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[Review] Analysis of HMB vs ARC in Regular IB in Infinity Kingdom

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Article Publish : 05/11/2025 16:19

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💠Introduction

What’s up, folks? Welcome back to my Illusion Battlefield League(IBL) 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, and players enjoy spectating, almost like a sporting event. In this article, I’m going to take a closer look at the regular season match between Server 56’s Hakuna Matata(HMB) and Server 73’s The Arcane(ARC). ARC’s positions in this match will be denoted in green while HMB’s will be in red.

💠Table of Contents

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

💠Overview

HMB generally doesn’t take IB too seriously, as not all of their strongest players often play in the event. On the other hand, a lot of ARC players enjoy the mode and try to make time for IB as much as they can. I would expect ARC to be able to field more players from week to week. HMB is also not as coordinated as ARC when it comes to IB team play. I would expect ARC to have an edge in both teamwork and firepower.

💠Starting Positions and Talents

HMB

Started with 17 players and ended with 24
6 Attack talents
10 Defense talents
1 Support talents

ARC

Started with 30 players and ended with 32
18 Attack talents
11 Defense talents
1 Support talents

💠Tower 1

HMB sent nine players to Tower 1, one of whom went to invade ARC’s side of the tower. ARC will inevitably destroy that relocation. ARC relocated ten players to the tower. In my opinion, HMB gave too much space to ARC. Only two players occupied spots next to the tower, and they conceded the entire east side of the tower. ARC also had problematic relocations. Three players were in the third row when they could have positioned themselves next to the tower on the north side, where it was empty.

💠Tower 4

HMB sent seven players with one overlap to Tower 4 while ARC relocated nine. Given Tower 4’s closer proximity to ARC’s spawn and ARC being a seasoned IB team, they should have relocated deeper into HMB’s side of the tower. ARC could have controlled three sides of the tower and prevented HMB from even relocating to the east side of the tower. ARC could still destroy relocations depending on HMB’s relocations, but they could have trapped multiple HMB players in their spawn for 7 minutes.

💠Central Tower

HMB decided to give up on contesting the Central Tower in the early minutes. ARC sent five players to the middle.

💠Altars

HMB didn’t send anyone to either altar. ARC sent one player to the Moon Altar.

💠Home Towers

HMB had one guard at their home tower while ARC had four at theirs.

💠Play-by-Play

At Tower 1, HMB’s strongest player finished relocating and immediately zeroed an enemy. Immediately, some of them sent marches to try to capture the tower, but others were focusing on attacking the enemies and defending themselves. With HMB’s split decision, ARC was able to stop their attempt multiple times. ARC kept sending players back to the tower and focused on zeroing others. At 8 minutes, ARC made the call to stall the tower as long as they could while moving to the outskirts of HMB’s home tower.

At Tower 4, ARC blocked one relocation and destroyed two others, leaving HMB with only three players at the tower. ARC proceeded to quickly zero two more and captured the tower at the 6-minute mark. HMB could do nothing but watch. ARC zeroed the remaining player, and some started moving towards HMB’s home tower. HMB could have given up Tower 4 from the start and fought for the center instead, since they wouldn’t be at a positional disadvantage, and although hindsight is 20/20, they would have fewer enemies to contend with.

ARC captured the Central Tower with no resistance at the 13-minute mark, giving them their third tower necessary to win the match. After a few more minutes, all but three members moved to HMB’s home tower. By the 20-minute mark, Tower 1 still stood unoccupied. Both teams kept sending players to the tower, and neither was able to capture it.

Starting from minute nine, multiple ARC players started landing near HMB’s Tower 3, and the three guards failed to destroy or block any relocations. Even when ARC relocated next to the tower and the enemy, HMB made no effort to break them. By the 20-minute mark, ARC had fully surrounded the tower that was still guarded by two of HMB’s strongest players. While ARC could not steal the tower for quite a while, it forced HMB to send multiple players to defend the tower. HMB could have given the tower up entirely and moved elsewhere to steal some towers back. They tried at ARC’s home tower and Tower 4, but the attempts were half-hearted.

With most of HMB defending their home tower and ARC constantly applying pressure, ARC finally managed to take Tower 1 at the 30-minute mark, giving them their fourth tower of the match. In that time, they also amassed a 30,000-point lead. ARC eventually stole Tower 3 at the 44-minute mark, but that was just icing on the cake. HMB never came close to recapturing any of the other four towers, so they had no chance at a comeback.

💠Summary

ARC’s Mike was the match MVP as they won with 100,000 points to HMB’s 24,400. While HMB seemed like they just played for fun, there are a couple of small things they could have done to increase their chances of winning or at least be more competitive. Firstly, as the bottom-sided team, they should have given up Tower 4 and fought for Tower 1 and the Central Tower. Had they sent players to the middle, ARC may not have been able to hold it with five players. Additionally, since HMB had so many fewer players, they should not spread themselves so thin. Even if they captured Towers 1 and 4, they would not generate many points. ARC would establish the Central Tower as their base, and sending players to Towers 1 and 4 to retake it would take far less time than HMB reinforcing the towers from their spawn. Over time, ARC would be able to slowly dwindle them down. On the flip side, ARC needs to relocate better in the early minutes of the match. Tower 1 could have been surrounded better, and the relocations at Tower 4 could have been more aggressive.