Another day, another set of data to scroll through. We’re back in NA, and this time, we’ll be taking a look at three more Divisions, which will funnel into two playoffs, and which will naturally end with having one champion each. But that is a ways off: quite a ways in fact. For now, let’s just dive into:
For now, there are three teams that remain undefeated. X’s Men, Cosmos, and No Face all are yet to lose a series, and if you want to split hairs, No Face also hasn’t lost a single map. The other two have only lost one, which really shouldn’t make too much of a difference for the match between X’s Men and No Face that will happen a few hours after this blog goes live. The first team have brought a total of twenty-seven different heroes out in nine games, whereas No Face prefers to throw owls at the opponent: Tyrande is their most-played. Cosmos, so far, have relied heavily on Deckard and Fenix, even after the throughput nerf to the former.
Sailing the third of the five Divisions as well are two pirate-themed teams. (I can only assume that using the Blackheart announcer is mandatory for all players involved.) Pirate Boat are doing rather well for themselves, currently leading on account of none of the undefeated teams having played a fifth round yet, and they have a chance to fire a broadside into Cosmos’s hopes in Round 6. Dread Pirates are on three out of four, and another win should allow them to set course for the playoffs. Their most picked map is Tomb of the Spider Queen, which smells like a poor substitute for the map that would give them a natural home field advantage. Unfortunately for them, Blackheart’s Bay isn’t allowed this season.
In today’s occurences of utterances one might make while playing ranked, we have Team BrainDead and Can’t Counterpick Stupid. The unifying factor between the two teams, of course, is that Genji is banned a good amount; something that is expected to some degree - as per Team BrainDead’s three bans - but the eight bans of Can’t Counterpick Stupid reveals a tale of potentially someone getting Genji’d one too many times. Can’t blame them, though; good Genjis are a nightmare.
One FAT is still here, and though I am told that in some games, she is S-tier, Jigglypuff aren’t doing too hot in Heroes Lounge. Being entirely fair, though, they were matched with Pirate Boat in round 2, and everything is close together. Meanwhile, Virtual Murky Slayers might have indirectly had something to do with the bad season for the Church of Murky. I wish that these two teams ended up facing each other at one point, and naturally, Murky himself needs to be picked in that match. But that is for a future that may or may not come to pass.
Two teams remain unbeaten. FAT Rattata and Goodbye Forever, which accurately explains my attitude towards Rattata in most Pokémon games. Make no mistake, though, these Rattatas are to be feared, losing only a single map and demolishing current #2 The One Sharklet in the previous round. The two teams will meet in Round 6, and don’t expect Genji to come in here either. Neither team plays him and both teams are fine banning the cybernetic ninja.
If you’re hungry, well, this is your division. The caster-heavy team of Once Bitten Thrice Pie is here, as well as some Montreal-style beigels. Both are sitting on three wins and seven maps, except the beigels, or bagels, haven’t played out their fifth round yet. Once Bitten might need to check the temperature on their oven, though, as both Blaze and Kael’thas haven’t been working out all that well for them. The One Sharklet, mentioned earlier, might look to snap the beigels up in Round 6, and they might be bringing Samuro to do so - 5 games played, 5 games won.
It is a sad but unavoidable fact of any volunteer league that teams that don’t do overly well often end up quitting, which is honestly why the amount of teams on one won match surprises me. Even rarer is when some of the names actually match in a more unfortunate set of nomen est omen. Roll1 Esports aren’t quite rolling natural 1s this season, but it’s not been one filled with success either. Tactical Feeding have only won two maps the entire season. Curiously, Alarak was present in both - and since he’s one of few heroes that can benefit off of your allies dying… I think the Highlord might need to be brought out more often for some Pure Malice.
Sparsely populated is the best way of putting it. Division 1 was always already slated to be smaller than the rest, and the December announcement did it little good. Still though, two teams remain undefeated. Broken Alliance Gaming are the first, and Proxy Nexus are the second. They’ll face off in Round 6, and look for both Abathur and Raynor to be hotly contested as both teams like these two Starcraft heroes. Expect Volskaya Foundry to show up as well; Broken Alliance likes the map and it’s the only map Proxy Nexus have lost on this season.
Apart from the Starcraft strategy of proxying a Nexus, we also have some Heroes-related stratagems-for-teamnames in the Division. Five Man Split Push sounds like what everyone’s average gameplan is these days, what with minions being a high priority at the moment. They do run a few heroes that are good at clearing the minions in Fenix, Hanzo, and Johanna. Juice Pirates aren’t living up to their name by not picking Lt. Morales once. And not playing Sky Temple, which is the strategy’s best map. For shame, people, for shame.
We also have some extracurricular clubs lying around. Doki Doki Hots Club aren’t really inflicting horror and despair on the Division so far, winning twice and losing twice. They prefer Jaina when running it down, to some success and a couple of bans when they don’t feel like playing the sorceress. Boosted Bunker Club does like to run Blaze, but his winrate is actually lower than the team as a whole, so I guess the way you should read that is ‘Boosted Bunker’ Club, and not, not Boosted ‘Bunker Club’. They’re certainly doing okay, currently finding themselves in the fourth spot.
And that is all of NA so far. If you feel like I did a team wrong, please let me know on Discord, and also stick around for tomorrow, because we’re not done just yet.
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