NLTP NewsRoom Hub - BAP vs. INC (A)

iSuck returned to captain NLTP after a long time and drafted a team that was loved by the majority of the community. I think the lowest rank it got from a power ranker was 8th. I ranked them #1, just because it was iSuck, while the community put them #4.

For INC, the community and I didn't really like them, mainly due to the possibility of the defense rust. I didn't trust Maradona and sonder to be good defenders. I ranked them #10 while the community put them at #9.

Will BAP get off to a strong start, or will INC surprise me and a few others? Let's see.

It's wild when a team wins only one half out of four yet still manages to split, but that's what INC did this week against BAP. They won G2H1 3-0, lost the other three halves by a combined score of 10-17, and got three points for the week. Even despite all that, I think I really underestimated this INC squad, because they looked pretty solid in three of the four halves.

Offensively, the INC offense wasn't that great looking at the statistics alone. pk had a 71 ONISH, with 400 hold and five caps, while Espel had the 48 ONISH with 389 hold and three caps. The fact that OuchMyBalls got the same amount of caps as the INC offenders did combined doesn't bode well, but their hold numbers were nice. Ouch and D4NK for BAP do better, with Ouch getting the 94 ONISH with 417 hold and eight caps, and D4NK getting the 79 ONISH with 266 hold and seven caps. It is a little worrisome that BAP as a team had the second least amount of hold out of all the teams, but that could be due to the INC defense.

The INC defense did pretty well, and it shows in the stats. Maradona led the week in prevent with 751, and sonder wasn't that far behind, placing 6th with 651 prevent. Maradona and sonder combined for 87 returns, while Maradona got the 92 DNISH and sonder got the 88 DNISH. The BAP defense was very good too, with yawn leading the week in returns with 62 and getting the 98 DNISH. Enthymeme had 50 returns, 503 prevent, and the 81 DNISH. I think this is the first game where all four defenders had DNISHs above 80, which is wild.

In Table A, you can see the differences in the defensive stats for each team. While BAP excelled in tags and returns, actually leading the week in both categories, INC came 3rd in prevent and P/HA. The return defense vs. the prevent defense, which is honestly an intriguing battle in of itself. The INC defense did limit the BAP offense to the third least amount of hold this week, but BAP made up for it was a solid score rate of 10.25%, which trumped INC's score rate of 8.25%. You can see that in G1H2, when BAP grabbed a total of 36 times and capped eight times, which is a 22.22% score rate, while INC only capped three times off of 51 grabs for a 5.285% score rate. I will say that while the hold numbers for pk and Espel weren't that great, they led the week in good handoffs with 42, while BAP struggled with that aspect, getting a high F/G ratio and also getting the least amount of good handoffs this week with 20. There were a lot of categories that show the disparity of how the teams played this week.

For Table B, you can see that INC had 48 more grabs than BAP, but INC also had 34 more pops than BAP, which resulted in a mediocre KD. Meanwhile BAP had the highest KD, but had 19 more NDPops than INC. BAP actually led the week in NDpops, which is surprising. BAP was also almost dead last for P/R (2nd worst), which makes sense since they were pretty low on the prevent. Now going on to the percents, you have INC leading in Spark%, RIB%, and QR%, with INC having an 81.25% spark rate compared to BAP's 52.68% spark rate. BAP did have the higher Chain%, but not by much. The fact that INC were able to get so many grabs off of BAP and still have a low F/G ratio signals that the INC offense didn't really struggle to get out of base against this BAP defense, but they weren't really able to capitalize on those opportunities, and were usually cut down in the open field, mainly by yawn. It's a nice thing thing to build off of for next week.

CONCLUSION

INC honestly played pretty well except for that one half, and I was impressed with how they did against a team that the community and I really liked. BAP does have some issues to work on, especially on the prevent side of things. They were able to keep INC from scoring most of the time with solid OD, but you can't give a team that many grabs and outs and expect the same result. INC on the other hand actually has a solid prevent defense, but their tags and returns were seriously lacking. It's weird because they clamped down on the handoffs and had decent RIB% and QR%, but out of base Maradona and sonder couldn't really close down on them. I guess that's an issue with INC, their defense out of base. On offense, I think pk and Espel did very well, especially with getting so many grabs off and keeping that F/G ratio low, while BAP's offense got the job done, I was a little worried looking at their handoffs and F/G ratio. I don't think this offense did the best they could this week, but I feel like there's some promise there, especially with that strong H/G and Score%. Honestly this was a pretty good match to watch and I was definitely wrong to not give INC more credit.