After a four season hiatus, the Germans are trying to squeeze their way back into Premiership.

wer das liest ist doof is a classic name among ETF2L Premiership and has been cemented into the canon of ETF2L. But there’s one thing the Germans have never been gifted at: retaining all six players after a single season. wer das liest ist doof ended up with a reputation for changing players or classes every season and never being able to fully reach the top of the game. After a few lackluster seasons, they decided to take a break before returning to Division 2 in Season 40.

The Season 40 roster had some strong players, including danny and etka koling, but the sandbag wasn’t heavy enough and they ended up losing the Grand Finals to NAMDEM, whose sister team MANDEM would end up winning the first Premiership Qualifying match against the Germans.

Now, with one hurdle left between them and their spot in Premiership, the Germans are taking on trust the process tonight at 21.15 CET. This Qualifying match will determine which team takes up a spot Premiership, and which team is demoted to Division 1 (read: immediately dies).

wer das liest ist doof certainly won’t go down without a fight with their new and improved roster. Staying on from last season, we have June, aka Hawara, aka the most bannable tf2pickup.de player, on Medic. June has made a jump up through the divisions playing with wer das liest ist doof, making the jump up to Division 2 from Mid last season, and now aiming for a spot in Premiership. She’s easily the least experienced player on the team, and the veterans of TF2 that make up most of this team will have a lot of clarity and stability to bring to the table.

Alongside June in the combo, we have Philip on Demoman. Philip had already proved himself as a capable Division 1 Demoman before hopping onto the train to Prem, but he also has no Premiership experience under his belt. Philip is the least experienced player on a DM class on the team, but with voxtec and schocky on Scouts, he shouldn’t have much to worry about.

Schocky, aka stefan, is one of the most prolific scouts of European TF2 history: with two Insomnia championships under his belt (i43 and i49) and also having played with Epsilon eSports, one of the most legendary teams in TF2 history. 12 ETF2L Awards stacked up and his very own Beater “Legacy” video, what more does this man have to prove? Well, in Season 35 schocky dropped down to Division 3 for the season and spent the next few seasons kicking around in Mid/Division 2. After such a long break from Premiership, schocky will at least be looking to show he’s still got it.

Alongside schocky on Scout, we have voxtec and Fischkopf on Scout and Soldier, respectively. Together with schocky, these two make up the old-school core of the Germans’ roster. Fischkopf, who’s played with wer das liest ist doof since their inception in Season 29, is a proper old-school player by today’s standards. Fischkopf was playing in Premiership back in Season 25, when voxtec was still playing in Open. Not only does this highlight Fischkopf’s grandpa TF2 ways, but also voxtec's meteoric rise to the top of the game.

By Season 32 voxtec had won Division 1 with wer das liest ist doof, and in Season 33 he made his first Premiership debut. In recent history voxtec has proven himself as a top-tier Premiership player, through his infallible performances with FAINT Gaming. Under the FAINT Gaming banner he achieved a third place finish in Season 37 and second place in Season 38, falling short against nerdRage. This duo is an extremely strong core for any team, and their calls and organisation in-game will surely be one of the advantages wer das liest ist doof has over their peers.

Finally, rounding out the roster, we have amp-t. After jumping around Premiership with nunya, amp-t is finally being absorbed into the German team, as all Germans eventually do. amp-t is another player who made a rocketing rise through the Divisions, but having already shown himself as a strong Premiership player, he’ll be adding to the ranks of the experienced Germans on the team.

We reached out to voxtec to answer a few questions about the return of the kings:

TEAMFORTRESS.TV: wer das liest ist doof is a name that has been out of the Premiership spotlight for a while, how much does it mean to you to finally be able to bring that name back?

Doesn't mean too much as everybody will just call us 'ze germans' anyways, but I'm still glad to continue the history of this team :)

TEAMFORTRESS.TV: Is this the ultimate return of wer das liest ist doof, or just a one-off Premiership season for you guys?

This team was planned to be a fun one off season team, mostly because I don't have a lot of time due to exams. However since it is really fun to play with the german Boys we might continue to play after this season ends.

TEAMFORTRESS.TV: How did you end up picking up some more inexperienced players to play alongside the more established players with a mountain of Premiership experience behind them?

Picking up Philip was a no brainer as he is the best german demo at the moment. He has a big brain, really nice personality and solid DM. We picked up june as she convinced us with her good mechanical skills and thirst for getting better.

TEAMFORTRESS.TV: After losing the first Premiership Qualifying match, how do you feel heading into your second one tonight? Did you change anything in your scrims after the loss?

We are not stressing too much about Quals, since we all don't mind to chill in div 1, but of course we will still tryhard and hope to win ;)

TEAMFORTRESS.TV: Welche ist die beste TF2 Pick-up Website für deutschsprachige Spieler, um sich zu verbessern und Spaß zu haben?

tf2pickup.de of Course! Kommt rann leute, egal welche div ihr seid!!

Almost back to Premiership and not stopping yet, the Germans:

• Pocket Scout: voxtec
• Flank Scout: schocky
• Roamer: Fischkopf
• Pocket: amp-t
• Demoman: Philip
• Medic: June