Season 3 Rankings - Flank Scout

 Season 3 Rankings - Flank Scout

Like Roamer, it was quite difficult ranking the flank scouts and with the high level of play we saw in this season, it was challenging deciding on five. Flank scout is a difficult role to play in the div 3 meta of today, but I tried my best to rank the scouts fairly, based on their DM and impact on the game. Without further ado, here's my top 5 Flank Scouts.

5. Toxic - さみしい

Toxic, only the fifth edgiest player in Division 3. He's also the fifth best flank scout in Division Three. While searching through his profile, attempting to gather some information on the enigmatic flank scout for Abusement Park, I found a number of things. To name a few, I found his sensitivity (32.4cm/360 - about the size of a horse penis), his previous competitive history, and I also found that he linked a song captioned 「さみしい」- meaning lonely in Japanese. And I think "lonely" or 「さみしい」really about sums up Toxic's playstyle.

「トクシック」or「毒性」was one of the more experienced players on Abusement Park going into this season. Winning third place in the previous season of PURE Open, and coming sixth place in AFC16, it looked like Toxic was going to be one of the top flank scouts in Open. And he really did prove himself. He was always a survivor after a messy teamfight, fluidly transitioning from flank to pocket whenever Flam was not available to protect Swift. And in many cases, even despite being the flank scout, Toxic would get on-par stats with Flam, or even better ones. Despite this, what stops Toxic from moving up the list was his inconsistency. Sometimes Toxic was a God, two-shotting everything he saw and controlling the entire flank even without Vice. But othertimes, especially in cases where Abusement Park was facing against DM-heavy teams, Toxic just simply wasn't able to have enough impact. Overall, like the rest of Abusement Park, I look forward to seeing more in the future, and I mourn that they weren't able to get a higher placement.

4. Guy Name Bob - Highlander 4EVAR!1!1!!

Guy Name Bob was one of the unknown factors coming into the season that so defined RSL. From what I had heard, RSL was a group of DM Lord friends coming together and deciding to move onto 6s from Highlander, graduating into the big-boy-better-gamemode camp. Questioning how well a bunch of off-class mains would do in 6v6, I was thoroughly impressed with Bob's gameplay throughout the season.

The flank scout for Raid Shadow Legends, he was one of (if not the most) mechanically gifted players this season. It seems playing Heavy in Highlander to practice tracking really paid off, as Bob's aim was one of the biggest threats against any opposing team's flank. However, the same problems as Toxic plagued Bob. A lack of consistency is the curse of Bob. When getting enough heals and in the right mood, he could absolutely pound. But on the other hand, when on the flank, supporting hyper-aggressive players Cabby and D4LE, it just seemed that he wasn't able to keep the same level of impact as when playing at his own pace. Ultimately, Bob has a lot of potential and playing with a team that suits his playstyle would benefit him a lot.

3. Kron - The Carry

Kron was one of the two blessings to Raven's Clutch that carried them so far in the season. Kron was brought in during the extra transfer window given at the beginning of the season, as Drae elected to move to Medic to allow space for the wonderful scout in Kron. Kron only had two seasons of experience before Season 3, but he had already become a star-studded player with his Gold Medal in PURE Season Two and coming fourth place in AsiaFortress Season 16's Division Two. 

With his experience on the flank, RvC's flank looked ever more dominating as the combo of GreenShaDow and Kron dismantled any other team's flank through raw deathmatching ability. Despite all this, I just couldn't bring myself to place Kron above the other two on this list. RvC's failure to place higher in the season rankings just didn't allow Kron to shine as bright as he could've had his team made playoffs. At any rate, Kron is a wonderful flank scout and had he been on any other team he could've shined just as much, and potentially placed even higher. 

2. 4B - "I'm going sniper"

4B, the offclassing King of Div 3. What I had previously seen of 4B was playing in PUGs. He would always play scout and his DM was on the level of some Division Two scouts. However, he was also quite the brainless fellow. "What is this idiot doing on sniper?", I heard many say after getting domed on a mid-fight. "Kill this idiot!" was also something I heard as 4B eventually fed after getting caught out on mid. And 4B seemed just that - all aim and no brain. The Asian Division 3 equivalent of someone like ScreaM, 4B just seemed to never go sniper at the right time, and always feed at the wrong time.

Fast-forward to the mid-season, and 4B evolved into something amazing. Especially in the late regular-season and playoffs, his sniper plays created so many openings and opportunities that I cannot imagine Krankenwagen having gotten so far without the amazing plays 4B got. Krankenwagen's playstyle in stalemates revolved so much around 4B that it negated the need for his soldiers to have any impact. Overall, there isn't really anything I can say about 4B's gameplay that was really negative. However, there is one man standing in the way of 4B, and its the Rustic sand-bagger clone himself, Meejaey.

1. Meejaey - The Teejay of Open

Meejay rhymes with Teejay, just like how Rustic rhymes with Corrupt. MJ really did so much for his team on scout just as Teejay does for his own teams in OZF. Although everyone was shaking their sticks and screaming at the admins for letting D4LE in Open, I was completely in shock at how Meejaey was still allowed to play in Open. This guy won Open...and he won Division 3 last season...what the fuck is this guy doing in Open? And unlike D4LE, he wasn't being anchored down by his team, in fact his team was filled with players just like him - not actually Division Three players. 

Anyways, if Kron and Drae were two blessings to Raven's Clutch, Meejaey was six to ABNA Black. Meejaey could play any class on the team and still be better than everyone in the server, and his DM and decision making made him a star in all of ABNA's matches. There's not much to say about Meejaey compared to the other scouts. Other than the fact that he's just better. This is why I chose Meejaey as the best flank scout in Open, because all of the factors that made the other flank scouts good are present in Meejaey, and to a higher level.