Who would have thought this time last year when SNSD were adding shelves to their growing trophy cabinet that India would be the new superpower in European Highlander? Well I may be perhaps exaggerating the influence of the sub-continent country but alas, a team bearing the international flag with their long standing esteemed nayak Pancake took the ETF2L crown and established themselves as the current best team in Europe. I am of course talking about Kill Switch who claimed this accolade with a win over Highpander in a DDOS affected Final and earning themselves a hefty 500 Euros to convert into rupees and pay their multi-national roster. 3rd placed side Itsallgood arguably gave Kill Switch a harder game than the final itself as they narrowly lost the regular season playoff match with the champions, earning a respectable bronze whilst former champions DAROUTOUTOU and SNSD came 4th and 5th respectively. Former runners-up Parrot Gapers dropped after one match whilst, Legolas were relegated via playoffs losing to Division  1 runners-up Stacked who finished behind Chessclub Techniques, both securing a Premiership spot for this season. Finally Sookie Doing Work, finishing 6th place did secure themselves another season in the top flight however amid some roster troubles they have folded and this leaves one spot available in the Premiership for Season 6.

So there you have a quick recap of Season 5 and how it impacts season 6’s proceeding, ultimately we have seen a rise in a “new generation” of teams in Europe with some of the old guard being knocked off the top and the rest being succumbed to history. The result of this is nothing short of fantastic, as between seasons we have seen the new established top teams building, the former champions reshaping their rosters to rise back to glory and new additions to Prem coming in with ambitions beyond avoiding relegation. To make up the numbers, the newest addition to ETF2L Prem is a challenge like no other for our resident European teams, the challenge of the Americans in the form of current UGC Platinum leaders Electric Temptations putting out a side to try and snatch the intercontinental cash monies. Speaking of money, the prizes they are all fighting over will be a €1000 prizepool thanks to another anonymous donation (this league is floating with charitable rich sponsors) and courtesy of TteSports by Thermaltake, nine sexy Tt BLACK Gaming Mouses will be won and handed out to the winning team alongside their slice of 500 Euros, with second place settling for €350 and third place getting to share €150 euros.

Excited? No?! What if I told you Admirable was playing Medic this season for one of the teams? Convinced now? I thought so...onwards to the previews!

Full List of Premiership teams

• Kill Switch
• Highpander
• Itsallgood
• DAROUTOUTOU
• Sweet Harmony (formerly known as SNSD)
• Chessclub Techniques
• Stacked
• Electric Temptations

Kill Switch

The 2nd placed side in the regular season managed to come away unbeaten in the playoffs and take the crown and win the cash money prize of 500 euros. The champions have survived the between season period losing only one player, their Engineer of the Season, It’s Mint who has gone to Japan for a year and whilst it is impossible to replace him, being an Engineer does mean the replacement’s impact on the game isn’t as big a loss. ETF2L admin Freakie has been recruited to take the place, the Danish Engineer will always be a downgrade to It's Mint, but will be able to play the class well enough not to lose them games - I cant believe I wrote so much about Engineers, the voodoo is working Kip. This roster has a solid composition of players including their in-game leader Emilio “PussySlayer”_ Estevez on Demo, Hegee the “Quick fix merchant”, Jamal “The Wrestler” on Heavy, Dennia the "abuser of Crit-o-Cola", Kcot the “250 ping sniper” and Ond “The Stalker” Kaja, for them like every side has been mixed, but it is hard to say Kill Switch are not the favourites to retain their title, but they will face some stiff competition.

I have not talked about Candle, the Croation Pyro superstar, nor Snow, the English sniper main reluctantly turned Spy main as his inconsistency on the Australian class leaves him seemingly unable to compete regularly enough, trials with other teams in Prem for Sniper haven't seen the Spy of the season runner up move away from Kill Switch, but his desire to play something else has seen him drop himself and suggest Kill Switch find a new Spy. We could see the return of former spy Eilman, but other people such as Spirit and Grenjabob are rumoured to be trialing. For Candle, rumours have established with some rocky relations with certain team-mates, bear in mind these are only rumours but hey, they pay me the big bucks to spread rumours. The question is will any of this effect Kill Switch or will they keep it together and dominate another season?

Leader statement

Emilio Estevez: KS is largely the same as last season ( when we won btw ;) ) only picking up a new spy/engi as Mint has left European shores to live out his maidcafe dreams in Nippon and Snow just doesn't like to play spy. Season 6 looks to be the closest EU Prem yet and I think its hard to pick a winner or a loser for Prem atm but I expect the Americans to save everyone else the embarrassment of being relegated by coming last or folding (I can see scheduling being a big issue). The expectation/pressure is on Hildogs again imo as they have made some big changes to their roster with the intention of winning Prem.

Highpander

Bulow - This season I have been selected as the impartial bystander worthy of typing some words about Hildreth’s team (how does that feel, Bubble?). Highpander’s ETF2L debut in Season 5 started very strongly, with their pre-Christmas form probably the best in the division. After the turn of the year, however, they seemed much more lethargic, culminating in a rather limp display in the final as they lost to Kill Switch in two maps.

The break in between seasons has seen a number of changes to the roster, as Furbo has retired his scatter gun, Ritalin tired of the game(/people calling him ‘Shitalin’?), and Fearboy and Dr Kaka axed (or ‘time commitments’ if you don’t want to be cruel). Several trialists have been put through the paces, with ‘have you played in the HL pug channel?’ seemingly the only criteria for an opportunity. New scout Quad certainly does not fall into that category however, his last appearance in an ETF2L official dating all the way back to the last Nations’ Cup. Whilst clearly a top drawer scout, the man from Denmark’s highlander experience has usually come on pyro, and there’s always the issue of availability (i.e. actually turning up) that has haunted previous teams. Reassuringly, Quad is apparently on record with the reassuring quote “I want to play highlander.” Sorted. Partnering him on the flank will be Zoob; after my stinging criticism in the Highlander Awards show, he has thoroughly dicked on me in every game we have played since. Not content with one east European sniper, Mr Epic has been added to the roster; whether he or Phroblem end up being the main headclicker on the team remains to be seen. Solid (my treacherous dog of a former teammate) will be assisting with the sniping shenanigans with his ambassador as he returns after a season away on spy. Rumour has it he was so madly jealous of Inso’s success that he returned to highlander in an attempt to show him up...The combo is where the biggest changes have been made; Steve returns on pyro and Hildreth will be leading the team on demo, while Piddox and Fool have been added on Heavy and Medic respectively. Fool has always been a very good medic and surprisingly teamless after Easy Going’s demise. Piddox was one of Sookie Doin’ Work’s standout players and is pretty much unflappable in the face of adversity – a valuable attribute in a season where there are no noticeably inferior teams. Nijoonen shifts over to Engineer and doing all the bitch work that Hildoge is too lazy to do anymore.

Furbo will be a pretty big loss, and unlike last season the current line up won’t have had the experience of a successful Wireplay campaign behind them. On the other hand, many of the new faces are improvements on previous incumbents, and with the team’s strength being Hildreth’s absolute authority and organisation, there is every chance for them to gel by the end of the season. As bitter experience has no doubt taught them, a slow start and a strong finish is infinitely more desirable than the other way around.

Leader statement

Hildreth: We had a disappointing end to the season losing the final to KS, it has only really inspired us to keep going. Couple of changes to stop the spread of Bulow lies, Ritalin got bored of Medic, Fearboy got busy with real life and school, Furbo sadly hung up his scattergun and Dr kaka is making his own Latvian team, he says....but either way this freed us up to move Nijoonen over to Engineer and he has been really effective on it, giving us extra communication on the flank. I wouldn't have done this if I hadn't saw the opportunity to pick up my favourite Frenchman Piddox on Heavy, I've always seen him as underrated and on a weaker team, he has really fit into his new role and solidified the combo. Kissakala was the natural replacement for Ritalin, but with his activity a bit flaky due to 6's, we trialed many Medics but I found Fool to be very solid with his mechanics and attitude towards the game, Medic is a bit of a bitch class so if you play it you got to keep calm generally. Also picked up Mr Epic to help give us extra strength to the Sniper position and Scout area, I got him and Phroblem vying over my affection.

Two big pickups for us which will raise some eyebrows for your average TF2 obsessed nerd is first and foremost Solid on Spy, I picked him over some really strong players because I believe he can add that extra faggot Ambassador play that Kill Switch and IAG spies had against us that was so hard for us to counter. But also when we saw Quad was interested in playing HL, we couldn't help but ask him and he seemed really intuitive and interested in calling strategy, getting involved in comms during his trial, leading us to pick him up. Not often you find one of the former great Scouts in TF2 and see them to take an interest in playing in cpSteel, so we jumped at the chance to see the Quad pistol return. Either way we have a fantastic lineup of players both starting and in reserve ready to be moulded into a team, I still think there are so many tough teams to play, no tougher than our week 1 opponents Kill Switch who as champions should be expecting to retain their title._

Itsallgood

This section of the article is dedicated to all those people who said Itsallgood couldn't amount to nothing, to all the skill police who said Bulow couldn't play in a top team when he was just trying to play some games to feed his ego man, to all the Norwegians in da struggle, know what i'm saying? Itsallgood baby baby.

My biggest surprise was to see IAG turn themselves into one of the best Highlander teams in Europe through the course of the season with Bulow's Northern Irish charm winning me over more than Admirable ever could and constantly playing for eachother despite having a sort of dysfunctional family atmosphere akin to an American TV show. They seem to play a distinct style of Highlander relying on the likes of Inso (Epsilon's spy), Muuki (More medic kills than Jaedong from Starcraft Brood War) and the Most Valuable Player, Scout of the Season and Best Premiership Debut winner (the most decorated Highlander player from last season) Lazybear on Scout. When these guys go big, the team follows up though consistently being ridiculed by some for having one of the weaker combo's in Kkaltuu, Rudey, Bulow and Steel superstar JoeNufc (It's N-U-F-C yank casters, it is short for Newcastle United Football Club, those sounds that remind you of dying children orientating from his mouth? That's called his ACCENT). Despite this, playing off their flank has been increasingly effective for them as they seem to know how not to respect any of their opponents and use eachother to full effect.

The supporting cast of Fanny on sniper, who remains solid and on his day able to outsnipe any top sniper and Lenny, one of IAG's many spy mains who could probably play Prem but instead has shifted over to Engineer, an inspired choice as Lenny's apparent lack of knowing what game he is playing puts many people under false pretences that he won't kill you. He will...oh yes, he will. IAG's win in the Team Awesome Cup final over Kill Switch shows that they got what it takes to beat the best, whether or not they can take this form over to the new season remains to be seen.

Leader Statement

Bulow: We had a lot of roster changes over the course last season – kKalttu replaced Pinky on heavy, Muuki came in for Schmuse on soldier, and Joe has been playing demo with us instead of Niak. Ncm decided to take a break at the end of the season – this gave Lenny a chance to play again which is great since he’s been there from the start. We know that on our day we can beat any other team in the division, and I’d certainly expect us to do at least as well as we did last season, even though the competition will be much more intense this time around. Whereas last season there were a few weaker teams, I honestly think that anyone can take points off each other.

DAROUTOUTOU ##

The first of the former champions on my list, if you have not gathered by now I am going in “ranking” order from last season and DA represented last hope for the “old” generation of teams to take the crown, but fell short in the playoffs against Itsallgood. However a 4th place finish is extremely respectable for the Frenchies, despite not really practising at all, they still showed enough glimpses of their talent to take points off some of the higher teams and for the second time in as many seasons dispatched SNSD to finish top 4 ahead of them. A roster of a lot of gifted players known for their skill in 6v6, DA have Soldier of the season T-Mac, Sniper of the season Flippy and Heavy of the season Tek putting in big performances consistently. However some of their other star names like Exon and Plapla have not quite reproduced the goods in Highlander, whilst some of their other supporting cast haven't exactly blown people away, Degun on Pyro with Ombrack coming in on Medic to replace the less active k3 – It has not been the most memorable season for them.

The changes though this season are quite surprising to me, it seems Tek has reportedly gotten bored of the fat man and moved to Medic whilst controversially, baud has stepped in to Heavy. If some of you didn't know, baud has been deemed a cheater by ETF2L's Anti-Cheat team and will not be able to play until his ban expires on the 23rd March. But no matter what if their roster does not practise they could be propping up the bottom half of Prem, though if the talent they have on board does blossom in matches they can certainly surprise anyone but I can't see them winning the entire thing without some vigorous practise. .

Leader statement

Mista: We will be experimenting some modifications this season. Our line-up will slightly change. Tek, who was our appointed heavy and maincaller, got unfortunately bored of the sandvich-throwing gameplay after some years and wants now to fill kustom3's shoes, as he will not be able to play much TF2 anymore (RIP k3). So Tek will be our new medic while we recruited baud (whose controversial ban expires in 2 weeks) to replace him as a heavy. We are also losing Plapla as scout this season, replaced by fl1p who was our sub scout for 2 years, so fl1p has a little bit of HL experience.

These roster and line-up changes will of course affect our gamestyle as we want now to focus the heal more on Exon, our demoman, while baud will be the silent heavy behind, and tek still maincalling. The big question mark remains the spy. We are still thinking about who might fill the spot as we let Isil go. One thing is certain tho', we will practice even less than last season for personal reasons. Indeed, we were two inches from not participating this time, so we are considering this season as a "transition" one.

Sweet Harmony (SNSD)

January 5th of 2014 marked “Bloody Sunday” and the end of SNSD's history as it seems they have retired their team page on ETF2L, possibly to honour their past achievements as team number 8855 have been left inactive in place of more or less the same roster switching to a new team page and rebuilding their roster. They will now have to be called “Sweet Harmony”, whatever that means I don't know. The only new player is the inclusion of **Oodles on Spy, a massive upgrade from Hurri (and Thalash) as it gives the three-times champions some extra firepower. Within the structure of the team I can see the big change being a switch in positions with Linus going from Soldier to Heavy and Zebbosai going onto Soldier. Recent logs can't give you too much of a reflection on how this change has worked for them, a lot of practises statistically show not much difference but some promising results say this change, especially in the main calling of Linus as part of the combo has a lot of promise.

Elsewhere the other big switch up looks like it may be Tviq or Permzilla on Scout and Droso on sniper, Tviq has always been known for his ability to destroy the opposition and was the stand out player for SNSD last season, Droso meanwhile had been under eternal criticism from within his side on the scout class, perhaps pushing the cart is above this Belgium beast? Either way switch has shown Droso as a more than capable sniper whilst Tviq has a destructive form, thankfully slightly hindered by the banning of the Baby Face Blaster but still scary nonetheless, if he does infact play that is. Buttnose is still Pyro, criticised by many Highlander Pyro mains for “not being a Highlander Pyro main”, the man from England has been showing better form as of late, Fenrir is still Engineer and Kaidus is still Demoman showing some dominating performances on maps he knows like Gullywash and less so on the more Highlander core maps like Steel, an hour of Steel pubbing may beneficial to the superstar Demoman.

All of this is totally irrelevant though – THE SUCKER IS BACK! The legend, the icon, the man has returned to replace last season's best Medic (as voted for by ETF2L community) to once again try to shake of the stigma as an “uber dropper.” No Medic is quite universally known for such a common practise, I offer my hand in apology to my former friend “Freddy” for this, especially when it's obvious Bulow is more experienced in this art of uber dropping.

Leader Statement ###

Linus: SNSD, now rebooted as Sweet Harmony is all about fixing our mentality that has gone wrong since the end of season 3. We've been desperately trying to replicate our success by patching up holes left open by legendary players. This season we're a lot more liberal and want to build a new style of play that suits our current players better. The first and foremost change we made was moving myself to Heavy. I can finally maincall with ease, and let kaidus take almost every bit of useful heal. Zebbosai on soldier is a beast, and if he practices some of the hipster maps too, he'll easily shut down his competition, I guarantee.

Hurri has had enough after 3 years, so we had to find a new spy. oodles was a pick up we made after a long consideration. He is probably the most teamwork centric spy we have seen, which adds an awesome new aspect to our play. Hat decided to step down as medic. Being one of the very few people from last season that managed to perform up to the expected standard, he unfortunately did not have that much fun playing. This called us to resurrect TheSucker once again. Personally speaking I have very good chemistry with TheSucker, and he's responsible for coming up with most of the strats for the team alongside with me, so I'm really looking forward to playing with him again.

TviQ has called it quits after a long standing love/hate relationship with TF2. He has attempted on playing again as scout, using the baby face blaster but unfortunately after he has decimated Highpander (and Permzilla) on his own, it got banned. We have toyed with the idea of recruiting a " 100% highlander player" as our new sniper, but the trials have been very disappointing. Droso has managed to impress on sniper, despite all the doubters; while he straight up got kicked from the scout position after all the arguments he caused on the comms last season, we picked him right back up on a class that doesn't require to build uber. Finally, a bit of a question mark. While we have decided to take Permzilla in as a starter, we're a bit unsure what class he'd be playing. We're still experimenting; you might see a surprise class switch happen in a pcw near you.

Chessclub Techniques

Finally onto the new boys of the season, as mentioned the bottom 3 from last season are gone to be replaced by 3 definitely worthy teams. First up it's Chessclub Techniques, the Divison 1 winners who edged out Stacked for automatic promotion and their roster and pre-season credentials show they got the upcoming talent plus tactical nous and soulful songs of murder (see below). As I start to get used to their team more and more they are a lot stronger than a lot of people give them credit for, and are notable for being the only Prem team playing all the European leagues, as they have signed up for Wireplay alongside Highpander and currently top UGC. I've already mentioned long time Heavy lover Ruskeydoo, who's only weakness is his jet set millionaire lifestyle of flying around the world to provide terrible TF2 items for all (#Hibernating Bear Set).Kaylus joins him in the combo as Le French Demoman, but they also have the option of former 6v6 Israeli **Spary as well, both are more than capable. Their leaders **Scissors and This is evil evil are both solid on their respective Pyro and Engineer (2nd best Engi named "Evil" in TF2?).

The biggest threat in my humble opinion for this side is their “pick classes”; Khazul - the Swede that sounds like he came out of Assassin's Creed – has been impressive but nobody stands out more on this roster than Elysium, their real linchpin and big weapon that makes them capable of really bringing the game to top sides. Assuming he isn't a dirty, ugly little hacking Danish cheater, this guy is one of the ones you need to look out for during the season. Elsewhere all I can say is Chessclub has huge strength in depth, their apparent starting Soldier and Scout seems to be the mysterious T and the former SIAS man oamaok, capable players but with the option of Maffi, Thazu, Marty, Atomicus, SorroW and many more on the roster, if they have a couple of missing players they have more than a few options to pick from. I think they can do really well, but it's so hard to call a lot will go down to how they perform versus the other new additions, good results and I can see these guys in the playoffs.

Leader Statement:

_Scissors: It feels like the addition of oamaok as main scout, was the last piece we needed to fill out the chessboard. The hope is, that we can once again get that amazing flank connection we enjoyed in the beginning of season 5, when Pennyfarming was still actively playing highlander. On the flank we enjoy the flexibility of oamaok and T’, who with the support of Khazul’s calls and revolver aim can get us the pick we need, at practically any time. After that, our extremely explosive trio of Kaylus, Ruskeydoo and Sprayer can swoop in at the blink of an eye, and ensure victory. On the defensive spectrum, we have Evil whose use of the rescue ranger to keep those sentries up is almost unfair to the enemies. And if none of that works out, we have Elysium in the back to clear our way.

So far, the predictions have been very generous towards us, with a lot of people believing we can take it all. Last season, it was the complete opposite, even from our end. Confidence was sky-high despite the fact that nobody knew us. While I still believe we are one of the strongest teams, and have the potential to be the very strongest, we just have so many tiny issues that keep us from reaching our potential. So far, the commitment and dedication has been worrying, and we have struggled to assemble rosters for scrims every week since the season ended. Hopefully, this will turn around once the season starts! Our hope for this season, is obviously to win it all. And if we keep keen and motivated, we believe that this is well within our reach. Do we expect to win it all? Some do, others don’t. I do however think, that most of us can agree that finishing below 3rd would be a disappointment.

I think that pretty much any team can take it this season. So many interesting moves have been made, and it’s going to be super exciting!

Stacked

If you had the luck of the Irish You'd be sorry and wish you were dead You should have the luck of the Irish And you'd wish you was English instead. - John Lennon

Well top o' the mornin' to thee fellas, a rich and bountiful one for the likes of those charming green men from across the Irish Sea. This newly assembled roster is sprayed with talent across the board after defeating a lifeless Legolas in the relegation playoffs. B33p, the team leader has assembled a side with some big names, none more so than caster, writer, player and teen idol Admirable who is putting his lucky charms into Medicing in Highlander. The smarts come from this man, but the real muscle in this team comes from the highly rated Tracker, voted as Upcoming Talent of the Season and having a reputation for being a “hacking cheating thirdie,” just like Elysium, he really brings the pain. Another big name in the scene on the roster is Huhy playing the Demoman class, having had experience playing for Kritzkast in UGC, the prominent Lithuanian can put out impressive damage numbers plus stats if he stay alive (and has the motivation).

Quick word about other people in the team then, Sorex (from Italy, not Israel) is one of the upcoming scouts in Highlander, Tauson on Soldier has performed well in his transition into Highlander for Stacked whilst Tutorial, MUSA and B33p play their respective Spy, Engineer and Pyro roles up to standard. But the noticeable thing about this side is their lack of a Heavy, though having a lot of serious big names on backup, none of them are known for their “heavy prowess” and to many people's avail, few players adapt to the Heavy class with little HL experience like Tek, so their backups BeaVern, Ryb or War on Heavy does not seem forthcoming folks. I have seen them playing a lot with Kill Switch's Engineer Freakie who has done well on Heavy for them in UGC (being on their roster from before) but without him to use, they have flirted with Admirable on Heavy and backup medic Lantak and also Sad Panda from Div 1 team “Let's Go Bananas” has filled in. I don't really see where a solid heavy is going to come from, perhaps they can steal one of Chessclub's 2 Heavy main backups? Find out below, b33p will spill it all!

One thing I know about this team is b33p likes to build as strong a roster as possible on paper and get them enough scrims to learn the maps but there is perhaps less emphasis on teamwork and strategy with these guys, their main callers are less experienced in Highlander than a lot of other teams, something that may cost them if the raw talent of the likes of Sorex, Tracker and Huhy fails.

Leader statement

b33p: Stacked [-st-] is back and with some fairly major roster changes. sorex and TausoN will be working the flank, but between seasons TausoN has not been playing due to 6v6, though hopefully their chemistry will reappear quickly. I'm still stuck sniffing Admirable's ass with flames, who is now officially main medic as Lantak has been moved to sub. huhy has replaced Unlimited as main demoman and with the loss of Freakie, smzii has joined to fill those big, heavy boots. An entirely new core of Admirable, huhy and smzii who have a lot of 6v6 experience together should set us up for a good season. We have MUSA back to do some engineering, though we have been playing with Mista in UGC. No changes in our 'pick' classes; tracker and Tutorial remain in their positions. We look forward to our premiership debut.

Electric Temptations

The last but by FAR not the least of the new additions to ETF2L Premiership division – Electric Temptations, currently unbeaten in UGC Platinum North America and only loss this season appears to be to a Mid Platinum side named Dead Ringer Storage in the TF.TV Invitational Cup. Those unfamiliar with the North American scene won't know too much but this side has some of the most deadly talent from that continent. Taking a look at the roster, the backups could play in any European Premiership team let alone the main classes, on paper this is possibly the best lineup.

Phaze is unstoppable on Sniper this UGC season, another American sniper like Jake and Max before him that will strike fear into European hearts. EvIIL is the new shiny thing in Engineer land to emerge, being compared to Sigafoo (his backup) so they have that extra boost on the flank. Their scouts are the disgustingly handsome Decimate from ESEA Invite and his understudy Br0nze, of BPM and 6cuties fame. 38Special on Demoman, deals huge damage like successful yank Demos of the past Xalox and Duwatna is key to bringing their team success and opening opportunities for teammates like Kill 'Em All or Arthur on Heavy to clean them up. Every other player on this team is elite, what I find funny the Americans have the best Heavy, Spy and Engineer in the world ON BACKUP at the moment. Scary scary roster.

But to compete with Europeans means to give up playing with less than 100 ping, to play during your afternoons and possibly incorporating backups into an otherwise successful and strong side. This in turn disrupts their momentum as a team and effects results. I already seen them pcw the likes of Chessclub and lose narrowly on an EU server, since this competition is EU based that does show they won't do a Team USA and roll over the best teams with ease, but to say they can't repeat that success would be foolish.

Leader statement: ###

Argo: We’re very excited to get to play in Prem this season and look forward to getting a chance to play the best Highlander teams in Europe. Our starting roster is nearly identical to our lineup for UGC, aside from having Ash on Soldier and Johnny on Pyro, so we are pretty optimistic that we will be able to replicate the success that we are having in UGC. Thankfully, we were able to get many of our good friends from the other top Highlander team, Gentlemen’s Club, to join our ETF2L roster with us, so even if some of our starters’ work schedules conflict with European match times, we should be able to sub in players who can perform just as well, or in some cases even better, than our starters.

We have very limited experience playing as a team against European squads, so we’re not entirely sure what to expect in terms of how we will line up. That being said, our roster is undoubtedly stacked to the brim with tons of talent, so we’re pretty confident that if and when we get comfortable with 200+ ping, we will be able to give the other teams in Prem a run for their money. We are a very competitive group and understand that the Prem spot that we received was given under the expectation that we would perform well and play through the entire season, so we plan to approach this season just as have this season in UGC, and do our best to win.

Coverage

So there are the previews, but onto the meat and bones of this season. I may have listed 8 teams in order of last season's placements plus the 3 new teams in a random order but there is no way to really tell who will come out on top. Will Kill Switch retain their title? Will Highpander's new roster prove too strong? Will Itsallgood repeat their success from the Team Awesome Cup? Will DA's new shakeup reveal the missing link for them? Will SNSD return to their former glory under the Sweet Harmony tag? Will Chessclub take their Division 1 title winning form into Prem? Or will Stacked show with their revamped roster shakeups they have what it takes? Finally, will the Americans Electric Temptation crush the Euros like they did in the Nations Cup, high ping or not?

So many questions, only answer is the find out and BlackOut Gaming is the place to be this season for Highlander coverage, stick around and your jaw might drop just like TheSu......