Giant Killing 13 – Now With TF2 Metaphors!
This is the game that never ends. Yes it goes on and on my friends! Some people started playing it not knowing what it was, and they’ll continue playing it forever just because… What’s that, it ends with this episode? And they won? Awesome! Watching this game was like playing a bad round of 2Fort. One team decides to turtle up so it takes forever for the game to end. The turtling team wins, not through a fantastic offense, but because one or two players outmaneuvered the enemy team and scored all the captures. Then everyone celebrates because the game finally ended. This Team Fortress 2 metaphor continues, but I’ll help you keep up.
Yes, I know, shock and awe, the game actually ended.
Tsubaki clearly plays the maneuvering role on the turtle side, ETU. He has made a long string of excellent plays, sometimes on accident and other times on purpose. All of this has built up his confidence throughout the round, and now he’s finally entered The Zone. I will tell you, being in the zone is an amazing feeling. It’s like playing a Sniper and racking up a double-digit killstreak in the middle of a match. From one or two shots you suddenly launch into popping the heads off everyone who dares move. No one can get by you as you quickly consider every evasive strategy and compensate for it. Your sixth sense even kicks in as you deftly turn around and gut the Spy who was so close to ending the rampage.
Tsubaki has become a beast of a player in the span of a few minutes. He can now clearly see the entire field, hear the roar of the crowd, and even picks up the instructions coming from the coaches. His unstoppable momentum makes Carlos literally look like he’s standing still on the field. He can’t quite seal the play, but one of his allies has used his charge to get into place and finish the game. Tsubaki easily clinched the MVP award for this game. However, there’s one problem. No matter what you do, you will eventually exit the zone. You overlook something, or you let an opponent get into your head, and suddenly your streak has reached its end. Tsubaki has done quite well for himself, but like last week, I wonder if he’ll fall again, and how hard he’ll take it.
Dude, are your ankles broken or something?
Now of course, a vital flaw exists in a stonewall defense. A team with good offensive coordination can get over whatever barricades and traps you build. You can block players, trick sentries, and play a game of cat and mouse good enough to leave anyone’s head spinning. Since the defensive team has to rely on a very narrow offensive scope, getting through just once can potentially doom them. In addition, scoring can throw off the defending team’s game, as happened several episodes ago. Fuwa points out ETU can’t keep going forever by digging their heels into the ground. I don’t imagine Tatsumi will continue turtling. He simply used it because his players could actually carry out this strategy. However, Fuwa somehow thinks he punch through their defense when they meet later in the season. He will have quite a problem on his hands, and his name is Itagaki.
Itagaki has gone the opposite direction from Tsubaki. The root problem here is he plays like he must validate his existence on the team. He complains all the time about never having the ball. I bet he even cries into his pillow at night because of those nasty Brazillians won’t play with him. He completely overlooks that he refuses to pass the ball to them. He never tries to sync up with them, so why should they bother including him? Now, Kuro has dominated Itagaki and the Nagoya player only wants his revenge. There’s something to be said about a Soldier who runs straight into the enemy base, firing rockets willy-nilly. It’s distracting. You still have to do it in concert with the rest of your team. The suicide play not only fails, it leaves the door wide open for Tsubaki’s charge. Given how they portray Itagaki, I’m not sure this is a personality flaw Fuwa can cure. Sometimes all you can do is wait for a ragequit and hope a better player joins the team.
By the way, you're also kind of an ass.
With ETU finally scoring a win, everyone has become quite excited for the future. The team owners finally have some faith in Tatsumi. The journalist girl finally hits paydirt with a massive scoop on their first victory. The photographer guy has plenty of amazing shots, and knows this team can continue supporting his job. The old guard even wants to bring back the rest of their fellow fans. We’ve reached the halfway point in Giant Killing, and now it looks like this show has finally gotten on the road. I’m looking forward to the future as well.
