snailboat's boat (#6 seed):

Medic- Sparrow aka "erdssorc"
Demo- crux
Pocket- SS
Roamer- dummy
scout- bman
scout- snailboat

I've spent the last few minutes trying to think of a perfect analogy for snailboat's boat, and what I've decided on is this: snailboat's boat is like a box of chocolates, you never know which team you're gonna get. Sometimes, they'll come out of nowhere with bona-fide invite level play; a perfect uber from SS and Sparrow here, a clutch 4k from bman there, a miracle pipe from crux every now and again, and you sit their in awe of their collective skill. Other times, they'll bleed their entire flank, lose both soldiers instantly on a mid fight, or succumb to the cheesiest of spy plays (shouts to nja!). The bottom line is simple: snailboat's boat is not exactly the most consistent team in the playoffs.

Of course, that's definitely not to say they don't have a lot going for them. The core of this team (SS and Sparrow and kinda~ Frio) goes back all the way to Season Nine of ESEA-O, to the legendary team schicken with schicken. As anyone who has ever been in mumble with them can attest, SS and Sparrow give off the vibe of an old married couple, or perhaps two particularly goofy fraternal twins. The two will follow one another to the gates of Hades, bickering all the way. In light of that history, it should come as no surprise that the two play together very well as a combo, always using ubers effectively (and not using them when there is no need to). In addition to the strength of their combo, snailboat's boat also features a lot of players with very strong DM, including crux (whose superb pipe aim really shines in 1v1 situations) and bman (one of those pesky “scouts that don't miss”, as well as most likely the best sniper in IM this season). No one can say that snailboat's boat lacks players with the ability to go huge and clutch a push or a mid fight when push comes to shove.

So, what keeps snailboat's boat from being a very top contender in IM? First and foremost has to be the lack of coordination between their combo and flank, an observation made independently by both myself and Sparrow when I talked to him about his team. Unfortunately, it has been an extremely common sight to see the team's scouts and (former) roamer get caught out and die in 1v1s or 1v2s or 1v3s or...well you get the idea. The team's scouts seem to play off of buffs much less than those on other IM playoff contenders, and can get caught out of sync with the rest of the team. In addition, a few of the team's key players can be kind of streaky, for several reasons. Despite his very solid DM, crux is one of the least vocal demos in IM, and as such gets caught out a lot due to his team not being aware of what he's doing. The team's eponymous scout snailboat, while a solid player, has the occasional stinker of a game, and sometimes seems to play riskier than a “passive scout” should. His insane DM aside, bman is the most easily caught out of all the players on the team, and no level of aim can fully justify the amount of 1v1s he takes. Also, the team has been somewhat lacking in breadth of comms, with most of the calling done exclusively by SS and Sparrow, leading to a lot of disorganization. All in all, I think it's fair to say that snailboat's boat has more flaws in their play to work on than most of the playoff teams.

Still, it would be a lie to say that snailboat's boat hasn't had matches where everything has “clicked”, so to speak. On viaduct, a map that the legacy players (SS and Sparrow) have always excelled on, the team definitely came together, and easily beat down Kawaii 5-0. And of course, the team remains the only one to legitimately beat Mad Men, the easy favorites to win playoffs (as Mad Men's other loss was a forfeit loss to Chill 2 Good).

(continued in the next post)

Another thing that might instill hope in snailboat's boat to perform well in playoffs is the acquisition of top 20 demoman Tim “dummy” Olson onto their roster as roaming soldier. After the last match of the season, the team's starting roamer Frio mysteriously vanished, leaving the spot open (my theory? He knew that if the team cut him they would succumb to the “curse of Frio” and immediately fall apart, as all teams Frio is cut from have done, and decided to save them the pain of doing so). I believe that, despite his inexperience in the role, dummy will be a big asset, more so in managing the other members of the flank than in making huge plays of his own (although that's always possible as well). Frio is kind of an odd, mercurial figure, and his plays often left his team scratching their heads and wondering what in the Sam Hill he was trying to accomplish, so dummy will most likely lend the team a level of consistency in decision-making that will be useful in the long run.

When I talked to Sparrow, he was fairly pragmatic in assessing his team's chances, predicting that they would neither make it to the finals nor exit the playoffs without a win. I'd have to agree with him, and feel that the team will end up finishing within the 4th to 6th place range. However, if the matchups go right and the team brings their A-game, it's very possible to see them 3rd or even 2nd (1st seems a little farfetched for everyone other than Mad Men right now, of course). I also think the team has probably taken practice more casually than many of the other playoff teams, although not the most casually. If the team buckles down and practices hard before the playoffs, it's possible that they can iron out many of their kinks and excel. Good luck, and may Frio's black majik not strike you down!

FIRST MATCH PREDICTION UGUUU~~~

The first team snailboat's boat will be facing is the number three seed, r5. I think this is a very interesting matchup and can definitely go either way. Neither team seems incredibly strong on snakewater, with all of their prior matches on it going to 5-3 or 5-4 with teams I consider to be a fair bit weaker than either of them. I think that duwatna isn't QUITE as scary as snakewater as he is on, say, gullywash or gravelpit, and that the real force to be reckoned with will be Skarlett on pocket, who has consistently done a huge amount of work on the map. Conversely, I feel that bman has always excelled at finding ways to go very aggressive successfully on snakewater, and expect him to be very hard to contain for downpour and xalox. I think that snailboat's boat matches up fairly well to r5 on this map, as the combo battle is so important and SS is a better match for Skarlett than most of the playoff pockets, but I still probably have to give the game to r5 because of the momentum they have going into the game. 5-3 r5 but I think it will be extremely close and could go either way.

Nice read and analysis!

For the R5 analysis the Demo isn't mentioned.
Just want to point that out.
Very good job!

fixed

you were wrong

oh god he was wrong

time to go bug him in mumble

so very wrong

wrong
AS EXPECTED MUSTARD JEEZ.
sakura was right tho.

nice write up tho

the funny part is that we decided like a few weeks into the season that i was supposed to be the aggressive scout.
oops.

can't wait for the final product! nice work guys!

Probably just because of Enter the Goku I can never see you as an aggressive scout. Anyways sorry. :<

nah, youre probably right anyway

you threw the game on purpose just to make me look bad prove me wrong

they obviously threw it so they wouldn't have to suffer through the eventual embarrassment that madmen is going to drop on the unlucky team to play them on viaduct

and just to clarify, frio was not getting cut.. he just pulled a houdini.

tactical_loss