Without further ado, I present you the teams that were gonna decide which country is the better in NDML of Russia and Lithuania.

:: Lithuania:
MasterG
Nrk
Padonkas
Vaga
:: Homemap: q2dm1

:: Russia:
char
fpS
nol1ght
voron
:: Homemap: q2dm5

:: Server: Inferna :: KTA Battle #1

I stumbled upon this game almost accidentally, and before I even sat down next to my computer both the teams had already picked a server and decided on the maps, and only thing that was missing was GTV which AlexyeNow and AtU got running before the game started thanks to Dimmu the server admin. Then both the GTVs got exception from the forced anticheat, and the game could begin.

Q2DM1 :: Lithuania's map



The Lithuanian team had a very good start, immediately securing the positions with Padonkas and MasterG securing the megahealth with chainguns and SSG, while Vaga held rail and nrk was neatly positioned on top of the lift, forcing the Russians on the defense. They held mega very good for a long time, and allthough the Russians never got streamrolled, they hardly held any positions for quite a bit. This was untill they managed to take over the lift position, and their camping star char wrote the book on lift-holding. While Lithuania had two or three players in mega, the Russians seemed to be attacking the rail sporadically, but Vaga showed some good controlling of the area and with MasterG's help he never really lost the positions allthough the Russians managed to get the railgun out to the arena. fpS and nol1ght I believe were trying to attack mega mainly, but had a hard time following who played which positions as they barely held any position except the rail for the first half of the game. With the liftposition secured for a long time, fpS and his fellow mega-fighters had a base from which to launch attacks on the mega-room. But Padonkas really showed good play in there with his chaigun, and even though he was forced out of position at times it didn't take long untill he grabbed it back. Halfway into the game or so the Russian team finally managed to hold mega for an extensive time, positioned with 3 players trying to keep the railing Lithuanians away. But it just wasn't enough, the last half of the game was somewhat more chaotic than the first, but even though Lithuania had most of the map fairly under control, they never managed to spawn-rape the Russians, who fought back in good style, but the Lithuanian mapwin was never really threatened.

Q2DM5 :: Russia's map



I was very eager to see how the Russian team was prepared for this map, usually the presence of quad will favour teams with good teamplay over just raw aim, and the Lithuanians had proved they exceeded in both parts of the game so the Russian side needed to show something special to win. Q2dm5 is just a weird map, all the action is so centered around two parts of the map (the quad and the Red Armor), with big areas almost left unpopulated for long periods of the game. It was pretty clear from the start what part of the map each team chose to defend, fpS started with the chaingun spawn, and from then on the Russian team held the Red Armor for a long time. Lithuania was forced to hold quad, but judging by their play that was pretty much what they intended to do regardless. The Russian started out good, having a slight lead for a long time, using their red armored players to battle the Lithuanians, who struggled to get a good quadrun going. Vaga was their main man when it came to quad-room control, he was always around with his railgun ready, and picked out Russian's playing peekaboo near the machinegun-corridor. Padonkas was their main quadrunner, and allthough they were denied the quad a few times early on the Lithuanian team got about every quad from 2 minutes into the game untill the last 5. The quadruns on q2dm5 aren't nearly as hectic (with spawn-frags etc) as their countrerparts on q2dm3 or q2dm2, but they are just as crucial if not even more, because the fragcount on this huge map tends to be low and every frag counts. They are also vital when it comes to cleaning the Red Armor room, which Lithuania did several times throughout the course of the game, but somehow the Russians got it back straight away. Poor nrk, he had a hard time fighting 4 stacked Russians. But halway through the quadruns paid off, and the Lithuanian side slowly increased what had turned into a small lead, untill there were 5 minutes left. By now the Russians had lost Red Armor, and nrk turned into a happy camper, and focused their play on the quad-room. With Voron and fpS holding the room, and nol1ght fighting nearby, they even had a couple quads, but couldn't make them count. Near the end they were only 8 frags or so behind, and two quads were left. But none of the quads turned into successful quadruns, and the game ended 102-87 after Lithuania got a few more frags in the closing seconds on resigned Russian players.


It was a good game, had nothing to do except watch which is nice. Both maps were very typical, q2dm5 was the most exciting map of the two, and the Russians were just a few step behind in every aspect of the game, but they did put up a good fight. Lithuania looked very solid overall, and could be a team to look out for.