In part one, we focused on the captains of the supposedly top teams of the upcoming season. But they are not alone! Indeed, ladies and gentlemen, a Premiership season features 8 teams, and this time the remaining 5 could seriously disrupt the hierarchy.

The Freshmeat

Welcome again! After this short commercial break we now have the pleasure to have a word with the remaining team captains:

Shyyou, from 4-25,

*Dikker*	*Death*	*lippy*	*Shyyou*	*atomic-*	*kensi*

Alle, from Fenneks eSports by SimRai.com,

*Sparadrap*	*Alle*	*T0m*	*Damneasy*	*Dennia*	*Hank*

Josh, Crizzl and Dr.Phil from LEGO,

*Beater*	*Dr.Phil*	*Crizzl*	*Josh*	*sepu*	*helberg*

Graba, from Wonderland,

*Graba*	*Kouna*	*Wonszu*	*kos*	*Lupus*	*quad*

and Alfie, from Danger Dogs by TF2Pickup.net!

*kr4tos*	*spudd*	*Alfie*	*nation*	*sheepy*	*scrab*

Who are these guys?

Q : Hello! I'm pleased to meet you at the dawn of premiership season 21! How do you feel about your current team and team mates?

Shyyou: Hello there! It's a pleasure to me aswell. Our team managed to get 6 ready and willing to play players for the season so we are ready. I'm pretty satisfied with my team mates, same as with our recent results of practice matches.

Alle: Hello. I feel good about my team, we obviously aren't in the top premership area in terms of skill but i think that's to be expected from a team lacking almost any prem experience, as dennia is the only one with prem experience. I think everyone is very nice and we all love TF2 and want to improve at it so I'm very happy with it no matter where we will place in the season.

Dr.Phil: I personally feel pretty good, and all my team mates are awesome so I can't complain :p

Graba: Hey, I m glad to hear that! My feelings are very positive, Wonderland is a team I've been dreaming about for a long period of time, and it's going perfectly well. The roster is filled up with players that like each other, they really dont let me feel that I'm coming from a lower division. We are keen and ready to fight for the blood of Premiership veterans !

Alfie: We are getting stronger and stronger each PCW and have started to take some rounds from top teams and even draw against one of the top 3 premier teams. This season we brought on kr4tos to play medic and main call. Danger Dogs has always lacked a main caller since it's creation and it has really affected the way we've played. kr4tos has already given a lot of good things to this team already. I've been around since the start of dogs.tf in division 3 and am really proud we made it this far over 3 seasons.

Q : What do you think about this season's map pool? In your opinion, is it good to let the community decide on the maps through polls?

Shyyou: Map pool seems fine as well. And in my opinion, yes it's a nice idea to let the community help with decisions about map pool, unlocks and so on, since all the players who play the league should have an opportunity to tell what they want.

Alle: As long as the community is actually aware of the maps and their gameplay, so that their votes aren't random or biased from anything except their own opinion, it's fine for me.

Josh: Personally, I am just happy granary is back regardless of the version and I am also happy we just don't need to play logjam anymore sunshine is a much better replacement for it. I don't think granary should ever be removed since it's been in since season 1. That being said, I'm not sure that seeing cpgranarypro in the pool was the community's choice.

Graba: I'm pretty startled of losing logjam, however gloomy and sometimes confined Granary has been changed to sunny Granary_pro, a map that feels good to play. Giving the final vote to the community is a good choice, the majority gives the answer. Although I don't think someone would decide to take the season off because of 1 or 2 maps they would dislike.

Alfie: I'm glad granary is back and better than ever with the pro version, I always like playing it as a team; and we've yet to play it with our new roster, exciting! Keeping sunshine is a good choice in my eyes, there's a couple of things I dislike about the map, but we play well as a team. Community decisions are always good in my eyes.

Q : Can you make a guess on the final rank order for this prem season?

Shyyou: My guess will be 1st Tony's Tigers, 2nd Reason Gaming, 3rd The Last Resort, 4th Danger Dogs, 5th 4-25, 6th Fenneks eSports, 7th LEGO and 8th Wonderland.

Alle: My guess would be 1st Tigers, 2nd Reason, 3rd TLR, 4th dogs, 5th fnx, 6th 4-25, 7th Wonderland, 8th lego.

Crizzl: I think for the standings it will be 1st - TLR, 2nd - Tigers, 3rd - Reason, 4th - 4-25, 5th - Us, 6th - Dogs, - 7th Fenneks, - 8th - Wonderland.

Graba: In my opinion Tigers, [R]eason and TLR seem very strong, the majority expects them to be the Top 3 and the rest to be tight. However I prefer surprises so I'm hoping for the debuting teams to do really well.

Alfie: Here are my predictions! (does not reflect the rest of my team's opinions) : 1. Reason, 2. Tigers, 3. TLR, 4. Danger Dogs, 5. Fenneks, 6. 4-25, 7. Wonderland, 8. LEGO. I think it will be close between Wonderland and LEGO.

Q : Among you there are some prem rookies. How do you feel about making your debuts and do you have specific goals?

Alle: I feel pretty good about our chances considering our lack of experience. We are all keen to learn more so I think we will improve the more time passes in the season. Our goal right now is not to finish bottom 2, but depending on how little / much we improve we might set our standards a bit higher.

Graba: I'm feeling very well, same for the rest of my teammates that can taste prem for the first time. We're pretty hyped and hoping for the best, focused on doing what we have to do. Our goal is to prove our "Kappability", stay as we are by getting good opinions during the season and win as much as we can, right ? :)

Alfie: Positioning becomes so much more important in prem, so we aim to make sure everyone knows where everyone is. Avoiding 1v1s is very important as well because of the skill gap between low and high prem, so we'll play a tight flank. I think all of us are capable in prem and will manage to perform well.

Q : On a more personal note, what made you start playing Team Fortress 2, and how was your journey to the heights of premiership division?

Shyyou: I was just bored one day and found a poster of TF2 somewhere on a local gamesite. So I read an article about the game and bought it. That is how it begun. Then while i was playing some russian pubs one guy noticed me and asked if I am interested to play the game competitively. I've agreed and join their division 5 team. After a season in d5 i have started to climb up slowly with my own teams. I was playing from fifth to second division as scout and then I have decided to switch my main to soldier. After almost 10 seasons I have decided to gather a team with aiming for top level and it worked out.

Alle: What made me start playing tf2 came from a small trick-jumping community in Halo 3. One of my friends there wanted to make a jump movie in TF2 since it just went free to play at the time. So I downloaded it and started jumping, and I soon found out TF2 jumping was way funnier than halo 3 jumping and that was the reason I stuck with TF2 until now. My "journey" hasn't been anything special, I just like TF2 and I learn quickly so I just started improving a lot from playing scrims, etc. I started playing demo in s18 and have played it ever since, I dont know if I am prem by the same standards set a year ago but I guess it's kind of cool playing against some of the top dogs.

Josh: I got the orange box as my first game for the computer and this game was just the funniest game I've ever played for me, so when I started competitive I got to play with the egyptians back in I think 2009/2010 until like 2012, going from like div5 to div2 together then I went div3 with IsF, bulle then sort of mentored me in a sandbagging div2 team then I used that experience to get second with Hello Kitteh Ninjas in division 1 before joining LEGO to eventually go prem.

Crizzl: I was tired of playing Enemy Territory /CS so I bought TF2 to try it out. Worst decision of my life. I've mainly played with danes (and some swedes) in the various reincarnations of SdX, which eventually became LEGO. It's been a lot of fun throughout.

Dr.Phil: I started playing when there was a free weekend, around when the sniper update came out. And the journey so far has been fun, and I have had the pleasure of playing with a lot of great people getting here. And the only reason i made it to prem is because of F2 and Natural, they taught us so much when we first started LEGO.

Graba: I started playing Team Fortress 2 because of my friends which introduced me to this game and after that I continued on my own. When I got bored of playing pubs alone, people that I've never met in "Reality" suggested me to try playing competitive mode. I got picked up as a novice for the polish Highlander team Pub Heroes where a chance to learn was given to me. That was the first time when I really put effort in this game. Meanwhile I was looking for an european 6v6 team to improve my english, spent season 19 playing in Division 5 and season 20 enjoying Mid. The priority was to learn from mistakes and train as much as I could. Now I'm here with my old friend ]Wonszu and people I believe in to face the criticism. Let's go nuts !

Alfie: With 6k+ hours I wonder how I still enjoy/play this game, and I've yet to figure it out. I played pub servers for far too long, I really wish I knew about competitive in 2008 when I started. I started 6s in S14 when my friend Pom0 asked me to play roamer on his 6s team, this was when gunboats were first allowed so I picked the perfect time to join and roam. I've played roamer ever since (this is my go to excuse as to why my hitscan is bad).

About matchmaking and other things

Q : What do you think about Valve's matchmaking announcement?

Shyyou: It Seems pretty interesting, but I don't believe it will make an impact for tf2. Anyway let's wait and see.

Alle: It's extremely epic to be honest. I only see positive outcomes from this both for myself and for the community as a whole.

Josh: Matchmaking hopefully will be the boost tf2 needs so that we can have an even bigger influx of players into the community, It's still a popular game to play, the only problem is that there seems to be barely any advertisement about it so hopefully this changes and we can get some respectable organisations involved.

Crizzl: I'm very excited, I think it will bring a lot of new players to the competitive side of TF2. My only worry is that it takes too long for them to implement it, we all know what Valve time is...

Dr.Phil: What the others said :D

Graba: It's surely going to encourage some new faces to try playing in leagues. Of course Valve has to advertise matchmaking as much as they can so everyone can see what it is. Personally I'd be really dissapointed to see this game die off, it already traded some of it's pureness for cosmetic items. I put my hopes in newcomers to keep an eye on it. Don't fail me !

Alfie: At it's current announced state, with no weapon bans and no class limits, I don't feel it will reflect the 6s format very well. But I do see Valve's angle that they don't want to ban/limit content they've created. The good thing about bans and limits is that Valve can analyse what is and isn't used and why, and perhaps balance some of the weapons/classes for the better.

Q : Are you afraid it will change the current rules or formats?

Shyyou: I'm not afraid of any changes in game format and rules. I think it's always good if something new appears, so you can always learn something new that way. For example you can look at Dota 2. There are a lot of changes there all the time and meta-game changes a bit all the time as well.

Alle: Given enough time I trust that it will change for the better, and I dont mind adapting in either case.

Josh: It's hard to say about matchmaking. Since it's by Valve there will be a lot of unlocks available so maybe more unlocks might become available in the league but I doubt the 6s format will change much.

Crizzl: I think it will be two separate entities, where matchmaking is entry level and ETF2L is a bit more serious. I don't think it will change too much, so I'm not too worried.

Graba: Yes, from what I ve heard, Valve's plans are based on 9v9 mode including some various unlocks. Seeing ETF2L change (disable whitelist, removal of 6v6 mode) to provide fun for novices wouldn't be promising to me.

Alfie: ETF2L has changed a little to try and make 6s more accepted by Valve by adding some weapons, but I doubt matchmaking will have a any sort of game-changing effect on the format. Just a influx of new players which is great.

Is this the face of a man we will never see in Premiership again?

Q : Season 20 saw a lot of players retire (again). How strong do you think is the impact this has on the premiership level?

Shyyou: People always leave. New players come to take their place. It's completely fine. Premiership level is not suffering a lot when someone new starts playing it. New players improve themselves with time and fit to the level. After a few weeks of practice games I don't see much difference between this season and season 18.

Alle: I think the overall level of prem is lower than last season, but I trust that new players will take the place of the retired people soon enough.

Josh: I think you need to take more life and social aspects into account for season 21 since it is at a time where summer is starting and exams is coming up so people might wanna take a break for it all and play season 22.

Dr.Phil: A lot of people will probably say it will be worse, but in my opinion it just gives a lot of new players the chance to prove themselves.

Graba: It surely decreases requirements to get on the highest level, but if you look at it from another angle, it gives a chance to shine for others. But I can't judge if people would prefer watching the same players in different teams over and over again like SUAVE in last season, or seeing new faces and having a part of mystery.

Alfie: The skill level has dramatically dropped in prem, allowing for some fresh meat which I think is good; prem has always been considered a circle jerk. The few prem players that have stuck around have created an interesting gap in skill which be will be interesting to see how it closes.

Q : Do you plan to attend i55?

Shyyou: I'm not sure yet. If so, it's gonna be only with a russian team. We are considering that opportunity with friends.

Alle: I'm probably gonna be there, and I know atleast 4-5 players from the team want to aswell, so hopefully we will have a full team there.

Dr.Phil: Some of us are going, but it might be some kind of mix since not all of us will be there.

Graba: I wish I could, especially with my teammates but I don't think I'd enjoy traveling with my pc, I heard it's not that problematic however it sounds uncomfortable to me. Maybe I can visit LAN just as a viewer, not as a player. Who knows....

Alfie: spudd, scrab, nation, kr4tos and myself have all said for certain that we want to attend i55. There's a little apprehension from sheepy but within the next month we'll get an answer out of him. Having a full roster at LAN would be so amazing for me and the team.

Q : Any last words or shoutouts for the euphoric crowd?

Shyyou: Shoutout to all my friends and haters. Haters gonna hate. gl & hf.

Alle: Follow me on twitter @analkiller123 and subscribe to http://www.youtube.com/allebwai for high quality content on a daily basis!

Josh: my shoutouts go to LEGO nation herr p AMS bulle dmoule sorex hyste izon maks mundi skyro selo alias pablo++ diabalxen drackk eppz dawnii lacke larval starsky sara hello kitteh ninjas bois

Crizzl: Shoutout to identity matrix and Twiggy for doing all this work and his amazing french accent.

Dr.Phil: Shoutout to calm, zen, F2, sorex, Natural, g0R3, Lux and Dr. Leon (that little bish)

Graba: Greetings from Poland and good luck to everyone!

Alfie: Thanks to TF2Pickup.net for sponsoring us this season, this site is gonna get massive when Valve release matchmaking, make sure all the new players know about it. Thanks to Verse our team tactician and cheerleader. Thanks to molesto for attempting to merc medic for us. From the roster of Danger Dogs, woof woof bark bark growl woof bark bark growl

Well thanks everyone, this closes the team captains interview! To see how they perform, enjoy good casts and see your fantasy team evolve, make sure to tune in each week to Teamfortress.TV!

But wait, there's more...