By the time you read this I’ll be deep in enemy territory; a wolf in sheep’s clothing - lulling the Lithuanian locals into a false sense of security, feigning interest in their customs, engaging in their drinking rituals whilst pinpointing their every weakness... Europe is counting on me.
The drop point will be the city of Kaunas where I have been tasked with infiltrating the BETA TF2 LAN powered by ZOWIEGEAR. Previous intel reports confirm the ring leader, Arnas ‘huhy’ Mažylis, has close supply links with ZOWIEGEAR, GGWP.pro, TF2Pickup.net and whitelist.tf. It could prove disastrous if this technology were to fall in to the wrong hands; pursue target with extreme prejudice.
Operation will be greenlit at 09:00CEST on Saturday 25th October at which point I have approximately 15 hours to doubly eliminate the seven rival teams who stand between me and ultimate victory. Map co-ordinates have been fixed until the final three engagements when my hand-to-hand combat training will prove vital to give me the edge.
Jesus, I can’t keep this painful spy parody up any longer. Yeah. Eight team double elimination. Fixed maps. Heavy fistfights Map eliminations and picks for last few rounds. It’s all in the beautiful bracket up top. Alternatively some sterling coverage of the tournament’s progress will be available on comp.tf courtesy of thesupremecommander.
If you like your competitive action with sound and moving pictures then look no further than TFTV’s extensive coverage morning, noon and night on Saturday. Suyooo drew the short straw and will likely have to stream the entire event, whilst on the free-for-all casting rotation we will have Sideshow, Ally, Starkie, gecks, kingofsquirrels, Ryushi, Twiggy, kr4tos, TurboTabs and maybe even some Admirable or Mike live from the shop floor.
Teams & Rosters
It’s not how well you can play, but how well you can hold your liquor. The teams have been seeded in order of drinking prowess.
Roster run-downs written by Sideshow.
Mike+5
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| *Admirable* | *Mike* | *Croce* | *evokje* | *rock* | *nukkye* |
Mike will be trying to reproduce his great victory/carry this weekend, as the sole player from the original TEZC to be attending this Lithuanian LAN. The rest have unfortunately died of delayed alcohol poisoning after InfoShow and GXL. Rest in Pimm's.
Mike has switched his class from scout to demoman, in which he is without peer at this LAN event, and will be raining hell upon the former soviet state occupants. The rest of the team backing him up include previous InfoShow LAN runner-up evokje (this time on soldier rather than scout), and nukkye the Lithuanian powerhouse of a scout. These two will be providing some necessary translation work as well as trying to clean up the frags that Mike doesn't steal for himself.
Croce and rock will provide some interesting unpredictability as they try and fit into the rest of the team's structure, and the roaming soldier in particularly has some gargantuan boots to fill - elevenairshotsinthelanfinalColeman.
Admirable has flown over just to drink. If something could go wrong with this team taking first place, it will indubitably include this Irishman and a potato/ethanol combination drink. God help us all.
International Special Force: LIETUVA
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| *baccart* | *Fra.ger* | *Entire* | *NeWas* | *guz* | *SniegZ* |
This team attended InfoShow LAN in April and whilst they had some fairly well known names, did surprisingly badly. They've changed their roster up a little since last time, swapping previous demoman rytis for Fra.ger (although some may say that's not particularly an upgrade) and also changing their scout combo around; they've brought in SniegZ, an old-time Division 2/3 multiclasser from Lithuania who will be attempting to peel off the layers of rust and get back to his old meatshotting ways.
All eyes will be on Entire, SniegZ and the current Team Lithuania medic baccart to prove themselves as the #2 seed. One of their main advantages is that ISF's core has been together now for 2/3 seasons and should have better synergy than these LAN mix teams. Whether or not that, and the previous LAN experience, will allow them to shine remains to be seen.
TEZC | 403 edition
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| *Pacas* | *reNew* | *morti* | *Vendigo* | *kraftaz* | *zilis* |
TEZC have once again arrived in Lithuania! The difference is, this team were always there.
403 attended InfoShow with almost the same lineup and managed to come 3rd, only losing to AYOGURL and the original TEZC. They are arguably the strongest Lithuanian team going to BETA LAN, but it will be a close fight between them and ISF. Their strength definitely lies in their scouts; zilis is actually banned on ETF2L for using a wallhack, but he played for Mamka at InfoShow LAN and did really well. Him and kraftaz will be the hard carries, but 403 will have to be wary that their soldiers don't provide a weak point that can be exploited. The pressure really is on morti to prove us wrong.
TEZC 403's demoman reNew returns after a decent performance at InfoShow, but seems to try and play pinball whilst rolling out, attempting to hit every wall and obstacle he can find for extra bonus points. As long as he's there to back up his scouts in the initial midfight they should be dandy, but on maps like process and badlands his rollout failures could be the straw that broke the Lithuanian donkey's back.
Truls Gaming
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| *Ace* | *drleånn* | *Toba* | *mCap* | *atmo* | *Warden* |
Ace of AYOGURL i52 fame heads up this team on medic, flanked on either side by a very solid combo of drleann and Toba. drleann is, of course, a legendary old soldier and his experience and ability on demoman will be vital if this team want to cause an upset.
This mix team does stand a good chance of causing a ruckus, both at the bar and in-game, if they can get their calling sorted out and not rely too heavily on their roaming soldier. atmo and Warden will be covering the scout duty - both are capable at their class, as long as they don't fall foul to the temptation of liquid fire. Which Warden might well do. In fact I'm pretty sure he won't be sober at any point during this LAN event.
Tavo tëvas
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| *FIR* | *DL* | *cufky* | *Luxi* | *Frenzy* | *Clarks* |
DL was at InfoShow LAN with a similar roster around him. He's kept Frenzy and Clarks, but decided to find some new fresh talent in his soldiers and pick up the amazing LAN personality FIR on medic. God I wish I could see FIR in Lithuania when he's off his head on cheap booze. It'll be a riot.
Luxi certainly has the potential to do well along with DL and Frenzy (who played for ISF at InfoShow). DL's team finished 5th last time at InfoShow, but this roster looks a bit stronger. Can they cause an upset?
Fat Kid Super Team
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| *Zigmas* | *KanyeBlessed* | *Alfie* | *Roks* | *tracker* | *Maxer00* |
This roster was supposed to be Danger Dogs, but Nation and zeeage/zhs screwed Alfie over; the european duo said that they were attending but merely days ago, after prompting, realised that there were no flights, a bus would take 20 hours and they were better off snuggled up at home watching the cast. There is no mercy for LAN dodgers, I hope Moogle eats your mortal soul.
Alfie had to make some last-minute substitutions, and the team suffers a little with the people he had to bring in. This is now a true rough-and-ready LAN mix team, made from bits and pieces of talent left lying about, like a unicycle made entirely of scrap metal from a vacuum factory. And like the aformentioned wheelmobile, this team will have to find its balance or it will implode, taking most of Kaunas with it.
Key players to watch out for are Alfie on soldier and tracker on scout/sniper. This is a LAN debut for tracker and it'll be very interesting to see how well he plays without the 200 ping lag advantage/disadvantage. I imagine he will still be playing a lot of sniper, even on LAN ping, and hope to hit the same kind of success he saw playing for Furbo Pandas and Stacked. Hopefully this won't put too much pressure on his less experienced partner Maxer00, who mains pyro in highlander.
A lot of potential weaknesses and potential strengths in this team - which way the coin flip lands simply depends on whether or not they manage to gel as a team.
KRASAVA
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| *Sornaz* | *Nekkiz* | *DoDoCat* | *Tweek* | *Drunk* | *Slitter* |
This team was playing in Season 19 until recently, when they dropped from the competition for reasons unknown. All of their team are Division 4 standard, with the added advantage of having played together before. They don't have any particularly outstanding players, except perhaps DoDoCat, and I'm not sure whether they'll be fielding an offclass mix team or their full squad. These guys dodged InfoShow LAN in April, so the intelligence on them is weak at best. This is their chance to make a name for themselves!
Garaz
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| *Gabi* | *?????* | *Just1s* | *HappyCrow* | *z3kron* | *NeuTronas* |
Update: Diukas has dodged LAN, and left this team without a demoman. In the interests of fair play, they'll be allowed to use random mercs from any available players - so if you see atmo playing demo one minute, and Admirable the next, you know why!
Finishing off this tournament is another fully Lithuanian roster. Some of these players have no competitive TF2 experience, and are simply at BETA LAN for the incredible atmosphere and competition. Whilst it doesn't quite have the numbers of an i-series, it certainly has a great atmosphere, brilliant value for money and some awesome people. Whilst this team shouldn't pose much of a threat to the others, they do have some good individual talent in the form of HappyCrow (who I am reliably informed is one of the best soldiers in Lithuania) and NeuTronas on scout. Perhaps this team can truly shine with their alcohol tolerance levels and win by virtue of simply being the least inebriated!