zP take on Idle in Crossfire PGA Qualifiers

zP & CDAP are going to Poland! Timmy O'Toole lives on!


Tonights Scores
Finest 4-0 vib
aMenti 4-2 noll8
zP 4-0 idle
CDAP.PI > Finest
aMenti 0-4 CDAP.PI
idle 0-4 CDAP.PI

“When I grow up I want to beat Idle”, Said young Timmy O’Toole before he fell down the well. It was a crying shame that he fell down that well, but tonight we’ll see whether we have a challenger or two that may just be able to live out his dream!

Tonight at 20:30 CET Idle face the first of the potential suitors to their throne that they’ve sat on for oh so long. It will come in the winners bracket of the Crossfire PGA Qualifiers and it will see the real test of this winter season. The Qualifying process has seen 11 teams all put their money where their mouth is and bid for glory, and must be taken as a serious evaluation as to where competitive ET stands at the moment. And with that said, both zP and aMenti are using this as an opportunity to test their skill against idle.

zP vs aMenti Match report

zP beat aMenti last night 4-2 in a game that really looked like it could have gone either way, another night and aMenti may have come away the victors from this one. The first map was aMenti’s choice, and it was Supply Depot, and after the way zP man handled Finest on this map in the game previously, I was surprised to see the difficulty they had with aMenti. Indeed it was aMenti that held onto the first stage for a good 12 minutes or more, and in 5on5 that’s even longer than it sounds. zP could only hold aMenti for some 8 minutes, and having lost the first and second stage to some really well timed attacks from aMenti, the zP side were fortunate to put 8 minutes on the board.

With momentum in their favour, aMenti pushed onto Frostbite and grabbed the first stage with a big boost over the side wall, and moved on to an early document grab. The zP boat was rocking for sure, they even stabled the boat and went on to hold without any real trouble for just short of 10 minutes. Their attack was of similar early strength to that of aMenti, with a side push leading to an early document grab, however it wasn’t to succeed either. After knocking at the door a couple of times, zP got the documents home with about 4 minutes to spare.

Onto Goldrush for the final map, and zP would attack this time with some real purpose moving through each stage efficiently, needing just over a minute for the first stage and then solidly breaking down their opponents to get the documents. Objective carrier Butchji may have counted himself fortunate to get those documents in the back of the truck after a small piece of indecision combined with a grenade from Winghaven and a respawn from the Axis left him gasping for breath after putting the document in the truck with only 5 minutes played and the time then being set at about 6 minutes.

Again though it was aMenti’s first attacks that caught zP on the back foot, their opening attack was timed well with an Axis spawn time and a nice triple Thompson frag from engineer Xylos allowed aMenti access to the tank and with the Axis team respawning on top of them. They (zP) got caught on a long spawn and aMenti went straight down to axis spawn, and moved the tank and built the command post unchallenged. zP would eventually stave off the attacks long enough to cull off aMenti however, the allied side did have time for two document grabs and will look at Goldrush as a map they might have felt they could have won.
aMenti went into this game with two gaping problems in their team, dAvid is currently out of action with personal issues and aCozz had been downed with internet problems this past week. Additionally, they were desperate for as much preparation time as possible as they’d not been practicing the 5on5 format. Absolutely none of that was evident in the way they played, they looked coherent, they looked organised and their timing was really good. A team with a bunch of problems, managed to cause zP a whole load of problems.

Looking at aMenti and zP

The most impressive player from aMenti for me was Winghaven, and for me to say that is quite something. I personally always felt Winghaven’s success was deep rooted in the long time he’d spent with wArning and the way that the team of wArning had grown around him, to utilise his panzering and skillset, much like any panzer will tell you, it hard to move from team to team, as your teammates need to learn to understand how you (the panzer) play. And ever since leaving wArning I’ve really not been blown away by Winghaven, however last night he impressed me to no end and the reason he impressed me is the biggest flaw in the way zP play.

These two teams represent two very different styles of playsets within ET, and it is something of an oldschool vs newschool mentality that draws this out. Winghaven has adapted his play, to use the map, the weapons and the clock to simply annoy the hell out of his opponents and he is fantastic at it. So many times I saw him in positions you as an Allied attacker would not except an Axis player to be, and because you don’t expect it, he instantly has an advantage over you in the battle, whether that’s with a gun or with a grenade he’s already primed, he did this all night long, the last man standing in a position he really shouldn’t be in, picking up frags you don’t expect him to, and plain and simple it’s a bitch to play against. This isn’t spam however, spam doesn’t have the element of the brain, where as Winghaven certainly appears to be a clever player. aMenti caught zP on their (aMenti’s) first stage Supply offence. Winghaven was sat in upper tunnels leaned over the edge waiting to see the self killing push from zP, as soon as they rushed past, he dropped behind them not even bothering to chase and rushed in calling for the allied attack, the result was then infact aMenti getting the first stage instantly but also the next spawn Winghaven going covert and opening the door for his team with the Axis down for a while. The Spanish fun doesn’t stop there either, once the door is open he charges forward and lands a double grenade onto the respawning axis team as they come out of the depot, they didn’t think he was going to be there, he picked up an “annoying” 2 man frag, and he used his brain to read the situation that allowed him forward in the first place.

That whole “annoying” and I use the word annoying as a compliment in this case, is completely absent from zP, they’re very much of an older mindset where the mp40 will rule over all, and indeed they’ve some fantastic aimers and in a combination of Butchji and Potter they’ve players that will always deliver a lot of damage given on the stats board. However sometimes that isn’t enough, sometimes you need that something extra that Winghaven was able to deliver. Its that something that would have lost you a game against Dignitas back in the day, but now is that something that will win you the game against aMenti. The only player on that team capable of delivering it, is Gifty, in Crossfire vs KiH at Quakecon this year, he played the annoying role perfectly, using the rifle, and his regular grenades to great effect. Whether he’s able to do it in the same way in this new team, time will tell, but last night he was not .

zP vs Idle

So now zP go on to face Idle, and Idle are given their first real taste as to whether they’ll actually need to practice this season. zP will look at this game and probably thank their lucky stars that they’re not playing Winghaven again, however they’ll know all too well about the threat of r3vers and his ability both with the rifle nade and more importantly, r3vers times everything to opposition spawn, which is just the flaw Winghaven exposed last night.

Speaking of Night, the most successful player in ET history may NOT play this evening as a change in his family holiday schedule has opened up massive dilemma for the team and the player. What does this all mean? Well, if Night doesn’t play then we’ll see an Idle side like non before it. Night is most certainly Mr. Idle and all roads leading to Idle go via him. Does that mean Idle cant win without him? I don’t think so, they’re still a long way above everyone else, however they’re going to have to adjust in a way they’ve not experienced before.

zP will get their shot at Idle first thing tonight, but aMenti may get a second bite at the cherry. They currently lie in the losers bracket and one would expect them to progress to the loser bracket final, and face either zP or Idle. One thing is for sure, The Crossfire PGA Qualifiers will be concluded tonight, and that means Idle will face zP once and then either zP or another team again! There are two shots and the idle title today!

Follow the whole of the evenings entertainment on Inside the Game with TosspoT and ETTV at GamesTV.org

Idle vs zP
Time: 20:30 CET
ETTV: GamesTV
Shoutcast: iTG`TosspoT
Bracket: Tourney Bracket