Open preview ESEA S17
Hello again, gamers. It is my pleasure to continue writing about Open and IM this season for your viewing pleasure. Last season had the least number of teams of recent memory with the competition in the division a little top heavy with Arizona Iced Out Boys sitting at the top through the regular and post season. This season seems to be a little more spread out in terms of competition with a larger variety of players from Invite and IM returning to Open. To give you guys a taste of what is to come, here are a few teams to watch for all you aspiring Open champions, not in any particular order of course.
- TWSS
- Phelon
- Paul McCartney
- Hippopotamus
- NateRivers
- Power_Mangoes
I am excited to see NateRivers wreck some face this season, and as much as I wish I could read more of Gravegun's mental diarrhea in the comments, it appears the team's namesake is absent from the roster. This team is more or less resurrected from Practice Clan Warz from a couple season's ago, with most of them taking S16 off with the death of that team in IM in S15. Far and away, Nate is the biggest threat to anyone playing this team, as he has shown to be an individual that can make consistent plays on his own and around his teammates. Power Mangoes and team leader Hippo are other players to watch on the team as well, but I expect that Nate will steal the show more often than not. Knowing some of the difficulties they had during their season in IM, I'll expect to see this team finish the regular season in the middle of the playoff pack.
- pico
- Sky_
- Mana
- caitlyn
- Zalfy
- sissel
[edit] I mistook Sky for Skyrolla, but Zalfy is still amazing. My pick for best team page picture, Thigh High Socks are a team with some oldies and some newbies and its a little hard to say how this team will do against the rest of the teams in Open. Zalfy is an incredible scout, literally hitting every shot. Their medic, demo, and scout have no prior ESEA experience which might hinder them somewhat, but with the drive to improve this team has the potential to produce some surprising results. Mana has spent the last couple seasons on some less than stellar teams in Open, but this roster looks like it could be his opportunity to move up in the divisions. This team might not be as amazing as some of the teams on this list, but by the end of the season I hope to give them the Most Improved Team award. Don't sleep on 'em!
- lydi
- Hero
- Kent
- Blew
- gls
- Oobii
I had an opportunity to play with this team a few times before moving on to play with someone else, and since then they have picked up Lydi on medic and seem to be doing quite well with her. This team is my pick for strongest pocket with Mad Chad making the calls and dishing out big damage, but by no means is he the only threat. Their scouts Oobii and Gls are coming from playoff teams in IM (Gls played his first season of ESEA on Sharknado and Oobii had been playing on Speedy Cheetahs for several seasons) and will give just about anyone a run for their money. Blew and Kent are both solid players in their own right, which gives you a well rounded team with strong leadership. I would expect this team to fit right at home in the top 3 teams at the end of the season, we'll see if they can keep their cool long enough to take it all the way through playoffs to the grand final.
- Caboose
- Tidy
- Anthony500
- James.Shocka
- Antwan
- NevDawg88
At the end of season 15 in IM, Caboose was my pick for best medic, Tidy was my pick for best pocket, and James.Shocka was right behind Mausy as best demo. Antwan I have known for a very long time, and can say that prior criticisms of his game sense being terrible and that he was just a DM machine is simply not true any longer. With that said, Anthony500 and Nevin are going to have their work cut out for them. Nev hasn't played on a 6s team long enough to have established the ebb and flow of the game naturally, and while Anthony has about a billion hours in MGE, his roamer play tends to be a little predictable and doesn't really play much with his scouts at times. The combo classes for this team are some of the best in the division currently, and with a strong flank they could take it all the way against teams like Maus Trap and Sparkle Bunnies. Much remains to be seen, however, as these guys will have to shake the dust off and attempt to recreate the synergy they had in season 15.
- cMw
- eli
- weeble
- lucrative
- java
- fox
This roster has an eclectic mix of older players, with only a few of them playing on any teams recently. Most notably, Weeble's return after playing with Tri Hards a couple seasons ago, and Jaybenaduchi of Vector Gaming fame. I really can't say how well this team will really do with such a mix of players from many different experience backgrounds and breaks from the game, but in Open it is entirely possible to make it on the backs of a few strong players. Beyond that, without seeing some more stats from scrims with this team (Sizzling Stats is down at the time of this writing) I can't really say much more except that they will be in playoffs, probably in the top half.
- Korea
- Thrasher
- Hellbent
- mausy
- dflame
- Stoperr
The return of the team formally known as Tonight's Entertainment is real. Mausy will be the best demo in Open this season, no question about it. The former IM champs should have few challenges with half of their starters returning, albeit Tri is missing from their IM winning roster. Stoperr will be joining dflame on scout, but the big sniper plays will undoubtedly fall on dflame's little flannel shoulders. Thrasher will be making the move to pocket to let Hellbent roam, and newcomer Korea will be playing medic. Korea is the wildcard here, but if you've played medic in highlander I can imagine 6s medic is a welcome reprieve. I expect to see some great games from these guys towards the end of the season and into playoffs. Currently, my prediction is that they will finish in the top 3 of the regular season, possibly even at the number one spot.
- Figsy
- Topshot
- CtrlF Muffin
- Remedy
- miwo
- WaffleB
Another team that was seemingly resurrected from seasons past, the team originally named Kawaii 5-O has an all star group of guys and gals. Apparently though, they have not all quite decided what role they all fit in with Waffle and Topshot switching between scout and pocket, but it appears that the starters look like Remedy on demo, Ctrlf Muffin as roamer, miwo on scout, and Figsy as medic. I think its prudent to mention that just about everyone on this team with the exception of Figsy and Waffle have played in Invite, but with all of them playing different classes they might not stack up as hard as one would think at first glance. Still, even off classing I expect these guys to be in the top 5, and if the team lives long enough to see playoffs and they go back to their mains, it could be a very one sided affair no matter who they play against.
And that's all I'm going to write about for Open today! There are definitely other teams out there this season that are worth taking a look at, and after the first week I'll be writing up the first of 8 power rankings for season 17. So far, the cutest team name goes to Sparkle Bunnies, and most inappropriate/disgusting team name goes to Siblings with Benefits. Seriously, what in the actual fuck? Nobody is beating Downpour's terrible team names yet, but I expect in the next couple weeks that Clorg's team will come up with something suitably awful. Don't let me down, friends!
For those of you who are new to this whole thing, feel free to leave the hate speech in the comments please.