Despite the stay-at-home orders, this season of RGL only features 7 Invite teams. In the past, this would have resulted in tri breathing down people's necks to move up and save Invite, but those days are long over. Perhaps quality will make up for quantity, since any TF2 veterans will recognize the return of a few familiar teams.

ah shie

• Scout: toemas
• Scout: yight
• Roamer: ash
• Pocket: Kryptonite
• Demoman: Alex.exe
• Medic: Dylan

With this team we have to consider the problem of Theseus' TF2 roster. After all, what used be 100 Beasts replaced half of their players over the offseason. More recently, sandblast was told to truck off and was replaced by toemas. They even abandoned their original roster page to create a new team. Now, will they be able to match the second-place finish of last season?

toemas likely presents the biggest wild card for this team. Not only is he a last-minute pickup, but also, like Thaigrr before him, he is an established fragger who will unfortunately be forced to play at 4AM local time.

As the man himself put it on our forums,

Week 2 is the benchmark.

Ascent

• Scout: botmode
• Scout: slemnish
• Roamer: laz
• Pocket: highfive
• Demoman: xaler
• Medic: lolguy

Ascent have finally returned to their home continent to definitively take back their coveted second place. With the exception of lolguy, these returning faces eerily resemble a defunct SVIFT NA roster from Season 29 that was eventually swallowed by shade's FROYOBLACK.

Contrary to our initial reporting, recent logs have shown highfive on Pocket and botmode on Scout. This marks the second season in a row where the former is off the Scout class, this time playing Pocket Soldier like he did back in ESEA Season 22.

So far, Ascent have pretty much picked up where they left off. Recent scrims have shown them winning convincingly against lower Invite teams, while holding evenly or trading maps with the new froyotech roster. Whether those results will continue into the regular season, or more importantly the playoffs, remains to be seen.

Perhaps if they can avoid getting their players banned...

dexter's lab

• Scout: midas
• Scout: jynxed
• Roamer: ether
• Pocket: mirrorman
• Demoman: exile1
• Medic: Toy
• Rostered: MR SLIN

Similar to Ascent, the team formerly known as 6LACK SWAN is another returning roster. Specifically, with the exception of their Medic, this exact group of players took 7th out of a 9-team Invite back in ESEA Season 26.

To replace SLINVITE, Toy won the first season of RGL Advanced and subbed on various Invite teams the following season. This contrasts greatly with the rest of the team, who have largely stayed out of the Invite limelight since 6LACK SWAN broke up. Nevertheless, given the time they are putting in and the fact that Invite is only 7 teams this season, the opportunity presents itself to improve upon their previous standings.

froyotech

• Scout: arekk
• Scout: yomps
• Roamer: paddie
• Pocket: b4nny
• Demoman: habib
• Medic: skeez

The offseason clearly has not been kind to the defending Invite champions, as evidenced by the recent role switcharoo. This has resulted in moving arekk on Pocket Scout, yomps back on Flank Scout, and b4nny on Soldier.

Given how heavily FROYO traditionally center themselves around b4nny's maincalling Pocket Scout, it will be interesting to see how this current iteration adapts itself compared to the froyotech's of old.

ESEA Season 21 was the last time we saw a b4nny/paddie Soldier duo, where the former also briefly played Roamer during the season. Given that paddie eventually left the team after Rewind LAN due to differences in maincalling between himself and b4nny, it is possible this was done to give paddie more freedom in calling.

Flashing forward a couple seasons, Season 24 marked the last time b4nny played Soldier for a full season, this time alongside arekk and habib. Notably, this season's Grand Finals saw a bracket reset and full 6-map match against EVL Gaming. Given Ascent's current strength in scrim performance, there remains a non-zero possibility of history repeating.

Finally, when FROYO initially picked up yomps, b4nny initially switched to Soldier in the offseason, before quickly reverting back to Pocket Scout due to team cohesion issues once again.

Update: froyotech returned b4nny to Scout for their first match vs Ascent.

• Scout: arekk
• Scout: b4nny
• Roamer: paddie
• Pocket: yomps
• Demoman: habib
• Medic: skeez

The Microwave

• Scout: phone
• Scout: shamoo
• Roamer: Rekuso
• Pocket: hayes
• Demoman: chunkey
• Medic: Skye

Our next returning group is The Microwave, which features the same six players as the Space Pirates from ESEA Season 31.

For a good long while, Velocity eSports was the staple 4th place team in ESEA, at least until the team died midway through Season 30. Space Pirates was formed the following season from half of the late Velocity crew, but they only managed to take 5th. Now, three seasons later, that same roster, under another new name, once again has a chance to reassert a playoffs spot.

MyAnimeList

• Scout: phlps
• Scout: Kev
• Roamer: tripbwai
• Pocket: aim
• Demoman: sighguy
• Medic: bear

Run, the weebs are back. They've got bear and you could be next!

A MAL team has never reached playoffs, but this new roster may buck that trend. After taking third last season, bear, sighguy, and tripbwai have corrupted the all-American legacy of Ford Gaming to ally with the Land of the Rising Sun. While phlps and aim haven't been seen in seasons, their Ascent experience should be clear evidence of their caliber. Finally, Kev took fourth with Rat jail just last season.

Backed by recent scrim results, they have been doing quite well against The Microwave, and even managed to win 3 out of 4 maps in a recent scrim vs froyotech.

Team Avatar

• Scout: caps
• Scout: animus
• Roamer: tambo
• Pocket: dingo
• Demoman: logan
• Medic: hhhwrd

Team Avatar is most certainly the dark horse of the season. Among these players, tambo and dingo probably have the greatest Invite name-recognition and are the only ones on the team who have made Invite playoffs. caps and logan both have some recent low Invite experience, while animus and hhhwrd are move-ups from winning Advanced.

Nevertheless, recent scrims did show them put up impressive results against dexter's lab, perhaps hinting toward their potential to upset more established teams.

Update: Team Avatar has since died.

The first matches of RGL Season 3 are tonight!

Tune in on teamfortresstv to see the match between dexter's lab and The Microwave.
Alternatively, RGL will be covering Ascent taking on froyotech.