ESEA-O 6’s – S21 Week 3 Top 16 Rankings

February 15th, 2016

ESEA-O 6v6 S21

Week 3 Top 16 Rankings

by whymeo

It was certainly an interesting week (and a half) of matches with a lot of unexpected results and teams that I thought outside of the top 16 proving me wrong. For this week, I’ve decided to go over a lot more STVs than I previously had (previously the number was 0 actually) and as a result these rankings are coming out at the very last minute. Sorry about that, I’ll be trying to get them out on Sunday or at least earlier on Monday in the future! Anyway, onto the rankings:

#1: Wood Pig Black

Wood pig black does not have a set roster.

 

Having easily won all their matches, only dropping one round so far in the entire season, Wood Pig Black still sit at #1. Like all the sandbagging teams, there isn’t a whole lot to say. While they haven’t played an high-Open teams yet, the results will likely still be heavily in Wood Pig Black’s favor when the time does come.

 

#2: Yin Yang Yompies

Scouts: grimm and bosh1

Roamer: zilly

Pocket: desca

Demo: yeremy

Medic: delete

 

Like Wood Pig Black, Yin Yang Yompies has only dropped one round in the season. Also like Wood Pig Black, they haven’t played any top open teams yet, but I doubt there will be much difference once they do.

 

#3: Thai Guys

Scouts: Kaestic and Nick

Roamer: cloudmaker

Pocket: crunkmasterFLEX

Demo: safrix

Medic: mattb

 

Thai Guys haven’t dropped a single round after six matches, but yet again they haven’t played any top Open teams. For the upcoming Sunshine week they’re playing Hot Dads and im sorry, so we’ll see if Open teams can even put a dent in them soon enough.

 

#4: diexxxextracrispy

Scouts: shamoo and alder

Roamer: GMK

Pocket: crispy

Demo: yuice

Medic: raisin

 

For Gullywash week diexxxextracrispy faced their first two real challenges and passed with flying colors, beating the decent dudes 5-1 and Team Vanilla Love 5-2. Their match against decent dudes was looking to be extremely close, without a single round won for either team until the very end of the first half where exxxtra managed to grab a round at the 29 minute mark. Much like their match against TVL though, exxxtra gained more and more momentum as the match went on. Exxxtra won the first round in the second half in under two minutes and grabbed a third round after that in about only a minute. After that the decent dudes responded with a quick round win of their own. The game then returned to a something a bit more stalematey, but the damage was already done with exxxtra being up 3-1 and they were able to close out the game 5-1.

 

I’d say exxxtra’s victory against the decent dudes was in no small part due to the fact that they were able to win 5 out of the 6 mid fights in the game. Just like in their match against Team Vanilla Love, exxxtra started out by playing the mids very passive, sitting in their choke with both scouts waiting for the other team to push into them. However, probably in an attempt to speed the match up, exxxtra switched to a much more aggressive mid in the second half. For round three they went up the enemy choke and waited for their roamer to bomb from underneath at which point they pushed across to the enemy team. They seemed to be planning to do this mid in round two also, but decent dudes did an ill-fated rush into exxxtra at the very start of the mid and wiped almost immediately. This change to a more aggressive mid was able to bring them to a 3-0, at which point the match was more or less in the their hands.

 

Diexxxextracrispy’s one-sided victories against two solid Open teams mean they retain their #4 spot in Open. They’ll now be looking to see if they can do any damage against the sandbagging teams.

 

#5: Hot Dads

Scouts: skyrolla and ?

Roamer: Sideways Whoopi Goldberg

Pocket: TERRY CREWS

Demo: rupee

Medic: pascal

 

As far as I know, Hot Dads are still looking for a second scout now that change has had to leave. However, they still look like one of the best teams in Open this season as long as they can find a good scout. Like Zoo-Wee-Mama though, they have yet to actually play any top Open teams this season and they only move up a spot this week because of decent dudes shaky performance against diexxxextracrispy.

 

#6: the decent dudes

Scouts: wish and messiah

Roamer: super

Pocket: crossfire

Demo: yipyapper

Medic: rhy

 

The decent dudes struggled in their match against diexxxextra crispy, losing it 5-1. Afterwords, they switched messiah to scout and crossfire to pocket. We’ll see how this change works out for them in the future, but for now they’re looking kind of weak and drop down a spot.

 

#7: im sorry

Scouts: SmileZ and bo4r

Roamer: american

Pocket: crab_f

Demo: procreative

Medic: brulee

 

Am I totally biased towards this team? Yes. May I be completely overrating them? It’s a possibility. Still, their stunning sub-15 minute 5-0 win against Arstotzka on Gullywash has me thinking that this team is only getting better and better. True, they’ve yet to play the teams around them in the rankings, but Arstotzka has been looking solid in both matches and scrims. Crushing them so thoroughly bodes very well for im sorry.

 

In their match against Artotzka, im sorry started off strong winning the first mid decisively. However, both meds stayed up and after capping second the game stalemated for a moment. Procreative then picked off marty with a sticky trap on shutter, which allowed im sorry to push in and take the round. On the second mid, american went up the enemy dropdown without being noticed and managed to create a big enough distraction for his time to push across the point and wipe Arstotzka. They then easily capped last with full uber advantage, making the score 2-0. In the third mid, Arstotzka played extremely passively, practically sitting in their choke. This made it extremely easy for procreative to force them to back out of mid with spam. No one died on either side this mid, but bo4r and american were able to get two picks on the flank and work into the enemy lobby. With american and bo4r now behind Arstotzka, im sorry pushed in. As Arstotzka was forced to move back through their upper, american and bo4r got onto Arstotzka’s medic, Rogue, from behind and dropped him. With full uber advantage and most of Arstotzka down, im sorry easily pushed into last and ended the half in only five minutes.

 

The second half was a bit slower, with im sorry taking about eight minutes to close out the last two rounds. Arstotzka did win the first mid of the second half and an excellent bomb from marty killed brulee when she was about to get uber while holding second. Unfortunately, Arstotzka had a bad uber through choke, getting nothing with it as their flank died in big door. With their big opportunity to turn the match around gone, the game stalemated a bit before the last two rounds inevitably went to im sorry.

 

#8: Zoo-Wee-Mama

Scouts: wags and big papa han

Roamer : tojo

Pocket: tron

Demo:  throne

Medic: redi

 

Zoo-Wee-Mama have yet to play a high-Open team and have yet to lose a match that wasn’t a forfeit. I’m only moving them down one spot for this week because of moving im sorry up, who were previously below them. Anyway, there’s not much to say about Zoo-Wee-Mama currently. Their roster is certainly good, but they need to play some high-Open teams before I can make informed decisions about their spot on the rankings.

 

#9: Renegades

Scouts: SD and duke

Roamer: vipa

Pocket: P

Demo: Max

Medic: Smarty

 

Although losses to both Not Around Bears and SpaceGhost Coast 2 Coast (now dead) in the first week left me thinking I’d overrated Renegades, Renegades has come back. Vipa, yet another off-classing highlander player looking to have a really strong first season of open, has replaced nanimal on roamer and went huge in their match against team name tbd.

 

Renegades has worked out a very weird style to adapt to the fact that their two scouts constantly plus forward on the flank. In their match against team name tbd both their pocket, P, and roamer, vipa, took a lot of heals and played close to their med. This mitigated the issue of Renegades scouts almost always being on the flank (and often dead) and both P and vipa were able to put out a lot of damage and frags, vipa putting out an enormous 400 dpm. Still, I’m not sure this almost double pocket strategy will work well against the top 8 of open, but team name tbd certainly struggled against it. If I was on Renegades I’d consider switching vipa to pocket, as he seems to have a better grasp on how to play a pocket role as soldier, and putting P on roamer. For this to work however, one of their scouts would have to stop playing so aggressive, which they have shown no desire to do so far.

 

#10: blasty blast

Scouts: Knuckles and nmz

Roamer: Arry

Demo: GarbageJuice

Pocket: Lysol

Medic: Lydi

 

Although blasty blast has yet to play a high-Open team with their new roster, it’s pretty safe to say that switching knuckles to scout is enough to put these guys in the top 16. Their current record may not look very good, but Knuckles is likely to turn that all around. For now I’m putting them at #10, as I’m not sure exactly how far Knuckles will be able to take them.

 

#11: team name tbd

Scouts: meddle and Literally a Panda

Roamer: defiance

Pocket: ry

Demo: jojo

Medic: egosok

 

A 3-5 loss against Renegades drops team name tbd down from 9th. Once again in this match, ry had to carry extremely hard. She put out 430 dpm and went 32 – 17 and team name tbd still lost 5-3. However, she also soaked up almost all the heals, with only jojo receiving a paltry amount and the rest of the team going more or less without. It’s hard to say whether the ridiculous amount of heals ry receives is because she’s so much better than the rest of her team, or the reason she looks so much better than the rest of the team is because she takes almost all the heals. I think ry is probably the best player on tbd, but I’m not sure she should be getting quite so many heals as she is. Hopefully team name tbd can figure things out in the future, because they’ve gone right back to looking like a team that won’t make it past round one of playoffs.

 

#12: chefs

Scouts: reggie and toasty

Roamer: bleh

Pocket: explosionsauce

Demoman: Morsca

Medic: Jude

 

Chefs come into the rankings because their week one win against Team Vanilla Love holds a lot more weight now that Team Vanilla Love has beaten Not Around Bears and taken a few rounds off of diexxxextracrispy. It’s as simple as that.

 

#13: Team Vanilla Love

Scouts: Angryofficer and eerie person

Roamer: Jackster

Pocket: Rolls Royce

Demoman: Invader

Medic: Drake

 

Team Vanilla Love have proven themselves much more capable than I originally though, gaining a 4-2 win over Not Around Bears on Viaduct and managing to take two rounds off of diexxxextracrispy in a 5-2 loss on Gullywash. In their 4-2 win against Not Around Bears, Team Vanilla Love actually got out fragged by NAB, suggesting that they won off of NABs mistakes more than anything else, but a win against NAB still means they’re nothing to be scoffed at. Still, getting out-fragged by NAB fits with my idea that their dm simply isn’t good enough to swing with the top of Open – and their fairly one-sided loss to diexxxextracrispy is in line with this.

 

In their game against diexxxextracrispy, TVL came out swinging with an extremely aggressive first mid that wiped all of exxxtra and let TVL roll into last with full uber add. The first round went to TVL in only 1 minute and 37 seconds, but exxxtra quickly adapted. Ready for another aggressive mid from TVL, exxxtra played defensive and picked off TVL as they flooded into them, wiping all of TVL and keeping their medic, raisin, alive. Unfortunately, exxxtra’s combo over-extended into lobby as their team capped second and raisin got picked off before even pushing last. Both teams would beef easy pushes into second from here, with TVL having an extremely bad uber pop into second after being able to gain mid off of raisin dying in lobby, but exxxtra would return the favor by trying to roll into second after capping mid off TVL’s bad second push and getting destroyed by TVL’s spawners. As the game went on, however, exxxtra was clearly gaining more and more control over the match. Although a bad last push from exxxtra meant that the game didn’t go to 1-1 until the ten minute mark, after that exxxtra was able to close out the game 5-2 in only twenty minutes. Team Vanilla Love did put up a good fight against one of the best teams in Open, managing to make the game look really close for 1/3rd of the match. Although exxxtra was able to pull ahead and close the game out fairly quickly, TVL’s performance in this match and their game against NAB is certainly enough to warrant them a move up the rankings a couple spots.

 

#14: Not Around Bears

Scouts: Zacice and KootyKat

Roamer: Mostlybacon

Pocket: Morin

Demo: Orbit

Medic: Differ

 

Not Around Bears has one of the toughest schedules in Open this season, which is going to make it all the more hard to come back after their disappointing 4-2 loss against Team Vanilla Love on Viaduct.

 

In their match against TVL, NAB actually out fragged TVL despite losing. This would suggest that NAB lost because of some errors in their play and not from getting out dm’ed. The first round NAB lost by attempting to forward hold when they had full uber advantage and less than a minute left on the point. Their forward hold was disconnected and as a result TVL was able to work through and actually get a drop on differ. In the second round, NAB pushed TVL when both teams had full uber and NAB was in control of the point, which quickly led to them losing the point. Finally, NAB had multiple times during this match where they almost had uber but did a wave of sacks. These sacks were often unproductive and gave TVL a lot of time. I think if they had just played a little slower NAB might have been able to win this game. Plays like the spontaneous forward hold despite it not being a good time to do it and as a result dropping their med, pushing into TVL when NAB had the point and the oddly timed sacks suggest that NAB was playing a little bit too excited and as a result too aggressive. If they can slow it down I can see them beating teams currently above them in the rankings, but for now they sit at 14th.

 

#15: The Westbrook Effect

Scouts: Madoff and Vlad

Roamer: Wilson

Pocket: Kevin Durant

Demo: Joe

Medic: Conner

 

Although The Westbrook Effect’s current record doesn’t look very good, they’ve had a very rough schedule. Their three losses are to team name tbd, the decent dudes and THAI GUYS – all tough teams to beat. I think this team still has a chance to make it into playoffs, but they’ll need to beat teams around them in the rankings like Not Around Bears and Sherlock Homies to do so. Thankfully, they have matches against those very two teams during Sunshine week, so the fate of their season will likely be decided very soon.

 

#16: Sherlock Homies

Scouts: blinx and saturn

Roamer: tonii

Pocket: Unicorn Wizard

Demo:  ?

Medic: sbt

 

Sherlock Homies has been plagued with roster issues and also what can only be described as roster mismanagement for the entire season. Tonii has been stuck on demo for the past two weeks, which would be all fine and good if sherlock homies had found good players to fill his roamer spot, but instead very, very strange things have been done with their roster. In their most recent loss against 1989 world tour blinx, their best player, was forced to off-class to roamer and granberia was brought in to sub on scout. Granberia proceeded to die 55 times in the match and only get 42 kills. While Granberia may be a better scout than roamer and he might have been all Sherlock Homies could find for their match, the decision to swap their best player off his main is extremely confusing. Still, I’m not entirely ready to move Sherlock Homies off the rankings as I believe if they can just find a demo and put blinx and tonii back on their mains they finally will be able to start beating some high-Open teams.

 

Their 4-1 loss against decent dudes was with a much more normal roster. Pinto, the only sub they’ve been able to field so far that has performed well, was on roamer for this match and blinx was on scout. Tonii was still stuck on demo and went 7 – 23 as a result suggesting that, yet again, if Sherlock Homies players had all been playing their mains this match might have gone better. Still, pinto was a very good sub who especially did amazing off-classing to sniper this match. The biggest problem was that both Sherlock Homies scouts played extremely passively, forcing Unicorn Wizard (and pinto when he was off sniper) to create all the room for his team. While blinx was doing a great job cleaning up the extremely aggressive wish and crossfire when they attempted to move behind his team, Saturn’s passive play didn’t seem to be accomplishing much at all. One of Sherlock Homie’s scouts needed to be playing more aggressive on viaduct. Either way, they managed to take a round and the game wasn’t a complete roll, suggesting that this team still does have potential. They just need to get people on their goddamned mains.

 

Teams right outside of the top 16: my b, lf 2d gf, tune squad