Week 4

Welcome to the week of dullest fixtures in Premiership this season where if I were to try and make a setup of games where 5-0 would be the most common scoreline, it'd be this. Mystery Gamers #2 and #4 have gone to bed having only given me result predictions and no comments, gg game. Still, I thought I'd post the article for the sake of those bugging me to do so - shoutouts to Rake and Turbo.

Currently tied in terms of quantity with Admirable's 'weekly' battle reports from last season, pressure's on.

Competitive TF2 News from this week

Darn rage quits official and gets kicked

• The main drama from this week is undoubtably the actions of Darn during his team vinland's official against Crack Clan. The Week 3 match was being casted by both TF.TV and VanillaTV. For those that weren't watching/haven't read any of the numerous forum posts, in the Crack Clan vs vinland official, Darn ragequit during the server during the first map, followed eventually by the rest of this team, ultimately then meaning that the match defaulted to Crack Clan and casts totalling several hundred viewers had to be cut short. Although I'm not going to explain why he did what he did, (I don't know Darn that well), it makes sense that if he couldn't play with his normal FOV things would seem pretty pointless, (try playing a match having to suddenly change to 70 FOV?) but when you try and put this against losing his team the match, disappointing the other players in the match as well as everybody watching, embarrassing the casting orgs and (cliche) giving out a poor attitude to any TF2 newcomers (not to mention get kicking from his team) it hardly seems worth it. Either way, it's unlikely hordes of people will never watch our glorious cartoon game again (unless this happens on a regular basis) and it's unlikely anyone will do this again, firstly because it makes you look a bit childish, secondly you'll probably get kicked from your team and thirdly, and probably most importantly, ETF2L instigated a rule that bans the higher FOV, oh to have done it sooner… For those wishing to read more on this melodrama, feel free to check out Arie's post on VanillaTF2. Update: It looks like vinland have opted to take ex-Lutuset soldier Tumpelol as Darn's replacement, which, from what I remember of him, is definitely a good pickup for them, anyone can feel free to call me out…

Scouts leaving leaves Karnage in complete… ruins

• It seems we may be veering towards the first fold of the season as though not completely down and out yet, Division 1 team Karnage eSports have managed to lose both their scouts, and seemingly some of the remaining players have dwindling motivation to continue. Word has it that over a few of their matches in the latter part of last week including the official, Ghent decided he didn't really wanted to play meaning the rest of the team had to get a merc and as you might appreciate, this would leave some members slightly put out. In particular, r7an seems to be the first to crumble, despite have enjoyed playing with his teammates, the negativity of it all (spanning the past few weeks) made things a chore (paraphrased). Having seen r7an's recruitment post, I was asking Dendocror as to why r7an had left when it turned out sheepy had also decided he wanted out too, presumably unable to continue without the unique rarity of another scottish Division 1 scout by his side. It seems at the moment Dendocror seems to be trying to hold the team together and bring in fresh people so credit to him for that. It seems likely that they will be searching for a medic and a demo as opposed to two scouts, with former demo kimberly opting to move to scout with ghent and Dendocror moving from medic to soldier. So many moves in such a short space of time will typically end badly, but if it keeps the team playing I'm all for the changes. In hearing to news of a potential fold, I spoke to award winner for sportsmanship Turbomonkey for his opinion:

• Decerto.Ozone Turbomonkey: serves em right

• Decerto.Ozone Turbomonkey: shitters
• Ally: i'm quoting that

Last week's interviewees

As promised, here are the identities of the Mystery Gamers from my Week 3 article: Mystery Gamer #1 was was Crack Clan team leader Ipz, Mystery Gamer #2 was big MGE Mike of Epsilon, Mystery Gamer #3 was Furbo Pandas' Sideshow and Mystery Gamer #4 was Optimum eSports Woody.

Results from last week (and a couple from Week 1)

• broder vs. Epsilon eSports (Result: Granary (4-5) Snakewater (1-5) )
• Skidmark Central vs. SOLAR (Result: Granary (4-6) Snakewater (6-4) )
• Crack Clan vs. vinland (Result: Granary (5-0) Snakewater (5-0) )
• Last Man Standing vs. Revoluzion la metagame (Result: Granary (3-4) Snakewater (2-7) )

Prem are doing pretty well at the moment in keeping up-to-date with fixtures. Last week featured the match between the two strongest teams in the Premiership in the form of broder vs. Epsilon, Granary was pretty close but Epsilon more than ran away with Snakewater. Looking briefly at the logs, Epsilon's soldiers outplayed broder's in terms of damage and it seems this more than anywhere else (in terms of logs) is where the difference is being made. In Skidmark Central vs. Solar, Skidmark have managed to draw another of their matches against a 'bottom 4' team after vinland in Week 1 and word has it their overall motivation to compete to the required high level is dwindling. Solar on the other hand are performing well and a potential relegation battle has turned into being in competition for a playoff spot. In Crack Clan vs. vinland, we had the aforementioned Darn drama leading to two 5-0 victories in Crack Clan's favour. The overall result isn't really a shock here, but it's always possible the points could play a part by the end of the season. LMS vs. Revoluzion is the first Prem game to have stuck with me as being played on a friday. I was part of a mix team that played a warm-up game against them (I wonder why no one else was around Kappa) and they seemed shaky at best, probably partly due to playing without demoman and main caller Mightyme, you really have to wonder why they bothered to play that day… Either way, it's good points for RLM and from now on LMS will really have to start winning matches if they want to avoid the bottom spot.

• Furbo Pandas vs. Rainbow Queens (Result: Granary (5-3) Snakewater (6-3) )
• Karnage eSports vs. Decerto.Ozone (Result: Granary (1-6) Snakewater (0-5) )
• Optimum eSports vs. Trick17 Black (Result: Granary (5-4) Snakewater (2-1) )
• d-d-Did I Stutter vs. Team Reverto (unplayed)

Slightly more games being played this week than last, I think Reverto skipped playing all of last week due Rising's pc dying and Stark moving house (this definitely counts as game insight) ANYWAY, in Furbo Pandas vs. Rainbow Queens, Furbo Pandas securing the win will keep them on track for contesting Reverto for the Division title with whom they drew in Week 1. Both teams have yet to play Decerto yet, and I think Decerto, especially with new roster addition WAR on soldier, could definitely beat either team if they're not on their best game. In Karnage vs. Decerto, Decerto completely smashed Karnage only dropped 1 round over both maps, though this may end up being free points for everyone if Karnage fold, it's sure to be good motivation moving onto their next official. Optimum vs. Trick17 was the battle of the bottom of the table, with many predicting Trick17 to take it, however thanks to some miraculous turnaround (Gubbins), Optimum are now looking much stronger and showed their strength in a deserved win. Who know's how high the limit is?

The maps for Week 4 of Season 15 will be cpgranary and cpprocess_something.

Current Premiership Standings

1. Epsilon eSports (Played 3 Won 3)
2. Crack Clan (Played 3 Won 3)
3. broder (Played 3 Won 2 Lost 1
4. Revoluzion la Metagame (Played 3 Won 1 Drawn 1 Lost 1)
5. SOLAR (Played 3 Drawn 2 Lost 1)
6. nerd party (Played 3 Drawn 2 Lost 1)
7. vinland (Played 3 Drawn 1 Lost 2)
8. LMS (Played 3 Lost 3)

Skidmark Central vs. Last Man Standing

• Skidmark Central: skeej, kaidus, flisko, Daleth, kiler4funN, Greg
• Last Man Standing: Whiteglow, Mightyme, Forsak3n, unconfirmed, reko, sickless

My thoughts: Despite the destructive potential of this week's set of matches, it's easy to put this match as the one with the greatest chance for upset. Skidmark suffered another disappointing draw last week which, playoff positions aside for a moment, really doesn't set them in good stead to compete for the title by the end of the season. Team leader kaidus' remarks regarding the attitude of their team turning more towards that of a casual nature means that a well practised and focused LMS are even more likely to take something away from what you'd have said at the start of the season was an already decided result. Having merced for LMS last week and seen them lose a map to Division 1 Decerto, the the general vibe in mumble (*teamspeak… fucking russians) was good and with a greatly moved around roster (only two people playing their proper positions), the result can hardly be taken as accountable, sorry Turbo… LMS having had main soldier Empty go to a backup position due to little enjoyment in the game and Ordinator no longer playing because of a similar lack of happiness, LMS are also currently lacking a soldier. Despite this I doubt we'll see a roll here as, although having consistently lost, this season LMS have managed to put up good performances in officials against the likes of Epsilon and Broder and currently Skidmark are far below the level of those. A few nice middles, decent Kritz plays and reko focusing down the appropriate prey might see LMS amount quite a few rounds but really the overall result will be decided by how much Skidmark opt to put in.

Mystery Gamer #1 (Prediction: 5-2 Granary 3-4 Process):

"LMS haven't had the best start into the season so far but the same applies for Skidmark. Both teams seem to be extremely shaky with Skidmark dropping a map to the Div 1 winner Solar last week and LMS not managing to get any points so far. This game can go either way."

Crack Clan vs SOLAR

• Crack Clan: 2nuts, Brego, Ipz, T-mac, TviQ, smzi
• SOLAR: vanilla, lalli, qnx, Hycz, maidu, cor

My thoughts: After resorting to excessively angering Darn as their main strategy in beating vinland, Crack Clan's actual in-game tactics may turn out to be shaky (lols). Solar are made of tougher stuff than vinland though and although their pocket Hycz has less experience than Darn, as far as I'm aware he doesn't have any major issues with FOV and in my opinion has superior gameplay anyway. Last week Solar pulled off a draw against Skidmark but Crack Clan won't be half as likely to give up rounds. Overall, Crack Clan will destroy Solar, but Solar may be able to pull of a few rounds, easy come, easy go.

Mystery Gamer #1 (Prediction: 6-1 Granary 5-0 Process):

"Crack Clan looking good so far this season and even though 2nuts cut his fingers (emo) I can see no way of Solar stealing any points from CC. Especially because it's Process week and everybody knows that this is CC's homemap."

broder vs vinland

• broder: Mirelin, ryb, Zebbosai, jukebox, bybben, cookye
• vinland: jose, suqper, Tumpelol, Salmon, Rake, delzic

My thoughts: Losing to Epsilon will likely be broder's only loss this season before the playoffs (bite me Crack Clan) and vinland now lacking a main caller will mean the scandis will likely tear apart the uncoordinated bunch of Äpärälapsis (googled 'rude word in finnish'). In Darn's wake, vinland have opted to pickup fellow fin (no surprises there) Tumpelol who played with a few of the current team members in the old Lutuset team and from what I remember he was a really good soldier but whether he's going to look decent at all going up against broder is a different matter. This week broder's roamer jukebox is away so zappis will be stepping in play. I've never him play anything but scout, but if he's half as good at soldier as he is scout, broder won't be too much worse for wear. broder to take it comfortably with vinland maybe taking a few rounds if broder relax too much.

Mystery Gamer #1 (Prediction: 5-0 Granary 6-2 Process):

"broder showed a decent performance vs epsilon earlier this season and are definitely the overall favourites for this matchup. It will be interesting to see who replaces Darn after he got kicked from his team last week after ETF2L announced that any FOV plugins are forbidden from now on."

Epsilon vs Revoluzion la Metagame

• Epsilon eSports: KnOxXx, numlocked, Mike, Gear, schocky, basH
• Revoluzion la Metagame: Spin, Exon, Haunter, tek, Flippy, quad

My thoughts: Anddddd finally, Epsi vs who? After playing broder last week and still looking unbeatable, the champions of Europe seemed to be phased by nothing less than their champion counterparts in America. Epsilon have once again proved that stepping up in officials is still their thing and we'd have to see both a horrific performance by Epsilon and Revoluzion playing out of their skins to see the overall result here be anything but an Epsilon victory. As said countless times by countless people before, the RLM roster has the raw ability to play a top level but currently it's too soon into their lifetime as a team to pose any real threat.

Mystery Gamer #1 (Prediction: 5-0 Granary 5-0 Process):

"Epsilon stomping pretty much every team in officials and having overall decent results in pcws makes them the clear favourite for this match. RLM are a fairly new team and still struggle to get some team chemistry going so I highly doubt that they will be a threat for epsilon."

Current Division 1 Standings:

1. Furbo Pandas (Played 3 Won 2 Drawn 1)
2. Team Reverto (Played 2 Won 1 Drawn 1)
3. Decerto Ozone (Played 2 Won 1 Drawn 1)
4. Karnage eSports (Played 2 Won 1 Lost 1)
5. Optimum eSports (Played 2 Won 1 Lost 1)
6. Rainbow Queens (Played 2 Won 1 Lost 1)
7. d-d-Did I Stutter (Played 2 Drawn 1 Lost 2)
8. Trick17 Black (Played 3 Lost 3)

Karnage eSports vs. Furbo Pandas

• Karnage eSports: unconfirmed , unconfirmed, wpminnows, Dendocror, kimberly, ghent
• Furbo Pandas: shifty, Hildreth, zooob, Sideshow, rock, furbo

My thoughts: Though apparently the attitude of some of Karnage team in game wasn't at it's best over the past few weeks (in the opinion of some), based on results alone this might have been an interesting matchup (bar the sudden roster drops). By now Furbo Pandas have overcome any signs of weakness due to their early season roster troubles and are definitely now contenders for the top spot in the division. By contrast, a good result here for Karnage will be more of means to gather some motivation to hold their roster together than current placement in the table. I'm not sure if this fixture has been scheduled yet but if I were in Karnage's position I'd be probably looking to play a wildcard and hope to be able to pull some decent teamplay together with some new players in the next week or so.

Mystery Gamer #3 (Prediction: 0-5 Granary 1-6 Process):

"Karnage haven't been playing good at all recently, and they recently just lost r7an and sheepy and are switching their roster around a bit. Considering Furbo Pandas are probably the top team in the div, they'll probably get sat down. Hopefully I'm wrong. :3"

d-d-Did I Stutter vs. Rainbow Queens

• d-d-Did I Stutter: Fenrir, Funkadelic, Linus, wolve, Buttnose, Permzilla
• Rainbow Queens: AnimaL, Spary, Old Grandma, Shrike, msh, ReveraL

Monday 27th May 21:15 CEST (Provisionally) Casted by Pledge + 1 with Jon streaming.

My thoughts: Could actually be a close game, RQ should take it but I wouldn't be surprised if DIS take a map because Permzilla is the best.

Mystery Gamer #3 (Prediction: 1-4 Granary 2-5 Process):

"Very interested to see the match against DIS and AG (rainbow queens). Not really seen Rainbow Queens play all that much and have yet to play them ourselves. I think DIS might get carried by Perm a little bit, but I don't think wolve and Linus are better than Rainbows soldiers. I think Rainbow Queens will win purely from DM."

Optimum eSports vs. Team Reverto

• Optimum eSports: evokje, phy, WOODY, Gubbins, konr, r0cky
• Team Reverto: BaR, Maffi, Stark, Rising, Alba, e-thug

My thoughts: Before even checking their predictions, I know people I've interviewed will predict this massively in favour of Reverto, however I don't think it'll be quite so decided. Somehow Optimum have managed to really step up their game (Gubbins) and lately Reverto are lately are not playing great (e-thug) (JOKING).

Mystery Gamer #3 (Prediction: 0-5 Granary 0-5 Process):

"Reverto are, without a doubt, going to smash Optimum on both maps. Probably going to be a very quick 5 - 0 on process considering Reverto have Rising on roamer where he can really shine. Same with Granary, Reverto's soldiers are just going to dominate middles."

Decerto Ozone vs. Trick17 Black

• Decerto. Ozone: Turbomonkey, huhy, arc, KillAri, Origo, gf18
• Trick17 Black: Kamari, kr4tos, slate, WalKer, RazorsEdge, _*unconfirmed*

My thoughts: Currently for Decerto, I think arc's mouse is broken, meaning they're currently playing with WAR on soldier and will be for this week's match at least. While at first WAR may lack some synergy with team, this will come soon and he defeats any real need for that anyway due to his individual skill. Amusingly he'll be playing against the team he only very recently left and for whom I've no idea who they have taken/will take to replace him. Unless it's schocky, then Trick17 are going to get destroyed, and probably still even then… Decerto as a whole are looking strong and would easily be my main pick for 3rd place in the division behind Furbo Pandas and Reverto. Also, with a game against each of these still to be played, there's a good chance they'll be able to place even better."

Mystery Gamer #3 (Prediction: 5-0 Granary 5-0 Process):

"Trick17 are not going anywhere now that they've lost WAR unfortunately. Decerto's scouts are going to absolutely destroy them I think. Not even slate who I consider to be a really strong roamer can help them win. He might be able to turn the tides on midfights but I think it will just be delaying their inevitable roll."

Tuesday 28th May 21:15 CEST Casted by Pledge + Yuki with Lexs streaming.