The terrible duo have returned, Sideshow and Hildreth (aka 'the two that don't carry Furbo Pandas'), trying our best to meet the high standards set up by Ally in his weekly ETF2L Prem and Div 1 articles. This week, resident dribble merchant Sideshow has written most of the article, with myself Hildreth only writing the Division one report, so without further delay let us have a read 'ey?

Games are currently all over the place, with broder fitting their entire season seemingly into one week, Zaibatsu arranging their two most important games on the same day and time and one game from week 5 still not played. As well as providing coverage for the upcoming week we'll try and recap the previous week's games and news as well as we can!

Competitive TF2 news from this week

ESA Launch Tournament - Last week we started with some news from ESA, so it only seems right that we should continue that trend. ESA made a big step up as a new league and offered a TF2 tournament for all skill levels, with a guaranteed prize pot of £1250! As a special bonus for this launch tournament, you will not need an ESA Premium account to collect your winnings (should you place in the top 16), and this tournament will kick off the ranking system that will be used in future competitions. First place also recieves 6 Ozone Rage ST Headsets courtesy of Ozone Gaming, their new partners. The tournament will kick off at 12:15 CEST on Sunday, June 23rd and run for most of the afternoon if you progress. More detailed information can be found at the VanillaTF2 article here

Ipz And His Team Leave Crack Clan - Whilst this may be old news to some, it is big news nonetheless so it deserves a place here. Whilst the team (now known as Zaibatsu) is still going strong, they have decided not to carry on representing Crack Clan. It seems to have been a very amicable split, and the team is currently in talks with other organisations so they won't have this horrible name for long thank god. Whilst they have left the amazing crackclan youtube channel behind, with all its content made by the team, Ipz is going to carry on producing content for his new youtube channel found here. As with ESA, VanillaTF2 has beaten us to covering this story so to see a more detailed look at the split from Crack Clan, have a read of this article.

Fully Charged! Europe - Following in the steps of Sal with his original Fully Charged talkshow, Europe now has an equivalent. Hosted by Pledge, the first episode aired on Thursday with guests Admirable, Ipz and CanFo. They discussed topics such as ESA, the ETF2L season so far, Premiership games and performances, the state of the European scene, the Crack Clan story, ee tee cee, ee tee cee, E, T, C. It was very enjoyable and if you haven't seen it then you definitely should - check it out here on TFTV.

Last week’s interviewees

Last week our premiership insight was provided by none other than the Sebastian twins; Mystery Gamer #1 was numlocked, the demoman for Epsilon eSports and Mystery Gamer #2 was Zebbosai, the pocket soldier for broder. The inside scoop on division one was delivered by teamless wonder sheepy as Mystery Gamer #3 and the roamer-turned-pocket for Reverto - Rising - as Mystery Gamer #4.

Results from last week

As the weeks are so screwed up near the end of the season, we will cover the one game from Week 6 which was actually played, and some others from assorted scheduling weeks which were actually played this week. Confusing, I know, but otherwise I just have to write Unplayed over and over.

• broder vs All Tied Up (Skidmark Central) – Result: 3-2 on Badlands, 3-1 on Viaduct.
• broder vs Revoluzion la metagame – Result: 5-1 on Process, 3-0 on Viaduct.
• The legend of peter and paul (SOLAR) vs 90° Fov eSports ATK-Gaming - Result: 4-2 Process, 3-2 Viaduct.
• broder vs 90° Fov eSports ATK-Gaming - Result: 6-1 on Granary, 6-1 on Process.
• All Tied Up (Skidmark Central) vs Last Man Standing - Result: 2-5 on Granary, 5-2 on Process.

Broder weren't able to play for just over a week, so came back fresh from a small break and got stuck into some officials right off the bat. At first they looked shaky up against Skidmark Central, with the games being a little closer than expected due to the crazy damage of kaidus on viaduct and some nice safe play to counter the misstimed aggression from broder on badlands. Fortunately for broder, they didn't crumble and sealed up this week with maximum points gained and rolled over RLM and 90° Fov. They have only the game against Zaibatsu to go before the playoffs, which should be epic. On a side note as well, RLM picked up the first premiership major warning, losing them a point. We'll have to see if it makes a difference to who gets the 4th playoff spot. Aside from the games that broder played in, we saw LMS get their first points this season (yayyyy!!) against some unlikely victims, Skidmark Central. Despite looking strong against broder, they weren't able to take Granary from the formerly russian team. After 20 minutes the map was looking even at 2-2, with some big plays from the flank of LMS and some huge sniping keeping them in the game; after this 20 minute mark the soldier combo from LMS ran riot over Skidmark on middles and the map quickly went their way. We also had SOLAR play against 90° Fov just earlier today, with SOLAR taking both maps. Didn't actually get time to watch it but qnx and hycz probably shat on nerds.

• Decerto vs Reverto - Result - 2-3 on Badlands, 3-2 on Viaduct_pro
• Trick 17 vs Decerto - Result from week 4 - 1-6 on Process, 1-6 on Granary
• Did I stutter vs Trick17 - Unplayed
• Furbo Pandas vs Sparkle Motion - Unplayed

Only 2 games were played last week and one of them was from week 4, meaning that there remains a lot of unplayed games due to happen this week and the next in Division 1. The big game at the top was key top of the table clash between Decerto and Reverto, with both teams in with a shout of winning the league or making the Premiership relegation playoff, the match was a must win for both sides. The first map was Badlands, which Reverto controlled for the majority of the game, a mini comeback wasn't forthcoming for Decerto as Stark dealt the big 10k+ damage, going 34-14. Viaduct was a different tale, Decerto went 2-0 up only to see Reverto come back to 2-2 with the rounds being closer than a Mach4 shave, into the final round and it seemed like Decerto's unorthodox Heavy + Kritz tactics paid off as gf18 had a huge game, racking 44 frags on the heavy class. The 3-3 draw leaves both teams trialing Furbo Pandas at the top, but Decerto still have the opportunity to take 6 points off of them and win the league. The other match was Decerto's earlier game against bottom side Trick 17, which ended in a 6-1, 6-1 roll on both maps as sadly for Trick17 they couldn't repeat their performance that earned them their first point as new scout Maggles failed to make an impact.

Premiership Covered by Sideshow

Current premiership Standings

1. Epsilon eSports (Played 5 Won 5)
2. Crack Clan (Played 5 Won 5)
3. broder (Played 6 Won 5 Lost 1)
4. Skidmark Cental (Played 4 Drawn 2 Lost 2)
5. Revoluzion la Metagame (Played 5 Won 1 Drawn 1 Lost 3)
6. SOLAR (Played 4 Drawn 2 Lost 2)
7. LMS (Played 5 Drawn 1 Lost 4)
8. 90° Fov (Played 4 Drawn 1 Lost 3)

The maps for Week 7 of Season 15 will be cpbadlands and cpgullywash_final1.

Epsilon eSports vs SOLAR

• Epsilon eSports: KnOxXx, numlocked, Mike, Gear, schocky, basH
• SOLAR: vanilla, lalli, qnx, Hycz, maidu, cor

My thoughts: I don't think this will be a contest in any sense of the word, Epsilon are just going to destroy this 5-0 5-0. They could well drop a few rounds if they feel like messing about a bit but the fact remains that they will have a tight grip on this game and I don't think anything SOLAR does will make an impact. Nice relaxing game before Epsilon have to face Zaibatsu.

Mystery Gamer #1 (Prediction: 5-0 Badlands 5-0 Gullywash):

"uhm epsi vs solar will just be another 5:0 5:0 standard epsi roll"

Mystery Gamer #2 (Prediction: 5-0 Badlands 6-1 Gullywash):

"Epsilon think they're really good, and they're kind of right providing everything feels normal for them. However, in this match everyone will get really annoyed with numlocked because of his buzzing microphone and so mute him and then whenever he wants to go spawncamp KnoXxX will get furious and BasH's girlfriend will start laughing louder than numlocked does and eventually everyone will end muting each other. Luckily though SOLAR are confused to the extent that Epsilon can still win because people in numlocked's stream will ghost for him, do you expect any less of the man?"

broder vs Zaibatsu

• broder: Mirelin, ryb, Zebbosai, jukebox, bybben, cookye
• Zaibatsu: 2nuts, Brego, Ipz, T-mac, TviQ, smzi

My thoughts: This will be a very interesting and important game. Last season Zaibatsu managed to beat broder in the season in a very tense and close 4-2, and then fell to them in the playoffs over 2 maps; I think both teams have improved but it has been Zaibatsu making leaps and bounds forward. They are now, in my opinion, the stronger team - they should be able to take the win here but it has the potential to be pushed to a Golden Cap or be intensely close. Broder have looked very strong against the lower premiership teams, but scrim results would indicate that they aren't performing very well against Zaibatsu and Epsilon. Hopefully the insane roaming/sniping play from jukebox can hit hard when it matters and they can find enough coordination from their flank to give a good game against a team with some amazing teamwork. If Zaibatsu do lose here though, I fully anticipate a victory for them in the playoffs when it really matters.

Mystery Gamer #1 (Prediction: 4-3 Badlands 3-2 Gullywash):

"broder cc will be a close game but i think broder will still take it on both maps but not that convincingly"

Mystery Gamer #2 (Prediction: 3-2 Badlands 2-4 Gullywash):

"Ah yes indeed, this game. Zebbosai is still thinking that Zaibatsu are pretty bad and so will fly in with Mirelin on quick fix and shoot rockets in every direction but recently everyone in Zaibatsu has been watching the videos on TipsfromIpz and so know how to hide on Snakewater and managed to cleverly apply this to Gullywash and Badlands. TviQ will get outplayed by Jukebox on sniper but cleverly he will change back to scout quickly and Zaibatsu will win, cleverly."

Last Man Standing vs 90° FOV eSports ATK-Gaming

• Last Man Standing: Whiteglow, Mightyme, Forsak3n, WAR, reko, sickless
• 90° FOV: kos, suqp3r, Captainhax, Salmon, Rake, delzic

My thoughts: Last week I would have predicted a fairly comfortable win for 90° FOV in this match. However LMS put up a really good fight against Skidmark Central, taking a map from them, and 90° FOV really didn't play as well as I thought they would against a weaker-than-usual broder. I think this game will actually be really close fought, and it is really a relegation battle; LMS really need to win this to avoid the relegation zone, and if 90° FOV don't win, they've lost their chance at a 4th place finish and could end up being in the relegation zone themselves. If LMS can really utilise their flank and double bombing soldiers in the way that they did against Skidmark, they have a great chance at taking this game.

Mystery Gamer #1 (Prediction: 2-6 Badlands 2-4 Gullywash):

"90° FOV will take with relative ease considering lms' unstable roster issues but it will depend on how well they've adjust to their new roster by the time they play"

Mystery Gamer #2 (Prediction: 4-2 Badlands 5-3 Gullywash):

"Everyone thinks this will be a close game at the bottom of the table but I am unsure what they mean. LMS have shown themselves to be one of the top teams in europe and this season graciously letting their young proteges Epsilon take victory. 90° are too busy trying to find new mathematical ways to write their team name but fortunately Mightyme accidently switches from pipes to stickies and manages to kill himself. Forsak3n is very good though and WAR is getting better and together with Reko and Sickless and Whiteglow and Mightyme they will win and prove Russia is the best continent."

Skidmark Central vs Revoluzion la metagame

• Skidmark Central: skeej, kaidus, flisko, Daleth, kiler4funN, Greg
• Revoluzion la Metagame: Spin, Mark, Haunter, tek, Flippy, wltrs

My thoughts: Whilst boasting the most impressive rosters in lower premiership, both of these teams have their own problems which have caused them to lose a lot of points. They would be level in the tables but for a Major Warning taking a point away from RLM, but this is the last game of the season for Skidmark Central. While it is still possible for them to achieve a 4th place finish if they win this game, if they don't take the full 6 points away it is very unlikely. For RLM however, this is the opportunity to sail into the lead. Both teams have the same kind of high deathmatch roster, except Skidmark's outrageous damage output is coming from kaidus and RLM have a higher deathmatch ability in their flank. This will put a lot of pressure on Greg and Kiler4fun to keep up with their combo, as I predict insane damage and area control from kaidus. I imagine the soldiers from RLM will spend their entire night trying to shut him down, the only question remaining is whether the rest of Skidmark can make use of the free room it gives them.

Mystery Gamer #1 (Prediction: 6-1 Badlands 2-4 Gullywash):

"I think rlm will take a map since skidmark just seem to be getting worse and worse as the weeks go by, kaidus being held back my having to tell his team how to play the game is becoming more and more of an issue for them"

Mystery Gamer #2 (Prediction: 4-2 Badlands 3-2 Gullywash):

"Skidmark have cleverly spent the whole season drawing to make everyone think they are below par and they succeeded because now everyone does. kaidus was also recently exposed as not actually going away before doublemixes start and just saying he was so he didn't have to move people in mumble through leaving his webcam on during his stream and so is no longer such a community favourite. Luckily his gang of groovy gamers will pull it together and make sure they are all unmuted before the game starts and ultimately manage to pull of the win they need to secure the playoff spot. RLM will sadly fold and Spin will start making a new team."

Division One Covered by Hildreth

Current Division 1 Standings:

1. Furbo Pandas (Played 4 Won 3 Drawn 1) (1 Golden Cap Win)
2. Team Reverto (Played 4 Won 2 Drawn 2) (1 Golden Cap Win)
3. Decerto Ozone (Played 4 Won 1 Drawn 3)
4. My Revenge e.V. (Played 4 Won 1 Drawn 2 Lost 1)
5. Sparkle Motion (Played 3 Won 1 Drawn 1 Lost 1) (1 Golden Cap Loss)
6. d-d-Did I Stutter (Played 3 Drawn 2 Lost 1)
7. Trick17 Black (Played 4 Lost 4)(1 Golden Cap loss)
8. Karnage eSports (FOLDED: ALL RESULTS VOID)

Furbo Pandas vs Decerto. Ozone

• Furbo Pandas: shifty, Hildreth, zooob, Sideshow, rock, furbo
• Decerto. Ozone: Turbomonkey, huhy arc, KillAri, Donut, gf18

My thoughts: The last big clash of the season in Division 1 that will go a long way to deciding who will be given that elusive pleasure of getting wrecked by Epsilon, Broder and Z-z-z...Crack Clan next season. Currently Decerto are 5 points behind Furbo Pandas having played the same amount of games, so a 2 map victory would put them one point ahead with 1 game to go. However a 2 map victory for the Pandas would leave them 9 points clear of Reverto in 2nd place, only needing 4 points from their next match against Sparkle Motion to win Division One. For Decerto it is clear that any chance they have of winning or coming 2nd and into the Prem relegation playoff rests on taking points in this game, for Pandas it is a game that could guarantee them at least 2nd, so a third Prem playoff in 3 seasons for us (I look forward to the 3rd time lucky rule) and on top of that leaving our fortunes in our own hands rather than relying on points to be dropped. One thing for sure is Reverto will have an eye on the final score come this Thursday. Since it is my team involved, my only comment is I hope Decerto let us use Zebbosai as a merc so we can get rid of that scrublord Sideshow and win some games.

Mystery Gamer #3 (Prediction: 4-3 Badlands, 4-3 Gullywash):

These two teams haven't played against each other for months. Decerto have a strong Scout duo, Donut and gf18 are on fire this end of season. But Turbomonkey isn't really in a good condition and any mistakes can cost points. Sideshow will do good stuff against Turbomonkey who will be force to use uber at the best/worst time for his team. If the finish titan arc is on fire, aggression on his medic will do nothing. This match will be one of the best games in Div 1. Good luck to both team.

Mystery Gamer #4 (Prediction: 2-3 Badlands, 1-4 Gullywash):

This is the match to watch this week. Furbo Pandas have shown strong team chemistry and consistent form throughout the season and cannot afford any slip ups with Reverto sitting only 3 points behind in the table. Decerto on the other hand have had a big drop in form since they had to replace Huhy on demoman and are sorely missing his huge damage numbers. New Decerto demoman Fuo will need to make every sticky count if he is to keep up with Hildreth's consistent damage output and give his team some momentum. KillAri and Sideshow have very similar roaming styles and you will see big plays from both throughout the game. I expect this to be a very tight and intense affair with Furbo Pandas narrowly taking both maps. Player to watch: gf18

myRevenge e.V. vs Trick17 Black

• myRevenge e.V.: AnimaL, Spary, Old Grandma, Coinz, Shrike, Plapla , ReveraL
• Trick17 Black: Kamari, kr4tos, slate, WalKer, RazorsEdge, Maggles!

My thoughts: As the season closes, Trick17 are heading for relegation whilst My Revenge are looking at a mid-table finish, judging by the change to My Revenge's roster, it could be another roll against Trick17 especially since ex-Punchline scout, Plapla has replaced +W key holder, msh, in my opinion an upgrade for the team. Rumour has it that Coinz of TCM folk songs has also joined the team as the pocket soldier and giving the team another boost of experience. Meanwhile Maggles (of i-series fame) has come in to fill the vacant second scout spot in Trick17, leaving the German / English ratio a dangerous 4:2 in the Krauts favour (just like 1966 scoreline 'ey?) but more importantly, Maggles is an unproven scout at this level and appears to only be in the team because of his previous friendship with WalkeR, just to fill the gap for the rest of the season. I can't see anything else but a My Revenge win, their individual skill is superior and likely to have better focus fire and comms in the big team fights.

Mystery Gamer #3 (Prediction: 5-2 Badlands, 3-4 Gullywash):

Since trick 17 lost WAR, this team has started turning into a friend line-up, I think they are giving up this season. MyRevenge is getting better each day with Coinz and Plapla as new teammates, but they need to watch out for mistakes, because trick 17 can possibly take some points.

Mystery Gamer #4 (Prediction: 5-2 Badlands, 5-1 Gullywash):

Trick17 have really struggled this season and are paying the price for consistent roster issues having taken only 1 point from a possible 24 so far. myRevenge have recently picked up Coinz on pocket and the team looks to be going from strength to strength. I expect this to be a comfortable 6 points for myRevenge and would look to their scout combo to really dominate in this game. Player to watch: Old_Grandma/Reveral

Sparkle Motion vs D-d-did I stutter?

• SparkLe Motion: sparkLe, phy, WOODY OR Luzzu SteveyJJ, konr, Gubbins
• d-d-Did I Stutter: Fenrir, Funkadelic, Linus, wolve, Buttnose, Permzilla

My thoughts: Another mid-table clash as the reforming Sparkle Motion have started to raise eyebrows with some people from their new line up, lately having been spotted with Luzzu on roaming soldier as they have put on a series of good pcw results. Did I stutter have been kind of hanging about, winning enough to stay out of trouble but not enough to push the top teams and fight for the promotion spots, since neither team played last week, we can only base recent form on pcws, I would say Sparkle have been playing the better, but you never know in matches when push comes to shove mistakes happen and bad rounds can be lost. I think the key will be the battle of the English scouts, Konr and Gubbins vs Buttnose and Permzilla, whilst Gubbins remains the most experienced scout player, Permzilla in particular has been raising eyebrows for Did I stutter, but I think the game will be decided possibly on the performance of the lesser bigged up players of Konr and Buttnose, one of them must perform for their team in order to give them the edge.

Mystery Gamer #3 (Prediction: 5-3 Badlands, 1-3 Gullywash):

Did I Stutter isn't as good as they were at beginning of the season, I don't think they will do something against the duo scout Konr/Gubbins. Maybe Did I Stutter can count on their play on middle, and some mistakes from sparkle team may lose them some important points. Maybe Buttnose and Permzilla can change the game if they are on fire.

Mystery Gamer #4 (Prediction: 5-3 Badlands, 4-3 Gullywash):

With the acquisition of 3 new quality players, Sparkle Motion have gone from being the absolute whipping boys of division 1 to a team capable of beating anyone in their group. Gubbins and konr play with a lot of chemistry and have become quite a lethal scout duo in a short space of time, while SteveyJJ has slotted into the role of pocket effortlessly, putting out consistently high damage and frags. Meanwhile Did I Stutter are really struggling for form and despite having some quality players of their own, they often look horrendously uncoordinated. I expect the scout pair from sparkLe Motion to dominate on mids and make life easy for Phy on demoman. Although SparkLe Motion should take both maps DIS have shown that they can compete at this level and have been consistently taking points from their games. However, the solid soldier combo of wolve and Linus will need to be working overtime if DIS are to take any points from this one. Should be an intense and close game if both teams perform. Player to watch: Gubbins

Late Games

Seems like games are going the way of the Stagecoach Northamptonshire Bus service in Division 1 and running later and later, with some of the unplayed matches from week's gone by expected to be played during this week, it does however look like there will be plenty of games being left for the catch-up week, which is why we will bring you another catch up week edition next week. Assuming all matches are played on time (LOL) we should see an exciting last week of matches in the Premiership and Division One with the top two clash between Zaibatsu and Epsilon still to come.

Premiership Late Games

• Week 6: Revoluzion la metagame vs 90 FOV (unscheduled)
• Week 6: Epsilon vs Zaibatsu (Possibly Thurs 27th)
• Week 6: Last Man Standing vs SOLAR (Unscheduled)

Division One Late Games

• Week 3: Did I stutter vs Reverto (unscheduled).
• Week 5: My revenge vs Reverto (Tonight, Tues 18th)
• Week 5: Sparkle Motion vs Decerto (Tonight, Tues 18th)
• Week 6: Furbo Pandas vs Sparkle Motion (Possibly Tues 25th)
• Week 6: Did I stutter vs Trick17 Black (Tonight, Tues 18th)