This might be an interesting read for you as well after the match for some more in depth analysis, some Wisp on 4/mint/ asked me about it, so here's that:
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>Could you go into a little more depth what you're unhappy about with the current state of them?
yes
>A tactic that picks up steam in the second half is better than a tactic that falls apart in the second half, no?
I agree. In the past, we often started furiously and then they ran out of gas in the end, leaving us open to counterplay if we didn't win high enough already. The only matches in which we ran up the score were those which were already decided anyway.
First of all, to explain this, our tactic today was a copy of the /uuu/ tactic with different players: Sand Curse and Big Clapper are identical, their only difference is the player model and the kit number, all players on every position are identical to each other: same skill cards, same AI play style, same everything. This is to be as consistent as possible. The difference between Freaky Ghost Maid and Nondescript Elf for example is merely superstitious.
We played against /uuu/ and /lig/, two of the top teams in the VTL, even though /lig/ fumbled hard yesterday. This happens to everyone, see our 0-4 against /HiRyS/ for comparison.
Both teams apparently expected our cracked midfield and designed theirs to destroy. Still, we played some very good long passes, something very unusual in that way for /mint/ and those made all the difference.
It was very apparent today that this formation with 2 nonmedal Second Strikers lacked the drive forward. We had to rely on Chocomint who is usually a better assister.
Those 2 nonmedals were completely taken out today. yesterday, when /uuu/ ran low on stamina, it was exactly those fresh SS which decided the match, especially Japanese Princess who scored once and assisted once - for Nondescript Elf. It would be unreal for any team to have an MVP who came off the bench, but this is /mint/ for you.
Our defense worked well against /uuu/, but it was very lethargic today. Mintobot against rats and Bats before their 1-2 goal? God, horrible.
You could see that it's a day of no minto today, they were slow in passing and kept the ball for too long. All that possession, especially in the first half, did nothing for us - not just that, it threatened us to lose the ball and allow /lig/ to attack. And this was exactly what happened.
Our play was much less dynamic. For those two matches, I played with "maintain positioning" and "angle of attack = centre" instead of flexible and wide like in every other match and it showed: Their play was much less creative, it was ultimately long balls down the road which won us both matches. However! They did in fact win us those matches.
I have to watch those matches again and see all of this in detail. My first impression is negative, but my conclusion about all of this isn't done yet.
I'm in a shit spot, really. In those 2 tournaments that we played, we're tied for the best average result with /ggg/ and we get results that other threads would kill for. It would be a blatant lie if I claimed that my goal was something else than winning the star.
But this means that there's a lot of pressure on me specifically to create a team which isn't just good, but the best.