by Travis Roberts
Welcome ladies and gentlemen to another edition of the Players Pulse, Rage Report. As always I am your host, Ares Edge, bringing you a very special edition of the Rage Report. Now this isn’t specifically a situation that has caused anyone rage…yet. However, I have a feeling that it will drum up a lot of conversation and maybe a little heat leading into the big dance this November at PAX when we potentially crown ourselves some new champions.
So enough of the jibber jabber let’s down to the nitty gritty. We are talking about the top 5 teams walking into Worlds this year that have the potential to run rough shot over everyone else! What 5 teams stand the best chance of taking home the big prizes this year and which ones won’t? Now, let me make this perfectly clear right off the bat, I’m not diving back through pages and pages of ROC and WKO results because to be honest in my opinion they may or may not be worth the time. “Damn that’s a stacked field and a solid win.” OOOORRRRRR you could look at it and say, “Wow 7 people showed up to the event?? Does that win hold weight?” I’m not the one to decide that and I won’t be arguing it at all!! If you want to toss in your two cents, be my guest. But to put things into perspective the one WKO I was able to go to this year had a Canadian National Champion, the current runner up of this years Nationals Championship, and people who have had multiple top 8/top 16 showings at Nationals tournaments and I placed 3rd. No it wasn’t a win but I was damn happy with the results in that field.
I am not ranking these teams in any particular order at all. If you feel the need to do so by all means go right ahead. I am giving my opinion and mine ONLY if you don’t agree, feel free to express yours but don’t S#!* on mine. With that being said lets get right into the honorable mentions of the list
CWO – The Clixed World Order have listed themselves as making a few top 8’s and 16”s in team national formats and that’s about it. Jay and Jaylen Major were racking up some wins early on in the year and have slowed down since then or are just preparing for one big showing come November.
Micah Love – I don’t even know what the hell team you’re even on anymore but this kid has been consistent all year making strong showings in any tournament he plays in. Also, taking any chance he can to rub his wins loss record in Paris Gordon’s face. If he is with the Sci Fi Factory anymore they need to get on board with what he’s doing and get on his level quickly. This is a player to rally around and build a stronger program as their front runner.
Apex Predators – They have been a west coast dormant team for a little bit now, but if Pat makes one last charge to the east coast you can bet your ass he is coming for championships and breaking hearts. With their track record, they could do it too.
You then have a S#!*load of other teams all in the mix like Uncanny Clixmen (Dustin Seeders back must hurt carrying the win load here), Team Juggernaut, Team Buffalo Wings, and so many more. But let’s get to what you came for, dropping names and credentials and letting you know the big guns showing up to worlds!
Team Pusheen
These guys have a roster the size of a damn baseball team! BUUUTTTT they all pull their weight. You are looking at a team that, over the years, have done nothing but place in top 32/16/8 in every big tournament they show up to. A team that owns 5 national championships spanning 3 countries (Kennie, Kenji, Tiago, and Pedro), and are the current runners up of this years national championship. Abdul and Tedd placed second at the 2016 Canadian National Championship as well. The craziest thing is that at any given time any one of these guys can show up and take down a tournament with a team you weren’t expecting. Last ROC championship was a Uni Mind fest, Kennie played Mistress Death and made top 8. Abdul placed second this year at Nationals using a piece that a lot of people wrote off as garbage, unseen. I think I may have called that one out on the two clicks from KO podcast early on to be one of the strongest in the set, while many others called it “wasted points in the Modern format”.
Four Points Gaming
Next we jump to another team that is a fraction of the size of most, showing that sometimes quality over quantity is better. But with just as many accolades if not more then some of the bigger teams. You have the CURRENT US National Champion on the roster, who also happens to be the youngest Champion of all time. Isaac is a force to be reckoned with and if you think that’s bad, you get to run into the two buzz saws along side of him former Champion Scott Cramton and former ROC Champion Ed. Oh….did I mention that Isaac is also a former ROC champion too and before this new fancy format we have now Ed and Scott were traveling around and taking down Wizard World Titles. Leaves us just looking over at Matt Esbrook a well respected vet of the game and waiting for him to strike and make a big showing. He shouldn’t be one to be slept on just because the guys around him are doing so well. He’s on four points for a reason and that should speak volumes. A lot of pressure for performance here! Will they crack under it or continue their winning ways?
Team Strategem
When making this list I am well aware that there are other teams ahead of Strategem. But you are looking at the current World Champion and Team World Champions. But with that comes a lot of questions as well. Will Howard repeat? Will Easton shake being the bridesmaid and finally become the bride? He’s been staying active and with Luck Dice Cafe being open and running you know the team is staying active. But there are so many question marks that surround them. Easton has been the only one still showing up on event sheets. Will Easton overtake his dad as the new champion? Will they even put together a team to try and repeat as team worlds champions? Sooooo many questions.
Phoenix Nest
The current king of the North pops his cherry and banks himself a National Championship keeping the tradition alive of an American going to Canada and stealing their title from them. Besides that it’s been a consistent showing for himself and Matty G. Side note: Congrats to Matty G on the child, now break through and get a damn title for the Nest already. The rest of the crew Ed, Jerome, Wes no time like the present to make some cuts here! This may be because they break the mold and play some out of the box stuff but we’ve seen that take others to top 16/8 cuts before! I can only imagine they are brainstorming like crazy and are going to bring their A game with something not “so cookie cutter” like many others will.
Clixed Off Army
With the current ROC champion on their roster you can’t count out the clixed off crew. There are three things guaranteed in life – death, taxes, and if they find a certain army they like they will run it every tournament. “If its not broke don’t fix it,” they say. Well it took Lane and Dan to the 1 and 2 seeds after swiss rounds in this years Nationals. Unfortunately just didn’t get them over the hump to a title. Do we see some tinkering and maybe a little different variation of the teams that we saw at nationals? Well yea we already have and it’s worked for the most part at some ROC events. But adding Mudman to the same uni mind team that we’ve seen over and over I don’t think will get the job done on the big stage. People have grown to know what to expect and we may see some well rounded anti UNI builds. We will all have to sit back and wait to see, I am just going to assume we will hear, “I’m going to double perplex…” come from that team a lot. I will though give props to Sam for running her Infinity Anarky team at this years Nats, and Lane running a blackbird team which looked a lot like PJ Bolins bird team. It looks like Clixed off has also been expanding with the addition of Alex Cooze and Tylor Spees after their continued success in ROC play.
In the grand scheme of things this is a game of chance. But if I had to put money down on a winner of the World title it would be someone coming out of one of these camps. Its going to be a crazy weekend in the city of brotherly love, amazing Philadelphia. I have my tickets, do you? As always I am Ares Edge and may all your rolls be critical hits!
