DEAD EVEN START
One of most interesting match-ups of last week was definitely West Knight vs Failed Rats. After a brilliant start, wK come a bit short against OE during the second week. Meanwhile Failed Rats, lead by Nevino, managed to pull off a splendid upset against tK, one of the favorites, and came into this match with the momentum on their side. The first map was Field by the River, and wK went to start as Swadia, while FR would play Vaegirs. In the first round, FR tried a risky tactic, playing no infantry at all, and it didn't quite pay off when the flag spawned near little bridge, John being easily isolated far away from the flag and having no impact at all as an archer, letting wK take the round cleanly without dropping a single player and Kelquethas picking up a triple. Smartly, FR adapted quickly, switching out one archer for an infantry and they were way more successful doing so, winning the following round with some nice team cohesion. They even managed to capitalize on that during the third round, John stepping up massively and taking wK's cav down, one by one. FR played solidly until the end, leaving no occasion for wK to come back with Bubs being absolutely critical and getting four kills with the Great Lance he stole from wK's dead bodies. 3-1 for Failed Rats.
AN UNLUCKY THROW LET WEST KNIGHTS BACK INTO THE GAME.
One could think that after such a great start from their opponents, wK would simply crumble. But that's where experience of winning tournaments probably helped because as soon as the second set started, Calamity and his boys had a splendid first round, winning their cavs duels and showing strong performances overall. Even when FR won the second round, resetting wK's economy they didn't panic. Third round was a way more convincing performance from them overall, similar to FR during the first set, wK just locked up things down in the last round, taking the set 3-1 and thus equalizing things at 4-4.
| | MENTAL STRENGTH
Starting as Nords on the second map, Failed Rats clearly had the advantage on Verloren with their infantry being way superior to the Sarranids. When the flag spawned close to them, they had the strongest position, blocking the whole wK team coming from tunnels and preventing them from accessing the flag. After some javelins were being exchanged, Cradoc got headshotted and with Cru being dismounted as cavalry, the situation couldn't look more ideal for Failed Rats. But then, out of the blue, Lagstro landed a beautiful headshot on Alejanbro and more importantly, kept the horse alive allowing Cru to remount and get a double some seconds after, turning the round in wK's favor. Throwing away a round, at this point of this match, definitely hurts and despite once again having the flag spawn for them at market, FR couldn't prevent RobertBruce delivering some absolutely sick shots, granting the round to his team. wK was able to pick up the third and final round without too much trouble, making it to 3-0 and putting tons of pressure on FR for the last set.
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| West Knights | 9 | | | | Failed Rats | 7 |
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To make things even worse for FR, flag spawned in favor of wK during the first round of the final set. Despite an impressive triple kill from Nero, wK's teamplay was just too much to handle for FR, WilySly getting a nice double kill with the spear, and giving his team the round, quickly followed up by a second one. FR eventually got the three last rounds, but it just looked like wK released the pressure a little bit after they had secured the victory. The three rounds made it look close in the end, 9-7 final score.
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