Sunday, January 29, 2017

What Did We Learn From #HGC Week 2 - Saturday

The sad part about Saturdays is that I am always going to miss the first game, at least, of the first EU match. The good thing, is that it really didn't matter. Week 2 in EU is devoid of prime match ups as none of the top four teams play each other, and only Dignitas plays twice. Saturday NA had two big matches and both were surprising in very different ways.

 EU Match 1 - Team Dignitas vs. Tricked Esport, 3-0

 Really not much to see here. Tricked look good in defeat last week, and their roster's only problem is how little time they have had to gel. AlexTheProG will eventually make Tricked a contender, but it isn't happening right now. Tricked didn't look bad, and they had their chances, but Dignitas is probably as good as it gets when playing with a lead and in playing as a team:




 It's hard to see Dignitas dropping a set to any team outside of the top four. Right now, we will not know much about EU until we start seeing the top teams playing each other more. Right now, we have only seen one game between the top four teams in EU, so none of them have really been tested. Meanwhile, Tricked, for as good as they have the potential to be, are staring at a relegation match if they do not figure it out.

 EU Match 2 - Misfits vs. Playing Ducks, 3-1 

 After their play on Friday, which probably surprised most people, all the Ducks needed to do was to have a decent showing against Misfits. No one expected them to win; they just needed to be in the game. Well, they did a little bit more than that. Taking one game from Misfits, Playing Ducks showed that they can find the cracks in the top teams. Now, Misfits is too good at this point for Playing Ducks to really be a threat, but I expected this to be a sweep. That said, Misfits looked dominant for most of the match:




 Misfits plays so well as a team, and HasuOrbs just continues to show amazing plays, and find the time to correct me when I don't credit enough of his teammates:



Ultimately, this was mostly as expected. Top 4 vs. Bottom 4, and the EU divide is real. The only question in EU right now is which of the top 4 teams won't be going to the Western Clash?

 Also, Trikslyr still can't get Playing Ducks out, and Kaelaris had a bit of a problem getting tongue tied when discussing map picks:


 NA Match 1 - Tempo Storm vs. BStep, 3-0

 OK, I get it, NA HotS fans - you are all still sad that Cloud 9 left the scene less than a year after winning a world championship. Fine. You want to throw your support behind BStep hoping they will help you relive the all-to-short days of NA global dominance? I understand that. I was high on Cloud 9, too. But BStep isn't Cloud 9, and Tempo Storm answered all of my questions in decisive fashion.
This was supposed to be a match of NA powerhouses, but only one of the teams really looked the part. BStep was in control for most of the 33 minute game 1 on Tomb of the Spider Queen. Yes. 33 minutes. It was crazy:


But being in control for MOST of a match doesn't matter when you lose it. BStep never recovered, and there is a serious question as to what they are doing in NA. After two straight 3-2 matches, Tempo Storm finally looks to be in control, where as BStep looks lost. BStep has talent on their team, but they just can't seem to get it together since the departure of Glaurung:
NA Match 2 - Naventic vs. No Tomorrow 3-2

 I used to get a lot of likes from Naventic's Twitter, but last week, I may have upset them when I openly was cheering for GFE. Still, I picked Naventic to sweep No Tomorrow because I do not think NT is ready for prime time. In the interviews, Naventic had positive, glowing things to say about No Tomorrow, and then proceeded to drop the first two games, leading to me saying things that probably had Naventic muting me:

The thing is, I wasn't alone! Lots of people were bagging on Naventic:


This did not look like a team that went to two globals last year. By the end of game 2, I just wanted No Tomorrow to finish the job and put Naventic down:
And now, I want everyone to learn a lesson: Naventic is a bear. Do NOT poke a bear.



So, Naventic started a comeback, and then, started getting crazy with the cheese wiz in their drafts!

At this point, I would like to apologize for all of the Tweets I'm embedding here, but this match was nuts! Naventic's comp in the last game looked like the HotS manifestation of Drunken Fist fighting style from a Kung Fu movie!


So, mean, nasty, and in control, Naventic completed the reverse sweep. This match was the best of the day by far! While in the bottom four of the standings, don't forget that Naventic had to play Tempo Storm and GFE in week 1, and they held their own with Tempo. Their early struggles against No Tomorrow show that Naventic has weaknesses, but their dominance in coming back shows that they can turn it on when they have to. 

 No Tomorrow, on the other hand, has not lived up to the hype. They had Naventic on the ropes, and instead of a knock out, Naventic looked like Ali to NT's Foreman, and got rope-a-doped. At 0-3, I do not see No Tomorrow avoiding a relegation match.
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