Archive for the ‘Matches’ Category

ENSL S15W5 vs. TROLLS

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Status: Postponed

 

Match: 9L vs. TROLLS

Date: 7th of November 2010, 20:00 CET

Maps: ns_origin, ns_eclipse

 

9L: TBA

TROLLS: TBA

 

Result: TBA

Downloads: TBA

 

 

Preface

 

The top match of the league part of the season is coming up this week. The 9L-TROLLS drama has been going on for a while now, and although it’s pretty weak stuff, it’s better than nothing. The outcome of this match probably doesn’t make much of a difference, but e-egos are on the line and both 9L and TROLLS have those in abundance. This should be an intense, closely fought and entertaining match — and who knows, maybe there will even be some proper drama and rivalry to add some excitement to this season.

ENSL S15W4 vs. Prostokvashino

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Status: Postponed

 

Match: 9L vs. Prostokvashino

Date: Postponed until further notice.

Maps: ns_tanith, ns_origin

 

9L: TBA

Prostokvashino: TBA

 

Result: TBA

Downloads: TBA

 

 

Preface

 

A more relaxing week for us than last, as we feel that we’ve got pretty good control over Prosto from the PCWs we’ve played — as opposed to last week, when we had no idea what to expect from Saunamen. Still, there’s no doubt Prosto have several able players, especially in Snake, bHack and mp and we’re going to have to play our best to get the 4-0 we want.

 

Points might end up not mattering much though. I don’t think it’s been decided yet if there will be semis or a straight final this season? I guess it’s going to be semis even though that makes the league portion of the season pointless. Makes no sense to me, but I digress… In any case I’m sure it’s going to be a GG as the Russians have proven to be one of the most civilised top teams and are always fun to play against.

ENSL S15W3 vs. Saunamen

Sunday, October 24th, 2010

Status: Finished

 

Match: 9L vs. Saunamen

Date: 24th of October 2010, 20:00 CET

Maps: ns_metal, ns_tanith

 

9L: Doctor, dux, enigmatic, Fana, franky, lagga, mOkezi, s4

Team Fantasy: jiriki, leipa, Nde, Peacham, Tane, Yufa

 

Result: 3 – 1

Downloads: HLTV demo

 

 

Recap

 

I was very pleasantly surprised by Saunamen turning up for this match. Hopefully this means they’re getting back to activity. We’d been practicing sporadically for this match, as we didn’t think we’d get to play it, but it turned out that was enough. Some excellent shotgunning by marko on metal, safe Fading by franky and pro Lerking by enig were high points of the match. Our alien rounds were rock solid, but we had some trouble on the marine rounds.

 

Saunamen surprised us by doing some weird one RT strat on metal, which really put us off our game, but we managed to win the game through sheer pressure on their starting Hive. Unfortunately we weren’t able to keep alien res down on tanith and ended up being swamped by fades even though we killed 10+. Kudos to Tane for carrying Sauna through the midgame as super risky Fade.

 

All in all I’m happy with our performance and we’re going to work hard on fixing our weaknesses in time for the final.

ENSL S15W1 vs. Team Fantasy

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

Status: Finished

 

Match: 9L vs. Team Fantasy

Date: 10th of October 2010, 20:00 CET

Maps: ns_veil, ns_lucid

 

9L: dux, Fana, franky, lagga, marko, s4

Team Fantasy: Aleksi, ekri, elynn, LizardKing, TrC, Varathar

 

Result: 4 – 0

Downloads: HLTV demo

 

 

Preface

 

The first match for our new team against the haphazard but veteran Team Fantasy. Judging by player strength alone, we should have this in the bag. However things are never that simple. We’ve only been playing together for a couple of weeks now and we’re still in the early stages of gelling as a team. Team Fantasy on the other hand have been playing together for years and won’t have any trouble in that department. The second map choice of ns_lucid adds another joker to the deck, which could benefit either team. Anything but a victory will be a disappointment for us obviously, but losing a round wouldn’t be too shocking.

 

 

Recap

 

This was a lock for us. No mistakes and clean, controlled play throughout. The kind of stuff that makes in-game leaders all moist. In summary: marko brought the aimbot shotgun, franky’s fade was as safe as the United States gold reserve and dux’ meds struck us like lightning seeking lightning rods. Good game.

ENSL S13 semi final vs. Saunamen

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

Status: Finished

 

Match: 9L vs. Saunamen

Date: 13th of December 2009, 20:00 CET

Maps: ns_veil, ns_origin

 

9L: Fana, morphz, sherpa, Sublime, Pizza, wltrs

Saunamen: enigmatic, Kuitmo, leipa, Peacham, Talis, Tane, vartija

 

Result: 1 – 3

Downloads: HLTV demo

 

 

Recap

 

It was fun.

 

Preface

 

This should be fun.

ENSL S13W5 vs. Turning Point

Friday, December 4th, 2009

Status: Finished

 

Match: 9L vs. Turning Point

Date: 6th of December 2009, 20:00 CET

Maps: ns_tanith, ns_eclipse

 

9L: dux, evilness, Fana, morphz, Oetel, sherpa

Turning Point: Air, Almaty, CoBvsCoF, kranky, LS, noway, Pyromatic

 

Result: 3 – 1

Downloads: HLTV demo

 

 

Recap

 

Another week in inactiveland. We managed to get evilness to step in at the last moment so we could actually play the match. Big thanks to him. This is a match I’d rather forget as soon as possible however. I don’t think I’ve ever played this bad… and I’ve played bad. Kudos to Turning Point for putting up a good fight though, it turned out to be a pretty exciting match, even though mostly for the wrong reasons. Groovy commanding from sherpa, safe lerking from Oetel and mop carried. GG.

 

Preface

 

On paper, this should be an easy 4-0 for us. However, we’ve been having some activity problems lately due to massive inactivity from certain players. Turning Point on the other hand have recently strengthened their roster by adding past UGO player macpersil to their roster. In addition, we may not have an actual comm for the match, as sherpa isn’t sure if he can play. b1 is busy making Christmas food and JustMe is — apparently — not playing with us anymore. Should be fun!

ENSL S13W4 vs. 250 de ping

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Status: Finished

 

Match: 9L vs. 250 de ping

Date: 29th of November 2009, 20:00 CET

Maps: ns_metal, ns_tanith

 

9L: dux, Fana, koetje, morphz, Pizza (vax), sherpa

250 de ping: BatraxJr, cond0r, CrovaX, fitoX, Herrsheimer, Hitman, Hudson, LaTOO, Snail

 

Result: 4 – 0

Downloads: HLTV demo

 

 

Recap

 

Fortunately Pizza was able to step in, as we were unable to field six from our regular roster. Embarrassing.

 

As expected, the high pings resulted in awkward gameplay. Nothing game changing however. 250 de ping put up stiff resistance on our metal alien and tanith marine especially, but we prevailed in the end. Our metal alien started out tragically bad. No teamplay and poor individual choices let them get a big early advantage. Morphz fortunately pulled out his oldschool fading skills and we managed to get the second hive up. They camped PGs and defended res until they had JPs and HAs, but once we managed to get the third hive building they had to push — that’s when we devastated their res and won the game. Split MOTM to sherpa and morphz for cool commanding and reliable fading.

 

Preface

 

Judging by the results so far, this should be an easy one for us. However, we’ve never played against this team and we don’t really know what to expect. Add to that the high pings, as Europe plays against Argentina on an American server, and suddenly there’s a volatile mixture in the pot.

ENSL S13W3 vs. take over

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Status: Finished

 

Match: 9L vs. take over

Date: 22nd of November 2009, 20:00 CET

Maps: ns_veil, ns_metal

 

9L: Almaty (merc ns_veil marine), dux, Fana, koetje, morphz, pantsu, Sublime

take over: beefcake, Danny, franky, king_yo, s4druid, Scale, x-man

 

Result: 1 – 3

Downloads: HLTV demo

 

 

Recap

 

Not a good day in 9L land. With three commanders you would imagine we have it covered, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. Sherpa lost his connection to Steam and couldn’t reconnect, while our two other comms were nowhere to be seen. And if that wasn’t enough, the plugin malfunctioned and refused to let Sublime join on our ns_veil marine round. We tried our best to cope under the circumstances and I think we did fairly well, but it wasn’t enough.

 

I’m actually pretty happy with our alien rounds, even if the score doesn’t reflect it. We lost both rounds, but it was mostly due to specific mistakes. Our scouting was abysmal, letting them get PGs up all over the map without any opposition and my Fading was worse than ever. There’s a good chance you’ll be seeing me do something else in our next matches. With some more practice I’m confident we can work out these issues and more however. Taking on Saunamen in the semi final is going to be a monumental task, but we’re going to give it our best shot.

 

As for a quick and dirty recap, here goes: We started out as alien on ns_veil, with a spunky new strat. We controlled the game fairly well early game, but let them get a PG up in C12 unopposed. They quickly reacted to the Hive being dropped and with me completely failing as Fade, it was game over. Second round marine we decided to shotgun rush, as we didn’t have a comm. Unfortunately the plugin malfunctioned and refused to let Sublime join the team, so we had to do it with five players. We made a good effort, but failed to kill the hive. After a quick map change, take over agreed to replay the last round. After a lengthy debate between the teams, we got Almaty from UGO to merc as commander. We tried to play it properly, but as is often the case when you play with a comm you’ve never played with before, things got very confusing. We pretty much got rolled and the score was 2-0 to take over.

 

Change of scenery to ns_metal, with 9L starting as aliens again. This was pretty much a repeat of the ns_veil round. Solid control early game, followed by horrible Fading and confusion mid to late game. On marines we once again opted to go for the cheesy shotgun rush, after some group therapy on vent (read: rage). Take over quickly realized what we were doing and dropped SCs. Hilarity ensued, but in the end we managed to come out on top through mixed skill, luck and OP mines. Round very much worth watching.

 

Thanks to take over for replaying the round where the plugin malfunctioned and to Almaty for stepping in as merc one round.

 

Preface

 

This week’s top match and Group B’s deciding match, as old school meets new school. We’ll be facing take over, the recently formed clan that stole franky from us earlier this season. We’ve been slowly but steadily improving lately, while they’ve been simmering on a reliably high level since day one. There’s no denying that they’re the favourites going into this match, but we’re going to do our best to put those predictions to shame.

 

Not only is this going to be a very exciting match to play and watch, it’s also of great importance to both teams. The winner of this match is likely going to win the group, and thereby getting the number one seed for the semi finals. A likely prediction would be that the winner of this match faces UGO, while the loser faces Saunamen. While both Saunamen and UGO are formidable opponents, UGO seems like the easier route to the final. I’m sure both teams are well aware of this, and the combination of prestige and rewards should make it a very tense match indeed.

ENSL S13W2 vs. Tuxedo Men

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Status: Finished

 

Match: 9L vs. Tuxedo Men

Date: 15th of November 2009, 20:00 CET

Maps: ns_origin, ns_veil

 

9L: dux, Fana, morphz, Oetel, pantsu, sherpa, Sublime

Keen Edge: Dw, Hanzo, jiriki, Maxx, psyc0mus, scary_jeff, Sonder

 

Result: 4 – 0

Downloads: HLTV demo

 

Recap

 

Another rough performance that still left us with all the points. The forfeit timer actually almost ran out the first round, as three of our players were having connection problems. From there on and out it was a rollercoaster of good and bad. We got some good teamwork going at times, but constant small mistakes kept holding us back. Still, it was a fun and at times challenging match to play, and that’s really all you can ask for.

 

The last round of the HLTV demo got cut off, but you’re only missing a couple of minutes of spawncamping after I run into the hive. Not entirely sure what happened, but I’m guessing the HLTV disconnected from the server before it was able to catch up to the HLTV delay.

ENSL S13W1 vs. Keen Edge

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

Status: Finished

 

Match: 9L vs. Keen Edge

Date: 5th of November 2009, 22:30 CET

Maps: ns_eclipse, ns_origin

 

9L: dux, Fana, JustMe, morphz, Sublime, wltrs

Keen Edge: Arj, Chb, Cursed, huhuh, marmotte, Meyfarth, Terra

 

Result: 4 – 0

Downloads: HLTV demo

 

Recap

 

This was a bit of a strange one, as it was played entirely on a whim. We’d been struggling with arranging a date and time for the match, as kE was unable to field a team on the default time, and we didn’t have any commanders available on thursday, friday or saturday. On thursday however, it just so happened that we had JustMe — of late BM fame — practicing with us. I noticed that kE were also playing, and decided to give it a go. JustMe isn’t formally on our team, but kE allowed him to play (fair play gents). A bit of a risky move since we’d never played with him before, but that didn’t turn out to be a problem at all.

 

Rusty we may be, we were still the overwhelming favourites. This turned out to be an accurate description, as the match was pretty one-sided. It wasn’t very exciting, so I’ll spare you the details. JustMe did great as comm, especially considering neither him nor us knew what to expect from each other and wltrs brought the ownzor. Our Alien teamplay was also pretty decent — definitely improved in the last few weeks. Sublime’s Lerk was especially deadly. In the end I think wltrs deserves MOTM for his Marine on origin, but Sublime was only a hair behind. My Fading was terrible, but at least I didn’t die this time. Improvement!

 

Nec0, from the Korean team Demonic Soul, made a short highlights clip from the match. Great idea, so creds to him for that. There were some problems with the HLTV demos on ENSL, but that should be fixed now. The file on ninelegends.com contains both maps and all rounds in any case. I’d also like to thank x-man for reffing on very short notice, even when he didn’t have a proper computer available.