Ah Metalworks how I loathe thee. I don't know what it is about scorpio_uprising maps that are so flipping overrated. I really don't. Maybe its getting stuck on literally everything, maybe its the terrible displacements, maybe it is the awkward push dynamics the map forces you into, but metalworks was just never really my jam. But, it has arrived, and with it, another open article.

There has been a touch or two of drama over the past week, most notably the roster changes from We Never Wipe. I chatted briefly with the recently instated mutineer cum-captain of the squad: ScrewB, who could only confirm that Jaguar was moved to backup for non-skill related reasons. I was unable to determine who would be replacing Jaguar in that demoman role, but the move saw the addition of two characters named SliderFromHarvest and Lysol joining the remianing aZZn, screwB and AssasinGyru (on medic). What their final roster will end up looking like, I am unsure, but the move has at least damaged their short term success, causing them to only secure one round across two important matches in Piss Factory and Victorious Secret. Whatever the cause of the sudden shift in roster, this team has severely hindered its chances at breaking into playoffs at all, a real shame.

A correction from last week: I said that Blew was the new starting soldier for No Need for Names instead of TicTack. An anonymous source familiar with the team confirmed for me that TicTack will be their starting soldier, a pickup that improves the team's odds of doing extremely well this season. Best of luck to their new lineup.

Finally I would like to thank everyone for their feedback last week. Per the advice, I made a new layout to work with. It is a work in progress and will include team rosters next week once I have a little more time to work on it. I do apologize for the styling last week, which after I took a second look, did indeed appear to be the workings of a half color blind crayon addict with weapons grade autism.

This week, I thought I would try something new. So much attention is given to the experienced teams, the top 10 contestants and their players. I thought I would try to catch up with the new kids on the block.

Immigration Enforcement is, in a lot of ways, typical of brand new teams. They work at improving, they have their drama and setbacks, and no one is quite sure how things really work. Its almost nostalgic, the feelings and struggles they described and I see remind me of my first season in esea, not knowing how things worked, who to ask for help.

From another angle, however, I see a lot of tenacity and perseverance in their attitude and their actions. They watch demos, actively seek out the mentorship and guidance of more experienced players. They have lost all their matches so far, an experience that can't be fun. But they don't seem too terribly phased by it. This is their improvement season, and they are determined to make the most of it. I talked with Phlogy, medic, and Prodigy, roaming soldier from the team about their thoughts.

If you or someone you know is on a brand new open team that would like to be featured on a future article, have them add me on steam or message me here in the forums. I would love to speak with them.

Sometimes I wonder the conversations that happen, in those private, 10 slot mumble servers that lead to such... unique names as "piss factory". Then it occurs to me that I don't actually want to know. Piss factory is a team that I think will round out one of the last 3 playoff teams, depending on the difficulty of their schedule for the second half of the season. With some decent players lining their roster, EXC0 being perhaps the most notable, piss factory actually has a chance to do something pretty decent here. Also to watch out for are some slick moves from Brandyyn and Crasian; both players I feel have some pretty solid talent waiting to emerge.

But I guess the real $100,000 question is whether or not they can take on Night Owls, or at the very least put up a good fight. Night Owls is completely undefeated thus far, though their schedule is not what I would call particularly difficult. On the contrary, Piss Factory has lost to Morin Meets the Eye, a team I wouldn't consider as hard as Night Owls should be. But it is possible that Piss Factory was still getting their bearings straight in that first week and with a couple good scrims (and the confidence from beating the now severely weakened We Never Wipe), I think this match will be closer than most would anticipate.

I asked owl what he thought of his team's chances this week:

They're a good team, probably our biggest challenge of the season to this point, but we're pretty confident in the abilities of our team. Some of our players don't have a lot of experience on metalworks, but air is a good teacher and a strong maincaller so I don't think that inexperience will hurt us much.

Crasian, from Piss Factory, was a little less charitable:

As of right now, with what we're focusing on, we hope to give Night Owls a run for their money. The best way to do this so far is to ruin Owl's dream of most caps in ESEA, and to focus one specific player on their team. Other then[sic] that, it will depend on if I actually do a damn thing in-game. Welcome to the streak breaker, boys.

Ultimately, I can't help but predict a loss for Piss Factory, but I think more than a few owls will find themselves with wet feathers as the match progresses, ultimately leading to a close first half, but a shutout second. 5-2 Night Owls

Big shout out to Crasian for his help at GXL 2014 by the way. His expertise in herding cats and the quality of life improvement he brought to the general duties that need to be done behind the scenes is underappreciated.

The two teams in our second match of the week, Squid Squad and Blanc Esports, have some pretty undeniable talent on their team. Blanc has Tery, our guide through this season of Invite, Avast: a strong independant demoman who outputs ALL OF THE DAMAGE and a strong cast of players all around. Squid Squad has...

Okay, so this match is basically pre-decided. I don't think Squid Squad will just up and roll over mind you. But even with mana's 6 consecutive seasons in open, there is just too much of an experience gap and DM imbalance to overcome. I talked to Blanc soldier Shiki about his thoughts:

Metalworks isn't exactly our greatest map, but there's a couple of interesting strategies that might require some time to implement and execute. This might cost us a couple of rounds for the match, but I'm confident that our match against Squid Squad should be interesting.

Squid Squad themselves seems to be aware of their unlikeliness to emerge victorious in this match, mana had this to say:

This match is definitely our other headliner in the first half of scheduling, and, undoubtedly, if we're on our game, it'll be a close match. But we have less anime and kpop on our team, so we win the moral battle no matter what.

5-2 Blanc Esports

Three weeks ago, I would have found this match relatively easy to predict. "The Muffin Men" I would begin, "are simply better than SS Fan Club." And I still think that, kind of. But in a super close (and well worth the watch) game last week, I saw some... disturbing trends. Its not like The Muffin Men played poorly, because they truly didn't. Instead, I felt a lot of hesitation and indecisiveness from the team, especially on even ubered pushes onto second point. This will become an issue, I fear, moving into metalworks for the team. Even if they do win mid, even if they do transition back from a last hold or second point hold, putting the aggression onto metalworks second is just hard. The way the area is shaped, the choice of pushing vectors is mediocre, the high ground hard to break onto, and the backing out easy. If The Muffin Men are going to have a chance, they will need to work on that part of their play, and fast.

SS Esports though, is a still unknown quantity. They've only played one match so far, on process against Malicious Activity, and they didn't look terribly on form. Though they won 5-2, the game was a lot closer than I would have expected in the second half where SS and crew seemed to lose it slightly. This might spell trouble for the team, if long games aren't their forte, then metalworks might not be for them. The map has produced some truly long games and the team will have to remain diligent to not let fatigue or lack of discipline affect their chances at winning.

The Muffin Men seem to be recovering from their loss last week well, and I rate their chances this week just high enough to edge out a win. Trip recalled some words of wisdom revealed to him by a TF2 great:

Getawhale taught me a little secret about winning TF2 matches... As long as we do the damage, we should win

4-5 Muffin Men

Sometimes good matches can come from teams that aren't sitting at the very top of their division. I feel that could be true for this game between relative no-names Schrute Farms and No Homers Club. Schrute Farms has an older lineup of players in kirby, klicka and Danesir, each with at least 6 seasons of experience, some in Intermediate. However these three players also had a bit of a hiatus until recently and their return has been marred slightly by losses against Squid Squad and (possibly more predictably) Blanc Esports.

As for No Homers Club, they are a team comprised entirely of new players, taking on open for the first time. For this, I must applaud them and encourage them to do their best in this, their hardest matchup so far this season. Do I honestly expect them to put up an amazing fight in this game? No, not really. But I would like to see them try their best and go for it. I feature this team because I want to draw attention to the newer teams, help them feel part of the group and encourage them to try their best. 5-1 Schrute Farms

This map can be summed up neatly with: Victorious Secret has something to prove this week. BwatBwatBwat doesnt. After 3 wins in a row, including an hour long one on process against Post-Jaguar We Never Wipe, the legends in lingerie are on a streak, one bwatbwat hopes to break. And break it they will, bwatbwatbwat is just going to be that little bit faster, that smidge more accurate, that ounce heavier pushing against VS, ultimately winning out on all the important rounds. But Victorious Secret has a chance, this week, to show me and everyone else following open that they are here and ready to take a playoff spot come the end of week 8. Metalworks will be a good map to do that on, few teams are well versed on its winding hallways and plentiful hiding spots, so an aggressive and bold team that isn't afraid of getting their pink lacey panties a bit dirty may find themselves in possession of a few, hard earned, rounds.

I would really like to see Victorious Secret put up two rounds this week against bwatbwatbwat. Doing so should be a big confidence boost as they head into the rest of their season, and it could be a good predictor of how they will do against the rest of the border teams come the last two weeks of regular season. They would have had that chance against an easier team, but a We Never Wipe without Jaguar just isn't as big a border team threat as it once was.5-2 bwatbwatbwat