CRL WEST - WEEK 2 DAY 1 WRAP UP

It was a spectacular day of Clash Royale to begin the second week of this split, but for me the play was completely overshadowed by The Human Mushroom, our favourite fun guy (see what I did there?) Lapokati. I don't know what kind of restrictions they have in Belarus because of the Rona, but it is pretty obvious that the salons of Minsk are all closed. This is the type of cut that could have only been done by a drunk uncle with a sense of humour. It really makes me want to down a bottle of Johnny Walker and then take the clippers to Lil' Grampa's cranium. Am I being too harsh? If you think I am, just bear in mind that a mushroom wasn't my first choice. I could be sitting here talking about penis, but Lapo is too nice of a guy for me to start calling him a dickhead. Rich and Andrew are so good at casting now that they were making prediction casts, and they got every single one right, "Miner in, skeleton barrel down, and that's going to be 2-0 to Space Station Gaming" 5 secs later and that's exactly what happened on my screen. Honestly, it was actually quite funny watching the English coverage and have it sound like a dubbed Bruce Lee movie. Oh yeah, the games... SSG vs TRIBE - Sammy's Meltdown In the absence of AC, this was the result that most pundits were predicting, except we didn't reach the final outcome by following the script. All of us "experts" were certain that Rf and the Shroom hadn't been together long enough to gel in the manner required to overcome the ominous combo of Boof's oven tray and the Bikram yoga of Azilys. They didn't just overcome them, the SSG boys destroyed them. My gut feeling is that Lapo's drunk uncle helped the Tribe duo choose their decks, because only someone intoxicated could not have foreseen the incredible spell value that would be afforded by running 3M. I felt like I was watching a TV Royale replay from Pekka's Playground. Seeing poison/log getting +47 trades in one lane made me, the worst troop clumper in history, smile. It's always comforting to see the pros play at a casual level. Going into KOTH, SSG were now firm favourites to take the match. Then came, as Enchatin would say, "the misclick heard around the world" I have this philosophy in life which I call "Grampa's Luggage Theory". I'm not going to explain it fully now, but we saw it well and truly at work in Sammy's head. Put simply: 1) He made the mistake 2) That mistake become luggage 3) He carried that luggage into his remaining matches and it weighed him down It's tilting in a nutshell. Trainer Luis needs to get into the boy's ear and teach him how to let that shit go. I knew it was all over before the 1v1 set even began. Just go watch the replay and instead of observing the game, focus on Sammy's body language. Look close enough and you'll see the suitcases piling up on his head the further he went into the battles. I was dealing with my own luggage at the time. "WHY IN THE FUCK WAS BOOF PLAYING KOTH AND NOT AZILYS?" This was a disaster for my Fantasy team. I just hope they are using some kind of rotation policy and the French contortionist plays KOTH on day 2. SUMMARY - Tribe just elevated themselves to the No #1 ranking and don't look to have any weaknesses, unlike SSG who, despite the positivity of the 2v2, need a confident and secure Sammy if they are going to win this split and the world title. PS., a mushroom is a fungi, for all those who didn't work it out that ancient joke. CREAM vs DIGNITAS - The First Upset So, here's me in random moments thinking about what I might write in the future. I started preparing all these gags about "Will Dig even win a match?", and they went and fucked it all up in week two. The writer's lament...90% of your work ends up in a bin somewhere, in 2020, a recycle bin. What I DID write in my preview of CRL West, when talking about Dig, was that some teams were going to look back on their season and ask, "How in the fuck did we lose to Dig?" It is now about 12 hours since that match finished, but I'm sure Belli just woke up and is still shaking his head. Everything began according to schedule. Diego and Bad Boy Michy dominated the 2v2 against the new pairing of Kodigo and Flash. My Fantasy spirits picked up again, following the disappointment of Azilys, as Michy banked 3 crowns with the KOTH still to come. For the second week running, a Dig player has come out, high on steroids, and swept the opposition. This time it was Gareth Bale. With his eyes rolling in the back of his head, he overcame Mr Two Screens, Bad Boy Michy and Pedro. So much for the bonus crowns. I've talked about about having set roles in your roster, but I think the one area where you can vary and go with feel is the 1v1. We all knew Dig was going to go with Gareth Bale because he was juiced up and hotter than the vindaloo currently creating chaos around my ring. Cream took the expected choice and sent in Pedro, sans headset, because lets face it, are there any muffs out there big enough to cover those flappers? I get the feeling he's more of a buds kind of guy. Personally, I would have sent in Belli. I think Cream are the most even team in the comp when it comes to 1v1 ability. I really can't separate them. Thus, I think they are okay to go with their hot hand, and currently it is The Saint. Ultimately, it was closely fought, but Bale prevailed 2-1 to open Dig's account for the year and to leave Cream lamenting about the one that got away. SUMMARY - Nothing much has changed. Dig are still struggling and 2v2, at it is only a matter of time before the doping authorities catch their KOTH guys using steroids. I still cannot put them into playoff contention. Cream remain one of the big guns for me, but perhaps have revealed that they are still short of the truly great rosters. I couldn't see a Tribe or an SSG dropping a match like this. SK vs QUESO - My Ruben demons return. For the first two thirds of this match, everything went exactly as I had predicted. SK took out the 2v2 but Queso were too strong in KOTH. Unfortunately, I am stupid, and in my prediction I went against everything I have been saying about Ruben for the last year. In a team environment in the big games, he LOSES and makes mistakes. Recently Lil' Gramps said to me, "I always enjoyed playing football (soccer, for the heathens) but I much prefer tennis because the only person you let down is yourself". This is a reality for some people. They feel additional pressure in team sports because they hate letting down their team mates. Consequently, their performance suffers, and we continue to see what happens to Ruben. Now, consider also the pressure of having JP there. Another person capable of being the premier 1v1 players, and suddenly Rubes has the weight of the world on his shoulders every time he steps into the arena. This is why I cannot rate him as the complete competitive player just yet regardless of all the times he becomes a beast in INDIVIDUAL events. Obviously, people are going to say, "but he swept KOTH". I'll leave it up to them to contemplate if the pressure was really on at that stage, or if after the loss of JP, and with just one of his 2v2 scrubs to follow, he was playing carefree with nothing to lose rather than under pressure. There are not going to be any jokes in this section because I want to delve seriously into sports psychology, and maybe teach these young men something. Another of my recent whipping boys, Sergio Ramos, was notably missing from this match. It doesn't augur well for his future when he doesn't get a gig in one of the biggest games of the split. The biggest problem I see in CRL is that many players do not know how to embrace the moment. That's what big time sport is all about. For those who care enough, go watch a 3 minute portion of the video of the 2017 world championships. I'm talking about when the players are first introduced. I want you to compare Sergio, the eventual winner, walking out onto the stage to Colton walking out. Back then Mr Ramos was happy as Larry and embracing the moment. Of course he was going to play his best CR in this state. Conversely, Colton looked like his goldfish had just died. The look on his face wasn't one of determined focus, it was the look of a man who had spent the last few weeks playing the battles over and over in his head, including during many sleepless nights. Maybe CT will read this and confirm if my body language read was accurate or not. I cannot change a player's psychological profile in one short blog, but I can give them a starting point to work with... Instead of thinking about all the fans judging your performance, instead realise that they are watching and wishing they were you. Don't fear what you do but be grateful for the privilege and, as I said above, EMBRACE THE MOMENT. Look at AC and Rf. Do you see fear or two guys having a great time playing CRL? Rubes, Sergio, Airsurfer, and a few others, need to start having a good time, and they will instantly become better players. SUMMARY - SK won, Queso lost. Both teams still have weaknesses. ******************************************************************************* Fantasy Update: I went with Michy (3) Morts (2) Javi (2) and Azilys (duck egg) A total of seven crowns is still solid, but could have been way higher with a bit of luck and the Human Mushroom not playing so well. Three of my guys go back in again on day 2, so we should get another healthy overall return to keep us in the hunt. Thanks for reading, Gramps.