We started ampheres, Shadowseeker, Savman and myself with bongman subbing in. Llamas starting four was Crunchy, former (and one of the original alpha) Vic member R.O.C.K., morphine and Suppoko who also was on Vic for our short-lived Hockey Zone squad. Their one sub was Preceptor. With myself being on Blitzed for a short time with morph as my cap and all the rest of the Llamas/bltized/Vic/Alpha links it was always going to be a fun game, although I'm now under strict orders from my squad to always use ?nopubchat when I play =(
The game started as expected with llamas using their now familiar run and gun tactics. We changed our style for this game. Rather than having the targets called from spec then our aggressive pilots leading us to them, we played a lob and push style. Hitting llamas with everything we had, pushing them back, burning their specials and looking to force out a target to hit. This seemed to suit not only the players in the game but also the spec freq too.
The match itself was incredibly tight. Both teams had good teamwork and we each had stages where we'd push the other team back. The score difference was never more than two kills for either team the whole game, but we were mostly ahead early after making the first two kills in the match (Supp by amps, then Crunchy by Sav). Two kills is a winning score and as I was expecting this game to be a low scoring affair going the full 45 minutes I had made that our target in pre-game. Get that two kill advantage and then defend it. It might not of been a fun game to spec, but it was a fun game to play in.
The first key point in the game came at the 37 minute mark where there was 4 kills in 10 seconds, 2 on each team, which took the score from 3-2 us to 5-4 us and also put two of llamas' slots on their last life. From that point on things looked good for us. 8 minutes left, two slots playing defensively and us needing 1 kill for a winning score and the game.
If you've been following Vic this season you already know it wouldn't last. Llamas got a good kill on Savman by Rock to tie it up at 5-5 with four minutes left in regulation. So the next kill on either team wins it. Now if I was in spec I would of said this:
'We don't want to give them any chance to come back. We have one llama on 0 specials and two llamas on their last life. We are the stronger squad. If we kill them in the last four minutes (6-5 is a winning score remember) they will go on a mad rocketing spree to try and tie it up. So play off, lob and look to take it into OT where our one kill ends the game right there with no come back.'
Except I wasn't in spec, I was playing and I wasn't thinking. with two minutes to go I see perceptor trapped against the wall. He has no specials, I have no reps, but I have rockets, I have the skill, I have the power. This is my moment to break the losing streak, to be the hero, get the winning kill and get carried off the field on the shoulders of my adoring squaddies. All this was going through my mind as I hit the rocket and aimed my warbird for glory.
Problem is I'm not as good as I think I am. When I'm thinking I know this, but right then my brain had decided to go and watch MTV and leave me on my own. Also, I lag. I drop a lot of damage I think I deal out. I hit Perceptor with everything I had, he hit me back with everything he had. Turns out he had a lot more =(
I die and llamas lead 6-5 with 107 seconds left. Now it's us who are mad rocketing to tie it up. Llamas are far too smart to get caught out like that and ran out the clock. Also they picked up another kill on Sav to put him out and a final score of 7-5. The MVP was morphine who went 3-0 with 1 assist and 7 forced reps. Our best player was Savman, who with two games under his belt is starting to get the old form back. He went 3-3 with 3 forced reps. Special recognition also goes to amps who managed to rack up 105,404 damage dealt. Scary numbers.
Yes we lost, again. But there is good news here. Our teamwork and playing style is starting to really gel and after mixing up strategies through the reg season we're starting to find what works for us and how to play the rest of the season. Against a team that doesn't play like llamas I think we'll rip them to shreds. More good news is that our front-loaded schedule is starting to even out, we only have one top ranked squad (SFE) to face. The other other good news is that I'll never do what I did yesterday again, that's if I ever let myself play again and right now I'm taking a long hard look at myself.
Something else we've done which we decided to do at the start of the game was go back to the old banners. the squad numbers are obviously a jinx. So from now onwards it's back to the vicura banner. And if that doesn't work there's always the flaming V....
Next game is Secret. Right now I'm scheduling with who? which, as Secret likes very early times, might get a little dodgy. Still it's all good practice for the Ballistics match when WORDS and myself hook up for the first time in 3 years (see the logs section). Finally some links from the game:
Box Score
Spec Log
Screenshot
posted by CelebPixx on Monday, October 11, 2004
