Right from the get-go Reverto have been a team on my Season 16 radar, bristling with talents unproven in the cauldron of ETF2L's Premiership and also playing a very controlled style that belied their status as a newly promoted team. I painted them as "genuine contenders" in my Pre-Season Movers & Shakers article series on VanillaTF2 at a time when they had just finalised their roster by picking up huhy on demoman.
He would be joining the core roster that had battled their way through Season 15 to claim gold in Division 1 featuring the madcap medic stylings of BaR, Team England scout/sniper turned pocket soldier Stark, a roamer tipped-by-ipz for greatness in Rising, passive scout supremo E-thug and a head-turning, play-making, award winning scout by the name of Aephage.
Remember that last name because it will feature heavily as their tale unfolds. The impressive play I had witnessed in the pre-season was set to continue as the first ETF2L Premiership games finally got underway. Their first scalp was to be landmark victory over Tea See Emm. Reverto managed to eek out a narrow 4-3 on Granary before their opponents collapsed under weight of time outs and DDoS for a landslide 7-3 on Gullywash.
Both maps saw an imperious Aephage living up to the hype that had followed him from previous seasons, but this was to be the last official act for the French fury. He was to be unavailable for their next outing; a doubleheader against Team Decerto, but fellow frog Tek did an excellent job carrying the can. Reverto were to take the full six ETF2L points in convincing fashion 5-0 6-1, although they did flounder on the ESEA component losing Granary 5-4. Perhaps this was the first sign that the wheels would come off as Aephage's enthusiasm and attendance dropped off the chart.
As it transpires, Aephage eSports career was enduring a slow death at the hands of university internet. Not only was his connection quite subpar, but his roommate was failing to accommodate his request for two hours of uninterrupted use of the internet on evenings when Reverto needed him. The resulting repeated issues with lag and motivation-sapping timeouts lead the fed-up Frenchman packing it all in and leaving his team minus one gifted scout.
Reverto had some backup options on their roster, having seemingly absorbed every reject from Division 2 upward; Turbomonkey, Permzilla, kos and the exiled ipz. Yet none of them had the basic combination of scout ability and desire to play required fill the recently vacated scout slot.
A third talented baguette would be brought in to the frame for the next two officials in the shape of Fenneks' gf18, but the results were less than impressive. Perhaps unfair to blame the losses on the mercenary talents of gf18, but Reverto looked be a shadow of their former selves when being dismantled by Evokate Gaming only two days after the Decerto win. They would try and fail again when facing a frustrating The Last Resort side who themselves had only just made two roster changes.
It was all doom and gloom for a while there, with a beleaguered Reverto dropping from the inaugural ESEA EU Open Division, after suffering a few forfeit losses due to roster restrictions, to focus on ETF2L and give their hive mind some time to deal with suicidal thoughts and flirt with folding. All was not lost though... whilst exploring the depths of their mind and the depths of their roster they formulated a plan that would set the season up for a dynamite conclusion. Stark would move to scout. Ipz would step out the shadows to play pocket full time.
With a large percentage of Stark's high level experience being scout play time there is little question that he will be able to shake off the rust and pick up the scattergun once more; recent logs agree strongly. Ipz is a decorated veteran by this stage of his career, capable of tussling with the best in the world on pocket or roamer, but further to that he is an experienced caller; a man with a plan. As a consequence Stark will not only be surrendering his pocket duties to the German, but also the role of main caller for Reverto.
The transition from the Stark to the ipz era is only in its embryonic stages, literally only confirmed in the last twenty four hours, but the very fact that ipz would agree to a comeback and call shows that he believes in this roster. Initial results from practise games (with mercs) last night were mixed; winning 6-2 on Snakewater and losing 3-1 on Viaduct against causeWEcan; then winning Process 5-0 and 7-2 to Tea See Emm (minus Byte) before losing Viaduct 3-0. The changes to Reverto's roster and caller will not necessarily be a magic bullet for their recent downturn; at a stretch, the lack of results on Viaduct could perhaps be used to demonstrate the potential pitfalls of reshuffling things... or just look at willy wonkas chocolate factory's recent form. Boom.
The new roster's first practise games with all six players will be played tonight. Unfortunately they are not being broadcast anywhere, but you can count on TFTV bringing you all the action from their clash against Epsilon eSports this Thursday. I wouldn't hold my breath for a big upset in that one, but this is all building up to a titanic clash between Reverto and willy wonkas chocolate factory in Week 7 when ipz will seek retribution against those who betrayed him; so fucking epic! I, for one, cannot wait.
As it stands, Reverto find themselves 5th (thought tied for 4th on points) in the ETF2L Season 16 powered by BlackOut Gaming Premiership. They've claimed four map wins and four map losses from four fixtures played. They need to haul in some big points from their Week 5 causeWEcan fixture and the aforementioned wonka game if they want to contest the four playoff spots.
Beyond Season 16 the outlook is uncertain for this iteration of Reverto. Paternity leave for ipz at the end of 2013 and military duties for BaR at the start of 2014 will leave them shorthanded. Basket baron, huhy, reckons he has someone lined up for the medic role, but who knows who will be playing pocket come Season 17? Answers on a postcard to Potato Castle, Ireland.