's at virtual 5th and out of prize spots; still that largely depends on how Barf and Happy perform in their delayed games. Anjew still resides at low game played count due to delays around him and gives the table a degree of uncertainty as he may go both ways from his current position.

Minions division is still undecided in terms of clear leadership (apart from WhoCares obviously); Punsho, beuk and Zaqzorn already got more losses than WhoCares so won't be able to take the first place unless there is a table-turning forfeit by one of the players. Bain is the one to have the most certain chance out of the group, but it will depend on whether he performs to his standards after somewhat unsettling RL issues and piled up delays that followed.


Notable weekly highlights

Season 6 Scoreboards and Fixtures thread.

:: eskimo 1-1 Unano
This match got streamed by FiveAces on Tuesday (check the link below for VOD), but such a thriller couldn't not get into weekly report.
First game on Forgotten Plains (picked by eskimo) witnessed a trademark light tank start by Unano which sniped a powerplant and an oil derrick and did some infantry crushes. Both players then snuck engineers into each other's main bases...
Image

Either player might have continued a base fight after capture, but Unano sold the assets and eskimo just unpacked the MCV and left. As it was French mirror, no double-tech for eskimo either.
The degree of ridiculousness continued to raise over the course of the game with hordes and hordes of assets wasted into defences and artilleries. Unano probably did a better job at containing the map for himself, but left his flanks uncovered and produced the most forwardest chronosphere ever seen in a competitive game. His Tech Center wasn't particularly backyard either, but stood much longer in the middle of the map. Having only 4-5 ore trucks on a mediocre ref placement didn't help his position either. Slowly but steadily eskimo pushed his advantage further and further, dealing punches from every side; Unano did held position with unclear ways of how can he actually scrap anything from this game. Maybe his plan was to better utilize a nuke, but those were in absolute sync and fired at the same time; Unano's missile fried a good portion of eskimo's infantry that roamed the remains of the main base, while eskimo targeted a missile silo and got a lot of Unano's power damaged. So, nukes weren't enough to seal the deal, but the game was won by eskimo nevertheless.

Snakes and Ladders wasn't as successful for eskimo then, as Unano got the better oil grab and deflected a gren rush more or less effectively due to grenadiers questionably being focused on a conyard. Unano expanded to both sides faster, and the basefight wasn't particularly good for eskimo, so after eskimo drained his main, the result was known as there wasn't a possibility for him to sustain any army trades with minimal losses. Unano did hesitate a bit, but pulled through to end the match in a draw.


:: Happy 1-1 FiveAces
First one on Badger Hills, picked by Happy, saw him doing a ref-wf opener (though being an adept of 2ref builds), while FiveAces went 2ref into ref sell (being usually a 1ref-wf user and fast-tech), again being somewhat too defensive as he was against eskimo last week, also producing a handful of riflemen. Happy then proceeded with a greedy 4-trucks MCV that immediately occupied the middle of the map, forcing his opponent to play somewhat on the ropes. The standoff continued for some minutes until armies of Happy and FiveAces collided in the middle right, FiveAces being careless with his stop-micro which resulted in a net loss of 2k of infantry. At the same time Happy circumvented the side of the map and hit the bottom expansion, which had half of FiveAces' ore trucks completely undefended. These two events led to ultimate victory for Happy as he converged on two fronts again, clearing the rest of economy lines, at which point FiveAces just didn't have any feasible comeback route.

Return game on Oil Sands hasn't seen as much build variety, with both players mirroring each other (though Happy as England/Britain and FiveAces as Ukraine), now FiveAces skipped vehicle production and got a 3:45 MCV from 4 trucks; strangely Happy missed timing somewhere having same 4 trucks but slower build. This time Happy was on a more aggressive strategy, pushing his MCV right into the bottom spot between an ore patch and 5A's main; FiveAces didn't even see the beginning of the push, but probably suspected one, and his Tesla Coil was just in time to freeze the push at the start and then repel it in a minute. At the same time, MCV on the right popped several refineries on its path all the way up top for FiveAces, so when Happy got uprooted at the bottom, FiveAces already had a substantial eco lead, and as you may know you don't want to give FiveAces an eco lead never. Happy tried to do a basefight in top-right corner but failed, and it was over, though took Happy some time to accept his defeat.


:: Jur 2-0 Punsho
This match was pointed out as a match of the week in Minions by several independent parties, so it simplified the pick.
In the first game of the series on Stanitsa, Jur allowed himself a bit more starting infantry and thus did a slightly better job at holding the initiative. Punsho went a tech route and had V2s by 6min; blocking Jur's MCV deploy helped Punsho to prevent topside fortifications and ultimately raze the expansion. But he got carried away in that attack and left main unprotected, as Jur halted the eco and almost destroyed Radar Dome; it only hang by a thread otherwise the game would be finished by then. Still, Punsho tried to expand bottomside and stumbled right into Jur's forward base. As Punsho's main eco was largely drained, this only meant stalling the production, so the game was over technically; Punsho did got out and managed to expand top, also being helped by Jur's indecision to assault and lucky demo truck exploding his army. But the game just couldn't have Punsho's comeback in any way, so overwhelming the assets difference was.

Ukrainian mirror on Beyond Destruction would have went into Punsho's hands early were it not for a sizeable grenadier rush that messed his plans. Second structure to raze was a second refinery though, and the dog ended it quickly afterwards, so it wasn't as bad for Punsho as it might have been. Jur was first on the bottom gems, and Punsho tried to circumvent it, but it wasn't looking good at all and in the end only led to more losses on his side, though Jur's ore truck there was destroyed and not replaced immediately. Action then switched to the top, where Punsho moved MCV all too forward and lost it to Yak snipe and then almost killed Jur's one but left it limping away. Scrappy attack by Punsho at the top didn't produce too much value either, but still the Tesla push over debris did its job of denying Jur his top ore.
Game went into T3 with neither player really wanting to invest too much into attacks. Punsho put mines over the bottom half of the map, but at the same time left himself the only vector of approach. This backfired in a huge blob being vaporized by a single demo:
Image

Punsho just had 0 unit assets after that, which allowed Jur to do a tactical push and swipe the top, taking a Tech Center, taking the rebuilt Tech Center and then just clearing up the map without any resistance.

Also check last week's streams:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/329489422
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/331195827


Events to watch for
Will Orb keep his now earned top spot in Masters until the playoffs? Is it ZxGanon to contest it or are we to see some of delay lords fighting for it? Can Unano, FiveAces or eskimo survive through the second half of the season? Will it be Bain to topple WhoCares from the Minions Champion seat? Will either of them forfeit? Maybe.


Follow the competition through forums and Discord server and don't miss on weekly streams by FiveAces (Tuesday EU evenings) and netnazgul (somewhere around the weekend)!

Jamesasthenia
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Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.3

Post by Jamesasthenia »

I look forward to reading these every time they get posted, keep up the great work 👍

camundahl
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Joined: Tue Feb 21, 2017 12:36 am
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Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.3

Post by camundahl »

Awesome report, thank you!

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Upps
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Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.3

Post by Upps »

I always Enjoy the Frontline Reports, Good work and good stuff :)

noobmapmaker
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Re: RAGL Frontline Reports :: S06.3

Post by noobmapmaker »

Nice report again!!

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