This match was appointed for 23.00 cet, while I had a match at 23.30. I volunteered to admin as there was no admin available at that time (grav & gerdt playing against USA) and Element admining their game while daelmun was updating the POL vs SLO game. Let's just say that I was totally overloaded today, as I had to set up Team Canada for the game versus UK, and they were pushing to play that game since it was late over there. To make it short, I didn't really watch the two games at all - and I missed the first match of can vs uk. I did watch Arch's demos to figure out what happened in that hpb battle.

It took some time for Netherlands to finally get their fourth player *cough*dam1ro*cough* and the brazilians were getting impatient, but finally the game got going. The server was tastyspleen.net::udml - the fairest 'neutral' server for the two teams, even though brazil had a notable ping disadvantage. But as home-away was impossible - we had to settle for that server. Kudos to klauz and arch for getting this sorted beforehand as I really didn't have the time to check these. Anyway, was averaging 130 while was averaging 170. So a clear 40ms advantage for the Dutch.

's map
Given that Netherlands had a 40ms advantage, and were at the limit of the railable, might have been a good call to pick that map, or maybe it has nothing to do with it. Hpb battles normally give pretty much random starts, and that is what it did for that game. In the first 5mins - the control or Rail was ever-changing and no team was getting any area locked down. pH (aka Klauz) gets a hold of the Powershield in the first minutes but can't make it out of the Alcove as he gets rocketed. After 5mins, Brazilians seems to establish a certain control of the Rail area, and they pull out some good railing even though a 170ping. Brazil momentarily takes the lead, However the Netherlands have good timing and get most of the powerups, soon Arch gets a powershield as well as dam1ro sitting at hyperblaster, the team gets green, and force in the Rail area, yet Brazil stand ground and gives a great fight. The area is retaken a few minutes after the powershield control, but the Netherlands don't seem to rack up frags, and the brazilians still follow their opponent closely scorewise. After 15mins the frag difference is of only 15, however the Netherlands have powershields and their span of life is greatly increased. They will keep control of the Rail area and slowly increase the lead to finally pull out a well-deserved win, thanks to the Powershields.


's map
On a somewhat neutral server, this is most likely the best map for brazil, so they went for it. It started with the Netherlands getting control of MH Room, however the brazilians quickly rushed in with Reef from Rail, and the teammates sneaking in the room from one way or another. Brazilians quickly messed the dutch control and made it their own. Reef pulled an excellent start by cleaning up the Rail area, while nohead was regulating MH Room's circulation. Brazil took the lead, and did keep it for 10mins, being constantly attacked back by the Dutch, the frag lead was never a big thing, and the map never locked down properly. Arch kept sneaking in for his Rail and it soon became evident that the Netherlands were breaking the brazilian defensive. After more than 10mins, the Netherlands take control back of MH Room, and lock it properly, from then on they start racking up frags - and the game looked a lot like the dm1 match of BRA-EST. With brazilians trying to sneak their way in through railway - but to no avail. Netherlands get a big lead in the last minutes, and Brazilians start talking instead of playing :D

Honestly, a good performance from Brazil on both maps, they always start very strong. But teamplay-experienced team such as the Netherlands knows where to make pressure to comeback into the game.