Greetings all, my name is Alkaline and I am excited to kick off the ESEA Season 19 TF2 Invite coverage! My goal is to bring all of you eSports fans weekly power rankings all season long.
This season we have 4 IM move-ups, while at the same time three LAN teams are still around with only minor (or nonexistent) roster changes. This could leave a large gap between the top of Invite and the bottom, but I’m also optimistic that it will lead to a lot of motivated new Invite gamers. Nevertheless, it’s up to teams like Cafe Monster and The Grime (formerly Hate Being Sober) to prove their potential; time will tell if they have what it takes.
New Feature: Average Team Ranking
The average team ranking has been introduced. One player from every team has ranked each and every one of the teams, and I’ve averaged the results. The final tally should give you a good picture of how the invite players themselves are viewing their competition. Let's not wait around any longer, and jump right into the action!
- Shade
- Lansky
- Blaze
- Duwatna
- B4nny
- Clockwork
Average team ranking: 1.00
Froyotech have little left to prove: they’ve had the same roster for almost a year; they’ve won three straight ESEA titles, i52 and GXL… There’s not much else to say. Although they face a serious threat from a revitalized eLevate, B4nny's point of view was concise and to the point: Froyotech want to keep winning:
We'd like to continue our winning streak this season and hopefully claim a fourth ESEA-I title. There's a lot of new blood in invite this season so the big challenge will be learning everyone's playstyles and not underestimating our opponents.
Let's move on, and take a close look at Froyotech's main rival!
- TheFragile
- Rando
- Ma3la
- Bdonski
- Decimate
- Shrugger
Average Team Ranking: 2.00
After a productive offseason, eLevate are ready to rock-and-roll. Although they lost Alfa and kbk, Rando and TheFragile have both returned from back-up duty. This leaves them with the same roster they had during S16, but with more experience and Shrugger instead of Alfa on scout. This should leave their combo as strong as their flank, but the real test will come in a couple weeks, when eLevate play Froyotech on Badlands. I, for one, can hardly wait.
However, it's worth noting that this has all happened before: for two seasons in a row, we've all looked to eLevate to give Froyotech a run for their money; sadly, on both occasions they've failed to touch them at LAN. But this time, I think things may be different: first, they have improved their roster and are clearly superior to any former incarnation of their team. Second, they're scrimming! Last season, eLevate really only practiced on match nights and in the two weeks before LAN. Although it was enough for them to get 2nd, one can only imagine what would have happened if they'd been scrimming heavily throughout the season. This time, I think eLevate are motivated, and they certaintly have the talent to challenge Froyotech. Let's turn things over to team leader and cat enthusiast Nick "TheFragile" Leon:
“Dethroning froyotech and taking first would be pretty nice. It's a tall order but it can certainly be done. With our current roster, I think we are extremely capable of doing it. We are aiming for nothing less than top 2, but that will be tough. There is a lot of solid talent in Invite this season.
Shoutouts to our eLevate sponsors: Razer, MLG, SCUF Gaming, KontrolFreek, GFUEL, G2A, Multiplay, and Esportsify.
Also, a huge shoutout to cats. :3”
- Ninjanick
- Showstopper
- Ash
- Deadbolt
- Cyzer
- Paragon
Average team ranking: 3.22
After LAN, Street Hoops made a very interesting choice to replace Grape with Showstopper. Although my sources tell me that this has made the mumble environment much more jovial with a roughly 420% increase in MPH (memes per hour), the difference between the two pockets in DM is undeniable. Although I have to view this shift as a downgrade, I’m optimistic that Showstopper will adjust well to his new team. Ninjanick had this to say:
“Showstopper has been added to the roster in place of grape. I think everyone from the outside sees this as a questionable move but in the end it was the right decision for the team's cohesion. Showstopper is eager to change the minds of many and turn some heads this season since he has some pretty big shoes to fill. We've also added alfa to the roster as a coach / backup which we're hoping gives us the slight edge over eLevate in games to come.”
With lots of scrimming and hard work, 20b still has the right ingredients to make the finals. But it’s up to them to prove that they can compete with Froyotech or a new and improved eLevate. Here's Ninjanick again with why I know 20b will be more motivated than ever:
"We're trying to make finals this season and work toward becoming a stronger team in order to make i55 a possibility now that ESEA's prize pot comes free of lan."
I'm very glad to see Street Hoops take advantage of a great opportunity to trade one LAN for another! #20believe
- dbw
- Mangachu
- Boink
- Xalox
- ArticJoe
- Squid
Average team ranking: 4.22
Five Dollar Club (aka Nice Nice Nice aka Mangachu’s team) has only made one roster change: ArcticJoe is now scouting instead of Freestate. This means that all of their players, other than dbw, have LAN experience! This makes Season 19 $5’s time to shine, as they have the talent and the opportunity to solidify themselves in the top 4. However, that also makes them the prime target for teams like Attack of the Yomies or Cafe Monster.
At this point, I would like to hand the proverbial microphone over to the one and only Mangachu, who has written the single best team introduction I have ever seen:It's no secret that our team is home to some of the most creative and innovative players in the game.
When he isn't jamming to 'Tyler the Creator', Mangachu can be found reading, writing and performing beat poetry in the local parks.
Ever heard of being too thoughtful? Neither has ArcticJoe. Kindness manifested itself in a person and the person it chose is 6'8 and a real heavy hitter when it comes to Scout.
Scheduler and off-the-clock-bartender Boink is always around to recommend the newest drinks to try. Need a Dallas server? He's your man. Need a cold brew after a long day? Look for this guy.
Often misunderstood, the opinionated Xalox is never really in it for the glory. Despite a history of playing on teams with b4nny, Xalox is actually known to seek enjoyment in TF2 and isn't here just for the cold, hard W.
Finally, we have DBW. What can you say about this Medic turned scout main turned roamer turned demo? What class will she play next week? We don't even know! Zany!
- Phorofor
- CJ-
- Rekuso
- Yeremy
- Freestate
- Ringo
Average team ranking: 5.22
Last season, the Yomies pleasantly surprised me by having some tight matches with top teams, including a nail-biter 5-4 loss to the Mad Men and an overlooked victory over the Daddies at the very end of the season. With three solid roster changes during the offseason (notably picking up Freestate on scout), I'm confident that they can give the top 4 a run for their money. I have their well-known pocket CJ with me to talk about the Yomies' new roster:
"Roamer: Rekuso - he is a quiet guy who likes to surprise us with the plays he makes; a call we get frequently after we have just won the mid is "I'm at their last." Overall Rekuso can do a lot of big things but sometimes it's not as coordinated with the rest of the team as possible. So, a lot of our team's improvement will probably be coordinating with him so that we maximize on his play potential. He almost always has more deaths than me, so he's doing his job right in my book.
Scout: Ringo - he's new to our team and has one (I think?) previous season of invite. Ringo impressed us by having really good aim and working extremely well with our other scout, Freestate. He's a really cool guy and, most importantly, not negative, which really helps our team when we're trying to figure out what to fix.
Scout: Freestate - this is also Free's second season of invite, and also is a newcomer to the team. Despite the fact that he plays on the flank, he is one of the people who talks the most in mumble. He helps us a lot in terms of coordination and makes big calls and plays from the flank, so we could not have asked for a better replacement.
Demo: Yeremy - this is the first season that Jeremy will be playing the same class that he played last season, so we're excited to see what happens. He never played demo in ESEA before last season and was able to jump into Invite, so that was cool. Since he is actually playing the same class that he played last season, we expect some big things. Plus, demo is now a bad class anyway, right, so he can only go up from here... right? He also has a pet rat. <-- Please include this in the writeup.
Medic: Phorofor - he made the jump from highlander to invite medic pretty swiftly last season, and is new to our team this season. Phorofor has really good mechanics and is a really smart player, which helps our team out a lot when we make mistakes. He does a lot of calling for the combo (since I don't really call that much), so he was a great replacement for our last medic, who also called a lot for our team.
Pocket: me - I like to hit airshots and don't have much to say for myself. I'm not the super vocal type of pocket and mostly just call pushes, so the primary thing I can work on is directing the team more so they know what the hell I am thinking. I also like Jeremy's pet rat.”
- Zilly
- Goldfish
- PurpleShirt
- Desca
- Highfive
- Yomps
Average team ranking: 6.00
The current champions of IM have largely stuck with the same winning roster as last season. Let me turn things over to Goldfish straight away for all the details:
“We are cafe monster. I've only been playing with this team for a season but there are quite a few members that have been together for a while. Purpleshirt and Desca have been on this team for 3 seasons together since open. Zilly also played with cafe monster before.
Our current roster consists of Desca on demo, who has been playing since the forming of this team. Desca is our main caller and usually calls the shots in terms of pushing. He has very good pipes and is a huge factor to our success. He is a terrific support to our ubers and we depend on a lot of his calls.
Zilly on medic, who played for Yomies 2 seasons, is swapping to play with our team this season in place of Soapy. Zilly is another one of our important callers. He has very good game sense and I personally depend on him whenever I'm unsure on what to do. He has very accurate arrows which saves a lot of our players from certain death.
Myself on pocket, I pocketed slin for 2 seasons before this team -_-. I am one of our teams final main callers. You will usually see me take a lot of the heals and be in all of the ubers. I am usually one of the first people fighting and am probably always dead. I try to open up opportunities for our flank to capitalize on a lot, which usually tends to make me look like I play extremely aggressive. I also love airshots.
Purpleshirt on roamer, who is the leader and has been here since the beginning of this team. Purpleshirt is our bread and butter. We depend on him to force the medic and sack during stalemates and he has a high success rate doing so. Along with myself, he tries to open up plays for our team and is very aggressive.
Highfive on scout, who is one of the smartest members on our team. Highfive has incredible dm on par with top invite scouts. He sometimes plays nearly perfectly and has very good gamesense. He usually makes a lot of plays for our team which lead to quick rounds and is a very important component to our success.
Yomps is also on scout. This is Yomps's second season in ESEA. Straight out of UGC last season he won IM with us. He is on par with top invite scouts in terms of DM and mechanics. Silent but deadly, Yomps is also a much needed playmaker that creates opportunities for our team to finish with a victory.
I want to comment on what I think about invite this season. The competition does not look as steep as it could have been, or as steep as it was last season. The reason I ranked us at number 3, is because our scrim record with 5th-9th place team is in our favor. We always go even with them if we're not already winning. So once we get a chance to calibrate and adjust to the higher skill level I think we can start to be able to comfortably beat them. Street hoops looks a whole lot weaker compared to last season as well with grape gone. Mabye they'll crush us and I'm an idiot, but I predict us to do decent against them.”
Although I love Goldfish’s optimism and I would like to see Cafe Monster over-perform, it looks to me right now as if Cafe is the best of the IM move-ups, but nothing more. Prove me wrong, boys!
- Kig
- Farnsworth
- Dagger
- Jarrett
- Corsa
- Kev
Average team ranking: 7.44
The team that was formerly know as Hate Being Sober has brought a revamped roster to Invite. Although it's bound to be a tough season, their scout combo of Corsa and Kev is looking very scary. It'll be a tough task for Kig, Farnsworth and Jarrett to match the other combos, but if they can, The Grime has the potential pull some serious upsets. Their medic Kig has more:
"The Grime: The team The Grime is an interesting success story to say the least. The team had their sights set on finishing above .500 for their IM debut and never expected to be stepping into Invite so soon but that doesn’t mean they’ll come unprepared. The roster this season is looking stronger than ever but more importantly the chemistry on the team is building fast. The players all have high IM experience but everyone is new to invite and is ready to put the time it takes for the low invite grind. The main problem The Grime faces is that matches and scrims play so differently. Grime has gone from losing to a mid-open team in scrims to beating the #2 seeded IM team in the playoffs on the same night. If Hate Being Sober can focus on making their practice more valuable in the early parts of the season they can go back to doing what they do best, upsetting some of the best teams TF2 has to offer.
Dagger: Dagger is the team leader and roamer for Grime. Dagger started out as Medic in Open, later switched to demo, and is now settling on roamer for our Invite debut. Dagger is an all rounder in terms of DM and gamesense. Having someone who used to have a main call role like medic and demo is important to have on the flank because he is always aware of where our combo is playing which leads to better timing and positioning. Every day of practice his bombs get more and more fearsome.
Farns & Kig: Farnsworth is the pocket soldier and has been at medic Kig’s side since 2010 when they started playing competitive. The chemistry of this combo is unmatched by any other team. These two make up the main calling for Grime, Farns leads the pushes and calls the enemy positions and Kig makes the main calls. By the end of S19 Kig & Farns will be a household name. Farns has always been the main source of damage for Grime and his presence makes the combo untouchable to flanking scouts and soldiers looking for a force.
Corsa: Corsa is the main threat on Grime in terms of raw DM power and his strong gamesense. Corsa is often leading ubers and getting buffed to create openings by brute forcing his way through soldiers and demomen. He is the all around utility for almost any situation for Grime. Sacrificing to play sniper and spy, holding a choke point on his own, or calling players who are out of position for key pushes are all part of what he does for the team. Corsa is the backbone of the Grime offense.
Jarrett: Jarrett, who has two seasons of experience as the demoman with Kig and Farns brings a ton to the team. Not only is he an incredibly strong demoman who is constantly saving the team with clutch pipes, he has the analytical eye to spot why the team lost a particular push or round. With his insight on the bigger picture the team is constantly adapting and changing the playstyle to combat other teams. Jarrett leads a lot of the discussion during demo and map reviews. It might take a while for the team to adapt to their new roles but Jarrett is moving the team in the right direction.
Kev: The newest addition to the team and the final piece of the puzzle. Grime was always plagued with a flank that was caught out a lot and Kev is the answer to that problem. Kev has insane DM ability but uses his power to hold down the flank and grind his way through unbuffed players to facilitate the combo’s push. He has all the power of Corsa and does it with half the heals. When paired with Dagger the two are deadly enough to make a player advantage turn into a round win before the enemy spawn wave is done."
- Saam
- Mason
- Dingo
- Muma
- Sal
- Seymour
Average Team Ranking: 7.22
Champagne and Cocaine have made some good changes in the offseason, most notably Seymour on scout. I personally think their lineup is looking very solid at this point, with a nice mix of experience and new comers. I'll hand things over to Saam straight away:
"Leading our team is the polarizing character of Muma, who, in my opinion, has been working as hard as anyone in invite and will be the centerpiece of this team. Look for him to be aggressive and put out a lot of damage for our scouts to play off.
Complementing Muma on the combo will mason, who is doing a great job of controlling Muma’s aggressiveness and trying to keep me from being overly retarded (which is a full time job in itself). Watch for his huge airshots and inability to do damage to players on stairs.
dingo has been adapting quite well to the roamer role and can frequently be seen flying behind the enemy team or going spy, presumably while smoking his TFTV Community sponsored bong.
Sal the Panamaniac and anime enthusiast will be another player in his first season of invite. He’s hopped from team to team at the top of IM for a while and has been putting in work to get into invite form. His odd sexual blurbs keep our comms interesting and he’s more than able to change games on sniper.
Seymour, or newest pickup on Scout, has already had a great impact on our team, both in terms of fragging power and keeping our emotions in check. Seymour’s experience will go a long way to bringing Muma, Sal, and myself up to an invite level.
Last is me. If I can finish this season as not the worst medic in Invite I will be pleased with my development. Look to mason helping me a lot with general not being shit."
- Miwo
- ?
- Tooth
- Topshot
- Sezco
- ?
Average Team Ranking: 8.56
It's worrying that HBV still hasn't found their starting six, in particular because the rest of the IM move-ups have already been scrimming hard with their entire lineup. Hopefully they get their roster set fast, because otherwise they could have have trouble adjusting to Invite quickly enough.
"The name hawaii beach vacation came from trying to imagine the feeling that we get when we're playing tf2. Imagine for a moment that you are relaxing on the beach, a cool drink in hand, with the sun beating down and the waves crashing almost at your feet. That's what playing TF2 is like for us, every day. So we decided to name the team after that feeling. You can imagine how great it is for us!
We almost have 6 people on the team, but I'm not sure who will pocket or scout for us.
Topshot (aka heko) is the de facto team leader and demoman. Apparently this guy played a lot of DM or something because he hits crazy pipes. Also, he has the deepest voice on the team. I personally think Topshot is asian, but I can't be sure.
Tooth might seem like a normal and peaceful person, but deep down he is very fierce and very dangerous. In Grand Theft Auto, the first thing he did was steal a Prius. WOW! He is playing roaming soldier for us this season.
I don't know much about HBV's scout, Sezco, but he did have a moment last season in IM playoffs where he punched a medic with the crit gloves as heavy, then got a few kills with the crits from it. That poor medic, he'll never live it down.
Lastly, the medic for Hawaii Beach Vacation, miwo, is looking pretty good this season. He's never been a great medic, but eh you know, he's never been that bad a medic either. The deciding factor in his performance this season will be the amount of avocados eaten pre-match."