N0X UC (S24 M3): Strategy vs. Raw Power

After a crushing defeat vs WxD and a stellar win vs 1FD, the 3rd match in UC will probably be a hard one.

And it's no surprise when I see RRH as our opponent. This was somewhat expected and included in my predictions.😀

Historically, RRH has been a stronger opponent that we couldn't beat. Despite having better shotcalling and coordination in N0X, they have the superior accounts. However, we've been closing the gap, and one of these days, it will be time to beat RRH.

But will that day be today? Let's see!

First of all, participation on the N0X side is a bit slow, and the starting points also put us slightly behind RRH. Not an ideal start, but let's see how it goes.

As the game starts and the races are off, we win all 4 buildings. Amazing start!

And the swaps are just as good, so the points start rolling in on the N0X side.

But as soon as the RRH rallies start flowing, despite our best efforts to defend all our buildings, we quickly lose half of what we've taken.

We focus on defending Warrior and still can't manage to hold it.

Mother is next, and the RRH rallies aren't even perfectly timed, so we should be able to defend, right? Well, wrong!😔

We end up losing Mother after Warrior, so at this point, despite our perfect races, we're sitting on 1/4 buildings.

But before the Ports open, we win our rally wave vs Warrior and intercept the slow Mother swap. So as we prepare to race for the Ports, we're in a good spot, holding 3 buildings and sitting very slightly ahead in points.

Judging by this start, it's clear we're in for a super hard and expensive match, similar to the CRY + guests match we had in AC.

As the Ports open, we win only 1 race. But that's expected for the Ports. Each team usually wins the race for its far Port, and that's exactly what happens here.

However, we manage to snipe the swap for the RRH Port.

But a few seconds later, we understand why.

At the same time, we lose Mother, so I guess RRH was focusing on that instead of the Port, and for good reason.

Still, we intercept their swap again. But before we can consolidate our position, we get kicked out once more.

Mother seems to be the most contested building so far, and neither team has been able to hold on to it for long.

Now, considering RRH is the stronger alliance, at least on paper, seeing how we can swipe Mother from under their feet is an impressive accomplishment for us.😏

As we approach the 10 minute mark, the score and map control are extremely close, with N0X sitting slightly on top.

But as Casterly Rock opens, things take an unexpected twist.

We know this is the most important building, short of the mines, but if we want to win, we need to hold CR.

Seeing it as our top priority, we focus on the race, the swap, and the reinforcements, getting a clean flow going to secure CR for us.

But in the meantime, we slightly neglect the rest of the map. Not much, but just enough for RRH to take advantage and flip some of the buildings we control.

Now, with only CR and 1 Outpost, we're starting to fall behind on points.

With no more buildings coming online anytime soon, it's a good opportunity for both teams to poke the enemy holders and see where they can flip some points.

As rallies and solos fly across the map, both teams seem more interested in defending, and map control doesn't shift dramatically.

That's good because we're holding the best building, but overall, we're getting fewer points. 😫

As the Strongholds open, we barely manage to hold on to our lead, and we're slowly losing ground.

Holding on to our lead seems almost impossible now, but we flip a building here and there and, overall, manage to stay on top as the hives are about to open.

But as we approach the midpoint of the game, things are starting to look grim, and we're losing control of the situation.

RRH is making strong use of their accounts, keeping our troops under control with constant hive hits. They clean up our points faster and still control more of the map, but we still manage to keep control of the more important buildings.

By this point I think RRH is getting confident, as they're even starting to contest CR with Balrum, who should be off limits to them.

And while they poke our defenses, we keep control of CR. We know that if we lose CR, the match is pretty much forfeit, so we understand how important it is to defend.

Despite having less map control, after the hives are mostly cleaned up, we manage to swing back on top.

We have better points per minute and fewer buildings to defend, so we're in a decent spot.

But, as with most close matches, it looks like this one will also be decided in the mines phase.

As the mines are about to open, we diligently prepare our assigned racers and slow marchers.

We've held our ground so far against RRH, a stronger alliance, but we're barely in the lead. We need to hold at least one mine to ride this match out as victors.

Things have been insane so far, but nothing is as intense as a mines play during a close match.

As soon as the mines open, each team wins 1 race. So far, so good!😜

The swaps go just as well, and both teams get their leads in to defend. The situation continues to look promising.

But both teams push for a win, and it seems they each want the mine held by the other team.😱

So it's no surprise that, shortly after, the mines swap owners.

This is still fine. As long as we hold one mine, we're still holding on to our win condition.

But shortly after, disaster strikes! We're kicked out of the mine we were controlling.😭

If we can't get back into at least one mine, there is no coming back. So we desperately try to kick RRH out, but both mines are beyond our reach.

The more time we lose setting up rallies, the further RRH pulls ahead and the closer they get to stealing our hard earned win.

We soon realize there's no chance of getting back into this game.

We had an extraordinary run, holding a slight lead over a stronger alliance overall. But as soon as we lost the mine, the game was lost.

As the mines are emptied by RRH, we're left in control of only 2 buildings.

And it's no surprise that these are Balrum and Bearface, our two strongest players in the alliance.

The game ends in a sad defeat.😣

We held the lead for most of the game and pulled off an insane counter match against RRH, but the account difference had the final word where it mattered most: the mines.

And this also marks the end of our AC/UC Season 24.

We had a few amazing games, held our own against stronger alliances, and even managed to pull off some great plays against the absolute best alliances in the game.

But in the end, strategy and coordination could only get us so far.

Going to UC is a strong enough result for now, as we're still developing our accounts and improving our strategy as an alliance.

RRH remains the stronger opponent, but the gap is closing. We made them work for this win, and for most of the match, we looked like we could actually take it.

One of these days, we'll get them.

And who knows how far we'll get next season?