NLTP NewsRoom Hub - MIA vs. WTP (B)

The community thought MIA was a decent B-Team, putting them at 7th, while my friend put them at 9th, so similar rankings. The issue with MIA was that they didn't like the offense and was worried about that second offender position.

WTP didn't get much love either, being ranked 12th by the community. I actually saw some promise with this team and put them at 8th due to the strength of their cornerstones.

It seems like a easy MIA sweep from the looks of the community rankings, but does it come to fruition?

The MIA B-Team is a big fan of the "witching hour". There were 13 total caps in the last two minutes of a half, and Miami had 11 of them. That means that almost 50% of their caps came in the last two minutes of a half, which is wild. In that G2, the Ballphins got nine TPs compared to Weed's three, but still lost both halves and the game. That's potentially a weakness that they're going to have to work on, because you can't get triple the TPs but get half as many caps as the enemy team.

On offense, J24 and astor ended up being a surprisingly solid offensive duo, combining for 15 caps and over 15 minutes of hold. Ice wasn't that far behind with 435 hold and three caps of his own. For just this week, the concerns about the offense seem to be irrelevant. For WTP, AtomicStorm was the sole bright spot on offense,w ith 435 hold and six caps, with three of those coming in their 6-3 win on Lemon. slobonmyknob and Logicus had uncharacteristically subpar days, with slob only getting 264 hold but four caps, and Logicus having only one cap. In this matchup, the MIA offense really shined, while the WTP offense kind of floundered.

For defense, GospelofJuke had a great rookie debut with the 98.7 DNISH, 690 prevent, and 39 returns. That 690 prevent was good enough for the eight most this week. His D partner was llamatron, who came in late but made a solid impact, with 357 prevent and 22 returns. For WTP, their best defender stats-wise was Niplepotamus, with 59 returns (2nd for the week) and 471 prevent. His D partner, praoprao, had a nice day with 454 prevent and 49 returns. After those four, Mueller Time and Whiskey put in respectable defensive performances, with Whiskey also having some decent hold numbers on offense. dyd got the 57.1 DNISH, but since he was the last pick in the snake draft, he's way overperforming his draft position. The MIA defense also got the better of WTP this week.

It looks like MIA was better than WTP in almost every aspect in Table A. They have 400 more seconds of hold, 900 more seconds of prevent, 14 more pups, 14 more good handoffs, and a 5% better score rate. Also their P/HA is 0.22 points higher than WTP's P/HA. In fact, MIA has several categories where they are either second or third in the league. That's how well they did against WTP. WTP's one advantage in Table A came from leading in returns by 15, which is respectable. It's just one fish in a whole school of MIA dominance though.

The stats in Table B still showcase MIA as being very dominant. I count a couple more categories where MIA are in the top three for. They actually led the week in grabs, while having near the fewest NDPs. Meanwhile, WTP had the third-most NDPs and the least amount of NRTs. The Ballphins also led the week in P/R, came second in RIB%, and then led the week in QR% as well. Their defense was amazing at keeping the flag in base it seems. Meanwhile, WTP was near the bottom in those same metrics. WTP did do pretty well in Chain% and Spark%, with MIA having just a 39% spark rate, which is the second worst for the week. But WTP still managed to beat MIA in Chain%, even though MIA had a 76% rate, with WTP getting a huge 81%. That's actually the only category WTP led the week in, which is nice. Other than that though, nothing much to really write home about. MIA just did great in every facet of the game.

CONCLUSION

Even though MIA had the huge statistical advantage on both sides of the tiles, WTP won a game and didn't get swept. It's a point that CatPuke mentioned on the TagPro Lead podcast, that's still true : "It's very hard to get a sweep on B-Team." You can have all the talent, but it's just really difficult to pull off a sweep on B-Team because for 60 straight minutes, you need to be playing at your best. This series seems to be statistical proof of that statement. Kudos to WTP for winning a game, but they might need some retooling. For MIA, their worst category was their Spark%, so maybe work on getting grabs off? I don't know anything else that MIA can really work on, because they did win the series. Good games from MIA, and some nice things to work off of for WTP.