[SL] Ludicrous Speed entered the Cup as a small 1390TV Clan Eshin team more or less on a whim. I play Clan Eshin in Secret League Americas and this was my SL Open team. The team was going to be missing an assassin for the first game, but had a Block,+AG Gutter runner to try to carry the team along with a couple wrestle/horns gutters. As long as we could avoid too much tackle early, we had a shot to win any game in my estimation.

Over the course of 6 games, here are some oddities that stand out.
Zero - That's the number of one turn touchdowns scored by my team during the tournament. Despite having an AG5 leaper for 4 games. We were setup for one, but received a riot...and we proceeded to fail a pickup and then double skull a blitz.

One - Vele Nere was the only team to kick to me during the tournament. They won the toss and elected to kick. Two other teams elected to receive including in the finals.

Key Sequences:
Round 2-
Committing to going after the ball turn 2 after Jokaero had done a great job making a cage despite blitz KO result was huge. Even with the RR on the 2d to try to make the blitz a 1d block. -2d wrestled the ball to the ground and the rats made it work.
The failed pickup after riot on turn 8 rolled back the clock and subsequent blitz w/ double skulls made this one closer than it might have been. Took risks in this one and they paid off...including the decision to spread the field, retreat, and stall on 2nd half drive. Jokaero expertly knocked the ball out twice, but couldn't manage to complete the steal in a meaningful way.

Round 3-
Vele nere's drive in 1st half after we scored to go up 1-0 Got lots of penetration and forced a pass. Then no one wanted to succeed...dodges, pickups, anything for a couple turns. Getting the 2d to bounce the ball then work w/ the ag5 to toss downfield effectively ended the game.

Round 4-
Great game. All hail shadowing which ultimately forced a fail on his first half TD attempt. Winning the toss in OT. Both teams got some snakes in the grass in OT. Being able to flip the field against the slower Sea Elves was probably the difference in the game.

Semi Finals -
Successful blitz stab on AG5 carrier on 2nd turn of the first half really muddied the drive up for Rictor. Isn't able to protect the ball on the next turn and gives up a 2d on the ball which the AG5 gutters turned into a TD.

Finals-
First half
Blue Bones Clan's drive Turn 6 for the DoT team they were in lots of contact and shadowing forced their hand into blitzing Skitter to get him off the carrier. Blackgigio choose to try to keep advancing, but ended up with a cage corner in contact with an assassin. The assassin successfully stabbed and a wrestle/horns/tackle gutter got the 1d pow. AG5 gutter completes the play by walking through a couple tackle zones to the ball and picks up and moves downfield.

2nd half
Clan Eshin survives a blitz on their drive and on the very next play, the bomber fails his pass roll as the first action of the turn and causes a turnover giving the rats a free turn.

Overall, Clan Eshin is "Team Speed" and I frequently used that to build around. I generally went asymmetrical with my defensive alignments to take advantage of whatever gaps the opponent gives up. I thought that both Pirate teams let their carriers get too far disjointed early in their drives and that led to gutters winning the ball in both of those games. Generally, I prefer to carry only a handful of regular clan rats and prefer to use the night runners.

I actually was in the clan rat camp early in my time playing Clan Eshin, but I've come to the determination that the Night Runner is the superior player. They have the bonus effect of spreading out your opponent's tacklers to try to get them on the ground during opening blocks or force them to provide multiple assists to get 3db on them to free the tackler to hit someone more important. That is one of the few weaknesses of the Clan Eshin team.

Someone potentially important is at risk on kickoffs and generally during every play. I follow Bazakastine's advice on Gutter Runners in this matter and either leave them all at risk or none at risk during any given turn.(On kickoffs...the gutters are cheaper to replace so one of them loses the lottery) During one scoring play where I had to do a bunch of dodging, I ended up with 2 gutters against the sidelines/endzone. If the play didn't work, the opponent can only hit one.