SNC Mighty Pandas vs SNC Space Sloths
A rip in the time space continuum—okay fine it was just a time change—has given us this epic matchup of SNC versus SNC. Like a throwback to our Snack Scuffles of yore, Sunday night will see two SNC teams face off for a huge prize: um, respect? Extra doughnuts at practices? (Is this our first official intra-org battle in an organized league? We whiffed on last split’s potential LBL Commercial playoff matchup between Twempest and Dreaded so I think it is!)
Let’s take a quick preview of tonight’s Bo3 and get hype! We'll also be making our debut as official Twitch Affiliates, so we expect to break all our ratings records with this prime time showdown. Thank you to PK for working so hard to get our fifty subscribers and to do all the behind-the-scenes work setting up the streams and Twitch stuff. And also a huge thank you to Squishy Rainbow for doing our SNC overlays and that spinny blue thing on the wait screen which is apparently done frame by frame? Wow, technology!
Additionally, also a big hand for caster Furry who continues to come in mild with his hot takes and well-informed, very balanced, and non-partisan opinions. What will we hear from Furry's Fury tonight? Last week was a rant about Big Milk—and a short aside about natural gases—what could come out this week?!
[ Mighty Pandas op.gg | Space Sloths op.gg ]
Team Overview
Mighty Pandas are the defending LBL Economy champions—and would have moved up to Commercial this split if LBL valued quality over quantity. These bears are the first SNC team to return a full roster, ever! Yay! With cohesion clearly a strong point, we can expect combat tested teamwork and synergy to be on full display.
With a super cute logo, generously donated by the hard-working and underpaid illustrators of the Internet, otherwise known as artificial intelligence scraping, Space Sloths is one of our (four) new teams, but they feature some familiar faces in mid and bot lane. This match is also Sloth’s debut in Style Esports, as they take the Rift for the first time this split. All of that isn’t to suggest inexperience here though, as there is plenty of individual comp experience on the Sloths' roster. Let's take a look at the individual matchups. Note: We'll be avoiding talk about specific champions as to not influence any drafting strategies.
TOP: SNC Wildstyle (Plat) vs Silent Assassins (Plat)
Long-time fans of SNC are more than familiar with Wild. The captain of Mighty Pandas has evolved into one of the best top laners and his game continues to impress and improve. Capable of carrying a game on his back or playing a lower key supportive role, Wild is a force to be reckoned with. Lined up against him will be Silent Assassins, who is Sloths' newest addition and a complete mystery to this prognosticator. Previously a mid lane main, Silent Two--SNC already has a Silent (Wolf)--is new to top lane and is still learning the intricacies of the role. This will be a tough test for Silent, coming out of the gate versus a top lane vet like Wild. Best of luck to both sides!
JNG: XTheBeard (G) vs Zihilism (E)
Zihilsm was introduced to SNC last year as a tryout and temporary sub for Dreaded Dawn. With a great attitude and eye-catching skills, Kitty matriculated to Tempest Dragons (Tea's team) last split and became their star jungler. Now it'll be Zihilsm versus the steady XTheBeard, who has a split's worth of built-up chemistry with Mighty to rely on. Junglers are not a one-versus-one role, with so much depending on the rest of the team, so this matchup will be hard to evaluate and predict.
MID: Phallic Phenom (E) vs Gense (P)
Manning the middle are two familiar faces to us. With one split--and one championship--under his belt with SNC, Phallic Phenom has proven to be a carry type laner, in contrast to many of the facilitator type mids SNC has traditionally been known for. Coming off an All-Star appearance, Phenom has proven to be an explosive fulcrum for Mighty.
Facing off against Phenom will be Gense, formerly known as FakeBlade, making his return to SNC after a split away. Since his time on Twempest Fwame before, Gense has acquired a new name and elevated his game to even further heights, making this perhaps the key matchup of the series. Is that too much pressure for these two? Both thrive under pressure and we're excited for these two SNC vets to duke it out.
ADC/SUP: JamiesTurnTV (S) and Adarasto (P) vs Timik (S) and Only Magical Girls (G)
When OnlyMagicalGirls asked to return to SNC this split, we were more than happy to welcome the legendary OMG back to our ranks. Captain for Sloths, OMG also brought along a very familiar name to us, Timik, who has been on the comp circuit a few times as OMG's teammate across various teams. Now the two of them are taking on the challenge of role swapping to the bot lane together. It's always super fun when friends partner up and this bot lane will a pivotal role in Sloths' success. Any ADC/supp pairing needs familiarity to work well and Jamie and Adarasto already have that in spades with their LBL experience. Thrilled to be working together again, we wanna see if there's more spicy picks coming out of this duo. Sharp-eyed viewers will have their attention trained to the bot lane as this looks like the most interesting matchup of the series as it involves four of our favorites!
Fun fact: OMG was Wild's teammate on Sunset Ravens, the Mighty Pandas predecessor. Also, Timik came up with the "Space Sloths" name, while Zihilism generated the Sloths' logo with AI! Fancy!
COACH
The success engine behind a few of our SNC teams--and really the whole org--AmandaThePanda is now taking the helm for Mighty Pandas, who were mostly coach-less last split. While Amanda's track record speaks for itself--Twempest has two total losses in two splits, as well as a LBL Commercial championship--this will be Amanda's first split working with Mighty. AmandaThePanda and Mighty Pandas had their first collaboration in Style together last week, an opening week loss to Meme City Scapegoats, so Mighty will be looking for a bounceback victory this week, even at the cost of spilling their co-org mates' blood.
On the other side, Foyah and Koko are two of SNC’s newest coaches and already they've brought energy and expertise to their new wards. The Canadian duo have just started working with Sloths recently and this will be quite the challenge for them out of the gate, going against the maestro of draft herself, Amanda. So we're going to see if two heads will prove to be better than one.
With the new split barely underway, it’s impossible to anticipate any direct playstyle or macro strategies, so it’ll be more accurate to treat this matchup as the first step toward setting a foundation for future success. Style League has eight weeks of MMR type scrims before seven weeks of playoffs, so the final form for both teams won’t come to fruition for quite a few months. Let’s call this a preview of things to come and an exciting SNC vs SNC matchup that will prove our org's quality sportmanship and camaraderie! And we look forward to perhaps another round of IBS Bingo?!?