[Boromir88]

TTN's Stars (Round 1)
-Boro88

One thing we wanted to add to this year's Arda Cup is the "Star Performances." AKM launced their own "AKM Stars", but they've dropped the concept the past couple years. TTN wanted to add something noticeably different to their phantasy coverage this year, so we've come up with a revised "Stars" concept, and a different methodology from AKM's to highlight the best individual performances every round.

*Disclaimer: TTN's Stars are completely separate from the "star players" when picking phantasy players. This is simply our way of highlighting the top performances from each round. So, if TTN gives One Star to Tar Atanamir, that does not mean Tar Atanamir costs one "*" on your phantasy teams now.


Now here's how TTN has decided to award their stars. We had our field of reporters attending every match in every group and they picked the best players nominating from 2 to 4 for consideration in each match.

We obviously can't award every FW who scored a goal with stars, or every GK who saved 3/3...etc. So our panel deliberated, making cases for why so-and-so should be awarded a star (or why someone should be dropped off the list for this round) and how many stars someone should be awarded. Here is the system for this year.

Top Game performers "One Star" (5 at each position)

Top position performers "Two Star" (2 at each position)

Best Round Performance "Three Star" (One player, position doesn't matter)

Sometimes just scoring a goal or a couple assists isn't going to be good enough when stacked up to other players, so we had to take into account several different factors in coming to the final decisions. Factors included: strength of opponent, strength of victory, impact on the game (a MF scoring a game winning goal with under 10 minutes left is going to carry more weight than a MF scoring a single-goal in a 4-0 blowout for example).

We won't explain every choice made by the panel, but we will try to explain the choices that were the most contentious and debated.

ONE STAR

Goalies
Marach (AC Beleriand)
Ungoliant (Angfauglith)
ShastaWolf (TIG)
Amroth (Anduin)
Silent Watcher (Mordor)

The goalies were pretty much easily agreed on. Manwe was the one left off during the vetting process, because despite saving 3/3, our experts agreed it was against a weak opponent (The Barrow-downs) and other players for Valimar (namely Irmo) had a larger impact on the game.

Defenders
Maglor (FC Valinor)
Barahir (Nargothrond)
Tilion (Real Valinor)
Alatar (Barad-Dur)
Aragorn (Eriador)

A shutout plus an assist from a defender pretty much assured you of catching our attention and thus being awarded with at least one star (Maglor and Barahir). The debate came in when trying to decide if a defender who got the shutout has more impact than a defender who gave up 1 goal, but also contributed with an assist, in most cases we sided with the latter.

Real Valinor allowing only 1-goal against the deadly Hithlum attack, is worthy of notice, and then adding Tilion's key assist in the game it was a no-brainer. The other two were a little more hotly contested, but in the end Alatar's assist in a 1-1 draw was a big result in the game against Gondor. And Aragorn's assist in the 2-1 victory against the Misty Mountains had more impact than Luthien shutting down the pathetic Dwarve's United attack, or the Balrogs from Angfauglith shutting down the equally as bad Imladris attack.

Mid-fielders
Turambar (Gondor)
Nessa (Real Valinor)
Glorfindel (Eriador)
Nazgul #3 (Wilderland)
Nazgul #2 (Mordor)

The toughest choice here was 3 players (Turambar, Glorfindel, and SallyWight) battling it out for essentially 2 spots. Glorfindel's game-winner in the 87th minute held the biggest impact on the game. Where case for SallyWight was stronger opponent and stronger victory. But looking at other TIG performers (Shastawolf and NilpWolf), not that SallyWight's goal had no impact on the game, but just not as large of an impact as those two, nor as large as Glorfindel's game winner. Turambar's goal in the 1-1 draw vs. Barad-dur was also key. Without Turambar's performance, Gondor loses that game.

Forwards
Smaug (Erebor)
Earendil (Havens)
Feanor (AC Belerind)
Ecthelion (Angfauglith)
Ar Pharazon (Armenelos)

Ar Pharazon and Feanor both had late game winners in wins over their opponents. Ecthelion scored the only goal in a crucial result against Imladris. We decided to give the last One Star FW spot to Earendil (Smaug was automatic with its 1+1) because despite Armenelos' staunch guarding and gameplan to try to stop Earendil, they still couldn't and The Havens had Armenelos on the ropes for a significant portion of the game.

TWO STAR

Goalies
Turgon (Inter Beleriand)
Tar Atanamir (Armenelos)

Turgon's 5/5 was the top goalie performance of the round. Tar Atanamir's 5/6 we valued as next best (even over the other goalies who got shut outs) because he did it against a quality offense and the saves were crucial in limiting Earendil to just 1 goal.

Defenders
Fram (Anduin)
NilpWolf (TIG)

Mid-fielders

Irmo (Valimar)
Haldir (Anduin)

Both were the key factors in their team's offense. Both teams had 2-0 victories, and both contributed to each of their teams' goals.

Forwards

Scatha (Wilderland)
Glaurung (Nargothrond)

2 goals each from 2 dragons, they had the top performances amongst the forwards in Round 1.

THREE STAR

The single best performance in Round 1 then goes to...

Curufin, FW for FC Valinor.

Most might say this is not surprising, but it was one of the most contentious debates for our panel in Round 1. Whether to say Curufin had the best performance or Nilpwolf. The wolf's shutout of Angband (the result that probably shocked TTN the most) plus contributing with a goal. Where Curufin's evisceration of Isengard should not have shocked anyone. Still Curufun won out, I mean he should have had a hat-trick and scored 2 goals in a matter of mere minutes which had the game over by half-time for FC Valinor. Performances like Curufin's are the best, no matter the opponent.