We're 3 weeks into the regular season (4 if you include pre-season) and with 7 games left before the playoffs we have 28 teams fighting it out for 16 spots. The ELO ranking system draws up the matches now for UGC and it is starting to have a knock on effect, every game but 1 has a score of either 5-0 or 5-1 and that game was MFU v Teamfield ending 5-2 to the home team MFU. So not many great matches to look back on in Platinum but the two Steel divisions were throwing them up with some decent competition, Salamancer covering Wet Puppy Kiss vs Tryhards on his post-production Youtube Channel, check it out below:
Press Read More for my power rankings for week 4...
It has been an interesting time in UGC Platinum though as pre-season favourites begin to establish themselves and other teams hit some brick walls with roster issues or just bad results. The top 8 - teams you expect to see in the last 8 of the play-offs - looks like this:
* Note - This article is the sole opinion of me, the author and does not reflect the views of CommFT.
1. Bonus! points
Since the pre-season Bonus were seen as the team to beat and showed their worth in week 1 against tangerine on Badwater, casted live on eXtv - showing the world that regular practise, teamwork plus some solid HL talent beats invite mercenaries any day of the week. Since then Bonus enjoyed two comfortable 5-0 wins over Gangsta Posse and Death Marked Soldiers respectively to maintain themselves as one of 5 teams so far unbeaten in the league. Next up for the number 1 team in UGC will be Axl Wat, who will have played both the top 2 in in two consecutive weeks (tough break, well played ELO) so I don't really give them much of a chance against the Firefly's boys who have just picked up Sm|le on Soldier to add to their devastatingly effective combo of Pudding Cup on Pyro, Q on Demoman, Firefly on Medic and Infinite on Heavy. I think this team has the best teamwork between their combo in the league, not so much the best individuals (certainly very good though) with teamwork > death matching any day of the week.
2. Looking Handsome
Few teams are as handsome as they are good at Highlander, Looking` certainly rank amongst the best holding down second spot from GG with their week 2 (first week of regular season) win over last season's champions. Since then Looking` have remained unbeaten beating Axl Wat and Sexy Ass Gamers 5-0 and 5-0. Just like Bonus then, they are making short work of the middle of Platinum. To make matters harder for their next opponents RANCH, TF2 legend Ruwin has been rumoured to be playing Scout for the team adding to the already talented squad with players such as Crux on Demoman or Napalm on Sniper, experience of Hein on medic helping along the new players such as Fathom (A Pyro I rate highly) get accustomed to Highlander. I would not be surprised to see Looking` in this seasons Grand Final.
3. Gangsta Gang Gaming
Last season's champions have had an out of sort season, the first week loss to Looking` bought about some changes to the side seeing Bio cut from Demo, as far as I can tell the reason being he 'kept jumping in with the Ullapool Caber'. To replace Bio (who was a brilliant HL demo) will be a brilliant 6v6 Demo in the form of unf, who streams his 6v6 scrims (lets see some HL games bro) so definitely an improvement for GG, who are infamous for being bad on Payload compared to 5cp so lucky for them week 3 and 4 maps were Warmfront and Follower, where they faced and 5-0'd RANCH and Tangerine respectively. GG will face $5 aka Gun Runners from last season in a rematch of last seasons semi-final. GG are known to be just as good on KOTH as 5CP so I expect a roll from them - no other team is as effective in isolating the medic and picking him/her as GG are with Combat Toast (Soldier), Blaze (Scout) and Riz (Spy) play off eachother getting the key kills damaging teams abilities to push or defend effectively. It would be foolish to count GG out as they complete the top 3 of Bonus, Looking Handsome and themselves of teams capable of winning UGC Platinum this season.
4. Unbelievably Brave Sweethearts
One of the more recognizable teams in Highlander, reformed after not participating last season and also being the team I am on so I got a lot I can say. However placing us fourth outside the top 3 as the 'best of the rest' seeing how there is a huge gap in skill difference between the top 3 and everyone else, well it is something I got to back up with hard evidence. We're unbeaten so far, having our first game against Gangsta Posse end 2-0 on Badwater (one round being tense as hell), we enjoyed another tough win against blunderful who were expected to do good things but we came through 4-2 on Warmfront live on eXtv. Our next game was an easier 5-0 win over A Tin Team to put us unbeaten, albeit we have so far avoided the dreaded top 3. Why do we deserve to be ahead of tangerine though? Well we only scrimmed them once and we won 5-0, that isn't the main reason - I guess we need to face our old rivals to really decide who is '4th' but the rest I will explain below. All I want to say is polk (our Heavy) is the most recognizable players in our team and perhaps the most famous Heavy other than ALX for SNSD so I am SICK OF HEARING ABOUT HIM! Lets have some focus on some of uBs other talented players like Jerro who has been our player of the season so far or Sigma, our new Pyro who has performed really well in matches...even our Engineer chimpoo! He is way better than polk at Heavy, I saw him in a Lobby he got like 4 doms and everything. The only noticeable change in our lineup currently is Mustardoverload (TF2's biggest nerd and poster) backing up in our scrims so you will see him around a lot, he isn't even our main Demo - Goebwer is...Goober being much more handsome and used to our teamplay (a very underrated Demo actually) so watch out for him. PLEASE NO MORE POLK, F**K POLK!
5. Tangerine
I don't really need to go over how Tangerine have been doing again because we all know they suffered a week 2 loss to Bonus and a week 4 loss to GG. In between they picked up their only win to date against Proprietary Nine on Warmfront but nonetheless, one of the 'best teams on paper' currently sit in 22nd and outside the playoff positions. The main reason why Tangerine were struggling to compete with the top 3 was very obviously lack of practise with their main team, the invite talents of b4nny and Cyzer although exceptional on their own - well from watching the match versus Bonus casted by eXtv they looked like ringers to me (well b4nny did, I don't think Cyzer played). The Quantic Demoman was dealing a massive amount of damage but it was obvious to me the team didn't know how to play with him, not picking up on his aggression and damage, Bonus just isolated him and even though he could connect pipes it doesn't mean much when you got no backup. As a result tangerine have kicked off Cyzer and B4nny along with Dashner (aka the infamous Mansbridge) on Heavy in order to get a more consistent roster playing. With Boulder apparently lined up to replace B4nny (I don't know about the rest of the team) I definitely think Tangerine will benefit with this decision. I said to my teammates at the start of the season - "don't worry about Tangerine, their invites will let them down and they won't practise." I was proved right so well done to them for not being influenced by 'big names' and making that decision, I think it will be very close between us and them in the future, for now though tangerine need to prove their worth and climb the table to get into the top 8.
6. The Syndicate
Currently 3-0 along with Bonus, Looking` and uBs who are all ranked higher on this Power Ranking. However the Syndicate are yet to face any of the 'top 5' until this week where they will meet Tangerine on Koth_Lakeside. They had two easier matches against BRB-U (BRB-U being 0-3? Unheard of for me...they were definitely top 8 team back in season 3!) on Badwater plus humbling Stock 4 Pubs on Follower. They were tested by our next week opponents, 9 Cuties on Warmfront with the match ending 5-3. Being a team famous for individuals not teamwork, most notably Stabby Stabby on Spy and TMP on Pyro, well it will win you some games but no matter how talented you are (or in TMP's case, over rated) you can't do everything on your own, -ts- have some good players like Bravo, Kyle and Suga J (The second best heavy from FSE Lazytown server) but not the sort of overall ability and teamwork to threaten the top 5, although they have the opportunity to prove me wrong this week against Tangerine. Huey Lewis (the Tangerine Pyro) will have a hell of a job on his hands to track Stabby but I feel he is a smart enough player to limit their best player to feeding off scraps and that should be key.
7. Blunderful
The only reason bfl are below -ts- is because bfl lost one match to uBs - that is all. I really think bfl will be the better team by the end of the season they just need to work some stuff out with their combo. They have the talent to go huge, Tonto being another underrated Demoman, Squid being a solid Heavy and of course everyone knows useoftoaster and his ability to get in your face, jump with the Atomizer and kill people. However the player that impresses me the most is Noko on Spy, she is one of the most talented I have seen and the amount of times she has connected knives into my back I would say she must either like me a lot and be too shy to mention it...or the more likely explanation of she likes killing medics for fun. Either way Noko is one of the players making a name for themselves this season. Bfl will face Gangsta Posse on Lakeside this week, I feel this will be a match to watch as Gangsta Posse have had it tough facing uBs and Looking` but picked up their first win against Sexy Ass Gamers. It will be a good one!
8. Land Before Time
LBT will complete my top 8 and win the exclusive right for me to write something meaningful about them! Being one of the five unbeaten sides, they have to earn some respect even if they did only face 'Mid-Lower platinum teams' as they took down: Magical Frolicking Unicorns 2-0 on Badwater, Baby Punching Marathon 5-2 on Warmfront and Couch Athletics 5-1 on Follower. Okay so they haven't played anyone likely to be in the top 8 end of the season and they will face BRB-U in week 5, giving the possibility of them going 4-0 thanks to a generous game schedule. I don't know too much about LBT, other than 5pike their leader being one of the more dedicated in the scene along with some 'names' dotted about the roster such as asphyxia, mgib and Gremaud. I got no doubt in my mind though on this form that last season's Iron Division winners will be in the playoffs, possibly not in the top 8 but certainly there about.
9. Proprietary Nine
ProN have been hanging around the middle of Platinum, beating other established Mid-Plat teams like DMS and $5 though losing out to Tangerine. I feel ProN will be in the playoffs and could still climb this ranking in future weeks they just need to keep showing they're better than the 6 or 12 teams in this 'Middle of Platinum' position by continuing to beat them, starting off with Team Player this week on Lakeside.
10. 9 Cuties
Making up the top 10 are 9 Cuties, with a star name in vhalin (ex-x6 Gaming) on their roster with some well known 6v6 players. However it doesn't translate to good Highlander form, so for 9 Cuties their season rests on whether they practise hard. Losing out (playing pretty well though) 5-3 to -ts- remains their only loss after beating Sexy Ass Gamers and Teamfield. They face my team next, naturally I remain cautious although I realise we come in under pressure as favourites to win. Going to be good fun.
Honourable mentions to Axl Wat who have just lost to Looking` and will now face Bonus, though I expect to see them in the top 10 later on in the season. Good luck everyone in next week's matches!
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