The Warband Summer Cup is less than two days away, kicking off on Saturday, August 19 with the first group stage matches. The second part of our series of previews ahead of the €300 event features the Mid-tier, which includes Aequalitas, Battle Ready Orphan, EatWhatYouKill, Ferocious Trident Wielders, Knights of Malta, Polish Eagles, Sacrosanct Tidle Turtles & Trinity.
It has been some time since the last 8v8 tournament took place. The Battle of Bucharest LAN (BoB), which adopted a 5v5 format for matches, was undoubtedly responsible for reshaping some of the previously established norms with regards to the format of competitive matches. The significant changes that characterized the BoB led to questions being asked as to what was the most competitive and challenging format for future tournaments. Not long after the BoB, came the European Championship Fives (EC5), another highly competitive 5v5 tournament (online this time) which boasted a roster of extremely skilled teams. AE Gold, an offspring squad from their parent team and long-term champions Apis Europae, secured the winning title in a convincing victory against Frontline Tactics, an up and coming competitive team compiled of veteran players.
But old habits die hard and with Bannerlord still nowhere to be seen, it is no big surprise to see the tournament format returning to its original form. Seven months after the end of the second edition of the prestigious Warband Pro League (WPL2), the Warband Summer Cup is about to commence with twenty teams being separated into four groups (A, B, C, D) in what promises to be a very intense and competitive event.
In this article, the teams have been separated into three distinct skill categories, based on their recent results, if any, and roster strength. The categories (from least skilled to most) are: the Underdogs, the Mid-tier, and the Favorites.
We've already released our first part of the series of previews ahead of the tournament surrounding the seven Underdogs.
Today, we delve into the Mid-tier, where we have nine teams that we think have a good chance of making the playoffs, but, at the end of the day, some of them will inevitably miss out. Due to technical issue, we could only post half of the contents, the rest will be realised tomorrow, in the afternoon.
Online placings in the last few months
- European Championship Fives | 4th-8th Place
- European 5aSide Cup | 1st Place
- Warband Pro League Season 2 | 4th-8th Place
- Warband Master Tours Season 2 | 4th-8th Place
| Throughout the years the clan Aequalitas has been going from strength to strength. What started as a decent tier 2 team when they joined the WNL5 slowly grew and developed into what became one of the most dangerous competitors in Season 2 of the WPL. Not many would have predicted Aequalitas’s rise to the top as their roster was far from extraordinary, consisting more of adaptive players who knew each other’s fighting styles and were able to develop their team play to the high standard that we see from them today. Slowly but surely, their players have improved both individually and collectively and for the most part they have stuck together, resulting in a formidable synergy that only a select few of the current teams are able to match. Led by Gaius and Unicorn, with the former specializing as cavalry and the latter as an archer, their roster is versatile as it is deadly. On many occasions Kawaii has proven that he is more than capable of competing as cavalry at the highest level with Ice and Disturbed exhibiting similar aptitude in the position. The Aequalitas’s infantry squad consists of Motthe, Sho, Spada and Lapache. While the first two could certainly be perceived as the ‘carry’ players. One should not underestimate the skill of Spada and Lapache who are competent and able to hold their own. Collectively these four make an almost perfect balance between an aggressive, full engage, frontline and a strong supporting backline. However, with the departure of Habimana and Rainbow from the team, some fairly substantial gaps in the archery corps seems apparent. For that reason, Aequalitas recruited Apollo, the former leader of team Tranquility and an experienced archer. Sunny, who has also played infantry in the past, will be having to occupy the third archer position for this tournament. |
To summarize, there is little standing between Aequalitas and one of the top places in this tournament, as is evidenced by the apparent lack of teams who are on the same skill level as these veterans. Even with the loss of two of their foundation players, the team is still strong and has lots of experience, gained from past tournaments, to fall back on. Aequalitas (much like their former competitors the German team, Irish Rebel) has yet to take the title in a tournament of this level, consistently missing out on the top spot time and time again in previous competitions. This time round they are going to have to find that extra strength and concentration when going into their tougher matches if they are going to excel further than they have before.
| Another team who has been playing within the competitive scene for quite some time is the Battle Ready Orphans, also known as the BROs. Lead by JarvisAndPi, their team is an example of stability with most of their players being loyal to the clan for years now. Battle Ready Orphans proved that they’re a team capable of putting up a good fight against most, but besides an excellent showing in t he first season of the ECL years ago, where they finished 3rd, the team has never really been one of the main favorite for important events. Moreover, while their current roster consists of enough players within all classes, it is unlikely all of them will play as not all are active on warband nowadays. Jarvis and Supernova will be two of their main rangers, with Fozzy, a veteran of Wolfpack providing them reinforcement in that class category. Their cavalry is certainly one of their main assets with Shingen, Hippotitis and Slow, another Wolfpack member, forming a formidable squad but it is also possible Shingen might be forced to play as infantry on some occasions as they seem to be lacking in that department a little bit. Indeed, if Shakalis is more than decent infantry with a bit of a crazy style, it is unsure if his usual companion Peacemaker will be able to play with him, which could lead BRO to some difficulties as those two have proven rather useful in the past. As for the other infantries, BRO could use either Dwarez, MaHuD, or Guppy but it has hard to see any of those three being able to keep up with most of the other infantries. Therefore, the Battle Ready Orphans will need to have their archers and cavalry on point if they want to be able to challenge other teams. If it is still hard to see them having problems against the Russians from Pycb, their two matches against the Bohemian Guard and Ferocious Trident Wielders could certainly be interesting ones, with Castellans probably being too hard to beat for them. | 
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Online placings in the last few months
- Warband Master Tours Season 2 | 2nd Place
| Polish Eagles is one of the most serious contenders for a place in the playoffs in Group A as the polish team look pretty dangerous. Their last tournament was quite a while ago, where they had a fabulous run during the WMT2 by making to the final, eventually losing to Apis Europae. After that, the poles decided a break was in order, but they’re finally back, looking stronger than ever, and with a line-up such as theirs, they’re right to expect to accomplish a lot within the WSC. It has hard to find a weakness in their team as they possess top-players in literally all three classes. Prince and Matafiks are well-known within the scene to be two of the deadliest polish rangers, and Horace proved he could do rather well too as a third ranger if there was need. Their infantry squad is one of the best you could have hoped for, with Blackhawk, Warhammer, Horace, eRRoR, Cramer, Pon, BabyEagle_Z, and Napoleon, the last two also being capable to step-in as cavalry if necessary. Speaking about it, it is their cavalry which is really shining to me, with Relaxan and Woj forming an amazing duo which I expect to perform on every match, and Colonel_Kurtz and Marek being capable to act as good cavalry supports. It is certain that PE will need to be on their A day if they want to challenge AE, but they have the status of clear favorites against CCC and Battle Brothers. The real question marks remain against Sacrosanct, a team with lots of skilled players, but who haven’t proved much on Native yet. The Eagles will have their heart set on being as focused as possible for that match, as the result could very well be the decisive factor for whether or not they claim a place in the playoffs. |
| Tilte Turtles is the team which has certainly the most chance to qualify for the playoffs while not necessarily being a favorite. It is the first time they partake in a native tournament as a team, however all their players do have experience in native and have played in several tournaments before. For those who also played Mercenaries, a few names will probably ring a bell such as AngryNerd, Varadin or Duck, one their captain, as those players are veterans on the mod as well. It is worth noticing that it is extremely rare a team which was formed for its first tournament arouse so much enthusiasm, but it is certainly deserved as their roster looks, potentially, extremely deadly and the boys are certainly favorites to make it to the playoffs in Group B, with Unity. Their infantry core consists of two formers Aequalitas players, Zulu and Habimana, the latest being certainly a potential rising star within the scene, and one of their key players. FiSk, AngryNerd, Sponge, Kani, Varadin, and Majestic complete their infantry roster, making it relatively stacked in terms of skilled and experienced players. As far as their rangers are concerned, Attila certainly is going to be a thorn in the side of many of their opponents, as he has proven himself being quite efficient in his time with Irish Rebels. Broomstick and Habrak will be the second and third rangers, and while not being considered as top-players just yet, they do possess enough individual skill and experience to provide their team good firing support and will most certainly do a fine job. Finally, their cavalry department is certainly their most dangerous aspect as it is filled with the well-known Bucharest champion Relaks, Lucifer- who played a few training matches with Aequalitas, Duck, and another old figure of the scene in the person of Carpediem. | 
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All in all, Tilde Turtles have the possibly to make an excellent first impression in their first tournament, but we’re yet to see how they will react facing more experienced players like the Frenchmen from Unity (which are the heavy favorites to top their group), or arguably weaker teams, such as Malta, which might also have the potential to surprise them. In any case, anything but a qualification for the playoffs would certainly be a disappointing result in their books.
ARTICLE WRITTEN BY @TARDEEET, PROOFREAD BY @JARVISANDPI AND @MUNJ, DESIGN INSPIRATION BY @HLTV.ORG, HEADER BY @ROSSLINGTONZ
