Welcome ladies to a short preview of some of the teams in IM that we'll be talking about as the season progresses. Its getting very cozy in this division with just 16 teams paid up and scheduled, which can mean great things for some teams and are less than ideal for others. Most of the division consists of Open move-ups from last season, although plenty of teams of veterans will still retain their rosters with most of their starters. The top 5 spots will be highly contested this season between some big talent at the top of IM, with the rest of the division scrambling to fill in those last three spots. Without further preamble, here are some of the teams to look for this season.
- MR SLIN
- Goldfish
- Zigzter
- Hooli
- Devon
- ???
[edit] The would-be Open champs of last season are coming back with most of their roster intact, pie hero replacing dflame after he parted ways with Blockback Mountain. Unfortunately, Pie has already elected to leave the team before the season starts in favor of playing the most strategic tactical shooter of our time, CS:GO (heh). The roster features a well rounded group of players with a ton of experience. I'm not all that sure how well they'll do against the top of IM, but at the very least this team should finish in the top 5. Their combo is solid enough, Goldfish did really well last season although he will be hard pressed to out perform some all star pockets this season like SS, TicTack, and Tri. Hooli and Zigzter do justice to their roles, and if nothing else seem to be relatively consistent. At the end of the day, there is only one question to answer when it comes down to Goldman Sachs: Are you ready for SLINSANITY?
- Erika
- TicTack
- Cbn
- Block
- Freestate
- Newspeak
Block has successfully cut his way to the top this season with both Pie Hero and ChinGoo leaving the roster and replaced with Freestate and Newspeak, and CJ getting dropped in favor of TicTack. In this humble author's opinion, all of these pickups are straight upgrades in just about every way. Block needs no introduction at this point, as he is an amazing demo and his knowledge of the game is a key component of this team. Freestate and Cabin have been really dynamic in their play, constantly making plays to secure an uber advantage for their team. This team prefers to play a slower game, waiting for opportunities to push with an advantage and maintaining position in favor of a push with less than ideal conditions. Block is amazing no doubt, but this season alongside TicTack and Cabin the team will look pretty damn good. I feel that this early in the season, people haven't quite figured out how to play against Blockback, but when teams start to crack the code it will make for some great matches at the top of IM. The scouts are probably the best in the division besides kevzza, and the team cohesion is on par with some Invite teams. At the end of the day, Blockback is a top 3 team, no question.
- dbw
- Tri
- Boink
- Cosa
- Kapow
- Schnell
Xero Error has become Mangachu sux after Mangachu joined Wood Pig in Invite this season, bringing in Tri to replace him. The rest of the roster remains unchanged, and true to form the team will continue to rely on their soldiers to create the room and make the plays necessary for them to come away with a win. Boink is without a doubt my pick for best roamer in IM right now in terms of DM, creativity, and all around play. With Tri taking the pocket reins, I expect we'll see less of the failed uber pushes we started to see during some intense matches last season. Schnell and Kapow will surely be stars of the next series of Scatter School videos which I'm personally looking forward to, where Kapow attempts to explain his thought process with good analysis and thoughtful insights. The team will be another Top 3 pick for me by the end of the season, but who knows what will happen during playoffs. We don't have to wait long, however, as their first match will be against Blockback Mountain, which is most definitely MOTW for our first week.
- Sparrow
- SS
- Phrakture
- Unf
- Jav
- Sal
A lot was unknown before too long ago about whether WELOVEANIME was still together and who they would be playing with, but they'll be coming back with almost everyone and picking up Unf, presumably on demo. Sparrow and SS will return as the combo, and I assume this leaves Jav, Sal, and Phrakture playing on the flank. Unfortunately I have no idea if they will all be playing these classes, for all I know they could all be offclassing, but this is my best guess. The former Invite team should have no trouble making it into the top 3 this season, although the journey may not be as easy as one would surmise. The team was known for playing very passively, sometimes foregoing opportunities in favor of better positioning, and it would be hard to believe anything has changed. This would indicate that the strongest teams in IM currently all prefer a more conservative approach to the game, which could either make for really boring matches or explosive affairs after a build up of insurmountable tension. Either way, I expect WELOVEANIME to do very well all the way to the Grand Final if they take the season seriously, with matches to watch against Blockback Mountain and Mangachu sux.
- Dable
- Megawac
- Scorp
- pamphlet
- phAZE
- Noble
Subspace Emissaries put up a good fight during the end of the season and the Twitch Invitational, and the potential for this team is still to be realized. This season could be a breakout season for them, but if preseason scrims are any indication they'll still need to work on improving if they want to make it into the top 5 of IM this season. The roster remains intact from last season which is a good sign, although to be honest I would have liked to see them mix things up a bit to see how that would change the team dynamic. One thing I did notice about this team is their demo Pamphlet tends to try to make some silly plays, and sometimes it wins his team the round. Other times it can result in spectacular failure, and turn momentum into a disaster. This makes for entertaining play from a spectator view, but if Subspace wants to roll into the top of IM this season they'll need to tighten up. While this team being showcased may seem like its coming out of left field, I see them on top of most of the Open move-ups and competitive with most teams I would consider to be playoff hopefuls. They've finished in 8th for two seasons in a row, its time to break the tradition guys!
I could go on and on about some of the other teams in IM, teams like BUDSQUAD, Sharknado, SYOPS TF2, and the Grime, but there will be plenty of time to talk about those teams in the next eight weeks or so. I will finish with just this statement: