This Friday the 27th of November at 7:00PM UTC+11 kicks off the #ANZPL Finals live on our World of Tanks ANZ Twitch Channel! Our finalists, the North Sydney Sentinels and Auckland Archers, will battle it out for the title! But not before a little surprise exhibition match!
Match 1: Sentinels v Skorpions 4:1
Sentinels vs Skorpions was set to be the closest match-up of the two Semi-Final matches but the Sentinels clearly had other ideas. The first match on Mines started with a bad read from Skorpions on the attack, thinking they could take the hill or at least beat the Sentinels there. However, this wasn’t the case. Shortly after JT and The_AuzziGamer made it onto the hill, twin Kranvagns Critacus and Syndy, as well as Rainbow in a Super Conqueror, were hot on their tails. This ended with JT being knocked out and The_AussieGamer escaping with just 10% of his HP. The rest of the match was over from there with Sentinels picking up the first point.
The Skorpions were able to bring it back to 1:1 on the defence of Mines after a misread from the Sentinels this time around. After taking the hill, the Sentinels then decided to push the 8-9 line, possibly expecting the Skorpion's Bat-Chats to be holding the beach on the other side of the map. Rowendy and Zanin sent it in their Object 277s but The_AuzziGamer and Night were waiting for them, absolutely laying into them with their Bat-Chats in a beautiful ambush that the Sentinels were powerless to counter.
Moving onto Himmelsdorf for game three where things were much closer. Skorpions started off on the attack with a less than ideal start, losing Night in the central courtyard to a sneaky flank from Zanin. Despite this, the Skorpions came very close to getting away with a cap but Rowendy took one for the team, managing to get the reset in the nick of time and leaving the Sentinels with an overmatch and enough time to finish off the Skorpions.
Match four also got off to a rough start for Skorpions. The_Auzzigamer ended up getting spotted out in the Bat-Chat while he was trying to do the same to them, bleeding out a huge amount of HP without managing to spot anything himself. From there the Sentinels moved straight onto the cap, leaving the Skorpions with seconds to rotate back and get the rest. In the end, time wasn’t on the Skorpions side and the cap went through.
The final game on Ruinberg was over in a flash with the Sentinels picking up their finalist spot in impressive fashion. Skorpions opened with an aggressive push up the J-K line from Night and The_AuzziGamer in Batch-Chats which ended in Night being knocked out. The Sentinels then recognised that Kiwi_Dynamite was still making his way through mid in the Maus and Napalamer and JT were on their own. The Sentinels pounced, taking out JT and Napalmer before the Kiwi_Dynamite could join the fight and it was all over from there.
Match 2: Bulldogs v Archers 3:4
The second match-up of the night saw the Bulldogs battling it out against the Archers in a faceoff that definitely had everyone on the edge of their seats. Starting with the Archers defending on Murovanka, things got off to a slow start. Both teams played patiently and the Archers waited for the Bulldogs to make a move. Things got interesting fast when Del was able to peek out into Ironguard’s Kranvagn and land a few shots on him, with the rest of the Archers following suit, quickly removing him from the game. From there, the Bulldogs had few options left to take the win and the Archers claimed the first point.
After a strong start on the defence of Muravanka, the Archers struggled on the attack. Del sent it down the K line in an attempt to spot out the Bulldogs in the forest but no supporting fire came through once he had. After a two for one trade, the Archers committed to the attack but the Bulldogs made short work of them with some great focus fire.
Game three saw the Archers off to another strong start, something that became a bit of a theme for the evening. With an unusual play for an attacking team on Himmelsdorf, the entire Archers team went down the 0 line and straight onto the two flag, catching Soldat_Udachi all alone and eliminating him straight off the bat. The Bulldogs were quick to respond but the Archers were dug in like a tick in hull-down positions with Del and Celestia covering the rear in 50 Bs and pushing in on the Bulldogs flank.
In game four the Bulldogs were back on the attack but got off to a rocky start when a push down the 8 line was quickly spotted out by the Archers with Blaze managing to set fire to Ironguard’s E-100. The Bulldogs didn’t let that slow them down though, pulling off a huge comeback in a brawl in mid that saw them coming out with an HP and tanks advantage over the Archers and securing the win.
Moving onto Mines the Archers yet again took the advantage from the get-go with both teams rushing the hill with LightningMan and joeattrora bleeding out some huge HP early on. A full-on brawl ensued where the Bulldogs were able to equal out the HP for a while but not the tank advantage with LightningMan and jeoattora being taken out. Thomark was then isolated and knocked out by Celestia and twoplustwo. From there the rest of the Bulldogs were picked off in a matter of seconds.
The Bulldogs played much more patiently on the attack of Mines, initially letting the Archers take the hill in what looked to be a daunting position for them to attack from. Ravvi and LightningMan were able to turn things on its head by pushing down the 1-2 line, before swinging around and up onto hill behind the Archers catching them completely unaware. Celesta was the first to drop with Del quickly backing down off the side of hill and twoplustwo making a hasty retreat. Unfortunately for the Archers, they were too slow to respond and Blaze and 13Bladez couldn’t make it there in time to swing things back in their favour meaning the winner would now come down to a tie-breaker on Cliffs.
The final match that had everyone talking. Archers once again came out to a strong start pushing mid and absolutely laying into Ironguard up on the hill of Cliffs, coming out of the first engagement with a 2000 HP advantage. But the Bulldogs looked as though they might be able to put the ball back in their court, sending Lightingman and joeattora around the back of the doughnut taking out twoplustwo while Ravvi and Thomark come around the other side catching the Archers in a pincer and finishing off Celestia. LightningMan went down in the charge, followed soon after by Thomark and Ravvi bringing the game to a three on two in the Archers favour. However, the game was still hanging in the balance, with Blaze and 13bladez both being on one shot of HP. Joeattora managed to creep up on 13bladez and take him out, while only taking a few shots in the process from Del, once again evening out the tanks and leaving the Bulldogs with a slight HP advantage. Ironguard and joeattroa then went for the push on Archers finishing Blaze and leaving Del to fight the rest of the battle alone. Unbelievably, Del then managed to take out both Ironguard and joeattora to secure the Archers finalist spot against the Sentinels.
So there it is, North Sydney Sentinels and Auckland Archers will go through to the finals and battle it out to decide our ANZPL Season One Champions! The Brisbane Bulldogs and South Sydney Skorpions did an amazing job and really gave it their all, as they have all season, but their opponents were the better teams on the day. This Friday we’ll be starting things off with a special exhibition match between the WeeGee’s and CeeCee’s before finishing with the exciting grand final, so don’t miss what’s sure to be a fun and exciting night of Tanks!
Twitch Drops!
On top of this, we’ll also have Twitch Drops enabled, giving you a guaranteed chance at the below drops with an Epic Drop chance of getting the 3D style for the Progetto 46!
Finals:
- After One Hour: Mission to receive 20,000 for doing 20,000 damage over any number of games
- After Two Hours: Maori Welcoming x3 and Straya x3
- Epic Drop: Safari 3D Style for the Progetto 46!
We hope you’re as excited as us for the #ANZPL finals, and look forward to seeing you over at our World of Tanks ANZ Twitch Channel from 7:00PM UTC+11 this Friday night for an incredible display, with the winning team fighting it our for the top share of $10,000 AUD in prize money!