The Playoffs are Coming › Rewind

rewind


Our second team in the spotlight is the second place side from group D, rewind. Featuring an all-german core lineup, they have shown a spectacular range of form over the past few months. At their best, rewind are capable of decimating all but the best teams, while at their worst rewind seem to succeed in losing when facing up against thin air. The squad have been around, on and off, for years, but this is their first EuroCup and they're hoping to prove that they've got a place at the top level in Enemy Territory.


Current Lineup:

Sascha "criatura" Brinkwirth
Fatih "fireBall" Hot
Daniel "humM3L" Müller
Ludwig "haZer" B.
Arthur "murDa" R.
Andreas "FlixX" S.
Sebastian "vrael" W.


Team History

The current Rewind squad was originally formed under the HighBot banner by Humm3l and fireBall, in early 2006. After losing out in the qualifier match for EuroCup XIII, they went through a brief period of inactivity before coming back in their present form. Sascha "criatura" Brinkwirth describes this, saying, "after a few weeks [we] got [our] motivation back and decided to do it again. With a little summer break and few lineup changes we are now playing under rewind." Like zeroPoint, rewind have made a late addition to their roster for the playoff stages, adding FlixX, formerly of the uQ team to round off their side.

The group stage was a rollercoaster ride for rewind, with an initial loss to the fellow Germans of team helix, followed two days later by a close defeat at the hands of the amonkeys team, it seemed rewind's EuroCup was destined to come to a premature conclusion. Fate, it seems, had other ideas and rewind came into their last game stronger than ever, powering through to a straight maps win over noll8 and, with amonkeys forfeiting to helix, snatching the playoff spot from the Scandinavian teams. Although they did finish on a high, though, rewind come into the playoffs with the worst record of all the remaining teams. Having only one match victory, they have much left to prove, and there are many who doubt if they have the ability to prove it.


Team Strengths

They are, at least, motivated, says Criatura: "Our biggest strength as team is our motivation; we all stick together and we try to beat everyone. Sometimes its not easy, but we know we can do it. Nobody is unbeatable and we know this." Indeed, this may be true, and rewind have shown it to be so in the past, beating teams nobody expected them to stand a chance against. Some games, however, are tougher than others, and a matchup against zeroPoint will be tougher than most.

Rewind are undeterred, with Criatura saying "We are [confident], we've got so much motivation and there we get back to the point that nobody is unbeatable. We've played some practices against zP and we think we got a chance to make it." He does, however, admit that they are not the favourites going into the game, but states that rewind "are trying to give the best and to matchup as a good enemy for zP."

Criatura goes on to stress the importance of tactics, claiming this as another of rewind's strong points. "We are doing many new tactics and other positions, with some special stuff. We are trying to be aggressive as we can," he says. Tactical planning alone, Criatura maintains, makes up around a quarter or rewind's practice time. Whether this will pay dividends remains to be seen. Tactics are, undoubtedly important, but with no new maps in the pool this season is there really that much more that can be done? Perhaps rewind will surprise me and come up with some novel defences or well run attack plans, but I can't help but wonder if this investment is time well spent.

Criatura names Humm3l as his star player on the team, but I would expand on this - humM3L can undoubtedly pull out big plays, but so too can fireBall and, indeed, criatura himself. In fact, evaluating the rewind team as a whole, I can fully see why they are in this playoff spot, however close they came to being eliminated - every player in their team is capable at performing at the level required to face off against teams like zeroPoint, and if they all do and their teamwork is also solid there is no reason why rewind can't forge a major upset in the first round of playoff games.


Playoff Outlook

Despite that optimistic sentiment, I won't predict that this giant-killing victory will come to pass. I see rewind sinking to the losers bracket after their first game where they will have to fight tooth and nail to progress through every subsequent round. An initial losers bracket fixture against murso seems likely, and although insignificant, that could prove one of the more interesting matchups from the early playoff stage games. Criatura is realistic about the situation, saying "we hope we can get to the next round, but if we lose in this round it's totally ok for us. Nobody thought that we were able to [get to] the playoffs but we are in."


Future Plans

As for the future, rewind too plan on attending both upcoming LAN events in Denmark and the Netherlands. They also hope to compete in future ClanBase and ESL competitions, so it looks like we're going to see a lot more of rewind no matter what this EuroCup holds for them.