NLTP NewsRoom Hub - LST vs. INC (A)

LST is coming off a sweep of DOW, where they seemed to be in complete control throughout the entire match. The community ranked them #2, but for some reason moved them down to #3 after W1, which is weird. They definitely impressed me with how well they played against a solid team.

For INC, they split BAP, which didn't move them up any spots, but for some reason BAP moved up two spots in the power rankings (*cough* iSuck? *cough). I didn't really think INC was a good team, but they are backed by a strong defense and has shown potential.

Will INC put up a challenge against LST, or will LST establish themselves as a team to watch out for with another sweep?

MERALD saw INC really clamp down on LST, giving them only one cap while INC capped five times. Then on Grenadine LST fought back with a solid G2H2 to get the win and as a result, the split. Every half was close, with the biggest cap difference being two caps, so these teams seemed evenly matched up here. Very low-scoring as well, so kudos to both defenses for turning this into a defensive battle.

Espeluznante was the only offender here who had an ONISH above 65, and that's probably because his six caps equaled the number of caps the other three offenders had combined. He also had 434 hold, which was the second-most out of the four offenders here. pk had 354 hold, but didn't get any caps. bbb and drewfa combined for six caps, and bbb led the four offenders in hold with 527, which actually ranked second for the week. Not a solid stats week for the offenders here though.

On defense, Maradona and sonder had another solid week, combining for 1343 prevent and 102 returns, while also averaging a 89 DNISH, with Maradona getting the 96 DNISH and sonder getting the 82 DNISH. Meanwhile for LST, Catalyst and anduin combined for 1446 prevent and 76 returns while averaging a 73 DNISH. LST had INC beat on prevent, but INC had way more returns than LST. Good performances all around from the defenders.

A low-scoring game sees LST and INC near the bottom of the league in caps this week, which also sees LST getting the lowest Score% this week with 3%, and INC not that far behind with a 5.25% score rate. LST had INC beat on hold and prevent, while INC led tags, returns, and pops. Different strokes I guess. The biggest disparities in Table A were pups, P/HA, and GHO, with LST getting 12 more pups than INC in the match, LST having a 0.11 increase in P/HA, and LST getting nine more good handoffs. However, INC had less pops than LST, which led to a higher team KD by 0.27.

LST actually had really good NDPs and LHs, leading the week in both categories. But LST's defense struggled when it came to RIB%, with just 30% of their returns coming in base. Meanwhile INC had a 34% RIB%, which was league average. That completely switched when it came to QR%, with INC near the bottom of the league with a 24%, while LST still below average but better than INC with a 27%. Looking at the stats, it seems weird that LST split instead of sweeping, but MERALD is a map that doesn't really care about your stats. That 30% RIB rate probably hurt their chances on MERALD considerably, as well as their 3% score rate. LST got eight more pups than INC on MERALD, but they couldn't parlay any of that into actual caps. Meanwhile, LST got four more pups than INC on Grenadine, but they capped two more times than INC. Grenadine just seemed to fit LST's playstyle better than MERALD.

When you account for 75% of your team's caps, you deserve an award. This card goes to Espeluznante for his six caps, three on MERALD and three on Grenadine. He also had 434 hold and has been pestering me to bring back the player cards since I stopped doing them last season. Congrats buddy, now stop annoying me.

CONCLUSION

A very close split between two teams with similar talent. Another thing I forgot to mention was that INC got four of their five caps on MERALD during the last two minutes of the half, which I call the witching hour. In G1H1, Espel got two caps in the thirty seconds of the half. In fact, all three caps that INC got on Grenadine were also during the witching hour, so it really seems that LST has a problem shutting halves out or just completing the half without lapses of judgment. For LST, good job to get the win on Grenadine, meanwhile for INC hopefully pk gets some caps next week, or else this will be an issue.