Tournament Semi-Finals / GRAND FINAL Retrospective (Jan19)

That's it, asset!
Just one more broadcast and you can get back to base.

Good morning, good day, good afternoon, good evening and good night sports fans!

This is the final piece which ends this poetic trilogy that the last Country Tournament was!

If you missed the Round of 16 and the Quarter-Finals, I will link them below.

https://app.warera.io/article/696a510537a9e3ca49e02bd7

https://app.warera.io/article/696bb7b7c9c4e2ee34c7c2cb

I was too busy to cover the Semi-Finals live, so I'll publish them along with the Finals after the winner is announced.

Let's jump right into the action!

SEMI-FINAL

Each of the 4 matches in the Quarter-Final ended in the second round.

A snapshot from when the second round was slowly drawing to a close. You can observe the comfortable lead of the 4 eventual winners

Here is how the Semi-Final played out. Team BAT was made to fight Team TRIANGLE and Team ALIEN fought with Team ATOM.

MATCH 1: Team TRIANGLE vs Team BAT (Team 15 vs Team 6)

Team 15 line-up: https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac855, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7f2, https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f67, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac838, https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af15c7 and https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac79a

Team 6 line-up: https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac871, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac82c, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7f8, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7ac and https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac83c

-THE CONTEXT-

A. TEAM TRIANGLE

In the Quarters, the group led by https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac79a and https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7f2 had the task of defeating the conglomerate called Team ARROWS led by https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac835, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7a8, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac8cb, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7bc and more.

Both rounds, but especially Round 2, were a game of cat and mouse, where each time Team ARROWS tried passing the 50% mark, TRIANGLE would retort and take the tick for themselves. ARROWS managed to gather only 59 ticks over the 2 rounds.

It was, again, France who dealt most of the damage, 1.77 million, with Sweden providing an additional 633K. Paraguay only contributed this time with about 140K, probably focusing on the battles in South Africa instead.

Sweden's president https://app.warera.io/user/684db976c61d88cbf54202bd tops the scoreboard at 271K, followed by the French https://app.warera.io/user/6849df53fbc59566f93cc7df with 245K and an array of French following next, https://app.warera.io/user/689b2f110f9a30806c3f6a2f being the only Paraguayan on the list with 107K.

There appeared to be more equal contribution on the losing team, with Uruguay and Spain dealing almost equal 680K damage and the mercenaries of https://app.warera.io/mu/689b29c35c3c40f764988e9c shooting up 460K more. The player pedestal reflects the cooperatin, with https://app.warera.io/user/6819fb3bdc610e77404d5f0e in no. 1 with 350K, https://app.warera.io/user/6834d159028f0a191e12e1db with 250K and https://app.warera.io/user/683d1513165776aac0c03588 with 160K.

Alas, it was not enough to defeat TRIANGLE who would go on to face Team BAT. The whole match racked up more than 4 Million Damage.

B. TEAM BAT

In the Quarters, the small list of countries led by https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac83c confronted the hodge-podge of nations led by https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7aa, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac80b, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac802, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7ef, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac86e and even more nations - collectively titled Team STAR.

Round 1 was a fiery duel between BAT and STAR, where more than 10 million damage have been dealt collectively. However, despite 5.1 million damage and https://app.warera.io/user/687bca1301942959ebbae07c alone dealing almost 480K, STAR didn't get even a single ground point in a single round.

Round 2 probably favored the timezone of Chile, because the asleep Portuguese in the night time dealt only 2.5 million damage compared to Chile's 2.77M. A 200K difference only, but STAR didn't get a single ground point as well. BAT absolutely monitored the whole battle. As a whole, 15 million damage have been dealt in the 2 rounds total.

https://app.warera.io/user/682a9df671b94887cfaab454 and https://app.warera.io/user/68282210def387e332acf07f carried team BAT with 1 million damage plus combined, followed by a full host of exclusively Chileans in the top 10, with https://app.warera.io/user/68210623140154052ca4f714, https://app.warera.io/user/681def57ab50af38c93fe5c1 and https://app.warera.io/user/682935a8234adef6db0fe602 dealing about 400K each.

With the exception of Danish https://app.warera.io/user/682883d106241b38def41fcd sitting at no. 6 with 345K, the top 10 is made up of Portuguese only, https://app.warera.io/user/68929146dd632cc978a7876e sitting in no. 2 and https://app.warera.io/user/6845e1d98e3eeb30fb79de27 in no. 3. It seems that Portugal and allies didn't want to commit further to the tournament and perhaps lack in damage in any possible African revolts.

SEMI-FINAL SHOWDOWN 1

After TRIANGLE spent 2 million damage and BAT spent about 9 million in the round prior, they would face each other in the semi-final.

At the same time, one of the leaders of TRIANGLE, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac79a, was also fighting in its Latin American territory of https://app.warera.io/region/6813b7089403bc4170a5d90f. The Argentinians launched a revolt as the semi-final was kind of underway.

https://app.warera.io/battle/696bb262d2ddf1f3d79e4a45

The battle drained about 700K damage away from the French Forces, while Argentina rained 5 million damage onto France's allies, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac858 and https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7b8.

https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac83c benefitted from having no other major fights at that moment.

Round 1 was a very easy win for BAT, with not a single ground point gained by TRIANGLE. The round finished 1.5 million to just 600K.

Round 2 was a bit different, with TRIANGLE mounting a comeback which amounted to 4.11M and even 44 ground points. However, BAT's determination proved too strong, and they sniped every other ground point to win the match by 4.22M damage.

From a birds' eye view, the match looks like a derby between Chile and France. Only Chileans populate the top 10, with https://app.warera.io/user/68326db251d21b3f6f99808b dishing 560K to claim #1, and https://app.warera.io/user/68292c7146021348dddc39c3 dishing 480K to claim #2, and https://app.warera.io/user/6820bfe4281e62dc126f6844in no. 3. Chile's ex-president https://app.warera.io/user/681ec174f6f19b81b61aeb4b was no. 8 with a bit more than 200K.

With the exception of https://app.warera.io/user/685039b497ab0ba32805d4df who sits at no. 3 with 270K damage, the whole scoreboard is filled with French fighters, no. 1 being https://app.warera.io/user/681cb53c0bcbf9945e541f84 with 270K and no. 2 - https://app.warera.io/user/6813b766efecdf9bab195e92 with just short of 270K.

With https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7f2 and other nations not committing, the giant https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac79a, who witnessed 3 wipes and rebirths in its Warera history (that I know of), chose to not spend any more damage in the tournament. Thus, the Phoenix with temperance went home, and also lost the battle of Buenos Aires.

MATCH 2: Team ALIEN vs Team ATOM (Team 1 vs Team 4)

Team 1 roster: https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af160f, https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f34, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7e5, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac8be, https://app.warera.io/country/687eab339142f76907295e50, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7a6 and https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7ae

Team 4 roster: https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af15d7, https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f4c, https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f2e, https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af15f7, https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f2b, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7b8, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac8d7, https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f63, https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f37, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7fe, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac84b, https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af15c9, https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af15cf, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac8d1 and https://app.warera.io/country/69614d0e5d798a861630c58e

-THE CONTEXT-

A. TEAM ALIEN

Team ALIEN came to the Semi-Final after fighting Team 11 in the Quarters, aka Team FLEUR-DE-LYS.

Round 1 of their entanglement was a close one numerically - 4.42M for FLEUR and 4.65M for ALIEN. https://app.warera.io/user/681c609b663073ec7c1cd493 dealt close to 500K while https://app.warera.io/user/6892521832c6fcd3f41ec95e, in second place, dealt an additional 333K. FLEUR-DE-LYS, a team made up of https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7eb, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7c0 and the merc state of https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac81d plus some others like https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7e2 won 53 ground points in the first round, but the combined Polish-American continued fire meant that they gained ground point after another by topping with just a bit more damage than their opponents.

https://app.warera.io/user/681cd4f05a84696e45913778 topped the charts of ALIEN with 389K damage, with https://app.warera.io/user/685d788ad007ae1ddbb165d5 and https://app.warera.io/user/6874f91870845f8c86e11d1e gettind no. 2 and 3 with about 350K and 325K, respectively. In the second round, https://app.warera.io/user/687fa31e7fb56fd7df97ff63 carried of Team 1 in Round 2, dealing 220K and securing no. 1 in the leaderboard. Polish https://app.warera.io/user/689db008e1186a97d90841a0 was no. 2 with 165K damage.

Despite the strong 2.82M combined damage of a whole host of https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7eb players, after losing a hard-fought round 1, they let off in round 2 and the ratio of damage was almost 10:1 for the American-Polish forces, securing them a 2-0 victory and a ticket to the Semi-Finals.

B. TEAM ATOM

Team ATOM fought a neck-to-neck battle with Team SKULL, a conglomerate of several serious hitters such as: https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac862, who helped carry the team through to the Quarters after beating https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7b6-https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7a4, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7b2, whose blood might as well be stainless steel by now from the dozens of revolts, the https://app.warera.io/mu/695d2a3f9cddbde050bebbbb for hire of https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f76, the veterans of https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac852, the new- and old-bloods of https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac845, and even more nations.

This battle was perhaps the best example of stealing the ground point in the last seconds of the tick. Despite only 7 million total damage over 2 rounds, it appears that the player were effectively GLUED to the screen for the entirety of the match

ATOM won the first round with 1.5 million damage from a duo of https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7b8 (1M) and https://app.warera.io/country/69614d0e5d798a861630c58e (390K). The top 3 of R1 is shared by two Lithuanians, https://app.warera.io/user/690a6e73c20ddfec29bc0c99 in no. 1 (160K) and https://app.warera.io/user/6908e5a920a70b6e367aa91b in no. 3 (103K), and the Vatican resident https://app.warera.io/user/681e8d94f6f19b81b6bc45da, who we remember from the last rounds of Team SKULL also, sitting at no. 2 (108k).

SKULL's top spot in round 1 and also in the match was claimed by https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7b2's aptly-named https://app.warera.io/user/6813bd3a16675576473021f6 with a whopping 273K (I say so because he did close to double the other side's #1). The next three spots are claimed by https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac862's https://app.warera.io/user/68a5caccb14c80571a39a7e9, https://app.warera.io/user/681b32f97c71edf800ef000f and https://app.warera.io/user/688a7f8c063503101ce63d9d. https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac852's fighter https://app.warera.io/user/681d7f86470bf2a142394578 sits at no. 5 with 163K damage, while https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac845's claimed no. 8 (https://app.warera.io/user/6813b775efecdf9bab196f90) and no. 10 of the scoreboard (https://app.warera.io/user/6933026bcb40c06497f414f3), both with 120K.

The exact same pattern happened in round 2, with SKULL managing to catch 26 ground points by dealing 1.86M damage, and ATOM ending their climb with just 10K (!) more damage at 1.87M. How's that for sniping?

Goddess of chaos https://app.warera.io/user/683ea783e25a415ee1c7409b contributed with another 100K come second round. Lithuania's https://app.warera.io/user/681a2f5b4c586e01fbcadba4 also stepped in and dealt 300K by himself, claiming no. 2 spot in damage for the whole match and helping to secure ATOM's road to the semi-final.

SEMI-FINAL SHOWDOWN 2

And so we had Team ALIEN meeting Team ATOM for the second semi-final of this tournament. Poland, USA and allies versus Lithuania, Vatican and allies. Who would emerge victorious?

Round 1 was yet another pretty standard "steal the ground point with minimal damage". Team ALIEN proved a bit faster and more determined, with https://app.warera.io/user/687fa31e7fb56fd7df97ff63, https://app.warera.io/user/6872acdaa4c59ecc583780af and https://app.warera.io/user/686fb7cadfa8f065a6ebddac holding the line with a combined 640K damage. On the other side, ATOM summoned https://app.warera.io/country/69614d0e5d798a861630c58e's https://app.warera.io/user/681d8310470bf2a1423d8d16 and https://app.warera.io/user/682fdd003fe328ddb36effac to deal 410K, while https://app.warera.io/user/6878884227e544184a3dffc8 came in third with 160K.

The round was eventually won by ALIEN with a difference of just 50K, 1.83M vs 1.78M.

Round 2 was another thing entirely.

Despite lesser overall damage, the round changed hands like it was a hot potato game. When https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7ae's https://app.warera.io/user/685ba0e5e00bfb5018fbb470 and https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7e5's https://app.warera.io/user/681b84567842bc1220fb51b9 dropped in and dealt together 465K damage, they summoned the wrath of the Emerald Isle's https://app.warera.io/user/6820fa6e7bc4fc1a3c1857a8, who topped their efforts with 500K (obviously dramatized for effect). https://app.warera.io/user/6872acdaa4c59ecc583780af dealt 132K more damage, and so did https://app.warera.io/user/681cb4580bcbf9945e53469a from the other side, adding 170K.

ALIEN's scoreboard is filled with Polish flags, while ATOM boasts Vatican and Ireland flags.

In the end, after a gruesome combined 221 ground points gained by team ATOM, Team ALIEN managed to gather even more and seal the deal at 305 GP and 1.84 million damage, bidding farewell to their opponents and going to the Finals!

And so it went to the next stage.

L-L-L-Let's get ready to Rumbleeeeee!

THE GRAND FINAL

After 3 rounds...

After 11 million 208.000 damage....

After eliminating TURKEY, LATVIA, JAPAN, ESTONIA, LITHUANIA, VATICAN AND MORE...

TEEEAM ALIEEEEN

https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af160f, https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f34, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7e5, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac8be, https://app.warera.io/country/687eab339142f76907295e50, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7a6 and https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7ae!

VERSUS

After 3 rounds...

After 15 million 640.000 damage....

After eliminating PORTUGAL, FRANCE, SWEDEN AND MORE...

TEEEAM BAAAAAAAT

https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac871, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac82c, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7f8, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7ac and https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac83c!

Begin.

And so it began. A fight between giants and their allies. A fight between friends and foes. A fight of more than 22 million damage. A fight for the glory, the trophy, the red case and the energy boost.

Round 1 was a blaze of fire. https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7ae invested 4.5M damage alone. https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7e5, 2.75M. Even https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac8be, a country with only a couple of players, threw 225K into the mix. From the other side, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac83c launched 7.15M damage, while their main teammate, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac82c' https://app.warera.io/mu/68ea0e16e1fc701519b79ee7, did 785K damage.

https://app.warera.io/user/681cd4f05a84696e45913778, https://app.warera.io/user/682946176eb7334102607230, https://app.warera.io/user/68f7b54dee06f33a4d5ef0c1, https://app.warera.io/user/682f1183b3bbff72427dafb2, https://app.warera.io/user/681d1f3d470bf2a14291a1d0, https://app.warera.io/user/682305fdc8d83152250ad984, https://app.warera.io/user/681b84567842bc1220fb51b9, https://app.warera.io/user/68616c95c36ce3c2ca5df882, https://app.warera.io/user/685d788ad007ae1ddbb165d5, https://app.warera.io/user/6874f91870845f8c86e11d1e and more of their ranks managed to win 29 ground points after dealing 7.47 million damage in the first round!

But the BAT forces piled on. Bit by bit, they added more and more to the damage, until they sniped their way to win the first around, adding a safe 400K to make it 7.96 million.

During Round 2, https://app.warera.io/user/68412b1d29de6212dc55f829, https://app.warera.io/user/686eb480e9ce9119614f703e, https://app.warera.io/user/68e3a34c604a8e6307d96874, https://app.warera.io/user/6866cb14ad72c66c0a05c07e, https://app.warera.io/user/68676250fb337713b23b1655, https://app.warera.io/user/686e6a51e9ce91196145ebc8 and more tried holding the line... but they decided, after 2.39 million damage, that they would commit any more resources in a battle that had them 1-0 already.

With no ground point gained in Round 2, https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac83c and their allies unloaded their guns in a frenzy of joy, dealing almost twice the damage of Team ALIEN and winning this edition of the Warera Country Tournament!

A round of applause for the winners and their MVPs!

🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇

https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac83c https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac82c https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7f8 https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac871 https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7ac

(1)https://app.warera.io/user/6848a0a33a9e3806ebc200dd (563K); https://app.warera.io/user/68292dbf8b1d46f04e9bc4b1 (533K); https://app.warera.io/user/68282210def387e332acf07f (529K); https://app.warera.io/user/68210623140154052ca4f714 (500K); https://app.warera.io/user/682a9df671b94887cfaab454; https://app.warera.io/user/682d0d1eff5468030f0d1bc1; https://app.warera.io/user/682a1ea342fec2f81a0c58b1; https://app.warera.io/user/681d8344470bf2a1423dc9d5; https://app.warera.io/user/681e00e2ab50af38c95b69c2(10)https://app.warera.io/user/681e6b71f6f19b81b669e53d

A round of applause for the silver medalists!

🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈🥈

https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7ae https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7e5 https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d546e731854c7ac8be https://app.warera.io/country/683ddd2c24b5a2e114af160f https://app.warera.io/country/6873d0ea1758b40e712b5f34 https://app.warera.io/country/6813b6d446e731854c7ac7a6 https://app.warera.io/country/687eab339142f76907295e50.

Thus concludes this gargantuan series of national showdowns.

My personal congratulations to all participants,

Mamaliga, over and out.