Yeonne Greene, on 23 December 2016 - 02:55 PM, said:
That's the problem. They are heavies and they can do the same thing without taking up a slot that could be used for more powerful 'Mechs like the Kodiak 3 or MAD-IIC.
You aren't making any sense. There are set number of heavy slots and set number of assault slots. Your heavies aren't taking nor freeing slots of anything else. Even if we consider tonnage based drops then nobody is gonna take your heavies if there are "more powerful mechs", and if they do then the supposed power of those "more powerful mechs" is very much in question.
Yeonne Greene, on 23 December 2016 - 02:55 PM, said:
Not true. MWOWC was entirely about power positioning and it was conquest all day, every day.
Mining, you place your heavy firepower back and pull the enemy into it. It's not a brawl so much as an execution box with bait to hold the enemy there, and if the enemy rushes the guns you can roll back into them.
I'm not even going to bother debating this. Different teams use different strategies, too various to consider them all. I'm only going to remind you that the EU finalist EON lost their only preliminary match to a team that went full brawl pretty much straight into them from the start.
Yeonne Greene, on 23 December 2016 - 02:55 PM, said:
Did you never play Frozen City competitively before it changed? There absolutely was specific looking out for the inevitable Atlas S, just like there absolutely is specific attention paid to where the Kodiaks are today.
I did, and for every Atlas that I saw there I've also seen a Direwolf with Gauss+PPC. Once again, unless you know exactly what dropdeck your opponent brings (which you don't), you aren't going to "look out for brawl assaults" like you claim. You are going to look for the "main group", and on some maps there is a good chance you'll happen to find the "main group" that happens to be a full brawl team when its already 300m away from you.
Nobody pays specific attention to Kodiaks, this attention is focused on said main group which usually includes assaults, be it Atlases, Kodiaks or whatever.
Yeonne Greene, on 23 December 2016 - 02:55 PM, said:
You begin to see the entire reason why a brawl Cyclops is not viable at all then, yes?
It is plenty viable. If you fail to see different options and always drop with Kodiaks no matter what its your loss.
Yeonne Greene, on 23 December 2016 - 02:55 PM, said:
The agility doesn't really change things, though. It's not in the turn-fighting potion of the brawl where these XL assaults lose, it's in the approach.
That is why these SRM XL assaults are viable when you can make an approach without losing armor. That goes for any brawler mech. Same goes for Gauss+PPCs that are only viable when you get a ranged poke war. Same goes for DPS mechs that are only viable when you can guarantee them extended periods of time to make use of that high sustained DPS.
Everything is situational, and unlike PUGs comp actually provides a far greater variety of situations and strategies.