might have picked a bad season to get my start in open :(

Every player and team starts from somewhere. Unless money is a problem, there isn't really a "bad" time to start. My first season (S13) was 2-14 (2 forfeit wins, AKA we never actually won a match).

Despite what anyone says, scrims and matches definitely have an element of difference. You can scrim open teams all day and win, but match time might be a slightly (or drastically) different story. Match experience is the best experience.

its just open

I don't feel you guys understand that this move-up system isn't just ESEA's doing. This is the way it was done in CAL, when CEVO emerged they followed suit. The system basically became the norm. The only time that it hasn't work this way is when CAL and CEVO had 'placement tournaments'. They've been conducted a variety of ways.

whoa..CEVO is actually doing one right now to prepare for the upcoming cs:go season.
http://www.cevo.com/news/106/cs-go-season-3-skill-divisions-placement-tournament/

http://puu.sh/4kR4r.png

I don't believe ESEA has ever done one. I think I remember hearing lpkane isn't a fan of them or something. Plus, I doubt ESEA would ever have an off season long enough to implement a placement tournament since they're so hungry for subscription fees.

its ok you can always beat us, we're bad

http://play.esea.net/teams/59733

And look another team that shouldn't be in open in open.

Should be moved if only because of the duck.

yeah i think smile is pretty good too

....They are all offclassing

http://i.imgur.com/O4wOQnF.png

Thoughts on the salt miners?
http://play.esea.net/teams/77724

rummy is really good, the others are all names that have been around and are good but i'd say rummy is definitely the standout there

When they get on a roll I don't see them stopping easily.

r5
with m0nster
medding?

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA

downpour is the next monkey suit

it might be the thing that kills us

i dont foresee a lot of buffs coming my way

rip tonka truck bedsheets

@@@VROOM@@@

I really wish some of these offclassing teams would scrim once or twice so I can read way too much into the logs and start coming up with some predictions to fret over until the season starts.

We've scrimmed the budsquad and tied twice and lost/won one. Powah on sniper is scary because he kills you before you even see him with his 200 ping, their mids are usually weak unless powah gets 2+ headshots, their last holds are hard as hell to push into, star surprisingly gets some really good flank kills when his teammates bait for him.

I was more talking about Quantum Flux and Airshot Casino. Having seen Budsquad as well, I'm mostly focusing on truktruk and seanbud. Star is ok at scout but is better when he and powah switch and he plays roamer (I don't know if this is a normal thing or if they just tried it in a scrim against us). Powah on sniper is scary, but as long as you play out of sightlines at all times and know that sometimes you're just gonna get sniped, it's not a huge deal. We had our roamer or a scout get aggressive with him immediately when we spotted him and it cut down on his lanes. He and truk both on scout was pretty nasty though.

A big part of taking rounds from budsquad is exploiting Whisker's tendency to get caught out of position and the relative lack of damage coming from their demo (Lange?). Seanbud majorly anchors the combo, but it's still possible to overwhelm them, especially if you rotate a scout over when powah is sniping.

1. truktruk is probably not the starting scout (source, his stream and his dedication to eSports), just a heads up.

2. Game of Throws 5-0'd us. I don't know if it's because they're really gearing up for the season but they played pretty impressively against us (could've been us being bad that scrim but nonetheless). http://sizzlingstats.com/stats/65531 The real standout besides smi|e, obviously, is battery, who knows how to play around that combo. He had less than 1/4th (!) of the heals that smi|e had but still dealt 7059 damage to smi|e's 8936. His pipes are solid connects.

ggwp!

(sizzling stats is so ugly... http://logs.tf/89355) our demo only had 13% heals because he was constantly buffed and wasn't ever really taking damage, he only had 6 deaths

I don't think it's a big deal but yea, powah switched to scout or shotgun roamer many times in scrims against us. When he switches to scout star usually goes roamer, and on either class star has respectable DM.
The greatest weakness of the team imo is that star and truktruk like to go for big plays on the flank and they overextend frequently, and I wouldn't know what to say about their demo because I don't think they've played with only one demo during the offseason but rather with demo ringers.

Also, some other teams to watch as the season starts:

The Robot Cult - I know Air pretty well and he's an absolute monster with 300 health, and the rest of his team supports him well, it seems.

Medical Geniuses - Stochast1c's team has been playing together for a while and is gonna make some waves in ESEA this season. They don't really have a carry, but their team play, offclassing ability, and rachel's survivability will combine to make them quite a threat. Think Street Hoops but not quite as good.

And my thoughts on some other teams that have already been mentioned as contenders:

TF2Jump is Retarded - It's tempting to say the scouts carry this team, and Yeegz and Cheesy are definitely the most dangerous people on the team, but overlooking the heavy classes is pretty silly as both Broking and Zambler are capable of putting out a ton of damage. If there's a weak link it's HiveMind on roamer but frankly, he's better than almost every roamer in open anyways, so it's less a matter of him being weak as it is the rest of his team being really strong.

big bongs long dongs - I haven't had the chance to scrim against this team yet, so I can't offer too much in the way of an overview. Dancenumber seems to have been a pretty good pickup, if logs are any indication. I'd like to add more about this team after playing them.

Budsquad - I already discussed them in my above post. I'll leave it at that. If mana is correct in saying truktruk is not starting, I'd like to see who their second scout will be . It'll go a long way in determining their success as a team, with an already weak flank with powah on sniper.

Party Boys - Stealthy's squad has gone through a pretty major overhaul from the end of last season. Desca and CJ are damage machines, and Patrol has some of the funkiest bombs I've seen. Honestly I don't know who the roamer and who the pocket is for this team, as they seem to interchangeably bomb at any time. Stealthy and Tobi are a decent scout combo, but they're both cleanup style scouts rather than guys who will go out and make massive plays without support. Shutting down the heavy classes of this team and being prepared for some massive bombs at inopportune times will be the way to beat the Party Boys.

Salt Miners - Again, I haven't had the chance to scrim this team as a whole, but I've played against all of them on and off for the past couple seasons. Rummy is the star of this team, regularly doing 400+ dpm. Flippers and Max are both solid soldiers with a good mind for the game. Flippers is the king of weird offclasses that end up working, but sadly he's no longer the best sniper on his team. That award goes to wiggles, who is a monster on sniper as well as scout. Mathias is his scout partner and is very steady, rarely getting caught out of position or sacrificing himself without a reason.

I'll probably type up a bit more as I get free time throughout the day. I'm gonna be real, theorycrafting and predicting in tf2 is probably the only way I can still get myself through the increasingly awful days at my job that it took me a college degree plus two years to figure out that I hate.

I'll probably chime in as well. I avoided doing so last season simply due to lack of interest but this season's shaping up to be a good one hopefully.

I don't understand. Why does it say drcameltoe is on 2 teams? quantum flux and lonely hearts O_O

lonely hearts is not playing this season, according to sherman gluck

in other news i'm forming an open team at the last minute and running 24/7 heavy

"Don't worry it's legal." - Justin 'BloodSire' Danford

Network Issues is good. Block is a beast.