 TEAM PRESENTATION
Benelux has always been a great team of the Cavalry Nations Cup. Throughout the years it always managed to perform extremely well, and face the very best teams the tournament had to offer, giving them either a really hard time, or a good beating.
And there's a simple reason to that: Belgium and the Netherlands hold an impressive amount of incredibly skilled cavalry players. They did in the past, and they still do today despite the departure of some of their most important players like Martastik and Felix, who respectively led Belgium and the Netherlands in 2014, before it was put together in 2015, as Team Benelux.
However this year, Benelux did not have it all easy. The team had troubles organizing itself, and saw tensions rise within its ranks. Tensions that ended rather badly and forced the team to a change of leadership, about two weeks ago. This time of transition cost a lot of time and efforts to all the team members involved, and it has resulted in Lio taking the head of the team, helped by Clausewitz as his Vice-Captain. The latter has always been an important figure of the Benelux team. He was Martastik's Vice-Captain in 2015, and he led the team in 2016, with Lio as his Vice-Captain. So these two know each other, and they know how to work together.
It took them some days to re-organize the team and lead it out of this short crysis. Now it is fair to say that Benelux has a solid core of players and a more than capable duet to lead it to its upcoming challenges.
Benelux only played two matches so far. They managed to get an 8-0 victory against North America, and were defeated 4 to 8 against reigning champions United Kingdom, in a match that was particularly tense and enjoyable, with the British players congratulating their opponents several times.
Despite that loss Benelux still holds solid chances of qualifying to the semi-finals of the Cavalry Nations Cup, and the team they will probably have to challenge for that qualification is Team Germanic Countries. However before this crucial match happens, Benelux must make sure they don't drop precious points on the way, and this challenge starts tonight, against Turkey. |  |  TEAM PRESENTATION
Turkey has a very large and active community on Native, it is known, however it was never quite the same thing on Napoleonic Wars. But even if it is a rather small community on this module of the game, Turkey has participated in the 2015, 2016 and now 2017 editions of the Cavalry Nations Cup, making it a well-known and respected challenger of the competition.
Even though it all happened quite smoothly, Turkey also witnessed a change withing its leadership this year. After the original Captain of the team (Gameshero) left that position, Turkey was without a leader for some time. Levoro joined in and changed that, taking the head of the team with his former Captain acting as second in command. Levoro was the Captain of Turkey in 2015, but was not a part of Caucasian's team in 2016, since he was on a break from the game. However his return did some good to the Turkish team, as a lot of changes came with it.
The new Captain did not hesitate to make many changes in his roster, removing inactive players to welcome new, more motivated members. Changes within the Turkish team were still happening just a few days ago. If this might be the signs of an unstable team, with Levoro you can be sure that it's just a way to motivate the players to do their best and earn their spot in the Turkish line-up.
Historically, Turkey never managed to go past the group stage. This year they were unfortunate and had to face two extremely strong opponents in their first two matches, resulting in a 1-8 defeat to the United Kingdom, and a 0-8 defeat to the Germanic Countries, and leaving Turkey with little if no chances to reach the semi-finals.
Does that mean they are going to give up and play their last two matches without caring? Certainly not. Turkey always was one of the most motivated and involved teams of the tournament, showing excellent spirit and fair-play attitude every single time. We must all expect them to continue with that spirit and try to punch Benelux as hard as they can. And that's the spirit we all want to see for this match.
Turkey is gifted with a couple of insanely strong individuals. It would be the fair thing to do to mention Caucasian and Franco-Turksih player Harford, who both played in various Cavalry Napoleonic Wars League matches, and even finals, with the 4e and 5e Hussards. Players like them are used to competitive cavalry matches and hard challenges. They will be ready to face Benelux tonight, and give them a hard time on the field. |
