NIP swept LBT last week in order to bring their record up to 5-1 and at the top of the standings. A strong core of players backed by some decent depth makes this team a dangerous one to play against.
BCC won two games against the BAP B-Team, putting their record at 3-3, which is respectable because they've played two good B-Teams. This is another big test too.
This might be the Buperball matchup again, so who will take it in Round 1?
BCC wins four halves and two games and takes the series against NIP, but they did throw the second game, giving up an 8-0 half to NIP after amassing a four-cap lead in the first half. If they didn't throw there, then BCC would have swept, and they would have really put the league on notice.
victor messi was the star offender for NIP this week, with seven caps, 468 hold, and the 93.4 ONISH. He had five caps in that 8-0 half, so without his contribution NIP would've lost that half and would have gotten swept. JSwan had a pedestrian effort this week, with 403 hold, four caps, and the 67.1 ONISH, while STINK had 432 hold, three caps, and the 59.2 ONISH. Together, the three NIP offenders combined for 14 caps and 1303 hold. For BCC, you had Tinderfella and Omnivore with strong performances, with Tinder getting the 90.8 ONISH and Omnivore having the 86.8 ONISH. Together, the two BCC offenders combined for 12 caps and 907 hold, that's pretty solid.
KahnMan was the best defender on the tiles for this match, with 674 prevent, 58 returns, and the 100 DNISH and 10 DGASP. He led the week in returns and prevent, and really kept the NIP offense struggling. Blob had the 73.7 DNISH and Button came late and got the 53.9 DNISH. For NIP, SOGEKING had the 89.5 DNISH with 484 prevent and 54 returns, while lukmoo had the 81.6 DNISH with 432 prevent and 50 returns. FrodoBallins had a decent stat line with 455 prevent, 39 returns, and the 63.2 DNISH.
The NIPs had a whopping 65 more tags and 63 more returns than BCC, coming 2nd and 1st in those stats while BCC came dead last in both stats. But other than that, it looks like BCC had the edge in every other defensive category. NIP did have 121 more seconds of prevent, but BCC led the week in HA with 1156, while NIP ranked 5th. BCC also led the week in RIB% and QR%, while also coming second in P/HA, which is amazing. NIP came 9th in P/HA, but was also 3rd in both RIB% and QR%, so both defenses seemed to be playing to the best of their abilities. BCC had one more NRT than NIP, but NIP had the most QRs and second-most RIBs this week. NIP also ranked dead last in P/R, so this NIP defense struggled in the prevent area it seems. Very adept at returning the BCC offenders, but lacking in prevent makes for a very weird and inconsistent playstyle, because if those risky swipes don't end up in returns, then you just let the enemy offense hold forever. You can see that in the vast range of the scores for this game.
BCC came dead last in team hold, while NIP was pretty average with 300 more seconds of hold than BCC. But, BCC had 80 less pops and 27 less NDPs than NIP. NIP's 320 pops was the second-most this week, while BCC had the second-least amount of pops. Both teams struggled to get a lot of long holds, ranking in the bottom half for the week, and they also were pretty bad in terms of H/G, with NIP ranking 12th and BCC ranking 10th in that stat. The F/G ratios for both teams were kind of high, while NIP had seven more good handoffs. For Chain% and Spark%, BCC had the edge over NIP in both stats, with BCC ranking 3rd in both and NIP coming 5th and 7th in those stats. NIP also had 50 more grabs than BCC, which is pretty impressive. Overall though, both offenses struggled to dominate the game, which was due to the strength of both defenses.
For leading the week in prevent and returns, while also getting the 10 DGASP and 100 DNISH, KahnMan deserves this card for the second straight week in a row. He was the better defender this week against NIP, and along with his four caps and 188 hold he contributed a little on offense. Yay KahnMan!
CONCLUSION
I'm really impressed with how BCC is playing, as this 2-1 series win puts them at 5-4 in the standings and honestly, it's a pretty impressive résumé they have, with wins against the Cyclists, BAP, and NIP. I am now predicting BCC to be in the Buperball, it's just that certain for me. For NIP, they had a massive comeback to win a game off this series, which puts their record at 6-3, just above BCC in the standings there. NIP's depth seemed to be a little iffy against BCC, and it probably was the reason they lost two games. The 8-0 half was when NIP had their starting four players in, so that's probably a good indicator of what the playoffs might bring. Fun matches overall, can't wait to see both teams in the playoffs.
