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WEEK 4: RIP, MD'S HOPES AND DREAMS
Posted by Mdmzero0 on 05 Apr 2016 (2485 reads)

WEEK 4 IN REVIEW, WEEK 5 PREVIEW



Greetings Mechwarriors,


Week 4, where MD's one-week-old division picks went to die. The kiss of death certainly seems to be alive and well (ironic, isn't it), with a handful of my picks suffering setbacks in attempting to make me look like I know what I'm doing. In this week's article, I'll give a quick recap of those division picks, and catch you up on some of the matches we saw in week 4. As always, I'll have my weekly predictions, and hopefully this time I'll pick some better matches to highlight, as my five highlights last week were rather one-sided. Lastly, I'll throw a few goodies in from the past week that you may have missed. In case your curious, you can find all my old reviews here.

MRBC in Review


Last week I took a look at the league tables and made some bold predictions about who would be taking home the trophies. One week later, and a few teams have already experienced the kiss of death. Let's take a quick look at the predictions and the week 4 results.













DivisionMD's PredictionWeek 4 Result
AP Div A1st Jaguar GuardsNot Reported
AP Div BBear's BrawlersNo Match
EU Div AHouse of Lords: Blue SteelWin (4-1)
EU Div BWhite Death Mercenary CompanyWin (5-0)
EU Div C228th IBR "Golden Talons"Win (5-0)
EU Div DDudesClubLoss (1-4)
NA Div AEmpyrealNot Played Yet
NA Div B-42- Smoke JaysWin (5-0)
NA Div CIsengrimNot Played Yet
NA Div D1st Mech RangersLoss (2-3)
NA Div E1New Texas MercsWin (5-0)
NA Div E2The BrethrenLoss (2-3)


So what happened in week 4? Here's a quick recap:

EON Synergy vs. Black Spikes: EU Div A
The premiere matchup this past week, these are two very good teams. It was the first MRBC match for Black Spikes since their week one upset loss to 9STS, and EON was back in action after a tough week 3 loss to House of Lords. BSMC was the favorite and EU powerhouse from previous MRBC seasons, and EON was a newly formed, extremely talented teams showing a ton of promise, but after their previous losses, there were some questions as to whether these teams had what it takes to win a very tough division. You can check out the match here, but here's a quick recap.

Drop one (Canyon Network, 4 lights, 4 mediums) started off slowly. Black Spikes set up with a bit more range than EON and held theta and the D3 hill, while EON rotated around in true NASCAR fashion before finally engaging at the bottom of the theta ramp. BSMC set up around the edges of the ramp, and it seemed like they had the upper hand to fire down into EON on the ramp. However, EON showed tremendous focus, winning drop one handily and proving once again that the NASCAR strategy works. In drop 2 (Viridian Bog, 2/4/2/0), BSMC set up on the C4 hill, and EON attempted to push through the C4 pass and engage in a brawl. As you might imagine, this didn't go very well, with EON getting smoked to the tune of an 8-0 shutout win by BSMC. Drop three on Tourmaline Desert (0/3/4/1), both teams played ranged decks, but EON showed good aggressiveness in pushing the alpha spawn in E4, and forcing BSMC into retreat. The strategy paid off, and EON took drop 3 handily.

On drop 4, Frozen City (2/2/2/2), EON set up for map control with mid/long range builds builds, while BSMC brought the more traditional brawl deck. EON did significant damage in the opening of the match as BSMC attempted to maneuver for a push, and while EON was up significantly on damage when BSMC finally did push, they allowed BSMC to reach brawl range without losing a mech. The higher DPS of the brawl mechs came into play at that point, and EON wasn't able to spread out and focus enough to survive, with BSMC winning 8-5 in a close drop 4 to even up the series. Going into drop 5 (2/0/2/4) on Caustic Valley, the series was tied at 2-2. EON quickly pushed hard into theta, aggressively pushing into BSMC. BSMC seemed unprepared for the early push, with EON quickly bringing down a Banshee and Grasshopper for the first two kills. With those quick kills, EON easily rolled to a 8-2 victory and a series win. As is the case with these higher tier matches, any little advantage seemed to end in a significant win for that team, and you could see that in how one-sided most of the matches were.

NA Quick Hitters
In NA Div E1, NTEX just cannot be stopped. The Monitors had been playing well, but NTEX is looking to make a big jump in the divisions next season with yet another 5-0 decision. That leaves them at 19-1, 158/160 mechs destroyed.

NA Div D, MD's favorite the 1st Mech Rangers ran into a roadblock known as the Aces Wild. 1MR got off to a solid start, but AW was not messing around with several convincing (8-1, 8-3) wins and a narrow win on Viridian Bog (8-5) to score the upset victory.

Remember when I said last week that EU Div B was really close? Well it just got a little less close. TCAF had been playing well, but as I pointed out RJF had more mechs destroyed and was only two games behind. I suppose that was some motivation, because TCAF managed to once again out-strategy their opponents without winning on kills. That's right, RJF destroyed 19 mechs to TCAF's 9, but TCAF won the series 5-0. (Bandit note: TCAF misreported their match and actually destroyed 32 mechs, not 9.) At the end of the day, that's all that matters. It's a two-horse race now in EU Div B.


TEAM SPOTLIGHT BY LUKOI


Smoke Adders (aka Theta Galaxy, Clan Smoke Adder) have their roots in many different angles reaching back to competitive gaming as far back as the 90's.

The original Clan Star Adder unit (CSA) were are based on started back then in earlier renditions under leaders like Sprouticus, Dragon Truscott, Nytemare Banacek, Tyr, Aceattack and others and you'd likely recognize Sprout by his reddit name due to his contributions to discource on Outreach as rfJohnson. Unfortunately, his game time is pretty limited so, he's more of a solo artist these days, squeezing in matches where he can and the occasional CW series.

CSA had a ton of great players, but many were disenchanted with MWO and the PGI/IGP issues the game had in its earlier days and I eventually started Smoke Adders in answer to that. Later, CSA had another element leave to form the highly touted Restless Adders. This was mainly due to folks wanting to invest different levels of energy into the game, but with a lot of people genuinely burnt out on MWO, it took people breaking ties to revitalize the program so to speak.
CSA merged with Theta Galaxy over a year later, adding the already strong core of players that had developed friendships and gaming acumen together over time, forming a strong team that enjoys MWO and truly appreciates how far it's come from its "dark days." With the re-emergence of NBT and the development of an awesome community driven series of leagues like RHOD, MCW, Proxis and MRBC the game is really taking off and PGI, for all of it's struggles has made visible improvement which keeps this niche game and its community alive to blow up stompy robots.

Relevant specifically to the MWO era of gaming, our competitive experience is limited, made even more so by player turnover. We played in the first ever PGI tournament, advancing to fight and eventually fall to Antares Scorpions. We've played in several local, small scale invitationals for fun, a season of Marik Civil War and part of an alpha phase of NBT. We're waiting with bated breath for the next phase of NBT and we jumped at the chance to truly try our hand at competitive play in MRBC.

TBH, it was a bit of a shock to be slated as a DIV D team when there was a DIV E available and us bringing so little MWO-specific competitive experience to the show, but we hope to push our peers hard in every match during our inaugural season here in the league. Additionally, we have a great range of players in terms of age, MW background from the old grognards to a couple of twitchy-FPS bad-asses and everything in between and try to leverage that diversity to better prepare us. We have a core group, very small, that's dedicated to competitive play now and hope to continue to grow that segment in skill and experience.

What are we good at in competitive play? Objectively speaking....nothing yet. We don't know what we don't know. We're learning the MRBC system, observing other teams to glean tactics, techniques, builds and adapting them to fit our playstyle. We've been described as an aggressive team and that's probably true to an extent. As a long time member of the US Army, I'm a full believer in "violence of action" in tactical events and this game does a good job of rewarding that. You'll note that while even the best teams in the game can be tactically patient in matches, when they commit, they COMMIT and we like that about this game.

Most of us really like the format of MRBC...the increasing size of the DROPDECs, the limiting constraints of chassis that force mech selections, the fact that the heavier matches are conquest which imo really increases the value of your 2 x lights (when you have them) and this has all brought out some fantastic NAIL BITER matches thus far on the twitchcasts. I mean....if you didn't see the AS v Lords finish.....you should kick yourself in the heatsinks and go look for it. Tactical sacrifice at its finest. Which leads me to, we really enjoy the twitchcasting. It's great for the community to get involved in the chat logs, it's great to read about and listen to your team's successes and failings in a match and LEARN from that commentary (even when it's wrong, because someone WILL chime in over the top to correct it hahaha). I just appreciate how well the MRBC team is leveraging the e-sport excitement that can be generated by twitchcasting with competent (and in many cases excellent) color commentary like we've seen thus far.

NEXT WEEK PREVIEW


So let's get down to the week 5 preview. Looks like approximately 60% is my limit for picks, as right now I'm sitting at 70/109 for an 64% accuracy. For my first time doing it, I'll take it.

White Death Mercenary Company vs. Tikonov Commonality Armed Forces, EU Div B
Well here it is, the battle for EU Div B. As I mentioned, TCAF continued to out-manuever their opponents, winning 5-0 against RJF, while WDMC got a 5-0 win themselves against BSMC team 2. TCAF is 16-4, while WDMC is 15-5. The winner should have the fast-track to the division, but things remain tight regardless in EU Div B. I picked WDMC to win the division, so natuarlly I'll pick them here as well.

31st Hussar Regiment vs. Pheonix Legion, EU Div D
31st Hussar has two wins, one loss so far in MRBC, while Pheonix Legion has three wins, one loss. Both teams won 4-1 last week, with 31st Hussar beating my division pick, DudesClub, and Pheonix Legion beating the JAGOF Irregulars. Since they took down my pick already, I'll go with the 31st Hussar to win this one (I guess we'll find out if that's the kiss of death. If so, I'm sorry).

Night's Scorn vs. -42- Smoke Jays, NA Div B
Another Div B deciding matchup, this time in the North America region. Smoke Jays currently hold a narrow lead (and I mean narrow) lead, with an 18-2 record. Night's Scorn is sitting at 17-3. Both teams have played exceedingly well, but Smoke Jays hold a noticeable edge in mechs destroyed (148 to 117). As before, I picked Smoke Jays to win the division, so they better win this match as well.

Isengrim vs. The Alpha Wolves, NA Div C
These are rapidly becoming my two favorite teams. The fearless (although not very coordinated apparently) Jarl Dane. The (rather fluffy) wolves, feasting on their prey. Two legs vs. four legs. Epic soundtracks. Big stompy robots. Possibly a warhorn. This matchup has everything you could ask for, but once again I picked the Isengrim to win and I don't go back on my picks (usually). They'll win what promises to be an entertaining match.

Praetorian Legion - 5th Battalion vs. Seraphim TST Alpha, NA Div E1
The 3-1 Praetorian Legion will be taking on the 2-1 Seraphim TST Alpha for what likely is a shot at second place in NA Div E1, as NTEX seems to be unstoppable at the moment. Seraphim still has to play NTEX, while PL suffered their lone loss to NTEX earlier in the season. If anyone has a chance, SRPH will have to beat both PL and then take down NTEX next week. I like chaos though, so I'll pick Seraphim to win this one and set up a final-week showdown.

Remaining predictions in green
AP Div A:
ISRC vs. JGX
OMC vs. 228 TWO

AP Div B:
ARMD YB vs. ARMD HPD
BB vs. TOGI

EU Div A:
BSMC 1 vs. AS-EU
EON vs. 9STS

EU Div B:
BSMC 2 vs. MS EU

EU Div C:
228 GT vs. MJ12
AS EU2 vs. CH
TCAF 2 vs. -BO-

EU Div D:
SMC vs. JAGF
HHoD vs. HRS

NA Div A:
228 BW vs. HoL Z
S:RS vs. AS

NA Div B:
MM vs. 228 SF
SiG vs. QQ

NA Div C:
DW vs. EXPN

NA Div D:
CWM vs. AW
QC vs. SA/373

NA Div E1:
-M- vs. CWM BG

NA Div E2:
RC vs. SWOL SC
PL IDC vs. TBRN
1STH vs. NS 2



CLOSING COMMENTS


Finally, a few closing thoughts for MRBC Week 5:

- Please, report your matches! Still got a few that we're waiting for.
- At this point, NA Div A feels like a separate season. I'm not sure if that bothers me. But don't worry, it's finally happening.
- Please PGI, restrict duplicates in the tourney! We don't want to see 8 identical mechs vs. 8 identical mechs

Good luck, good shooting, and see you next week Mechwarriors!


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Author Thread
BlackyCat
Published: 2016/4/5 12:13  Updated: 2016/4/5 12:13
Mercenary Recruit
Joined: 02/18/2016
From: Russia, Chelyabinskaya, Ozersk
Comments: 3
 Stop calculating wrong
I don't know why you still calculating only destroyed mechs for c-bills. But we (TCAF) win RJF in last week with 5-0 score and 32-19 (destroyed mechs in totally in all five drops) in our fav. This is f***ing rediculis to blame us that we dont destroy mechs and only wining by cap points. Just lol.
Switchblade
Published: 2016/4/5 12:31  Updated: 2016/4/5 12:31
Mechwarrior
Joined: 01/19/2016
From: Austin
Comments: 60
 After 4 Straight Weeks...
Of predicting PL5, you turn on us now? We shall endeavor to prove you wrong sir.
BanditB17
Published: 2016/4/5 15:52  Updated: 2016/4/5 15:52
Veteran Mechwarrior
Joined: 10/01/2014
From: Wisconsin, USA
Comments: 333
 Re: Stop calculating wrong
I just checked the TCAF match and whoever reported the score for TCAF failed to indicate that you killed 32 mechs instead of just 9. MD writes assuming people are actually putting their numbers in correct.

I fixed the issue for you and will notify MD.
Mdmzero0
Published: 2016/4/5 22:33  Updated: 2016/4/5 22:33
Mercenary Recruit
Joined: 01/17/2016
From:
Comments: 4
 Re: After 4 Straight Weeks...
I actually got asked to do a breakdown of how often I picked a team to win, and how often I was right or wrong by team, etc., so I may do some special statistics in a final article to see how good I actually was.
Switchblade
Published: 2016/4/8 18:31  Updated: 2016/4/8 18:31
Mechwarrior
Joined: 01/19/2016
From: Austin
Comments: 60
 The Higher CBIll Total Is The Winner..
We went 2-3 against SRPH last night (they got us on 2 conquest games), but we out earned them in CBills across the match. I think this technically qualifies as a win for PL5 as CBills are how the MRBC rankings are calculated. Thus, proving you wrong this week. You should have stuck with us MDM.
Mdmzero0
Published: 2016/4/8 19:29  Updated: 2016/4/8 19:29
Mercenary Recruit
Joined: 01/17/2016
From:
Comments: 4
 Re: The Higher CBIll Total Is The Winner..
I only go by W-L, except for in who wins the division. Sorry :P
Crockdaddy
Published: 2016/4/11 13:29  Updated: 2016/4/11 13:29
Mercenary Recruit
Joined: 06/03/2015
From: Saint Louis
Comments: 5
 Re: After 4 Straight Weeks...