#ijl

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Axiz Wave Team

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REJECT Team

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Simply put, FL needs to win every single match they have left to even have a chance at making it to playoffs. But the team that stands before them is RC, the team in 2nd place that had a crazy 10 match win streak… Good luck, FL. 

I’ve seen a fair share of RC doomposting after yesterday’s loss but in my opinion there’s literally no need for that. Nothing will change that they had an insane win streak, and are still very fairly consistent in their results. Also, they dropped from 1st… to 2nd. They are literally completely fine. 

ROUND 1 | 3-6 The map is Arms Factory, a pick that’s come to be the standard in IJL.  

FL makes the interesting choice of picking Gardener, a pick we see often from SZ and teams like GG over in IVL but not much from anyone else. AKa of course plays Goatman with his favorite trait Abnormal, and it proves to be a little too effective — especially on a small map like Arms Factory. It’s a pretty solid 4K, and Hasha must now get a 4K in order to tie up the round. 

RC survivors choose Weeping Clown as always for Round 1, it’s something that’s truly unique to them and they really make it work. It’s a secure 1 escape from the survivors and RC claims Round 1 as their own with a 3 point lead. Hasha did everything he could and I salute him for getting a win, but unfortunately for FL a 1 escape is still a 1 escape that will get RC the round. ROUND 2 | 5-5

RC’s map pick: Moonlit River Park. The moment they locked in their pick, I knew what was up... the Nightmare is upon us. And then I passed out, so that’s why I’m writing this after the match itself ended long ago. Perhaps this was the world’s way of protecting me from what was about to happen. 

Hasha’s up first, and even though it’s Moonlit he picks Ivy — this is actually completely fine due to Hasha’s high proficiency in using Ivy. The first chase ends pretty fast on Raolie’s Meteorologist, and with him eliminated at 3 ciphers remaining it’s quite a dominant 4K. Hasha’s skill with characters like Dream Witch and Ivy is really so spectacular to watch.

So now RC is in a situation where they NEED a 4K to tie up the round, and my worst nightmare (no pun intended) came true — AKa chooses Nightmare. I must admit though, hating Nightmare is mainly for the bit; I do quite enjoy seeing AKa’s Nightmare in particular. He… is a GOOD Nightmare player. His precision with his dashes and the way he curves them as well… it’s clear to see that he’s very experienced with Nightmare. I will say though that I do believe AKa is only able to make Nightmare work due to his inherent understanding of good game sense and strategy, and he’s able to make full use of Nightmare’s kit because of that. So it’s more like AKa is strong more so than Nightmare is strong, in my humble opinion. It’s a very solid 4K in fact, FL didn’t even do anything wrong to me, it’s just that AKa outplayed them. You could say that it was a Nightmare for FL… I’ll see myself out. 

Round 2 is tied due to the Nightmare 4K, and we proceed to Round 3.  

ROUND 3 | 1-8 It’s Round 3, also known as the RC_Alf round, my favorite round! RC bans Red Church (which is so because of Alf by the way, trust me I know this guy too well), and FL chooses Eversleeping Town — a great map for Alf, in fact. 

Alf’s up first and he plays his beloved Bonbon into a Coordinator, Mercenary, Aeroplanist, and Acrobat. Because of course he does, it’s Alfred and his Bonbon. I have a thing called the “Alf Bonbon Litmus Test” — whenever a Bonbon user is playing, I test if Bonbon is viable into the team comp chosen by simply asking myself, “would Alfred play Bonbon into this?” Spoiler alert: Alf would plan Bonbon into any team comp ever. Naturally, he plays Bonbon here as well. With a stuffed rescue on the Mercenary, the game ends in a very dominant 4K. Alf’s confidence in his Bonbon is truly so admirable, and it makes watching him play all the more exciting. Also, the moment after maeken was eliminated, I knew he’d go to Kat’s exact location and find him like it’s nothing, and that is exactly what he did. I missed watching Alf and his terrifying sixth sense of finding survivors. I missed you so much. I’m so glad to have you back. 

Unfortunately due to the 4K, the point difference is irreversible and the only thing PiPiCha can try to do is get a 4K in order to tie the round. He picks Opera Singer, and I believe this is his first time playing her ever in competitive due to his hiatus being from Fall 2023. After losing sight of the Acrobat it’s quite rough for him though, and the RC survivors get a 3 escape (almost a 4 escape too). 

RESULT: FL 0-2 RC

RC claimed their 11th win with their victory today, keeping them in 2nd and putting them a single net win behind AXIZ. I do believe there is still a chance that RC can finish 1st because of this, so do not lose hope my RC brothers. On the other hand, I am sorry to say that I do believe this loss has erased any chance of FL being able to make it to playoffs. Even with a rocky start to the season, FL has gradually been able to find their footing and did not go down without a fight — they brought AXIZ to OT yesterday, which is quite an impressive feat. I believe that they’ll be able to learn from this experience and come back much stronger in the fall. 

Fun fact: I’m writing most of this up during the technical pause that’s currently taking place because I was taking a nap. I expected to wake up to FL vs RC but I guess not. We might be here a while… 

Everyone was doomposting about ZETA when they were in their regularly scheduled early season flop era, but they’ve bounced back just fine now (I told you it’d be fine), even beating RC the day before and breaking their win streak. One problem though — they’re now against the team that just overtook 1st place: AXIZ, the team that’s first place in both survivor and hunter win rate, with a hunter faction that has not lost a single time yet. All I can say is good luck, ZETA… 

ROUND 1 | 3-5

Knight, Puppeteer, Psychologist, a standard ZETA R1 team comp …and there’s the Enchantress. Huh. In this match, I really don’t think the Enchantress pick in itself did anything significant, it was just DoLisu being a good kiter… from what seemed like a slightly below average start and midgame, the ZETA survivors managed to recover and set up for a stable 3 man endgame with DoLisu’s kiting and especially with the missed blink from Kakiri. It was shaping up to just look like a tie, until that cipher pop happened. What?! It ends in a 3K when it really shouldn’t have been, but a 1 escape is still always better than no escapes. Kakiri’s Goatman is just so good though. I’m always in awe when I watch him play. 

AXIZ survivors were quite close to the 4 man endgame with Nyan’s amazing kite, but Goatman did Goatman things… Nevertheless, they clutched the tie from a bleak endgame situation and won the round with a 2 point lead. 

ROUND 2 | 4-4 

On the stage of Moonlit River Park, AXIZ bans Peter’s Hullabaloo and are familiar with his Opera game as they pick Wildling. Wildling picks will never make me not chuckle because they’re such a clear indicator of Opera Singer — who is exactly what he plays. TuNa does an amazing kite as Meteorologist, and on his last chair, Atto breaks the chair he’s to be chaired at with the plan of making TuNa struggle free. TuNa does struggle free, but I think it can be more attributed to Peter lagging out and not being able to move… and that’s where we are now. Technical pause. It’s been 1 ½ hours… 

We’re back after two hours and it ends in a tie. All that for a tie man. A pretty good tie at that, but still. ZETA goes against Kakiri’s Opera Singer and it’s also a tie, bro was terrified of the flare gun. We proceed to a Round 3, after all of that, there’s still one more round... 

ROUND 3 | 3-5

ZETA chooses China Town, in ZETA fashion. They’re bringing out the big guns. 

Immediate Priestess and Entomologist ban from KaKaKa, so ZETA gets scared of the Joker… Grave Keeper, Batter, Aeroplanist and… Lucky Guy? What the hell sure at this point. But KaKaKa takes them completely by surprise with his Guard 26 pick, which is evident in how every single person had brought Flywheel Effect. Due to Shinami getting chased first and therefore leaving no proper rescuer against Bonbon, Hametu is unable to make the rescue and both die in the basement. Kznk gets dungeon, but KaKaKa had every reason to just chair and secure the 3K — now mkmldy NEEDS a 4K. 

Regardless of the glaringly obvious Joker bans of Priestess and Entomologist and the presence of an Antiquarian and Journalist on the team, mkmldy makes the choice of playing Smiley Face, and of course the AXIZ survivors have 4 Flywheel Effects. Thankfully he doesn’t commit to either the Antiquarian for long or Journalist, but it goes as well as you would expect for a Detention-less Joker who needs a 4K — a tie. 

RESULT: ZETA 0-2 AXIZ 

Unfortunately I do believe that QTD is doomed in their chances of making playoffs already. However, they still hold the power to affect the rankings of other teams. ZETA vs AWG are currently competing for 3rd place, and if QTD’s able to win here, they may throw a wrench in AWG’s plans. Funnily enough, this is the role AWG played when they themselves had just freshly debuted as a pro team. Oh, how the turn tables… 

One question I do have regarding QTD is the use of Irohasu in Round 2, or rather the decision to stop using Kotami in Round 2. Statistically it hasn’t proven to yield better results, and tactically it was an interesting strategy too because of the threat of Kotami’s Dream Witch. We’ve never really seen a team utilize three hunters all at once, and it was quite intriguing to watch. I’m not sure what happened with that strategy though, and it still doesn’t make much sense to me because Kotami also plays the meta hunters and Irohasu seems to work very well as a dedicated Round 1 Goatman user.

ROUND 1 | 4-4

The setting is Eversleeping Town. It’s a pretty standard Round 1, honestly — both halves have average Round 1 team comps that end in an average tie. It didn’t look like it’d be anything more or less… quite strange for the “all or nothing” team of all time, I will say. Feels ominous. There’s nothing much I can say about these games, or nothing much I need to say I suppose. What is of note though is that AWG has put Psychologist in the global bans. With Dream Witch players like Kotami and m1take on QTD, it does pose quite a risk — the need to put in a Dream Witch ban might be necessary in later rounds. 

ROUND 2 | 2-6

QTD bans China Town. Fair, considering the existence of yukakina. AWG chooses Lakeside Village, which seems to be the setting for so many pivotal AWG games. It’s truly their map. 

yukakina is up first, and I immediately raise an eyebrow to the First Officer initial ban. When he locks in the Bonbon pick, everything makes perfect sense. Funny thing is, it’s not even the lack of First Officer that stuffs out the rescue — Myme attempts to knock back yukakina with Fire Investigator’s ball and rescue but gets terror shocked. It’s a 1 escape because yukakina decides to chair though — a one escape is always better than no escapes. However, a win is still a win, and all AWG’s survivors need for a round win is a tie. 

Irohasu does indeed continue to play for Round 2. With First Officer and Mercenary banned, AWG does the AWG thing of choosing Forward, something I knew they’d definitely do the moment Mercenary got banned. He’s not even permabanned so QTD must fear Aez and his Forward in Round 3 as well. Irohasu picks Hullabaloo to aim for a 4K, but with Confined Space… I really don’t know why this has been a trend, it feels more like a handicap more than anything. Nameko’s amazing kite as Acrobat followed up with Aez’s Forward and Emmko’s Fire Investigator support carried the survivors into a 4 man endgame into a 3 escape. And once again, I do not understand the purpose of Confined Space on Hullabaloo… although Nameko’s kite and the survivor teamwork was just amazing. AWG wins Round 2 with a 4 point lead. 

ROUND 3 | 1-8

QTD will now have to get a 3 escape into a 3K to go to OT, or a 4K to win. Either way, a win from both factions is absolutely necessary. The moment AWG gets a tie, it’s game over. However, QTD does have the advantage of map pick, which could help skew the odds in their favor. The pick is Arms Factory — a great map for both m1take’s Dream Witch and Bonbon. 

m1take’s up first, and AWG bans his Dream Witch and Opera Singer. In response to his First Officer and Grave Keeper bans, AWG picks Weeping Clown and… Enchantress…? It’s like they’re assuming that m1take doesn’t have an Ivy, which he does choose… except they all have Flywheel Effect, reading him perfectly. The odds are heavily in AWG’s favor as they take things extremely slow and steady, and slow and steady indeed does win the race — the survivors wait out Detention, and as m1take tries to get aggressive and pressure different survivors around the map, AWG is able to take advantage of the situation and achieve a wonderful 3 escape. I can’t blame m1take whatsoever since he had to get a win, but it did end up being his downfall. I still can’t quite figure out the logic on the Enchantress pick, but it actually worked out since m1take wasn’t able to get a quick down on Nameko’s Enchantress whatsoever. 

With this, the point difference is irreversible and AWG’s win is confirmed, but QTD would preferably like to win or tie the round with a win from the survivors. They form the 4 escape comp of all time — Prospector, Novelist, Weeping Clown, Painter — but it proved futile to yukakina’s pick of Ivy, ending in a dominant 4K. 

RESULT: QTD 0-2 AWG 

Even before it starts, this is an extremely important match for SZ. They are right on the edge of the line for qualifying for playoffs in 6th place, with DFM being in 5th. Out of the teams that are still not confirmed to qualify (DFM, SZ, FL), DFM currently has the most advantage with 4 wins and 0 net wins in comparison to SZ's 3 wins and -8 net wins. The -8 is quite painful in fact. SZ wants to not only win this match, but win with 2 rounds if possible. I do believe they'll still be below DFM even if they win this matchup due to the difference in net wins, but it'll at least give them safety in securing a spot in the playoffs. 

To win, Burio should keep playing Rounds 1 + 2, and it's great to see that SZ has switched to this strategy but they really should've been doing this from the beginning. Burio not only has a great Goatman that he will always use R1 but also an amazing Hullabaloo and Opera Singer. With only one hunter ban in Round 2, the opposing team will be forced to go against either his Hullabaloo or Opera Singer — he'll always be able to use either one. Strategically, it's perfect. This would also alleviate a lot of pressure from Yuuri, who has not only just debuted and is therefore more inexperienced but is also just not suited for Round 2 in terms of his character pool. I felt genuinely bad for him throughout this season because he's clearly more comfortable with Round 3 hunters like his absolutely phenomenal Geisha, but it just seemed like he was being forced into the role of Round 2 with hunters like Hullabaloo... when Burio was right there. 

But enough about the theoretics. Let's dive into the actual match: 

ROUND 1 | 4-4 

SZ chooses Arms Factory, the most picked map in IJL so far. I honestly don't have the best impression of Goatman on this map, but perhaps the pick is due to Burio's confidence in his ability to play Goatman regardless and the survivor's strength on this map. 

Burio plays his Goatman as always, but debuts a new trait: Patroller. This was seen by Kakiri the day before, and it seems like it's a strategy being used to counter Puppeteer. It gets him the down quite quickly on Nerisu and the situation did look quite grim, but Burio's decision to not chair in the endgame and attempt to get a win allowed the DFM survivors to push for a tie. 

In the second half, SZ chooses Gardener and the recent trending survivor Professor. I've found that SZ likes to use Gardener quite a bit, so this is completely normal. I suppose the view on Professor has been reevaluated due to his potential against Goatman, due to his scales being strong against Goatman's cages and his innate Scaled Skin passive to negate 0.5 damage once. 

The SZ survivors get a very secure tie, and honestly had the potential to push for a win and it does seem like they wanted to. tarako's decision to stop heal stalling was wise, as it allowed for a secure tie. Chikin was also wise in his decision to preserve his trait. Overall very secure from both sides. 

Round 1 is tied 4-4, with a risky tie from DFM and a safe tie from SZ — interesting stuff. 

ROUND 2 | 5-3

DFM picks China Town, a map that's become rarer in this day and age especially in IJL but nevertheless a great map for all the meta hunters. 

SZ is up first, with the very strong comp of First Officer, Priestess, Fire Investigator, and Coordinator. A bit heavy on the decoding debuffs, so it seems like they really want the win. Opera Singer is banned, which is most logical as Flywheel Effect is more preferable against a Hullabaloo and Ivy as opposed to Broken Windows against Opera Singer — it allows for the ease of persona builds. 

Chikin's trait is Excitement, a choice I never really quite agree with. And this game was a perfect showing of why — with the way Chikin swapped targets onto the Coordinator after pressuring other survivors, SZ definitely knew he had Excitement and all mone had to do was preserve his gun when he was chased and render Chikin effectively traitless. Together with the Priestess support, it made for an amazing kite and brought the survivors to a 4 man endgame. With mone finally using his flare gun at the end, it forced out Chikin's Excitement and preventing him from utilizing his Trump Card — a beautiful 3 escape. A wonderful display of how strong Coordinator can be against Excitement... and the weaknesses of Excitement. 

Burio does indeed continue to play for Round 2 (as he should). DFM goes for a gutsy choice with the Forward pick (of course it's Takoyaki, of 37k points fame), which proves to save their game because Felix unfortunately goes down to a Terror Shock quite fast. Once again it looks quite grim for DFM, but they're somehow able to pull through and bring the game to a tie. The 37k points really pulled through. Burio also brought Insolence only. A choice... I honestly don't know how much it affected in the grand scheme of things. 

ROUND 3 | 7-2

SZ chooses Moonlit River Park, which is a great choice for Yuuri so I am relieved. On the other hand, it's quite a good map for Yami's character pool as well. It could really go both ways. 

SZ's survivors are up first and they pick Embalmer, Mercenary, and Psychologist, which are possibly the safest survivor picks in the game (which is perfect, they only need to tie this next round to win), and then... Journalist. However, she's actually a great pick against Yami who has both a Wax Artist and Gamekeeper, hunters that he'll definitely want to use to aim for a win. 

The Journalist is chased of course, but soar is able to force Blink out and does pretty well — it's not often that we see Journalist kites in competitive (or Journalist at all). His rebound is quite long as well, and combined with the Embalmer's coffin, SZ seems like they're in a great position for a secure tie. However, when gnk's Embalmer is chased after soar is eliminated, he's downed at the cipher with 94% progress, with no coffin or Borrowed Time to his name. All of a sudden the odds seem to slightly shift towards Yami. But while Yami's Yithian is at 4th stop, tarako comes to 1st stop to finish gnk's cipher and mone comes to rescue. gnk is able to embalm himself and the cipher pops, he's able to force out blink while in the Tide Turner status of the coffin which prove itself to be critical to the game's outcome. tarako's on the 1st stop gate, mone makes a beeline for 4th stop after rescuing and he's able to get dungeon. Fabulous decision making from SZ, but I can't help but feel terrible for Yami — he's so expressive and his frustration clearly shows on his face. 

DFM survivors now need a 3 escape for OT, 4 escape for a win — Yuuri only needs a tie. This is the perfect time to play Geisha... which is what I thought before DFM bans her. Upset, but completely fair and valid, Yuuri's Geisha is amazing. The bans are quite Ann leaning, and then he chooses something I am highly against in a position where you only need a tie... Hermit. He ends up getting a 4K, but I will forever maintain the position that choosing Hermit when you only need a tie is far too big of a risk and is not safe tactically. But hey, what do I know. 

RESULT: SZ 2-0 DFM 

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