UNITED KINGDOM vs FRANCE
With the quarter-finals being concluded, Poland, North America, France and the United Kingdom have now booked their tickets for the semifinals. Tonight, they will battle for a chance to reach the grand final and take home the trophy of this 10th edition of the Nations Cup. With the competition reaching a peak, BladeCast decided to bring back the previews and attempt at breaking down these two semifinals, starting with the United-Kingdom facing up the French in what promises to be a tantalizing match-up.
| | | UNITED KINGDOM
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Infantry
Deacon Barry
Cleric Johnson
Fietta
PuffTheDragon
Mynes
Anchor
Gibby
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Cavalry
Hagrid
normanguy
Hrod
OGL
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Rangers
Matt
Pepper
OGL
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Roster Strength: 13
Group Stage Ranking: 3rd | |
TEAM PRESENTATION
As mentioned during our storyline about the United-Kingdom, the team has a strong link with the Nations Cup, being present since 2010 yet failing at playing an actual grand-final despite the undeniable quality of its players. This year makes no exception to the rules and the United Kingdom has once again gathered a strong roster filled with talented players in each category. And same as previous years, they continue to show a lack of constancy in their results. Lead by Gibby, the team started in the best manner, decimating Spain on a harsh 12-0, but it was only to be defeated by Turkey in the second week. The second half of the group stage was pretty much a repeat of the first one, defeating Germany only to fall short against Poland. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom found a silver lining in their match against France and despite having lost Apollo, one of their main rangers, they seemed far more prepared and ready on Naval Outpost where they crushed the French, and way more decisive on Reveran Village to deny the draw to their opponent.
When looked back at, the United Kingdom's run in that group stage still seems logical. They lost against the two favourites of this year, Turkey and Poland, managed to handle the two weakest team of Group A, Germany and Spain, quite comfortably and when put against a team of similar strength in a high-stake match - such as France - they managed to prevail by a small margin. That's not enough to be worried about but that's not exactly going to fuel their confidence yet. Going against Turkey 2, United Kingdom inherited of the arguably weakest opponent possible in the quarter-finals and any result but a convincing victory would be troublesome for the brits.
In the quarter-final against Turkey 2, arguably the weakest opponent of the knockout stage, the United Kingdom had a very slow start which allowed their opponent to apply a constant pressure throughout the whole open map and all things considered, the British could consider themselves happy to end-up in the lead at half-time, 6-4. However, switching to San’di’boush - their map pick - they finally managed to show their true strength on the close map, not conceding a single round while decimating a completely overwhelmed Turkish team. The United-Kingdom will need to come together once more against France but the players, within them, have the strength and resources to win the Nations Cup 2019.
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| FRANCE
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Infantry
Peter
Thorr
Vince
MouS
Tardet
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Cavalry
Peter
Brian
Thorr
Swap
Torrhen
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Rangers
Maximou
Paulo
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Roster Strength: 10
Group Stage Ranking: 4th | |
TEAM PRESENTATION
You guys were warned. France came in to play in this edition of the Nations Cup. After some heavily disappointing results in 2017 and 2018, this year’s roster looks much more like the one assembled in 2016 who made it to the semi-finals. They had a tough road being placed in Group A but one thing which has to be mentioned is that despite finishing fourth and having to go through the playoffs, their two defeats against Poland and UK were still extremely close and on the other hand, they were fairly dominant coming against the likes Germany and Spain. Far from damaging their morale, the playoffs seemed to revitalize the French line-up instead. They steamrolled Argentina and Russia to grab one of the last two tickets for the knockout stage, showing they definitely deserved that spot in the last stage of this Nations Cup, alongside the other top Nations.
In their quarter-final match, France went on to face Turkey, their NC nemesis which had eliminated them twice in the last three editions of the tournament. During the first week, both teams had not been able to decide a winner between themselves and there was definitely a wish from both sides to settle the scores in that particular match-up. Turkey had an arguable moral edge, having already beaten this French team twice at this stage of the competition, without much trouble. Yet it is the Frenchmen who started off strong by striking a perfect Rhodok side on their map pick, FrostHaven. Taking the first round in the second set, things could have escalated quickly but it was forgetting the amazing resilience of Turkey which salvaged that half 3-2 thanks to an amazing three ranger’s set-up
On Fort of Honor, both teams stroke rounds back to back and didn’t let go of each other’s until a heroic round from France, vastly powered by Swap, definitely crushed the dreams for Turkey to bring it the match to overtime. France had broken the curse; they had finally prevailed against Turkey in a high-stake match situation and brought themselves one step closer to that sought-after trophy. It’s often said that through difficult times, the real face and quality of your players unveil. At the beginning of the tournament, not many could have expected France to have the mental fortitude required to close that match out yet the team has shown a positive evolution throughout this competition. One more reason to look forward to that semi-final against the United Kingdom.
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MAPS AND FACTIONS
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