Intermediate this season will be dominated by very strong scouts across all the top teams. Soldiers and demomen will still be very important though. Good scouts are going to get you into playoffs but they aren't going to get you into the winnings. I am really looking forward to how this season plays out. Unlike previous seasons there isn't a clear dominate number one and two. Though right now you can only gather assumptions from scrims, so that easily could change. But I see 4 or 5 really strong teams that could be in contention for the 1st place spot and that is really exciting.

[bg]

• Chris "slipz" Lodise
• Aaron "bsc" B
• Andrew "tooth" Mayer
• ??? "Xalox" ???
• Michael "YouMustMike" Monteith
• Bryan "Seymour" Seymour

Tim Lays The Pipe

The team formally known as eX-submit a Ticket is back this season with a whole new roster aside from their soldiers, tooth and bsc. The new roster is an upgrade in every single position. They added the very strong DM-oriented scout pair of Mike (aka healbot) and Seymour, picked up a great upcoming demo in xalox, and slipz is finishing up the roster on medic. As said, their roamer tooth and pocket bsc, are returning from last season. While Tooth played all of last season, bsc only played in a handful of matches. Tooth is the more experienced of the pair and has some decent DM to go along with that experience. He should be able to play a solid roamer and make those nice openings with his bombs. Bsc is less experienced as he only has 5 Intermediate matches from last season and everything else being open. Basically, his decision making is lacking and it really shows. There are a lot of times where he gets disconnected from slipz and slipz pays the price for it. As the season progresses he should be able to improve and learn from the experienced players on the team, if not he is going to have a rough time. The other heavy that makes up the combo is xalox on demoman, less known in the world of IM but very well known in Open. Last season he played with formerly known Runaway Five and now known as srsly br0ken(now dead). They were able to make 3rd place in open and he was a big part of that. He has really surprised me as of late. He’s perfectly capable of competing at a decent level in IM and I fully expect him to have a big impact on Tim Lays the Pipe.

The strongest part of this team is their scout combo. Formerly on Going HUGE for the latter half of last season and on beybladers before that, Seymour doesn’t have that much experience. That makes him a little inexperienced compared to some of the other players. However, both of those seasons were spent on IM teams that either made the playoffs or were contending for one of the playoff spots. Luckily for him, he has great DM ability and it makes up for the times he is out of position. That won’t save him anymore though, this season IM is full of strong scouts that have plenty of DM. He is really going to have to put his head down and work hard and play smart with his other scout. Mike is the most experienced player on the team, and although he usually plays medic, he has great natural DM at any class. He is probably the biggest player on the team, not only in DM but also in leadership. They are going to rely heavily on him to make big plays as well as direct the team. It is going to be a tough job and he will really have to stay patient with some of the less experienced players.

This team should be a shoe in for one of the top 8 (maybe 10? 12?) playoff spots. They aren’t going to be having problems with the bottom half of the division and their scouts will be able to dominate teams that are in that 7-12 range. If they have aspirations of being more than just a playoff team, meaning they want to be top 3 or even first, they are going to have to have a lot more than just strong scout play. The top teams are going to be able to match them on their scout play and at that point it is going to come down to their soldiers to step up and be able to beat the teams that have all around great players.[/bg]

[bg]

• Nick "ninjanick" Poulos
• James "Shwan" Bedont
• James "milehighmilitia" Schmitz
• ??? "DougyG" ???
• David "thrckstr" Thrickstr
• Rob "phife" Foarde

Vector Gaming

Vector gaming is back from their 9-7 record in S11 which came with a playoff spot. They are coming in with the exact same roster as last season except for one spot. Phife will be replacing schnell on scout. These guys have so much experience together and it is really impressive to see them keep their core roster together season after season. This will be milehighmilitia, Shwan, and thrckstr’s fourth season together. They don’t exactly have any allstars at any spot; however, they keep playing together and winning against teams that have big names at big spots. This can only be explained by their excellent team work and calm demeanor.

The team is based off of solid soldier play from Shwan on pocket and milehighmilitia on roamer. These two have played together for a while now and really do play off each other well. They have well-coordinated aggression on mids as well as both being able to take ubers in. Mile is very creative as a roamer and I would put him as one of the top 3 roamers in IM. He plays very selfless at times when his team needs him. Shwan has been improving every single season at pocket and he has come a long way. Has he come far enough though? I don’t think he’s quite to the point of being a top IM pocket, yet but he definitely knows how to play the position and can draw back on a lot of experience.

I don’t know a whole lot about phife except for what his ESEA history tells me, but watching him play, I believe he will do a pretty good job for Vector. He is an aggressive scout, which they really need. Thrckstr has been playing in every single ESEA season since S5. He has a lot of experience, but is going to struggle to get in good damage and compete against the top scouts in IM. He plays a very passive/clean up role for Vector. This scout combo isn’t going to be able to compare with the other top scouts in IM, and they are going to have to do a good job of avoiding those straight DM 2v2 fights.

These guys are a "team" in every sense of the word, and I would love to say that they will make it to the top of IM this season. I think it could definitely happen, however, at this point I see them ending up at almost the same spot they were last season. They shouldn’t be too worried about their playoff spot, but they might struggle to get a top five seed. I think the biggest threat to these guys are going to be teams with strong scout play, where the other team’s scouts can outfrag four out of five of Vector’s fragging classes. Yet I’ve seen Vector play very strong against these kinds of teams, and the only explanation for this is that their teamwork outclasses the other team’s stronger DM play.[/bg]

[bg]

• ??? "dbw" ???
• Tyler "doggles" P
• E "top-shot" M
• Joey "ctrlfmuffin" Ingram
• Josh "Giffy" Gifford
• Peter "ukm" Ross

Ultimate Killing Machine

ESEA Open’s champions from last season are returning with the same roster that won them that title. Having the same roster is going to be a big plus for them. They don’t have to spend any time getting used to each other’s habits because they already should be. Besides experience together, they all have overall experience in the game. Most of them have been playing for 5+ seasons. UKM, top-shot, and doggles have all played in invite at their current classes. These guys have a pretty positive attitude and are always thinking out ways to take advantage of their opponents.

Their scout combo of Giffy and ukm should be able to compete with the top scouts in IM without much of a problem. Giffy has been playing about 4 seasons now. Now even though all his past ESEA matches are in open, don’t let that fool you. He has had plenty of chances to play at higher levels and has shown that he has the ability to play against high IM scouts. Ukm should provide plenty of help for giffy if he needs it. He’s a very consistent and solid scout that has been around for a while. He played in invite in seasons nine and ten. I don’t think he is too much removed from that level and is going to be a strong point of this team going into the season.

Their heavies aren’t shmucks either. All of them have the experience that I would expect a top IM team to have. Though they’ve spent the past season in Open none of them should be considered open type players. Top-shot is a pretty versatile roamer. He can off class pretty well and even go to scout when necessary. It can be hard to classify roamers as good and bad, just because of the naturally awful KDR as roamer. But it would be easy to say that he is as good as the rest of the players on his team and is definitely not a weakness.

The strongest player for this team is doggles. Though he’ll absolutely deny it and probably tell me over steam I’m an idiot for saying it: he’s one of the best pockets in Intermediate. He can play almost any style that is needed for his team to be successful. He can easily be the big jerk pocket that sits at 300hp and just dominates anything that comes close to him. He also has the ability to be extremely selfless for his team. He doesn’t care about his life or KDR as long as his team is doing well. He has a ton of experience behind him and really can be creative at times as a leader in mumble for his team.

UKM (team not the player) really isn’t a big fancy or flashy team, they don’t need to be. They win rounds with smart play. They don’t have to rely on their DM alone to take rounds on teams and they do a great job of taking advantage of the small mistakes that teams make. I don’t foresee there being any problems with them going from open level play to intermediate level play. They finished strong at the end of last season (obviously getting first) and they should have plenty of momentum going in this season. Making playoffs shouldn’t be the goal for this team, they’ll make those easily. It is difficult at this point to say they could contend for winning IM overall, but I wouldn’t put it out of the question.[/bg]

[bg]

• Nicholas "blinky" P
• Chris "TicTac" Brennan
• Dustin "smaka" Woods
• Manny "SoLiDSNaKE" Sy
• Nathan "cringe" Samra
• Miguel "Arc" AHurnandez

Blight Xensity

Coming off their 3rd place finish last season, Xensity had plans of making it into invite. However The Chess Club ended up prevailing in the invite vote. So they are back into Intermediate, and after a few roster changes, are looking very strong to take the title. Considering that they are replacing two very important players (Teto on pocket and Tony Swan on scout) it is probably good that they get to play another season of IM before going into invite. The rest of the roster is the same, except TicTak will be playing pocket instead of roamer.

There isn’t too much that has changed about this team between the end of last season and the beginning of this season. Their roster changes do make some difference, but they have strong replacements. TicTak has very strong DM and is going to be a great pocket for them. Cringe is replacing Tony Swan on scout and even though those are pretty big shoes to fill for the team they’ve found a very solid scout in cringe. The last pick up is smaka on roamer. Though mostly known for playing demoman at 75 fov on lan, he can quite easily play roamer at an IM level. Having played demoman at an invite level, he brings lots of experience. He knows how to play, plain and simple and he won’t have any problems. As said before, the rest of the roster is staying the same.

You know exactly what you are getting with this team. They have solidsnake and you are going to jump out of your chair in rage screaming ‘’DID THAT PIPE SERIOUSLY HIT ME?????” Even though you know exactly what’s coming, it doesn’t make much of a difference. They adapt faster than a lot of teams do. Teams will take round off them for sure, but it’s how they make those little changes that will keep them winning matches. I have to put them as my favorite to win Intermediate this season. They have very strong team play and a lot of DM to go with it. A big question is going to be if they can rope in Arc’s W key and not give up those silly picks at times.[/bg]

[bg]

• Justin "think" S
• W "Ma3la" R
• Roland "starry" Shepherd
• Bilal "Greed" Mostafa
• David "Dave_" H
• ??? "crus" ???

Bearforce1

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to include these guys in this preview or not. They don’t really have a roster full of big time names aside from ma3laa. However, I have been really impressed by them. I see this team really surprising the top 5 teams later on in the season. They are my dark horse.

Ma3laa has impressed me making the switch from roamer to pocket. I shouldn’t really be surprised though, he has solid DM and always had good timings on roamer. As pocket he is very flexible in his play style. He seems to have an overall grasp of the game that a lot of pockets in his position wouldn’t. He knows how to take an uber in and if you underestimate his ubers you are going to be in trouble. I’ve also been impressed with the play of Greed. I don’t really know of his past teams but he plays like he really knows what’s going on. He keeps himself alive and that is a great ability to have as a demoman. Teams are going to have a lot of trouble pushing against them with Greed constantly staying up in fights and doing damage.[/bg]

[bg]

• Charis "CHEERISS" Poag
• ??? "BlueberryVillain" ???
• ??? "trisk" ???
• Jace "mausy" S
• Ryan "rb" B
• O "moonchild" O

SYOPS TF2

Returning with almost the exact same roster is SYOPS TF2. It is awesome to see teams like this stick together. They are going to gain a ton from what they have already been building on since last season. The only roster change is that nonis will be moving to backup and SYOPS picked up moonchild aka mirel. It is a pretty strong pick up considering how valuable scouts are going to be this season.

This team has very strong coordination with their heavies. Trisk puts a lot of pressure on teams from roamer and blueberry is one of the most improved pockets from just a few seasons ago. Mausy is pretty inexperienced but he doesn’t show it at all. He only has about a season and a half of matches at demo in IM, but he puts a lot of damage down and has decent positioning.

As said before, they have a decent scout combo which is a necessity to be a top IM team now. Their scouts won’t be carrying them so they are still going to need their heavies to play strong. There shouldn’t be any doubt that they will play well, they are all experienced and have been playing pretty strong this offseason. I know they have goals of being one of the top teams at the end and those goals are very realistic.[/bg]

[bg]

• Luc "lucrative" Pearson
• Erick "Rick" Hewson
• Tyler "marmadukeGRYLLS" C
• Robert "shrt" Hee
• Dan "thorn" Green
• Jordan "Hibachi" Cristiano

High Rollers Gaming

HRG are back, though not in invite and with an entirely different roster other than rick. This team was my “W key or bust” team, but lately I think they have started to hold back and only be aggressive at times that are necessary. They are pretty mixed in their experience as players. Rick, Hibachi, and luccious all have been around for a while and know how the game should be played. Then on the other hand, short, thorn, and marmadukeGRYLLS are all new to IM. However, all three of them have great DM to make up for the lack of experience.

Their roster has been a going through changes through most of the off season, so these guys are definitely looking to improve together as the season goes on. Originally it was rick and thorn on scout, which was an extremely aggressive scout combo. Now Rick has moved to pocket with marmaduke playing roamer and Hibachi is on scout with thorn. I am not sure how advantageous these roster changes are going to be. Marmaduke was actually an impressive pocket despite his lack of experience at an IM level, but I think he will still make a strong roamer.

The main story of this team is very impressive DM but with the unfortunate side of aggression that becomes stale and predictable. The plus side of this is that they have a lot of room to improve and don’t seem naïve of the fact that they need to get better. With their DM alone they are easily a top 8 team. However, if they want to get near that top 4 area they are really going to have to work on their coordination and being able to win fights without just going in and out DM’ing their opponent.[/bg]

[bg]

• Matthew "Sakura" Ito
• Mason "mason" X
• Ben "grape" M
• ??? "ranga" ???
• Sam "meb" M
• Derek "zZa" Johnson

Royalty

After not getting into playoffs, which was their own fault, royalty changed up half of their roster and made some position changes. Obviously the biggest pick up was zZa on scout. It probably doesn’t have to be said but he is easily one of the top 5 scouts in IM right now. His DM is great and very consistent. He’s a very aggressive scout, but he uses that aggression in an intelligent manner. His scout partner meb is probably going to be playing in his shadow from the views of spectators, but he really shouldn’t be. Meb is a great scout and plays very efficiently. These two are easily one of the best scout combos in IM and really do a lot for this team.

Another change is that grape is now on pocket. This is such a huge improvement from their old pocket. Though grape was originally a roamer, he has pretty good DM for soldier and has been improving on pocket. I wouldn’t put him as a top pocket at his current state, but as he gets more used to the position and works through the change he definitely has the potential to be good. His team is certainly going to need it. Though they have a great scout combo, their heavies overall do not pull their weight.

Royalty shouldn’t have a big problem getting into the playoffs this season. However, I could see them dropping rounds, not necessarily matches, to some lower teams. If a team can counter Royalty’s scouts it won’t be too hard to play well against them. So grape and ranga, on demoman, are really going to have to step it up when they come up against top IM teams that have great scouts of their own.[/bg]

[bg]

• Tom "drogo" M
• ??? "rave" ???
• ??? "Boink" ???
• Christopher "Chriz Tah Fah" B
• Breanna "Kapoww" Johnson
• Steve "SteveC" Chen

Wow Wow Kappow

Well a week ago when I was getting ideas together, I had something in mind for what I was going to say about this team. It was going to have something to do with rando and when he will switch off scout. However, rando has decided to stop playing (yeah right) and move on to more important things in life (other than tf2? pffft). This team was going to be a team of half off classing IM players but after rando left SteveC has gone back to scout instead of roamer. That makes Kapow the only remaining off classing player, on scout instead of demo.

The rest of the roster consists of Chriz Tah Fah on demo, Boink on roamer, rave on pocket and drogo on medic. drogo was the old medic for We Go Play Hoop, which SteveC, Kapow, and rando were also on at one point. Boink more recently played half a season for Mayhem on scout along with another half of a season on roamer, both different seasons and both were in Intermediate. He has solid DM for the level he is at, can off class very well, and can be pretty creative; all qualities needed as a roamer. He is also the best market gardener in IM at the moment, so have fun if you are losing to this team later on in a match. Chriz Tah Fah spent a short period of time on the Invite roster for The Chess Club but is back in intermediate with this team. He played on the same “team” last season but with a different roster, they were known as Carl Sagan Foundation at the time. He had a really strong season and performed well in the playoffs. He definitely has the DM for Intermediate but my only concern is that he is pretty heal heavy, which forces his soldiers to either be low or have to play passive and out of danger.

The biggest weak point for this team right now is rave. I don’t want to be too negative on him as it is his first season in Intermediate. However, it is pretty obvious that he isn’t doing what they need him to do. A big part of this is the clashing play styles between him and Chriz Tah Fah. They both want to take a lot of the heals but it just isn’t possible. They are going to need to work together and figure out how they are going to continue to play because what they are doing right now is just not going to work. rave is going to have to really put a lot of effort into his positioning and how he uses the heals he gets. If not, this team could have problems making playoffs, even with their experienced players. Teamwork is important and they are lacking that right now. If they get their shit in gear they could be in playoffs comfortably.[/bg]

[bg]

• Torin "Sigma" Stepan
• Sepehr "sephy" Parhami
• Joseph "defiance" P
• Romain "Gremaud" Gremaud
• Bill "FREIGHT_TRAIN" T
• Fabrizio "Fabri" Lunardi

Going Huge

I’ve never been a fan of ranking or discussing the team you are playing for. So I’m not going to give my opinion on our roster and how we will place but I will give a quick rundown of the roster. This roster is kind of new, but also kind of from last season. The old Mayhem died and Sigma picked up the roster and kept it alive. So starting in the middle of last season we had the same roster except for Seymour on scout. Instead of Seymour we now have the Italian stallion himself, Fabri. His scout partner is FREIGHT_TRAIN. I am on roamer and sephy is on pocket. Gremaud is our demo and Sigma finishes up the roster on medic. Our goals, like any other team that are on this list, are obviously to make playoffs and do well in playoffs.[/bg]