The NA Invite Top 100 is a project merging history and shenanigans with the purpose of highlighting some of the best players in North American TF2 history. Access the hub post here to view outlines, honorable mentions, and previous reveals. Tune in every Monday and Friday for the next release!
We kick off the official Top 100 with alexwut, a Demoman that ties a couple other players for longest time retired from TF2. Last active ESEA S5, he only played two full seasons excluding any activity before ESEA. Therefore, there isn't much (easily accesible) data on him. As for what we do know: he played 21 Invite matches with a 12-9 record, and won the first ever ESEA Invite season with 20ID in S3. He also played for Blight during S5, though he did not attend LAN. For this brief amount of time, alexwut stands on equal footing in the fragging department when compared to his contemporaries like litany and hubris. Statistics will likely be the driving commentary for the super old players, since even I don't know much about them, so alexwut starts us off with a short but simple resume.
Next up is alexwut's 20ID teammate saber07. This Scout player also does not have much in terms of information, with just one full Invite season to his name (two if you count the inaugural ESEA season). Maps-wise, saber has an 18-8 overall record (including a perfect 7-0 run on Badlands!). Additionally, his bonus highlights include competing on high levels teams before the dawn of ESEA, winning Season 3 Invite with 20ID (while being #9 in frags), and attending the first big LAN in TF2's history: NVISION 08 GeForce LAN. By nature of having played more matches with a better win record, saber07 ekes out a spot better than alexwut. Since the bottom 50 were the biggest and most interchangeable pile of players, I tried to spread out super boomers and Medics for pacing purposes but sometimes situations like this can't be avoided.
The first member of ESEA S8's CheckSix Gaming to debut on the list, vhalin is also the only member of the entire Top 100 to play just one ESEA season total (and some change). Naturally, this means he has the fewest regular season matches played at 20. Many know that CheckSix went an perfect 16-0 during S8 to be the first undefeated team in Invite history, but did you know that in his additional four games backing up for Blight Gaming in the previous season, he won them all? For the mathematicians at home, this means vhalin has never lost an Invite match (in regular season). If you include CheckSix's LAN run where they won six maps and lost two, vhalin's career total record is 26-2 (93%). By percentage, he has one of if not
the best W-L of all time. It makes sense when you realize that vhalin
solved the game. But the overall low number of matches prevents him from being any higher than this current rank.
Someone has to be the lowest ranked out of ~20 Medic mains here, so apologies to caseey but he'll get the ball rolling. He will also unfortunately combine the Medic problem, the ancient player problem, and the statistical problem all at once as far as discussion goes. caseey played in ESEA's first four seasons, with achievements including 4th in S2 Open and consecutive 2nd place finishes with Evil Geniuses the following seasons. Random fun fact: the last ESEA match caseey ever played was as a backup for eMazing Gaming during Season 9. A Medic's job in the most simple terms are to use uber and stay alive. In that regard, caseey did an excellent job. Over his three Invite playoffs seasons, caseey averaged ~1.75 ubers per death which is super solid especially for the time. As one of the earliest to ever do it on Medic, welcome to the Top 100 caseey.
Now we have the owner of one of the best Youtube channels in the TF2 community. Don't believe me? The
content still holds up today. Legendary Scout Ggglygy won Invite in his first season with eMazing Gaming during S7, which makes him part of an exclusive club. Since he was the Robin to Yz50's Batman, he never had the most gaudy statlines. Even having said that though, he still holds up when adjusted for time against other Scouts like cyzer and BLoodSire. However, he does stand out in one regard. Ggglygy possesses the best Coldfront W-L record of all time at 6-1. On a more serious note, Ggglygy led the division in point captures in both his seasons with eMg - a combined 335 in Seasons 7 and 8. The game of TF2 is won by capturing the objective, and nobody did that more than Ggglygy for six months. He did make later appearances in Invite with teams like Apocalypse Gaming and Show Me the Monet, but naturally it's his first two seasons that we remember him for.
After his debut season in ESEA S19 with Champagne and Cocaine, Demoman Muma joined a Strawberry Mangoes roster with other up-and-comers like corsa and Freestate alongside Invite veterans Tagg and alfa. Improving from a record of 1-15 to 8-8, he was then recruited into the newest iteration of froyotech. This is an important moment in the timeline, as froyotech had just come off a 3rd place finish and needed to replace almost the entire roster. Muma's performance during his froyotech tenure was serviceable: nothing otherworldly, but he was a role player and let the Scout combo of b4nny and clockwork do their thing. Muma has a 66% win rate, which is certainly not bad for a player with just three seasons to their name. He's the first froyotech player to be ranked, and he certainly won't be the last. As part of the froyo rosters that transitioned into the superteam it is today, Muma deserves a place on the list.
While we aren't counting RGL Season 7 for data purposes, Skye - currently playing for GlobalClan Ice - is still technically the first active player on the Top 100 (Muma has also been playing but outside of Invite). Starting from ESEA S21, she has played in eight full seasons of Invite, which is the 10th most for any Medic mains here. A majority of her teams featured players like Shamoo, Rekuso, and Jarrett. These cores often hung out in the middle of the division, save for S28 and S29 when they snagged a pair of playoff berths under the Velocity eSports flag. Of all Medics to ever play in ESEA, Skye is #6 in ubers and #11 in assists - with a league lifetime uber/death ratio that rivals TheFragile and other top healers, which is not bad company at all. She is also one of ten Medics to play a
perfect game within the league. Unfortunately, the lack of success (both individually and compared to her contemporaries) holds her back...for now.
mason is the first player on the Top 100 to have logged Invite seasons under two classes. With activity as sporadic as Ggglygy, it makes sense for him to be in the same zip code. Staying with this comparison, they both logged five seasons of Invite, while mason trades a playoff appearance for a season (plus extra) offclassing on Soldier. His woodpig teams have made multiple stops in the division, including grabbing a playoffs ticket during ESEA S20. The prior season, he made his Invite playoffs debut as part of The Five Dollar Club. He was the 2nd Medic in Invite history to record a perfect game, doing so in S16 (albeit in a 6v5 but hey it's still a zero in the deaths column). Even though none of his seasons stand out spectacularly, having two classes on your Invite resume gives mason a little extra sauce.
You'll be reminded throughout the project about how these rankings are pretty loose. Most of the bottom 50 (and even some of the lower ranks) were quickly scrambled into place, and I've talked enough about the various disclaimers. Not that I mind at all if your jimmies get rustled, it gets discussion moving either way. bo4r has a simple five seasons played and two playoff appearances in Seasons 28 and 29 with Velocity eSports, During those two seasons, he ranked top five in both frags and caps - though part of it was due to the higher amount of playtime. When checking FPM his numbers are actually kinda low compared to the competition. What isn't low however, is his
Sniper impact. Having long been established in the Highlander realms as a top-level Sniper, bo4r brought that to the table for his teams and then some. He played a healthy amount of the pick class in his full seasons and was comfortably one of the best in the division every time. His S28 performance is of note: racking up a Invite-leading 95 kills in a little under two hours of Sniper time.
As mentioned in the hub post, you won't be seeing many RGL-only players here, but lolguy has certainly built a case for himself. lolguy has played every season of RGL Invite thus far, and after going 4-20 in his first two seasons has forged ahead with a record of 40-23 in the four seasons since. Even though he - like Skye - has only made playoffs twice, it's the quality of those appearances that matter. The first was during S3 with Ascent en route to a 2nd place finish. The second was his magnum opus: a thrilling S6 grand finals series against froyotech where he put on a
master class of top level Medic gameplay. Hands down one of the best Medic performances in Invite playoffs history. The only thing that'd have elevated it to another level was if it was on LAN. He'll hopefully be getting that opportunity next year when Witness Gaming attends the Copenhagen Games. Assuming he keeps this up for seasons to come, the future is extremely bright for lolguy.
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