Week 1 predictions!

Hi there. The preds are back. As always, week 1 is a lot of guesswork, so try to hang on.

Lump's predictions

DeGz vs prosto

With the experience of the french leaders and play like danny and sad for alien and marine, these guys are a stronger line-up than many would have thought not long ago. There's a good atmosphere for the baguette trio and not to mention a few people that can work with the expensive kit which is a minimum requirement as this level of play.

Prosto, the old mighty russians mp and snake are back with something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. They can definitely play the game between them but they don't have the same fight as in the past. Some of the new guys know how kill at the right time and old fadey boys bHack and Pyro can do a bit!

Veil and Lucid

Lucid is unbalanced and both these teams know it, you could expect a lot of chambers here and chaos frags. I think DeGz simply have more overall skill and discipline on this map but whose to know if they can play a solid marine round vs the lovebirds and co.

Veil on the other hand, we can expect a lot of king_yo for both rounds here as they'll take some time to see through. There may be some last minute updates to the DeGz line-up from their activity levels.

Overall, DeGz have got this 3-1 but if mp actually plays like he could, Snake mutes everyone else and the other guys keep gorging, eating res and being good bitches, they could take this 3-1 as well.

9l vs teamf

Look whose back again... it's zups! Ready and rolling with the Japanese crew from cartoon land. They definitely have some skilled players but tend to neglect the team sometimes. There's quite a broad range of skills with the likes of NsN showing up on the line-up too. I'd expect rage, rampage and fizzle.

So 9L with some active players again, not just any old players but a fair few old names along with the s4tank of last season. There's definitely a lot of activity that's gone into this line-up in the past, lets see if they work together to their ability and keep everything under control. No comm has been super eager or stable to be in the chair so it could get messy.

Veil and lucid

Teamf are known for odd strats and maps that start with the letter L, they know that they haven't been super active but the smart players here will not make it so straight forward a map for either team. I expect early frags to play a big part in the outcome of this map but most would agree that 9L are the favourites here.

Veil I think will play strongly to 9Ls preferences to make a clear victory and lots of fast skulks. Most players on the 9L team are capable of mass fragging and really dominating with a sg or some smart skulking. Teamf will need to turn the strong line-up and skill on if they want some points.

Some long games and times where you have big doubts, but overall, 4-0 for 9L.

Bacillus' preds

U GO?! - Gorgerush

U GO is definitely the more familiar team for Europeans. The lineup has a lot of resemblance to the season 14 champion, 2Balls. The most notable difference is the commander's role. There's no Jiriki or Peach on the lineup, which apparently leaves an opening for Sublime's commanding. His debut as ENSL commander will definitely be one of the most interesting spectator baits on week 1.

Gorgerush is a predictor's nightmare at this point. Names like Makaveli, meb and DuoGodOfDeath are well known top tier gamers from the past, but their present shape and activity are totally unknown. The big roster also allows a lot of fluctation on the actual lineup quality. This week will give us some idea of their play mentality and strength.

My bets are placed on U GO?! since they are motivated and certainly interested in contesting each and every team on the division. Depending on the lag and Lucid trickery, it could go 4-0 or 3-1 for U GO?!. My pred is 3-1, just to keep things even early on in the season.

Comm Shots - Team Poland

Uh oh... Both the teams are relatively unknown to European NS. It's a tough call to give either any decisive advantage beforehand.

The only player in lineups that really stands out is an ex-lessthanthree player Germ. His experience can definitely help Poland as the season progresses, but his actual power level is still unknown to me at least. The rest of the Team Pol consists of active, but inexperienced players, who haven't displayed their full potential yet. Comm Shots are even more of an enigma to me, I won't even try to take guesses until the first week is over.

I think Lucid is most likely an alien tie, so the match gets decided on Veil. Whoever gets the better opening shotgun run is in a good position to win this. My prediction still stays as 2-2, all alien wins.

Dux' predictions:

2ram v New Team

(4 - 0 to New Team)

Ok so it's Team Maradona vs Team New. New Team infact. Ok, so, I've only ever played 2RAM like three times seeing as they're all the way down there in handball country. They're good guys and put up an alright fight, the ping difference doesn't exactly help them, though. But this is European NSL after all. They haven't won a match in any ENSL season yet, so maybe they will this time?

New Team is full of old familiar names. So I won't bother naming any. They have a jew, though. I've only noticed them play a couple of PCW's so I don't know how active they are as a group, but individually they appear to be. Bunch of gather whores that they are. They have a decent skill bed so I don't think they will have too much trouble with some of the teams inthe season. And seeing as they have half of the community in their roster they should have no trouble getting a team.

250 de ping v Drunks

(2 - 2)

Oh, it's Team Maradona again. Well I've used up all my jokes for that so let's not bother again. Instead let's focus on the brilliant attitude we hold here at ENSL by allowing these guys to play with an updaterate of 10-20. That's right, apparently it makes some sort of magical different. Who'd have thought. 2Ram have made some surprising upsets in their time, so lets hope that trend continues. Maybe they might even win the season.

Anonym Anti Anti A. Who comes up with these names? Anyway, I have yet to see these guys play. Have they played as a team yet? I have no idea. Looking at the roster there is the usual familiar recycled faces. We have an ex Saunaman, a TTS, a pot smoker, a nut case and Starchy. Assuming they come together and play, they should just about manage. But with little practice as a group I don't see it going particularly smoothly for them.

That's it for this week. More coverage coming up next week. As usual, any feedback is appreciated and any reported mistakes are ninjaedited asap, so please leave comments as much as you can.

-Bacillus