WNL : Playoffs Analysis
Hey guys. I'm aware I might post this a bit late but I honestely wasn't in the mood this morning as you may understand, still I hope it will be somehow instructive for some of you. It will be similar to what LeRoux did for the ECS, with in minds that I do not have his talent to speak about the community. I will try to see what I can do since nobody seemed willing to do it. I hope you guys will like it. I will be posting the first analysis tonight, and will hope to keep them going during the evening and tomorow.
This WNL has seen thirty teams fighting eachothers to get a chance reaching the playoffs of this famous competition. The least we can say is that we had have our turn of close and tense matches. But as for each major, only the 8 best teams could qualify for the quarter of finals. This week is gonna see them fighting eachothers for a place in the semi-finals . This is their story.
Quarter Final 1
Kurwa vs Unity
Kurwa vs Unity
"Guys don't trolling, I can't play without serious"
This season of the WNL has been probably one of the toughest for KURWA, having to face Apis Europae three times out of 7 matchs, aswell as Wonwokies and Unity once each. If they eventually ended up getting a draw versus IG at the begining of the season, quite surprisingly, the rest of their matchs (beside their heavy loss vs AE midway) has been a demonstration of why they must be considered as one of the best team of the scene at the moment.
As said above, they already played once versus Unity during this WNL and it went largely KURWA way. This said it's all but not a reason for them to underestimate the francophones as they showed that they fully deserve their place belong the top and are ready to fight hard for this.
It's gonna be a hell of a match for sure and even though KURWA may come into this match with an advantage, I wouldn't be surprised to see the frenchmen forcing them to up their game If they want to keep their confidence going.
Time to show again what France can do #OneGoal
Unity has been a group which hasn't stopped growing since its creation. Some may point out that they were already a team with quite a potential under Legends name but there is no denying that they're actually playing their best Warband at the moment and that they can arguably pretend being a top tier 1 team, especially If they can come up with a good result against KURWA.
Still, they're perfectly aware that it might not be a walk in the park and that they're going to need the whole team at their best level if they want to get a chance making it to the semis. It will be important their remain focused but at the same time don't fall too much under the pressure.
The positive thing is that they normally should have been able to work on their mistakes after their first encounter versus KURWA and might change their approach to surprise them.
All in all, the moral aspect is going to play a decisive role in this match.
The Match :
Map 1 : River Village
Sarranids vs Nords
Unity picked an open map, which means that they actually feel confident with their archer and cavalry, atleast on this one. While it may appear a bit difficult to imagine how their cavs could overplay KURWA's ones, it will be interesting to see what Paulo, Rapez or Tigerwhite can do as archers, even Caius if he plays. If they're in form, then we definetly have a game on our hands. But if they don't manage to make a difference in that specific area, then I don't expect them to win more than one or two rounds on this map.
Unity can't allow themselves a sloopy start, they must be extremly focused on the first rounds to gain an early advantage and capitalize on it. If they fail doing so, then it will be really hard to get even some rounds on the board.
The advantage they have is that they had the possibility to watch KURWA playing vs AE last week. So they might a little idea of how they're gonna approach this map. The question being, will they still manage to counter it?
Map 2 : Desolation Valley
Sarranids vs Swadia
KURWA also made the choice to pick an open map and this make much more sense to my eyes, according to their core of cav players especially with players like Trebron, Sikici, Relax or Can.
The outcome of this match will depend mainly on how the first map went. It's mainly conjecture at this point, but if Unity have an outstanding performance on their map, and why not, manage to take the lead in the scoreboard, then KURWA might have a bit of pressure going on their nerves and it will be the occasion for Unity to smash them once for all.
But if Unity didn't manage to make somewhat of a difference on the first map, then I don't see how they could do it on Desolation Valley.
If I had to reason in term of odds, I would go for a 75%-25% in favor of KURWA. But myself and odds have never been really good friends so you're warned.