Last Saturday saw the culmination of an entire season's effort for these two teams. All that stood between the two teams remaining was a best of seven series, being played live at Fortress Melbourne. The North Sydney Sentinels were looking to cement their mark, and truly make a dynasty that no other team could topple. The South Sydney Skorpions, however, were determined to also looking to snatch the trophy, after finally achieving a grand finals position after multiple play-off attempts.
All that stood between the two teams were potentially four maps: Sand River, Cliff, Tundra, and Himmelsdorf as our tiebreaker.
But before we got to the finals, we needed to see who was the strongest WeeGee of them all - JayRated, or the real CynicalSilicon, as they recruit some ANZPL and ANZBL players to determine who was the better player.
JayRated started off on the front foot - and he did so, by taking the first map on the back of a monstrous performance with a carry Bat-Chat 25t! However, that just riled the Big Boss Cynical into a rage, and as everyone knows, when CynRages, you don't want to be on the firing line (literally).
In the next five games, CynicalSilicon and the CynicalScreams put on an absolute show to go 4-1 up in a blink of an eye, to eventually take the showmatch 4-3 as the teams get a bit loosey-goosey towards the end. We got to see an amazing duel between JayRated and CynicalSilicon in a Bat-Chat 25t 1v1 on Prokhorovka to close out the night, with Cynical taking another big W, and showing why he's the boss.
With Cynical taking out Jay five times to one, it's clear that CynicalScreams was the clear winner, both individually and in team spirit! Commiserations to JayRated and the JayBaited team, who thought they had a chance (they really didn't).
Skorpions (ATK) - 2 x Kranvagn, 2 x STB-1, 1 x S. Conqueror
Sentinels (DEF) - 2 x IS-7, 1 x Kranvagn, 1 x STB-1, 1 x CS-63
The Skorpions opt to take a much more passive approach at the beginning, keeping the majority of their tanks at base to try and punish any aggressive Tanks from the Sentinels on the mid ridge, with JT and Rainbow having a dance-off in their Kranvagns in the early moments. With the STB-1 of Russian spotted in the south of the map, The Sentinels opt to reinforce their positioning in the north, by rotating the CS-63 north to join the IS-7 and S. Conqueror. The Sentinels don't fall for any traps, and with time ticking out, the Skorpions are forced into making a push, and by pushing directly into the north, they fall trap to the forces of the Sentinels, who go on to convincingly take Map One.
Sentinels (ATK) - 2 x IS-7, 1 x Kranvagn, 1 x STB-1, 1 x S. Conqueror
Skorpions (DEF) - 2 x Kranvagn, 2 x S. Conqueror, 1 x UDES 15/16
The Sentinels decide to take mid and South control on their turn on the attack, however, TheReturned bleeds out heavily trying to retain ridge control with the Kranvagn for the Sentinels. As the dual IS-7's are spotted in the south, the Skorpions take the heavy overmatch at mid, and as both teams find respective overmatches, the Skorpions go up four tanks to three, with a 2k HP advantage, on the defensive side, with just over half the in-game timer left.
However, with some clever rotations, and a bit of the Sentinels magic, they manage to find shots into the Skorpions, who are not in a position to trade, and as a result, the advantage is slowly whittled away. Miscommunication and missed shots means that the Sentinels are able to complete the improbable comeback, and once again take a victory on Sand River on attack on the big stage, going up to a huge 2-0 lead.
Sentinels (ATK) - 2 x CS-63, 2 x Kranvagn, 1 x AMX 50B
Skorpions (DEF) - 2 x CS-63, 1 x T110E5, 1 x B-C 25 t, 1 x Object 277
The Skorpions take mid control off a quick climb from the CS-63 on Rainbow, who cops a few shots but is able to gather the control nevertheless. With tanks trundling towards mid from both sides, the Sentinels decide to send their other CS-63 around the Cliff face - where they find a trap of a CS-63 and B-C 25t waiting! TheReturned goes down, but in true Sentinels fashion, the instant call onto the overmatch is made, and they find the picks at mid to bring it back to a two versus two.
With some sublime focus fire, it all comes down to DeL's AMX 50B and the CS-63 on Russian - with the AMX 50B clipped out and Russian on low HP, what's a tanker but to do, and ram? The Sentinels take what seems to be an undefeatable 3-0 lead, as the Skorpions are now facing the barrel of a straight sweep.
Skorpions (ATK) - 2 x CS-63, 2 x Object 277, 1 x Kranvagn,
Sentinels (DEF) - 2 x CS-63, 2 x Kranvagn, 1 x AMX 50B
The Sentinels opt to take mid control with the majority of their forces, with the singular CS-63 in Rainbow swinging wide around the cliff face. The Skorpions establish their split presence at both donut and mid, threatening to be able to dump into an overmatch if the Sentinels were not careful.
The Skorpions decide to bite the bullet, and commit into the mid fight. They manage to successfully find the overmatch this time, and end up with the numerical advantage, even with the Sentinels having hill control.
Ultimately, the Skorpions don't squander their opportunity, and some fantastic shots coming out from Auzzi and Night allows them to take the victory, and bring the game onto Tundra.
Sentinels (ATK) - 2 x S. Conquerors, 2 x Kranvagn, 1 x STB-1
Skorpions (DEF) - 2 x S Conquerors, 1 x T110E5, 1 x Kranvagn, 1 x IS-4
The Skorpions opt for a very heavy north presence early on, leaving just the IS-4 in the town as an anchoring presence on the map. The Sentinels take some tanks north, but keep the majority of their tanks on hill, ready to rotate when the time comes. When push came to shove, the Sentinels grouped up their tanks south, leaving DeL in the Super Conqueror on the hill, and took 2 flag control with minimal HP bleed.
The Skorpions kept their calm and repushed the two tanks left on cap, while the cross-fire from the remaining Sentinels players were good enough to bring it into a 3 on 3. DeL has a small accident when coming off the hill, losing 2k HP, but is in a position to now rotate and contribute to the fight.
The final repush from the Skorpions into the entrenched positions of the Sentinels was messy and as a result, they didn't find the fights they needed. Even though time was ticking away, the juggling of HP from the Sentinels was superb, and one final shot from Wymo onto Napalmer closes out the game, and means the Sentinels have captured the trophy for a record third time in four seasons.
Season 3 of ANZBL and Season 4 of ANZPL may have just finished after an amazing thirteen weeks of competition.
The team behind ANZPL and ANZBL will have a short break, catching their breath for a bit - but planning for Season 5 of ANZPL and Season 4 of ANZBL will begin very soon, and we're sure it'll be bigger and better! We'll be releasing details soon - so stay tuned to our portal page!