I know what you're thinking. "Words? Gah! How am I supposed to be top-gamer with all these words assaulting my retinas and making me read things and stuff?" Easy, champ. Truth is there already is a "best"...6 of them to be exact, and just about now they should be exchanging high-fives and bro-hugs in a Texas hotel. They like to call themselves "Classic Mixup, but soon . . . they just might be calling themselves "Champions." Again.

Now this ought to be a story about how the number 1 seed carved an undefeated path to Dallas, trumping last season's victors with style and ease as they made a cozy bed to lay down in over in Texas. After all, they were 16-0, they ran away with the season, and their star player b4nny (the man whom demomen near and far look up to) laced up those old high-tops and found himself back in the damage driver's seat. A week ago, Froyotech were undefeated and unchallenged. The piping prodigy was back on his main, Lansky and Shade were back together, and Clockwork was playing out of his mind. It was looking like the crownless again would be king. But that narrative was destined to change.

In the fires of Mount Doom, a dark lord... Wait, wait, wait, hold it . . .

In the mumbles of Carl Yengsheng, a master team was made in secret to dominate all others. With their season 16 roamer, Dave_AC, unwilling to attend LAN, and season 16 medic, Ninjanick, falling out of the teams future plans, the Mixup machine shuffled it up once again to bring back the same roster that just last season did this:

Momentum

The team was already strong and yet everyday since switching Plat to demo, Harbleu to med, TLR to pocket, and Seagull to cawcaw, they seemed to be growing stronger. How strong exactly? Try champions of the first ever TFTV Invitational Powered by Twitch strong.

Winner of the upper bracket and undefeated in that Twitch tourny, Mixup went on to roll—in pure steamroller fashion—the undisputed "best" team in NA by a score of 5-0 this past Wednesday, to take the Grand Final and win what was undoubtedly the best prelude to LAN we've have since . . . last LAN.

As if they needed it, that victory gave the reforming champs all the vindication to feel 100% confident in their roster heading into the ESEA finals. Neither pocket, TLR, or roamer, Seagull, had competed during the regular season, but with two convincing wins versus their biggest rivals under their belts, the team can rest easy knowing all their gamers are indeed ready to game. The scary part is Mixup is a LAN team if ever there was one. Each of their players not only performs better with the live Texas heat blowing kisses down their spine, the entire squad seems to have something "extra" tucked away for when it counts. You might say the Mixup bus has a hidden NOS switch, and they always save it for the homestretch.

They ride together, they die together, and lately—that's net them some big wins together. Just take a look at what their roamer had to say:

"I'm not sure if LAN necessarily allows me to step up my game as much as LAN lets me finally show off everything I've been working on. There's the usual pre-LAN preparation: lots of strategizing with friends, going over demos, coming up with new midfight rollouts, and so on. These are the sorts of ideas and strategies I don't show in online play because I know the games with real stakes are only happening at LAN. Secondly, there's the LAN atmosphere. Flying out to a tournament allows me to completely forget about my day to day problems and focus 100% on the game. This applies not only to me, but the entirety of team Mix^. We're not exactly a team known for putting a ton of time into the game, but we show up to LAN and finally feel like we're all on equal footing for once." - Seagull

Humble. To suggest the ground Mixup currently occupies is at all equal with the teams looking up at them with quivering fear, is a stretch — and quite possibly a lie. Especially when you have someone who can fly . . .

Counting Chickens

Now there is—or should be—something to be said of Mixup's 1st round opponent, Exertus Esports. They are good. So good in fact, they've reminded me to splice in a little section to talk about something other than a banny or platinum team. I'm not so sure there's been a reason to do that in 5+ seasons. Nevertheless here we are, and there in Mixup's way, XTS are.

Taking 2nd place in the regular season and 3rd in the Twitch tourny, XTS had an identical S16 record to Mixup at 12 wins and 4 losses, with the only difference between the two being a 5-4 win for XTS. While the match did happen to occur when Mixup was still giving the old college try (and yet happened to still lose), when the two met again in the recent TFTV Invitational, Mixup and their A-team roster handled the Exertus boys without so much as breaking a sweat. Of course, anything goes on LAN, and with veteran TheFragile leading XTS behind phenom power classes, bdonski, rando, and Ma3la; you can expect Season 16's 2nd seed not to go without fight.

Should Mixup survive, they'll haves a mildly spruced-up Froyotech standing as their biggest obstacle. That's because after the whooping the froyo friends took the other night, Froyotech has reevaluated their roster and decided it might be best to swap b4nny and dummy once again (and I strongly agree with them). Essentially, this season's 1st seed has reinstated the 16-0, undefeated lineup . . . kind of a big deal, as dummy is a much better demo than he is scout, and b4nny is b4nny and arguably one of the best scouts now at LAN.

Don't think for a second, however that is going to make anyone on Mixup bat an eyelash. If anything, it only sweetens the pot.

I caught up with the multi-champion himself after Mixup's championship victory last season. Here is what he had to say on the matter:

"There's nothing sweeter than beating a team when both teams are playing at their best, that's what we were chasing, and it's what drives the competition between our two teams. This time we just happened to come out on top." - Platinum

Now we're about to do it all over again. Who will come out on top this time? Join us today as we kick off the action, bringing you all off the live coverage and the hotly debated answer to that question.