As we get ready for the first round of SUN playoffs, 8 hopeful teams enter the ring with the ambition of leaving it clad in the Championship gold role…but let’s not fool ourselves. While all of them will contemplate this dream and have a chance to fulfill it, everyone isn’t going to come into it with the same aspirations. For some, getting this far has already been a success. For others, everything less than a finals appearance is a loss.
In this very transparent Bleacher Report rip-off, I’ll be looking at every team that has made the cut in SUN, diving into their own, individual storylines — ones unique to them, rather than defaulting to questioning their ability to hoist the trophy.
Grimmjow: Do They Need More Than Just Acid and Agnitos?
The stats speak for themselves — a winless record without Agnitos compared to a 9–2 winloss with him on the roster indicates that, much to the chagrin of those who protested the FA, he is definitely an upgrade. How his presence influences the team and their play is something we can only speculate on, but it’s obvious that whatever he’s doing is good.
This might also do a good job of explaining Acid’s recent transition to playing more and more safelane in RD2L, rather than mid — with roster changes in both of his teams giving him an elite safelane support (Agnitos here, Snufkin in WED), he’s been able to have an impact that might just outmatch what he’d be able to do from mid.
The question at hand, then, becomes whether a team can go far relying on a star-studded safelane — are they giving up too much with Grimmjow mid? What will their philosophy be when matched up against the kind of team where this kind of setup doesn’t favor them? This will be on show tonight, as they face a team with a higher MMR offlaner whom the pair of Acid and Agnitos might struggle to feed off of as much as they’d be able to against other teams, as well as an elite midlaner in KTZ, who — as we all know by now — thrives in games where he can demolish a lower skill enemy mid and carry the game with that advantage. On paper, putting Acid back mid for this series makes sense, but how his team approaches the matchup — and how far they can go — is yet to be seen.
Harbinger: Does Harb Need Teammates From a Higher Pedigree?
While Harb himself may be an RD2L Hall of Famer with his three championships, it’s undeniable that the makeup of the teams he’s accomplished that with is…a bit different from this one.
With Haraway as a second option, this team has two fairly strong lanes, but when comparing Harb’s past championship-winning teammates, especially in relation to the rest of the teams in those seasons, Tonino might not be the third option he’s used to. A season 16 team featuring Polarbear and Ruskomsnusk, a season 18 team featuring Cory, Blackjack and Nappa, and the utterly ridiculous season 19 team featuring Boelens, Harry and Mikel (with additional value in the lowest MMRs to boot) all outshine this lineup.
That said, I’d wager having Haraway as a dog-leashing partner is almost as good as it gets in RD2L, so if they can wrangle their zoo enough, there’s a chance that they might potentially become stable enough to let Harb have the massive impact he’s so well known for.
hi5: The Art of the Midlane
It feels almost tiring to reiterate at this point, but it’s a perennial truth for this team — KTZ’s got to win.
“rocks in cocks Victory” and “KTZ-Sama — Middle Won” are near-synonymous at this point, with generally few exceptions (most of which manifest in the form of KTZ playing a high-comfort hero that might not necessarily win the lane, or, more recently, in the form of exceptional drafts), and to threaten in the playoffs, hi5’s team will need to move past that.
They would ideally like to have either Laavi or Blackbriar grow into the role of a secondary win condition for the (admittedly rare) occasions when KTZ falters and has a suboptimal start.
With that said, I believe they’ve already made massive strides (mostly in terms of their drafting and teamplay), but it might take them stepping it up one more notch before they can start looking to seriously dent the playoff bracket.
Kevin Richardson: MMR — Just a Number?
Having the highest average MMR out of all 16 teams in SUN — even after the FA, and especially after some climbs — is a pretty dang nice quality to have. With a spread that gives them a mid-to-high 5k player in all three lanes (with Debowy, Blackjack and Kevin for safe, mid and offlane respectively), it’s hardly a surprise to see them in the playoffs.
How much does having all of these players matter, though? None of them are what one would exactly call a traditional win-condition player, at least not in the context of RD2L; I’ve already talked about the potential issues that might arise with a setup like that (big, uh, shoutouts to my WED team, I guess?), and I don’t think they’re going to change that any time soon — though, with that said, it’s worth noting they’re 4–0 with Blackjack since he’s joined, and he boasts impressive stats like a 8.25 KDA on the team.
What they can do — and will very likely need to — is try reaping the benefits of their well-balanced roster, making moves as a team to shut down their opponent’s win condition players…but can they do this in the playoffs?
Madsen: Using Your Options
A low-to-mid 5k carry (albeit an inconsistent one) supported by a 4k last pick in lane, with a (heavily sandbagged) low-to-mid 5k mid player and an offlane duo consisting of a high 3k offlaner and a nigh-6k pos 4 might just make for one of the most well-balanced rosters you can get in RD2L — but unlike Kevin’s team, my team suffers not from a lack of win conditions, but perhaps a surplus.
While at face value having the option of any of Boelens, Nils or myself having an extremely good game is massively beneficial (and don’t get me wrong — it has been, very often), it also results in having a somewhat vague and undefined team identity, never quite planning around one player’s game and instead just letting it play out a bit and going from there.
Although my team comes into the playoffs with a strong record, it will ultimately come down to our ability to make consistent use of the options we have, and for that to happen, our drafts and shotcalling will need to see some extra stability.
Maus: Rut, or Routine?
Losing Waloo for a couple of games due to PC issues might prove to become a bit of an issue for this team. While they did have a great start to the season, easily making themselves out as the second best team in the group — and one of the best in the entire division for a good while — a look over their victories suggests a slight dependence on the in-meta cores (with Kuroame’s Ursa being one of their most picked), with a lot of those being early (often first phase) picks. It wasn’t all that rare to see Kuro and Waloo’s heroes first and second picked.
However, with the shift in the metagame, a different draft system and what seems to not be very many games with the full 5-man roster recently, they might need to regroup and extensively discuss a fresh approach to the drafts, lest they find themselves lacking ideas.
With that said, both Kuroame and Waloo have fairly sizeable hero pools, so I would be a bit surprised if they genuinely struggled to adjust, but with many of their wins earlier in the season hinging on their ability to perform on strong meta heroes, adjustments will be required nonetheless.
Play: Coming Out Swinging
Another Darba team with another fairly similar story going into playoffs — whoda thunk it?
Yes, both of the teams Darba is on in season 20 are current favorites to win it all (might it have something to do with his sheet MMR? Hm.), with this one captained by Play being perhaps the most dominant in the whole season, going into round 1 with a winloss of 13–1. There’s not much they seem to struggle with (past whispers of an unideal atmosphere on occasion), so the only real concern they come in with is the pressure of being favorites.
They’ve got multiple win conditions, stable and well-rounded lanes and, I mean, they just play fairly decent Dota. At that point, they are their own biggest threat. Motivation will be the deciding factor — if they care enough to put the effort in, it’s hard to see them struggling in the early rounds, but the bit of cockiness we’ve seen from players on the team here and there could do them in. I’d mention the potential anxiety that comes with being favorites, but I don’t really get the impression that their best players necessarily suffer from this.
Nevertheless, the playoffs will be the true show of whether they’re as dominant as they seem, or if the group stage wasn’t entirely indicative how good they might truly be.
T-Reds: Your Turn to Pick
While the bit about T-Reds’ team having weird drafts might be a bit overplayed and overstated (mostly by yours truly) at this point, it nonetheless remains a focal point for this team.
A questionably early Mikel-hero pick here, some awful lanes there, the occasional splash of “eh fuck it, it’s bad but I wanna play it” and you get a winrate that gets closer and closer to 50% for a team that should be striving — based on their ability — towards 70s and 80s, and subsequently, some concerns going into playoffs.
While the foundation they build upon is very solid, the draft of this team’s playoff games will likely be the deciding factor. It could be as simple as picking stable lanes and giving Mikel good matchups, but it might also be a lot more complex than that if the hero pools don’t allow for simplicity. Nevertheless, pre-game prep is something this team will need to stress — so I guess it’s fortunate that they’re coming through with a veteran captain in T-Reds.
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