NLTP NewsRoom Hub - NIP vs. MB8 (A)

The community ranked NIP first and I ranked NIP third in my rankings, and after the Nuper win, the expectations for this time are pretty high.

For MB8, I ranked them fifth while the community didn't really like them, putting them 10th. I don't know, I just like the offense a lot.

Sadly, NIP was missing two starters, juke juice and Cobra, so they had to put in JSwan and SOGEKING as their replacements. They're not bad replacements, but these are their first A-Team minutes so this lineup took a hit. But did MB8 capitalize on these absences?

Yeah the absences seemed to have an effect on the NIP squad, as MB8 swept them. The first half was tied 5-5, even though MB8 led in almost every team category, probably because NIP got five TPs. But then the next two halves had a combined score of 4-13 to MB8, so that shut them down pretty quickly. NIP did try to comeback in G2H2 and almost did, but they were just one cap off.

The MB8 offense was firing on all cylinders against the NIP defense, with kool aid leading the week in caps and hold, and Zion getting six caps and 413 seconds of hold as well. kool aid left the week with the 10 OGASP and the 100 ONISH, so that's nice. For the NIPs, jig was doing most of the heavy lifting, with eight of NIP's 14 caps coming from him. At least we know now that jig on A-Team wasn't a bad idea. His partner JSwan came in on short notice and didn't do that badly, with four caps and 373 hold.

The MB8 defense was great though, with AD getting the 94 DNISH and HYPE returning to NLTP and getting an 83 DNISH. Both defenders got more than 600 seconds of prevent, while both NIP defenders only got around 450 seconds of prevent each. It was here where you can realistically say the match was won for MB8, because while MB8's defense seemed locked in, NIP's defense struggled to contain the offense.

Looking at Table A, MB8 actually lead the week in six of the thirteen categories that are listed there. Meanwhile NIP came dead last in five categories that are listed there. That's not a recipe for success if you're on the NIPs, and it didn't bode well for this match. MB8 led the league in caps, hold, HA, P/HA, F/G and GHO, so they were excelling on both sides of the tiles. Meanwhile NIP came dead last in hold, prevent, pops, H/G, and F/G, so some of the categories MB8 led in, NIP just struggled immensely. Credit to the MB8 defense for holding NIP to just 1012 seconds of hold, and also to the MB8 offense for keeping that F/G ratio low and getting good handoffs off. Just a complete team performance from MB8.

Table B showcases more of the same, with MB8 leading the week in another four categories here, and while NIP didn't actually come dead last in any category here, they were near the bottom on quite a few. MB8's defense really put the clamps on NIP's offense, since they led the week in RIBs and QRs by a lot. MB8 had 13 more QRs and 22 more RIBs than the team in second place for either category. This in turn led them to be the league-leaders in RIB% and QR%, being the only team to get above a 32% RIB rate and 31% quick rate. For the NIPs, their KD was near the bottom, which can be explained by their 201 pops and their league high F/G ratio of 0.3352. They actually had more key returns than MB8, but everything else just wasn't good.

CONCLUSION

MB8 seemed to be great in every category this game, and were rewarded with a sweep. Meanwhile the NIPs seemed to be near the bottom of the barrel in every category, and were swept. If I had to pick something that MB8 could improve on, it could be the pops and NDPops, since they were 4th in pops and NDPops this week. Other than that, pretty much a perfect game from them. For the NIPs, hopefully they get their starters back for next week because this was kind of ugly, even if the score doesn't really show it. They were thoroughly beaten this week, but they should be able to bounce back against their next opponent.