Two teams from the Pro League had to be sent to the relegation tournament, and although much has changed from their successful past earlier in 2016, both of these sides still have enough talent to make it back into the league.
Despite being at the bottom of the league, both of these teams have shown a lot of promise in LAN events this season, and still pulled off some impressive enough victories to make them favorites to return to the Pro League for next season.
However, Enigma6 and Allegiance are here for a reason, and here’s why, as well as how they can get out of Burbank alive:
Enigma6:
The Team:
Ayden “Suspector” Hill, Carlos “Cratos” Ayala, Ryan “Shooter” Sondhi, Jesse “bubu dubu” Moeller
The Stats:
Team:
- Overall: 4-10 (23-36 Map Count)
- Vs. ALG: 6-1
- Slayer: 8-13 (-31 +/-)
- Coliseum: 2-2
- Eden: 0-3
- Plaza: 3-3
- Regret: 2-3
- The Rig: 0-1
- Truth: 1-1
- Strongholds: 7011 (-176 +/-)
- Eden: 0-1
- Empire: 2-5
- Plaza: 4-2
- The Rig: 1-3
- CTF: 8-12 (-11 +/-)
- Coliseum: 4-6
- Fathom: 3-2
- Stasis: 0-1
- Truth: 1-3
Individual:
- bubu dubu
- K/D: 1.07
- KDA: 1.83
- Damage/D: 149.0
- Perfects/Game: .627 (9th in League)
- Suspector
- K/D: 1.08
- KDA: 1.65
- Damage/D: 123.4
- Stronghold Defends: 38 (10th in League)
- Flag Captures: 10 (T-8th in League)
- Cratos
- K/D: .81
- KDA: 1.49
- Damage/D: 127.3
- Shooter
- K/D: 1.16
- KDA: 1.93
- Damage/D: 152.8
- Flag Defends: 21 (T-6th in League)
- Perfects/Game: .508 (21st in League)
How They Got Here:
It would be remiss to talk about this team without keeping in mind the drama during week one, which saw Braedeon “StelluR” Boettcher in a rough patch with the organization.
This distraction seemed to not disturb Enigma6, as they found a new fourth and kicked themselves into cruise control for the first three weeks of the season.
The wheels fell off then, as the squad dropped games to LOL and Team Liquid in week four, and proceeded to go 1-5 in the final three weeks of the season, with Evil Geniuses, having StelluR in tow, putting the final nail in the E6 coffin by winning a single game against Team Liquid (they then went on to win the match, which had no effect at that point on E6’s chances).
Enigma6 went to all three LANs this season, placing in the top-six at Orange County and second at UGC St. Louis. Their most recent LAN, though, in Las Vegas gave E6 fans a heart attack, as 3sUp, a team that will be at relegations, reverse swept Enigma6 to kick them out of the money.
And to just think, the organization that is fighting for its life in the relegation tournament was right up there with Counter Logic Gaming last season. It just goes to show how volatile the world of competitive Halo really is.
How They Can Survive:
First things first: short-term memory and selective hearing are two wonderful things.
The Halo community has not yet calmed down after the whole StelluR situation, and Burbank will most likely be a hostile environment for one of the most outspoken teams in Halo.
With that said, Enigma6 can easily chalk up their LAN at Vegas as a fluke, and try to scare away 3sUp, who didn’t qualify at last season’s relegation tournament. E6 can use its phenomenal slaying power, with Shooter posting one of the best K/D’s in the league, to deflate any 3sUp ego that walks into the building.
Also, a little trash talk doesn’t hurt when slaying away the competition.
The team will most likely key up on Plaza Strongholds and Fathom CTF as their must-have maps, as these were the only two maps they had winning records on, and block out as much noise as possible as they try to re-qualify.
Team Allegiance
The Team:
Cory “Str8 SicK” Sloss, Cody “ContrA” Szczodrowski, Devon “PreDevoNatoR” Layton, Michael “Falcated” Garcia
(Coach: Phillip “Coach Phil” Jones)
(Team Manager/Statistician: Chad “ALGChad” Read
The Stats:
Team:
- Overall: 3-11 (21-38 Map Count)
- Vs. Str8: 5-4
- Slayer: 8-12 (-41 +/-)
- Coliseum: 1-0
- Eden: 4-0
- Plaza: 1-5
- Regret: 1-3
- The Rig: 1-4
- Strongholds: 8-12 (-265 +/-)
- Eden: 0-3
- Empire: 2-4
- Plaza: 2-1
- The Rig: 4-4
- CTF: 5-14 (-18 +/-)
- Coliseum: 4-2
- Fathom: 0-7
- Stasis: 0-1
- Truth: 1-4
Individual:
- ContrA
- K/D: 1.02
- KDA: 1.66
- Damage/D: 135.2
- Flag Defends: 21 (T-6th in League)
- Perfects/Game: .667 (8th in League)
- PreDevoNatoR
- K/D: 0.89
- KDA: 1.58
- Damage/D: 127.9
- Falcated
- K/D: .93
- KDA: 1.55
- Damage/D: 132.4
- Flag Defends: 24 (3rd in League)
- Perfects/Game: .518 (20th in League)
- Str8 Sick
- K/D: .80
- KDA: 1.37
- Damage/D: 115.6
- Perfects/Game: .529 (19th in League)
How They Got Here:
After placing second at the Halo World Championships, Allegiance qualified with a completely different roster for the summer season, and stayed afloat in sixth place to head into the fall. From there, another roster change saw Ryan “Ryanoob” Geddes and Richie “Heinz” Heinz out of the team in favor of Falcated and Ryan “Shooter” Sondhi, the latter of which would defect back to his old side of Enigma6.
To sum up how ALG did this season, if you are an Allegiance fan, you’ve grown to hate game fives.
Right out of the gate, ALG dropped two game fives to Evil Geniuses and Luminosity, and just could not drag themselves out of the relegation zone all season. Overall, Allegiance lost four of their game fives during the season, and had they clutched up on all of them, this entire story would be much different.
Their only wins came against EG later in the season, Str8 Rippin, and Enigma6, and that latter victory could be some sign of hope for the team to get out of this tournament and back into the Pro League.
Another promising sign is how they did out in Las Vegas, as it saw ALG beat Str8 twice, as well as take a five game series away from 3sUp to place third, above Evil Geniuses. And, of course, the return of Str8 Sick to the Pro League definitely put some eyes on this roster, and there could be an added fan impact at the tournament for sure with the community wanting to see his return.
How They Can Survive:
Ban CTF Fathom every time.
That’s it…
Okay, now seriously, this team seems to perform a lot better at LANs than online, as we’ve seen at Las Vegas, so that gives them a major intangible heading into this weekend.
Besides that, ContrA has come into his own this season, picking up the slaying slack for a team that is below a 1.00 K/D in that department. If he isn’t hot this weekend, it may be a bad sign for ALG. However, if the entire roster plays through him and gives him priority on power weapons, overshield, and camo, then it could be a completely different story.
Allegiance also gets the benefit of playing TMMT, a team that did not perform as well at the Las Vegas event as 3sUp did. If they can make sure that they can reflect the expected prediction on paper, they can sail to the finals where they can take on a depleted 3sUp or Enigma6, who will most likely go to five games.
If this team has been practicing their Capture the Flag game from Vegas until now, then they will be a much better, well rounded force coming into Burbank. This would definitely help ALG fend off the three other hungry teams who underestimate this deceiving last place side.
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James Mattone is a journalist for GAMURS and can be contacted on Twitter –@TheJamesMattone.
Statistics are courtesy of Halo 5 Arena (Team Stats), Halo Data Hive (all individual stats) and HCS Stats (Perfects/Game).
