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're almost home.

Key Achievements

• ESEA S6: 1st - Blight.own

• ESEA S8: 1st - CheckSix Gaming (19-0)

• ESEA S12: 1st - Classic Mixup (19-0)

• Insomnia46: 1st - Classic Mixup

• ESEA S15: 1st - Classic Mixup

One of ten players with perfect playoffs attendance (min. 9 seasons)

One of three players to win Invite in their rookie season

One of two players with a perfect season on multiple classes

Eleven years before artist painted a championship picture in RGL S6, harbleu was picked up midway through ESEA S6 by Blight.own and became the first player to win Invite in their first season. Since he only played eight matches prior to LAN, his statline wasn't anything that exciting (though it's worth mentioning he still had the 5th best Soldier FPH). Though he had an unfortunate time on Gravel Pit early at S6 LAN, he made up for it in the following two series, including opening up grand finals with a swift dismantling of Blight-fanom on Granary, going 16-8 and a whopping 0.0 DPM (we didn't have the technology yet) to claim his first ring. This would be his first of many seasons as teammates with Platinum, joining forces on rosters like S7 Blight Gaming (3rd), S9 Classic Mixup (2nd), and S14 Classic Mixup (2nd). harbleu would venture into the pocket Soldier role in S11 with Mihalys Flow, where all that prior experience helped craft one of the strongest performances of the time: the team went 15-1 in the regular season, while harbleu's 55.3 FPH towered above all other Invite Soldiers not named Platinum. Of course, harbleu also roamed for Mixup's S12 campaign where the synergy between him and the likes of TLR and Platinum led to an undefeated season and utter dominance all around. This included a trip to Europe for i46, where harbleu would make some interesting plays en route to a world title. In a post-Mixup world circa 2015, harbleu would play a bit longer much like his old Soldier teammate relic did. He helped S18 Mad Men and S20 woodpig reach the playoffs, both times providing a veteran presence for less experienced squads and both times finishing in 4th place.

But of course, that is only half of harbleu's story. Besides being a beast on Soldier, he also took up the Medigun for five of his 14 seasons. The first time was for CheckSix Gaming back in S8, and helped reel off the first-ever 19-0 perfect season in ESEA history. Even on Medic harbleu found ways to get frags as he collected 46 frags from the beginning of the season until the end, and more impressively had 24 frags in eight maps at LAN. He had the lowest DPH that season, and his cohesion with pocket TLR spearheaded the infamous CheckSix blob that crushed the competition. On the flipside, that combo was also present during the only two times a team has won Invite from the lower bracket, that being Classic Mixup in Seasons 10 and 15. He set the blueprint for the more aggressive style of Medic we'd see from the likes of mesr and Nursey in later years, and his contributions from the calling aspect greatly enhanced teams like the aforementioned S8 CheckSix and S12 Mixup. harbleu is also responsible for one of the best Medic moments in LAN history (hell maybe even overall). Naturally, since he split time between a combat class and Medic his career statistics don't rank that well (#46 in frags, #21 in ubers) but harbleu's legacy was defined by more than just numbers. Not too many combat class players have switched to Medic and found similar high levels of success or vice versa, but harbleu certainly did. As a Soldier he had strong showings on both roles, with a penchant for making unpredictable bombs and silly Spy plays. As a Medic, his wilder style challenged the likes of shade and PYYYOUR and was clutch on many occasions. Just six players have won Invite on two different classes but even in this rare company harbleu took the dual threat concept a step further by being the only non-b4nny player to have an perfect season on two classes, while also having multiple rings for each.

Key Achievements

• Insomnia55: 4th - Ascent

• ESEA S20: 1st - Ascent

• ESEA S24: 2nd - EVL Gaming

• ESEA S29: 2nd - FROYO BLACK

• Rewind II LAN: 2nd - Ascent

14 consecutive Invite seasons (T-4th all time)

6,189 career ESEA frags (#13 all time)

278 career ESEA DPM (#2 all time among top 15 frag leaders)

Raise your hand if you knew that Bdonski's Invite debut was on the Scout class. There better not be any TF2 zoomers with their hands up. Since he and the rest of Solace eSports went a forgettable 6-10 that season we'll quickly brush it aside. It is unfortunate for him that he's the only player in the top ten who has offclassed without any noteworthy accomplishments (mainly making playoffs) but not a big deal at the end of the day. Starting in ESEA S15 with lost in translation, Bdonski would quickly establish himself as one of Invite's elite Demomen. After a decent start with 3rd and 4th place finishes by S16, Bdonski would never look back. From there, he would go on to own a regular season W-L of 164-28 (85%) and was always in the discussion of best Demoman in the division, challenging the likes of duwatna, sighguy, and habib until his retirement after S29. He was a key contributor on the plentitude of Ascent rosters than constantly battled against froyotech for the Invite throne. In S20 throughout their fateful upper bracket finals matchup, Bdonski's 424 DPM on Viaduct paved the way for his Scouts Shrugger and yomps to collect a combined 90 frags. Then in grand finals against TeamSoloUber, he opened up map one with a casual 600 DPM in a first half that was over before you could blink. He averaged 336 DPM for their entire postseason run, which was the best of all players and miles higher than the next Demoman (xalox at 269).

Since Demo is not necessarily a class about getting frags, let's look at how Bdonski scored compared to his contemporaries throughout his illlustrious career. For frags, frags per hour, and damage per minute, a season where he wasn't top three in at least one of those categories was few and far between. He claimed the highest DPM in class during S16 with Exertus eSports at 332, even having the 4th most dominations in all of Invite. Then in S18 Bdonski had the most frags and 2nd highest DPM of all Demomen. Surprisingly, the championship season didn't feature much statistically, but I'm sure he doesn't mind. How about his S24 campaign under EVL Gaming, where Bdonski was: 1st in Demo frags (229), 2nd in Demo DPM (294), 1st in Demo FPH (40.2)? He was 15 frags shy of taking the triple crown of Demoman. After two solid but unspectacular seasons that led into 2018, Bdonski teamed up with shade and laz on FROYO BLACK for his final act in S29 and returned to his typical self in the frags and DPM department, coming in at 3rd for both. For all players with the top 15 most career frags in ESEA Bdonski's 278 DPM is 2nd overall, and the player in 1st has never made Invite. He had more seasons over 290 DPM than below, and oh yeah did most of this with rando as his pocket Soldier who often doubled Bdonski's heals received. But ultimately no matter what his numbers looked like, Bdonski quietly and consistently put his team in the best possible situations to win games and he did so for a very long time. Just one more (solo) Demoman remains, and he's the only one that's been more reliable, more destructive, and more successful than Bdonski.

Key Achievements

• ESEA S3: 1st - 20ID

• ESEA S5: 2nd - Blight Gaming

• ESEA S10: 3rd - The Experiment

• ESEA S15: 1st - Classic Mixup

• Insomnia52: 3rd - Classic Mixup

One of ten players with perfect playoffs attendance (min. 9 seasons)

One of eight players to win LAN through lower bracket

One of seven Soldiers to record 60+ frags in a single ESEA match

In 2008, Seagull began climbing the TF2 ladder and started to garner attention for his Soldier gameplay. After ESEA expanded to include TF2 Seagull would end that opening season getting 3rd with iDemise and TheFragile, saber07, and Orzo. Then in ESEA S3, Seagull and 20ID vanquished compLexity and Evil Geniuses to become the inaugural Invite champions. Their sophomore campaign had Seagull help get them back into the playoffs, though this time they would finish 3rd. That postseason Seagull wracked up 120 frags across three maps in a little over 90 minutes. With 72.7 FPH, there's never been a higher playoffs FPH recorded. Despite the smaller sample size he still earns a piece of playoff history, but it should understandably be split three ways between him, Ruwin's LAN record, and Shrugger's online record. Nonetheless, Seagull had the most frags per hour for all Soldiers in the first two Invite seasons which was no small feat with players like Reptile, yaug, and relic running (or jumping) around. For S5 LAN, Blight Gaming got to attend after Muscle Milk & Moolians bowed out, so their regular season record of 6-10 gets conveniently overshadowed. Plus they ended up in 2nd so maybe they deserved to be there after all. Unfortunately we lack damage data from this era, so our imaginations can run wild but as Seagull came into his own, he was one of the few that could legitimately challenge Reptile's early reign as the best Soldier in the business.

Two years would pass before Seagull played Invite again, this time joining a completely revamped The Experiment squad and even though he was rusty, still proved he was a top-of-the-line Soldier with the 3rd most Soldier frags (389), 5th highest overall DPM (277), and 4th in Soldier FPH (54.3). He also had a beautiful jump-to-shotgun sequence at LAN. Seagull would then take another hiatus before reappearing on Fully Torqued during S13 and joining Classic Mixup S14, even playing Demoman for the latter. Mixup would be his home for the rest of his career, shifting to roamer for the following season, Seagull's S15 was magical: his 275 frags led all roaming Soldiers and his 361 DPM led all Invite players. Then at LAN, Seagull followed in relic's footsteps with an incredible grand finals performance, sealing it on Process top fragging in the server. His final two seasons were inconsistent, only playing LAN during S16 and then only playing the regular season in S17, but remained a solid force all the same. Given his (relative) lack of seasons Seagull barely squeaks in the top 200 for ESEA frag leaders at #193, but his career 297 DPM is actually 7th of those 200 players. Although since DPM wasn't tracked during his first three seasons his position could fluctuate in either direction. His patience and methodical decision-making characterized his Soldier gameplay and had a great mind for the game. He's the only player in the top ten with an inconsistent activity range, but that simply shows how spectacular he was. No matter which Soldier role, no matter which era, opponents were going to get flocked by a Seagull.

Key Achievements

• ESEA S20: 1st - Ascent

• ESEA S27: 1st - froyotech (19-0)

• ESEA S28: 1st - froyotech (19-0)

• Insomnia63: 1st - froyotech

• RGL S1: 1st - froyotech

7,198 career ESEA frags (#5 all time)

Led Invite in frags during rookie season

One of six players to win Invite on multiple classes

Very rarely does a person just burst onto the scene and catch everyone's attention, but that is exactly what yomps did. In his first-ever season of ESEA, he won the Intermediate division with cafe monster. He also had the most frags of anyone in IM. Then in cafe monster's respectable 8-8 Invite rookie season in S19 yomps would lead the division in frags again with 401 (and the 3rd best Scout FPH). His performance caught the attention of Ascent, who picked him up the next offseason following Decimate's retirement. This S20 campaign saw him and Shrugger tear through opponents from week one all the way to their championship-clinching Viaduct victory over TeamSoloUber. So to recap, in yomps' first year of TF2 he: led Intermediate in frags, won Intermediate, led Invite in frags, won Invite, and went 36-12 with over 1,100 frags. Not bad, not bad at all. He cooled off slightly during the first RONIN season but found his rhythm afterwards, securing the 2nd highest Scout DPM in S23, a 63 frag performance in S24, and a career-best 415 frags in S26. yomps also made his first couple of LAN appearances during this time, with a 3rd place at Rewind and 2nd at RGB. Whether you wanted to look at frags, DPM in class, or anything else, yomps was a shoe-in for the best in all these categories nearly every season. Hell, usually it was only various froyotech members that would rank higher. So what we have with yomps is an already explosive resume in a mere eight seasons, immense numbers, and an early ring. How could things possibly get any better? I could think of one way...

After sighguy and froyotech split, yomps joined the team and originally started off as their next great Scout legend. However, he and b4nny would soon swap roles and yomps found himself on pocket for the first time. Turns out, this dude was truly gifted. He would finish the ESEA era as the trusty pocket Soldier for froyotech and the numbers are stunning. In those four seasons, comparing yomps to other Invite Soldiers was almost unfair. He was top five in frags three times, had the highest DPM three times, and always had the best FPH. Even expanding to the whole division, the amount of top five marks in data collection was staggering. Much like his Ascent days, it was typically only the likes of b4nny, arekk, and habib that scored better in the damage and FPH departments, but now they were his teammates rather than rivals. Honestly the number of times the top positions were just froyotech member after froyotech member just speaks to how dominant they were (if the plethora of championships didn't already do that). He only left the froyo nest two times, once for FROYO BLACK briefly in S29 and then his final season with Dorsia in RGL S3. These had less spectacular offerings but are merely a blip in his otherwise astronomical portfolio. 193-34 (181-19 if you exclude his first and last seasons) all-time, four perfect seasons, an i63 title, undeniable prowess on Scout and Soldier. In such a niche game and community as TF2, few can claim to be a prodigy or have transcendent talent. But make no mistake, yomps was undoubtedly one of the greatest players to ever touch this game and more importantly was an extremely caring person and teammate. Simply put, a legend both on and off the field that will be remembered forever. Respect him.

Key Achievements

• ESEA S7: 1st - eMazing Gaming

• ESEA S13: 1st - High Rollers Gaming (19-0)

• ESEA S16: 1st - froyotech (19-0)

• ESEA S26: 1st - froyotech (19-0)

• Insomnia52: 1st - froyotech

5,808 career ubers (#1 all time)

One of five players with 10+ championships

One of five Medics with multiple ESEA perfect games

TF2 has had many storied Medics throughout the past 36 seasons. Talented players who by virtue of their class got to take the lion's share of the blame while little of the glory. People like cozen and kbk flashed brilliantly for a short period of time, harbleu and PYYYOUR elevated the class with their calling capabilities, Nursey and lolguy demonstrated incredible mechanics non-stop. But at the end of the day only one Medic gets to stand alone at the top of the healing mountain, and that honor goes to shade. And to think, his first Invite matches weren't on Medic but Demoman of all classes, stepping in for Pandemic during ESEA S5 LAN. He then joined the upstart eMazing Gaming crew for three seasons. You could begin to see his brilliance, as shade had the lowest DPH in two of those three campaigns, including the S7 championship one (and living twice as much as his counterpart during grand finals). He would return in the summer of 2012 for S11 and helped enoryt and b4nny to another championship. This was around the time where he began to hit his stride, with low death performances and excellent synergy with his combo players. In S13 with the 19-0 High Rollers Gaming shade got his first taste of perfection and found it to his liking, most notably dying just once in upper bracket finals against Classic Mixup on Badlands. Across HRG's 26 regular season matches shade averaged 6.8 deaths per map and furthered the perfection narrative when he became the first Medic to get zero deaths in an ESEA match. He would do this five more teams in his career and only Nursey has more to their name.

By now shade had presented a strong argument as the best Medic Invite had to offer, based on his winning pedigree and consistency. So heading into S16 and the creation of froyotech, it was more business as usual for him and the team. Regular season? Great survivability, including a personal best 5.8 deaths per game in S18. Amazing ubers thanks to his chemistry with b4nny and lansky. Even had the most frags of all Medics a couple times. Another perfect game here and there. LAN? The S17 postseason saw him die just 47 times across six maps which is the 2nd best LAN performance, ironically only losing to Reptile's S9 showing. shade would also add a pair of iSeries trophies to his collection with dominant showings at both i52 and i55. He got off to a rocky start (by his lofty standards) in the Dark Age thanks to #3rdplaceb4nny in S20 and FROYO BLACK's first appearance two seasons later. After that though he rejoined froyo and got back to collecting championship rings like they were trading cards. shade averaged 5.7 deaths per playoff map in their insane S26 run (34 times in six maps). If low deaths in playoffs was a company, shade would own about 90% of it. That was the first of three more consecutive perfect seasons. Medic doesn't really get to play the game, so when your team dominates as froyotech tends to do, you get bored. shade helped alleviate this first world TF2 problem by switching to Frying Pan in the melee slot and going for silly backcaps. shade was the ultimate combination of brains and talent, and after his final season in S29 with BLOYO retired as the most accomplished Medic in NA Invite history and it wasn't even close. No other Medic has the fundamentals, the longevity, and the jewelry to overtake shade, and this will be the case for a very, very long time. It's crazy to think that there are players nowadays who have never watched this man work on Medic. There are five other roles on a team, and it's pretty damn poetic that there are five remaining players ahead of shade.

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