Welcome back to our weekly recap of Season 4’s Regular Season! We just ended week 4, which means we’re more than halfway through the season, with only 2 weeks left. It’s been a wild ride so far, and week 4 was no different. We had quite a few unexpected match outcomes, including Todak’s first ever loss and another defeat for Axis Esports. Read on to know more!
Here are the results and standings chart:
Todak’s Advance is Finally Halted
(Image taken from Roots.sg)
This was something that came entirely out of the left field. Todak, a team that has been tearing up the competition this season from their #1 position on the standings, finally lost a match.
And of all teams to defeat them, it was XPAX X-Assins, an underperforming team ranked #6 (in week 3) on the standings (with only 2 wins prior to week 4), who managed to take down Todak with a 2-1 win. This places XPAX at a respectable 3 wins, so congratulations to them.
(XPAX X-Assins)
While it likely doesn’t jeopardize Todak’s chances of entering the top 5 in playoffs, it’s still a rude awakening. As quoted from Todak’s manager Ashi in his week 1 interview, “We’re proud of each other for working together well. But that doesn’t mean we can be complacent, lots of things can change from week to week, like we’ve seen in previous seasons. Always gotta be prepared.”
It’s solid advice, really. Hopefully Todak can learn from this loss and work harder to retain their spot.
Axis Faces Another Loss
Meanwhile, Axis Esports, Season 2’s champions, suffered their 2nd loss of Season 4 versus Notorious Villains. These teams have been going head to head on the standings, with Notorious Villains placing 3rd and Axis placing 2nd as of week 3.
Axis and Todak have been crowd favourites this season, but now Notorious Villains are living up to their name and bringing Axis down with a clean 2-0 sweep.
Note that it’s also a rivalry rooted in history, since Kolia
was part of EVOS and faced Axis back when they were Saiyan Reborn (S2).
(The old EVOS squad prior to Season 3)
In S3, Kolia moved over to Notorious Villains, but neither Axis nor Notorious Villains made it to the finals. It’s likely that these two teams, alongside Todak, will continue to jostle for their positions in the remaining 2 weeks of S4.
Resurgence Holds the Line; Geek Fam Retreats
Unfortunately for Notorious Villains, they were in turn taken down by Resurgence on day 2, losing with a 1-2 score. Resurgence, an old team (formerly Flash Tyrants, S1 2nd place) with new faces from the disbanded Bigetron SG, has been hovering around the middle of the standings during S4, with somewhat lackluster performance compared to their previous seasons. In week 3, though, they managed to win both their matches and shot up to #4 on the standings.
Week 4 saw RSG playing 2 matches, one which they won, and the other which they lost 1-2 versus Geek Fam, which means RSG hasn’t advanced or fallen back. They’ve always been consistent during the Regular Season anyway, so it’s not likely that they’ll drop much further for the remaining 2 weeks, but the issue is whether RSG’s new lineup can finally break their curse and win big at the Playoffs for once.
As for Geek Fam, their current lineup (with the new players OZORAVEKI and RUMPEL) hasn’t been working out. After a disastrous week 1 performance, 2EZ4JEPV was confident they would find their footing and win in subsequent weeks, but their only other notable win was in week 2 (against STOP), and they’ve been subpar otherwise. Losing in the Playoffs isn’t so shameful, but at the rate they’re going with only 2 wins, Geek Fam may not even get into the Playoffs, despite being last season’s champions.
EVOS, Rising Again
Speaking of Singapore and winning, EVOS Esports SG is on a roll now.
(The current EVOS lineup)
In week 4, they managed to perform not one, but TWO clean sweeps versus Shopee Bosskurr and Sabah Top Player to gain a major boost, winning both games 2-0.
They’ve always been a strong team since their S2 debut, with a reputation as a Singaporean juggernaut (yet somehow always placing 2nd in the finals), but in the past 4 weeks, EVOS has been underperforming, sitting at #5 by week 3. Now, though, they’re finally rising again and making full use of their skills to win.
Okay, I know, they defeated two mediocre teams, but that doesn’t mean these victories are meaningless. A win is a win, after all.
Bosskurr and Louvre: Mediocre
And yes, Bosskurr has been very mediocre. Despite being Malaysia’s most famous team once upon a time, now their reputation is in shambles and their star player Fredo is no longer on the squad. They’re still trying their best, but their performance this season hasn’t exactly been inspiring.
While they did manage to defeat Louvre 2-1 this week, it wasn’t even a clean sweep. Bosskurr isn’t the worst team on the standings, but they’re still a pale shadow of their past glory.
Of course, some people might say the same of Louvre (which has Bigetron SG veterans), since Louvre’s been underperforming as well. Despite .MR VI
(former Bigetron captain, now in Resurgence) claiming that his former teammate Ly4ly4ly4 is a good leader for Louvre, Ly4 hasn’t really put that skill to good use. At least they won 2-0 against STOP, which is a nice consolation prize, putting them at 2 wins.
And of course, STOP is still floundering at 0 wins. It’s very likely at this point that they’ll be eliminated, unless they pull off a miracle play.
