The ozfortress Summer Cup is here! Three weeks jam-packed with top tier Australian TF2. The teams are ready, so in no particular order, let's meet them.

Graphic courtesy ozfortress

5 ping rockets

• Scout: krollic
• Scout: teejay
• Roamer: shupah
• Pocket: feyn
• Demoman: deft
• Medic: arnold

One of the undeniable favorites for this cup, 5 ping rockets have far over 7,000 hours in TF2, and have gone through over 11 different gaming mice. The majority of the team carries over from Season 28's BUTTERFLY DEFECT, making what I'd consider to be upgrades in the form of feyn and arnold. The roster has run into a bit of a snag, as just now ozfortress has banned Scout krollic. We have yet to see how the team will get over this now, but even without him, the roster carries an excess of skill, and will hopefully adapt and prove who's better.

The late krollic had this to say about the team:

Here at 5 ping rocket, we are eagerly anticipating and exceptionally excited about the upcoming Ozfortress 2021 Summer Cup Team Fortress 2 competitive 6v6 event. As project manager, I am particularly proud to announce that this will be our most diverse roster yet featuring players from all walks of life across Australasia. This level of inclusivity combined with our appallingly low ping projectile players and our intellectually orientated team gamer style ought to spell a heckin' bad time for any adversaries foolish enough to cross our path.

Salt Free BLACK

• Scout: weaponfire
• Scout: davi
• Roamer: quid
• Pocket: Bread
• Demoman: BONKITUP123
• Medic: Toqoz

Not to be confused with Salt Free Gaming, this spin-off brand will look to make an impression in the cup with the backing of Australian multimedia empire and casting org quid. The half of the team that actually played last season come from High runners up hungry i eat all day, albeit with all adopting different classes. In descending order of time off, weaponfire last appeared in Season 28 with cheesewheel, prior to that playing with davi on what the fuck am i doing a season prior. Really shaking off some dust is Toqoz who besides the one night Isolation Devastation, hasn't been rostered since Season 19, although he did appear in the most recent season of RSL Highlander. Despite some potential rust, and quid's inability to give me a proper roster when asked, this wholly top-High core will certainly look to establish a mid table hold, and maybe go a bit further.

quid parted with a harrowing warning for samson of the real Salt Free Gaming:

Please investigate the gas leak in samson's home

fever kids

• Scout: whiscash
• Scout: cuin lumby
• Roamer: YAUCH
• Pocket: adam
• Demoman: jane doe
• Medic: conflux

Heating up for the Summer, fever kids are a bit of a mishmash of players. Headed by jane doe, (formerly crybaby) of Project S on Demoman, he'll be looked upon to shine for the squad as their main source of Prem experience. YAUCH joins just behind, having subbed for Project S in the previous season. whiscash joins several of his former teammates from hungry i eat all day in Div 1, hoping to carry forward their High placement. adam, cuin lumby, and conflux all had top table finishes in either Season 28 or 29 of Intermediate, and can use this cup as a proper chance to cut their teeth on some top tier opponents.

I can't include jane doe's quote for brevity's sake. However, I will link it here, because I appreciate and recognize the dedication.

soufflé

• Scout: cooki
• Scout: silvo
• Roamer: Paulsen
• Pocket: riot
• Demoman: enrith
• Medic: lau
• Also Playing: Elmo, Doge.exe, down, lock

From graceful dance to delicious dessert, the incumbent champions of ozfortress have come together to form this eggy and fluffy ten-man mix. While the whole core is rostered, it seems many of them won't be playing until the later rounds, relying on their rather impressive sub pool to carry them through the start. Even if they are memeing a bit, this top-prem pugscrim lineup are still among the favorites to take it all.

Overseeing this motley crew, cooki gave an idea of things to come for his gameplay:

fan is best gun

GlobalClan.AU

• Scout: Takeyon
• Scout: starbucks
• Roamer: lexx
• Pocket: Yachty
• Demoman: Daz
• Medic: mirimu

Starting with the Summer Cup, GlobalClan are adding a third to their collection alongside their NA and EU rosters. Three of the players in Takeyon, Yachty, and Daz are coming from last season's C'EST LA VIE team. They will team up with another core from mge zombies, in lexx and mirimu (and starbucks, although he was a sub) to complete the mid-prem experience. With a solid core, they'll definitely be looking to hit playoffs in this unrelenting format. Bonus points to starbucks for making incredible fragmovies.

my sploinky yoinky

• Scout: zias
• Scout: camille
• Roamer: Raelen
• Pocket: kai
• Demoman: ozy
• Medic: tal

After scraping into High playoffs last season, where they ultimately fell to hungry i eat all day, the core of Xbox 360 Voice Chat will again rear their head as zias, ozy, and tal have stuck together. Joining them is a bit of a range, Pocket kai is riding high off an Intermediate win with Artix Entertainment, but will be switching off his Medic role. At the same time Raelen was chilling around Prem as the a Soldier for I MAY BE STUPID, where they ultimately failed to climb beyond the bottom. While definitely not favorites here, with the extreme density of the format, this core may look to claim some scalps of their own, even if they fail to make the top. zias seemed to agree, telling me:

We're going to destroy fez and panda bears

BASED DEPARTMENT

• Scout: durc
• Scout: DeDstar
• Roamer: Moop
• Pocket: lunar
• Demoman: Trumpet
• Medic: R4-T8

Continuing the theme of rebadged cores, Burnt toast gaming carries forward their legacy with some new pickups for the cup. DeDstar brings in his High bronze medal to the table from his time with grogged, just a bit ahead of R4-T8 who came in 6th with Homies with extra Chromies. A tasteful dash of Prem experience comes in the form of Trumpet who like _Raelen occupied the bottom slot with I MAY BE STUPID. Despite what may seem like a long shot for these lads, Lunar was quick to reassure me of their performance, saying:

We fuck hard unlike the rest of you virgins

kinotech

• Scout: conor
• Scout: dauq
• Roamer: matttt
• Pocket: Raze
• Demoman: mef
• Medic: dogroll

A smattering of Prem talent has come together to form kinotech. The Scout combo conor and dauq have dropped in from Taylor Swift Fan Club. They join Soldiers matttt and Raze, both of which subbed for teams in Season 28 with White Noise and BUTTERFLY DEFECT respectively. mef is following up a respectable mid table placement in Prem with mge zombies. And lastly dogroll will look to pick up where he left off after a 2nd place finish with happy feet in Season 28 after being swapped for Doge.exe.

Dogroll eluded vaguely to his winning tactic in my interview:

We plan to unleash the forbidden strategy to claim victory

white noise

• Scout: T3
• Scout: samson
• Roamer: EKWNOX
• Pocket: Tesla
• Demoman: adolo
• Medic: keller

What is now at this point quite an established core, white noise are here at the top to continue their climb in the ranks over the seasons. The returning core of T3, Tesla, and adolo are joined by three new faces. Firstly Scout samson, who will continue the role from High 2nd place hungry i eat all day. Also slotting in are EKWNOX and keller both of whom made bottom-Prem endeavors last season with AirPods and I MAY BE STUPID respectively.

But their goals are noble, pursing personal enjoyment from the video game as Tesla told me:

The team's just looking for a fun, relaxed tourney than anything else. We haven't been grinding scrims and it's been a while since we played together, with this iteration of the team also being pretty different from s28, so we're not expecting anything spectacular. Still, given our chemistry and Ajex Vlogenater's mentorship I think we can do well and maybe finish in the top half of the pack. But in the end we're not too fussed about how we perform.

aa.

• Scout: precious
• Scout: calski
• Roamer: ceekay
• Pocket: Rei
• Demoman: gooseman
• Medic: alibastor

Leaning fully into the DM for their lineup, I MAY BE STUPID alumni precious and calski have called together the lads to form this squad. Rei floated just above them last season, finding 6th place with AirPods and ceekay just beyond that with his sub spot on mge zombies. alibastor arrives after a short break from his High 2nd place with white noise. And rounding out the whole thing is gooseman, who had his own bottom-Prem experience in Season 28 with Negative Gearing.

calski gave me the juice on the roster:

our team is made up of a couple of past roster players and some new ones we've never played with, so we're still feeling out the grounds for how to go about what we wanna do, but basically, our team is made up of apes so we're just best at going full apemode. apes together strong together

The cup is already underway, and if you're not slogging through it yourself you can always catch it with TFLIVETV.