ANZPL Season 4 Playoffs Week 1: Road To The Championship Starts Here

Originally published on GameOnAus.com in June 2022

World Of Tanks ANZPL Season 4 Playoffs Week 1 is here! The top 4 teams from the regular season will battle it out over the next three weeks to decide who the ANZPL Season 4 champions will be.

ANZPL Season 4 Playoffs Week 1 Upper Bracket Final
South Sydney Skorpions Vs North Sydney Sentinels

After the gruelling double round robin of the regular season, the Skorpions and the Sentinels finished first and second respectively. The new finals format rewards their outstanding performance in Season 4 with the winner going straight to the Grand Final and the loser getting a second chance in the Consolidation Final this Friday.

Map Picks

ANZPL Season 4 Playoffs Week 1 Upper Bracket Map 1
Cliff

The Skorpions started on defence of their opponents’ map choice and straight away found themselves behind the eight ball. An unlucky turn saw one of their tanks flip onto its roof at D6. One of the Skorpions tried to help get him right side up but only proved to be a target for the Sentinels. Both Skorpions tanks became the priority of the Sentinels to eliminate and with their position on the hill and on the back side of the donut allowed them to easily get two early kills. The early eliminations allowed the Sentinels to create over matches and quickly mop up the rest of the Skorpions line-up and take the early lead in this best of seven series.

The Sentinels moved to defence on the return leg. They moved to the donut and as well as sending a couple of tanks to the base of the hill. The Skorpions full sent to the hill but were caught in a crossfire. With substantial bleed already they made the decision to push over the hill. The Sentinels punished them for it and farmed up a storm to take a 2-0 lead.

ANZPL Season 4 Playoffs Week 1 Upper Bracket Map 2
Himmelsdorf

The action moved to the Skorpion’s map pick of Himmelsdorf. They set up with good vision onto the 1 flag. The Skorpion’s Napalmer found himself deep in enemy territory against three tanks. His sojourn along the 7-line in an effort to spot where the Sentinels were marshalling. The Sentinels’ TheReturned and Rainbow started towards the 2 flag but were both spotted out. On the south of the map, Skorpion’s JT pushed along the G line and the other two Sentinels tanks were finally spotted. This was a signal for the Sentinels to collapse onto Napalmer. With some backup from Russian, JT was the next Sentinels’ target. When JT went down Russian retreated. With a 5v3 tank advantage, the ball was in the Sentinels’ court. They moved towards the 2 flag and took a capture victory.

With the Sentinels one win away from clean sweeping the Upper Bracket Final and claiming their spot in the ANZPL Season 4 Grand Final, the pressure was on the Skorpions. Moving to attack, the Skorpions set up for some 1 flag aggression. The Sentinels were expecting that and set up to counter, sending Syndy in his IS-4 deep along the 1 line. With Rainbow and Wym0 camped at G3 with was going to be hard for the Skorpions to find a way in. Napalmer pushed down the inside of the courtyard and force Wym0 to move.  The Skorpions were able to remove Rainbow from the game, the Sentinels’ first downed tank in the series, but lost Napalmer in another engagement. The Sentinels took a 1.5K HP advantage and leveraged it. They created crossfires and took the second Himmelsdorf map.

The North Sydney Sentinels defeat the South Sydney Skorpions 4-0 and take their place in the ANZPL Grand Final. The Skorpions head to the Consolidation Final for a second chance at Grand Final entry.

ANZPL Season 4 Playoffs Week 1 Lower Bracket Final
Perth Panthers Vs Christchurch Conquerors

It was do-or-die in the Lower Bracket Final. The winner would enter the Consolidation Final against the Skorpions and keep their season alive. The loser’s season would end.

Map Picks

ANZPL Season 4 Playoffs Week 1 Lower Bracket Map 1
Murovanka

The Conquerors started on attack. They moved three tanks towards to the 1 flag while sending the Super Conqueror of Whippet to the town and the B-C 25t of Bluey went deep to the K line. The Panthers didn’t allow them to set up for the 1 flag capture and forced the Conquerors to the other side of the ridge at F3. Bluey pulled back to support his team as they moved to toward the 1 flag. Opting instead to isolate the Panther’s Twit at E1, the Conquerors did remove him but bled a lot of HP in return. The Conquerors got another kill to take a 3v5 tank advantage, but the Panthers had a 650 HP advantage. The Panthers took advantage of their opponent’s low HP tanks and quickly brought it back to a 3v3. When the Conquerors’ Whippet fell, the Panthers held their position and forced the Conquerors to come to them, eventually taking the win.

Looking for a win on their map pick, the Conquerors moved to defence. The Panthers pulled out a different strategy, sending four of their tanks into the town with one holding slightly back. The Conquerors were caught off guard and lost Whippet early. The Conquerors stuck back but the Panthers were selecting their targets well. The Panthers go up 2-0 on their opponent’s map choice.

ANZPL Season 4 Playoffs Week 1 Lower Bracket Map 2
Tundra

The Conquerors were searching for a win on the Panthers’ map pick of Tundra. They moved three tanks very quickly to the 2 flag on attack with the Panthers spread out to defend both flags. A last second reset from the Panthers’ LightningMan triggered the Conquerors to move off the cap. The Conquerors took a 4v3 tank advantage, but the Panthers’ brawling quickly reduced that to 3v3. The teams traded kills that resulted on two 1v1 fights. Panthers’ JS won his fight against the Conquerors’ Trax and turned his attention to MerryTurnipDay, the only remaining Conquerors player. The Panthers withdrew as they had the luxury of waiting for the attacking Conquerors to come to them. The Panthers eventually took the win and went up 3-0.

The Conquerors were staring down the barrel of being clean swept as they moved to defence. It was a big task, with the Panthers undefeated on attack of Tundra. The Panthers rotated towards the 2 flag. Twit started the capture while his teammates gave him covering fire. The Conquerors needed to respond. They rotated to the town at F3 and pushed towards Twit but he had moved off the cap and opened up a huge crossfire. The Panthers brought two of the Conquerors down to a one shot on the cross and they were quickly eliminated. They Panthers used their numbers advantage to get over matches on the Conquerors and secure their entry to the Consolidation Final.

The Perth Panthers defeat the Christchurch Conquerors 4-0 and advance to the Consolidation Final against the Skorpions.

Tune in to https://twitch.tv/worldoftanksanz from 7pm AEST Friday 10^th June for the ANZPL Consolidation Final as well as the ANZBL Season 3 Grand Final between the Cairns Comets and Bundaberg Badgers.