FFA Masters League

Round 1 breezed by quickly and with one game yet to play we congratulate our first winners of season 25:

Noexxx
Qwest
Renaud
Gradient
Tleilaxu
Wrecktify

We had some players completely crush their pityful opponents while others sneakily waited until the last moment to cunningly claim the first place, and this is of course why we love FFA. Altough we still await the results of the final game of round 1, the rest of you players and loyal observers can start looking forward to a new round of high skill games in the coming weeks. The second round may see favorites for the final/semifinals emerge while players without a win after two rounds are in dire straits, so expect some exciting games where the desperation for those 20 points may bring out both great performances and comic failures.

The Map Pool:

• Boomtown
• Thunder Lake FML
• Sanctuary

The Matches

Link to video: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/141830849

And in the normal format:

M4
Ena1337
Sweet
SosoHasRedHair
WeakUD

https://oddshot.tv/s/C9DdWl

gg noobs

give me albania flag pls

give me orc race pls

only if you change your race in your forum profile!

profile > forum profile > Race

Well that's because the announcement are created by humans, match scheduling topic & match result are created by bots, so you will have human there!
(except for round 1 match scheduling, I was so slow that they created it by hand  )

Also, I edited the main post to specify that the map is Thunder Lake FML (with tavern)

Actually @ Renaud, my forum race was  . But it keeps getting posted as  .

I want    for all :). I changed it now

M1
Steppinrazor
KENT2566
Eshan
SomethingWicked

M2
Reinforcment-
Slythe
Zs.Supercumulo
b2w.Trunkzzz

Trunkzzz will get teamed and cumulo will take advantage to fly under the radar and get too much gold

M3
Dinamo
Audigy
Fetta_ook
Mog[skynet]

So apparently Mog is human now?  I think this will end up a long, nasty manip filled 3 way with mog dinamo and fetta.  I think dinamo is a stong fighter but sometimes lacks ffa sense while fetta will probably be rebuilding all over since he will probably be rushed and weakened early, while mog will play the most balanced game

M4
ena1337
SweeT
SosoHasRedHair (Shaved)
WeAkUD


This game is going to be horrible most likely, disgusting manippers and whiners.  I think weakud should play orc or human, and he can probably win if he doesn't talk too much like the others undoubtedly will

M5
Gradient
Noexxx
Jaod
Wrecktify

Gradient had a nice round 1 win, but I dont think he has a chance here.  I think he dies first and then noe is teammed by wreck and jaod.  I just cannot see wreck and jaod letting noe win here, so I think it comes down to them and wreck is an extremely cunning player so I think he will pull it off especially if the map is santuary and he has mass gold and buildings all over

M6
Qwest
Tleilaxu
Renaud
Junkerzam

I think Qwest emerges as the only 2-0 player after round 2.  I think renaud will die fast unfortunately against two (or even 3) strong microing undeads.  Qwest is the best player here, and he does well avoiding hard teaming so I think he wins here

M7
SteppinRazor
KENT2566
Eshan
SomethingWicked

Stepping seems to make quite often some "rookie" mistakes, which i cannot understand given his mass experience in ffa/fml. So he is often caught with his pants down or gets discouraged due to some maybe annoying ffa-mechanics.

Kent surprised me with his latest two games and with the power of Jubei he might pull an upset here.

Eshan is one of the most controversial players around due to his persistent, ugly style of manpulation. He seems totally reluctant in admitting it and even manips after games, insisting he did not manip at all and "he was right and you were wrong, blah bleh". Also blaming others for his loss is one of his strong qualities.
Due to his massive ffa experience and pretty tryhard style he still appears as the favourite here.

Although i see Somethingwicked not much behind Eshan considering the odds. He has a good mix of micro, ffa sense and an appeal to manips. Unfortunately he is UD and with two random players and 1 orc, it needs a good game plan. He has many ffa games i think, but not much FML experience. Look out for him being quite silent in a 4way, just to turn into a mad manip machine in the 3-way.

M8
Reinforment-
Slythe
Zs.SuperCumulo
b2w.TrunkzZz

Gnarf...
Reinforcement seems to lack the last will to play for the win in many of his games and is good at taking a small victory in winning a battle but missing to look at the big picture for winning the whole war. Gets caught in the moment of wanting to fight just for the sake of action, instead of being patient and waiting for the right moment.

Supercumulo is one of the best macroers and always has a lot of gold. I often lost against him due to endless amounts of gold and the happy humba race and i just hope Trunkz or Reinforcment gonna kill him for me, i will owe them.
Atleast he uses some unorthodox heroes  besides the backbone of his army in AM and Pally, which he always has. Later he likes to use completely nonsense manips to either unsettle his opponents or to his own entertainment, who knows.

And Trunkz with his unholy Demonhunter is the annoying elf with this superman hero, who makes u think how much fun it was to face this ridiculous hero in 1v1. Where he constantly harrases you, burns all ur precious mana, staffs out, when you think he finally dies and just comes back at full health, just to poke you again and again, until all the fun of playing is sucked out of you. Besides that i appreaciate the alternate style of him playing the elf race, although it gets boring when you play too often against him/this style. Atleast he mixes in some hero variations lately and undisclosed sources say he even built a chimera the other day. As it looks right now the map will be sanctuary, so look out for level 6 DH within 10 minutes, stacked with mask/Crown/double +12 claws. That would be perfect and a nice reason to team him out within the next 10 minutes.

M9
Dinamo
Audigy
Fetta_ook
Mog[skynet]

Looks like a promising, kinda even match to me.

Dinamo is a big name in ffa for the past year with much activity in ladder and fml. He is decent with all races, but imo elf is by far his best. He is able to do to usual Chippo Happiness, aswell as good unit-mixes. Lately he seems to lose some of his tryhard spirit and rather enjoy a good 1v1 to death, no matter what. Round 1 he had guys like Gradi or Ena, who probably plucked at his nerves and with Fetta he has another fella, who is expert in this.

Audigy showed a nice game in round1 in my opinion and just fell victim to a very lol and no honor double team by two friggin humans. His style seems rather predictable and with creeping faster and good observation of his surrounding hostile nature he might be able to get a win, if he does not fell victim to mass chims /aoe.

Then we have fetta_ook or just fat_K.O., who tends to knock himself out of the winning column with either pissing people off constantly, who start to want nothing more than just make him lose or with ridiculous (bad)micro moves, which result in him losing units/heroes, the fight in the process, his main in the further process. BUT this gives him room to activate his inner DagobertDuck/SimCity_architect/HeidiKlum morphling, with hoarding mass gold/building huge bases/talking nonstop. Thanks to orc race and his healthy denial of defeat he can dig deep and maybe squeeze out another miracle win to prove the ffa-gods wrong.

Then we have Mog, who found himself in trouble in round1 early due to the humanweakness early/mid, especially vs undead. All the maps of round 2 are quite good for human, but maybe also for his original race, the almighty trehugging alliance. If he enters the game sharp the odds are nice for him, but the constallation of the players makes it a tricky task.




M10
Ena1337
Sweet
SosoHasRedHair
WeakUD

Almost German only and a very lol cast. Can we really say that Shave is considered the best FFA player in a fml cast? I´d say yes.
Also it is the unofficial match to determine the best German Minidota Player of all time.

Ena seems to found some more motivation in playing ffa, creating content and understanding the whole thing a little bit better. He had a decent first round game, where he mostly came short due to double Elf cheese. If he does not pull some shitty teaming action with weakud again (like in the game vs observeandlearn past season) and plays again rather tryhard to win even vs some german wc3 buddies in shave and weakud he has a shot.

Sweet, the only Australian wc3 player i have ever heard of, besides Philbot, showed in round1 that he seems to have some good understanding what´s going on in the game. He needs to use his infmormations and hunches more to his advantage. Then i can see him doing very well in this probably tumultous game. A cool head will be needed.

Shave often ends up in a good position to win but somehow often finds a way to lose games which many other players would win. His arsenal is not anymore just the aggressive way trying to overwhelm someone with brute force, but also mixing in some necessary hoarding time, decent understanding of manipulation and patience. He could use some chill pills in late stage ffa, but this round 2 game is a perfect practice for that, i guess.

WeakUd recently did not seem to be very active, atleast ffa-wise. He is always good for some nice micro action, but needs to refine his all around ffa skills in order to become equally successful as other stronger micro players before him. He is dangerous due to his "i don´t give a damn" attitude, because he seemingly feels superior to the classic ffa-players.


M11
Gradient
Noexxx
Pyatac
Wrecktify

Clash of Styles and races in this one.

Gradient is a very consistent player who sticks to his unique style. His base is hard to break and he has a good way to gain advantage in 1v1. Sometimes he lacks scouting and knowing who is strongest at the given moment and looks a bit stubborn in his 1v1´s. He is a quick creeper, but remains vulnerable early game, but since you don´t want an angry Gradi on your heels, it´s not a good idea to test him.

Noexx is a very consistent human player, who appears as less active these days, which imo was displayed in his first round game. But even with a lot of bad moments to overcome, also in games of previous seasons, he finds a way with a very tryhard attitude & the many strenghts of the human race to win a lot of games.

Pyatac/Jaod still has one of longest winstreaks in fml, i guess and is a Ud powerhouse. He needs to control his emotions in order to get a win in this hard game with two fml champions. Maybe he can thrive in a 3-way with noexx and wreck, but we´ll see. It´s always tricky as ud, especially vs elf and human imo. Do you attack the human early, trying to avoid the immense power that high level heroes and a fully teched base provide or do you try to overwhelm the elf, who also gains superpowers with a big base and a roared perfect chippo army. He needs to take his shots wisely.

Wrecktify was invisible for a last months and you never know which version shows up. He knows almost every trick in the book and on a good day he presents trouble for every ffaer.



M12
Qwest
Tleilaxu
Renaud
Junkerzam

Qwest the favourite here, but Renaud or one of the others could sneak a win for sure.

Qwest had a really strong game last final and almost overcome hard teaming and also used all his experience and skills for a win in round 1. He is not the most consistent players, but he is an exceptionally strong ud early and midgame. If he is dragged to the later stages of the game, there are ways to break his very calculated routine play with only few (micro)mistakes.

Tleilaxu got a win in round1 despite playing basically not at all atm, afaik. He won his 1v1 and then got a freewin due to suiciding players. I doubt he will be as lucky this time. He won´t be able to beat Qwest or Junkerzam early and Renaud will be aware of a possible rush and is way harder to finish than Tleilaxu could handle.

Renaud pulled a nice comeback win in round1 after he dominated at first and then got teamed and almost was out, before he could play his role in the 3-way. Maybe his "i cannot micro properly" won´t work this time and he should try to lose his heroes more often or miss bof´s like Fat_K.O. misses his stomps to be more authentic.
He has a lot of high lvl FFA games and very wise decision making. He needs to stay out of trouble early and maybe rebuild at one point to get his chance in the lategame.

Junkerzam, or how i like to call him Bonkerzam, because he likes to rage and "manip" in a weird and crazy way in game, aswell as making rather dumb decisions, which cost him many games. I cannot remember a good game seen by him in a long time. Usually his micro is on point when he plays ud or elf, but when he faces superior micro players even this advantage is gone. He is capable of rushing out or killing early tleilaxu or Renaud, and if he does, either way it will be a nasty 3way with Qwest. I doubt that the Bonkerzam could win in such scenario, but maybe he can change his whacky style in a different, more successful one.

I enjoyed reading that SLythe