Champs Dogging It

[mcmlb55]

Shane and Mika seem like theyre playing to see who can dog it the most and still win. I dont care what anyone has to say, theyre both playing very far from their top form. I cant possibly see how theyre BOTH playing this inconsistently. This isnt what i expected to watch. Disappointed, I am.

 

[GetMeThere]

Shane and Mika seem like theyre playing to see who can dog it the most and still win. I dont care what anyone has to say, theyre both playing very far from their top form. I cant possibly see how theyre BOTH playing this inconsistently. This isnt what i expected to watch. Disappointed, I am.

Once the spread gets wide enough, it's to the advantage of both to dog it: To the winner, to seem not so strong, and to the loser, because since he feels he can't overcome, he might as well look like a loser/caver.

 

[book collector]

Champs dogging it

Are they dogging , or trying to do a little "extra" on some shots. Many times when 2 players know what the other is capable of , they seem to try a little "too" hard to be perfect.
I haven't seen the match so I'll have to take your word if you say thats not it.

 

[Zivan1967]

I wouldn't say their playing that bad

Day one
Shane played great until he got to 10+, then he was playing more casual and wasn't controlling the break that well the entire time.

Mika forgot how to break and had to relearn breaking lol, plus he seemed frustrated that nothing was going as easy as he wanted.

Day two
Shane fixed his break and it was much more controlled but he lost his control of the cueball on shots.

Mika had a better mindset in the begining and was breaking a bit better, but everytime he got a few games together Shane got more serious and pulled the lead to 10 again.

Day three
Not done yet but Shane has his break working and stroke working, no problems except for missing random shots. If Mika was in better stroke i bet Shane wouldn't be missing those shots, he's playing like a serious practice session right now.

Mika is putting way too much spin on the cueball during the break and it doesn't have that POP action to pocket the balls like Shane, since he can't get into gear Shane is taking a game or two every game mika gets.


In the end
Shane's break crushed mika, he had much more chances to run out and when he couldn't he played great safes.

Mika shot better in day 2 but could only keep pace with Shane score wise because of his weaker break.

Even though Shane got more forgiving rolls i don't think it affected the outcome in the end.

I too thought at first these guys would be bringing their best game to the table everyday, and their would be a ton of offensive runouts, but actually watching these two made me feel better about my game and that's well worth the money for me.

 

[mcmlb55]

Well the doggin' it thing wasnt literal, just describing a level of play i wasnt expecting them to play at. It in all seriousness, seemed as if they didnt really care if they won. It all ended being just hype. I think if they brought their A game, it would compare to Efren and Earl's challenge match.

Btw, Shane's rolls defenitely helped the score, at least the first two days. Today, Mika just gave up.

 

[paksat]

Well the doggin' it thing wasnt literal, just describing a level of play i wasnt expecting them to play at. It in all seriousness, seemed as if they didnt really care if they won. It all ended being just hype. I think if they brought their A game, it would compare to Efren and Earl's challenge match.

Btw, Shane's rolls defenitely helped the score, at least the first two days. Today, Mika just gave up.

That's what happens when the absolute elites get together and play... the level goes down believe it or not.. not up.

 

[Snapshot9]

And

That's what happens when the absolute elites get together and play... the level goes down believe it or not.. not up.

That is just one of the reasons why elites don't match up very often. Another is because some are afraid of what it will do to their reputation if they match up against another elite player and lose.

 

[Zivan1967]

Well the doggin' it thing wasnt literal, just describing a level of play i wasnt expecting them to play at. It in all seriousness, seemed as if they didnt really care if they won. It all ended being just hype. I think if they brought their A game, it would compare to Efren and Earl's challenge match.

Btw, Shane's rolls defenitely helped the score, at least the first two days. Today, Mika just gave up.

that's true, but day 3 was a much better performance from Shane, he missed a few too many toward the end when he was at 98 but other than that was pretty consistent

Mika finally found something at 74 and played pretty good till 78 but made 1 mistake and then lost his confidence again, i think the lucky rolls wouldn't have been so effective if Mika stayed calm but everytime Shane missed and ended up leaving no shot (not the 2 way shots) Mika lost his cool

My favorite match ever was the Efren and Earl's challenge match. Earl played amazing day 1 and 2 ultra aggressive, Efren hung in there (his break wasn't working much) and dominated day 3 ... but if Efren didn't find his gear the last day he would have been in the situation Mika is in right now

I say 10 ball is not Mika's game, this match would have been more exciting if it was 9 ball and someone who doesn't know much about pool, but knows how to rack well with proper instruction, racked with a wooden rack. It would be random racking because the person wouldn't know anything like 2 in the back of the rack is beneficial, and there would be more runouts

Shane is a 10 ball beast simply because of that break he has, he can afford to slack off a bit when he has that break going, 3 balls down and shape on the one, if i had that break i'd stay pretty relaxed in a race to 100 too

I really want to see a Shane vs. Alex rematch and see how things would play out the next time around but i doubt it'll happen.

Either way great production from TAR, first one i got time to watch live and despite missing the begining of day 3 it was pretty good. Hopefully Justin gets that match with Shane vs. Dennis that he was mentioning toward the end of the ppv, i would definitely try to watch that one live too.

 

[book collector]

That is just one of the reasons why elites don't match up very often. Another is because some are afraid of what it will do to their reputation if they match up against another elite player and lose.

Not just their reputation, more importantly I think is their own ego.
When they play lesser players , their stroke is always perfect and they never seem to miss, but when they play each other the same thing happens to them that happens to us , they get a little doubt and their game goes down a bit.
Add a couple of bad rolls and all of a sudden they look human again.