With the season’s end drawing near, teams are scrambling for position. Top Tier, Dare Rising, and eClipse are all locked into a fight for second place as they all want that first round bye. Also, none of them want fourth place, which would mean they fight Apex at the live finals. On the other end of the standings, Valence and o7 are fighting to see who will go to the online playoffs with sixth place and who could be relegated in seventh place. Find out for yourself how the standings have shaken up over the past two weeks below.
TOP TIER VS ECLIPSE
This was set up to be one of the two crucial matches towards the offseason positioning for both teams. The winner of this match goes to second place and makes it that much harder for any other team to catch them. Second place is very sought after right now because first round bye it grants in the playoffs. No one wants to risk losing another match if they don’t have to.
Both teams came into this match on a hot streak after winning their last several games but eClipse did just lose Vetro and Exo off the team. They picked up Ledif to compensate but it takes some time to acclimate.
After the first two maps, Ghost Town and Murovanka, Top Tier and eClipse were even at 2-2 after some close battles. Going onto Himmelsdorf, Top Tier seized control of the game after ogHaKo won an intense 1v3 to pull ahead. Top Tier used that momentum to win the next battle on Himmelsdorf as well but eClipse got a breath of life as Top Tier got demolished trying to cross the North cap on Ruinberg. With the match 3-4, eClipse couldn’t break Top Tier’s Ruinberg defense and Top Tier secured all three points in this match giving them second place for now!
DID SOMEONE SAY 1v3 CLUTCH? ogHaKo saves the day for @TopTierWOT! #WGLNA @WorldofTanks pic.twitter.com/CaX28OXVsb
— WGLNA (@WGLNA) February 15, 2017
ECLIPSE VS DARE RISING
In another fight for second place, the winner of this match would either tie or pass Top Tier who currently resided in second place but had an extra match played due to byes. This was a match with huge playoff implications since the winner would be hard to catch in the rest of the season without a huge win against Apex or something similar.
This match started off with a bang when Dare Rising took control of the game by winning both sides of Mines. eClipse did not play Mines at all yet this season and it showed as they struggled to combat Dare’s strategies. eClipse was somehow able to counter the momentum of Dare on the next map, Murovanka, when they stunningly won both sides of the most defensive sided map in the league.
The two teams continued to trade matches back and forth on Prok and Ruinberg until it was time for the overtime match. It was to be played on the map where eClipse got swept earlier that match on Mines. eClipse found the hold in Dare’s armor this match by bombing out an E75 over and over before pushing in through the hole it left in the defenses to win the match! This gives eClipse two points which ties them with Top Tier in the standings, look to next week to figure out who will stay in second.
.@eClipse_WGLNA storms through the defenses of @DareRising to win the match in overtime 5-4! #WGLNA @WorldofTanks pic.twitter.com/BL1AXPYsnI
— WGLNA (@WGLNA) February 17, 2017
VALENCE VS RIVAL
This was another important match as Rival needed a win to stay alive and Valence needed a win to stay in the playoff race with o7. Rival showed that they meant business in the very first round of steppes where they came away with a victory, giving them what should be their first lead of the season. Unfortunately for them, Valence comes back to win the next three games leading most to believe the first game was a fluke.
The rest of the match could have been titled Rival strikes back as they won three of the next four games to force overtime and get their very first point of the season! The overtime games that followed on Mines was certainly interesting as the strategies and tactical plays on both sides left many puzzled. Valence was able to pull out the win though and Rival will be relegated from the WGLNA after this season now.
@.TeamRivalGG secures at least one point as they take the lead on Himmelsdorf with this brawl! #WGLNA @WorldofTanks pic.twitter.com/ngwpEnz5Cv
— WGLNA (@WGLNA) February 17, 2017
AQUATIC M60S VS O7 GAMING
With o7 Gaming falling in the standings and barely holding on to 6th place, they needed points to guarantee their placement into the playoffs. Aquatic M60s is caught up in the playoff race trying to sneak into fourth place and a win would go along way towards that goal.
O7 did not look good to start this match. Aquatic M60s opened strong winning the first two games on cliff against o7s interesting strats brought on by Arclit, their newest member. O7 did find some life the next two maps as they split them 2-2 with Aquatic but the damage was done with the first map being swept out from under them. Aquatic M60s. MrMan and Bailes put the team on their back on match point, combining for 210 fantasy points, to win the match 5-2.
.@AquaticM60s take their name literally as they go underwater for the final kill. #WGLNA @WorldofTanks pic.twitter.com/kMfvshKsvP
— WGLNA (@WGLNA) February 22, 2017
DARE RISING VS VALENCE
Very similar to o7 vs AM60s, Dare needed a win to stay in the race for second and Valence needed a win to have a chance of passing o7 to slip into the playoffs. This match started off with a bang as Valence won both sides of Ghost Town to start with a 2-0 lead. Unfortunately for Valence, that luck would not last for long.
Dare swept the next five games as they finally found their footing after the embarrassing first map. Dare did not lose more than two tanks a game for the next five wins as they showed us the Dare Rising strength that we were expecting in this match. Dare might have to go rethink their Ghost Town strategies though.
.@DareRising crushes @_ValenceGaming's tanks on steppes! #WGLNA @WorldofTanks pic.twitter.com/pw3dxQHvgM
— WGLNA (@WGLNA) February 22, 2017
O7 GAMING VS RIVAL
Rival are going to be relegated at this point since they have only scored one point on the season so far. They can still mess with other teams playoff chances though and o7 needs to keep winning to stay ahead of Valence after their midseason meltdown where they could not find any wins.
This match started off strong for Rival as they cruised through Himmelsdorf, historically their strongest map, to two wins. This shouldn’t have been too much of a problem for o7 as the next map is mines which is one of their best maps with a 67% win rate before their battles with Rival. Rival once again shocked everyone by winning both sides of mines, making the match 4-0 in Rival’s favor and netting them one more point to double their total on the season but could Rival hold on to get their first win?
Up next was Ruinberg, which is one of the most defensive sided maps in the league which meant that Rival should get a victory on defense to win the game. However, o7 came alive this match and won both sides which was an impressive feat on that map. Next on Steppes, Rival started to show their weaknesses on open maps as o7 cruised through the map while winning both sides. The tiebreaker went to Prokhorovka, and o7 used their momentum and aptitude towards more open maps to win the game in overtime although Rival almost stole the game away in the last few seconds.
.@TeamRivalGG and @o7Gaming come down to the last few seconds in overtime. Who will win? #WGLNA @WorldofTanks pic.twitter.com/0JjcuFOJNB
— WGLNA (@WGLNA) February 24, 2017
TUNE IN
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