It's no secret that Classic Mixup has had a rough season so far. Their 7-5 record is their worst start ever, though the term "start" mainly refers to their record.. This already ties Mixup's worst record ever, which was 11-5 during S11, where they finished 4th at the end of the regular season. After returning to America after i52, Mixup suffered 3 crucial losses against their LAN rivals: Street Hoops, eLevate, and Froyotech. With just 2 weeks remaining, some changes occurred.
Harbleu decided to retire from Invite / playing seriously, while Seagull has stopped playing altogether. Harbleu, despite claiming he hated Medic and never wanted to play the class again, had braved 4 seasons and 5 ESEA LANs and was known for his crazy deathmatching abilities in clutch situations. Having played 4 out of the 5 competitive classes (3 on LAN), harbleu's legend will live on, and perhaps even those not on said classes. The legend of Seagull will also continue to live on, as one of the most dominant Pockets and Roamers the game has ever seen. Fanboys will no doubt be caw cawing their way through Twitch chats and the like.
To replace harbleu, Mixup brought back PYYYOUR, who had previously played with the team during their undefeated S12 campaign. This marks Pure's return to Invite after 2 seasons of inactivity in ESEA. TLR has been a combo with Pure in the S12 Mixup and S9 Experiment, so they are no strangers to each other. Platinum shifted himself over to Roamer, a class that he hasn't played in a long, long time. It'll be quite interesting to see how he plays on Roamer in comparison to Seagull. While the prospect of seeing Platinum play utility classes is exciting, I doubt we'll see much of this in the matches to come. Traditionally, Mixup has always favored sending Scouts to offclass whenever they didn't have harbleu on Roamer, and I imagine this will continue to be the case with Platinum. Last but certainly not least, xalox will step into the Demoman position. Xalox played admirably during his S15 run with iT and returns to Invite after taking a break in S16, backing up for Arizona Iced Out Boys in Open.
I asked a few members of Mixup on their thoughts regarding their new roster and general thoughts.
"Clockwork is the best Scout in the game, besides b4nny." - PYYYOUR
"Brad and xalox are no strangers to our team, and we're excited to see what new energy they can bring to us. Harbleu and seagull were both just a bit tired of the game." - enigma
This new roster has shed some light on how this variant of Classic Mixup will develop, as they took 3 rounds against Froyotech this past week on Sunshine (albeit missing Pure), where most expected worse. With such recent changes, Mixup will have time to work out the chemistry and further improve. Looking at Mixup's remaining matches, they have 6cuties, Mad Men, Ding Dong Daddy, and Street Hoops left. Should Mixup secure wins against 3 out of the 4, they'll be in the clear for LAN at a 11-5 or 10-6 record. But whether or not this revitalized Mixup has what it takes to take down Mad Men and / or get a revenge win against 20b remains to be seen, however, one thing is for sure: this season (and LAN) just got way more interesting.
Classic Mixup
Scout: enigma- Scout: squid
Pocket: TLR- Roamer: Platinum
Demoman: xalox
Medic: PYYYOUR