Memories of Oceanink Series (Season 3) - Part 9
14. Deferred Week 4 Match - vs VerniySefaro
VerniySefaro is a fellow Malaysia team that contained most of the former KnB members. It is co-led by both Kent and Benji, both being veterans of Oceanink Series, with a huge roster of strong players: BK, Naj, Justme, Riderman, (the more casual cast:) Eddy, Koyu, and APLeu.
After much digging, it was confirmed that Kent, BK, APLeu and Naj would be playing against us. There was also a brief question on whether we should postpone this match in hopes to get players other than Naj against us, but we all agreed to get it done ASAP so that we could rest before the cross-division play-offs.
Kent and BK playing were expected; they are like peas in the pod after all, can’t have one without the other especially when it came to Oceanink Series. It is highly like that BK will take up his NZap, and Kent would play something long range, a Jet Squelcher or Heavy Splatling maybe. It is also possible that BK would be carrying a Jet Squelcher and Kent his usual trusty Dual Squel, but considering that Naj is in the party and recent videos did not see BK using his Jet Squel, said option would be quite unlikely.
APLeu, on the other hand, there were short video clips of her leaning towards more on support/shooter weapons that her usual Carbon Roller. Considering that there are two very proficient slayers in the front lines, I doubt she would return to her roller as well.
Naj was the player we did not want to fight the most; VS may have a lot of skilled player, but Naj felt like the cream of the crop. He has the wiles in battle, so it’s a pain to fight him... but worse of all, he’s favoured by the Gods/Powers-Up-There.
Case One: In Ink Your Heart Out (Malaysia’s first tourney), Harapan had connection issues but managed to pulled through towards the finals. When we fought them, Leaf’s connection acted up. They also had a lot of good luck with maps until the end, and I would like to think that it was my incense stick to the Buddha that partially combated his luck.
Case Two: In Ready Set Ink! (Malaysia’s second tourney) finals, they were able to conserve their energy because uncleSotong members kept disconnecting. I’d like to think they lost because of my incense stick to Buddha and also Kuniki’s vegetarian deal with Guan Yin ma.
Case Three: Mini Tourney (Malaysia’s third tourney) was a disconnect hell that eventually wore my teammates that we lost on that one. That tourney was also me forgetting to lit an incense stick, ugh.
Case Four: Kensa Tourney (Malaysia’s fourth tourney), despite the incense stick I lit, still ended up as a dc on my end, especially when we were on match point during which I was turning the tables. Mrgrgrgrgr...
Case Five: With him participating that night’s match, Calamar happened to be free to record, prompting a huge morale boost on VerniySefaro’s end (as most of them are huge fans of Calamar).
I have met Naj in person at mini tourney, and he seemed like a righteous person. In fact, he’s also in a righteous job as a police man, seems loving to his wife and is seemingly a pious person considering his religion. So yes, Powers-Up-There definitely favours a good man.
So when Bibu had connection issues (Bibu never had connection issues!) and everyone (jokingly) blamed BK, I (secretly) blamed Naj.
Reflecting back on both Splat Zones, Goby Arena and Tower Control, Ancho-V Games, we both lost due to the gap of combat experience, formation and recovery. In fact, the latter map allowed Naj to spawn camp us. Frantic attempts on recovery made us jump into the battlefield one by one, only to be suffer in their readied ink. Aye, we lost.
Turf War, Skipper Pavilion seemed rather balanced due to its large map, but Bibu’s disconnect the second time forced us to continue the match with a lack of manpower. Needless to say, we lost.
Clam Blitz - Arowana Mall - The training with *cha team paid off. VS managed to broke our barrier once, but we managed to broke the barrier and took lead. There was a pretty long stalemate until Bibu dc’d at the last 30 seconds, prompting us to adopt a more defensive position and for our opponents to rush in. While we had the lead, the match entered into Overtime as opponents carried a power clam. Sot and Furi attempted to stop them but they were both freaked out (sot faced them on the narrow bridge), outnumbered (Furi tried stopping Kent and Naj on the front, got took down by BK at the back) and out-ranged (Inkbrush and Octobrush vs Dual Squelcher and Heavy Splatling), leading to their quick demise. Fortunately, narrow bridges are brilliant places for Hydra; I splatted the three attackers in quick succession and defended the lead, gaining our very first victory.
On Rainmaker - Shellendorf Institute, it was noted that the opponents carried weapons that are mid-range at best. They may have realized their mistake, especially when I was able to take control of the roof quite often (and regretted not taking being able to take clips of several nice rooftop splats). Fortunately for them, Bibu dc’d, and our request for sub allowed them to change weapons as per Oceanink rules.
Calling Leaf in is a double-edged sword. While it gave Furi the confidence that an old comrade and player on par of her skill was playing, Leafy was also out of practice and definitely out of sync with us. There were some lead struggles, but victory fell to VS in the end.
The short moment of battle before connection hiccup in the beginning of Splat Zones, New Albacore Hotel was enough to know that BK was out for my blood, hogging my usual perch spot on the left. I informed of others to clear the left pathway for me to perch. We took the zones quickly, and the left was oddly clear. The opponents carried no long range weapon, leading to a very easy control on the left entrance and the grate with my Hydra. The range allowed me to assist sot and Leaf, who are wreaking havoc in their base. Furi guarded the right with her splattershot pro, which outranged most of the weapon they carried. Naj attempted to baller through to the zone, however, the momentum of his leap across the water as a baller was affected by my Hydra volley... his descend into the water prompted a very satisfied chuckle from me. t!slots dominated this round.
Tower Control, Wahoo World led to a long tug of war. We had a good lead, with VS fought back led to an overtime (ooo deja vu). Furi was confident in stopping them as her special was ready, but we were definitely not ready for the onslaught of specials and harassment from Naj as he sharked at our base. All I could remember were a mess of ink storm, bubbles and stingray before VS took the lead overtime, winning the match.
The overall result was a 5 - 2 in VS’ favour.
The mood was, for the first time, quite heavy after the loss (though a few attempts in light-heart jabs were made). Perhaps it was the frustration in the gap of skills and experience, or the fact that we could do better, that our tempo was messed up by frequent disconnects.
Bibu felt guilty as her connection issues led to a match’s loss, but none really blamed her for it. Heck, I could empathize with that guilt as my connection issues had cost team matches in the past. It could not be helped. Luck was definitely not on our favour this time, a fact that was only confirmed by Calamar’s presence.
A more capable captain would be able to give a rousing speech of life’s philosophy and how everyone had done well, and perhaps ended said night with a good note; I wasn’t that capable, for my mind only replayed to the many shots that I missed, the incapability of handling Naj and BK’s pressure, the inability to guide them better in match... All I could articulate was asking for others to rest early, before departing to bed.
On a brighter note, our matches were all wrapped up, so that’s a huge burden off our backs. Bibu immediately went back farming, Furi went back to save Hyrule and I started my life as a Moonlighter. After two months of committing to competitive battling, that’s the end to the Oceanink Series and all of us deserved a break!
Except, no, that wasn’t the end, because there was still Cross-Division Playoffs, dang.
