Hey, conductor and London here with another open article. We’ve had a pretty dull early season, here’s hoping things get more exciting after matches are actually seeded.
undefated at rastlemnaia
Written by London
The team formerly known as The Best Team in Open has had a great start to the season. So far, Pot and the boys have only dropped 2 rounds to Animus Victoria while rolling over every other team they’ve faced (except for the unfortunate early FFW). Arctic Joe and Slinky are proving to be a formidable scout pair, while Pot has also been throwing up some big numbers on demo. The team hasn’t really had much of a challenge this early in the season, and as predicted have looked dominant in the face of the other high Open teams. Their Snakewater matches will both be easy money, and I really don’t see all in with allen or Manly Maws being capable of an upset win on Gravelpit, so we will have to wait and see if any of the later matches in the season produce some closer games for undefated at rastlemnaia.Animus Victoria
Written by Conductor
Animus Victoria has had perhaps one of most turbulent rosters I’ve ever seen, but they’ve come out of it with something that looks to be pretty solid. They currently sit with a 3-1 record, having only lost a match to rastlemania. In the most recent iteration, their roster stands as Noko and kraka on scout, blue and fearless on soldier, blackymonster on demo, and elle on medic. Picking up kraka has given them a flank with a dm advantage over most other open teams, and I don’t see them losing any matches up through gravelpit week. The question regarding this team is whether they’ll sort out their teamplay. The combo seems somewhat dysfunctional at the moment with blacky getting the short end of the stick in terms of heals, and it really shows in how much damage he’s been putting out. As long as their scouts can keep running a train on the competition, Animus Victoria will remain a top team, but things will get harder for them towards the end of the season.Bubble Buddies
Written by Conductor
This will likely be one of the more questionable placements, but Bubble Buddies are looking like they’re going to have a good run this season. Bubble Buddies is largely the same roster as last season’s DJINNOCIDE, which never quite made it past the mid open level. The change which appears to have finally pushed them into the upper echelons of open is their pickup of crux on demo, formerly of snailboat’s boat. It’s actually somewhat surprising to see him playing demo in open, and he’s been performing as well as one would expect him to. The only obstacle in this team’s schedule is Dango Daikazoku on gravelpit week, but who knows what will happen on gravelpit; we likely won’t get to see how well this team really performs until metalworks rolls around.Fried Green Tomatoes
Written by London
With two forfeit wins and a 5-0 loss to undefated at rastlemnaia, it might take a little explaining as to why these guys are sitting pretty in the number 4 spot, but I really do believe this team is top 10. Even with an unfortunate starting schedule, it looks like both snakewater and gravelpit should be a string of wins for buckweet and crew. Gravelpit may present a challenge with matches against Street Hoops eSports. Street Hoops has surprised me with their resilience in the early season matches, and depending on a number of factors could get an upset here, but north^star and bape will most likely continue their trend of out-DMing the world - hopefully leaving them with a 7-1 record by the end of next week ready to secure their playoff spot.Im sniping guys
Written by London
Formerly the Yarg Memoirs, Im sniping guys has a schedule of mixed difficulty for the first half of the season but seem to be holding up decently. These next couple weeks will be especially challenging for them with matches against Animus Victoria on Snakewater and Bretty Bueno 5 out of 5 on Gravelpit. We saw a lackluster performance out of them this week in their match against World Wide Wagons, where they unexpectedly dropped 4 rounds in the absence of their roamer Wowzers, whose presence was sorely missed. Only time will tell if these guys can maintain their undefeated record, but as long as MonkeySuit baits his team successfully and win rounds with sneaky backcaps, they should be able to continue doing well.Bretty Bueno 5 out of 5
Written by London
At the end of last season, hle told me he was going to quit playing competitive TF2 after some tough losses in the post-season. I was pleasantly surprised to see him build a new roster this season, although it wasn’t until they had their starters settled did I realize they could be a top 10 team. Antwan and vkr both have some raw DM skill that make them a dangerous scout pair, with Antwan looking good for his first starting season. Aim and hle are the pocket and roaming soldiers respectively; both of them are playing a little inconsistently across the board, but that might be because its hard to rack up damage when your demo is putting out some mad DPM. Their schedule for the next few weeks leave them with only one real match that should be good to watch against Im sniping guys on Gravelpit, leaving one of those teams with what might be their first loss the season.GET WRECKED
Written by Conductor
Rekt has managed to not drop a game yet, but their future is cloudy right now. I’m honestly not even sure what their starting roster is anymore. They’ve recently seen the departure of their star scout combo, romeo love and sherman gluck, whose coat tails they seemed to be riding on, and I’m not sure how well this team will fare without them. Tiger, the soldier of former +forwarding fame, and nrage of former shitposting fame appear to have filled in the gaps - perhaps tiger will breathe a new life into this team’s combo and keep them afloat. They’ve received an easy schedule thus far, so hopefully this new roster has time to set in before times get tough.Pandamonium
Written by Conductor
Despite being previously overlooked, Pandamonium seem to have emerged as one of the stronger teams in the early season. Their current roster is mostly comprised of tf2 veterans with gravegun and nate rivers on scout, panda and socialistfish on soldier, hippo on demo, and omnisevrae on medic. It is worth pointing out that gravegun and panda are offclassing, but they both seem to be doing well thus far. Judging from the schedule, I doubt Pandamonium will face a real challenge anytime soon and should come out of gravelpit week with a comfortable 8-0.Zaboomacrew
Written by London
Making their way into the power rankings with a bit of a smooth start to the season, Shlaner and his band of bros (and brodette) have renamed their team to Zamboomacrew. While they have had a relatively easy schedule compared to some of the other top 10 teams at the moment, they should see their first loss after going against Animus Victoria on Snakewater, where I just don’t see Zamboomacrew walking away with a win. With that said, miss kay and Spamfest have been doing really well so far, and should match up with the better scout pairs in open. I really like their newcomer pocket, TF2NeedsMorePanda, who is showing that he has the potential to be a great soldier. It will be interesting to see how Zamboomacrew stacks up against the rest of the top 10 during Metalworks and Granary. As long as they stay positive they shouldn’t have too many problems making it into playoffs this season.Dango Daikazoku
Written by Conductor
Dango Daikazoku is rounding off this week’s power rankings, boasting a roster with seasoned players, new blood, and some notoriously awful forum posters. Regardless of posting prowess, the team seems to be holding together pretty well so far with a squeaky clean 5-0 record. Their roster currently consists of sinval and dango on scout, sneakypolarbear and testify on soldier, sweet tooth on demo, screwball on medic, and ducky of muscle milk and moolians fame riding the bench. During badlands week they pulled a close 4-3 win over hopscotch toss, which I expected to be a lot more one sided, perhaps pointing towards some inconsistency in their play. We won’t really get to see how well they hold up until metalworks week, but their game against Bubble Buddies on gravelpit may be an interesting watch.
Teams To Watch:
- we kings now
- angry autists
- The Fashion Police
- Yoshis Island
- Rice Guys Finish Last
The first few weeks of season 14 have already seen a handful of dead teams along with the emergence of some teams that might not have been on a lot of people’s radars. Rice Guys Finish Last is not a team I would have expected to do all that well based on past performances, but after a convincing 5-1 victory over Satori Six and a few quick 5-0’s, this team could very well finish in the top 10 of the regular season. Angry Autists have been looking strong in the DM department but were smacked down pretty convincingly by Bubble Buddies on badlands last week. Even with a 3-2 record, Fashion Police is looking like they won’t have a problem with the rest of their matches until they face Yoshis Island on Gravelpit. Some other teams worth mentioning are Lores Merry Men, Never Stop Greeting, Immortal Six (formerly Crack Clan Yellow), and Lag City - all of whom have a good chance of securing playoff spots. As for the rest of the teams that are fast approaching the dreaded mid-Open bubble even this early in the season, good luck and stay positive!
Match Of The Week - Animus Victoria vs im sniping guys
Monkeysuit and friends face their first challenge of the season here, and I honestly don’t expect them to come out of it unscathed. Im sniping guys doesn’t play particularly poorly, but I’m expecting the difference in DM ability between these teams to be an insurmountable obstacle. Kraka and Noko have some of the best aim in open, and I don’t think Monkeysuit and vortex will have an answer for it. If Im sniping guys wants to pull a win here they’ll have to abuse the fact that both soldier seem to be stacked with the combo a lot and hope they can pull some favorable ubers. Monkeysuit will probably pull off some stupid backcaps like he always does, but it won’t be enough for them in the end. Gonna give this game to Animus Victoria 5-2.