NLTP NewsRoom Hub - CYC vs. LST (A)

LST split with the Incrediballs last week and moved to 3-1 and at the top of the standings. I've been really impressed with them so far, because I didn't expect them to really sweep DOW, and then going up against INC they held their own.

The Cyclists got swept by WTP last week, but both games were pretty close, with the second game being deciding on a last-second cap by anti-re. This team has changed for the better with Irony on offense and Helen Keller on defense.

LST is 3-1, CYC are 1-3, who will take the wins here?

The match ended in a split, so that's nice. CYC won the first game by one cap, then LST won the second game by three caps for the +2 cap differential. CYC won both first halves, while LST won both second halves, which is pretty cool.

The highest ONISH the four offenders involved here had was a 79 ONISH by Cyclist, who had five caps and 469 hold. Next was bbb with the 75 ONISH, five caps as well, and 396 hold, followed by drewfa with the 67 ONISH and Irony at the bottom with a 58 ONISH. The CYC offense combined for nine caps and 875 hold, while the LST offense combined for nine caps and 851 hold, so both offenses had similar production.

On defense the highest DNISH here was an 83 DNISH by Catalyst, who had 52 returns and 454 prevent. Helen Keller and Gram Parsons combined for 95 returns and 1012 prevent, while the LST defense combined for 96 returns and 949 prevent, so similar numbers all around for both facets of each team. That's reflected in the score for both games, so let's just get to the team stats and see if there are any major differences.

LST had 26 more tags and 10 more returns than CYC, but CYC had 26 more seconds of prevent. Damn that's pretty similar. The P/HA numbers were separated by just 0.005, while the P/R numbers were separated by just 0.56 seconds. Once again, CYC had too many pops, with almost 30 more pops than LST this week, which led to a 0.94 KD, which is 9th for the week. That also led to having the most NDPs this week as well, with 61, 17 more than LST's 44 NDPs. Talking about the LST defense, they were pretty great this week. I've mentioned the tags and returns, and they came 3rd in QRs, 1st in KRs with 12, and 3rd in RIBs. They had double the amount of KRs that CYC had. LST's RIB% and QR% were solid as well, ranking 4th and 1st, respectively. On the other hand CYC's RIB% and QR% trailed by five points and seven points, and also ranked 7th and 8th, respectively. Looking at the stats here, LST's defense really shined.

CYC's offense was a little meh, because while they had 180 grabs, they only had 40 good handoffs. Compare that to LST who had 170 grabs but had 48 good handoffs. CYC's Chain% of 56.41% is the worst one this week, while LST's 70.33% chain rate is the second best one. LST had the better score% by 1%, the better H/G by 0.5 seconds, the better F/G by 0.04 flaccids, and had two more long holds than CYC. Overall, there seems to be LST dominance all over the board, but CYC won two halves. It reminds me of MIA's games against MB8, where you're wondering "how the hell did they win a game?". That's what CYC feels like to me, just perpetual incredulity. Kudos to LST for doing pretty well in the stats, but it must suck that you only split.

anduin showcased his two-way ability in this match, with six caps and 288 hold to go along with his 44 returns and 495 prevent. When you're a defender and you get more caps than both of your offenders, that's something worthy of a POTM card, so I'm giving it to him this week.

CONCLUSION

With this split, LST move to 4-2 and CYC move to 2-4, so these teams have the complete opposite records. LST now has a sweep over DOW and splits against INC and CYC, while CYC has splits against BCC and LST while also getting swept by WTP. These teams are pretty similar, and while the stats definitely showed LST having the upper hand, the fact that both games were pretty close is just a testament to the quality of both teams. I do think that both of these teams are going to make the playoffs, but do I think that either of them will be a Top 3 seed? Not likely.