Skorpions sting Comets to take top spot in Round 3 of ANZPL

Game 1 saw South Sydney Skorpions going head to head with Cairns Comets on Mines. 1st match Skorpions had map control, confining the Comets into the corner with a 2 flag easily winning a last minute brawl in the center for a defensive victory. 2nd match and on the attack it was fast and furious which found the better focus fire Skorpions pick up the attacking win to go 2-0 half way through.

Cairns Comets picking Steppes for their home map this week, won their attacking round punishing some late resets from Skorpions and finishing off the last resistance. On the defensive round, Comets sat back, waited and played the better vision game but once Skorpions pushed onto base 2 the rotations from the comets broke them up too much allowing the Skorpions to push through to take the attacking win and end the round 3-1.

In the New Zealand derby round, Auckland Archers who were so dominant last week met their southern brothers in arms, the Christchurch Conquerors on Sand River. The game was played fairly slow with Archers mainly up in the mountains  as Conquerors pushed onto the 2 cap. A late push from Slayer in the Progetto 65 into the mountains was punished opening up the game for Archers to push through for the win.

Match 2 saw the attention from the Archers focusing the 1 cap, but an over commit from the Conquerors resulted in their medium tanks caught out in the open giving Archers the upper hand. With only 80 seconds left in the clock the game was going to be decided by the Archers 2 B-C 25ts and their reload time. But it was perfectly timed as Archers pushed in and cleaned up the brawl with 4 seconds to go.

Himmelsdorf turned out to be an attackers paradise where both teams found their attacking wins punishing mistakes, setting up cross fire lines and lack of focus fire. But Archers walked away with the round finishing up 3-1.

Game 3 was Adelaide Action X and Perth Panthers both searching to find some form in the competition in Round 3. Himmelsdorf again and the Panthers picked up their attacking round through a nice dogfight in the K1 corner of the map to see the third attacking win on this map tonight.

Moving into the Action X attack and it was the banana round and hill they chose to control, looking for vision and sniping shots but Panthers had superior positions set up and were ready to defend picking off Action X as their disjointed efforts pushed in. 2-0 for Panthers heading into the break.

Back on Mines was a return to defensive bias. While Panthers took early control of the 1-2 line with their CS-63s early game it the was Action X's efforts in the other side of the map that saw so much HP bleed off and an easy defense with the HP advantage.

Action X went in with aggression to the 8-9 line with their attacking round whilst also keeping hill control but the Maus/B-C 25t combo Panthers sent to hill was able to take control back while JimmyGroken's Super Conqueror game play was quite impressive holding off the advancing medium tanks with randomized in his T110E5 providing fire support from the red line. Panthers win 3-1.

Last round saw the Sydney Sentinels take on Brisbane Bulldogs in what seems to be the Bulldogs normal late game spot so far in the competition. Sentinels picked Prokhorovka as their home map and easily repelled a 1-2 line push from the Bulldogs to pick up an early defensive win in match 1.

Bulldogs employed a similar 1-2 line defense for their round but the patient gameplay and vision game coming out from the Sentinels picked up the isolated STB-1 which prompted the counterpush from Bulldogs but was punished as some miss-communication saw Ravvi destroyed by a 'one shot' Obj 277 that he had turned away from assuming team mates would finish off. End of the day it was a clean up job for the Sentinels walking away with 2-0 into the break.

Back onto Steppes for the last matches of the day and Bulldogs focused the 1 cap. Sentinels showed their hand early with Zanin trapped out early to spot but taking the gun out of the game. But a fake out from the Bulldogs made it look late game that the medium tanks were going to chase down the light tank before doubling back and pushing into the Sentinels to brawl out. But it ended up being a capture win on the 2 cap after Rowendy missing a crucial reset in his CS-63 in the dying seconds of the game.

In the last match it was a 2 cap attempt from Sentinels in the last 2 minutes of the game, although Ravvi got wrecked early in the fight, using the repair kit just before getting tracked again and focused. The rest of the Bulldogs however pushed through the Sentinels attackers apart from Rainbow who managed to escape in the T-100 LT, parking up in front of the HyperX sign to see out the timer and draw the series 2-2.

Round 3 brought some interesting shift into the defensive bias meta. Where only 4 attacking wins were recorded in each round 1 and 2, round 3 posted 7 attacking wins (44%), leaving only 9 defensive wins for the round (56). Overall defensive wins still remain dominant at 33 (69%) vs 15 total attacking wins (31%).

Map wise we saw the first matches for the ANZPL season played on Himmelsdorf having been picked by 2 teams as the home map for round 3 but reinforces a defense bias with results for 1 attcking win (25) vs 3 defensive wins (75%).

The top 3 maps in ANZPL remain Mines (12) with an attack/defense win ratio of 17%/83%, Steppes (10) with 40%/60% and Murovanka (8) with 25%/75%).

Tanks picks showed no signs of change or shift from the established meta seeing the top 5 picks remain stable as the B-C25t, Super Conqueror, Object 277, CS-63 and T-100 LT with only a few other niche picks being seen throughout the matches.

Like what you see here or have feedback? Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Twitch where I stream World of Tanks 4 nights a week and use the hashtag #ANZPL on social media to keep the conversation going.

Until next week, see you on the battlefield!

Fresh off the bye into a 4-0, ANZPL excites in Round 2 as Bulldogs take top spot.

World of Tanks ANZ Premier League delivered some exciting games in it's second round to see the Brisbane Bulldogs take top spot, Auckland Archers go 4-0 and South Sydney Skorpions make their way to 2nd spot in the second round of ANZPL as a familiar face,  Jordan "Elfish" Mays returned to cast World of Tanks once again on our screens.

Fresh off the bye, Auckland Archers came out hitting bullseye after bullseye to go 4-0 over Adelaide ActionX. On Mines the games were essentially won and lost in the south west K1 corner that in both games gave map control to the Archers allowing them to take both games on Mines.

On Ruinberg it was Archers who came out on top again by controlling the south west K0 corner and setting up a cross fire angles down the 0 line for anyone contesting to pick up a nice defensive win.
On attack, a well timed push from 2 B-C 25ts secured a win once the T57 Heavy from Action X had been confirmed to have clipped out, but a few bounces and a low health 3v1 against a hull down IS-7 could have seen this match go either way.

Defending on Mines, North Sydney Sentinels showed that the 1-2 line on Mines isn't everything as they successfully prevented a cap attempt with 2 CS-63s flanking up the 7-8 line catching Matilda's mediums off guard and opening up the fight to take out victory.

On the attack, keeping with some different tactics, Sentinels looked for a 8-9 line push past base 1 but it was the superior brawling from the Melbourne Matildas that saw the round drawn 1 all.

Match 3, Murovanka and on the attack, Matildas attempted an aggressive base 1 cap but couldn't out brawl the Sentinels dropping the attack round. On their own attack, Sentinels attempted a similar strat with the same results, another drawn map saw this round drawn 2-2.

Mines yet again for game 3 and Skorpions held off the Panther's attacking round with 2 B-C 25ts flanking up the 8-9 line to get around the back of the opposing team clipping out to give their team the upper hand.

When it came to the Skorpions to attack, Napalmer (Obj 277) was denied applying cap pressure to base 2 by a hull down IS-7 leaving the only option of pushing into a brawl but the Panther's cross fire made short work of that to pick up a defensive win.

Game 3 and Panthers attacking push on Murovanka was like a wave crashing on the rocks as the Skorpion's defense seemed effortless leaving even the commentators questioning if blind aggression is really the best play on this map.

Skorpions changing it up on their attack moved onto the base 2 side of the map and played a slower spotting game from the forest. It was thanks to JT's T-100 LT game play applying pressure on base 2 allowing their B-C 25t and STB-1 to rotate around the back and surround Panthers as they tried to reset the cap pressure and fell to all the lines of cross fire.

Game 4 was always set to be the blockbuster match of round 2, 2nd place Brisbane Bulldogs vs 1st place Cairns Comets and both teams were determined to go through undefeated.

1st match on Mines saw Comets attacking and focusing base 2 with a mobile line up of CS-63s, a TVP 50/51 and two 277s. Although they found a few nice early picks, the massive HP pool of the Bulldog's heavy line up just proved too much to chunk through and a defensive win was on the board for the Bulldogs.

Match 2 and Cairns Comets committed all forces to the hill while the Bulldog's had 2 CS-63s go down the 1-2 line. Noticing the over match, Comets pushed onto the Bulldog's HTs 5v3 to push through and take the win although some late effective brawling from Ravvi in his CS-63 made the match look closer than it should have been.

Match 3 and Murovanka again with Comets on the attack. Bulldogs dug down in a K line defense while the Comets opted to control the middle and send a couple of B-C 25t down the 9-0 line. Dark making a very aggressive push down the k line was spotted early and was lucky to have only taken 2/5 shots fired his way, bleeding early HP as he made a lucky escape without spotting too much. From here Comets played it smart and put a few tanks on base 1 to draw the Bulldogs out but it was the rotation and flanking plays from the Bulldogs that really sealed a defensive win in the brawl.

Final match of this series and we finally see a tortoise vs hare kind of match. Where most teams have gone for fast aggressive plays, Bulldogs really took the time to slow down and set up for base 2 on Murovanka, staying hidden in the forest as we had already seen before tonight in the last Skorpions match. As the Comets pushed in to defend the cap it was back to basics for Bulldogs as we saw focus fire and cross fire angles punish the Comets and pick up the final attacking win for the Brisbane Bulldogs going through undefeated and taking top spot on the ladder.

The map meta shifted in round 2 as we saw a preference for Mines where 4 of the 8 teams all picked Mines as the home map. Murovanka and Ruinberg were the only 2 other maps played in round 2 leaving the popular pick Steppes snubbed after round 1.

When it comes to the overall map meta so far, Murovanka, Mines and Steppes are the most played maps boasting heavy defense win rates but after this rounds attacking wins, Murovanka and Ruinberg now equal Prokhorovka to see more than a single attacking win, all at 2 wins each. 

Looking at the evolving tank meta for ANZPL, Round 2 didn't really present with too many surprises. B-C 25t (26) remained the top pick along with the Obj 277 (26) followed by the Super Conqueror (24), CS-63 (23) and STB-1 (12). 

Looking at the top picks this week it makes a lot of sense that we are seeing more mobile medium tanks as well as the 277 since the openness of Mines and Murovanka which made up the majority of games tonight really give teams the options for flanking plays, quick rotations or needing some speed to take key positions as was highlighted in a few games tonight.

Looking at the overall tank picks across both rounds, unsurprisingly the B-C 25t (59) reigns supreme along with the Super Conqueror (52), Obj 277 (44), CS-63 (28) and T-100 LT (22). 

Keep an eye out here to see how the meta evolves over each round but given the fast and furious game styles we are seeing it's likely we will continue to see more mobile tanks up top of the picks.

Another great round of World of Tanks coming out of the ANZPL with some upsets and some different map and tank picks. After 2 rounds the shine hasn't worn off this format and I am still keen to see where this goes and what we will see next. Next round is 18:00 UTC+10 Friday 25th September on https://www.twitch.tv/worldoftanksanz.

Like what you see here or have feedback? Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Twitch where I stream World of Tanks 4 nights a week and use the hashtag #ANZPL on social media to keep the conversation going.

Until next week, see you on the battlefield!

World of Tanks eSports is back as Comets fly in ANZPL season opener

Brisbane Bulldogs and Cairns Comets show the rest how it’s done by being the two of only three teams to secure Attacking victories in the new 5v5 ‘State of Origin’ style eSports format brought to you by ESL caster Ben “Sandman” Green, joined by Kevin “Karath” Zhu and sponsored by HyperX ANZ.

Streaming to a live audience of 300+, the new format seems to heavily favour the defensive side as the first few rounds result in a 2:2 draw but in Round 3 it was the Brisbane Bulldogs led by captain Ravvi who managed to exceed expectations and take out a dominating win on their home map pick of Ruinberg before holding their defense on the Perth Panther’s home map pick, Sand River.

The Cairns Comets led by captain Darksider267 showed how some aggression can pay off picking up 2 attacking wins to lead the table although dropping a single defence game on Prokhorovka to the Melbourne Matildas, finding themselves unable to get a reset on the only base capture win for the night to still finish up in a 3:1 win to take out the round.

While the map and tank meta will develop over time, the opening round saw some patterns forming. Steppes was the most commonly picked ‘Home map’ with 3 teams, followed by a Prokhorovka pick for 2 and others choosing Sand River, Ruinberg and Murovanka.

The tank meta following a ‘Brothers in Arms’ style draft means that without the stale reward tank meta available to be selected, we saw a return of the Batchat 25t (41), Super Conqueror (36), Object 277 (24) and T-100 LT (20) all be regular fixtures in team line ups. Special mentions go out to the IS-7 (15), WZ-111 5A (13), STB-1 (12) and Progetto 65 (10) that all saw picks into the double digits. 

Wargaming amazed again with the awesome design of each team logo and great team camouflage designs on display prompting excitement from the audience at the prospect they may be able to share in their team’s look should the tank camouflage design ever become available.

I think tonight was a solid opening to the ANZ Premier League season for World of Tanks ANZ that brought hope for eSports to be a regular fixture back in the community and kept the audience engaged throughout the stream. I will certainly be looking forward to Round 2 on Friday night.

if you missed all the action then check out the VOD on the World Of Tanks ANZ Twitch channel otherwise join World of Tanks ANZ for Round 2 of the ANZ Premier League next Friday 18^th September at 18:00 UTC+10 for more ANZ eSports action!