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• Bradford "PYYYOUR" Ross
• Tyler "TLR" Morgan
• Anthony "Harbleu" Ballo
• Mike "Platinum" Miles
• Sven "Ruwin" Z
• Carl "enigma" Y

Classic Mixup

“Super teams never work” they say. “The personalities will clash” they say. “Those playstyles won’t mix” they say.

I hate to break it to you guys, but they are full of bull.

This is the best team TF2 has ever seen already, and they will only get better as they get used to playing with each other. Superteams didn’t work in the past because, well, they actually weren’t very “super”. (I mean really, one of them had CyZeR on it. C’mon!)

This lineup is different. It includes players you might see voted “best in class” at their specific class and role in every lineup spot. It’s got players who have experience playing together, with Enigma, Harbleu, Platinum, and TLR winning a LAN together already. That helps with the “teamwork” aspect many are so quick to criticize when a new lineup like this forms. It certainly won’t be a problem. These guys have as much competitive TF2 experience as anyone. One of the main reasons they are superstars is that they think the game so well and can fit their playstyle into something that works with the team as a whole. Their communication is top notch. And that’s ignoring the obvious talent and skill.

Mixup will be as good as anyone in terms of teamwork, and their movement, aim, and pure deathmatch ability will be on a whole other level. They’ll take advantage of it with aggressive play that will catch many teams off guard, making things even easier for the best team in the league.

Their perhaps only weakness surrounds the psyches of TF2’s most notorious medic - PYYYOUR. He sometimes struggles when his team goes through a rough patch, and with a lineup like this he’s prone to being too much of a perfectionist. Most of his players are the best you can offer at their positions, but even they can’t be perfect all the time. And while PYYYOUR himself is capable of perfect play, his own mind often gets in the way of him showing it, like at the S11 LAN, where PYYYOUR put in probably the weakest medic performance. Still, this team is so good it may not even experience a “rough patch”, and if it does, the more level heads of players like Platinum and TLR should help keep things steady. It’s a worry, but not something that’s going to bring this team down.

Anything less than an undefeated season would be a disappointment and underachievement for this squad.[/bg]

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• Dante "shade" F
• Tyrone "enoryt" Wang
• Andrew "DAVE__AC" Cook
• Grant "b4nny" Vincent
• Matt "clckwrk" Dias
• Paul "cyzer" S

Leviathan Gaming

Basking in the glory from yet another LAN title, LG will now be representing good old USA in Europe, but it’s not all fun and games in TF2’s longest-lived powerhouse.

The defending champions were on the brink of collapse before surprising at the S11 LAN and taking the title. It was almost a foregone conclusion, but the victory and the possibility of Europe brought the team together for one last hurrah.

Mackey’s return, replacing Dave_AC, brings the full band back together,

It’s often a mistake for a championship team to rest on their laurels and not improve their lineup if possible, and in a situation where the team was likely breaking apart due to some internal issues, that’s even more true. Whatever problems they were having won’t just magically go away because they played well on for a couple days a few weeks ago, and they won’t go away because they’re going to Europe (although they’ll probably be more thoroughly ignored).

That said, this team is still LG, the one that’s dominated the TF2 scene for years. They have the two best players at the highest impact classes in b4nny and clkwrk. They still have all that experience playing together and the uncanny ability to make things happen together as a team.

Their soldiers are becoming more and more of a liability, one that b4nny and the scouts are finding harder and harder to cover for. Two season ago Tyrone put in an exemplary performance, but since it seems he’s lost his passion. While the Europe trip may rekindle a bit of the old hunger, it may not be enough.

Of course, “Enough for what?” is the question we should be asking. LG is squarely focused on Europe, so who knows what will happen after i46, before the end of the ESEA season and the ESEA LAN. Will the same LG team return from Europe? Will Mackey return to retirement? Will Tyrone let the flame live a bit longer?

The good thing for LG is that the competition is probably a bit weaker this season. Flow and Mixup consolidated talent into a superteam, but that means there isn’t another clear elite team outside of the top three. Whether this is their last hurrah or Europe becomes some kind of bonding experience that births a new dynasty, LG is still a force to be feared, and we’ll see them at LAN, and probably in the finals.[/bg]

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• Cameron "soup" Studd
• Reed "boomer" Davis
• Tyler "blaze" Brown
• Tim "dummy" Olson
• Ben "Yz50" Ock
• Adam "mesr" D

Spacewhales

The brothers are a bit of an enigma this season as they’ve only put in a couple nights of practice since the LAN thus far. Their lineup is solid as ever with talent laced throughout, but last season they struggled to utilize it at times.

Blaze is still the best roamer in invite and the highest impact player on the team. Yz50 has his moments but still has room to improve to the form he had when he dominated the league earlier in his career. Mesr will fill in well for yours truly, and Dummy is a solid top twenty demoman.

What Whales really needs is to find a way to utilize Boomer’s talent. In S9 he was a high production pocket player and forced some upsets with huge games thanks to his solid DM, but br0 pushed him towards more of a roaming pocket role in S11, and it was clear that didn’t work during the season or at the LAN. Whales will need to adjust his role or adjust the team’s playstyle in order to get more production from him. That may be tough unless they put in a bit more practice time.

Whales still has the talent to challenge the top, but it’s tough to see them eclipsing a team like Mixup. LG will be within striking distance if Whales can work out their issues, and perhaps even if not. Whales performed well last season without much practice, but with an even better team at the top and more teams competing for a LAN spot, it might be even more important for them to put in some time, especially with Soup playing his first season at medic. He’ll need a bit of experience playing against players like Harbleu to get down their timings and idiosyncrasies if he wants to be effective this season.

Third is probably the spot for Whales this season but they do have the ability to impress.[/bg]

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• Stephen "kbk" R
• Dave "LANsky" Polansky
• Craig "2c" Collier
• Rich "sweater" Sweater
• Samuel "oPlaiD" Lingle
• Tony "Tony Swan" Swan

Sam Go Heavy

Outside of the top three things get a little more murky. The next four or five teams are all fairly even in terms of talent and have slightly different levels of experience. They’re all capable of challenging for a LAN spot, and it’ll probably come down to something silly like who is scheduled against Mixup less or something like that.

I’m going to be a presumptuous asshole and rank my team in the 4th spot, for a few reasons. We have a few things going for us - we have a bit more LAN experience than the other squads (although I believe that’s completely overrated, but it supports my narrative so as an esports writer I’m going to spew it out anyway), we have the best demoman outside the top three teams, and we have both invite’s highest pitched voice and its lowest. Quite the combination.

We’ve also performed well in scrims against Mad Men, Chess Club and Ducks, but most of those have been on Gullywash so it’s hard to judge how much that means - they were playing against THE BEST HEAVY IN THE WORLD. Of course, maybe teams will be seeing a lot more of that this season... so... good luck, have fun?

We’ll need it to overcome a long list of weaknesses, like Lansky’s amazing ability to chase a kill and leave kbk to die all alone, or tehoreoz’s Mackey-level rocket jumps, and Sweater’s obsession with feeding.[/bg]

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• Randy "BLACKMONSTER" Besserman
• Christopher "bl4nk" Sterling
• Wes "rr" Hagi
• Gabe "unf" Nem
• Gabriel "powah" R
• Phillip "dante" M

No Need for Names

The Mad Men now have no name, but their original title was apt as they’ll be making a lot of men mad this season when Powah headshots them from around corners or without zooming. They’ll also be mad at times since at some point bl4nk and rr will probably rage and dante will cry when I go heavy and mow him down. It’s a shame they changed the name.

This team will all be about the headlining player - the Brazilian menace, powah. It’s his first time rampaging in invite and he’s quite capable of being a dominant player thanks to his combination of smarts and skills. Backed by dante, who does a good job playing off his South American partner, they have a scout combination that’s quite capable of making plays and winning games.

Their roamer rr- can also be a playmaker, and he needs to be to help set things up for the scouts to dominate, since that’s going to be Mad Men’s game this season. Their combo play will leave something to be desired against most of the other LAN contenders.

Mad Men’s pocket, bl4nk, is a smart player and decent field general, but his DM skill lags behind the other pockets in invite (save whoever Ducks happens to find to replace the gaping hole left by Lange’s departure.) Their demoman, Unf, is one of the most tenured players still competing, but he’s spent most of his time at the top of intermediate after the competition in invite ramped up, and there’s a reason for that. He’s a solid depth player who puts out good performances, but he’s not the type of guy to take over a match or boost his team to a higher level, and that’s really needed in invite.

So, where does that leave Mad Men? Who knows. They might make the LAN and show up with Powah riding an Amazonian Jaguar. Or they might miss the LAN and never have to worry about raising two grand to send their scout combo to the event. Or they might make it and come up empty in the cash department.[/bg]

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• Jack "stultus" Zhu
• David "tri" Wang
• Austen "Taggerung" Wade
• Cedric "Kermit" H
• Michael "weeble" Wiebelhaus
• ??? "S" ???

The Chess Club

Back in Season 9, High Rollers Gaming surprised the scene by qualifying for LAN with a roster consisting of invite neophytes. They were a team that was often more than the sum of its parts, somehow meshing to produce better results than you’d think based off the talent on the roster.

The Chess Club is the spiritual successors to HRG, though they only return Tri from that lineup. They, however, are not the sum of their parts. On paper, Chess Club has few weaknesses, but so far it seems they’ve struggled to put it all together in the field.

I’m not sure if that’s just an issue of the team needing more time to gel or me only seeing them play on bad days, but it’s something they’ll need to address during the season. This isn’t a new problem, either; last season they suffered from much of the same problem - they had a lineup with talent but it just didn’t seem to drive results in game. They replaced Rick on demoman with Kermit, a better play in a number of ways, but it didn’t make the team better on the whole, combined with other changes. Perhaps they’re missing the magic Anonemouse brought to the table? Maybe Techdude’s predictable, but steady, play on roamer helped the rest of the team stay organized?

The lineup should work - it’s a mix of talented players and solid playstyles.

It’s not a stretch to call Tri the second best pocket in invite this season, behind TLR. He’s a supremely talented player who has a knack for attacking in the right situations. Kermit is one of the better demomen in invite.

Their scout combo is a delightful mix of styles, with Weeble’s wildly aggressive and sometimes inconsistent play supported by S On My Chest’s solid defensive leanings. Both have the ability to make big plays, though Weeble needs to rein in his aggression at times.

Their roamer, Taggerung, performed admirably for the ill-fated LG of last season, and on a roster with better teammates he can shine.

The weakest part of the starting lineup is medic. Stultus was once highly touted as the best medic talent outside of invite a few seasons ago, but its hard to see where that reputation derived based off his recent play. He’s often out of position and is sometimes prone to dropped ubers at inopportune times. Maybe I’ve just seen him on bad days, but right now it looks like at least an area of concern for the team.

Chess Club is certainly capable of winning a LAN spot, but right now I’m not sure they’re playing with enough authority to do so. They’ll need to figure that out as the season progresses, but they are definitely contenders.[/bg]

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• Dominic "Namlay" Morgan
• Bryan "Zbryan" Scott
• Phillip "Panic" G
• John "boulder" Stockwell
• Canaan "shrugger" C
• ??? "squid" ???

Pinball Wizards

A certain other site pegged this team for last place this season, and while that’s a possible result, I feel like it’s the wrong one. What at first glance looks like a hastily thrown together lineup of random intermediate talent is actually a fairly solid unit when they get together and play - especially online.

You may think “who are these guys?” when you look at the lineup.

Zbryan is the pocket and he, perhaps surprisingly, to some people, does an admirable job. While he may not be a star level player, he’s still productive.

Panic may be the least skilled roamer in the league, but at least he puts in effort. Squid is probably a bottom tier scout too, but he’s still playable.

The real keys to the team are boulder and shrugger. Boulder is an underrated demoman who has deserved a shot on an invite team for a while and shrugger is, well, shrugger. Online, he’s capable of putting up huge numbers, especially on a team like this one where they can rely on him to clean up kills, the thing he does best.

The team has plenty of problems. Their overall skill level is a bit lacking compared to the rest of the league. They may be a bit too reliant on Shrugger having a good game to produce consistent results over the course of the season. But they are a solid squad who is putting in effort and won’t be stuck at 0-16.[/bg]

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• Ronnie "thrill" ???
• ??? "???" ???
• Kyle "ghos7ayama" M
• G "PUFF" M
• Sean "seanbud" S
• Christian "Decimate" Lomeli

Mighty Ducks

If anyone is an 0-16 contender this season, it might be the Mighty Ducks. I’m a bit surprised that I’m making that statement regarding a team with the invite veterans on their roster, and I’d certainly be surprised if it actually happened.

Seanbud and Decimate form a solid scout combination, and thrill and PUFF are still good enough at medic and demoman, but without a pocket, things are not going to work.

The departure of Lange has left a giant gaping hole on the Ducks roster. An underrated pocket player, Lange was a solid fragger and while it may have been best for both parties to get him off the team, the Ducks probably should have had a Plan B before making it happen. They tried out Relic but it seems as though he’s rebuffed them, and right now it looks like their pocket spot may be wide open as we head into matches.

Depending on who the Ducks get at pocket they could easily move up this list, but right now they are primed for another disappointing season.[/bg]