Team France *Official*

Team France was selected by Kero and mostly planned to be (according to rankings) :
- Saitoh
- DTN
- Keev
- Kayane
- Malek or Scud
- Dina

After flamewars, Kero dissmissed. A Team Battle was selected to fix the team. After the victory, they asked Keev and Dina to join, Keev said that if DTN doesn't want to play with Kayane, he will not join them, cause they are trying to make a french team without her.
 
I'm interested to read Belial's breakdown of the US team now.

I better be given a power level of "OVER 9000!"
 
If there guna have a cervy they should have docvisso the last time i saw kira he was kinda bad but he could have gotten much better from then so who knows.
 
malek said:
Belial... I miss you !

But if you apply the same to USA, you will understand why France will WIN.
However before talk about France or USA, remember that there are more than 2 team in this comp.
Germany or Italy or Switzerland or Singapour or others can also win.
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We don't pour...

We are PORES.

Its singaPORE baby :P

(Then again, the term for sandbagging in chinese is "POUR water"..)

Hayate: Why doesn't DTN want Kayane on the team?
Some friction between the two? O.O
 
babalook said:
If there guna have a cervy they should have docvisso the last time i saw kira he was kinda bad but he could have gotten much better from then so who knows.
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I played against both in tournament and in freeplay and I think Kira is as good as doc is!
 
No doubt, Kira has a very good Cervantes, i think he's one of he best Cervys out there.

I cant comment on Kiras Matchup Knowledge against other chars, we just played some Cervantes Mirrors (lol in whoch we both suck i guess :P )
 
babalook said:
If there guna have a cervy they should have docvisso the last time i saw kira he was kinda bad but he could have gotten much better from then so who knows.
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You did never really see me. Maybe I'm/was bad but you are the not one who can assert that.
 
France is definitely not going to win..... (^ - ^) , but it'll be interesting to see.

My only concern for france, and this is not me over-looking their skill, but only a handful of their characters have been known to win tournaments. The rest of the characters are kind of shallow (Yoshi, Mitsu, Sets, Asta, Hilde, and cervy), and I know Team USA won't be surprised by anything these players will bring to the table. Also, these other teams aren't exactly beast-mode either sooooo, yah I don't see it coming down to USA/FRANCE vs any of them.
 
Laswagga said:
France is definitely not going to win..... (^ - ^) , but it'll be interesting to see.

My only concern for france, and this is not me over-looking their skill, but only a handful of their characters have been known to win tournaments. The rest of the characters are kind of shallow (Yoshi, Mitsu, Sets, Asta, Hilde, and cervy), and I know Team USA won't be surprised by anything these players will bring to the table. Also, these other teams aren't exactly beast-mode either sooooo, yah I don't see it coming down to USA/FRANCE vs any of them.
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riiiiight... just out of curiosity, have you ever played against non-US players?
 
Mkay people ask me about Team USA so here it is.

Before I say anything else I want everybody to keep in mind this is MY opinion. So I hope nobody gets offended with my evaluation of their skills that is of course _outdated_. I also have my own viewpoint on the core skills of players. I also think it is very difficult to rate a players as good as top US or top FR players. However, I am slightly more impressed by FR top , and that's why my evaluation or rank, may be lower. I know some players take it strongly by the heart when they're being rated by others and I apologize in advance for any offence my posts may provide. I am mostly trying to stay true to myself here, more than trying to be nice to other players. So if you're _underrated_ feel free to think I'm misinforming your opponents and that will eventually play out in your favor. If I'm overrating (like there could be such thing lol) you, than just feel good about it and we're cool, right?

I am going to separate this in two parts, part 1 will be analysis of team USA memebrs, part 2 will be my thoughts on how the battle between US and FR will turn out. Just to heat up the hype, you know.

On to business.

Team USA is a real "Dream Team", which fans and players would like to see. That in itself, makes this battle slightly uneven.

Team USA Motto - Cheapness all the way! xD

Thuggish Pond Power Level 10
There is not much to say about Thuggish. This guy is a legend. He is two time National Champion of USA, both for SC3 and SC4. He made top 8 at Evo and lost only to finalists of EVO. He plays a character I consider broken and has ALOT of skill to back it up. His only weak point is his lack of _deep_ knowledge of _some_ matchups. His strong points is extreme experience, mad adaptation and understanding of the game. Given all that, and the fact French have a weakness to Amy, this is the Ultimate Weapon of Frenchie Annihilation (UWoFA). Finally and most importantly - he is awesome guy to hang out with and my friend! <3 Thuggish!

KDZ Power Level 9
KDZ doesnt really need an introduction. The newly crowned "Hilde slayer", has always been a top tier material. He was the one US player to make it to the finals of EVO. Many people suggested his strong point is "counter-picking" (which you well observed at EVO) and that would hamper his game at WGC. Personally, I dont feel like its the case - this is the sort of guy who just uses whatever means necessary, but that doesnt make him any weaker. But that still allows to come to a certain conclusions, like matchup he doesnt like to use his main in or has least experience with his main in, but I dont think Frenchies have that characters in their team.

S-U Power Level ??? (Supposedly 9)
S-U is the player I never played and met, and I hope to fill that gap at Cannes. He uses one of the best characters in the game, has good experience vs Frenchies. He is known for his ability to kill Hilde, although KDZ still holds the prize. I have little words of wisdom to give, except BEWARE, HIS SELF PROCLAIMED MM RATIO IS 24-4 BUT HE STILL NEED A DONATION TO MAKE A TRIP. xD


RTD Power Level 10
The Destroyer himself. God is it hard to talk about US team members? Every single one of them is a LEGEND. this time a LEGEND from all way back till SC2. What strength this guy has, you may ask. Well, first he has mad experience. Seriously, this guy's been winnin majors when you were still a drooling baby. Secondly he HE USES HILDE. Weaknesses... what weaknesses? Can you hope to beat a legendary champion and his cowboy girlie? And the answer frenchies give is... YES. And they managed to do it a few times at evo, lol. But this time there is no Malek or Kayane to save their sorry ... erm.

Esom power level 7
Esom somewhat stands out and once again I base it off the EVO games I had vs him. His main strategic strength is his character that was a decicive factor for completing the five. Based off a common belief that frenchies are weak to Voldo, this guy might prove a weapon just as deadly, as Thuggish. He is rumored to base his game of SG-damage, and since Voldo has a variety of styles to play, even with Ahriman, it is unlikely frenchies can really prepare for the beating Esom is ready to give em.

***

Now I am going to give a quick analysis of how the battle between the teams may go.
Team USA Threat level (from Team France perspecitve)

Thuggish - high (lack of experience, possible counters Saitoh, Keysona, Scud)
Esom - high (lack of experience, possible counters Dina)
KDZ - medium (limits Dina's hilde)
S-U - medium (limits Dina's hilde)
RTD - low (is limited by Kira and Saitoh, is overshadowed by greater threats that FR may view as keypoints to winning this game)

Team France Threat Level (from team USA perspective)
Saitoh - medium (limits RTD and Thuggish, possible counters Esom, S-U)
DTN - medium (everybody "works")
Scud - high (memory of defeat at Malek's hand runs strong... possible counters Esom)
Keysona - medium (lack of exp vs mitsu, possible counters RTD, Thuggish (he wouldnt wanna go though xD), S-U)
Maxou - medium (no comment)
Kira - medium (as it limits acess to RTD)
Ahriman - low (all players have experience against Voldo)
Dina - low (all players deal with hilde very well)

For team FR I'd say in this game Ahriman is immediately out of the picture, while Kira and Dina prime use is counterpicks, and Maxou/Keysona being the possible replacement for either. That leaves the team core of Saitoh, Scud and DTN which team USA will need to beat either way.
If team USA has to announce their player first, Keysona is most of the time a perfect pick as the first player. Firstly in a way that USA (at least by FR belief) has little experience vs mitsu, also because USA might be tempted to answer with Hilde to assure a win, which FR has a good solution to. Then Kira might be a good idea if thuggish is not out of the picture yet (if yes, than Saitoh), to assure a win and make some space for further tactics and counterpicks. Having then spent two of two "spare players" team FR is still left with 3 powerhouses (Saitoh, DTN, Scud) to assure an effective planning for the rest of the game.

However if team USA gets to act 2nd, this is going to be a tough decicion for team FR, since they definitely would want to have their word when it comes to dealing with Thuggish and Esom. This means they would need to assure their first player is strong enough to force a "counter" from USA. Since Saitoh is also a good counterpick for Thuggish and RTD, Scud is the most likely candidate to open the score. Which leaves the only logical solution to answer with Esom. If Esom wins, then most likely Dina will have to enter the stage, since Esom is the only of the 5 who is not Hilde destroyer and also the most effective and quick way to deal with troublesome Voldo (if he can). Assuming all went as planned, team USA still has the lead, so their next move should put france in a position to rid them off their possible advantages (i.e. force a responce with any of powerhouses. This choice has many consequences and uncertainties, for example RTD would be a great answer if everybody agree that he can win the mirror match. If he can that really provokes team FR to provide either a Kira (which is an easy prey for the remainder of US team) or their hope to beating Thuggish - Saitoh. Which either way would put FR in a very difficult position. A safer bet would be KDZ, which not only assures victory over Hilde, but also keeps S-U and UWoFA safe to counterstrike, but leaving RTD behind would mean in case of failure team USA is vulnerable to counterpicking from team FR.

***

Well, thats about all I'm going to give for now. Take is partially as a joke and entertainment. I hope I could entertain you and get up the hype with this small analysis. Feel free to argue, blame, hate or adore me.

Sincerely yours.
B.
 
Ooh now where talking. Nice analysis and finally some real talk on the competitive aspects of the game (much needed). The only other person I know that goes into as much detail on competitive aspects of the game is Tiamat.

One of the reasons I was so adamant about Thuggish going is because I truly do respect the competitive level of the French and I want to go out there with the best of the best as I want to win. I mentioned this to Saitoh when he asked me why I wanted Thuggish to go so much.

No offense intended to the new team but I think the original perceived French team was more of a threat. I will explain after my opinion on the new team first.



Note: In order of value to teams. Solo is a completely different story. (From the perspective of one of the U.S. team members)

Esom: High level threat for team France even though there is Ahriman; it isn't the U.S. who has problems against Voldo and we have high quality ones in spades. So he could end up being more valuable than the entire team (Its a respectable possibility). Not to mention that he is super solid even though his name doesn't ring bells like that.

RTD: Kira (I have seen RTD give Saitoh the business in convincing fashion so no concerns there even though Astaroth is a respectable matchup for Hilde). Other than that he uses Hilde and as far as I know there are like 3 people in this game that can handle Hilde me being one of them. No more needs to be said as that is the most important aspect even though he is skilled naturally. I see no competitive problems with anyone else.

S-U: Scud (To this day Ivy is still the one character that I cannot get around matchup wise with Kilik. I truly believe he is humbled against her) and Saitoh (Not sure how this matchup is going to go to be honest based on our past outings as u could consider us even at the moment based on MM and FT5 results; though I did take him out in the NJ team tournament :)). I have matchup experience against the entire cast in spades. I see no competitive problems with anyone else.

Thuggish: Saitoh (Its possible that Saitoh has an edge on him as he beat him in internationals in the loser's finals and Thuggish seems to have issues with Astaroth in general) and Dina (because of Hilde and his bad luck with random stage select; he tends to lose against Hilde in convincing fashion depending on stages). Possible Scud if he really is better than Malek but that's a stretch. I see no competitive problems with anyone else.

KDZ: KDZ can either do great or bad based on him as a competitor in general. He also is subject to the French character lock. I have seen him switch mid match because it was necessary multiple times and there is no option for that here. Imo he is inconsistent but has what it takes to dominate being blunt. He can either do phenomenal or not seeing him compete in this game for a while.



Perceived Team:

Saitoh, Malek, and Kayane would have all been guaranteed threats for a number of people based on past outings.

Special regard to Keev. I have been watching this competitor for a long time now for the most part I have almost all of his videos. As a competitor I see serious talent, mind games, etc. and I think he would have been a natural threat for the entire team regardless of the fact that he uses Nightmare who is lower on the totem poll. I think team France dropped the ball on him.

So at least 4 would have caused problems. I do not count DTN as I feel he needs to bring back Siegfried and I think he is less of a threat without him.

This is fun and I would love to see the other members of team French and anyone else who has a solid viewpoint. Much props Belial as it was a good read.

Side note Belial. I was somewhat hired to take u out moving u out of the way of Thuggish since u seem to be a problem for him for some reason. Just giving u a heads up. So whatever team u end up being on in the 5vs5 I will be going against u hopefully. Just fun trash talk that is indeed the plan.
 
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