MLG Dallas 1st-3rd of April

The first event of the 2011 MLG season, and Reach's introduction to the Pro Circuit, is almost upon us. The top 16 roster lock went by a little while ago and the teams now look like this:

1. Final Boss – OG2, Victory X, FearItself, Pistola
2. Instinct – Tsquared, Roy, Lunchbox, Totz
3. Status Quo – Flamesword, Ace, Enable, Assault
4. Triggers Down – SK, Hysteria, Heinz, Best Man
5. Believe the Hype – APG, Cloud, Clutch, Maniac
6. Dynasty – Destin, GH057ayame, Tizoxic, Snipedown
7. Warriors – Robbie B, ElamiteWarrior, Strongside, Snake Bite
8. Classic – Chig, Soldier187, Sypher, Anarchy
9. Impact – Lethul, Neighbor, Amish Acorns, Adrenaline
10. RGC Ambush – GunShot, Monster, Aries, InSaiyan
11. UoR Invictus – Watch, Calm, Swift Kill, Ninja
12. Darkest Hour – Twylight, Goofy, Legit, Naded
13. Power – BUK 20, BUK 57, MVP, Loco
14. Second Nature – Goatsi, Trigga, FeaR, Entry
15. Gimme My Money – Elitest, Mikwen, Reliable, Twin Savior
16. Carbon – Walshy, Russo, ScarVayne, LifeStyle

Source

If you haven't been keeping up with the teams over the off-season then this will be your first indication of the serious changes that went down. Walshy only made it in to the top 16 because Legendz (SS's team) disbanded, leaving Defy out of the top 16 and an F/A. And in case it had slipped your attention, Str8 Rippin is no more. T2 is now on Instinct and the Str8 name appears to have gone, for now at least, I can't imagine that any other team would be allowed to pick it up. You may also be getting some de ja vu with the new tD roster, who picked up Heinz in place of Hysteria, but then made the surprise move of dropping Neighbor and brining back in the newly reformed duo of Hysteria and SK in a return to 3/4 of the incredibly successful 2009 roster.

The only teams to go without a roster change have been Status Quo, Power and UoR Invictus (formerly known as Victorious Secret). On that note, there were a couple of forced team name changes due to MLG reportedly feeling that current team names were in some way inappropriate. These included Victorious Secret (now UoR Invictus), Sicker than Yo Average (now Impact) and was originally going to affect Gimme My Money as well, but it then emerged that they would be allowed to keep their names. There was no proper official explanation on this, and it's really being mentioned here only to avoid confusion as to why certain teams appear to have disappeared.

If you've been keeping up with events over at TLN then you'll know that many LANs have taken place and various teams have already tested themselves against other top 16 seeds with pretty interesting results. FB are looking very strong, but then again the newly formed Instinct have also had very impressive showings and are definitely the most practiced of the top 16 in terms of LANs. Needless to say, Dallas is going to be a seriously interesting and unpredictable event.

EDIT: Dallas will also see the introduction of Pool Play to the Pro Circuit, which will eliminate the need for placement rounds before LB play can take place and continue. There will be 4 pools, each with 4 of the top 16 teams and 1 of the 4 top teams who make it out of AM. Click the spoiler below for more information on the pool lineups and links to help you understand how it'll work.

Spoiler

Dallas Halo Reach pools:

Pool A:
1. Final Boss – OG2, Victory X, FearItself, Pistola
8. Classic – Chig, Soldier187, Sypher, Cpt Anarchy
9. Impact – Lethul, Neighbor, Amish Acorns, Adrenaline
16. Carbon – Walshy, Russo, ScarVayne, LifeStyle
17. Top advancing AM team

Pool B:
2. Instinct – Tsquared, Roy, Lunchbox, Totz
7. UoR Warriors – Robbie B, ElamiteWarrior, Strongside, Snake Bite
10. RGC Ambush – GunShot, Monster, Aries, InSaiyan
15. Gimme My Money – Elitest, Mikwen, Reliable, Twin Savior
18. 2nd advancing AM team

Pool C:
3. Status Quo – Flamesword, Ace, Enable, Assault
6. Dynasty – Destin, GH057ayame, Tizoxic, Snipedown
11. UoR Invictus – Watch, Calm, Swift Kill, Ninja
14. Second Nature – Goatsi, Trigga, Entry, FeaR
19. 3rd advancing AM team

Pool D:
4. Triggers Down – SK, Heinz, Hysteria, Best Man
5. Believe the Hype – APG, Cloud, Clutch, Maniac
12. Darkest Hour – Twylight, Goofy, Legit, Naded
13. Power – BUK 20, BUK 57, MVP, Loco
20. 4th advancing AM team

Source

Pool play announcement
Pool play rules
Guide to pool play with Pool A as an example (most useful if you're confused)

 

Unlikely tbh, Instinct have Old Spice sponsorships and I'm pretty sure they're tied to the name, plus the name has a lot of weight behind it with the twins. If they were going to change I reckon they would have done it when they formed. I can see Str8 returning one day when T2 can pull it off, but I think for now it may have been put to sleep for a long time.

 

I want to put FB at 1st but I just can't, I know they took their tourney at TLN but they haven't got the practice of other teams and I can't believe that we'll go all weekend without that showing. Still, anything other than 1st will cause them to rally back next event if you ask me.

 

Only 1 team from each pool can come out in the WB. I think that the winner of each pool will enter in the WBSemis (obviously this is correct since it will be 4 teams, it's the rest I'm not too sure on), 2nd in each pool enter at LBR6, 3rd at LBR5, 4th at LBR4 and 5th at LBR3. Before that will be teams that made it out of AM but didn't go undefeated, so 21st-24th will enter at LBR2 and 25-32 at LBR1. I gathered this from here but as I say I'm not quite sure.

Based on that and rough working out in my head, the following is true regardless of bracket match ups:
-Two teams both from the same pool could face each other in the champ match as long as one of them finished first in their pool and thus went in to the WB.
-Therefore, two teams from the same bracket cannot face one another in the champ match if both of them came 2nd or below in their pool (since they will both be in the LB as a result and thus one will be eliminated by the champ match).

Past that, possible match ups and thus impossible placings depend on the brackets, and my brain is too tired to work that out right now.

EDIT: And yes, SQ and Invictus are both in the same pool, dunno what that means in terms of impossible placings though, like I say. Gonna add the pools to the OP as well, thanks for the reminder.

 

I mean impossible based on earlier results. Obviously at the start of the tournament anyone can place anywhere, otherwise it'd be unfair as you say, but after certain matches have been played then there are some predictions that are impossible, for example two teams both placing top 4 when they face one another early on in the LB. The results of the pool are key in this seeing as they define where teams enter the LB, and something like two teams who both place 3rd in pools A and B respectively (this is just an example to illustrate how specific pools are important, seeing as which teams play one another at each round is defined by which pool they came from) could not both get top 4. I'm not sure if that specific example is true because I don't know how the games are set up based on original pool, but I'm pretty sure there will be some placings which are at least mutually exclusive rather than impossible once pool play has finished.

But yeah, 'impossible placings' was a bad way of putting it, you're right. There are only mutually exclusive placings, thus impossible sets of predictions, and even those are dependant on how pool play goes.

 

Still not sure how I feel about this Impact lineup. Insane amount of talent there, but I can't find that that 'anchor' that I always like to see in a well rounded squad. However, the same was true of tD at the close of H3 and look how well they did, so idk.

Also, you guys may find the results of the final TLN LAN before Dallas quite interesting.

BtH did serious work all weekend but fell off the in LBF against tD. Power pulled a surprise upset 3-0 over Instinct knocking them in to the LB after being very flat through all the placement matches, but then failed to take another game in the rest of the tourney and got knocked out. As a result Instinct also got knocked out early to the surprise of many. That left a tD vs. FB final which FB took 3-2. I actually feel more comfortable about hoping for them to place first based on that.

Warriors and Classic were pretty flat all weekend, more so with the latter, and SQ weren't at this LAN so it's hard to place them within this hierarchy so close to the event. I still think they pose a major threat to anyone going for 1st, I'd love to see a repeat of '10 Dallas with an SQ vs. FB final.

 

Yup I actually grabbed the HQ for this one, though I don't know what's extra that you couldn't see on SD other than a few player interviews so I've heard. I'll be on FH and MyMLG chat for as long as I'm watching. What's your MLG username so I can add you over there for chat?

 

KK dude, will add you anyway but I'll try to keep you updated on your VMs here.

 

Standard Definition, the regular stream rather than the HQ stream. And will do, not sure how much Open Bracket coverage we'll get but I'll see what I can find out and link in terms of youtube stuff.

BTW, I couldn't find you on MyMLG when searching for that username.