FFA Masters League

Round 6 matches: rage critters vs suicide squad vs free agent squad vs church of Renaud

And : fetta inc Vs zig zag ziggurat vs bad manneroths vs free ena

Maps:
Legends 

Boomtown 

Twilight Ruins

Equalrium

Congratulations everyone on making it to the halfway point of the season!

With 3 rounds left, everyone still has a shot at the playoffs! Play hard and finish strong.

Note: Supremo please contact admins about replacement player for ludakatapro. Hopefully, that will be the last replacement player we will need this season!

Now onto the matchups for this round...

We have: Rage Critters vs Fetta Inc. vs Suicide Squad vs Free Ena
And in the other match: Bad Manneroths vs Free Agent Squad vs Zig Zag ZIGGURAT! vs Church of Renaud

The maps this round:
Twisted Meadows FML (FML version has no corner islands)
Deathrose
Harvest of Sorrow
Deadlock

Reminder: You have 48 hours from the time of this post to submit your lineups!

Hello everyone and welcome to the 2nd round of season 26!

A few notes before we get into the next matchups and maps.

- jaodreturns officially replaces  Sweet for team Free Ena. Jaod will earn the 20 points from m7 where he subbed into.

- LssL officially replaces  zTsoso on team Rage Critters, and will inherit soso's 10 points from r1.

- A friendly reminder on scheduling: It is always best to post your full availability for the entirety of the playweek. Players do have a responsibility to communicate actively with their opponents in their respective scheduling threads. We are aware of the challenges posed by having players from all across the world competing across many different time zones. It has been a problem since the beginning of FML, and the best way to combat it is active communication in schedule threads, along with helpful posts including full availability. Remember, if you do not post in your schedule thread within 48 hours you will lose your scheduling rights.

-Another reminder: If a match is confirmed, and you realize you will be unable to make it, please notify admins as soon as possible. You (and your team) will be awarded the minimum 10 points for said match and it allows time to find a suitable sub. Admins have awarded  Fail.Life 10 points for m7, noting that he did in fact notify us before the original match time. However, in m2  dragao did not notify admins beforehand, and therefore he and his team receive 0 points for this match. I only bring these situations up as a direct example of how this rule works for those unfamiliar with it.

-Daylight Savings Time just took place for European players, however, it does not go into effect for American players until November 5th. Please keep this in mind while scheduling your games. The clocks at the top of the FML site are accurate. Typically, EST is 6 hours behind CET. But currently it is only 5 hours behind. On November 5th it will be 6 hours behind again. Thank you world for being confusing to us nerd gamers trying to schedule 

Moving on, here are the maps for round 2!

Gold Rush 
Silverpine Forest 
Anarchy Castle
Greenville Woods

Matchups are:
Rage Critters vs Bad Manneroths vs Suicide Squad vs Zig Zag ZIGGURAT
and
Fetta Inc. vs Free Agent Squad vs Free Ena vs Church of Renuaud

Captains please notify admins of your lineup within 48 hours of this post. An easy way to do this is to simple tag @Worpex in your team discord channel, since he has access to all of them.

Thank you all and happy gaming!

UPDATED:

Finally! It is time for the next installment of the FFA Masters League: Season 26!

This season will feature a new format, one that will hopefully add some spice, and possibly some salt, to our classic FML format.

This new format pulls from the hype and success of past TBR events, by introducing 4 man teams to this FML season. So here is how it works:

There will be no draft. Teams will form themselves, and then apply AS A TEAM. There are no rules or regulations about who can be on who's team, however, you may ONLY participate on one team. If a player is found to be participating on multiple teams using smurf accounts, their entire team will be disqualified for the entire season, and the smurfing player will be banned from future FML events. Also, unlike TBR, there will be no anonymous matches. Players will play every match on the account they sign up with, and are expected to sign up under the account they are most known for. If a player wants to rebrand themselves (Jaod), they must specify in the team application the account they are most known for. Example: If Wrecktify wanted to change his name to DarkFlameMaster, and therefore signed up as DarkFlameMaster, the application must look something like " DarkFlameMaster (Wrecktify)"

Although there are teams of 4, the FML playweek will look very similar to past seasons. Every playweek (standard 2 weeks, as in the past), there will be 4 maps per playweek, and teams will have 48 hours to privately submit their lineup to admins, fielding one player per map. After 48 hours have elapsed, the lineups will be revealed, and scheduling threads will be created for each map. Scheduling will be performed the same as in past seasons, each player is responsible for scheduling their match in their respective thread, and the matches are expected to be played within each 2 week playweek. Point system will be the same, 20-12-12-10, with +2 points for top score. Points will be earned individually, as well as added to team total. At the end of the season, players will receive additional points equal to 25% of their team's total points. After these additions, the top 1-3 point earners in the league will directly qualify for the grand final, with the top ranked player picking the final map*. Players ranked 4-7 will qualify for a semi final match, where the winner will advance to the final.

I know this is a lot, so here is how a playweek will look:

Example week 1 maps:
Anarchy Castle
Twilight Ruins
Market Square
Emerald Shores

Team WorpeX submits following lineup:
Anarchy Castle:  WorpeX
Twilight Ruins:    Noob1
Market Square:  Noob2
Emerald Shores:  Noob3

Team Red7z7 submits following lineup:
Anarchy Castle:  Elessar
Twilight Ruins:  Red7z7
Market Square:  Nooblex
Emerald Shores:  DarknessCalls

Team Mog submits following lineup:
Anarchy Castle:  Htrt
Twilight Ruins:  Soso
Market Square:  NoexXx
Emerald Shores:  Mog

Team Renaud submits following lineup:
Anarchy Castle:  Orcsucks
Twilight Ruins:  Orcmustdie
Market Square:  banorcplayers
Emerald Shores:  Renaud

Therefore, the matchups would be

Anarchy Castle - orcsucks vs Htrt vs Elessar vs WorpeX
Twilight Ruins: orcmustdie vs Soso vs Red7z7 vs Noob1

etc. etc.

These players will then schedule their games in their respective scheduling threads as per usual.

In a perfect world there will be 8 teams of 4.

Application format:

Team Name:
Players (including country and wc3 Race):
Designated Team Captain (this person will be responsible for submitting lineup):

So without further ado, go form your teams and submit your applications!

Note: You may also apply as a free agent, in which case you will be added to teams by admins if you are unable to form your own team. There is also a sub channel in the ffamasters discord channel titled "looking for team". This is a great place to find players for a team.

Application deadline: Friday, October 13th 21:00 EST

*Final map must be approved by admins

 Phantom Grove RDM Heroes (with silence card)

Shave [Shave]
  Reinforcement [Ravenclaw]
  Dovekie [TMNT]
  TheGreatWall [Manipinocchios]


Replay: http://tft.w3arena.net/replays/details/12682/

2v2v2v2 on Dragon Island

  Soso +  Dovekie [TMNT]
  NoeXxX +  TomToast [Manipinnochios]
  Vova +  Cumulo [Cumulo Bros]
  Peanut +  Shave [Shave]


replay: http://tft.w3arena.net/replays/details/12684/

Congratulations to our newly crowned FML champion  Wrecktify!

With the win this season, Wrecktify distances himself from the rest of the field by achieving a record 4th FML title, and his first since season 16 where he debuted his new  race under the smurf DarkFlameMaster. While there will always be some controversy regarding the matter, no one can deny Wrecktify has put up the results when it counts. Wrecktify also becomes the first champion in quite some time, bringing the crown back to the states for the first time since season 18.

How did Wrecktify accomplish this feat you may ask? Well let's take a journey to the lovely desert known as Cozy Sands and find out. Right out of the gate, Wrecktify left no doubt about his feelings toward the map--complaining very loudly both pre-game and in-game about how horrible the map pick was. This manip tactic worked well for him, as he used his blame of the map to justify a crucial creepjack on fellow finalist  Junkerzam, at Junkerzam's goblin lab.  Wrecktify then used the ensuing confusion (which he stirred in the first place) over who's creep camp it should have been, to capitalize by destroying  Junkerzam's expand; setting himself up for an advantageous 1v1 scenario. Feeling he was backed into a corner,  Junkerzam launched an ill-advised offensive directly into  Wrecktify's main. The battle did not go well for our beloved admin, as  Wrecktify used his hero level advantage and superior army to crush  Junkerzam and push our undead player back--meanwhile being very vocal about how Junkerzam was winning.

On the opposite end of the map, an intense 1v1 was also taking place between everybody's hero  Noexxx, and everybody's villain  Tleilaxu. In a surprising twist, the wagonmancer army of  Tleilaxu was able to prevail over the mortar heavy army of  Noexxx, in what seemed like a day long battle at the human player's expansion. Despite gaining a large hero level advantage through the constant destruction of waves and waves of skeleton armies, our human hero slowly began to lose ground, eventually losing both of his expansions as he succumbed to the curse of the undead. A key hero loss by  Tleilaxu seemed to be the only thing keeping  Noexxx in the game. Unfortunately for them, their intense 1v1 kept them both from keeping tabs on the other 1v1....which was going quite differently than what the chat would make it seem.

Never being able to re-secure his expansions,  Junkerzam decided to push all in on a desperate 100 food push; hoping to catch  Wrecktify still hoarding his 3 wisp expansion. However, the cards had not fallen in his favor, as our eventual champion had also built up to 100 food. With a much larger resource bank, and higher hero levels,  Wrecktify demolished the gargoyle based army of  Junkerzam; essentially removing Junkerzam from the game (although it would take him some time to finish his own buildings off with a few of his own units).

Unaware of the one sided affair on the other end of the map,  Tleilaxu took a little extra time to set up an expand of his own at Noexxx's old natural, before continuing to push into the human player's main base. A valiant defense of his tattered base gave  Noexxx a glimmer of hope, as  Tleilaxu was unable to finish him before a maxed out night elf army came to the rescue.  Wrecktify cleverly decided to utilize his army's mobility to take the scenic route around the beautiful Cozy Sands, consistenly dodging  Tleilaxu's clunky wagonmancer army, while picking off undead buildings with his 100 supply chippo force. Meanwhile, both players tried their best to convince  Noexxx to help them, but with his lack of scouting intel, and heavily crippled position, Noexxx decided to stay in his base and attempt to grab some resources from his old natural.

Understandably tired of playing ring around the rosy with  Wrecktify,  Tleilaxu tp'd into a very unfavorable position attempting to defend his main base. The splash of the chimera devastated  Tleilaxu's ground based army, and with nowhere to retreat his forces were quickly destroyed; spelling disaster for our undead anti-hero. A quick scout alerted  Noexxx to the dire situation, and he and his former enemy quickly teamed up. Ultimately, it was to little to late, and  Wrecktify used charm along with his 100 supply army to great effect; eventually securing the hero kills necessary to clinch his 4th FML grand final's victory.

A huge congratulations to all our finalists for making it this far in our 25th season, and an especially huge congratulations to  Wrecktify for winning it all! Thank you to everyone who participated this season, and stay tuned for more information on what's coming next here at FML!

Here we are! After a grueling season filled with drama, passion, heartbreak, and perseverance; we've reached the final stage: The grand finals. On FFA's largest, and most prestigious stage, we have four warriors ready to fight for the honor of making their mark on FML, by putting their name in the hallowed FML hall of fame. I'm sure by now we are all familiar with these four players--whether you love them, revere them, or hate them; they are all deserving of their spot here in this grand final.

For my own personal pleasure I have acted as the designated Sorting Hat and divided these players up between the 4 Hogwarts Houses. So let's meet the players:

  Wrecktify
Hogwarts House: Gryffindor - Courageous, bold, and a bit reckless.
Finishing in 1st place this season and earning a direct seed into these finals we have our well established Night Elf player Wrecktify. A well known face (and voice) in this community, Wrecktify keeps putting up solid results after all this time. We can definitely dub him the veteran of this group, having already won three FML titles in the past; the first dating all the way back to season 6. Despite playing a consistently predictable style, Wrecktify is still an opponent many fear, due to his overall solid micro, macro, and game sense. Throw in just enough mental instability to suicide you at any given moment, and it is no wonder many tread carefully when involved in the same game as Wrecktify. No stranger to the finals, Wrecktify will be hoping his experience will be enough to put his name in the history books as the only 4x FML champ in the long history of the league.

  Noexxx
Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw - Wise, creative, and original.
Finishing 2nd in the standings this season we have our Human player Noexxx. The current reigning FML champion, Noexxx will be looking to repeat his Season 24 success, and become the first player in over a decade to win back to back FML titles. No one has achieved such a feat since the early days, back when Target won seasons 2 and 3. Despite having a no show in week 2, Noexxx found a way directly to the finals by winning all 3 of the matches he showed up for. Widely considered the strongest  player of the season, there are still many questions Noexxx must answer if he hopes to repeat as FML champion. Will his beloved Panda burn through the opposition? Will he use mechanical critters to create a new meta creeproute? And just how many towers exactly will he build? Only time holds the key to unlocking these answers; for now, we the fans wait with bated breath.

  FML|Junkerzam
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff - Trustworthy, kind, and just.
Our final direct seed into the finals is the lone torch bearer for the admin team. Well, supposedly he is on the admin team, but looking around it is hard to see any work done by him  . As the creator of the first ever randomized match making system used this season, many find themselves asking the question, was the system rigged? We may never know. However, after watching Junkerzam's matches, the doubt will be dispelled from our minds by his smart and crisp play. Decisive decision making and subtle manipulation, paired with his well above average micro and macro make Junkerzam a very dangerous player indeed. Good with all four races, preparing to play against Junkerzam will be challenging for our other competitors. Will Junkerzam be able to leverage this racial diversity into an advantage? Or will the burden of preparing for a match of this magnitude with four different races be too much for him to carry? One thing we know for certain; Junkerzam would be a much deserving new entry into the FML hall of fame should things fall in his favor.

  Tleilaxu
Hogwarts House: Slytherin - Cunning, resourceful, and proud.
Our final competitor has crawled through the bloody gauntlet of the semi finals, and is looking to prove to his critics that he is indeed deserving of a first ever FML title. Often underestimated, Tleilaxu is widely considered to have more bark than bite. However, this season he has proven he can not only hang with the best--he can defeat them. A necrowagon specialist, Tleilaxu is not only dangerous in the early game, but also in the late game, where he has shown countless times the ability to cleverly slither his way through tight situations in order to come out on top. This self proclaimed Anti-hero's journey has not been an easy one, battling through many FML seasons the resilience and growth Tleilaxu has shown can not be understated. Will it all culminate in a highly coveted FML crown? This dark horse certainly hopes so.

GRAND FINALS MAP: COZY SANDS!