Nominate the top 5 matches in NS History that showcase the pinnacle of individual skill/teamwork/strategy (if theres a demo, even better)

You can nominate matches you played in but remember think about the absolute pinnacle of NS play and not just "IM FREAKIN GOOD COS IM IN DIV1 NOW THAT THERES 10 TEAMS"

Bonus category: Worst fails ever.
1. fana dying to two <3 lmg marines in the ensl s1 finals as fade. losing the round & possible title

Hmm, top 5 of all time is a hard one.
In no particular order:

knife vs <3 s1 finals - drama, skill, fana getting rolled as fade

flatline vs fins?(could been some one else) - Think this was a NC game, but it was one of those games where flatline showed they had the best teamwork in NS ever, and on metal put up the strongest (and in my eyes an unbeatable) alien round ever seen. The co-ordination was spot on, the players scouted the map, and the skill level of phil and Morvie was just sick.

`.=. vs saunamen - A great game in my opinon because it was a close game and was one of the last "high-skilled" games for that time period, with `.=. going in as the underdogs massively to come out with a 3-1 win with some great play was incredible. The metal map was easily the best to watch....

DU vs insane - The tanith round where DU were aliens and insane marines was a spectacle and a half. It was very close knit to start with and then enigmatic brings out his fade. The only one time he's ever faded well, yet his fading was the best I've ever seen. Literally... this is the definition of CARRY. The rest of the rounds were good for watching too, just not as memorable.

DU vs sprogga (NC) - I just remember glimpses of this game. This was one of the rare times sprogga had exceptional teamwork, and it just showed the potential we could have had if we got that teamwork consistent. We raped our alien rounds with out breaking a sweat in something like 3 minutes on eclipse. Marine wise I just remember green, enigmatic and myself being aimbots that day. Maybe not the best to watch but definatly was a highlight to play.

Great thread idea.

First Europe vs. USA exhibition match. Big drama before and after the match, crossatlantic dick swinging at its best. Both teams brought their finest players and put on a great show. No HLTV demos unfortunately, but several POV demos -- even one of Flayra spectating and commenting the game.

<3 vs. Knife, ENSL Season 1 final. Biggest drama and suspense build up to date, great rivalry between two supremely skilled clans for their time. Of course my Fade failure on veil gets brought up, nevermind the other five players on the team or the two other rounds we lost. Not like I expect fair judgement anymore.

exigent vs. terror, CAL Season 6 final. Epic, epic match. The American equivalent of <3 vs. Knife -- only bigger, meaner and more exciting. Had a proper "Superbowl feeling" before this one.

9L vs. sprogga, ENSL Season 10 final. Hardly the pinnacle of NS skill and gameplay, but damn was it fun. Earns its place on this list by virtue of being the biggest upset ever.

Epic vs. Knife, ENSL Season 4 final. One of a few ENSL finals with both teams at their peak form, giving it their all. The rounds were much closer than the end result suggests. It could've easily gone the other way, but Knife was able to bring that little extra every round to inch in the win. Classic Finland vs. Knife/9L rivalry. The season 6 final was even closer, with the scores reflecting it, but both teams were in a very diminished state at the time. The real reason it was so close was because both teams made so many big mistakes. That's why I chose the s4 final instead.

i envy at you ppl for finding this game so early :D im such a noob compared to you only playing since 3.2 :D

Finals are usually the worst games I've found...

One team generally practices really really hard and stomps the other one. I think the S1 finals was probably the best to date. It's why it's the only final I've added.

Not true for any of the ones I posted, perhaps with the exception of 9L vs. sprogga. Nor is it true for many other finals I didn't include. The only "bad" finals I've played in were ENSL S3 and S5.

There's no substitute for the kind of drama, suspense and palpable "this is it" feeling you get before, during and after a championship match. The pressure is truly on, separating the e-boys from the e-men.

Season 5 onwards then...

Season 6 and 13 were both close and good games. Whatever remains from that certainly isn't grounds for saying "usually the worst games".

He's basically crying about losing whateverthecomebackseasonwas

One of the nightcups; Flatline 13-11 Souljah

Because after playing 24 rounds of NS, for a meaningless nightcup, and losing, to a base rush no less, against Germans, made me:



We were screaming INJUSTICE and pictured the Germans as:

Wasn't it a shotgun rush? And yes that was epic, if you want a strong alien round WATCH THAT because we won a few rounds in 2-3 mins. Plus flatline's alien wasn't shoddy then either.

Lol @ that match, both souljah and Flatline were fucking terrible at marine, i know this because i was playing and i sucked donkey balls, so yeah kinda funny we played 10 maps? but nothing special on the other hand, no exceptional play.

Season 13 final was pretty close, UGO vs Saunamen.

Oh no doubt- the rounds were terrible. Don't watch them. I'm doing what mu said we shouldn't do and posting games we were involved in! This thread will devolve into that.

I think much more entertaining would be to list matches that make you lol. That's got so much potential.

ensl1 final <3 vs knife
ensl2 final storm vs insane
ensl12 `.=. vs sauna
ensl13 final UGO? vs sauna

my best types

s&m vs <3 for ultimate ben script rage

1st EU/NA match was sweet with Flayra commentary.

I'm not even crying... All the finals I've been in have pretty much just been 4-0 wins or losses depending on both the teams activities. Ofc I can't comment on s13... but that's what most finals appear to be. I honestly haven't rated many of the finals in ages. It's either been sauna/sprogga/flatline rape.

ensl s3 tts vs evil :)

TTS vs evil is the pinnacle of NS. you heard it here first

Naturally I can only name those matches in which I have played.


ENSL2 Levitacus vs. storm.ns 3-1
http://www.ensl.org/matches/707

It was really disappointed season for Levitacus, especially because Levitacus was rated one the biggest rivals to Storm at start of the season. Inactivity and loss of key players had hit hard on Levitacus, though, end of season Levitacus start to become active again and in the very last match they would face storm. Only chance to reach the finals would be 4-0 win over storm.

Match illustrated more about character than teamwork or great personal skill. It was good even match and Levitacus shocked scene by winning first 3 rounds deservedly. In final round, map was eclipse and Levitacus would be play as aliens. On paper this round should be the easiest one for Levitacus and Levitacus had also massive momentum advantage at this point. However, Scale's early lerk did get stuck to infamous wall next to eclipse hive and for some reason stuck-command wasn't familiar in ENSL back then. Early lerk was vital part of the alien game and Scale was one the best lerks back then. To be honest, storm could have won it anyway but game was anything but over at that point. Week after the match storm would dominate Insane in finals.


ENSL5 Levitacus vs. Testicules (Insane) 2-2
http://www.ensl.org/matches/2166

It's crime against humanity, that there aren't demo from this match. Both Levitacus and Testicules were active that time and they showed spectacle of teamwork. Both teams were famous from their skulk teamwork. Marine pressure teams were group camped before marines reached alien rts. This is something which has fallen to oblivion in 3.2. It actually was the last match of real teamwork. My computer blew up, and rest of the season was joke to Levitacus. Testicules also struggled with inactivity and finally folded.


ENSL6 Finals Saunamen vs 9L 3-3

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the greatest game due inactivity of both teams, though it wasn't bad either. Inactivity made possibly for great individual performances. Season 6 was definitely best season from my personal point of view.

Above all, this game was one the biggest milestone of NS. After this game both clans folded and almost every player from both clans quit NS. Before this, in top clans majority of players had to have high level playing experience and often every player had years of experience. Suddenly, top teams contained only one or two players which had that needed experience, which they could pass on to next generation. It didn't surprise me that teamwork and tactical knowledge went downhill. This hit me hard, when DU won ENSL7, how much skill level had dropped down.

there was one teameu vs teamna... the good round which i refer to..

teamna on marine, eu alien.. eu destroyed team na left na with a pg in sat... aliens on 2 hives and na had lvl1 hmgs.. just 2 or something.. but they fucking persevered sooo much! they must have been sat in satcomm for about 20 mins.. tearing through any fades that came near and rushing lvl3 dmg.. eventually pushing out of sat and taking back the map to win.. I was well impressed.

If I only had Fanamemory, and I could remember any of the exciting matches.

First Team Europe vs Team NS game was fell funny esp. after Flayra's "europe might take a round or two". The 2nd was epic just because Zallvan's menu wasn't working (a bug that happens once every year) and he couldn't fade.

One of the most "thrilling" matches was that Team France vs Team Germany or was it Finland, it lasted like 6-8 maps, crazy. Actually it might be that what Sherpa was talking about or it might have been the one Peach was talking about. Damn can't remember.

Last season finals were well exciting. Aswell as that unfinished nine Legends vs Saunamen (the one Tane mentioned).

Then there were some Flatline games that showed nice teamwork. Also I remember few other matches aswell where Peach was commanding but I've gotta look them up from demos.

Yeah was team germany vs team france, in the end we had to abort because our players had to go GJ. Still was a close game and more or less even lineups.


I also nominate the EU vs NA match with Flayra shoutcast. So much epicness. It is the origin of the ocasional "Flayra" on any random HLTV Server.

And Zallvan's menu bug / not having fade impulse binded was hilarious. Good times!


"wtf IMPULSE FOR FADE?????"

I remember Knife vs EoD as a good match too. It took a lot of maps to be finished but it worthed the wait. That last map was one of the best fades massacre I've seen.

There's a nice videofrag-sum up made by b1 somewhere in ninelegends.com

Tane

Week after the match storm would dominate Insane in finals.

Huh? That was one of the closest ENSL finals, storm won it 4-2.

I hope you had to look that up Fana, otherwise, what is wrong with you?

:(

Yeah Tane, what is wrong with you? That final was very very close, nothing like a stomp, that was Insane at its best iirc.

Yeah, I can remember everything as it is. There is no chance that my memory could fail me now and then.

<3 vs. Knife, ENSL Season 1 final. WOW never watch so boring match. All lifeforms got like 10 frags in 4 rounds.