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.
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Until next week, see you on the battlefield!
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