WGL APAC-Asia S3 Week 5 Recaps

In a surprisingly pleasant change for once, the first map for the match saw PVP starting on defense on Murovanka, a clear detour from the usual picks of Steppes and Prokhorovka. PVP's Batman was taken out early on when PhoeniX was making a push on the Northwest ridge on the map. PhoeniX may have had a considerably heavier setup when compared to PVP's mostly light setup, but PVP showed that the bigger they come the harder they fall, by taking the game with seconds remaining on the clock and four low-HP lights remaining on the map.

In game 2, PhoeniX refused to budge from their tank selection and simply changed their route of attack. They did so quite successfully, making a gradual push that got them a victory with seven tanks on the map to the one of PVP and a capture for the win with 20 seconds on the clock. Switching offensive and defensive positions, PVP went in with a plan not quite to capture, per se, but to force their opponents to move in to a position that exposed them to a ton of firepower that led to the downfall of their team. PVP took the game with six tanks on the map and a capture stopped at about 50 seconds. The final game on Murovanka was very even in initial exchanges, before PhoeniX came out on top clearly with four tanks against PVP's three. PVP knew full well that they would have to initiate a capture and eliminate the enemy team with that trump card, and they did so without dropping any of those three tanks.

The score was 3:1 as PVP went in to Map 2: Steppes. PhoeniX was on offense and they initiated a capture with the intentions of ambushing the enemy team, which saw some success; PVP rushed in to an attack that did not go well for them. With that, PhoeniX received one more point to their name. In the beginning of game two on offense for PVP, we saw them exchange somewhat evenly with PhoeniX, then they initiated a capture that reached ninety two percent before PhoeniX achieved a reset. From then on, it was a game of defensive cat and mouse between PVP and PhoeniX. PVP managed to make the clock hit 00:00.

In the third game on Steppes, PVP initiated a somewhat sneaky and sudden capture on capture point two. PhoeniX was not ready to intercept it, after the battle. This gave PVP the winning point that they needed to take the night's match.

Match 1 Winner

PVP Super Friends 5:2 PhoeniX

This one was just a bit surprising with how it was played out. In game one we saw Horseman taking a tank destroyer to the eastern hill on the map and using it to whittle down an IS-3 on Team Efficiency. Incidentally, the latter also had a defensive concave set up on the western end of the map, and that IS-3 repositioning and being taken down had a domino effect. Horseman rushed in and took the game with three tanks on the map.

In game two, Team Efficiency tried counter-acting that strategy by sending half of their team up the eastern hill. Horseman rushed in from both sides, surrounded them, and piled up the destroyed tanks from capture point two. In the next game after that, Team Efficiency rushed the 8 line on offense, cornered an IS-3 and removed him from the game. Unfortunately, Horseman's reaction was just too slow to salvage the situation and prevent them from subsequently losing the game; T-E claimed victory with five tanks on the map.

Fortunes changed for Horseman in game 4, when T-E piled in to the three line with Horseman having a more than adequate ambush ready in advance. Horseman dropped only two tanks to a single guerilla on T-E and took the game with a crash bringing the score to 3:1. Map two was on Steppes and game one was taken quite solidly by Team Efficiency, capitalising on the lack of coordination between the members of Horseman. With a T49 running for the hills, Team Efficiency took the win.

Game two was a one-for-one exchange that piled in to a slaughter in favor of Team Efficiency. Horseman attempted a capture, but it just never worked out. In game number three a very clutch capture-prevention was made, followed up by a dominating assault from Team Efficiency, giving them the win and thus putting them up one point, undefeated in this match. The situation in game four was also a very close one-for-one exchange, until Horseman emerged with two tanks against three from Team Efficiency. Although a very close fight, Team Efficiency took the second map without dropping a single game.

Match 2 Winner

Team Efficiency 5:3 Horseman

The Coalition: Singapore was disqualified due to an insufficient number of players connected to the server at the appropriate check-in time.

Match 1 Winner

Charlotte Tiger VS The Coalition - Singapore

Until now, none of us had ever seen these two teams go head-to-head, so we were genuinely curious to see how this best-of-five series would end.

We were quite pleased again to see that the first map was Murovanka. As predicted, ELONG selected a composition with predominantly light tanks while they were on defense. For the first four minutes of the game, Front Mission scouted their opponent by process of elimination, and stuck a single tank on capture point two. This forced a very patient response from ELONG, which led to Front Mission being counter-ambushed. The following engagement resulted in one tank exchanged for two in favor of ELONG, the latter surrounding Front Mission on the southeast portion of the map to get the win. Five tanks remained for ELONG as the took game one.

The two teams fielded completely identical tank loadouts for Game 2, perhaps hinting that Front Mission was capitalizing on using a different direction to attack the capture points. Unfortunately there was a divide in the push, and ELONG had a counter-attack prepared in advance. Though they failed, ELONG had only three tanks remaining on the battlefield. However, the tables were turned against the Chinese team in Game 3. With Front Mission on Defense, ELONG capitalized on piling in to capture point one from the hill on the Southwest quadrant of the map, but Front Mission were already waiting for them in a superior position. In short, they won the game with three tanks at the end.

In the final game, ELONG started off by poking around at capture point two. Seeing it was not safe after taking down the scouting tank from Front Mission, they took a long detour through their spawn point to try taking capture point one. While doing so, ELONG stumbled into an ambush that Front Mission was still setting up, and immediately seized the confusion to fight, ending the fourth game with four tanks remaining on the map.

With Ruinberg selected as the 2nd map, game one saw Front Mission on defense, with ELONG taking superior positioning in the village to the East end of the map. Front Mission piled in all but too late with only five tanks versus the full team of ELONG, although they did have an SPG. As the final tank of Front Mission was taken down, he fired a shot that killed the only tank on ELONG to fall in the game.

Game two on defense for Front Mission saw a completely identical tank setup from both sides. Initially, the rush that we saw Front Mission employ looked like it was going to win them this game. The exchange was close and Front Mission was keeping up with their opponents. We even saw friendly fire from the SPG on ELONG hitting one of their own tanks. Two full HP tanks (including the SPG) and a single one-shot tank on ELONG were all that remained at the end, which gave them their fifth and final victory of the evening.

Match 2 Winner

ELONG 5:1 Front Mission