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)