ELTP Season 6.5 - Pre-season predictions

Conference B

LoweJ’s J Bomb: Double Lowe 7

O DaEvil1 (31) O Chuck_Finley (3) D Cosine180 (59) D ethce (1st pick) Sub Fatal (0)

After trying to be a captain for about 2 years, LoweJ has finally been made a non-playing captain. His first pick of ethce was a great pick - possibly a tad underrated, he was arguably the best defender in ELTP last season in which he won both the league and play-offs. Alongside him is the up-and-coming Cosine. Massively hyped in the build up to this season, it’s hard to believe that this is Cosine’s first full season, especially when he already plays at a near all-star level.

On offence, LoweJ managed to pick up DaEvil - returning to offence after a poor first season on defence, he will no doubt be able to bring the flag in time and time again with such a strong defence. Alongside him is Chuck_Finley, one of the top offenders in silver last season, Chuck has proven himself at that level but is yet to receive any majors time - if after a week or two of them struggling to get out, expect Fatal - the American superstar - to fill in for him.

All in all, this team reminds me a lot of last season’s Boostin Dynamo. Their stellar defence more than makes up for what would otherwise be a very below average offence. Given the weak defences they’ll be up against in the regular season I think DaEvil and Chuck will be enough to bring their team to a first place finish within their conference, however unless either of them steps up considerably I could see them getting shut down by most of the defences they will come against in play-offs.

Offence: 5.5/10

Defence: 10/10

Overall: 8/10

Predicted: 1st in Conference

NewCompte’s Ballis St Germain

O TDD (65) O WishICared (4) D NewCompte (C) D Comakip (21) Sub Ballkenende (2)

Known in previous seasons for his drafting ability, NewCompte has put together a an eyebrow-raising team that doesn’t seem to have an obvious starting four. Despite somewhat jokingly suggesting for a few weeks now that he was going to draft Ballkenende as his defence partner, I suspect NC will look to play alongside Comakip. Though he has yet to receive majors minutes, Coma is a competent two-way player who will probably best serve his team playing alongside the much more experienced NewCompte.

Their offence, though headed by TheDonDaddy, is just as up in the air. TDD is undoubtedly one of TagPro’s most mechanically adept players and was probably quite undervalued in the draft, but his at times questionable decision making is unlikely going to be covered by either WishICared or Ballkenende.

I, like many people am not sure what to think of this team. Part of me thinks that with an elite player in both positions they’ll do fine, but with so much unproven talent in this team I could see them flopping. One thing’s for certain though - with NewCompte at the helm, they’ll get to the final and lose it.

Offence: 7.5/10

Defence: 8/10

Overall: 7.75/10

Predicted: 2nd in Conference

Unvrs’ Unny’s Bunnies

O fat (41) O Dor (31) D unvrs (C) D anom (7) Sub Jim Jimson (21)

Following a few seasons out of ELTP, the ex-minors defensive player of the season returns and finds himself captaining. Unvrs himself plays on around 80 ping - this limitation has meant that he has developed a uniquely aggressive and initially frustrating to play against style of defending that can become quite predictable over time which seemingly relies on a lot of guesswork. His biggest downfall is perhaps his questionable decision making and so all in all unvrs is usually best complemented by a passive, game-smart partner - however these are two things that anom is not. Initially nominated to see if anyone else would bid on him, the veteran pub player has limited league experience and throughout his time pubbing, he has developed a uniquely aggressive and initially frustrating to play against style of defending that can become quite predictable over time - sound familiar? Of all the people unvrs could have picked to partner him, anom sticks out to me as being perhaps the least well suited. Their similar style of defending and comparatively weak decision-making mean they might end up making the same mistakes as each other. That said - their style of play will likely prove frustrating for anyone not used to it and may catch people out. Not only this, but the relatively poor offences throughout their conference might mean that their defence will just about do the job.

Over on offence, things look much more promising. Possibly the greatest defender of all time, fat has made the switch to offence for the mini-season. Going into the draft many of the captains feared that he might end up being overpriced, however given some of the other prices fat for 41 seems like a potentially great pick. The defensive-star is already known to be a brilliant flag-carrier, and so if his defence manage to keep the flag in base expect fat to rack up a lot of caps. Partnering him is last season’s Most Improved Player, Dor. Following his captain being banned last season Dor found himself in his team’s starting IV, and played well above expectations, finishing the season with the 5th highest cap per minute. Though Dor falls a little short on offensive-D, fat has potentially the best O/D in Europe meaning this will likely be a solid pairing.

Offence: 8/10

Defence: 6/10

Overall: 7/10

Prediction: 3rd in Conference

Sisu’s The Ballsheviks

O Sheldon (35) O Laurens (10) D sisu (C) D GrammarJew (51) Sub Bdl (0)

Predicted last in the community rankings, it might not be a surprise to see sisu’s team ranked last in their conference. A solid minors player for a few seasons now, sisu has yet to receive any majors minutes ahead of the mini-season, finding himself in a similar position to Ruud and unvrs. Because of this, it was expected that sisu would spend big money on his defensive partner, however this is where the problems for their team begin. Whilst GrammarJew is a solid majors player, his communication and passive play-style mean that he performs best when partnered with a top-tier aggressive defender like fat or TheBigMac. Unfortunately for sisu, whilst he is certainly an aggressive defender, his lack of experience against Majors players means he may have difficulties easing into this role - sisu really needed either a top defensive partner to cover for his lack of experience or get someone like GrammarJew for cheap enough that he could get an offence that would make up for the subpar defence.

However I’m not convinced sisu has managed to get an offence that does this. GrammarJew hoped he would go for less than 10 Eurolls after feeling he was an overpay last season, yet this mini-season he ended up costing his captain more than half his budget. With relatively little to spend on his offence, sisu made a smart pick with getting Sheldon. The Season 4 league winner crashed and burnt last season, however he has been playing closer (albeit still a long way off) to his old form recently - If Sheldon manages to maintain his rekindled interest in TagPro and keeps on practicing he could be a dark horse.

In contrast to him his partner, Laurens, has played much less TagPro since he was dropped from the starting IV of his Season 6 team ahead of the semi-final and final, and his sign-up comment reflects his lack of interest in the game. Though Laurens finally made the step up to majors last season, if he remains under practiced he will likely be much more sluggish than he was last season.

Perhaps the biggest weakness of sisu’s team is that whilst there are plenty of teams with similarly mediocre offences or defences, those teams at least make up for it by having top players in the other position. Unfortunately for sisu’s team, their star offender only got 5 caps in 120 minutes last season and their star defender has never needed to be the star defender on a team before.

Offence: 6/10

Defence: 5.25/10

Overall: 5.5/10

Prediction: 4th in Conference