How can we have two grand finals??
First up I should explain the slightly complicated nature of the poll which is to do with the slightly complicated nature of the match. The tournament is a double-elimination competition, so you have to lose twice to be out. RT have lost 0 matches, and SysX have lost once. So, if RT win on Sunday (on the GPZ server) they will be declared champions, but if SysX win then there will be a rematch (next Sunday, Nov 21st), as neither of them would've lost twice. SysX will have home advantage if such a rematch happens. To get a more representative/less biased poll result, RT and SysX pilots should just select one of the first two options.
Right, let's take a look at how they got to the final, also noting the faction choices & maps where available.
Rolling Thunder - route to the final
Day 1, 19th Sep 2010, victory against GB, giga against belters, map Jasper
All over in 32 minutes, GB opening op dies, RT kill some miners, GB try to bomb but fail. Top points/kills go to Fell.
Day 2, 26th Sep 2010, victory against XT, Dreg against IC, map = lead
Epic match lasting 3 hours 34, with over 1,000 kills and 34 bases destroyed. RT had the best of the start, killing opening cons & some XT miners and getting a tac. However before we could get decent defensive tech up, XT went on a bombing rampage which included us losing the $20k that was spent on a sy con (no tech base = no sy constructor). So we had to fight back, getting a new tac, an exp and continuing to kill miners. XT then got sbs and got lots of minor bases but failed to kill any tech bases due to great d and grav buying tons of defensive tech. Eventually we got sbs ourselves, killed their exp and then their sup, so they just had their home left (garr & tac). They resigned rather than waiting for us to end it as such a long game was causing RL problems. An epic game in every way.
Top kills & points goes to Phantom032
Day 3, 3rd Oct 2010, Bye
Day 4, 17th Oct 2010, victory against SysX, Dreg against IC, map = InsideOut
SysX were without their usual commander spideycw, who had got himself banned for a few days for lobby-booting. SheffWill stood in to command. SysX won the initial rush so RT re-directed their cons, and both teams went ext. Most of the game was a tale of superior miner offence by RT, who managed to get heavy ints whilst SysX only got as far as reg ints & bombers. I don't think SysX managed to get beyond 3 sectors either, but the game had an interesting end as RT put an op in SysX's exp sector and took many attempts to bomb it - slow-bombing and co-ordination was the order of the day and I have some good screenshots of it on the match report thread here. Game over in 61 minutes.
Top Kills = MoGas, Top Points = Phantom032. For SysX, Terran had most points & kills despite dying my ramming an asteroid - lesson learnt to not boost whilst flying in F3 mode!
Day 5, 24th Oct 2010, victory against XT (again), TF against dreg, map = Topaz
In a role reversal of sorts, XT fly dreg, which they lost against last time they played RT (see Day 3). This one "only" took 1 hour 50, much to the relief of both teams I would think! XT put their opening op next to RT's home. However RT manage to expand around that and have a base within 2 sectors of most of XT's sectors. Both teams then went exp. With 22 a side it proved quite hard for XT to kill RT miners - once RT got a miner to their green door it was nigh on impossible for XT to kill it as it was surrounded by a mighty cloud of plasgens - RT had slightly more success in their miner o though it was hard, long work. RT gradually started to win the economy battle and with bombers & reg ints they beat back XT and their light ints. XT soon got ints which stopped that but once RT got to hvy ints some more pushing back occurred. Soon came HTT's, a sup and adv scouts and eventually XT were down to just their expansion. This game also ended in interesting fashion as RT put a carrier into the exp sector, this carrier managed to get a kill bonus into the thirties
Eventually the game ended with fig bombers.Top kills & points to TomSawyer
The System X - route to the final
Day 1, 19th Sep 2010, Bye
Day 2, 26th Sep 2010, beat ACE Rix vs. Belters, map = InsideOut
ACE's belter sup probably surprised some people with a gutsy performance against SysX's adv. tac (with exp). SysX had the stronger opening for sure, but ACE managed to keep one miner alive for quite a while, gathering crucial funds. SysX had most of the map but first some galving and then some great bombing from the Wildcards gave them a real chance, as they killed first the SsyX tac and then the expansion as SysX were marching on ACE's bases. However they couldn't get SysX's last base, their garrison. SysX rebuilt their tac & exp, and despite a decent effort by ACE to bomb the new tac, The System X prevailed and marched on to a meeting with PK.
Day 3, 3rd Oct 2010, beat PK Giga vs. Dreg, map = Iron
This match was a bit of an epic, as PK play a great game early on only to lose. PK got an early miner and managed to bomb the giga garrison before booster 1 was purchased, however SysX still had an exp so hadn't lost just yet. However they then had the choice to bomb the SysX exp to finish it, but bombed an op instead & killed the miner. So SysX had one sector with an exp in it, and one miner, and not even booster 1. PK got an adv sup whilst SysX managed to mine to an op + sup + garr
Then PK bombed the exp but could not bomb the sup as SysX defended it well with enh figs (with some adv. tech trimmings). Galving and figbees abounded on both sides from then on, with SysX eventually emerging as the victors in around 2 hours.Day 4, 17th Oct 2010, lost to RT, see above
Day 5, 24th Oct 2010, beat GB TF vs. Dreg, map = ???
Details are a bit light in the match thread but it seemed a pretty brutal encounter, with GB only getting one full miner load and two partial miners, and SysX ending the game in fairly short order.
A pundit's view
This should be a great match against two very well-matched teams. In fact at one point during the SysX-RT match on day 3, the teams had exactly the same AllegSkill. I don't ever remember that happening before and a large factor in this has been the skilled players to have joined RT in the last year (for example Phantom032, xJammer, ynik, Sindertone). RT have been a high quality team in recent years and seem to love the tournament, in 2008 they netted a surprised 3rd place finish including their first ever victory over XT, and last year they again finished 3rd, perhaps less of a surprise but as high as they could've hoped for. This extra influx of skill along, their fantastic team ethos & spirit and the enigmatic grav commanding have brought RT to the final, and in the number 1 seed too. Who would've thought this after we finished 4th in the league?
SysX have tremendous whore power and a fantastic record, with very few defeats in the last two years. In fact they have only lost 3 league or tourney matches in 2009 & 2010, however 2 of those have been against RT, in the league in 2009 and in the recent tourney match referenced above. They haven't been fantastic in the tourney so far, flirting with danger against ACE before fighting back with giga scouts and booster-less ints against PK. They did however show devastating form against GB in their last match. I'm wary of reading too much into these results though as spidey seems to enjoy trying out different tactics, such as nerve gas & force-camping with rix adv. sfs in the first game, and not getting patties as giga can be considered to be slightly odd too. Also I don't think they will underestimate RT as they lost to them just a few weeks ago.
Another thing in RT's favour could be a couple more players making a return for the final (Abominaton1 & Koln, I'm talking about you!). I hope SysX have a big turnout so we can field as many people as possible. It should be a great game and with home advantage on the GPZ server, I think it'll be an RT win at the first attempt though if you want to make more of a case for SysX then do so as I am naturally slightly biased!
Poll results....
17 - RT to win this week
4 - RT to win next week
18 - SysX win in the replay
(24 RT pilots, 10 SysX pilots)
