This weekend, the best players from North America, Europe, and Australia will be competing at Physgun Fireside Denver 2025, TF2’s biggest global LAN in eight years! Have a sneak peek at each of the eight teams playing in the Invitational tournament, along with insight from their players.
Witness Gaming EU
- Pocket Scout: toemas_
- Flank Scout: ixy
- Roamer: hugo
- Pocket: papi
- Demoman: LUKASTANK
- Medic: auto
Witness Gaming EU have proven themselves to still be the most dominant team in Europe without a doubt. After over a year in hiatus, they’ve earned two gold medals with new pickups Hugo and LUKASTANK in both ETF2L Season 49 and poLANd.tf 2025. Three of wG EU’s longtime players — toemas_, ixy and papi — competed against Americans during the Insomnia69 LAN in 2022, where they finished second against froyotech in a drawn-out grand final. It remains to be seen whether they’ll replicate or exceed that performance this weekend.
TEAMFORTRESSTV: How does the team feel with the new roster and traveling to Denver?
toemas_: 6/10 for the current roster, swapping out our players wasnt something we were anticipating. We feel okay going to dDenver, excited to meet dudes.
TFTV: Any goals for the LAN? Matchups you’re looking forward to?
toemas_: Placing podium would feel good for us, lots of competition. As matchups go there arent any that stand out.
TFTV: How has the team prepared leading up to the trip?
toemas_: Prep for the event has sucked massively as none of the European teams have played us since poLANd.tf finished. It will be fun to play with 3 continents at one event again.
Witness Gaming AU
- Pocket Scout: cooki
- Flank Scout: silvo
- Roamer: down
- Pocket: conor
- Demoman: enrith
- Medic: lau
With the last interregional competition featuring Australia being over eight years ago, many are looking forward to see how Witness Gaming AU will perform. The Australians, like their European counterparts, have made a name for themselves as the top team in their home region, playing under the wG banner and other aliases throughout many years. Historically, Australia has barely missed the podium when it comes to intercontinental LANs, with Team Immunity and Jasmine Tea never placing above fourth. Time will tell whether the current generation of Aussies will break the curse.
TFTV: How did the wG.AU dynasty come to be, and how are you feeling about the jetlag?
silvo: The core members of our lineup (me, cooki, enrith, lau) started playing together in 2020. Kinda mix and matched soldiers throughout the years until down and conor joined us around 2022. Hopefully we can be acclimated come game time.
TFTV: What’s your major goal at LAN, and what matchups are you looking forward to?
silvo: The only goal is to win wouldn’t go to a LAN otherwise. Matchup wise im most excited to see how b4nny plays.
TFTV: How has the team been prepping in-game?
silvo: Australian TF2 is the most dead scene, the most we have done is maybe 2-3 scrims a week against mix teams.
TFTV: What’s the most significant thing to you about competing in an international LAN?
silvo: International LANs are always hype af I remember when I was in open watching Jasmine Tea represent Australia all those years ago, and some of my unc teammates would have seen Team Immunity play even longer ago... For our team, internationally competing is the only thing left to do we have won every form of tournament conceivable in our region. This will most likely be the last thing we will ever compete in as a team.
Balls Lan Team
- Pocket Scout: jay
- Flank Scout: slemnish
- Roamer: highfive
- Pocket: dingo
- Demoman: artist
- Medic: zilly
Balls Lan Team are a combination of top Invite veterans that have played together across various rosters for several years. Fans of jay and slemnish may remember they last played as a Scout duo in 2020 on SVIFT during ETF2L Season 36, where they placed second in spite of their ping disadvantage. Players highfive and zilly were also a part of the original balls cup team, which briefly competed during RGL Winter Cup 2021.
Although their lineup is fairly new, Balls Lan Team have already shown impressive performance during April’s Horse Run Monthly, where they secured a 3-2 victory over a modified froyotech roster in a best-of-five. Whatever the outcome is of Denver’s tournament, the team are sure to have exciting matches with other podium contenders.
TFTV: What are your expectations going into the tournament?
highfive: We don't really have expectations. We're out for blood plain and simple
TFTV: How have you been preparing for LAN? Any challenges?
highfive: As a team we've been scrimming here and there for a little over a month. But individually we've all been mostly active throughout the years. The challenges are purely physical. If I mge for more than 30 mins my hand feels like it's going to explode. I am so so old
TFTV: What are your general thoughts about competing in the first intercontinental LAN in years?
highfive: It's exciting man. I think a lot of the game is mechanical, but a lot of it is playing against specific players who do specific things. "Playing the Player". I'm excited to play against top players in which I have no real base line expectation for what they're going to do. It adds an element of surprise. I think the team really just wants to show out.
QMD Gaming
- Pocket Scout: gungon
- Flank Scout: yumyum
- Roamer: donovin
- Pocket: Zam
- Demoman: sighguy
- Medic: speedy
QMD Gaming is another fresh team of Invite mainstays — one that’s just come out with some sick merch. The roster is also a merger of two RGL Season 17 playoff teams. yumyum, Zam and donovin played for fourth place finishers FranzJ presents, and gungon, sighguy, and speedy competed with the third place jiminy. With their combined experience, QMD Gaming are gunning for a top-three finish.
TFTV: How did the team first form?
gungon: This team is somewhat of a merger between two of my friend groups, Zam being the common thread between them. As soon as lan was announced, sigh, speedy, zam and I knew that we were gonna make a team, and we later grabbed donovin and yumyum.
TFTV: What’s the primary aim for you and the team at LAN?
gungon: We want to show why NA is the strongest region in this game. Aussies and Euros are on our hitlist.
TFTV: Any specific ways you’ve been prepping?
gungon: We bought all new cosmetic sets and weapon skins. We got team logos, matching avatars and a new steam group (and merch...) Zam and yumyum are gonna run a 24hr mge session this week and coach yight and coach reero are preparing our stratbook. We're an explosive team, and our opponents must fear us or face a QMD.
TFTV: General thoughts on competing at an intercontinental LAN?
gungon: Its a great opportunity to play at a LAN of this scale, even though we aren't a team that is aiming to take home the championship. We're all excited to play and hangout. Shoutout to Fireside and siyo for making this all happen.
Lake Fairy Crew
- Pocket Scout: deadlyseed
- Flank Scout: tripbwai
- Roamer: grape juice
- Pocket: kawa
- Demoman: peniferous
- Medic: hannahburger
Most of Lake Fairy Crew have played together throughout several RGL seasons as GlobalClan and GlobalClan Ice, minus new pickup deadlyseed who previously played for The Mafia. Although they’re up against tough competition, Lake Fairy Crew’s synergy may give them the leg up, especially with #1 Roamer tripbwai on the Scout grind. A big measure of their performance will be how they adapt against the Europeans and Australians.
TFTV: How did the team come together for LAN?
deadlyseed: This was supposed to be the GC team that played last szn minus darty but scratch had an issue coming to lan so we picked up kawa. I'm new to the team never played with Global clan before
TFTV: What are you and the team aiming for?
deadlyseed: I expect at Denver to get shit on a little bit, but we plan to put up a good fight against the invite teams there. Just looking to have fun and enjoy the experience
TFTV: Thoughts on competing in an international LAN?
deadlyseed: As far as this being an international lan, I think if would be really funny if my team beat some aussies or euros so im gonna lock the FUCK in for those if we play them
XIAO Black
- Pocket Scout: Cuby
- Flank Scout: soar
- Roamer: TAZ
- Pocket: quacks
- Demoman: denisavich
- Medic: meyy
XIAO Black are a hodgepodge of vets and up-and-comers. The one with the most experience is meyy, who played Invite during the ESEA years and was Medic for froyotech for six seasons in RGL. French Scout Cuby also has years of Prem experience under his belt, and has joined the North Americans for LAN coming off a second place finish in ETF2L Season 49 Premiership with /for fence. Together with the rising talent of their roster, XIAO Black have a strong shot at shaking up playoffs.
TFTV: How did the team come together for LAN?
TAZ: This team originally was formed during a last minute decision to compete by soar and started recruiting about 24 hours before registration of teams closed lol. Most of us on the team had been playing together in pugs and scrims for the large majority of the year with the exception of cuby since he's from france
TFTV: What’s the primary goal for you and the team?
TAZ: The team's goals since the conception of our roster was to win it all. Quite frankly I wouldn't consider us good competitors if we didn't have the mindset to win it all. Individually though I just want to perform even better since I won't have 70-80 ping anymore and just want to give the spectators and viewers at home a great show and play my role for the team. The biggest matchup I'm personally looking forward to is playing against the australian and european teams. I'd love to see how their region plays compared to NA.
TFTV: How have you and the team been prepping?
TAZ: Been doing my squats, deadlifts, increasing my bench PR in the gym. In all seriousness though the team as a whole has been demo reviewing, scrimming whenever we can, and working on fundamentals and basics together. The biggest obstacle we've been facing is creating a cohesive synergy on our combo side as most of the players in the combo and pocket roles have never played with each other in a team setting but having cuby and meyy bring in their experience helps a lot with the direction of the team
TFTV: Thoughts on competing in an intercontinental LAN?
TAZ: It's amazing brah. I'm pretty certain none of us at all in this day and era of TF2 would've ever thought another international LAN of this scale would've ever taken place. Being able to take part and compete in an event like this is very prestigious for me and I'm very humbled and grateful to compete against some of the best players this game has produced. Our team as a whole shares this same sentiment and in a larger picture I'd say this just shows that the TF2 competitive scene is still alive and thriving and hopefully produces even more talent to compete at the highest level in the coming seasons. Big shouts out to kevito, rickrigatoni, ziaa, urmphi and the rest of the tf2 community. FUAAAAA
Like A G6
- Pocket Scout: chris
- Flank Scout: bomo
- Roamer: SOOOOOAPYMEiSTER
- Pocket: kobe1920
- Demoman: logan
- Medic: LOLGUY
Everyone’s eyes are on Like A G6 this weekend, as they face off against rivals froyotech and other podium contenders on LAN. After their loss to FROYO in the RGL Season 17 online grand final, G6 will be aiming to reverse the tide and follow up on their RGL Season 15 LAN win by becoming three-peat offline champions. Now reunited with Medic LOLGUY in Denver, they have the opportunity to return to form — but froyotech aren’t the only challengers around.
froyotech
- Pocket Scout: b4nny
- Flank Scout: branslam
- Roamer: laz
- Pocket: paddie
- Demoman: habib
- Medic: hubida
Last but certainly not least are froyotech, who have been on a warpath to reclaim their throne against Like A G6 since their loss at the RGL Season 15 LAN. FROYO have been outperforming just about everyone online, taking the RGL Season 16 championship against The Wall and defeating G6 in Season 17. Their current roster iteration, which includes former Witness Gaming teammates branslam and laz, has the chance to take the interregional crown and prove they’re the best, online or offline.
Catch a preview of what's to come on Fireside Casts' Twitch! Witness AU and Witness EU are fighting it out in a 2-map series live from Localhost Denver, ahead of night two of their bootcamps, as they acclimate to playing against the North Americans!