The Playoffs are Coming › aMenti

aMenti

Formed out of the silver medalists of last season Northern Darkness, aMenti hope to follow in idle's footsteps and improve their medal to a gold this time round. The runner-up in group B, there's only one thing on the minds of the aMenti fanclub - their unfortunate first round matchup against the reigning champions idle.ee.


Current Lineup:

Tomislav "aCoZz" Nižic
David "dAv1d" Philippaerts
Sergi "Winghaven" Torras
Tom "CrozZ" H.
Jan "marv" T.
Janis "Clown" Z.


Team History:

aMenti's formation is another long story, according to Clown, albeit markedly shorter than that of idle.ee. "The core of players [in the team] come from Northern Darkness/dMize, which was pretty successful, taking 2nd place in the last EuroCup." After the EuroCup XIII season ended, several players left ND and, says Clown, "Crozz, Senti [and] Xylos came in to replace them. [This] was the first version of aMenti which didn't work out very well, so the new additions senti and xylos left, and aMenti started to look for new players to replace them."

A period of almost a month of relative inactivity and a search for new players followed, then Clown and Marv joined the team. "At first it didn't work out very well, with us losing our first official game with the new line up," Clown says, "but time cured the problems we had, and at this moment we are pretty confident that we can be a threat to any team."

aMenti began the playoffs looking good, and with solid performances in the ESL IPS (in which they beat the much fancied helix and Netrunners sides), they were expected by many to win the group. Their initial emphatic victory over one4one was, though no surprise, a demonstration that many saw as assuring aMenti the victory in the group, something cemented by an easy win over vib.

In their final playoff game, against cdap pi, they needed only to take a single map to avoid the matchup against the idle.ee team. This wasn't to be as cdap pi looked incredibly good and aMenti lacked the strength and confidence they posessed in their previous matches. cdap pi won 4-0, and aMenti were relegated to second position in the group.



Team Strengths:

"We are the most defensive team there is in ET," says Clown, "we play really defensivly, and rely on crossfire a lot. Most of the time it works perfectly, but against some clans we have noticed that we have to play a bit differently so we adjust to the enemy we are playing." aMenti are not the only team claiming defensive play as a strength, while others take the exact opposite view, saying their aggressive playstyle makes them stronger.

It remains to be seen whether the defensive or offensive styles of play will triumph in the cup, but I think the key is to achieve a balance - pushing through with aggressive play when the enemy is on the back foot, but being prepared to fall back to a more defensive stance when threatened. Achieving this balance in the right proportion is a difficult feat, but something that aMenti must achieve if they hope to defeat idle.ee.

Going into more detail, Clown explains that aMenti's timing and their tenacity in bad situations are a great boost to the team. "We never give up," he says, "some games over the time have been won thanks to our will to win." Clown cites aMenti's victory over NETR on Supply in the ESL IPS, where the aMenti team snatched the map win from a situation where they looked to be headed for certain defeat, as a prime example of this.

Clown states that aCozz and marv are the most likely candidates as the team's superstars. "Most [of aMenti's] games are won either by acozz's great rifle shots or marv's excellent medic efforts," Clown says. He then goes on to point out that Winghaven, too, can turn a match. "I think our whole team could be considered all-star," he muses.



Playoff Outlook:

aMenti have, without a doubt, the worst possible position in the playoffs. They begin with a battle against reigning champions idle.ee then go on, no matter what the result in the idle.ee game, to face one of the very strong helix and Netrunner teams. aMenti will have to win two very challenging games just to reach the medals in this EuroCup.

The team is definitely capable of rising to such a challenge, but they will certainly have to show much improved play from their final group game against cdap pi. With the idle.ee matchup fast approaching aMenti are, understandably, apprehensive. "I doubt anyone would be confident heading up against idle.ee," Clown says, "even though you should be, because nothing else will save you at the point when you meet idle.ee."

With aMenti's supposed strength in the face of adversity, this is not an encouraging omen. "[idle.ee] have great teamwork, and effective spam, things which you can't forget or be bad at, if you have a bad day," Clown continues, "even if I'm very optimistic, i can't see us beating them."

A victory over idle.ee would be a momentous one for aMenti, and with their best play and a dash of luck they could do it, but is not likely. A descent into the losers bracket is, therefore, the probable outcome for the aMenti team. From there they could well go on to finish in the medals, but it will be extremely tough as they would be left with no room for error. Clown is of a similar opinion - "I hope that we are able to reach finals from losers bracket," he says, "there are many other clans with equal skill, so it shouldn't be impossible for us to reach the finals."



Future Plans:

aMenti are another team which has not yet made any provision for the future after the upcoming Crossfire LAN. They have started trying to find funding, but concede that with a multinational lineup it may be tough to get everyone to the Netherlands.