As we head towards the sharp end of ETF2L Season 42, NOOBPANZER have been forced to shuffle their line-up once more. To avoid real life commitments impeding a busy summer, AMP-T and hemp have both been honourably discharged, with chris and Nevo recruited to fill their shoes.

Despite this roster turmoil both leading up to, and throughout their Premiership bow, the team’s performances have not been disrupted. Crucial victories against Venomcrest Pythons and The League of Shadows have allowed NOOBPANZER to qualify for playoffs with a game to spare.

AMP-T was both the co-leader and architect of the team alongside ggggggg (aka Joe), and the German soldier has been a central part of building this exciting project, which debuted in the Unity Cup during the offseason. hemp, by contrast, was a last-minute pickup on Scout, just as the season began. But both will now sit out what would have been their first forays into Premiership playoffs.

The replacements, however, have no lack of experience. Nevo has been a mainstay on Ora Elektro for over 5 years, which has made him a permanent fixture at the top of European TF2 and provided the French Scout experience of playing with every team member except vani

chris was himself last seen on Ora Elektro during Season 39 where, despite missing the Grand Final, he secured himself a third Premiership silver medal following near misses with Ascent.EU (S29) and SVIFT (S30). While he has dipped in and out of the scene in recent years, chris, historically, has a reputation for stepping up offline. He proved his Scout ability by winning Gamers Assembly 2017 with Tactique de soufflerie. He also brought great excitement to i63, where he finished third with SVIFT and managed the joint highest medic drops across the tournament in an all-action Roamer showing.

These additions bring NOOBPANZER to a full house of team members who have placed in the top 2 of ETF2L Premiership. It will also provide a bit more stability on the exact roles within the team. After some experimentation early in the season, Nevo and chris can slot into the Pocket Scout and Roaming Soldier roles they are respectively best known for. Now with a finalised roster, the team will be looking to refine their gameplay to challenge Europe’s finest in ETF2L and also have one eye on Insomnia69 coming up in August.

To discuss the upheaval, we talked to ggggggg:

TEAMFORTRESS.TV: Why have you had to change roster?

Firstly, we lost amp-t. Due to a vacation and other personal factors he was unable to play the remainder of the season or LAN so we were forced to find a replacement. As for Hemp, we'd initially picked them up last-minute for as long as we needed until we potentially found a replacement capable of attending LAN but their schedule changed so we again had to find a replacement. Luckily, we had chris and Nevo both available.

TEAMFORTRESS.TV: So, will we be seeing this roster at Insomnia69?

Maybe, we still have some things to iron out so it’s not confirmed yet

TEAMFORTRESS.TV: How do you rate your prospects heading into playoffs?

We're well capable of beating every other team in playoffs, so obviously we’re hoping we can close out 1st.

Loaded with confidence, NOOBPANZER is now:

• Pocket Scout: Nevo
• Flank Scout: YeeHaw
• Roamer: chris
• Pocket: ronz
• Demoman: ggggggg
• Medic: vani