The REAL Anni vs ADV [MSW #17]

Before I start, last newsletter you probably noticed Anni vs ADV didn't actually feature. We were planning it, but unfortunately there were significant delays for a number of reasons. Hopefully this newsletter will get you up to speed on the matches that have happened since our last newsletter. Give me a shout if I've missed any though, I'm new to this!

Match Spotlight Weekly Issue #17​

Updates by Gamren Proterozoic​

• The tournament has now reached the finals! Head over to the Team -> Matches areas to look at community matches, unofficials, officials, and even the tournament matches (which count as officials).
• We now have a MSW stream! You can find it Here!
• We also now have a MSW YT, to keep our content more organized and available to all interested. You can find it Here!

Notice Board​

Please do not ask MSW members for permission to spectate matches. We cannot speak for other reps and their wishes, so please ask both reps BEFORE matches. Referee consent will also be in play at all times if they wish. MSW can issue guest passes to those that wish to help out with things like commentating and related, but these passes are highly limited and will only be handed out to those that will add on to the quality of content covered by MSW. Passes are affected by the blacklist, referee preference, and refs/teams consent.

Team leaders/reps, you can always limit the amount of spectators that are in your matches if you wish. If you are bothered by the amount of spectators coming into your matches, then please feel free to pm your match referee and any concerns to gamren or MSW leaders/representatives. All we ask is that you may be thoughtful and fair if you do request to limit spectator numbers accordingly. Your match referee can also control the amount of spectators allowed.

If you have any questions, ideas, comments, or concerns, please feel free to message @gamren either in-game, on the forums, or on his skype/discord.


This time we've got something special for you guys - an interview with @gamren with his thoughts on how MSW is progressing!

Special MSW Interview with @gamren by @CoasterHamza​

- Thanks for letting me interview you, gam. Firstly, how pleased are you with msw currently? What do you appreciate most about msw?​

- I'm insanely pleased with MSW. Everyone has been working so hard and it feels amazing to be able to look back and see the impact that MSW has had on the CTF community. I'm proud to be working with such committed people almost every weekend to give to the CTF community.

- Yeah. The impact msw has is pretty cool . What do you enjoy most about being leader of msw?

- Probably the fun time I have in the stream calls and chat. Everyone has such a great personality and it's fun to be able to stream some matches, and be able to sit back and have some fun while doing so.

- That does sound fun, and it's good to know that you enjoy streaming because a lot of people look forward to watching them. To you, what is the worst part about being the msw leader?

- Oh boy. Probably having to set up the weekly article every weekend. I used to try to plan to have it out by Friday, but now I usually have practice and get home very late, usually being too tired to set it up (or maybe lazy). Once I eventually do find time to set up the weekly thread, I have to start by scratch copy/pasting in each section with the given material. Although it sounds easy, I usually have to proof read stuff, re-format, and overall just make sure everything stays updated and in place. On the last article (which was about 7k words), it almost took me an hour to set up!

- Alright. How much time do you put into msw? Do you feel that you need to put more/less time in msw, or other people need to put more/less time into it?

- Personally I have been putting in less time overall as MSW gains more people stepping up as leaders. I do feel that some certain people should try to step up and do stuff in the group, but I understand that school/family/other events are more important, so I'm not going to be asking any questions/kicking people for activity unless they are truly inactive and aren't helping out at least a bit. We have a lot of hard workers, so I'm more or less content where we are at the moment.

- Great! Final question: What are some future plans for msw that you have in mind?

- Great question! As time goes on, I definitely want us to become more official. Hopefully we can plan more tournaments for the community/overall events. One of the main things I'm currently looking into is having the MSW streams announced in public CTF matches for certain matches/all around, as I feel that the commentators have been stepping up their game and are ready to take a bigger audience. Obviously my commentary is ESL level (especially when solo amirite). In all seriousness though I would love to expand the group to be more official, and hopefully plan more tournaments on different scales. Sneak peak for those who actually read the stuff, I'm planning a "one map" tourney soon based on a single, specific map.

- Wow, that one map tourney sounds interesting! Thank you for letting me interview you!

- Np, anytime!

Match of the Week #17 - Anni vs ADV
1-0 ADV, 1-0 Anni, 4-2 Anni, 2-1 Anni, Overall Anni win​

Anni vs ADV Tiebreak by @Proterozoic​

Personally I thought this was a match that would never end. After fighting for 2 and a half hours a few weeks ago, The Adventurers and Annihilation had managed to draw on both maps and captures after 5 maps and an extended 15 minutes. Nevertheless a tie-break had to be played for the tournament to progress, and only one of the 2 teams could get through. Things hadn’t looked too bright for Anni from the very start, losing 3 players in @elmocookie, @lara_, and @Codebastian n in the week before the game, whilst The Adventurers had held strong. With that said, both teams sported strong rosters going into the first map, with The Adventurers choosing staples like @hallopiu and @LoL200e. Annihilation on the other hand opted for some of the veterans of it’s roster like @Mehgur and @Orangeduck. The stage was definitely set for another epic battle and we certainly weren’t disappointed.

The first map was the choice of Annihilation, who as ever chose Their Airlock rework. Both teams fought tremendously hard to stop the opposition from stealing, let alone capping. @aefrogdog as ever made it incredibly difficult for The Adventurers to get into the flagroom without taking heavy damage. Unfortunately however, Annihilation’s offense couldn’t get any foothold on the defense, simply being recovered from quickly before it they managed to get very far. The Adventurers had better luck, managing to overcome the mage and capturing. A stalemate broke out in the dying minutes of the map but ultimately amounted to nothing. The final score of the map, 1-0 to The Adventurers. This was a huge success for them, beating someone on their map pick, although this was expected as it had happened only a couple of weeks prior.


The second map was The Adventurer’s choice, who went with opposites collide. This was a similar map in gameplay to the last, and also one that they had won last time. This time however, things were different. The game was still close, with both teams providing solid offense and defense. It was Annihilation that ultimately gained the upper hand this time, with @Miskey scoring a capture. Another stalemate broke out, as had in the last game, with both teams ultimately choosing the same spot. Once again, this amounted to nothing, as the timer ran out before either team could successfully recover, with the huge defensive bias the map brought. Overall, the map went 1-0 in favour of Annihilation. This set the maps and captures back to even, suggesting that we were in for a long fight. This also meant that Annihilation, had beat the opposition on their map choice.

The 3rd map was where things began to change. Blackout has a much stronger offensive bias, and a different playstyle to the 2 maps played before. Last time, Annihilation had claimed victory this map, but this time they were much more dominant. The Adventurers had a hard time overcoming both @aefrogdog and @IdunoU, who made short work of the offensive players. Annihilation kept strong on offense, overcoming The Adventurer’s subbed-in archer, @freerider14, and managed to and steal fairly easily. The offensive bias did help The Adventurers in gaining 2 caps, but Annihilation definitely managed to capitalise on it. @Miskey managed to dodge arrows skillfully, landing multiple captures for his team bringing the game solidly in favour of Annihilation 4-2. This meant they were now a map and 2 captures above The Adventurers, but things could still be brought back. The Adventurers did still have to draw or win the next map to have a fighting chance!

The fourth map was Castle V, a map I don’t think a single person found to be a pleasant experience. The map is never used in matches due to poor gameplay, but nevertheless the randomiser had chosen it and so it was to be played. This threw both teams fully out of their comfort zone. Nevertheless Annihilation had the upper hand from the very start. @Miskey proved once again he could prove a powerful force on offense managed to steal the flag, though unfortunately lagged out due to connection issues. This gave The Adventurers a chance to capture. Annihilation dominated once @Miskey had recovered from these issues though, equalising quickly and then managing to capture again. @aefrogdog once again proving to be a massive defensive force prevented The Adventurers from getting far offensively, and managed in fact to stall the timer out. This brought the map to an end 2-1, and the match overall, in favour of Annihilation. This also finally meant our epic 9 map saga was at an end.

For players of the match for this epic tie-break, we decided to choose both @aefrogdog and @IdunoU. As always, @aefrogdog managed to cause serious problems for the opposition all game, at times fighting the entire offensive wave at once just to stall them out. Multiple successful recovers were purely down to his expert use of freeze spells. We decided to also choose @IdunoU due to his skilled headshots on blackout, including a particular moment in which he headshot 3 carriers in quick succession before a ground recovery, saving them from conceding a capture. This match was hard fought, incredibly entertaining, and most importantly finally has a winner! I look forward to seeing what happens the next time these two titans clash. With that said, Annihilation now claims a spot in the semi-finals of the tournament!
(Brace yourselves for interviews)

Prematch interview with @Miskey by @JayOG​

- Hello Miskey! Today is the day of the big MSW tourney tie breaker, how is Anni feeling about the match?

- Despite the recent losses of a few key members we are ready to go and looking forward to a great match with adv! Some members that were previously inactive have stepped up to fill the holes, and we're looking good.

- Like you stated, you did lose some key members including Codebastian, Elmocookie, and Lara, how do you plan on filling in those roles? And how confident are you about the players you put in those roles.

- Mega has started playing again and is going to be filling in as medic. Orange has been playing CTF wayyyy too much recently and has learned pyro rather well. Generally, we plan to rely on a solid offense to carry us through, but our defense isn't looking bad either.

- How do you think the match will turn out? Are you confident about your chances of winning? And if you do win, how will you prepare for BK? Since they are known for having some good pvpers including Raging, Eyelids, JayOG, MisplacePeek, and also for having two really good archers including Slayway and Chhimi, and also for having one of the top pyro's LeDoener.

- I think we should win if we play fundamental CTF. Our roster may not be incredible, but we have a great deal of teamwork that we hope to showcase today. Not sure yet for BK, we prepare on a team to team basis so I'll be able to answer that better if we beat ADV today. Note: All of those players are pretty good except for JayOG, he sucks.

- Agreed, JayOG is complete trash who is that rando):, Anyways, is there anything else you would like to say? Maybe to ADV?

- First and foremost, good luck to ADV. I'm looking forward to a close and long match just like last time, but it might be done a bit quicker this time .

- Alright well goodluck to Anni and ADV as they enter a big game. Have a nice day Miskey!

Pre match interview with @IdunoU by @Godman​

- How is Anni feeling about going up against ADV again?

- We are feeling pretty confident actually, after some members leaving we had to do some roster shuffles, but our practice yesterday went fairly well.

- How is the team feeling about the 4th random map pick being Castle V?

- After first finding out about playing Castle V we weren't too happy. During our practice yesterday we got pretty frustrated, being a very large map and the underground being very tough to recover on, especially for archer. I think the biggest thing on Castle is communication to understand where the flag carrier and their offense is at all times.

- Has the team been preparing to go up against ADV?

- Yes, we've asked for similar team compositions that ADV's offense runs, to get our new defense an idea of what it's going to be like. Our mercenaries were very kind and flexible to allow us to get a similar feel to what the match will be like.

- What players will Annihilation worry about?

- We are mostly worried about hallopiu, Lumpi456 and mynemachine they will be a problem on offense, mori44 and XxPrinceZCrazyxX (PingDisADVantage) will also cause some problems. I think that we are confident that we can match up to them. We are just really worried about our defense holding up and killing the archer when we steal on Blackout and Valley of Ruin.

After match interview with @Scarpa_ and @12gulfer66 by @Godman​

- Who do you think was the POTG on ADV?

- Uh I would go with halli, he was pretty good the entire match

- Um idk I was on offense the whole time so for defense I would say wulfi, he was their best pvper

- Alright, was the team having any trouble with communication during the match?

- Not really, most of us were on discord, I was like the only one not talking and I really didn't need to because I was playing assassin d

- Anni talks a lot. Well at least the roster we had, even though most of us are worse than others at our position (i.e. Lara good medic o but doesn't talk and mega is rusty and worse but talks a lot so he better overall tbh).

- Was the team having to adjust to new strategy due to recent loss of players?

- Yes and no, we had to change our strategy a bit, but it wasn't anything we hadn't tried before. I think the main thing that changed was that Idun and Orange were a lot more practiced on their classes.

- Yah that did happen, idk for most of us it wasn't new strategy cuz we had a ton of inactive players on the roster who didn't know a strategy to begin with. Since our pyro left Orange came in clutch and he's been playing a lot.

- What could the team improve on for their next match?

- For offense i need to be able to clear the flag somewhat before dying. For stalemates and running across we need to work on killing/targeting the archer.

- Uh make sure that we don't all leave the flag room every time they steal.

- Yah our recov has been getting better and Orange says he doesn't have to leave the flag as often. Code was like always out of the flag and would run back instead of respawn so we often wouldn't have a pyro and they would get free steal then just another stalemate would occur (flame on Codebastian not intended) just as example. Cuz Scarpa's been puttin in work on assassin, we gucci.

- Just to clarify if you're not familiar with Code, he was our old pyro
he went back to play with TBF.

- Scarp you got any comments on this question?

- Uh not really besides what I said before, there are things we probably need to work on I'm just not very good at identifying them unless they are obvious.

- How good do you guys think you did in the match?

- I got carried. Hard.

- Uh I think I fulfilled my role, especially on blackout.

- Idk I was bad at clearing the flag like I said. And Mega had some trouble as well but Miskey was good enough to get out anyways
and we did a pretty good job of supporting him afterwards. Like, a much better job than helping him steal but as I said that's just cuz I just started to play again a bit and Mega doesn't play at all.

- Basically for me, I had a few plays but nothing special. I think I did good overall.

- Before I end the interview, any other comments?

- I think everyone is improving

- I agree with Gulfer

- Alright so that ends of the interview, thank you!

(Credit to @Chhimichanga for editing @Godman’s interview)

Final Scores:
Airlock Rework: 1-0 ADV
Opposites Collide V: 1-0 Anni
Blackout: 4-2 Anni
Castle V: 2-1 Anni
Player of the Game: Aefrodog and oIdunnoUo

The Templars vs The Blue Flaggers by @Dragoarg7​

The match with TBF facing off versus TT was made out to be pretty lopsided, with TBF being newer, and TT being one of the best teams in all of CTF, with much more experience. TBF was also missing two key players, Ace and Spades, who were a major part of their team. TT was sporting a fresh roster, with good pvpers for defense, and a couple of great soldier mains. The first map belonged to TBF, Skyworlds. This map can benefit soldier offenses, and archers, and has great capabilities for defensive plays. The match started, and immediately b0squet started off with an offensive archer to pressure LilDrago. The offense of TT had been able to send in waves of soldiers over and over again, only managing to steal. The defense of TBF had held them inside of the flag room for a long time. TBF’s offense was not as lucky with steals, and even less with exiting the flag room. About 6 minutes into the match, Mirgh is out of the flag room and off to the side. LilDrago the archer is contained, and is not able to head shot. Mirgh gets frozen, but the mage from TBF was killed after by a chemist. Mirgh continues to march down for TT’s first cap. After that, the defense put on by TBF was broken more, and TT managed to secure two more caps. TBF had almost gotten a cap, but b0squet was able to headshot three carriers at the bridge in front of TBF’s flag room, before xShadowLuna got the recovery.



Now that TBF’s map had resulted in a grim 3-0, TT’s turn to play their patented map, Pagodas was not looking good at TBF’s side. TBF does not have much practice playing on this map, and TT almost always picks it. Not being able to do well on their own map, The Blue Flaggers were backed into a corner. B0squet did a fantastic job of keeping TBF’s archer inside of his own spawn, and on TT’s second offensive wave. Their three soldier offense had secured a quick cap. After TT was up 2-0 in caps, TT’s medic had left the flag room in made it out, along with CittyCat for TBF. When the medic tried to pass to soldier, SpiffingKoala had a great play and managed to hit the soldier away from the flag and secure a recovery. CittyKat was out, and he was near the flag room when Chactation had a relatively easy steal, and a stalemate was born. Thanks to TT’s better positioning, Mirgh pulled off a soldier recovery, leading Chac to getting TT’s third cap Unlike Skyworlds, TBF was able to grab even less steals, to make TT’s job on defense even easier. TBF put up a fight, managing to get a couple recoveries, but the consistency in TT’s offense, b0squets fantastic job of heads hotting the flag room, made for a quick 3-0 on TT’s map.

Final Scores:
3-0 TT
3-0 TT

Unity vs Water Taste​

Here at MSW, we believe that articles are important for good coverage of a match. However, sometimes memes do a better job at explaining a match than we ever can. The following meme does just that:

Prematch interview with @Godman by @CoasterHamza​

- Have you personally faced unity in an official before? If so, what team were you on at the time?

- Personally, I haven't faced Unity in an official before, this is my first time playing in an official with them so I am expecting them to give their best shot at WT.

- Oh ok. What unity players are you least excited about seeing in the match?

- I'm excited to see every player, you never know who will do good and be the POTG for either team. I am excited to play against every player on Unity.

- From what you know, how big of an issue was timezone when planning the match?

- Well we did have troubles with planning the match, since Derpy and Artemis live in Australia they tried to combine the times and some players said they can't make it because it was too early, but we will still give it our best shot against Unity.

- Alright, makes sense. Have you guys (water taste) been preparing for this match in any way? If you have been, how?

- We planned a practice 2 hours before the match so we could get a sense of what Wood Castle Arena feels like, hopefully the practice goes as planned and nothing messes up. We also have been encouraging our players to play more of public match too.

- Oh ok. How is water taste's confidence for this match?

- We are having mixed feelings, since it is our first time playing against Unity we know somewhat of what they will bring to us like soldiers offense, but we are also worried about some players that we don't know that well so we can't predict what they will be.

- Yeah, I expected something like that. Finally, what is your personal prediction for the match? What do you think the end result would be?

- Honestly I dont have a prediction, Unity is a very good team who has it's ups and downs sometimes so I am prepared for the match to be a close one and it'll maybe go to the 3rd map.

- Kk. Thanks for letting me interview you, good luck in the match!

Final Scores:
1-3 U
1-3 U

Unity vs Defiance

Pre match interview with @Versions with @CoasterHamza​

- Ok cool. Firstly, has unity been preparing in any way for this match?

- Well, we had two matches yesterday but no real practice for this specific match.

- Oh ok. How is unity's confidence for this match?

- We are pretty confident to go up against Defiance

- XD. Are there any certain players that you aren't looking forward to seeing?

- Chaos is a very strong archer for Defy so he will be a problem if he's playing and Spexon as he's a very good pyro.

- What is one way you think you guys have an advantage over Defy?

- I say our double ninja defense; it works effectively in many occasions against other teams' offense. Therefore, I think we have the advantage with our ninja defense (thats if they don't send heavies then we're ****ed X D)

- Yeah, the double ninjas has been strong in other matches, so it should be find today too (unless all heavy XD). Finally, what are your personal predictions for the match? Who will win? How big of a chance do you guys have?

- I think Defiance would probably win as I'm looking at their roster and it's pretty strong. You may think that I'm underestimating my team here but I'm not, I think we are pretty decent as a team but I think Defiance may grab the win. I think we could have a chance to win though, but we'll see.

- ok thanks!

Final Scores:
3-1 Defy
3-1 Defy

Radiance Reborn vs Totally Not Solar Eclipse ​

Final Scores:
Kill Creek IV: 3-0 RR
Metro: 1-1 Tie
Slate: 3-0 RR
Player of the Match: Trego_7777777

Staffer of the Week, Week 2.​

My turn to pick an MSW staff member! I think although @gamren isn't here, he thoroughly deserves to be named the staffer this week. He hasn't been around recently due to a lot of pressure, but he's worked extremely hard to put together a team to write this regular newsletter, and does a lot of the formatting himself. He's also a major contributor to the content of the post, as he covers a lot of the stories not taken by the rest of the group. Congratulations man, you thoroughly deserve this one!

@Godman was also in the running, you spammed my inbox with interviews to format!

Tourney Watch​

With the tournament being live, we will be posting Tournament Match results and standings here.
The official tournament rankings can be found at this Website. Yes, MSW is way behind on articles, so apologies for that. Hoping to catch up asap! In the meantime, I'll give you a quick update on things:

Annihilation has beaten The Adventurers meaning we now have our semi-finalists! The Black Knights then triumphed over Annihilation and advance to the finals. In a close game, Defiance also beat The Crusaders, advancing to the finals. This means the final of the tournament will be The Black Knights vs Defiance. Annihilation and The Crusaders will battle it out for 3rd place! Get ready for a couple of really intense fights!

Like what you see? Think you could join us and submit your own match articles? Check out our thread and get to know the team, as well as apply if you would like to participate in the weekly newsletter! Click Here for more info.
You can find the previous edition of MSW Here as well

Spoiler: Subscribers

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