The Playoffs are Coming › murso

murso

The next team to step into the spotlight is the only remaining Finnish team in the EuroCup, runner-up from group C, #Murso SFX. A combination of Finnish talent from last season, #Murso SFX feature lineup of players who have all competed at high level for a long time, few of which have ever made it to the real top level. This season they hope to change that, aiming to further shame the many doubters who were surprised by their progress out of the groups.


Current Lineup:

Leo "lettu" Haasanen
Joni "Hessu" Obradovic
Tero "cadein" Pölläniemi
Teemu "rauzki" Seijari
Mikko "mikza" Suppula
Jussi "twidi" Tiipiö
Tino "chmpp" Valle
Tommi "murso" Valve



Team History

The original murso squad was created, according to Jussi "twidi" Tiipiö, in 2004, over two years ago, making it one of the oldest teams in the cup. Originally, twidi says, "murso was just a small community channel which consisted of friends who were playing some games together for fun." Competing over the years not only in ET, but also in games like CS:S and TM:N, murso built up a core of players who enjoyed playing together. "After sFx LAN and sFx Evil folded," twidi continues, "we decided to gather our forces and start to play with #murso more seriously."

This new, more serious murso set their sights on the upcoming EuroCup and won an invitation many thought was perhaps not completely deserved. The final step in making the team what it is today was the natural move in the eyes of the squad - they rejoined with their founder teams' sponsor sFx Gaming and were ready to march into battle.

Their first such battle against the Polish Fear Factory did not go to plan, as murso lost out with a narrow defeat. Losing to idle.ee in their second match, it looked like the season was all over for murso, but with a narrow victory over Incomplete, and Incomplete's win against the Poles, murso were given a second chance. The group was tied for second place, and the first ever ET EuroCup tiebreaker series was required. Murso stormed into the tiebreakers full of confidence, battling past first Incomplete then Fear Factory to claim the playoff spot.

While they succeeded in reaching the playoffs, however, serious doubts remain about murso's potential to go any further. Like rewind, they had only won a single game in the group stage, prior to the tiebreak. Perhaps it was merely the fact that they were in a group with idle that made all three of the other teams in group C (including murso) look sup-par, but there is also a strong argument that they just aren't on the same level as most of their fellow playoff competitors.



Team Strengths

With the longest history of any team in EuroCup, murso undoubtedly have a strong teamplay built up, a fact twidi confirms. "We don't have any special playstyle, because it depends on our opponents," he says, "teamplay is our strength, because most of us have already played together since [early 2005]."

Despite having two players from the well respected sFx.LAN squad, twidi cites instead mikza as the key player in the team, saying "[he] is our star player! He's a great multiclasser who rarely has a bad day." I agree with this sentiment, in part, mikza has always looked good in the murso games I've seen, but so too have many of the other members of the team. Many of the squad are relatively unknown at the top level, but they all hope to make a name for themselves this season.

Murso will face a stern test, though, in the cdap pi side who are seen by many as one of the pretenders to idle's crown. twidi acknowledges that the general community expectation is for a solid cdap pi victory, but goes on to stress that this hasn't dampened his team's understated confidence. "I've got a quite good feeling that it won't be an easy game for them," he says, "We're not playing here to lose."



Playoff Outlook

In the face of murso's confident mood, and the fact cdap pi have been known to stumble in the past, it is certainly possible that murso will come through with the victory. This, however, seems unlikely - cdap pi looked spectacular in their most recent game against aMenti, and while murso appeared strong in the tiebreaker series against Fear Factory and Incomplete, their performance wasn't, perhaps, quite up to that standard.

With the right map choices, solid play and a bit of luck there is no reason murso can't take the win, but I do not honestly expect them to. Their time in the winners bracket is destined to be short lived unless they can pull off a major coup, and a likely losers bracket game against rewind should be more within their capabilities, although this too will be tough.

murso's hopes are, at least, modest. Winning a single match in the playoffs, thereby bettering the performance of the sFx.EVIL team, would be enough to make twidi happy. With a strong performance this should be possible for murso, but I can't honestly see them as a challenger for the top spots. murso will be fighting to get more than last place in the playoffs, and while they could achieve that, anything more will likely be beyond the plucky Finns.



Future Plans

After this season, murso intend to go back to their roots, stopping competitive play and continuing as a fun clan across whatever games take their fancy. Although they did, at one point, plan on attending shgOpen LAN in Copenhagen, scheduling and transport problems meant we probably won't see murso at all after this season, at LAN or online. Here's hoping the team can end their journey through high-level ET with a bang.