GOTW

Narchs vs Victimise

For victimise the pressure

Of playing must win game after must win game will tell sooner rather than later, Narchs surely have too much in the locker for Vict. Led by GBone (PT rep) and Scythe even the 3rd and 4th slots are strong, With ample backup from the bench Vict will surely have to pull the plug on some of the Narchs connections to stand a chance.
Vict could only manage a narrow squeak past Wretcheds and even then almost tried to lose it, just managing to last out the clock. The 1 cosolation for Vict is that with chaoszone and 2 makeup rounds this may not be the last chance saloon yet but "the reaper is sharpening his scythe" (TM) to axe Victs playoff hopes

BAM Rankings

Dear Fellow Subspacians, As you all may of heard, we have stopped audio match predictions, and began the BAM ranking system. Basically all it is a way to rank players according to three basic skills. Which are offensive,setup, and game breaker abilities. We just started off as an example of whats to come by rating the top 10 AML players in mrstats. These rankings are subject to change from future performances. Afther this sundays match, we will give a audio post update and analyze the players once again. The chart below was created go savage and g_bone, (most comments made by savage :) If you have any questions or feel the need to be a candidate for ranking, email me at gboner@gmail.com or ?message gbone: etc. Sincerely Savage, gbone

Rank Player Squad Comments  MRSTATS K/D Mrpoints Offensive Ability Setup Ability Game Breaking Ability BAM Rating #1 Gazelle Warlords Probally not #1 on these rankings for long, but he's earned it this week by placing #1 overall in the masterrater standings. What makes him stand out is his abilities to affect a game in his spider. He's definetly a key piece to the succes 10-1 (+375) 2.9 2.5 4.0 3.1 #2 Five'o'Ford Elemental Forces The second best player on his team, and a key piece to the success that Elemental forces have had this season. An all round player. Has great attacking ability, and his good aggresive style of play helps set up kills for his teamates.  Has some good lag to go along with a good overall package. 14-3 (+324) 3.9 3.5 3.6 3.7 #3 Plutonium Hitlist Matt has put together a great season so far and deserves to be ranked with great performances over wretcheds, and anarchists. He's produced against some of the best competition in aml, and thats the truest test on how good a player actually is. A well rounded player with good setup abilities when he pulls out the wzl. You need this type of player in every squad, and alongside spinoza have vaulted hitlist atop the AML world so far this season. 11-3 (+288) 3.5 4.0 3.0 3.5 #4 G_BoNe Anarchists I've played in alot of pracs with and against G_bone, and you got some extreme talent hidden inside this player. He has all the tools he needs for a breakout season with good talent,lag, and teamates. He'll be good enough for pro in a season or two and will do well there. Anarchists better keep a hold of him, as he's going to be a superb player. 11-3 (+279) 4.0 3.5 3.7 3.7 #5 Bukkwild CRIPS Bukkwild reminds me of myself a few seasons ago when i was playing aml. He's a leader of his team, and his raw talent will net him alot of kills. His aggresion allows for others to work off him, and in that regard sets up alot of kills.When a games on the line you want a guy like this in, and more often then not will affect the outcome of the game. 11-1 (+278) 4.5 4 4.5 4.3 #6 Spinoza HitList The other player in the duo that has helped contributed to the success of Hitlist. I recently pracced with spinoza, and i like what i see. The guy is solid, and easily has the ability to play in a higher league. Won't die stupidly, and Won't die stupidly, and will be in there for the duration of an entire game. I do expect that his production will increase as the season goes on, and has a chance to be one of the highest level players this season. 10-4 (+240) 3.5 3.5 3 3.3 #7 macksks Crips A cinderalla story thus far from the old time crips player. Not a player with great pas season performances , but has seemed to get the job done so far. Cheers to a good start 8-4 (+224) 2 3 2 2.3 #8 Inde Gods Dont know much about this player from gods. I've seen him practice a couple times, and he play a solid game. His damage seem to be pretty good as well. 7-2 (+215) 3 3 3 3 #9 DeathKnight Elemental Forces The key palyer on ef this season. Deathknight has produced in all cateogories, and is a 5 tool player.Great setupman, and finisher, and leads aml in forced reps. One of AMLS best wzls, and defintly one of its top players.  16-8 (+181) 4.5 4.5 4.0 4.3 #10 UbeR shiZa Reds Not a very aggresive pilot, but he knows how to play a team game. I dont forsee him remaining in these rankings for long, but kudos for being #10 in masterrater this far into the season. 7-6 (+172) 3.0 2.5 2.5 2.7

Matt's Corner, Vol. II

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

It seems that as soon as I think I have the players in this league worked out, something like Week 5 happens and the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. Given, about half the games played out as they should. Anarchists uneventfully beat LI, more or less assuring LI's demise this season. Time to start rebuilding. Secret beats Externals in the Battle of Who Could Care Less, and Warlords tarnish Untarnished's record with another L.

Anyone could have seen that coming.

What people didn't see coming was a very flaky-looking Elemental Forces team losing to the above-average Domination. I mean, come on, guys, they played Krogoth for Christ's sake. If EF is going to continue to struggle like this against even decent teams, one of the popular AML finals picks might get bumped out against a high seed early in the playoffs. It's still too early to tell, but they need a doctor and a flashlight to find their heads and pull them out after Sunday.

Then there's the big one. Lame, you cry. They ran the clock out, you said? They're a bunch of pussies, you said? Well, unfortunately, all those statements won't wipe the big L off of Gods' record, delivered at the hands of Reds, led by Oberic with 75k of damage in twenty minutes. The problem with Gods is twofold: everyone shows up with their A game against them, and they never bring their own A game in return. Sure, if you just want to have fun and fuck around, start whoever you want, but if you're interested in winning, you need your best, most proven players to get as much playtime as is possible. It's a simple equation that seems to elude whoever is making the decisions in the Gods camp. Reds, on the other hand, ran wild pythons all over Gods until they had the lead (and Weezie choked), and then ran the clock out.

You can say whatever negative things you want about Reds' strategy, but I have a few things to say as well:

1) It is the endgame strategy that gives your team the BEST chance of winning, almost 100% chance if performed correctly, and

2) With the inclusion of three repels, even mediocre teams (which Reds are not) can make this work with great success, certainly much better than stupidly charging the opposing team and giving them any chance to win at all.

Say you're playing basketball. There is a regular-sized hoop, and a hoop that's three feet wide. They both give you the same amount of points if you make a basket. Your opponent only has one hoop, regulation size. Which one would you shoot for? Reds chose correctly. End of story.

Touching upon the point of three repels brings up another point. Why doesn't AML conform to the rest of the leagues and use two repels? There are several reasons we should:

1) With a full three repels, you are almost forced into a defensive, lobbing posture, waiting for the other team to make a mistake. It has made AML look like Season II in Pro, with the ridiculous 2-1 scores and very little gunfighting at all. This is not a good primer for newbies who, upon making the jump to a higher league, all of a sudden have to deal with a different, more attacking strategy that is forced by having two repels. It is a hard adjustment for some.

2) Most newbies don't use all three repels anyway! You have to have some modicum of skill to be able to judge when you need to use them, and many times, newer players will die with two or even all three of their repels. The better players use them all (usually).

THIS GIVES BETTER PLAYERS AN EVEN GREATER ADVANTAGE OVER NEW PLAYERS THAN EVERYONE WITH TWO!! They will use all of their repels when they need them, effectively granting them 12 lives against a newbie's 7-8, at best. Some newbs are looser with their repels, and use them all, but they are still not being used properly. This creates a situation where it is all but impossible for beginning teams to compete against proper repel use, due to the proliferative nature of said repels.

With two repels, the playing field will be significantly leveled. Newbies won't use all their reps, still, but vets will have a harder time staying without the third, and it will give newer players valuable kill-finishing experience, as well as making for more exciting and aggressive league play. It will also prime newbs for the step up to IML and Pro, which are the leagues that really need an influx of players.

My commentary on IML will have to wait until next week as I have been thwarted in my attempts to interview Blur about it. I'll have to save the rant on salary-based league for next time as well, as this talk about repels has exhausted me. Fuck Tuesday. At least it's not Monday.

Updated rankings:

01) Hitlist - the only undefeated team in the league is the only team that should be here.
02) Crips - bukkwild and his 26-inch pythons are making short work of all comers.
03) Reds - with Oberic and P-Mav behind the wheel, anything is possible.
04) Gods - I cringe to put them this high after witnessing firsthand the mediocre captaincy and uncaring demeanor of some of their players, but I feel I must.
05) Domination - Made EF look very weak on Sunday. Krogoth, DK! WTF!
06) ElementalForces - As I said above, they need to stop playing like they did on Sunday or reap the whirlwind.
07) Warlords - Why so low? I'm not sure. Their record is good, but the only really good team they played, they lost in a big way. I'm very uncertain about these guys.
08) Anarchists - Need another season or two to gel.
09) Victimise - Better than their record suggests, but not enough team players to go far.
10) Untarnished - Tough to actually say there's 10 good teams here, but Untarnished took the underestimated Reds to OT. I guess that's saying SOMEthing.

Next week:

The Defendant assumes the position - hilarious court transcription excerpt

Updated rankings

Salary structure: filet mignon or chopped steak?

My Bi weekly

Round up of the movers and groovers of AML

Top MR points
Gazelle 375
Five O Ford 324 (AKA FoF)
Plutonium 288

Most Kills
DK 16
FoF 14
Targeter2 12

Most KO's
AcidReign 5
DK 5

Assists
Dueler 9
Chronic 7
Tertain 7

FR's
DK 38
Dueler 36
Spinoza 26

Which leads me to the conclusion that Dk is a kill grabbing whore who vulches from the back stealing the limelight while his "teammates" do all the donkey work (allegedly). FoF is on a lucky streak as whenever ive seen him he has the aim of a drunkard on the way home and Gazelle has been subbing out/in to save his record

Moving quickly on

Most WR's

Duck Tracy 13

Most Deaths
Proxy 14
Pension 13
Warengine 12

TK's
Trash Killer 2 (maybe that should read team killer??)

Least Points
Black Psycho -406
Silly_noob -342
K G B -276

On a personal note i now have 0 lag and you will see me dominate league for the next 2 weeks until we get knocked out in regular season. Unless i can kill of mizerie and take over as AML sysop lengthen the season by 6 weeks to give Secret a "2nd" chance at the playoffs

Game of the Week

Victimise V Wretcheds. Suprised ?? maybe not so much when u realise both teams playoff lives depend on a win

In the red corner Victimise who have been unlucky so far this season. Having played the 3 hardest teams straight up they can now muster up some performances against same level opponents to push on up the league. Led by Nick Rivers (7-3) they have a deep roster, My only concern would be putting Cerium into a tight game and relying on his blue bombs of TK to get you the win

Wretcheds on the other hand looked like being a good team with the roster they have. Unfortunatly the reality is quite different. Poor performances against Hitlist and LI are a real problem for teams that look to make the playoffs. With only a couple of players who have + rec's and no stand out player Wretcheds are looking down the barrel of a disapointing season. Pret needs to play as usual but players like Recreance and Street Fighter really need to raise their own personal performance levels massively..

Victimise by 4

Matt's Corner, Vol. I

Hello and good day to all you faithful Subspace players. I'd like to begin this inaugural edition of Matt's Corner by thanking Cose for giving me a forum for ranting, predictions, analysis, or whatever the hell I feel like rambling about (SS related, of course). I know less about HTML than my dead grandmother, so I could never proceed in this endeavor without his assistance.

Anyway, on to the good stuff.

AML is shaping up in ways that no one could have predicted at the beginning of the season. The only two undefeated teams after Week 4 are a team that was going to dissolve if not for the dedication of SkyOne's teammates (that was a dick move btw Sky, you obviously didn't consult with your squad before attempting to dissove) and a team that nobody thought would do anything except lose, Hitlist, fresh off a victory over the highly-favored Anarchists. Warlords are also on a tear, with their only loss to (debatably) the best team in the league, Gods. Equally surprising has been the success of Reds and Crips. Reds have looked weak as hell all preseason and in practices, but somehow they have been getting it done on Sundays. P-Mav is my hero. Crips, despite Trauma's typical efforts to suicide, are also a winning team, finally living up to their potential. Bukkwild is a fiery leader who inspires his team to play aggressively for him by example, and a team that can successfully be aggressive in this lob-ass league is something to be respected. Domination (I refuse to use that gay capitalization) is a paper tiger in my eyes until they beat a top-tier team. A 12-0 loss to any team is both horrible for morale and an indication that they can't win the big games.

On the other side of the coin, a lot of teams that were popular picks as finalists and powerhouses are disintegrating like two-week-old ramen noodles. The biggest surprise for most of you is probably Wretcheds, who are 1-3 and need to win out just to make the playoffs. If you look closely, though, you could see this coming. Pretender simply does not have the patience to be a captain, and recruiting HV is the all-time bonehead move that any Subspace captain can make, even though he adds a little spice to the community. Also, other hothead players (like Chief) were openly criticizing the team in spec after just their first loss! This has been obviously devastating for morale, and I believe has done more to cause their incessant failure than lack of talent. While Pretender has taken steps to resolve this by axing trouble players, a good move, it may be too late to save this season due to its anemic length. Externals should be at least a 2-2 team based on my play time with them, and their lack of wins can probably be attributed to a lack of experience. In one or two seasons they will be a lot stronger if they don't dissolve. Anarchists probably have the best teamwork in the Lightning division, but with Tertain being their only finisher, they can't always produce kills when they need them. Look for them to bounce back against weaker teams and make the playoffs. They also have a couple dissenters who make excuses rather than analyze and improve their play, and these are the types of things that can demoralize a squad. Big question mark here.

More or less everyone else is where they should be. If you don't agree, eat my shorts.

On that note, how about this season length? 8 games is ridiculously too short to decide who the best teams are. I would recommend a 16-game schedule, like American football, with FOUR divisions of four teams each, in two conferences. Play each team in your division twice, with the rest spread out as evenly as possible among teams in your conference, with four or so inter-divisional games to spice things up. It might not be as equal as round robin, but I think it would be more interesting.

I will rank the top 10 teams as I see fit with a number adjacent to the squad name. The analysis has been done above and I see no need to duplicate it.

Squad Rankings:

1. ElementalForces
2. Gods
3. Hitlist
4. Crips
5. Warlords
6. Anarchists
7. Reds
8. Domination
9. Untarnished
10. Externals

Next edition: Salary structure.. wha?
3 reps: the downfall of aggressive league play
Updated analysis of all pertinent teams
IML: what's next?
Sex with DeathKnight's mom: my quest into the Cracks of Doom

Subspacians of the Round Table Premier Predictions

Dear Astroid Players
First i'd just like to thank cose for allowing me to post and present Subspacians of the Round Table Premier Predictions. First off i'd like to explain to you that the original people that started these voice predictions as far as i know are Savage and Caerbannog. Then because of Caerbannogs sexy finnish voice, these audio predictions became suddenly popular. Audio predictions will be performed every week for all 3 leagues for the rest of the season hopefully. We will be working on fixing the quality of these voice predictions and hopefully can find someone to help encode to make the files smaller. But in the mean time we have a fast server hosting our files, so downloading them now should be no problem.
If anyone would like to make predictions also, just ?message g_bone in subspace, or email me at gboner@gmail.com. Requirements needed are only Teamspeak which is downloadable at www.goteamspeak.com, and a microphone. Okay well have fun listening to these.

g_bone

AML Round 4 Predictions by Savage, g_bone, Tertain, nismo
IML Round 3 Predictions by Savage, g_bone, Tertain, nismo
PRO Round 4 Predictions by Savage, ABS, g_bone
*NOTE* The Order of the people talking are the by the order listed after each link.

Im a bad Mutha

4-4 On my Preds last week.. Now time to reflect on last weeks action

Wow so CRIPS win big last week. then come this week against lower opps they fuck it up.. Kinda says it all.. Dunno if Bukk was either high on drugs or pimping his ass again but lay off it on sundays your squad needs you man. Oh btw nice choke boys 6-3 up with less than 3 mins remaining and you mananged to lose it 7-6 without going into OT.. impressive i must say
LI also won a close one and also tried there best to lose it after going up a man at 6-6. Wretcheds are definetly nowhere near good enough and i retract my pre season thoughts on them.

Looking forward Gods vs Warlords and Hitlist vs Narcs looks to be the pick of the match ups this week. Predictions to follow later this week hopefully.

On a related note Matt has joined the guest posters so look out for some interesting posts there!

Only 2 Weeks in but

here is the early season Winners and losers according to the stats god that is MR

Most Kills
DK 9
krogoth 7

Most assists
Dueler 5
Something Dutch 5
Gazelle 5

Forced Reps
Dueler 20
DK 19

Solo Kills
Dk 5
Krogoth 5

Points
Gazelle 243
Plutonium 220

And the Worst

TK's
Trash Killer 2

Wasted Reps
Black Psycho 12
Something Dutch 12
VT 8

Least Points
Black Psycho -406
Something Dutch -262
coughcosecough -237

Well Damn -

Nothing last week.. but lets face it none of the games deserved any recognition.

First off congrats to CRIPS on beating IML team GODS 6-5 last week. Shows that any tem who put in a bit of effort and a good performance can achieve good results

REDS vs CRIPS

Both teams have started out impressively, and only require a few more wins even at this early stage of the season to make the playoffs. Crips are coming off a decent win last week and must look to start fast against reds to keep up there early season momentum. Reds have started out 2-0 but have yet to convince anyone that they will be a force this season. But early season wins ring confidence and confidence is a mahor part of any professional sport

Crips by 5

External vs Gods

Externals are struggling as predicted theyve not had the easiest start to the season playing arguably the 3 best squads in the division straight off the bat. If they can stick out past these 3 monoliths, the schedule will get easier and wins may beomce more possible
Gods are not the team to dominate all. hold on REWIND lets not go overboard on 1 defeat just yet. GODS shouldnt be in AML plain and simple. That they are shows how difficult it is to manage a strict league setup. Last week will have been a wake up call to GODS who will bounce back this week with a rampant win.

Gods by 9

Secret vs Untarnished

Damn it looks like my season/career is over. Unless somethig happens to my connection in the not too distant future whereby I get less than 6% ploss its goodbye from me.
Secret must start winning games and soon, luckily we have Tjatte and tursiops returning from absence and with a few games we can improve to the point where we are competitive again.
Untarnished have had a rough start to the season but they should be able to beat Reds does this mean that when it counts they dont have that killer instinct that is required to be great. They have potential on the roster to be a contender but i dont see many "praccers"

Secret by 5

Chaos Zone vs EF

Chaoszone a few peoples dark horses this season have shown nothing at, for this tag to remain, whilst some of these may be decent choas pilots where vulching, mine repping and bursting are the best off the skills that are needed. 4v4 is another subset of skills entirely
EF despite plenty of pre season turmoil have come out the other side looking as strong as last season. Once again led by D "1 choke per season in massive games" K. These allready look like playoff locks

EF by 10

LI vs Wretcheds

LI are as predicted by myself are running on empty, and like Mike Tyson they should have retired when the good days were still fresh in the memory.
Wretcheds are 1-1 and that might well be considered a bad start for a roster that could field 2 competent teams. Not much for them to do this wek. Turn up shoot the shit of anyone who gets in the way and move on.

Wretcheds by 8

SFa vs Warlords

SFa will probably urn out to be one of thise slepers teams, Like LLamas they had to split to give the "bench" some play time and as expected they were rusty to start with, but as the season gets older and they get more used to each other they could become a decent playoff team
Warlords will steamroller there way to the playoffs in double quick time, they are the pick of the teams "after Gods"

Warlords by 5

Narcs vs Domination

Ouch Narcs are a good squad but hell DOMINATION are a better squad. Narcs will need a performance of the CRIPS variety to pull off a big upset
Dom like GODS probably shouldnt be in AML but they are and the same as every season the rest of us get on with it.

Dom by 7

Hitlist vs Victimise

Hitlist are performing at there a consitent level and can be happy that they are early season front runners, with the roster they have they can expect to go deep into the playoffs
Victimise are one of the bottom feeders of the division and only a miracle will help them make the playoffs. it must be said though that whilst they arent winning games Vorb will stick at it until the end. An admirable quality

Hitlist by 9

AML Week 2 Upset

The upset of the week for week 2 of Premier League AML goes to CRIPS for defeating Gods. The match MVP was D u e l e r with a 1-1 K/D and 12 Forced Reps. Good job CRIPS! With Chronic, D u e l e r, Trauma & Silica backing bukkwild up, CRIPS is *still* my pick of the season.