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[Review] Analysis of PRD vs IMPK in IBL in Infinity Kingdom

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Article Publish : 07/01/2024 06:36

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Edited by fictions at 07/01/2024 06:38

💠Introduction

What’s up, folks? Welcome back to my Illusion Battlefield(IB) series where I take a closer look at different matches. IB is different from the IB League tournament in that you will use your normal teams, skill sets, talents, and decoration skins so strength is extremely relevant. The mode is also much slower-paced. Relocations and marching speed are slower. The event is one of the most entertaining events in Infinity Kingdom that players enjoy spectating, almost like a sporting event. In this article, I’m going to take a closer look at the Week Six match between Server 73’s The Pride(PRD) and Server 170’s Imperial Knights(IMPK). PRD’s positions in this match will be denoted in yellow while IMPK’s will be in red.

💠Table of Contents

Overview
Starting Positions and Talents
PRD
IMPK
Tower 1
Tower 4
Central Tower
Altars
Home Towers
Play-by-Play
Summary

💠Overview

PRD had a 3-1 record heading into the match, only losing to their sister team, BUNS, in the first week. They were ranked 11 in Season 4 and 9 in Season 5. IMPK was also 3-1 before this match. IMPK was ranked 18 in Season 4 and currently ranked 10 in Season 5. PRD has historically been better than IMPK overall, but IMPK usually has better attendance so the match should be close.

💠Starting Positions and Talents

PRD

Started with 35 players and ended with 40
7 Attack talents
21 Defense talents
6 Support talents

IMPK

Started and ended with 40 players
8 Attack talents
24 Defense talents
8 Support talents

💠Tower 1

PRD sent 12 players to Tower 1 while IMPK sent 11. Both teams had standard relocations except PRD gave up the top corner position for no reason. PRD had edge spawns that could contest that spot yet they opted not to do that, giving up a crucial location. They did, however, leverage their corner spawn to attempt to block IMPK’s bottom corner position. With both teams having a similar number of players and fairly similar positions, whichever team rallies and garrisons more quickly will be able to take the tower. IMPK has been significantly better than PRD at garrisoning teammates this season.

💠Tower 4

PRD sent 12 players to Tower 4 and IMPK sent 13 players. Inversely, PRD contested the top left corner of Tower 4 and IMPK gave that spot up despite having edge spawns to contest it. Other than that, both formations are fairly standard. This was PRD’s first mistake. Since Tower 4 is closer to the yellow team, PRD should have used their edge spawns to block several of IMPK’s relocations and help the team gain a numbers advantage. Unfortunately, PRD was being too conservative with their relocations.

💠Central Tower

PRD sent 5 players to the Central Tower and IMPK sent 10 players. PRD’s second mistake is not sending enough players to the center. PRD could have plucked two or three players from Tower 1 and 4 each to supplement the other players at the center. Even if they lose one of Tower 1 or Tower 4, controlling the Central Tower is such a massive objective that it’s worth the sacrifice. Five players aren’t going to be able to stop IMPK from taking the tower so those five players wasted their time and PRD started the game off from the backfoot.

💠Altars

PRD sent one player to the Moon Altar and neither team sent anyone to the Sun Altar.

💠Home Towers

Both teams had two guards at their respective home towers.

💠Play-by-Play

At Tower 1, one PRD player’s relocation canceled two of IMPK’s. PRD had a significant numbers advantage and at 4 minutes and 38 seconds, PRD was over halfway through capturing the tower. They needed to abandon all their rallies and attacks, stack the tower, and seize it. It would give them a significant advantage since IMPK would have to focus on capturing the tower, garrisoning, and rallying while PRD can go on the offensive and only worry about the tower when IMPK starts sending more players into it. With more and more PRD players returning from the spawn, they finally captured the tower at the 9-minute mark but sent over nearly a third of their team to the tower.

At Tower 4, neither team could edge out an advantage which is better for IMPK as they would have control of the Central Tower at 10 minutes. That means all the pressure is on PRD to capture Tower 4 to make up the difference and overtake IMPK in points per second. That proved to be difficult. Despite having just as many players as IMPK at Tower 4, PRD could not take the tower and could not stop IMPK from taking it. At 15 minutes, IMPK activated Quick Occupy and seized the tower a minute later. PRD was still too busy rallying and attacking when they should have been defending the tower. IMPK was significantly better than PRD at garrisoning teammates as well.

With only 5 players at the center against 10, it was only a matter of time before PRD lost control of the area. By 10 minutes, only four of the five players remained with low prosperity. Even if they weren’t zeroed, they didn’t have enough manpower to stop IMPK from taking the tower. IMPK easily took the tower at 14 minutes and getting the center gave IMPK a significant reprieve since Tower 4 was at a stalemate. With Tower 4 captured minutes later, IMPK was only down 2,000 points but had three towers to PRD’s two with 43 minutes to play.

Immediately, PRD used the Sun Altar and teleports to invade IMPK’s home tower where only two guards were. Three teleports and two relocations later, PRD stole Tower 3 from IMPK at 16 minutes. The two guards could have easily destroyed the first relocation and it would have been an easier defense. Unfortunately, they were caught snoozing.

Without any reinforcements, PRD’s goal was just to buy time and serve as a distraction so the other towers could mount an attack. IMPK committed nearly half the team to retake Tower 3 and they did just that, 7 minutes later at the 25-minute mark. PRD didn’t create much of a gap in points with that maneuver but they stalled the bleeding. PRD was up 5,000 points with 34 minutes left in the match when IMPK recaptured the tower.

The center was heavily guarded by IMPK with no PRD players in sight. The focus shifted back to Tower 4 where PRD had their only chance to win the game. Tower 4 became a large-scale battle where both alliances committed most of their players. The drawn-out battle was still ongoing at 40 minutes and PRD seemed to be making no headway. They were down 8,000 points with 20 minutes left in the match. At this point, even if PRD captures another side tower to give them a 5 points-per-second advantage, it would not make up the deficit in the remaining time. They would need the Central Tower which was surrounded by 10 players and impossible to take.

Nonetheless, PRD teleported to Tower 3 yet again to take the tower as a last hurrah. IMPK responded with teleports in kind but they were too late. PRD stole Tower 3 at 44 minutes. IMPK retook the tower late in the game, but it didn’t matter at that point. IMPK’s victory was already sealed several minutes ago when PRD couldn’t take Tower 4 when the clock struck 35 minutes.

💠Summary

IMPK won the match with 89,400 points to PRD’s 76,600 points. I predicted PRD to win because they were historically better than IMPK every season and PRD borrowed several players from their sister team, BUNS, which is currently near the top of the standings, but IMPK is clearly the better team. Firstly, PRD needs to encourage better attendance so they aren’t starting off every match outnumbered. Secondly, PRD’s distribution of players between the towers was devastatingly poor. They only assigned 5 players to the center when the best teams usually send 8 or more players. Lastly, PRD needed to be more aggressive in using their better spawn locations to block enemy relocations at Tower 4. PRD’s map rotation and movements were better for the most part. They were able to steal Tower 3 twice despite IMPK having more teleports. Both teams did well rallying their enemies but IMPK was much better at protecting their teammates than PRD was and that made all the difference.