Sorry to everyone who might have been expecting a Global League Review last week, but it was a slow week for the league and there wasn't quite enough for an entire review. No doubt it was due in part to the new year and the end of the holiday season. But now we're picking it up again this week, with a surprising development in the top 5, and a considerable amount of movement in the top 10. It's also nice to see that the Global League is holding right around 125-130 players - currently at 127 at the moment - despite a steady stream of dropouts.
Global League Top 5
1. Diwa - 1147.26, 17-1-5 (Last review: 8)
Last week: 2-0-1
It's been a great week for our new #1 player, as he exploded up from 8th to 1st in the span of 2 days with a win over quizless and another against Duke of Blue Moon. The 49-point rating increase was just enough to barely place Diwa ahead of dorian5.
As for his games, the game against quizless was a Jake mirror on Shadows chase you endlessly (which is becoming one of my favorite maps, incidentally). The game remained fairly even with heavy fighting on the southern island, and then Diwa struck with Jake's SCOP first, delivering a game-ending blow to quizless. The game against Duke is one that I last time mentioned Duke had a great chance of winning. It was a fairly aggressive Hawke/Eagle match on Highway to Hell, with the two trading punches for much of the first 16 days. Then eventually Diwa began to gain ground on Duke's HQ front, leading to a large funds advantage and Duke's eventual resignation.
It remains to be seen how long Diwa can hang onto his lead spot. He has tough games currently against several of the other top league players, including Chilin-xiaoniao3, Walker, Black Mont-Blanc, and benbever, but with no games against any of the top 6 players, he might be able to hang on for a while. His most likely next game to finish is against itsmyflow, which is on day 9 on Puyo~.
2. dorian5 - 1147.10, 16-0-0 (Last review: 1)
Last week: 0-0-0
3. Ultra Storm - 1142.75, 13-0-0 (Last review: 2)
Last week: 0-0-0
Neither dorian5 or Ultra Storm have taken a second league game, leaving their game as the lone one between the two. And although Diwa has changed their battle from a fight between #1 and #2 to a fight between #2 and #3, the game between dorian5 and Ultra Storm will still ultimately decide who gets back up to the top spot. Another couple turns of the game have passed, but we can no longer view the replay as dorian5 has built a stealth (countered immediately by a fighter from Ultra). Ultra appears to be in bad shape, as dorian has won the southern island and is way ahead in funds (+5500) while about even in unit value on the field. Never count Ultra out for a comeback, but this one is certainly not going his way right now.
4. Hellraider - 1130.83, 10-0-0 (Last review: 3)
Last week: 0-0-0
Nothing new going on with Hellraider, as his lone game with Chilin-xiaoniao continues to be stalled by Chilin-xiaoniao's vacation. The last time Hellraider finished a league game was now over a month ago, and his current game is still only on day 4. I expect no updates here in the near future, although getting kicked from the top 3 could have an effect on the number of league games he's willing to play at one time.
5. felix45 - 1125.98, 12-2-1 (Last review: 4)
Last week: 0-0-0
No changes in Felix's record the last couple weeks either, although his game with Duke of Blue Moon on Rainy has progressed some. Felix holds a strong advantage and looks to be making a push towards Duke's HQ area, but the next round of SCOPs will likely decide the winner. Meanwhile, Felix is on the verge of victory in another game, this one against quizless, although he will have to wait until after quizless returns from vacation to claim the win. If Felix can manage those two wins, he will likely jump all the way to 1st in the league! I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him in the top 3 soon, regardless.
Best of the Rest
6. fdkanns - 1110.22, 27-5-0 (Last review: 6)
No changes for fdkanns since last review, but it may be worth keeping an eye on this dogfight between he and sarastro on Shangri-La. It's currently on day 12, and looking pretty even.
7. Chilin-xiaoniao3 - 1099.94, 29-4-0 (Last review: 7)
Still on vacation, nothing new going on.
8. Duke of Blue Moon - 1096.33, 29-9-1 (Last review: 5)
Duke's loss at the hands of Diwa has dropped him down a few spots, although he still is hanging around in the top 10. He has made a remarkable comeback in this game against Kiririn thanks to the power of Winter Fury, but will have to be careful in this game against YURA.
9. Ancient Paradise - 1086.84, 27-9-0 (Last review: 9)
Like Hellraider, Ancient Paradise only has one game running, and it's against Chilin-xiaoniao. Don't expect to see his rating changing any time soon either.
10. black_wave - 1083.40, 81-36-13 (Last review: 12)
The last time black_wave was in the top 10 was back on 10/16/11, but a recent string of wins has helped him leap back up to claim the final spot. He's gone 4-1-2 since the last review, with wins against MYM, TotalFire, and mxdcyw2000 among them. The loss was against quizless. Currently he has interesting games against SmackCakes and itsmyflow.
Almost There!
11. quizless - 1082.24, 48-24-10 (Last review: 13)
12. ANT13 - 1073.73, 31-9-7 (Last review: 10)
13. walkerboh01 - 1057.79, 14-2-1 (Last review: 11)
14. benbever - 1042.91, 4-3-5 (Last review: 14)
15. TotalFire - 1039.20, 38-15-17 (Last review: 17)
Dropping Out
Black Mont-Blanc - Dropped from 15th to 16th place (0-0-0 since last review)
Notable Newbie
Deaninator - 942.54, 7-0-0
With 418 games played on the site, Deaninator has obviously spent quite a lot of time on the site previously. However, he's new to the Global League, having just entered the league during the last review and sitting at 0-0-0. Since then, he has rattled off 7 straight wins, elevating him to the lofty position of #31 in the league. Let's take a look at those wins:
12/29 - Mr--Clean resigns what seems to be a fairly even game on City of Storms.
12/30 - Win by boot over carlos98342.
12/31 - Win by boot over Longinus_SP.
1/01 - Win by boot over bh.bh.
1/01 - Mr--Clean resigns again, but it's a more lopsided game on Highway to Hell this time.
1/02 - Lolabunny bites the dust[/url] in a game on Shangri-La.
1/06 - HCG becomes the 7th victim in a blowout on nb4DS.
3 wins by boot are certainly good for a rating boost, and makes the 7-0-0 start a bit less impressive. However, 3 good wins over solid mid-level players in lolabunny and Mr--Clean suggest Deaninator should not be taken lightly. Jury's still out on just how good Deaninator is, although a tough matchup with taviroww will likely give a good idea.
By the Numbers
7 - Undefeated players with more than 5 wins. They are: dorian5 (16 wins), Ultra Storm (13 wins), itsmyflow (11 wins), Hellraider (10 wins), Black Mont-Blanc (8 wins), Deaninator (7 wins), and ichbinsehselber (6 wins).
1 - "Chilin" account left in the league, which belongs to Chilin-xiaoniao3. There were as many as 7 or 8 in the early days of the league.
975 - Rating required to crack the top 25 of the league. On 12/13/11, a rating of only 960 was required.
In Other News...
As of January 1st, 2012, the top 3 of the Global League will be inducted to the AWBW Hall of Fame, if they can manage to hold their spots for 2 consecutive weeks. Right now Diwa has been holding 1st place for one day (since January 6th), and dorian5 and Ultra Storm have been holding at least 2nd and 3rd place for 6 days (since January 1st) respectively. Hellraider had been in 3rd until January 6th, when he was ousted by Diwa.
There were several players outside of the top 15 who have made good pushes up the rankings in the last two weeks. Most notable were:
1. Deaninator - Rating: +142.54, Standings: +65 (currently #31)
2. SD3 - Rating: +873.21, Standings: +42 (currently at #57)
3. Taviroww - Rating: +68.80, Standings: +24 (currently at #36)
4. Cereal Killer - Rating: +48.02, Standings: +15 (currently #28)
5. Shompiador_kalabaza - Rating: +48.08, Standings: +13 (currently at #38)
Until next time,
Walker
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Friday, December 30, 2011
Turn Review 12/30/11
Duke of the Blue Moon vs felix45 - Day 10
The (hopefully) eagerly awaited game review will still have to wait a while because of "time restraints". To make up for that, I present a mini-version of the game review, the turn review.
The situation at hand:
It is the Duke's turn in a game which is for our intents and purposes even. He has lost the fight for the pair of usually contested properties, but managed to snatch felix's middle city. Now the ball is on him to defend the property and make use of the positional advantage it gives. The Duke chooses the following course of action -
- and prompty drops the ball, as he gives felix a great opportunity to attack, resulting in this:
Now the question at hand is, what should he have done instead? Let us first evaluate the goals of that particular turn. At the start of day 10, his formation in the west is fairly vulnerable. His artillery can be attacked easily, he has not completely connected the units on the different sides of the mountain range and he needs to keep control over the city he has captured. In the east he looks fairly safe for now due to felix having invested in an additional arty and a preemptive AA.
The main focus of this post will lie in the west, but for now I will discuss the eastern situation a bit. While the Duke did not make himself vulnerable to a direct attack there, there were still some questionable decisions involved. First off, building the copter makes little sense. He has already lost his ability to threaten both sides of the mountain range because felix has captured the contested property, so a major advantage of the copter, the mobility, is lost. More importantly though, he neglected to ascertain his control over his middle city. Parking a tank on it is nice, but he also gave felix the possibility to easily threaten it with an unexposed arty. Now felix exposed his artillery anyways, ultimately resulting in a huge battle, but let us ignore that fact. To avoid this situation where a protected arty points onto the property, the best course of action would have been to place the YC artillery 1N of the city, while shielding it with the remaining units.
Another advantage of such a turn (picture later) would be more offensive tank placement and therefore better control over the area between the mountains and the shoal area. Furthermore, building 2 vehicles would have been superior to building the copter in terms of firepower and defence, making it unnecessary to divert another tank to shielding the copter.
So much for the east. Now, onto the other front. As mentioned before, the Duke has to find a formation that prevents felix from launching any efficient attack. The biggest threat is a copter attack coupled with blocking the AA from reaching it, which is also what ultimately happened in the game. This is mainly caused by the mountain range, which makes maneuvering the AA fairly difficult since it has to cover the units on both sides of it. The obvious solution? Simply move all units onto one side of the mountain range. The result I came to:
It is easy to understand that there is little need to focus on felix's outer city for now. It already belongs to him, so there is little reason to keep it under artylock. There is also no attack coming from that direction, so losing a bit of positioning there does not matter. This particular turn also picks off an additional infantry and is a huge positional gain compared to before. Assuming that felix does not attack, he will have to retreat and choose between one of two evils. Either the arty stays at its current location protecting the city, which will result in him losing a bit more position while allowing the Duke to place his units even better, or moving the arty over and giving up the outer city in the process. The first option is most likely preferable, although still not optimal.
Now of course felix would also have the option to attack. The YC artillery is technically vulnerable and can be attacked by the copter (not by the recon). However, that plus the walling infantry would be all that YC loses in that exchange. In retaliation, he could kill 4 infantry and the copter while retaining his position. Neither a new tank nor a new copter could enter the fight immediately, leaving felix with a recon, a tank, 2 infantry and an arty in an awkward position. He wouldn't be able to launch a good attack with that, but if he retreats at that point he'd have lost about twice as much as his opponent in the exchange before. As a result, the formation showed before is most likely the best that YC could have chosen. Not only is it sound defensively, it also opens up a whole load of new possibilities by virtue of being in such an offensive position. It would even be possible to make a rush towards the BH HQ if BH decided to go for YCs airport, effectively even restricting the other front a bit.
A few last words towards what should be built at the end of the turn. As I said before, the copter is a suboptimal choice as it has little immediate offensive potential and basically validates the preemptive AA. By not building the copter now, BH has a near useless AA that he can't even expose, as its destruction would be met with a newly built copter. With 15k, the basic options are 2 tanks, 2 arties and tank + arty. Mechs are not needed in this situation as they reach the front too slowly and have no synergy with the CO. I daresay that 2 arties is not good as well, because the west could really need more than a sole tank to sustain the offense. So one fresh unit should be a tank on the western base. As for the second one, it probably is a matter of preference and style. Many will feel uncomfortable with not building a vehicle on the weak base, but the AA and lack of tank really limit BH's attack opportunities, making a second tank (two arties is more than enough for that front) in the west viable. Personally, I would have most likely stuck with tank west + arty east either way though.
Signed,
Hellraider
The (hopefully) eagerly awaited game review will still have to wait a while because of "time restraints". To make up for that, I present a mini-version of the game review, the turn review.
The situation at hand:
It is the Duke's turn in a game which is for our intents and purposes even. He has lost the fight for the pair of usually contested properties, but managed to snatch felix's middle city. Now the ball is on him to defend the property and make use of the positional advantage it gives. The Duke chooses the following course of action -
- and prompty drops the ball, as he gives felix a great opportunity to attack, resulting in this:
Now the question at hand is, what should he have done instead? Let us first evaluate the goals of that particular turn. At the start of day 10, his formation in the west is fairly vulnerable. His artillery can be attacked easily, he has not completely connected the units on the different sides of the mountain range and he needs to keep control over the city he has captured. In the east he looks fairly safe for now due to felix having invested in an additional arty and a preemptive AA.
The main focus of this post will lie in the west, but for now I will discuss the eastern situation a bit. While the Duke did not make himself vulnerable to a direct attack there, there were still some questionable decisions involved. First off, building the copter makes little sense. He has already lost his ability to threaten both sides of the mountain range because felix has captured the contested property, so a major advantage of the copter, the mobility, is lost. More importantly though, he neglected to ascertain his control over his middle city. Parking a tank on it is nice, but he also gave felix the possibility to easily threaten it with an unexposed arty. Now felix exposed his artillery anyways, ultimately resulting in a huge battle, but let us ignore that fact. To avoid this situation where a protected arty points onto the property, the best course of action would have been to place the YC artillery 1N of the city, while shielding it with the remaining units.
Another advantage of such a turn (picture later) would be more offensive tank placement and therefore better control over the area between the mountains and the shoal area. Furthermore, building 2 vehicles would have been superior to building the copter in terms of firepower and defence, making it unnecessary to divert another tank to shielding the copter.
So much for the east. Now, onto the other front. As mentioned before, the Duke has to find a formation that prevents felix from launching any efficient attack. The biggest threat is a copter attack coupled with blocking the AA from reaching it, which is also what ultimately happened in the game. This is mainly caused by the mountain range, which makes maneuvering the AA fairly difficult since it has to cover the units on both sides of it. The obvious solution? Simply move all units onto one side of the mountain range. The result I came to:
It is easy to understand that there is little need to focus on felix's outer city for now. It already belongs to him, so there is little reason to keep it under artylock. There is also no attack coming from that direction, so losing a bit of positioning there does not matter. This particular turn also picks off an additional infantry and is a huge positional gain compared to before. Assuming that felix does not attack, he will have to retreat and choose between one of two evils. Either the arty stays at its current location protecting the city, which will result in him losing a bit more position while allowing the Duke to place his units even better, or moving the arty over and giving up the outer city in the process. The first option is most likely preferable, although still not optimal.
Now of course felix would also have the option to attack. The YC artillery is technically vulnerable and can be attacked by the copter (not by the recon). However, that plus the walling infantry would be all that YC loses in that exchange. In retaliation, he could kill 4 infantry and the copter while retaining his position. Neither a new tank nor a new copter could enter the fight immediately, leaving felix with a recon, a tank, 2 infantry and an arty in an awkward position. He wouldn't be able to launch a good attack with that, but if he retreats at that point he'd have lost about twice as much as his opponent in the exchange before. As a result, the formation showed before is most likely the best that YC could have chosen. Not only is it sound defensively, it also opens up a whole load of new possibilities by virtue of being in such an offensive position. It would even be possible to make a rush towards the BH HQ if BH decided to go for YCs airport, effectively even restricting the other front a bit.
A few last words towards what should be built at the end of the turn. As I said before, the copter is a suboptimal choice as it has little immediate offensive potential and basically validates the preemptive AA. By not building the copter now, BH has a near useless AA that he can't even expose, as its destruction would be met with a newly built copter. With 15k, the basic options are 2 tanks, 2 arties and tank + arty. Mechs are not needed in this situation as they reach the front too slowly and have no synergy with the CO. I daresay that 2 arties is not good as well, because the west could really need more than a sole tank to sustain the offense. So one fresh unit should be a tank on the western base. As for the second one, it probably is a matter of preference and style. Many will feel uncomfortable with not building a vehicle on the weak base, but the AA and lack of tank really limit BH's attack opportunities, making a second tank (two arties is more than enough for that front) in the west viable. Personally, I would have most likely stuck with tank west + arty east either way though.
Signed,
Hellraider
Monday, December 26, 2011
Global League Review 12/26/11
Merry Christmas! Whatever holiday you may celebrate, I hope everyone is enjoying themselves this time of year.
The Global League is doing quite well, and our player count is at 130 this week, up 7 from last review. The last week was quiet for the most part in the league, but we do have a new entrant into the top 5. Thanks to a charitable boot from Chilin-xiaoniao3, felix45 has jumped up two places to grab the #4 spot in the standings. It seems that the top 10 in general was getting into the holiday spirit this week, as Chilin-Xiaoniao and Duke of Blue Moon also gifted points to black_wave via boot. Despite all of the free wins handed to him, black_wave only managed to move up two spots though, from #14 to #12 this week. Duke's boot wasn't quite enough to drop him from the top 5, but fdkanns is now right on his heels, a mere 0.6 points back. In the meantime, the back three of the top 10 all managed to win games this week, although their order in the standings remains unchanged. There's also a new face in the top 15, as quizless jumps up from #19 to currently claim the #13 spot at the expense of TotalFire.
And with that, let's take a look at the top 5!
Global League Top 5
1. dorian5 - 1147.10, 16-0-0 (Last review: 1)
Last week: 0-0-0
2. Ultra Storm - 1142.75, 13-0-0 (Last review: 2)
Last week: 0-0-0
Dorian and Ultra Storm's rankings are frozen for now, as the two are still engaged in a showdown for the top league spot. Last time we checked in, the game was on day 10 and a battle-heavy capture phase was just finishing up. As you can see below, dorian chose to attack in the south on day 10, but Ultra responded well to the ill-advised attack and decimated both of dorian's copters.
Unfortunately for Ultra Storm, despite contesting dorian's city early and dealing more damage to dorian overall, he still finds himself down in both funding and vehicles because of Sasha's day-to-day funding advantage. The game is still very tight, but if Ultra fails to finish capturing his properties shortly, dorian's funding advantage may prove too much to overcome.
3. Hellraider - 1130.83, 10-0-0 (Last review: 4)
Last week: 0-0-0
Nothing new going on for Hellraider this week. He wasn't lucky enough to be a beneficiary of the free points Chilin-xiaoniao was handing out, but still benefited indirectly as he moved up to 3rd place. It's likely going to be a while before we see any change in Hellraider's rating, unless he decides to take a higher game count.
4. felix45 - 1125.98, 12-2-1 (Last review: 6)
Last Week: 1-0-0
Felix is surely in high spirits this week, having been boosted up quite nicely from the free win against Chilin-xiaoniao3. He's also in great position to win 2 of his 3 remaining current games, another against xiaoniao and one against Duke of Blue Moon. Duke certainly still has a chance in that game and you can never really count Olaf out thanks to his SCOP, but I feel fairly confident in predicting felix to close that one out.
5. Duke of Blue Moon - 1110.80, 29-8-0 (Last review: 5)
Last Week: 0-1-0
Despite his boot against black_wave, Duke managed to hang onto his spot in the top 5 courtesy of xiaoniao's drop. As I mentioned last review, he is poised for a large drop though. Even if he can manage the aforementioned comeback against felix, he is still in a bad situation against Chilin-xiaoniao, and in an even worse situation against Kiririn.
On the bright side for Duke, he does still have a very good chance of winning in his game against Diwa and is playing 2 games against lower-ranked opponents as well (YURA and itsmyflow). With that in mind, a large drop may only be temporary, and at the very least he can probably salvage some ranking with a couple easier games.
Best of the Rest
6. fdkanns - 1110.22, 27-5-0 (Last review: 7)
Fdkanns wrapped up the win against black_wave this week, although it wasn't quite enough to boost him past Duke of Blue Moon back into the top 5. He is looking to continue moving up with 2 new games starting against ANT13 and sarastro (#10 and #22 in the league respectively).
7. Chilin-xiaoniao3 - 1099.94, 29-4-0 (Last review: 3)
Not a good week for Chilin-xiaoniao, as he dropped 35 points in rating and 4 places in the standings. He has since put up the vacation flag, but now he has some work to do if he wants to reclaim his lofty league ranking. He certainly has plenty of chances to do it, with winnable games against Ancient Paradise, Duke of Blue Moon, and SmackCakes.
8. Diwa - 1098.61, 15-1-4 (Last review: 8)
Diwa also had a prosperous week, managing to complete a win over julberndt while agreeing to
draw against sarastro. Keep an eye on this game with black_wave, as it looks to be developing into an interesting match.
9. Ancient Paradise - 1086.84, 27-9-0 (Last review: 9)
Ancient Paradise had a relatively uneventful week, wrapping up a straight-forward win over raubvogel. Now his lone game against Chilin-xiaoniao is the only one running, and he'll have to work to prevent a loss there.
10. ANT13 - 1073.73, 31-9-6 (Last review: 10)
Like Diwa and Ancient Paradise, ANT13 also came out ahead this week, managing a win over Haxxson mid-week. He is in great position to put together a nice winning streak, with a clear advantage in games against benbever and against walkerboh01.
Almost There!
11. walkerboh01 - 1057.79, 14-2-1 (Last review: 11)
12. black_wave - 1053.13, 77-35-11 (Last review: 14)
13. quizless - 1052.24, 43-23-10 (Last review: 19)
14. benbever - 1042.91, 4-3-1 (Last review: 13)
15. Black Mont-Blanc - 1034.99, 8-0-0 (Last review: 15)
Dropping Out
TotalFire - Dropped from 12th to 17th place (1-2-1 since last review)
By the Numbers
14 - Players currently at 800, which is the most we've had in quite a while.
2 - Players with more than 50 wins. Black_wave has 77 wins and 77salamence has 75 wins currently, although the two also have a combined 80 losses as well.
4 - Players in the top 20 with 50 or fewer games played on the site. They are: Duke of Blue Moon (#5) - 50 games, Ancient Paradise (#9) - 39 games, MYM (#16) - 39 games, Kiririn (#18) - 16 games. Therefore, they are all under heavy suspicion of being double accounts!
1031 - Views on the AWBW Blog from blogspot.com! Thanks to everyone who follows the blog!
In Other News...
On 9/27, I wrote: "21-0-1 - Combined record of the top 4 Japanese players (dorian5, Black Mont-Blanc, japanj, and akiyoshi)"
Today, the Japanese players are no longer undefeated, but are still doing quite well in the league. Their cumulative record is 46-5-3, and if you take akiyoshi out, they are 32-1-0. That is quite dominant, with the only loss coming from japanj's recent loss to SM Ephraim.
The next most dominant league performance in terms of record belongs to the Austrians. They only have 2 players in the league (Hellraider and ichbinsehselber), but they are a combined 16-0-0. Not quite as impressive as 32-1-0, in my opinion, but still quite good nonetheless.
Last review I also picked a few players to move up in the standings soon. If you remember, two of them were:
"78. Shompiador_kalabaza - 826.05, 2-1-0
90. taviroww - 810.34, 3-2-0"
This week here are their respective records and ratings:
50. Shompiador_kalabaza - 880.07, 4-1-0
59. taviroww - 866.60, 6-2-0.
Yes, I am apparently just that good (watch them both plummet now...).
I also wanted to mention a few players who are currently dropped out of the league, but would be in the top 25 if they were to join right now:
7. Kamuscha - 1102.18, 16-2-1
11. Roswell the Black Rose - 1065.34, 35-15-12
18. Red11 - 1027.17, 10-0-0
21. tale - 987.23, 43-30-4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And just a reminder that GT2 signups and January Cup signups are currently open! Check the Tournaments forum if you're interested.
Until next time,
Walker
The Global League is doing quite well, and our player count is at 130 this week, up 7 from last review. The last week was quiet for the most part in the league, but we do have a new entrant into the top 5. Thanks to a charitable boot from Chilin-xiaoniao3, felix45 has jumped up two places to grab the #4 spot in the standings. It seems that the top 10 in general was getting into the holiday spirit this week, as Chilin-Xiaoniao and Duke of Blue Moon also gifted points to black_wave via boot. Despite all of the free wins handed to him, black_wave only managed to move up two spots though, from #14 to #12 this week. Duke's boot wasn't quite enough to drop him from the top 5, but fdkanns is now right on his heels, a mere 0.6 points back. In the meantime, the back three of the top 10 all managed to win games this week, although their order in the standings remains unchanged. There's also a new face in the top 15, as quizless jumps up from #19 to currently claim the #13 spot at the expense of TotalFire.
And with that, let's take a look at the top 5!
Global League Top 5
1. dorian5 - 1147.10, 16-0-0 (Last review: 1)
Last week: 0-0-0
2. Ultra Storm - 1142.75, 13-0-0 (Last review: 2)
Last week: 0-0-0
Dorian and Ultra Storm's rankings are frozen for now, as the two are still engaged in a showdown for the top league spot. Last time we checked in, the game was on day 10 and a battle-heavy capture phase was just finishing up. As you can see below, dorian chose to attack in the south on day 10, but Ultra responded well to the ill-advised attack and decimated both of dorian's copters.
Unfortunately for Ultra Storm, despite contesting dorian's city early and dealing more damage to dorian overall, he still finds himself down in both funding and vehicles because of Sasha's day-to-day funding advantage. The game is still very tight, but if Ultra fails to finish capturing his properties shortly, dorian's funding advantage may prove too much to overcome.
3. Hellraider - 1130.83, 10-0-0 (Last review: 4)
Last week: 0-0-0
Nothing new going on for Hellraider this week. He wasn't lucky enough to be a beneficiary of the free points Chilin-xiaoniao was handing out, but still benefited indirectly as he moved up to 3rd place. It's likely going to be a while before we see any change in Hellraider's rating, unless he decides to take a higher game count.
4. felix45 - 1125.98, 12-2-1 (Last review: 6)
Last Week: 1-0-0
Felix is surely in high spirits this week, having been boosted up quite nicely from the free win against Chilin-xiaoniao3. He's also in great position to win 2 of his 3 remaining current games, another against xiaoniao and one against Duke of Blue Moon. Duke certainly still has a chance in that game and you can never really count Olaf out thanks to his SCOP, but I feel fairly confident in predicting felix to close that one out.
5. Duke of Blue Moon - 1110.80, 29-8-0 (Last review: 5)
Last Week: 0-1-0
Despite his boot against black_wave, Duke managed to hang onto his spot in the top 5 courtesy of xiaoniao's drop. As I mentioned last review, he is poised for a large drop though. Even if he can manage the aforementioned comeback against felix, he is still in a bad situation against Chilin-xiaoniao, and in an even worse situation against Kiririn.
On the bright side for Duke, he does still have a very good chance of winning in his game against Diwa and is playing 2 games against lower-ranked opponents as well (YURA and itsmyflow). With that in mind, a large drop may only be temporary, and at the very least he can probably salvage some ranking with a couple easier games.
Best of the Rest
6. fdkanns - 1110.22, 27-5-0 (Last review: 7)
Fdkanns wrapped up the win against black_wave this week, although it wasn't quite enough to boost him past Duke of Blue Moon back into the top 5. He is looking to continue moving up with 2 new games starting against ANT13 and sarastro (#10 and #22 in the league respectively).
7. Chilin-xiaoniao3 - 1099.94, 29-4-0 (Last review: 3)
Not a good week for Chilin-xiaoniao, as he dropped 35 points in rating and 4 places in the standings. He has since put up the vacation flag, but now he has some work to do if he wants to reclaim his lofty league ranking. He certainly has plenty of chances to do it, with winnable games against Ancient Paradise, Duke of Blue Moon, and SmackCakes.
8. Diwa - 1098.61, 15-1-4 (Last review: 8)
Diwa also had a prosperous week, managing to complete a win over julberndt while agreeing to
draw against sarastro. Keep an eye on this game with black_wave, as it looks to be developing into an interesting match.
9. Ancient Paradise - 1086.84, 27-9-0 (Last review: 9)
Ancient Paradise had a relatively uneventful week, wrapping up a straight-forward win over raubvogel. Now his lone game against Chilin-xiaoniao is the only one running, and he'll have to work to prevent a loss there.
10. ANT13 - 1073.73, 31-9-6 (Last review: 10)
Like Diwa and Ancient Paradise, ANT13 also came out ahead this week, managing a win over Haxxson mid-week. He is in great position to put together a nice winning streak, with a clear advantage in games against benbever and against walkerboh01.
Almost There!
11. walkerboh01 - 1057.79, 14-2-1 (Last review: 11)
12. black_wave - 1053.13, 77-35-11 (Last review: 14)
13. quizless - 1052.24, 43-23-10 (Last review: 19)
14. benbever - 1042.91, 4-3-1 (Last review: 13)
15. Black Mont-Blanc - 1034.99, 8-0-0 (Last review: 15)
Dropping Out
TotalFire - Dropped from 12th to 17th place (1-2-1 since last review)
By the Numbers
14 - Players currently at 800, which is the most we've had in quite a while.
2 - Players with more than 50 wins. Black_wave has 77 wins and 77salamence has 75 wins currently, although the two also have a combined 80 losses as well.
4 - Players in the top 20 with 50 or fewer games played on the site. They are: Duke of Blue Moon (#5) - 50 games, Ancient Paradise (#9) - 39 games, MYM (#16) - 39 games, Kiririn (#18) - 16 games. Therefore, they are all under heavy suspicion of being double accounts!
1031 - Views on the AWBW Blog from blogspot.com! Thanks to everyone who follows the blog!
In Other News...
On 9/27, I wrote: "21-0-1 - Combined record of the top 4 Japanese players (dorian5, Black Mont-Blanc, japanj, and akiyoshi)"
Today, the Japanese players are no longer undefeated, but are still doing quite well in the league. Their cumulative record is 46-5-3, and if you take akiyoshi out, they are 32-1-0. That is quite dominant, with the only loss coming from japanj's recent loss to SM Ephraim.
The next most dominant league performance in terms of record belongs to the Austrians. They only have 2 players in the league (Hellraider and ichbinsehselber), but they are a combined 16-0-0. Not quite as impressive as 32-1-0, in my opinion, but still quite good nonetheless.
Last review I also picked a few players to move up in the standings soon. If you remember, two of them were:
"78. Shompiador_kalabaza - 826.05, 2-1-0
90. taviroww - 810.34, 3-2-0"
This week here are their respective records and ratings:
50. Shompiador_kalabaza - 880.07, 4-1-0
59. taviroww - 866.60, 6-2-0.
Yes, I am apparently just that good (watch them both plummet now...).
I also wanted to mention a few players who are currently dropped out of the league, but would be in the top 25 if they were to join right now:
7. Kamuscha - 1102.18, 16-2-1
11. Roswell the Black Rose - 1065.34, 35-15-12
18. Red11 - 1027.17, 10-0-0
21. tale - 987.23, 43-30-4
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And just a reminder that GT2 signups and January Cup signups are currently open! Check the Tournaments forum if you're interested.
Until next time,
Walker
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