After all the drama of the opening day of the season, day two passed us by quietly, like Lil' Gramps passing the biscuit box in my kitchen. Zero noise, but next minute there are 5 less chocolate biscuits in the box. That's day two in a nutshell. There was very little noise to come out of it, but now there are three less games left on the schedule. The only racket to come from last night's matches was the sound of the Mexican player's stocks tumbling on the CR market faster than any Bitcoin crash. Fortunately, we know that like the crypto currency, these guys can bounce back, but right now they are at an all time low. Personally, I'm loathe to buy. I need to see some recovery before I invest my hard earned Pesos. DIGNITAS vs SK - Kodigo vs SK A lot of people might be encouraged by the performance of Dignitas. Not me. I accept that they were unlucky to lose to the might of SK, but I have to be pragmatic about what I witnessed. The Kodigo Show almost stole this for the lowest ranked team in the competition, but can we honestly expect that out of him every week? Of course not. Dig are going to need a lot more out of the rest of their roster if they are going to avoid taking the wooden spoon for finishing last yet again. I'm convinced their collection of kitchen utensils is only going to grow at the end of this split. Lets look at what happened with some realism. The 2v2 was a procession. Morten and Sam were miles better than the Dig pair and did it easily. As Boss just tweeted, "85% of teams who win the 2v2, go on to win the match in CRL East". The numbers in West won't vary too far away from that stat. 2v2 remains an absolutely crucial factor in matches. Lince and Bale didn't show me anything to convince me that they will give Dig a decent chance in their matches. Then it came to the KOTH, and SK, feeling sympathetic, said to Dig, "We'll give you Sergio first up to boost your confidence". I don't like burying the kid week after week, but the fact remains that he just isn't up to CRL standard at the moment and I have to call it like I see it. These guys are pro athletes, so they have to expect commentators on the game to not sugarcoat their performances. Kodigo was now on a roll of one in a row, and with his confidence sky high, he blew past Javi and Morts. Speaking of the latter, what an absolute champion the guy is. Morts had an absolutely shocking match up, but he played out of his skin and then was dirty when he lost. A normal person would be like, "Well, that was 100-0. Not much I could do", but Morts stormed off because he was angry at losing. That's what makes him a champ. I love that hunger to win. I cursed SK when they sent in Javi to do the deciding 1v1 set. It would have been SOOOO good for my fantasy team if they selected Sam. I think I was like most neutral spectators in that we cheered for the underdog to pull off a huge upset, but the Cinderella story wasn't to be. The artist formerly known as Javi14 is starting to return to his best, and he played some tough CR to ultimately end Kodigo's dream run. SUMMARY - It was a lot closer than we expected but the result we expected. SK look vulnerable after the 2v2, so Morts and Sam are going to need to be at their best for this org to make worlds. TRIBE vs CHIVAS - TNT is Dynamite. Tribe are so confident in their ability at the moment, that they are just taking the piss (an Aussie expression meaning to mock your opponent) Azilys booked a yoga class at the same time as this match vs Chivas. He did it easy in the 2v2 and "stretched" out his lead as the player with the all time best winning percentage in duos. Meanwhile, Boof ordered some Mexican food, as if devouring Pomp and Diego wasn't enough, and then spent all of battle two on the phone telling the Uber Eats driver to hurry the fuck up. Then they decided to give TNT a game in KOTH since he barely played last split, and he promptly proceeded to blow away, or blow up even, the entire Chivas line-up. To cap off this one sided affair, the Tribe org tweeted out this very amusing 'Among Us' meme. Bad sportsmanship? Nah, just good fun. The kind of tribe-alism esports needs.
All is not lost for Chivas. They were a new roster beaten by a very, very good team. I see a lot of potential in the Pomp and Diego 2v2 pairing. Rest assured, these boys will get on the grind and improve dramatically. They're going to put Chivas in some winning positions. What comes after that is a bit of a concern. Kev Baby, despite his rheumatoid arthritis, displayed nimble fingers to play a cracker (those dynamite puns continue) against TNT, only for his hands to seize up in the last few seconds and throw away a certain win. It was promising, but rookies will make rookie mistakes. Adrian is a worry. I put him on my washed list after the last split and he made a washed player's mistake, also known as a Grampa mistake, when he dropped that Ram Rider to leave his weak tower vulnerable. I so want to see him bounce back, but that confidence is down. The rest of the boys need to rally around the old man and remind him that he's still a champ. You know, like the voices in my head rally around this old man.
If there's one player who can lift Chivas it's DiegoB. I've always had a lot of faith in his ability, especially to get dubs in clutch situations. I believe they can build something around him. I couldn't help but notice that Kanny was streaming a totally different game after Liquid's loss but Diego was on Twitter looking for CRL pros to practise with. In my eyes, these choices are very telling.
SUMMARY - The Tribe Terminator has been sent back in time to 2020 to destroy the balls of every other player, ensuring they don't breed and produce CR pros in the future.
It has no mercy.
It knows no mercy.
Chivas can improve as the season goes along. I don't see them tearing up this split, but you have to consider them for your 2021 portfolio.
PAIN vs MISFITS - Rookiefest
This was the clear match of the day for me. Six brand new faces on the scene bringing freshness and excitement to the arena. We got a sneak peek at these teams yesterday, but today revealed a whole lot more about where they are at.
When the cyber archaeologists (this is the Queen's English, you lazy Americans) of the future dig up the remains of this match, they will probably date it somewhere around 1972 after measuring all the curls in the haircuts of these players. Myself and Patrick Swayze were initially recruited to the Pain roster (see pic below)
...but then they let us go after they learned that most of my hair is now gone and Patrick, well, he died. No spirits allowed in CRL. I suppose I should talk about the match since that is what I am not paid to do. I'm totally digging the Sweep and Wallace pairing. They showed plenty yesterday against Rf and Lapo, and continued that good form today. Even more encouraging is the fact that they were able to bounce back after Sunshine Bob and May the Schwartz Be With You took the first game. Bob was recruited as somewhat of a 2v2 specialist, but he hasn't really shown anything in that area just yet. Then he comes out and picks up a couple of dubs in KOTH. Strangely, we didn't see Wings, often touted as the best KOTH player in the game. What we DID see was the return of Nervous Jack. After Lucas (please get a cam) dispatched of Sunshine Bob (In case you haven't figured it out, when he puts his head down to play, the top of his head looks like the sun - ***WARNING*** Do NOT stare directly at it) out come Airsurfer, and I don't know if it's the cam, but he looked like the shaky player we saw in the stage days of CRL. This is why Lucas choosing Xbox was a stroke of genius. We all know it's Surfer's pet deck, so it piled on even more pressure. The match was on the line and May the Schwartz Be With You showed why he was a good pick up by sending it into a deciding set. Hindsight is easy, but in the 1v1 set, I think Misfits fucked up by throwing Airsurfer back out there. He obviously wasn't comfortable and the Schwartz had a hot hand. Lucas did it comfortably to give this new Pain line up their first W. Barely a week ago, Sammy B put out his CRL tier list and had Lucas ranked up highly with some esteemed players, and above some very esteemed players. I was critical of this since he had done nothing yet at this level. Sammy said it was on potential, and we certainly saw some of that Lucas potential today. 4 games won was an admirable effort. SUMMARY - Misfits have got some bugs in their system. They need to get Jack to a sports psychologist asap so as to draw on his full abilities. Call me. As for Pain, they might be better than we expected, which is great because it adds even more spice to a very promising split. *************************************************************************************** FANTASY UPDATE Followers of Gramps can be happy with out first week. We finished with RF 5, Schwartz 4, Azilys 2 and Sam 2, a total of 13 for an overall global ranking of 8th. We were unlucky Azilys didn't win a KOTH set and that Sam didn't play it. I chose him on the suspicion that he would open up for Sk after playing 2v2. Check Twitter @Grampa_Ivy for this week's selections. Thanks for reading, Gramps.