WGL APAC-Asia Week 5 Recaps

In game number 1 on Mines, the Aces executed a push that turned out to be ineffective after they lost two Tier VIII tanks and another within an inch of life, in exchange for a single T1 Cunningham and an AMX 13 90 from Intense Honking. With tunnel vision being the undoing of intense Honking, we saw one shot connect with C5M in an IS-3 that could be taken out of the game if the round had penetrated the tank.

Exposing himself to fire, we saw Honk_like_a_sir dart forwards to the IS-3, only achieving a track shot with no damage at all. Seeing an opportunity, the Aces occupying the center hill picked off the tank and followed up with a rush wards Intense Honking’s tanks. While that last bit of action certainly required skill, it would be difficult to deny that there was a little luck involved as well.

Game number 2 was played on Himmelsdorf. The Aces began the game by playing off of their one point advantage, setting up a variant of the camping tactic we usually see for North-side spawns. However, this atypical camping set up would soon become the key to their eventual downfall.

First, Zeus overextended his position and ended up falling very quickly, allowing Intense Honking to take advantage of the situation to push the Aces base. A backdoor attempt with the Aces T1 cunningham was started, but there wasn’t enough time on the clock for the capture to finish. With three seconds on the clock remaining, Intense Honking became victorious, pulling the score back to 1:1. In our opinion, 'amazing' doesn’t begin to describe this game!

Unfortunately, the same momentum can't be said for game number 3 on Cliffs, as we saw a somewhat lackluster draw with only a few tanks being traded here and there, putting the end score to 2:2. A decisive fourth and final game on Ruinberg occured after that, with Intense Honking casually strolling into their opponent's base after winning a majority Tier VIII tank fight. Hades was struggling for dear life to get the reset, but to no avail. The set goes to Intense Honking 3:2.

Match 1 Winner



NVIDIA Aces 2:3 Intense Honking

In game number 1 on Mines, we witnessed a strategy never previously employed in the WGL: ELong sent an AMX 13 90 to the far west end of the map to scout all of the tanks coming from Charlotte Tiger, and sent two OBJ 416 tanks to the lighthouse. The ensuing chaos became a meat-grinder that swiftly tore up the heavy tanks. Although ELong secured complete victory here, game number 2 on Cliffs however gradually fell in to the hands of Charlotte Tiger, bringing the score to 1:1 again.

In contrast to the first two games, number 3 on Prokhorovka saw a stalemate, due to a lack of confidence from both sides with taking the offensive throughout a majority of the game's duration.

Game Number four on Ensk was very standard in the way of tank load-out from both sides. The final showdown with nothing but IS-3s and AMX 50 100s was taken somewhat narrowly by ELong, putting them at 13 points for the entire gold series.

Match 2 Winner



Charlotte Tiger 2:3 ELong

Game number 1 was fast paced and frantic as we saw two AMX 13 90s rush immediately for the center hill on Mines. This worked to their advantage as the more heavily armored composition of PVP tried poking in, consequently exposing them to fire from both the tanks on the center hill as well as tanks from the North side of the map. NUMB takes game number 1 in solid fashion, though not quite a total slaughter.

Game number 2 on Cliffs was perhaps the fastest game we had ever seen in WGL Season 2. It was one team of five AMX 13 90s for NUMB vs. three AMX 13 90s and two T69s on PVP Super Friends. NUMB made the mistake of rushing their opposing team almost one at a time against the T69s, which essentially hard-counter AMX 13 90s. The play backfired on NUMB as they only took down two AMX 13 90s while losing four of their own. Vindi on team NUMB eventually drowned his tank, ending the game.

Game number 3 on Prokhorovka takes the cake as the closest game in the set. Both sides initiated captures and tried head-on exchanges of tanks and in the end it came down to two low-HP tanks on team NUMB to seal out the win.

The fourth game on Ensk saw NUMB lose both of their T1 Cunninghams early on in the game. Regardless, PVP Super Friends tried initiating a capture, reaching 70% on the capture of NUMB’s base before a nice crush on a T1 Cunningham coming from Joke_NUMB, resetting the capture 100%. Three Tier 8 tanks remain on NUMB, sealing out the series with an end-score of 3:1.

Match 1 Winner



NUMB 3:1 PVP Super Friends

In game 1 on Cliffs saw the NightEagles quickly lose both of their T1 cunninghams, causing them to realise that Team Efficiency would have a chance to risk a rush with no penalties (assuming that they hid their final T1 in the appropriate position). With 2 minutes remaining on the clock, the NightEagles sent three AMX 13 90s to try a capture, but it didn’t work out. Team Efficiency eventually took the win, stopping the clock at 00:10.

Game number 2 on Mines fell in to the hands of Team Efficiency again when both sides rushed for the center hill. To put it simply, The Taiwanese team was entirely out-played by their opponents on this map. This feat would repeat itself in game number 3 on Prokhorovka, with no captures attempted at all.

On hindsight, it seemed that the NightEagles were looking to diversify their strategies and pull out a win through the element of surprise. Unfortunately, they could not fool Team Efficiency, who takes the match 3:0.

Match 2 Winner

GASHPLUS_NightEagles 0:3 Team Efficiency