| Menu | |
| | |
|
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
| |
| | |
| Powered by | |
| | |
|  | |
| | |
| Services | |
| | |
| »
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
|
|
| | |
|
|
|
|
| Info | |
| | |
| EDL #20 IRC: #EDL | Demos: http://demos.q2players.org
Sign ups: off
| |
| | |
|
| |
| | |
|
Ohhhhh yeees, its the q2 pron prime time this Sunday the 26th of april 2009!! Tune up in #EDL and watch the GTV and listen to the shoutcast provided by , its the time when two of the best European Quake 2 duellers fight for the title of EDL season 7!
The final is:  PURRI vs  DAMIAH.
date: 26.04.2009 (sunday)
time: 19:30 CET
gtv: q2tv.mine.nu:27999 and golar.net:27920
radio:
irc scorebot:
Check a preview for the final by clicking the more and comments button!
"Alrighty then!"
Welcome to the grande finale of the 7th edition of the famous Quake 2 European Duel League!
Almost half year ago (!!) we started the eliminations for the league and it took literally hundreds of games and thousands of frags to decide the top 2 players, who have the skills and of course the privilege to play in the last game of the season. I don't think it came by a surprise to anyone, that the players who took their rightful place at the top of the table are noone else than PURRI from Sverige and Damiah from Suomi. Neither of these players need no introduction, because if you are no familiar with them, you don't know a jack squat of Q2 and you'd better go ask someone who has time to explain to you the history of Q2 duelling (sovet for example).
Now when I'm starting to write this prediction about the upcoming game, I can't help but feeling a deja vu, like I have done this before? Hey, wait, I have! But actually I haven't written it more than once, because actually these top notch players have only met each other in the grand final two times, in EDL#3 and EDL#5.
However atleast one of them has been in the final game of EDL in every single season: Purri in EDL#1, Damiah in EDL#2, EDL#4 and EDL#6. Damiah's track records truly stand up to any comparison, even against PURRI. In the last years Damiah has won almost everything there is to win in the Q2 dueling, leaving only leftovers to others. In the beginning of this season Damiah was again considered as the favorite to win yet another title, but due to the recent events, the tables might have turned around. Is it PURRI who has the upper hand this time and maybe for the first time, comes to the title fight with the heavy pressure of being the favorite to win it. However I don't think it is the audience that PURRI feels like he has to impress, it is himself.
PURRI has been several times so close, so close to win the title back to himself, but always it has been denied from him by someone better, or luckier, or whatever - player. One thing that's for sure, is that PURRI wants to win this for himself, to prove that he has what it takes and to be finally able to be the best again.
These players have already met in the WB final where PURRI against the odds knocked out Damiah with a score of 3 maps to nothing. That game has been called with a vast variety of adjectives and superlatives, for example "the next level of q2", "insane", "greatest match ever seen". Even though PURRI took there a very confident looking 3:0 victory, the game was much tighter than the score indicates. Naturally it was a great relief for PURRI to be finally able to beat Damiah and I can imagine how good it felt when the big monkey dropped from his back after hanging in there for many years. Damiah is not invincible after all and now seeing him struggle in the LB final against Ibogine from Polska, PURRI must know that this is the best chance he's ever going to get to be the number one, once again, maybe for the one last time?
The threat of ID Softwares new Quake Live has taken its share of q2ers and PURRI and Damiah are amongst them. Both of them have put a serious time in QL in the expense of Q2 and it seems like that it is Damiah who suffers the most. He has been far from his top shape and thus it must effect his confidence and mind game, which have been his most efficient weapons throughout his entire Q2 career. The lack of Damiahs concentration was clearly visible in the game against Ibogine, where he really got beating in the aeroq2 and q2duel5. Ofcourse it is not a shame to loose those maps against a player like Ibogine, who is clearly one of the best players on those two maps, but still it was a signal that not everything is ok in Damiahs game.
Damiah did win his two home maps, q2rdm2 and q2dm1 with a considerable margin and then after, also the decider ztn2dm3 after a slightly improved aim. Damiahs aim was really off for the whole game and it shows not only the lack of practise, but also the (hopefully temporary) lack of mind game which allowed Damiah to be out positioned in several occasions. Positioning has been often the very foundation of Damiahs aim and when he gets out positioned, it is really hard to hit those important shots with a cold, unprepared hand-eye-coordination. However it might have been a really important thing for Damiah that he performed the way he did against Ibogine, because it was the last and final wake up call for him - the game he played that day is nowhere near enough to take out top-shaped PURRI.
As you should have noticed in the build up part of the prediction, it seems that PURRI is the most prepared player for the final and probably also the biggest favorite to win it. Not only is PURRI now in his top shape, he also has the advantage of coming to the final game from the Winners bracket. This way PURRI has to win only one best-of-5 map series and he gets his crown, where as Damiah has to win two best-of-5 games before he can call himself the champion again. So turn up your speakers and put the "eye of a tiger" on your winamps, lets predict some future!
This season the map count was diminished down to 7 maps: Q2dm1, Q2dm3, Q2rdm2, Q2duel5, Ztn2dm3, Ptrip and Aeroq2. From the first glimpse it seems like there are more maps that are in favor of the Swede, than in the favor of the Finn. Q2duel5, q2dm3 and especially aeroq2 are much more suitable for the PURRI than they are for Damiah. On top shape Damiah could claim that q2rdm2 and ptrip are his strongholds, but it seems like only q2rdm2 is a clear and safest choice for Damiah at this point. Ptrip could go either way, because that map requires a flawless map control and a great aim, which has been a challenge for Damiah recently. Q2dm1 is a map which both players have played literally thousands of times and the players seem to be really equal there, so it can go either way. Ztn2dm3 is also a map which requires a good RA/MH control and if you have a on-fire rail aim, your stocks will skyrocket instantly.
PURRI is surely going to go with the weakest map for Damiah, aeroq2. He will pick it as his first map and hope that his pure aim is going to put him far ahead of Damiah and result in a clear first map victory and make Damiah feel like he's standing on a roof of a sky scraper which is going to go down at any minute. If PURRI succeeds in this, hes chances for the title will be greatly improved.
The second map for PURRI is a bit harder to predict, but it might be the very same which he picked in the WB final, the q2dm3. PURRI surely has learned his lesson which Damiah tought him in the may 2006, where Damiah played his own calm game and let PURRI to make his move and then destroyed him with 18:-1 score.
Ofcourse after that PURRI has won Damiah on q2dm3 in EDL#5 final, so let the past to be past. PURRI does have the upper hand on dm3, so choosing it should be a wise move from him. Choosing q2duel5 is not something that PURRI usually does, even when he feels that he has upper hand there, so propably that map is out of question. Ptrip on the other hand could be too risky move, because if Damiah gets his game back on the track, PURRI might be walking in to a mind field which he planted himself. Ztn2dm3 is far too random to predict and PURRI has not been playing it enough to feel confident about winning it. The last contender with q2dm3 would be, oh yes, q2dm1. Can PURRI be ballsy enough to pick it? Maybe he wants to play the map which is definition of Q2 and add the last jewel to his crown - best of q2 duel, best of q2dm1..? As nice as it sounds, q2dm3 is still far more safe choice than q2dm1 and so PURRIs maps are going to be aeroq2 and q2dm3, and a 2:0 map wins?
Damiah who comes to the game as the challenger and is the away-team, is in position of a must-win in his first map. He can't afford to loose his home map, because then the chances for the title are at best, very slim.
Damiah is going to pick q2rdm2 and hope that his shape of the day is so solid, that PURRI is going to go down. Damiah is without a doubt the best player of this map in the world, even that sometimes the challengers can come pretty close. Usually the times that Damiah is looses here, are not because of the opponents skills, but because of Damiahs under par performance. The WB final where PURRI beat Damiah here in frags 4:2, was one of the few times where it felt like Damiah performed rather well, but only got outperformed by a more skilled opponent. It remains to be seen what is going to happen now in this grand final, but it is going to be exciting! Predicting Damiah to win this one.
The tricky question of map two must be troubling Damiah, which map to pick? In the WB final he picked q2dm1, but got slapped in the face and lost it 3:11. He can't pick q2dm3 or aeroq2 and also q2duel5 is out of the question. That leaves ztn2dm3 and ptrip as an options, which are all gambling. Ztn2dm3 is the same for Damiah as it is for PURRI, a bit undiscovered territory where anything can happen. It would be gambling to pick it, as q2dm1 would feel much more confident choice especially if he feels like he's not in his prime shape that day. The top players often say, that no matter how bad touch they have, q2dm1 can still be played pretty well due to just the ridiculous amont of played rounds on that map. Every move comes from the spine and that is the reason why it's always a map where they can show their best. Ptrip is the hardest contestant to q2dm1 for Damiahs second home map. If Damiah gets in shape, his chances could be slightly better in ptrip than in q2dm1 against PURRI. Damiah is a master of spawnfragging in ptrip, even though spawnfragging a skilled opponent is all very different from spawn fragging a less advanced opponent. The key of victory in ptrip however is not in spawn fragging, its in the RA control and aim. Lets remember, that one slug takes away all of the advance that one RA gives, so hitting those slugs is crucial! Chaingun and RL are also really powerful weapons, but so is SSG on this small map where close contact fights often take place. If Damiah has a good aim in the day of the final, he just might change q2dm1 to ptrip. Still q2dm1 has higher propability to be his 2nd map. The outcome of Damiahs 2nd home map is so close to 50/50, that your coin toss is just as right as I am when I predict that Damiah is going to win it (hopefully, so the game gets to be a 5-mapper!)
The fifth map and the decider (atleast of the first bo5) is propably going to be decided with PURRI having the frag advantage. Damiah eliminates q2duel5 and PURRI gets to choose the map between ztn2dm3 and ptrip. I really hope that PURRI will pick that ptrip and we get to see these two fight for the win in this map. I don't remember seeing them playing this map together and it would be a perfect map to decide the better player.
PURRI does have the upper hand in overall based on his solid games previously and having seen how Damiah is playing under his usual level. I predict that PURRI has the best chances for winning this map and thus the whole game. If the last map should be ztn2dm3 or q2duel5, it would be a slight surprise if Damiah can find the magic and win either of these two maps. PURRI is going to be wanting to win like a crazy and he's going to put all in for this map and the game. If PURRI does loose this final 5th map, then the chances for Damiah for the 2nd bo5 are improved radically because PURRIs confidence is not going to be the same after getting defeated in the deciding map. Whatever the outcome, I bet this is going to be one hell of a fight and the most important and exciting day of Quake 2 in the year 2009.
Good luck both!!!
| |
| | |
| |
| | |
|
| |
| | |
| |
| | |
|
You have to register/login first. Register | |
| | |
| |
|
|
