Recap

During Sunshine week, we saw a team die, a team clutch a LAN spot, and a team reborn. While 3 of the LAN seeds have pretty much decided, the remaining games will still determine who places where at the end of the season and for LAN. For those wondering, eLevate TF2, Froyotech, and Street Hoops Esports are the teams with secured LAN spots (ignoring any potential ridiculous beefs). Classic Mixup and Mad Men will fight for their lives this week on Snakewater, a map notorious for stronghold last defenses and where games can go without a team earning 5 rounds by regulation. This season of Invite has been bringing the action since day 1, and they won't stop until the end of the 2nd Process week. In addition to previewing their LAN spots / finishing records, we'll add a little "Thought Bubble" for each team - an interesting / fun fact or two that I thought about whilst writing this up.

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1. eLevate TF2 (14-0)

eLevate TF2 are just 2 matches away from a perfect season. Sunshine week saw them 5-0 Mad Men that I unfortunately missed, but it seems eLevate didn't have much trouble, really containing both YouMustMike and Pharaoh. The obstacles left in their way are Ding Dong Daddy and Street Hoops Esports. Ding Dong Daddy shouldn't pose much of a problem. and I expect eLevate to walk away with a clean 5-0. Should eLevate clinch a 16-0, they'll be the 4th team with a perfect regular season record, and the 5th consecutive 16-0 in the past 5 seasons.

Thought Bubble: Cozen will now make back to back LAN appearances, but on 2 different teams. What's a little unique about him though, is the team that he left is still competing in Invite and will also be at LAN. While there have certainly been players with back to back appearances (b4nny and friends, Platinum and friends), and players with back to back appearances with different teams, most of the latter category comprises of people leaving a dying team to play for another. Ruwin, Pure from Mihaly's Flow to Classic Mixup, indust from Apocalypse Gaming to team iT, etc.

2. Froyotech (11-2)

It seems the end of the season for Froyotech will be a mellow one. For Snakewater, they'll face The Hurricane and for Process, Mad Men (plus a forfeit win). I find it hard to believe that b4nny will do any worse than a 5-0 this week. Froyotech is just too much for The Hurricane to handle. Will shade run Blutsauger? Will clckwrk play Sniper for half the match? They could take this as seriously or as leisurely as they want, and make fun of blaze some more while they're at it. Here's hoping we get some more b4nny / shade streams in for the match.

Thought Bubble: It was hard finding anything interesting for this team since a huge portion of their matches don't last too long. The team as a whole have just a little over 4.5 hours in their matches but clckwrk is still #5 in frags and duwatna and lansky in the top 5 for DPM. I suppose the fact that a b4nny roster won't be 16-0 this season is trivia enough.

3. Street Hoops Esports (9-4)

Street Hoops have braved a set of close matches this past week and are enjoying their 9-4 perch and 4 game winning streak. After this Snakewater match against Ding Dong Daddy, their LAN seed should be all but secured. However, there is still much to play for. Their Process matches against Classic Mixup and eLevate TF2 could further improve but let's talk about this week. After I stated that paragon needed to not hide in cyzer's shadow, he does just that in their match against Mixup, putting out a monstrous number of frags. They'll want to carry this momentum through Snakewater and take a convincing victory over Ding Dong Daddy before going back to Process next week.

Thought Bubble: Deadbolt will add himself to a long list of players with LAN appearances on multiple classes. As for a more exclusive list, he'll join the likes of b4nny, alfa, and boomer for players that have played Demoman and Scout on LAN. Speaking of LAN, cyzer has never played against b4nny on LAN before. Considering that cyzer's shift into the aggressive Scout was from the time with bp / HRG, it's gonna be interesting (I dunno how I wanted to end this sentence, rip).

4. Classic Mixup (7-5)

The reincarnated Classic Mixup are looking to end their season strong. Mixup's only Snakewater match is the ever important one against Mad Men. Since it will be covered in the Match of the Week, I'll keep stuff short here, but Mixup certainly needs to win here. While an ESEA LAN without Classic Mixup is something no one ever thinks about or imagines, it exists as a possibility, and it's up to Mixup to prevent that possibility from becoming reality.

Thought Bubble: Any sort of trivia I mostly covered in the Mixup article, but we can always talk about Platinum. This is Platinum's first Soldier LAN since S14, which was the Quick Fix LAN. Suffice to say, I'm hyped to see him back on Soldier, where his heart is.

5. Mad Men (6-6)

The dream is hurt but certainly not dead for the Mad Men. Despite such a narrow loss to Street Hoops for the 2nd time this season, Mad Men still have their fate in their hands. With a ffw and a game against The Hurricane, they'll have 8 wins. This means they'll need to clutch one of their remaining games against Classic Mixup or Froyotech. Realistically, they should focus on defeating Mixup. However, they would ironically need the help of Street Hoops if they were to win over Mixup. Should Street Hoops defeat Mixup again, both Mad Men and Mixup would be 9-7. If Mad Men beat Mixup with a score of 5-2 or better, would that automatically place them ahead since their last meeting was a 5-3? I'm not entirely sure. Worst comes to worst, it'd come down to RF and so securing 5 rounds in each of their victories will be key for the Mad Men.

Thought Bubble: Indust has the most frags out of any Medic in Invite with 24 (!). 14 of those come from the trusty Crossbow, so indust's DM making him look good in the frag / DPM department. Onto more important thoughts, if Mad Men make LAN this season, indust will have played in Invite for 3 separate teams and reached LAN 3 times. Quite the resume you're building there.

6. The Hurricane (4-9)

The Hurricane will pick up a few more forfeits before the end of the season, but they're up against Froyotech this week. Despite having played admirably this season (the 5-3 losses against Mixup come to mind), it's gonna take a miracle and quite the hurricane to knock out Froyotech. Look for insom and icTus to fight their hardest and for The Hurricane to just give it their all in general, like they have all season.

Thought Bubble: I'm pretty sure The Hurricane has the most Asians in Invite Not only is their Scout combo Asian, but shootist is also Asian (flank from the East) and apparently SureShot is half. Next season they'll pick up enigma and tri to have the complete roster.

7. Ding Dong Daddy (2-10)

With the death of team wood pig, Ding Dong Daddy find themselves at #7 and will remain there until the end of the season. Their Snakewater week consists of LAN teams eLevate TF2 and Street Hoops, both out of reach for the Daddies.

Thought Bubble: If there was ever ESEA Invite Tetris (Sprint), alec would carry his team to a LAN appearance easily. This man is a god. Check out his stream if you never thought Tetris could be competitive. Damn, I need to play again.

8. Wood Pig (4-8)

When this team started out with a 5-4 nailbiter against Street Hoops, there was deserved hype for this team in the S17 LAN race. Unfortunately, with arcticjoe quitting, player inactivity, and dingo leaving to the waters of Open, they have come to an end. I hope a few if not all of you will return for next season. Rest in peace.

9. 6cuties (0-11)

Obligatory words typed here to please mana. Rest in peace.

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Match of the Week

Classic Mixup (7-5) vs. Mad Men (6-6)

Even if this match doesn't turn out to be close, it's still the MOTW regardless for the LAN implications. If Mad Men win this, they'll keep up the fight for LAN. If Classic Mixup win this, then Mad Men are knocked out and the LAN spots are determined. A Mad Men win here and a Mixup loss to Street Hoops the following week would bring this chase down to the last rounds for in the standings.

Snakewater is traditionally a slower map and more prone to stalemates. Both Mixup and Mad Men are the opposite of slow. They like playing fast and aggressive, so who will be the more patient team to punish mistakes? My gut says Mixup, but with the recent roster shuffling you never truly know. The Scouts will be pretty even with each other, but we'll see how Platinum adjusts and how he plays in contrast to MemphisVon, who has had a solid season. Platinum fared well against blaze in their Froyotech game so I'd expect the same here against Memphis. Snakewater is all about last, and Mixup probably have the better utilities, with squid's Sniper and enigma's Spy and Heavy. Chriztafah vs. xalox will be an interesting matchup, too. Will Mad Men's stable roster be able to find and take advantage of the cracks in chemistry of this new Mixup?

I'm a fan of both teams, but I'm going to root for Mad Men this time. If anything, a Mad Men win here will make the Mixup vs. 20b Process match even more exciting, and isn't that what we all want? I just hope nobody rolls each other.

Prediction: Mad Men - 5, Classic Mixup - 4

Players to Watch: MemphisVon, indust, xalox, Platinum

Final Glance

1. eLevate TF2
2. Froyotech
3. Street Hoops Esports [+2]
4. Classic Mixup [-1]
5. Mad Men [-1]
6. The Hurricane [+1]
7. Ding Dong Daddy [+1]
8. Wood Pig [R.I.P]
9. 6cuties [R.I.P]

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Editor's Note: Sorry for this edition being late. Didn't think I'd be as busy as I was, but we're nearing the end of the season so I can take a breather. Just one more week after this! I slipped an easter egg in here, can you find it? (Probably, it's not hard)