By sjj_admin 
Originally published on GameOnAus.com in Mar 2022
World of Tanks ANZPL Season 4 Round 1 kicked off last Friday with tight and exciting games. Tie breakers were the flavour of the night with all three games needing the deciding game on Tundra to determine a winner.
Adelaide Action X vs South Sydney Skorpions
Having picked up ex-Melbourne Matildas player Saxon and former North Sydney Sentinels stalwart Ironguard, the Action X had seriously bolstered their roster during the off season. The ever consistent South Sydney Skorpions are always a tough challenge and showed why they’re contenders for the Season 4 crown.
Action X took two hard fought battles on Himmelsdorf, the first one almost going the full eight minutes. The Skorpions forced an early brawl on the first match on Mines, resulting in a defensive win and the quickest game of Season 4 Round 1. The Skorpions taking the second Mines match was almost a carbon copy of the first with the Skorpions taking the brawl and forcing the series to a Tundra tie breaker.
An attacking win of 1:47 gave Skorpions the choice of attack or defence. They chose attack and took the tie breaker map with the loss of only two tanks, although one of those was an accidental ramming team kill on JT at the death knell.
South Sydney Skorpions defeat Adelaide Action X 3-2 for the first match of ANZPL Season 4 Round 1.
Christchurch Conquerors vs Perth Panthers
Perth Panthers had a relatively quite draft, securing former ANZPL player CallumAU and ANZBL player Godmode_Dead but that was nothing compared with the Christchurch Conquerors. Picking up not one, not two but I players from the now disbanded Season 3 champions the Matildas is a huge boost for a team that has not had the best performances in the ANZPL.
That recruitment strategy seemed to be working well for them. Long time team mates from the Matildas MerryTurnipDay and Whippet lead the way in two close matches on Himmelsdorf. The class of the Season 3 runners up held their nerve on Prokhorovka, getting the two wins they needed to force a tie breaker. The second win secured with a late reset onto the Conqueror’s 1 flag capture to take a timed win.
Conquerors had the quickest attacking win and chose to defend the tie breaker on Tundra. The Panthers laid a trap with Goober in his Bat.-Châtillon 25 t remaining undetected to drop the heavy end of the hammer onto the Conqueror’s KritaKil. With a five to four tank advantage, Panthers were able to isolate and bleed out the Conquerors without losing a tank.
Game two of ANZPL Season 4 Round 1 sees the Perth Panthers defeat the Christchurch Conquerors 3-2 in the second reverse sweep of the night.
Brisbane Bulldogs vs North Sydney Sentinels
The last match of the night saw two-time champions North Sydney Sentinels take on the Brisbane Bulldogs. The Sentinels have had the edge on the Bulldogs, having won their last three encounters.
The Bulldogs started by committing virtually all their tanks to a defence of the two flag. The Sentinels also went all in on a flag capture, but sending their tanks to the one flag, allowing them to set up a great defence around the one flag to protect their capturing tanks. Dark from the Bulldogs managed to get a resetting shot in but the Bulldog’s Raavi was left exposed. Committing to the capture, Sentinels bled out the Bulldogs to eventually take the win, the first to be taken on an opponent’s map pick. The return leg saw the Bulldogs go for an early 2 flag capture. With the cap pressure on, the Sentinels were picked apart by a well arrayed Bulldogs line up, squaring the series at one all.
Himmelsdorf saw a mirror of what happened on Tundra with the Bulldogs defending incredibly well and not losing a tank before the Sentinels weathered a big Bulldog’s push, winning the resulting brawl and forcing the third tie breaker of the night.
Bulldogs chose attack on Tundra with their fastest attacking win. Tundra seemed to be favouring attack with all the games played on it resulting in an attacking side win. This match was no different. Sentinels set up for a one flag capture again. This time Bulldogs were not able to get any resetting shots in and Sentinels took the first capture victory of Season 4.
North Sydney Sentinels take down the Brisbane Bulldogs 3-2 in the third tie break of ANZPL Season 4 Round 1.
Fantasy League
Let’s not forget the ANZPL PL Fantasy League where entrants have the chance to take home some cool HyperX headsets and in game gold!
Three players from losing teams made it into the best team for ANZPL Season 4 Round 1. If the fact that all three games went to a tie breaker didn’t tell you how close these games were, these results would confirm it. If you lucked out and picked these players you would have ended up with a total of 1,803.8 Fantasy Points.
The best Fantasy League player was Saxon with 1,601.9 Fantasy Points. Being a player is he ineligible to win the prizes on offer. The next best non-ANZPL player or Wargaming staff member was _Howto with a score of 1,488.3.
I’ve got a long way to go to catch up with only one of the best possible team making an appearance in my Fantasy Team. Scoring 892.2 Fantasy Points I’ll have to up my game to catch the leaders!
Next Week
With ANZPL Season 4 Round 1 done and dusted, eyes turn to Round 2. With the Skorpions and the Panthers being the only winning teams facing off next week you’d think that that would be the game to watch. My money’s on the Bulldogs and the Conquerors providing the best entertainment next week. Bulldogs coming off a tie breaker loss to one of the best teams in the league is nothing to sneeze at, and I’m excited to see what the Conqueror’s line up can do when they’ve had a few game’s experience together.
With how close ANZPL Season 4 Round 1 was Round 2 is sure to be a banger! Tune in from 7pm AEDT Fridays at https://twitch.tv/worldoftanksanz!