Hi! I got into TL because of FPL, partly thanks to The_Templar's recaps in round 1. Those have been a little rarer recently (Templar is a busy man), so I figured that since I was thinking about FPL a lot, I might as well try to write about it. I ripped off the format from Templar, as you can see, with his quasi-permission. This is obviously not official TL material, just a fan's perspective.
Player of the week:
Solar appeared in the lineup: 1 point
Solar beat ByuL: 2 points
Solar appeared as ace: 1 point
Solar won the ace: 3 points
Samsung won: 1 point
Solar is on a 3-game winning streak: 1 point
Solar broke herO’s winning streak: 1 point
Solar got 10 points this week. Let me repeat. Solar got 10 points this week, catapulting him into the #1 spot in FPL. First, Solar manhandled ByuL in a fairly standard ZvZ. Then, in a build that he was apparently saving for a GSL or S2SL finals (!), he beat herO’s mass blink stalkers. This kitchen sink build involved transitions from burrowed-roach into muta into infestor/ultra; the whole thing was partly carried by a crucial mass ling runby that took out herO’s natural. So anyhow I hope you didn’t trade Solar for Losira like I implied you should do last week. :-P
Runner-up: Losira
Well, if you did, it’s not so bad. Losira farmed BBoongBBoong for 8 points by winning in the lineup and in the ace, following Prime’s frankly baffling decision to send out the pizza zerg instead of, you know, someone who has won more than one game this season. In case you think I’m Prime-bashing for no reason, you should know that I have B4 and KeeN on my own team. I needed these points, dammit!
Anti-player of the week: BrAvO
Fun fact: BrAvO is the 6th most popular anti-team choice this round. Unfortunately for those 176 people, he’s looking to be in very good form—and it helps when he draws a Terran opponent. This week on Vaani Research Station, sKyHigh failed to live up to his name when BrAvO’s vikings shot down a bunch of hellbat-containing medivacs. BravO’s superior tank count went more or less uncontested, allowing him to drop six of them in the pocket natural as well as outmaneuver sKyHigh on the ground. This win took Samsung to the ace.
Runner-up: YoDa
Up to now the best anti-teams have had YoDa. Following his defeat of horror this week in a slow mech game, that is no longer the case. Did you know that corruptors only shoot up? It seemed like horror maybe forgot this, as a 40-corruptor remax dealt admirably with BC’s and vikings but left a battalion of tanks uncontested on the ground (well, uncontested after they tore through horror’s ultralisks). This game was pretty fun, actually, as YoDa killed 25 overlords with a viking death squad and later made the unusual move of “harassing” bases with two groups of four tanks each.
Trade bait for week 3: TY or Stats
These two have not had much luck this round, and as a result they have fallen further down the rankings. Next week KT Rolster plays Prime, so one (or both) of them will likely get an ego boost, and some points. Unless Stats colossus drops again, that is.
Runner-up: Maru
How long can Maru keep losing? BrAvO, Classic, and DRG have tarnished the prince’s crown a bit, but surely it can still shine. Right? With crucial matches against CJ and KT coming up, Maru needs to get it in gear. If he does, he could score a lot of points by breaking winning streaks and taking ace matches. If he doesn’t….
Team of the week: Shairak
The rich stay rich. Shairak had the best team after week 1 and outdoes even that performance with a 32-point week this time. Impressively, this week’s payout was set up over three careful weeks of trading: acquiring Solar after week 1, Jin Air after week 2, and Losira for this week were particularly important. In fact, only one trade has been bad: TY for Reality on the anti. This is gonna be a tough team to beat. Nice job!
Worst team of the week: FlashFTW
:’( There’s not much more to say or do except weep bitter (or delicious, depending on your perspective) KT Rolster tears. It is particularly painful that FlashFTW anti’d Sorry…who beat Flash this week. KT fans, mourn for your steadfast comrade.
Best anti-team: belash
This award hasn’t really come up yet, but by week 4 or so it’s pretty hard to have a low-point anti team and it’s worth mentioning those who managed it. Though belash and The_Templar both have -2 points from the anti team, I give it to belash because he or she has only traded once to do it: Rogue for Journey. Well done!
Best possible no-trade team:
$5 DongRaeGu 12
$5 Curious 12
$5 BrAvO 9
$3 Solar 15
$3 Blaze 12
$3 Sorry 10
$6 SKT 15
$7 Stats -1
$4 Creator 0
$2 Super -1
For a total of 83 points.
Best possible team:
Once again, no guarantees that this is right, but I think it’s pretty close.
$8 Zest 14
$5 Curious –(week1)->Classic 21
$5 BrAvO –(week1)->Bbyong 16
$3 Sorry 10
$3 DeParture –(week2)->Rogue –(week3)->Losira 19
$3 Blaze –(week3)->Solar 21
$3 SAM –(week2)->JAGW 14
$9 Maru –(week2)->Flash 0
$4 Creator 0
$0 XY0
I don’t know why you would decide to trade Rogue for Losira in week 3 or make many of the other trades shown above, but I guess if you wanted to use your time machine very frivolously then you could indeed earn 108 points from the above team and stand over 30 points above our current #1. FPL is hard.