Hydra Cup 2.0 Predictions: Team Beat Down
Source Rhydin Newswire
By Colin Talvitie
June 27, 2013
Team Beat Down
Hydra Cup Season 1 Results: Champions (1st)
Projected Best Shot for Hydra Cup Season 1 MVP: Candy Hart
Hydra Cup Season 1 Team MVP: Candy Hart (458 Personal Points)
Projected Hydra Cup Season 2 Team Placement: 1st
Best Shot for Season 2 Team & Overall MVP: Andrea "Apple" Anderson
Roster Additions: Andrea "Apple" Anderson, Lem DeAngelo
Roster Purges: Degnor, Jamie, King, Lizzie, Seirichi
One week into the 1st season of Hydra Cup and Team Beat Down pretty much had the whole competition wrapped up. Whether their dominant performance was due to smart planning or fatal flaws in Season 1's rules can be debated until the cows come home. In the end, it doesn't matter. TBD wound up 497 points (497!) ahead of the 2nd place team, with a total of 779* points. No other team even cracked 300 points and three of the five teams didn't sniff 150.
This time, we've got a new season with new rules and little reason to believe this team won't make it two-for-two. Sure, they could screw it up but they've got a very diverse roster filled with high ranks and nearly everyone can, as of today, issue challenge or defend title in all 3 sports.
*Errors in record keeping gave TBD a few too many points on the season (774 instead of 761). It doesn't matter. They still crushed everyone. Almost two-dozen points makes no difference when you're just short of 500 up on the next best team.
Candy Hart (DoF: 119 WoL; DoM: N/A; DoS: 19 WoL) -- My my my. How much has changed in just a year. In 2012, fear of Little Miss Spitfire ran rampant and the Overall Hydra Season 1 MVP (458 points!) racked up Wins-Over-Losses like chips in a rigged poker game. Since then...well, you know what they say about pedestals or long falls from short cliffs. A vitriolic enemy of Captain Futility (aka Matt Simon) last year, Little Miss Spitfire seemingly had a change of heart as time passed, tolerating if not outright aligning herself with him in recent months, especially during the early-2013 RROT (Rakeesh Reign of Terror). And look what close proximity to Captain Futility's done to Little Miss Spitfire...since last year's Hydra competition, she became the Outback's latest 100 WoL achiever but lost FireStar and her Keepership, won and lost Overlord, is currently without a dueling title, and hasn't been around the rings much at all of late. But she did pick up a boyfriend (who saw that one coming?) and a pitiful lapdog who hangs on her every word and breath as if her life depends upon it. Know who I'm talking about? Here's a hint: That is all.
On the positive front, we're no longer worried about Candy burning down the city (more on that in another team preview). On the downside, people aren't running around the dueling venues in terror, flailing their arms and praying to the water gods for protection. Worse, Little Miss SpitNothing's absence from the rings has greatly diminished her intimidation factor. Will she come back with a vengeance now that Hydra's kicking off or become the new incarnation of Maria Graziano with her first of ever-increasing-in-terribleness comeback attempts? Though I'm predicting Team Beat Down to win it all for the second year in a row, take my word for it: Candy's not going to lead them to the promised land this time. So who will? Read on.
Mur Ollavan (DoF: 22 WoL; DoM: 106 WoL, Keeper; DoS 17 WoL, Baron) -- About this time last year, Mur was coming off a 1-for-3 challenge set against Captain Futility (lost his bid for IceDancer, demoted rank in DoS rendering Barony challenge invalid, won the Tower of Water). This year, we find Mur in a similar predicament having just lost his 4th attempt at wresting IceDancer away from the very same Captain Futility. There's being persistent, there's being stubborn, there's hard lines and there's where we are now...broaching Pathetic-Town. In 4 challenges vs. Captain Futility for IceDancer, Mur's won a total of two duels and been shut out twice. Give it up, buckaroo. You're rubbish.
Guzzling down more alcohol than ever, it's a crapshoot whether Mur's going to be a help or hindrance to Beat Down. The 7th highest scoring dueler in Season 1 (92 points) needs some focus and there's no threat of melted skin this year with Little Miss Spitfire, now sans-FireStar, to keep him on the straight and narrow. Maybe an offer to replace his blood with beer will do the trick. Good thing they've got a brew-master on the team.
Andrea "Apple" Anderson (DoF: 27 WoL; DoM: 2 WoL; DoS: 25 WoL, Baron) -- Hey look, it's the Cutest Caller of 2011! Get over yourself, sweet-cheeks...that ship sailed two years ago! Give it a rest already and accept the fact you're wormy fruit. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
An ex-Diamond and current Baron, Apple's got something to contribute to Beat Down. She's got the pedigree to challenge in Fists and Magic and if someone comes after her Barony, she's got the chops to defend it. I had a difficult time deciding whether Apple or Lem was the best Beat Down candidate for MVP this year as their dueling resumes are very similar. I went with youth and moxy over grizzled and batty. Don't let me down, chickie.
Jake Thrash (DoF: 79 WoL; DoM: N/A; DoS: 63 WoL) -- If Hydra was full of Slugfest tournaments, Jake would be the MVP hands down. But it's not. Jake scored the 12th most personal points in Season 1 which made him 5th in line on the Beat Down roster. Looking at this year's roster, it's fair to wager he'll be Fifth-of-Five again.
This year, Jake's got no Opal to defend (in Season 1, he defended PathFinder against Harris but then lost it to Kheldar Drasinia), lessening his chance for points contributions. It's also reasonable to assume Jake won't step one foot on the Isle lest his goblin-sidekick start getting wild ideas about intermixing magic with beer-making. He could head after an Opal or Barony but my bet's that he'll leave the title challenging and defending up to his teammates, netting the bulk or all of his points with some nice, safe regular duels. If you ask me, Jake should have ditched Beat Down and reconstituted the Badside Brawlers. Too bad he didn't...that would have been much more entertaining.
Lem DeAngelo (DoF: 2 WoL; DoM: 117 WoL, Keeper; DoS: 21 WoL, Baron) -- Along with teammate Mur Ollavan, Lem forms the most formidable one-two punch on the Isle out of all the Hydra teams. Between the two, they bring 223 WoL, 12 ArchMage titles and 5 non-Celestial Tower Keeperships. No other pairing even comes close to that experience. Twilight Isle = Beat Down Dominance, no doubt about it. You can take that to the bloody bank!
Lem's also been making inroads into the Arena in recent months, securing a Barony and defending it against Anubis "I'd Enslave You But I'm Too Busy Writing About How Great I Once Was" Karos. Standing Renegade to the Overlord, Lem's one of two Barons that can challenge for Overlord when Hydra begins -- pending the outcome of the WLT-Grant match between Rand and Brittisa, that is. Though he's probably not going to make much noise over in the Outback, I won't be surprised if Lem winds up as Beat Down's MVP. Slight edge still goes to Apple in that department, though.
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