MLG Teams Updated

I personally disagree with you on Ambush. Though i havent seen any LAN results of them (if they've even LAN'd yet) I believe that the four players are actually all quite strong, most people don't notice it though because they aren't the players that are mainly talked about. If you watch some of their VoD you will see what i mean. I do agree with you on the FB statement but i would like to add onto that. (1 Mackeo has improved a lot over the off-season and his and Victory X's chemistry has always been amazing. They have also always placed consistintly well when together. (2 FiS has always been great along with OG2. FB is lanning SQ right now and it seems really close, especially since SQ has been destroying teams on LAN lately, blowing out both GR8 STRIPPIN and Instinct.

Other teams are looking really great as well. You can't forget about tD, carbon, or classic in meadows though even though alot of people are. These are all great teams who seem to be getting overshadowed on the forums by teams like STR8, FB, Instinct, HaE, and SQ. You also need to watch out for the lower seeded teams as well. 11seeded Believe the Hype is looking really good and there is alot of hype over 15seeded HaE with the Dreweezy combo and hokum. IMO some of the weaker teams in this are Darkest Hour (cR) and Antigravity. On Darkest Hour both ArtofWar and Callmegod just aren't consistent and Frosty really isnt all that good. On Antigravity the only player on the squad that deserves to be in the Top 8 would be severince.
On a final note: Watch out for some of the AM bracket teams. Look out for Under The Influence, Active Rush, Florida Jackolopes, DGK, and Flatline. They all have the potential to place top 16, mainly Active Rush

 

I echo alot of your sentiments DoTTii, though I don't seem to be as up to date on the more recent VoD as you.

I was iffy abut FB when I heard about the new line up. OGRE 2 speaks for himself, no quams there of course, and I've always loved FiS as a player. His spot, face an inch from the screen, and his air of confidence and consistency, have always shown through in his playstyle imo. He's a great guy to have on a team, and was an underrated but key cornerstone of tD (more on his departure from them below). Victory X and Mackeo do have chemistry, you're not wrong there, but Mackeo's always been plagued by somewhat binary game chemistry, he's either one way or the other. I've never been to fond of him as a player, he swings wildly at times and his mental game is a lot weaker than many of his counterparts on the curcuit. But I haven't seen much of him since the end of last season, so I can't speak for how he has or hasn't improved in the off-season. It'll be interesting to see if you're right, and to see if FiS and OGRE 2 can use their really solid and consistent team presences to bring FB up.

About the FB vs Incredibles match up in the first round (who could have asked for more, seriously?), I honestly can't wait. From what little I've seen of the Incredibles, they look to be the weaker team out of the draw. But with all that's changed with FB, and all that I've said above, I can't really say. But I do know I'm gonna be watching that match so close to the screen that it would freak out even FiS himself.

Instinct, ah Instinct. I loved how Walshy took that team and settled in to it perfectly, watching them play objective games has been a real joy, especially with the beast Roy in their ranks. Soviet was another solid favourite of mine (he's another brick of a team mate, yet doesn't get the hype that guys like Neighbor or Snipedown do because he's not a center stage kinda player), but with Neighbor on their side I have really, really high hopes. Sure Neighbor's season last year was completely coloured by his switch to FB and the mess that resulted, but he says himself that it was an action of emotion and being caught up in his rise to the fore of MLG. He seems to have a genuine resolution to make good this season, to try and recapture that solid place he found within Str8 and really settle in to his stride, not just go with the moment and join a team because they are "The Dynasty" even though the chemistry isn't right. I haven't seen nearly a much of the new Instinct as I'd like to, so I can't say for sure whether Neighbor's team chemistry problems are behind him and he can get back to what he does best, utterly destroy, but I hold strong hope for Instinct in 09. With the H3 brainbox of Walshy in there to keep up the objective strength and pure focused strategy that the last incarnation of Instinct saw, but now with the force of nature which is Neighbor alongside the already beastly BR of Roy, I'm hoping for some serious on screen magic from them this year.

SQ are a fascinating phenomenom. When Strongside went with his decision to find raw talent, many saw his reasoning for jumping ship from FB, the dynasty as it stood before was clearly over, and he wanted to try something new to stay at the fore of the sport where he belongs. But I really questioned whether he'd be able to bring the new team together, especially since it wasn't thaaat long ago that he himself was being taken under the wing of an older FB and brought in to the fore of epic set ups and crushes. I even didn't feel convinced when Neighbor touted Totz as THE guy to watch this season. But with all the buzz coming from SQ, who can help but wonder how big their waves are going to be (there is no longer any question of whether or not they will make waves this year in my mind)? The LAN results that are coming out are staggering, especially against Str8 as you say (despite it being a bit of a return to H3 for Str8 as a team, they're still getting warmed up and counting them as down on last year based on the LAN results alone would be silly). Seeing those 4 do whatever they do this year is going to be something to watch, and seeing them up against VG The New Order in round one is going to be something. A mish mash of Vets vs a mish mash of relative unknowns and, of course, Strongside. Can't wait.

But the team I want to see the most are tD. Instinct have thrown this with their addition of Neighbor, but tD have been my favourite team for a while now (despite their ever changing rota last year). SK is a beast of a captain, and if you ask me not enough people appreciate that, look at how he kept his team together and going even with the player changes last season. And then there's Pistola, that little guy is so sick. I've loved watching him play since literally the first game of his I saw, I dunno why but I empathise with his play so much more than any other pro. When he pulls something sweet off, I actually get a rush closer to if I myself had done it than I thought possible watching someone else play. And when he doesn't quite hit the mark, missing the shot or the jump and getting nailed as a result, man, I feel for him. His play is just so entertaining to watch, and his skill and consistency on the feild was on the up and up right up until the very close of last season. Seeing how he plays now is something I can't wait for, especially if that tD Ons CTF rape game in this weeks MLG Top 10 user vids is anything to go by (is it just me that reaaaaally wanted to see that game from Pistola's PoV?). Heinz is also a great addition, and has proven his place at the side of Pistola beyond doubt. Having Pistola, Heinz AND Hysteria on one team is a bit mind boggling when you consider that they are all seriously great Snipers. I'd probably pin Heinz as the weakest of the 3 in this respect, but not by much, and his role as a very solid power player is clear in my eyes, as well as his chemistry with Pistola as I said. It has never been a core part of his play, but now SK isn't even gonna get a look in on that Sniper

But then there's FiS. He gawn. As I said before, I reckoned him a true cornerstone of tD as a team, and another defining factor in tD's surprising consistency last season. He sits in his spot, right up close, and can set on fire in an instant, giving his teammates the drive to follow suit and pull of some great plays. Yet, even when this wasn't the case, you would never really pick him as the weak link in any game, he does his thing with a base level of consistency and heights of going off that it's rare to see in one player. As tD was, I think he was too defining a part of the team to be replaced and not have it affect the the team as a whole. I don't think tD will in any way pale in comparison to last year based on his departure alone, but they simply can't be exactly the same team as they were last season. Too much has changed in their ranks for SK to try and use Pistola and Heinz as 'replacements', tD are going to have to change their playstyle to something different (maybe not massively in the overall scheme of things, but still noteworthy) to really go as far as they can with this new lineup. But as I said before, if there's one guy that can do this it's SK, and with the snippets I've seen of the new tD in action, I don't feel unsafe in predicting big things for them this season, and I couldn't be happier.

Meadowlands in under 3 weeks! The dust has finally and truly settled after the switch to H3, and the promise of seeing what happens in '09 has got me on the edge of my seat. This is going to be epic.

 

Damn Pegasi, you make my relatively informed opinions on this subject look like the babbling of a lunatic.

I was gonna post my predictions for top 4 that I had already posted on Zanitor's site halocrossing, but since my reasoning is roughly the same as yours just not as fleshed out, I'll just write how I think Meadowlands is gonna play out.

1: Instinct
2: Str8 Rippin
3: Triggers Down
4: Status Quo, Final Boss, or Classic.

That fourth position is really dependent on a few things. First, if Status Quo lives up to their hype, they've got Classic or Final Boss beat pretty easily, and maybe even TD or Str8. If Classic going back to their original roster is as good for them as expected, and SQ isn't quite the monster team they're said to be, they'll probably get that spot, but I don't see them beating TD. And if those other two things fail, then Final Boss has the solid players who we know what to expect from, so I think they'll settle comfortably into that position.

And I too have been a TD fan ever since I picked them based on their team name before watching my first MLG event online last year, Dallas. I had never watched any VOD or read anything about MLG events before, so I was pretty pleased with myself when my uninformed selection pulled through in such a spectacular way to beat Str8. They came through on my prediction so I decided they're my team. And I fully agree with the evaluation of Pistola, so that solidifies it, Triggers Down can count me as a fan.