What to take from Friday's games

Action in the East division today as 4 teams getting their first matches out of the way. Starting at 4pm EST Lost on the Map went on the road to face BFL. BFL being the heavy underdog was not expected to put up much of a fight at all but with envy subbing for unakkorn on the Lost on the Map side, and Hashemy subbing for BFL the two teams were brought a little closer together in skill. What was still expected to be a blow out in favor of Lost on the map became a brawl between two far more evenly matched teams than we had originally anticipated. Lost on the map got off to an early and dominant lead. They battled back and forth but were able to get ahead 3-0 and as it looked like as soon as LOTM was looking to close it out BFL showed a sudden surge off the outstanding play of SGT-Cookie, Alimpan, and Bobstaj. BFL clawed out 2 pods straight and brought it back to a close 3-2. In the end Envy and coloses spear headed a Lost on the map win with dual 50 bombs. Possibly what was the most surprising about this match was the way Jawa Refuge went. BFL came out the gate swinging, taking an early 3-1 lead. As time began to tick past it looked as if BFL could close it out and secure a win but as Lost on the map got hotter they were able to mount a come back and BFL crumbled, losing 3 pods straight, with a final score of 4-3. Recap:

Dune Sea 4-2 lost on the map

Jawa Refuge 4-3 Lost on the map Takeaways: BFL is a far better lineup than what was originally anticipated. While not a contender yet, this team of rookies is only expected to improve as the season goes on and i dont anticipate them getting blown out by any teams. They play hard and have spirit. Look for SGT-Cookie, Alimpan, and Bobstaj to continue to improve and become solid, breakout players as time goes on. Lost on the map got exposed a little today. We got a brief picture of what this team is without ,reigning MVP, Unakkorn. It wasnt pretty. Coloses has the potential to play far above his station and i dont think there are any questions around him. Rayan and Gromme will need to improve if they hope to compete in their division because what we saw out of them today was not up to their potential.

Immediately after the first game we got a look at many peoples tournament favorites (Bridge Burners) as they went on the road against long time team (SWAT). What followed was surprising as SWAT started out as hot as can be absolutely stunning the star studded Bridge Burners roster and taking an early 2-0 lead. For the first 10 minutes of the map the two teams would have a heavy weight brawl and neither team seemed to take any advantage. SWAT was keeping pace with this Bridge Burners line up. They played exceptionally well on defense and were able to scrape by enough on offense to keep them in it. Both teams. On several occasions SWAT was just one cycler shot or one more kill away from claiming even more pods but still the two teams remained in stalemate. Baseballrebels cemented himself as the superstar of the day playing some of the best battlefront of his career. After 2/3's of the match had passed it seems as if SWAT had nothing left in the tank and Bridge Burners was recovering from their slow start. They were finally getting their feet underneath them and starting a rally. Bridge Burners would sweep SWAT in the last half of the map and finish out with a strong 5-2. Bridge Burners would have little concern after that as they went into goazon with all their momentum and a shaken SWAT team. it was a steamroll and Bridge Burners closed it out 5-0.

Recap: Jawa Refuge 5-2 Bridge Burners

Goazon Badlands 5-0 Bridge Burners

Takeaways:

SWAT has enough chemistry and team work that they can compete with the best teams if theyre not being careful. Respect SWAT or theyll make you pay. Despite that the reality is that Karnage is not enough star power to keep them afloat. they were 2-3 below Bridge Burners in cap and when that caught up to them it was all downhill from there. Bridge Burners can survive if one of their best is down. TheSup started out at an unusual slow pace but baseballrebels picked that slack up. Baseball has taken no steps back since he last left and looks to only improve moving forward. Bridge Burners from what we have seen so far can start slow and seems to have an issue adapting to the fast paced gameplay. When SWAT started hot and punched them in the mouth it left them stunned for a while and was hard for them to recover from that. Once they get going however, that team is elite and dangerous.