INSIDE BEAT YOUR LIMITS

Enthusiastic fella, called SWGP on Replayers approached to me few days ago asking if I wish to join invitational league in his organization, later revealed to be Beat Your Limits. 

I said that I am sorry and that I am not taking part in leagues of that type since a very long time and the reasons for that are many. Newest one is that I am pretty satisfied with the competition on W3Arena. Still, I have to say few words about BYL.

Player pool looks decent and I strongly believe that some players who were not considered mega good till now, but who insanely improved on W3Arena for the past 2-3 months, will make a remarkable appearance. In first lines are Witek and NomaD) who raised their level of play and gained great experience playing against the best players on W3Arena. Plus, they will be the ones that I will cheer for because they stick to their main races and that is something we don't get to see so often nowdays.

As Orc, Witek will have a strong dominance on the map pool which favors NE in first place and then his race. Add to that that his group looks easier. Now your question will be how can group be easier when it holds two players who are arguably the best in the competition? Simply because S_A_I_B_O_T and RapiNG are not in that group to compete but to confirm their supremacy over other players. Exclude two of them, Witek is the only option for the 3rd spot which, unfortunately, doesn't bring him to the play offs. That's why I would put top 4 players of each group advancing to the play offs and the reason is pretty simple - S_A_I_B_O_T and RapiNG are too strong for these players and they are "killing" the competition and the morale of other players in their group. Putting them in the same group does bring you a safe final with two best players in league but let others shine as well dammit! My suggestion is to expand the play off bracket from 4 to 8 players for the sake of competition.

So, we already know that S_A_I_B_O_T and RapiNG are taking first two spots, Witek is on 3rd and the battle for 4th spot would be quite interesting because STR8-Union, Pawlak_PL and YURTHEBESTOFCTT are currently sitting on the same form level. YURTHEBESTOFCTT has been an active ladder player in the past but it is widely known that he hasn't been very active for the past few years. Add to that, he doesn't have that rough gaming gene (which can be substituted with mass gaming 24/7 with your NE race)  nor form to compete on highest level. At least not now. Same goes for Pawlak_PL who used to be good, then semi-good and then went inactive if I am not mistaken. Plus, he plays the least favored race - Human and with his capabilities and the map pool it will be surprise if  he manages to win a single match in this group. Still, I will cheer for Pawlak_PL because he is one of the few who went against the odds and decided to play Human full time. STR8-Union looks like the weakest player in the group but because of the form of his opponents and map pool I see him having chances against Pawlak_PL and YURTHEBESTOFCTT.

The second group is a mess with no actual favorite. It is so beautiful to see all six players being so close to each other when it comes to the form and the skill. Add to that, they are all very active on W3Arena and very dedicated to their accounts. In this player pool I can not give prediction like I did for the first group and I love that. There will be crazy amount of good games in this one. I will be cheering for NomaD) because of the reasons I mentioned and my mates ArnOrc and Vankor who will surely produce the most entertaining games. I would like to see a surprise from ListenToUrHeart because he is a very solid player who deserves some sort of recognition for his efforts.

Map pool is not good. From what I see there are Scorched Basin, Plunder Isle, Echo Isle and Twisted Meadows. This is total madness. Like it wasn't enough to put Secret Valley and Outskirts which favor we all know who, but add 3 auto win maps for NE and 1 auto win map for Orc. I could go in deeper analysis of this but I wont because it is obvious. This map pool is not balanced, it gives enormous advantage to NE and then to Orc. Undead players will have high chances against Human players but since there will be no Human players Undeads are doomed unless their brain dead NE opponents don't know how to counter double Crypt strategies. 

Crazy good support from Shadow_kill who decided to share his 30 euros and to give it to winner. I always find cash prizes better than some fake bags or sprays. It is just insane giving some wallet to gamer. Totally troll-like. Gamers need gaming equipment or cash and if you can't secure that, don't give prizes at all.

I almost forget to mention that I will miss Schappi here and I believe that he deserved his spot in this one. Who knows? Maybe organization change it's mind and expand the player pool in next few days.

Good luck to everyone, I will be looking forward to some good games.