Round 1 (Salerno): RitaLin vs WADB

Well well well well well! Here we are at the dawn of the new CFL comp. In the face of DOD:S adversity the community appears to be fighting back and winning! We have all shouldered and continue to shoulder the responsibility to revive DOD:S successfully as a community despite the dire circumstances. We have borne witness to GameArena and Rats dying/fading out, the withdrawal (more or less) of the top 3 teams (*pt*, uR & x5) along with many other teams/clans, the death of Gamers.net along with many other servers but yet we as Australasian DOD:S players still strive to prolong this game that we love so much! The sudden realisation of DOD:S imminent death has given birth to countless new teams (many being second teams of existing clans but still new teams nonetheless!) and now we have another competitive option too!

The CFL comp has shaped up in fairly short time and promises to be an exciting comp! Most of the big names have signed up for it along with a good smattering of new teams (mostly 2nd teams of existing clans) and we will all no doubt receive a few urprises along the way with some interesting dynamics which could cause some unexpected results. The custom maps within CFL will definitely mix things up with some very interesting maps which most have seen or played before but many have not warred on. Salerno being a fine example in this first week. Many people know the map well and have warred on rails which is the same layout. However rails seems to have faded from the list of commonly warred maps and salerno does look different (eg. it's lighter than rails) so it will be interesting to see how teams do on it.

Having jumped at the opportunity to be first to do a write up and using it to unofficially do an overview, I now come to the difficult task of previewing a game of 2 teams which I don't know the line-ups for! WADB are fairly new on the scene (in fact WAD in general are on the competitive scene!) and RitaLin are yet to show up to the competitive scene having booked themselves into it twice with plenty of forfeits (SAIL season and Rats season). My honest prediction is WADB to win by forfeit but I will continue the writeup in hope of seeing a game.

Firstly it has to be noted that RitaLin only managed to field a team once in the entire season of SAIL including 0 appearances from OutSiDeR. This was no doubt triggered by the exodus of PureAIM from the RitaLin team basically halving their team and slumping their morale. They had a similar showing in the RATS season with very few games proceeding with a full team. However, with a new competition on new maps and a chance at a fresh start, there is no way RitaLin can be completely written off. With a bit of recruiting and preparation they are a formiddable team. OutSiDeR is always dangerous when he's on form and has some interesting and effective strategies when he's committed. They definitely have some decent players (not sure if they've recruited more for this comp, but let's hope so) so if it comes together for RitaLin (team shows up with Captain and has strat), they will probably win and I for one hope that does happen as they could be another solid team and a win might keep momentum going for them. Fingers crossed, hope to see RitaLin getting amongst!

From the headquarters of WAD (now they have decided to join the competitive scene) comes another War team known as WADB. WAD have really made some big changes lately with a much better PR campaign (having basically alienated the majority of the community in the past). Bans have been lifted, teams have been entered into competitions, weekly WAD scrims have ensued and I for one welcome the courage it must have taken for them to make this change after their previous stance. They are definitely dispelling their previous image and are much more public-friendly now. They are also learning to scrim and war at an astonishing rate with WAD's first ever competitive team making Semi-Finals in SAIL in their first season! Good to see more competitive teams and good to see WAD's new attitude. Good luck for your first competitive season, WADB!!!

Salerno as a map follows a familiar format from Rails and Palermo with the double in the middle and the flanks bearing all the other 4 caps (singles). I would imagine we will see plenty of Supports (and maybe an Assault) indoors. There can be a lot of momentum for the team when pushing through the central house but at the same time there are some very nifty spots to hold from in there. No doubt the tight spaces will make for some chaotic Spam duels. Sniper will be fairly important in this game most probably overlooking the middle. There are plenty of angles to be had on the middle so the double caps will be hard to cap and easy to hold. Fast caps are needed to secure the middle when the opportunity arrives as spawn is not far away top break mid cap! The scattering of riflers around the map could be the maker or breaker for the teams in this map. Send them on the flanks? Send them middle? We'll just have to wait and see!

Note: This is definitely one of my more speculative and opinionated (not to mention longest!) writeups. Take it or leave it but don't be offended!

NICE WRITEUP.

what an ass... now we all have to do one as good as this.

LOL

Holy crap - text wall!!!!!! I got lost after the first two sentences. Who is gonna win again?

Thanks for all that .

well apart from the confusion at the start = great game Ritalin-

hop eit was some competition for you- all new for most - some good battles , well done good luck for the future games.

Thanks no mercy

wd to ritalin for getting a team together tonight and well done to wads second team's first scrim

maybe getting the commentators to say your not turning up or will loose every game will make u guys play like its for real ! You took a bagging and answered your critics. lol