[TF2] Let's Play~!!!!! - Page 15

Moose wrote
Hi there,

The ETF2L Nations Cup has now reached the semi final stage. Only the best four teams remain from the 30 nations that started the cup. The first semi final will be played tonight, and the second one on Wednesday. I will update SourceTV and live stream links to this thread once they're available.

England vs Sweden
Tonight, 20:15 GMT (8:15PM UTC)
Maps - cp_badlands / cp_granary (cp_gravelpit as decider)
SourceTV: to be announced - Live Stream: tba

England:
Medic - dunc
Demoman - Byte or numlocked
Soldiers - Fragga, boomeh or matji
Scouts / utility - Shintaz, Fisshu or AcidReniX

Sweden:
Medic - lezek
Demoman - ryb
Soldiers - appe and weqo
Scouts / utility - bybben and wltrs

The first game between England and Sweden is at least on paper the more interesting one. In last years Nations Cup, both teams were knocked out in the semi finals when Sweden lost to Finland and Belgium surprised England. Back then and even now Finland and Sweden are considered to be the top two seeds, and this year the admins made sure that they wouldn't meet before the final.

Sweden has pretty much an all-star team, especially appe, ryb and bybben from Team Dignitas and wltrs from Power Gaming are all Europe's elite with their respective classes. Only weaknesses the team might have are lezek with Medic as he's been quite inactive this year and weqo, who has to play Soldier in this team even though his main class is Demoman. Both of them are as experienced players as you can find in TF2, so I doubt this will be much of a hindrance for Sweden.

Even though Sweden is the favourite for this match, England is by no means going to be an easy opponent. Dunc is one of the most experienced and capable in-game leaders, so his calls will be valuable for the team. The Demoman's spot will be a tough decidion for dunc to make, as both Byte and numlocked are very, very good with the said class. However, their play style is quite different and the whole team's strategy will be based on which demo they have playing. Byte is a cautious player, never letting himself caught off-guard and with him, the team has to play with a slower pace. With numlocked, the team will have to go in with considerable aggression, since numlocked himself is the more aggressive player. England has a very solid Soldier pair, especially if both Fragga and boomeh play. Their Scouts are probably the weakest link in this team. Shintaz has been inactive and the whole trio can simply be outmatched by Sweden's bybben and wltrs. Nevertheless, I'm expecting this game to be a real thriller!

Finland vs Norway
Wednesday 4th Nov, 20:15 GMT (8:15PM UTC)
Maps - cp_badlands / cp_granary (cp_gravelpit as decider)
SourceTV: to be announced - Live Stream: tba

Finland:
Medic - kyynel or Agron
Demoman - hymzi or Bash
Soldiers - hocz, Darn or Moose
Scouts / utilities - Rebeli, Haza or vaxjo

Norway:
Medic - Torden
Demoman - Macisum
Soldiers - Dr. Leon and Braffle
Scouts / utilities - BERSERKER and treigzak

Finland is the defending champion, and they were seeded as #1 for this years nations cup as well. And since Norway is thought to be the weakest team out of the four semi finalists, this match might end up being a bit one-sided. However, Finland didn't play as strong as they were expected to against Russia and Israel earlier in the play-offs. Still, they won both games with straight 2-0 map wins, so maybe they didn't have to use their full potential in these matches. Norway on the other hand played two very tight play-off matches against Denmark and Poland, winning both games 2-1.

Finland has the widest range of player material available for the team. Despite having a relatively small scene, they have more players than any other nation playing in the top ranked teams in Europe. They can easily replace any single player in the team with one who's equally skilled for that position. However, this may be their biggest weakness as well, since Finland has played all their matches with different line-ups, while Sweden for example has always used the same six players. This is never a good thing for team play, and Finland may not have had time to figure out how each player reacts and moves in the game. This is something that will very easily cost you the match on this level of game.

Norway has only a handful of players who have experience from the top tier games, namely Torden, treigzak and Skre. And with Skre being inactive, he won't be much of a help for the team. Torden however is a very smart player, and the team is definitely going to need good calls from him if they intend to survive in this match. BERSERKER is a highly rated player as a Scout and Sniper, but I haven't really seen him or the other division 2 players like Macisum, Dr. Leon Braffle playing that often so it's hard for me to guess how they might do in this game. It's certain however that they will all have to show their A-level game in this match to have any chance to take the spot in the final.