NLTP NewsRoom Hub - CYC vs. WTP (B)

Weed the People lost two out of three games against the Miami Ballphins last week, which actually moved them up a spot in the community power rankings, from 12th to 11th.

Meanwhile, the Cyclists won two out of three against a very strong BCC squad, which also moved them up one spot in the community power rankings, from 10th to 9th, and it also validated my own personal power ranking.

Can WTP take a game or two off of CYC, or will CYC establish themselves as a strong B-Team in the eyes of the community?

Weed the People got off to a scorching start, with 13 caps in the first game and winning by four caps. Then, the Cyclists came back strong on Grenadine and took the game 8-2, and in G3 mounted a comeback in G2H2 after WTP won the first half 3-2. CYC ended up taking two games and winning the series, but the G1 performance for WTP was very impressive.

On offense, the best offender for Weed the People was AtomicStorm, with a whopping 11 caps and 404 hold. Those 11 caps are tied for the most this week. For comparison, slobonmyknob and Logicus, the other two WTP offenders, combined for just seven caps and 655 hold. AtomicStorm was a big reason as to why WTP won that first game on MERALD, and he was also rewarded with a 97.4 ONISH. For the CYC offense, you had Overkill take the lead with 465 hold, seven caps, and a 92.3 ONISH. bibo and naga weren't that far behind, with a 82.1 ONISH and 80.8 ONISH, respectively. bibo also had six caps and 334 hold, while naga led the teams in hold with 527 and also four caps. The CYC offense was doing great throughout all three games.

For defense, rena led the team and the week in prevent with 818 seconds, had the most returns out of the CYC defenders with 47, and had the 93.6 DNISH. wallsquirrel, her D partner, had 491 prevent, 32 returns, and an 88.5 DNISH. fanseman had the 64.1 DNISH, and korso switched to defense this week and got the 60.3 DNISH. For WTP, their best player was praoprao, with 541 prevent and 47 returns to get the 84.6 DNISH, while Niplepotamus had the 76.9 DNISH. dyd had the 66.7 DNISH with 559 prevent and 39 returns, so all three WTP defenders had more than 500 prevent. Solid defensive performances for both teams here.

CYC had more caps, more hold, the same amount of tags, and more prevent than WTP, which was probably why CYC won the series in the end. CYC's hold and prevent numbers led the week, and considering that MIA last week had the same kind of success against WTP, there are causes for concern here. Another great stat for CYC was their 13.29% score rate, a huge increase from their 4.12% score rate last week against BCC. The H/G and F/G stats are pretty close together, and CYC had 11 more good handoffs than WTP, continuing the same trend from last week against BCC.

In Table B, CYC had 18 more grabs, 8 more NRTs, and 18 less NDPs. Both teams had a lot of NRTs and NDPs this week, with CYC leading the week in NRTs and having the third most NDPs, while WTP had the second most NRTs and ranked 1st in NDPs with 137. CYC had the third highest P/R ratio, which makes sense since they also had a high P/HA number. When it comes to Chain% and Spark% though, CYC is pretty below average. CYC's 56.96% chain rate is the second lowest in the league, while their 45.68% spark rate is the third lowest. Meanwhile WTP had good RIB% and QR% rates. It was almost the opposite last week, with CYC having decent Spark% and Chain%, and WTP getting below average RIB% and QR%.

rena led the week in prevent and was definitely the Cyclists' best defender. With 818 prevent and 45 returns, she was very impactful in CYC winning the second and third games of the series. Without her I don't think a defensive trio of wallsquirrel, korso, and fanseman do that well against the WTP offense, so great job to keep the flag in base.

While rena was the best defender for CYC and was a big reason as to why they won the latter two games, AtomicStorm was a huge reason as to why WTP won the first game. Nine of Atomic's eleven caps came in G1, and considering WTP won G1 with a score of 13-10, without Atomic's caps CYC gets the sweep. I usually don't give two POTM cards, but considering that Atomic had such a huge impact on that one game, it would feel criminal not to give him one.

CONCLUSION

Weed the People fought hard for their first game, but after that the Cyclists regrouped and won the next two games fairly easily. Weed the People now is 2-4, and honestly them winning a game here really improves their stock in my eyes. AtomicStorm is an electric offender, and when you keep him on the field he can make things happen. For the Cyclists, they move up to 4-2 and should be taken more seriously as a B-Team, with stars like rena leading the pack. CYC plays LST next week, and considering that team is 5-1, it should be a great series. If CYC can take two or three games off of them, then I think CYC will emerge as a Buperball contender.