Recaps & Revelations

Testify, brothers and sisters! For today we give thanks to the Gods of European Team Fortress 2 with an eight hour Sunday Service, broadcast live around the world to the believers and the unbelievers alike from the Twitch frontpage. Placed on the altar of Tt eSPORTS will be 6x Tt eSPORTS VERTO Headsets and 6x Tt eSPORTS METALCAPS (5 keys). Fear not! It is a good omen; this offering pleases the divine warriors.

Preaching fire and brimstone from the pulpit will be the very reverend CommanderX, joined by kaidus on the main stream, whilst the secondary stream will play host to his holiness, Ryushi, accompanied by Starkie. Manning the virtual cameras will be DavidTheWin and Suyooo, backed up by Jon and Sim pulling the strings behind the scenes. To celebrate the disappointing democratic decisions of the people of Scotland, a straw poll plague of biblical proportions will be cast upon ye. David Cameron will not be invited.

The details have been finalised. We have our eight teams. We have our Tt eSPORTS swag. We have our production planned. We even have a little something extra for the viewers courtesy of serveme.tf, our philanthropic server providers. The bearded wonder, Arie Meeldijk has offered up a bounty of 20 keys for those viewers who can predict the outcomes of each map streamed. Tune in to the live event for details on how to enter and win, but come prepared -- a Twitter account will be required.

The tournament structure remains the eight team double elimination bracket originally touted, but a few tweaks have been made since that first announcement. In order to wring every last drop of suspense out of the day’s action, we have decided to make the Lower Bracket Final a best of three series in addition to the Grand Finals. We can also confirm the fixed maps for the first four rounds of play will be Pro Viaduct, Badlands, Process and Gullywash, with the remainder of the map pool filled out by Granary, Snakewater and the latest release of Logjam, b10.

Invited Teams

Over a very long 24 hours the ETF2L Provisional Divisions for Season 19 hung heavily over Europe, muffled cries of “LAWL NICE DIVS!” were all that could be heard. The smog of uncertainty has since cleared and most teams now know their Premiership fate, apart from four hopefuls who will contest the remaining two spots in the top division. Three of those teams have graciously accepted our invitation to come and beat lumps out of each other on a Sunday afternoon, however, there were a couple of teams who declined...

Truly living up to their national stereotypes and surrendering before the fight had even begun, we find ourselves with a France-shaped hole in the competition. Pre-season playoff contenders E-SHOCK ESPORT didn’t fancy the early start, whilst the recently resurrected La Berrichonne de Châteauroux were unable to put together six players without captain, T-Mac, available this weekend. It all worked out well, as these two non-starters quite handily whittled the number of teams in contention to eight, making my job that little bit easier. Merci beaucoup!

Teams were invited to rank their opponents for the tournament seeding and also themselves for my own entertainment. The results of which can be found below, along with the confirmed rosters and my own musings, but if you prefer a little more substance to your analysis of form, why not take a gander at fraac’s compilation of PCW logs from the last few weeks.

maincall.tf

Seed: #1 (1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 7) placed themselves 1st.

*Mirelin*	*Mike*	*IPZIE*	*Rising*	*smzii*	*Kiler4fun*

As their peers will tell you, maincall.tf are the end boss, not just in this tournament, but for the next 12 months of competition. They have their sights set far in to the future, with dreams of restoring European pride at a yet unconfirmed Insomnia 55 World Championships. Every team here rated them as numero uno, apart from one Russian anarchist (based in Scotland) who reckoned they were the worst team here.

With main damage dealer WARHURYEAH unable to make the start of the tournament, we will be treated to Mike’s first return to demoman in serious competition since his heated departure from AYOGURL seven months ago. The team will be looking to take their second piece of silverware here after their recent success in the ETF2L Logjam Cup when overcoming a resilient Fenneks.

Ze Knutsson Rollerbladers

Seed: #2 (1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 5) placed themselves 2nd.

*Knutsson*	*ryb*	*AMS.*	*zappis*	*Zebbosai*	*Herr_P*

Featuring some familiar players in some unfamiliar roles, BK are a difficult team to quantify. Seemingly everyone has beaten them at some point in practise, but Zebbosai has never been one to assign any meaning to PCW results. They clearly believe in their own ability, placing themselves 2nd, but the votes they drew were not unanimous – the doubters remain. Today we will find out if they are still riding on reputation or if there is any substance to this Nordic concoction.

Zebbosai is best known as a world class soldier previously spent a season playing his hyper-aggressive scout style and will do so again in this roster, however, zappis the career scout is making his debut on roamer, but actually seems to be showing some genuine ability. It’s still early days for Knutsson’s switch up to medic and with the recent acquisition of rookie pocket, AMS, from Coast To Coast we may see some missteps from their combo.

Fenneks eSports by SimRai.com

Seed: #3 (2 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 4 - 5) placed themselves 3rd.

*flushy*	*Setlet*	*kaptain*	*Samsa*	*Hafficool*	*Sheepy*

Until last night these jokers were still playing under the name Team Cooler Mundi, but with the ink still wet they have signed up to a partnership with the Fenneks organisation. Even now, people are still asking “who are these guys?” and “what are they doing in Prem?”, but you only have to look at their consistent results in practise and a solid performance in the Logjam Cup to know they deserve to be here.

The majority of their peers recognise them as contenders in this tournament, justifying their number three seed, but it seems they have yet to establish themselves in the hearts and minds of the general ETF2L populace; this would be a great place to start. Sheepy and flushy represent the main bulk of their previous experience in the top tier, but don’t forget kaptain contested the upcoming talent award a few seasons ago. If you still don’t know, prepare yourselves for an education today.

GGWP.pro

Seed: #4 (2 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 4 - 4 - 4) placed themselves 6th.

*Whiteglow*	*Death*	*Forsak3n*	*ShaDowBurn*	*msh*	*atomic-*

Severely underestimating their own ability, the fucking Russians find themselves riding two places higher in the rankings than they had given themselves credit for. Perhaps they are still recovering from that crushing defeat at the hands of skeej in the Season 18 Playoffs. Who knows?! More than likely they simply fell victim to their own blatant attempts to game the seeding -- yes I’m sure you think Coast To Coast are the best team in Europe, Forsak3n.

GGWP have returned with a roster largely unchanged and have yet to cut msh despite the ever-present threats, but their season is still in it’s infancy. The notable difference is the old demoman switcheroo they have pulled with neighbours 4-25 - - Death for gdk -- with the Ukrainian absolutely unconvinced that his former team mates could be contenders this season. Fans of the Kritz Machine will be curious to see if Whiteglow has the same confidence and chemistry with his new sticky-bomb sniper.

4-25

Seed: #5 (3 - 4 - 4 - 5 - 5 - 6 - 6) placed themselves 3rd.

*Dikker*	*gdk*	*Shyyou*	*Sean John*	*sid vicious*	*kensi.*

Conversely, 4-25 don’t see to be getting the respect they think they deserve with a seeding two places down from their own bronze aspirations. They did pull in quite a range of votes, which implies inconsistent performances, so today could very well be their day.

The departure of Death and lippy and their subsequent replacements only serves to ratchet up the level of uncertainty; gdk having a track record of instability and unwillingness to commit to the game and Sean John being an unknown to most. One positive is the return of kensi who had disappeared at the end of last season amidst the harsh realities of the Ukrainian conflict. His use of the scope has been devastating in the past and could be the key to their success.

Furbo Pandas

Seed: #6 (3 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 6 - 7) placed themselves 5th.

*Bulle*	*Hildreth*	*zoob*	*Muuki*	*furbo*	*RazorsEdge*

Despite being courted by Ze Rollerbladers as a clear choice to fill their vacant pocket spot, zoob has decided to remain with his teammates at the former Lazy Pandas. The Finn had a real breakthrough last season, getting a lot of recognition for his work with the rocket launcher, but he seems content to carry these highlander hopefuls for a while longer.

The once impressive, furbo, has reappeared from a season hiatus, prompting the team name to revert back in his honour. I can’t comment on his current form, but his new scouting partner RazorsEdge is probably a safe bet; unlikely to wow the spectators, but a reliable player nevertheless. To add some mystery to proceedings, these guys have yet to declare who will be standing in for Kissakala on medic!

coolclan

Seed: #7 (2 - 5 - 5 - 6 - 6 - 7 - 7) placed themselves 7th.

*Admirable*	*Smirre*	*evokje*	*phromelo*	*wltrs*	*Dennia*

Disclaimer: This team is terrible. Don’t be fooled by their zombification of a once well-loved team brand. These guys are absolute frauds. Who would actually recruit Saints players? Why would anyone want to encourage that? Who the fuck are these Polacks? Why is wltrs playing under an alt? How does that medic make his head so shiny?

All valid questions. Somehow this two week old roster has found itself competing with the big boys. A full investigation in to corruption at ETF2L is sure to follow, but for now we have to ask ourselves if coolclan have a chance? They would have if Bonkers was here, but instead they have evokje. Oh well, case closed.

Coast To Coast

Seed: #8 (1 - 6 - 6 - 7 - 7 - 7 - 7) placed themselves 5th.

*Ramagan*	*Kouna*	*kr4tos*	*lippy*	*empty*	*Thalash*

The outcome of this tournament may be critical to the future of Coast To Coast, who have recently been knocked off course by AMS jumping ship. For now they kr4tos playing pocket and lippy roaming, but that may yet change. Will these be the last hours of c2c or can they bounce back and make a run in the ETF2L Pre-season Playoffs next week?

The French core of this team, Ramagan and Kouna, have already gotten a reputation in the pre-season for their passion for Kritzkrieg plays. That double edged sword can certainly cut both ways, but at the very least we should expect to see some explosive aggression. These guys are coming out swinging!

Hype!