Another week of Open has come to pass. As with any week, there were the expected victories, the upsets, the heartbreaking losses. umjammer jawk created more question marks in these rankings by dethroning a weakened Xfinity, Clam Bake knocked off slowbr0 (now known as MeowMixup), Sad Men showed they can still fight with a 5-3 game against bird noises, and plenty of teams got to prove what they were worth. While the week isn’t entirely over yet, it’s a good time to see where these teams are going as we head into Viaduct week and some great matches. But first, it’s time to sort out the mess that is top open.
- YouMustMike
- Hooey
- messiah
- Vand
- tri
- KaiThePhaux
Another week, another roster change for Clam Bake. This time, with the sudden disappearance of eulogy, harbleu comes in and makes waves on Scout. He contributed greatly to their 5-3 victory over MeowMixup (formerly slowbr0), topfragging in the server and no doubt providing some strategical value. Clam Bake’s aggression and DM showed through in the match, but their inability to adapt to MeowMixup’s mids (and some solid height play by MeowMixup) led to them dropping 3 rounds in the second half. Regardless, Clam Bake regained their momentum and closed out the match. The addition of harbleu to this team is huge, as he has (obviously) incredible DM and great calling potential, especially heading into Viaduct. This week they’ll be playing Aliasing Lefty and gold man-sacks, two solid teams with some good DM that could certainly challenge them on this map. It will be up to them, however, to surmount the wall that Clam Bake has built for them. I’d predict a 4-2 for both matches but there is certainly upset potential from both these teams.
Update on Clam Bake: I have received word that Vand is to be the new starting demo for Clam Bake, moving tri to scout. Interesting quandries abound now that Clam Bake could be seen as weakened.
- indust
- Voll
- Karova
- Mikey
- train
- ricky
Bird Noises has snagged the perhaps biggest pickup in open this season, filling their medic void with none other than lan veteran and medic MGE champion Indust. After their 5-4 game vs john wayne kayc, bobloblaw, their former med, had time constraints and had to be relegated to backup; frantically searching for a med, the clouds parted and indust landed to grace the open dreams of Karova and company (artistic license). The change certainly showed in their game vs The Sad Men, as the team was more aggressive and pushed off of smaller uber advantages. Despite this, though, their mids were spotty in the first half. However, in the second half, Voll decided he was going to win the game basically by himself. Every mid he rolled choke and stormed straight through Sad Men’s garage. If he didn’t kill the people in garage, he had free access to catwalk and spam paradise. Bird Noises pulled a 3-0 half to close out the game, and Voll topfragged in the server (I believe every mid he got at least 3 kills from the second half out). Coming up to Viaduct, another map that is friendly for roamers, I expect Voll to do well. They will have excellent games this week against MeowMixup and Five Knights With Freddy, and I expect these games to go either way; each team will have to play their hearts out to truly secure a victory. The Viaduct week will certainly give us, at the very least, a better picture of the 3-8th places of Open, and hopefully give us some fantastic games.
- Sakura
- darkstar
- Pharaoh
- boulder
- snailboat
- br0nze
Roster listed is from most recent game
6cuties didn’t have a very exciting week, with a ffw from Strafe Power and a 15-minute 5-0 vs merry griffmas. The interesting thing about this team is just how many people have shown up. The team is very dynamic in that most members on the team can play any class, and they have a copious amount of just-as-capable backups. The question is, though, will 6cuties fall into their “optimal” lineup soon? It seems inevitable with the path of Budsquad and other “offclass fun” teams that have tried their luck in open. It could even be said that the only reason they lost to xfinity is because they didn’t put (or weren’t able to put) their best foot forward. I am very uncertain about this team’s future right now, so they drop as other teams above them make great pickups. 6cuties definitely has the potential to win open, but it may take them some time to figure out the mess that is their roster.
- matt
- ghostac
- froot
- sigh
- alder
- bowswer5
Open’s premier Meme Teme (tm), formerly known as slowbr0, had two sets of defining matches this week, taking on the undefeated Clam Bake and the up-and-coming gold man-sacks. The match against Clam Bake was fairly “normal” and MeowMixup had a rallying comeback in the second half playing off Clam Bake’s stubborn mids but weren’t able to seal the deal. The matchup against gold man-sacks, however, was incredibly interesting, marred by pauses and player drops and just everything possible. I’ll go over gold man-sacks’s part more in their entry, but MeowMixup had built up a solid lead until the second half. MeowMixup was very good at playing off small mistakes in gold man-sacks’s game and got 3 relatively quick rounds off them. After a 40-minute pause (in which MeowMixup lost froot and had to payup cabinfever to play for him), however, gold man-sacks, then at 4-4 game point, completely lost their momentum and after an unfortunate miscommunication in the combo MeowMixup was able to pull it off. One thing I noticed in both games is that matt died considerably more often than the other med (12 deaths to 7 against YouMustMike and 21 deaths to 18 against Luxor). Often, MeowMixup would be in a decent position to push but then a sack or a sniper or what have you would kill matt in the most unfortunate position. If MeowMixup wants to play at their absolute best, this is the only huge hole that I see in their play right now. Otherwise, the team is solid. This week on Viaduct they play Five Knights with Freddy (my MOTW) and bird noises. Scouts are everything on Viaduct, and there are some of the best scout pairs in the division butting heads and constantly at edge. With these scout pairs constantly eliminating each other the bulk of the work will come down to the other 4 players, of which I think bird noises has the best “supporting cast”. All teams involved also have capable snipers (bowswer5 and pie_hero especially) and these matches should be amazing to watch overall. If I have to actually predict them, I would say 4-3 to bird noises vs MeowMixup and 4-3 MeowMixup to Knights, but these are so close that it’s tough to call.
5. Five Knights With Freddy (8-0)
- Pyrokanetis
- Marxist
- Xen
- fredwardo
- capnfapn
- pie_hero
Five Knights has had a fairly easy granary week, knocking off THE TERROR OF LOW OPEN and surprisingly doling out a 5-1 to No Megans, a team I thought was going to be a bigger challenge. Piehero continues to light up, going an insane 31-8 against No Megans to complement his other strong showings against ESEACantMeltSteelTeams and We Pause for Pizza (sadly a 5v6). This week they face their (hopeful) first true challenges in this week’s Viaduct games against MeowMixup (my MOTW) and gold man-sacks, both teams that could give Knights a hell of a game. Piehero and capnfapn will be doing scout things and constantly trading frags with bowswer/alder and guru/throne (although I think Freddy’s has the best scout combo of the three involved). I’d predict that Five Knights will narrowly lose the 4-3 to MeowMixup but should be able to handle gold man-sacks in a 4-2 affair.
- bear
- ranga
- neon
- stoperr
- will
- nicholas
After xfinity’s embarrasing loss to umjammer I was prepared to write them off as a team that got lucky once. However, once I actually looked at the demo, things looked a bit off. First off, stoperr was completely gone, requiring nicholas to swap to demo, which in turn required them to bring spello back from the dead on scout. With 2 players offclassing, one on an important combo class, things were not bound to turn out well, and it certainly showed up in xfinity’s game. They were uncoordinated and got rolled on mid often - and on a map like Gran, that’s the end of your round right there. Only when they got height advantage on mid did they win the mid, and even then it wasn’t a straight roll like it usually was for umjammer. Turning to the rest of their week, however, xfinity had a 5-1 victory over SpaceGhost Coast 2 Coast (best team name in open) that wasn’t anything special. This week on Viaduct they should have their old roster back (although I’ve been told stoperr has inexplicably lost his table???) for matches against Aliasing Lefty and Is This Highlander. Aliasing Lefty will be eager to play their first team in the Top 5 (wins/losses-wise) and Is This Highlander is a bubble team unfortunately marred by the easiest schedule in Open. I’d expect a 4-3 from Lefty and a 4-0 from Highlander, but Aliasing Lefty has the upset potential (especially if stoperr’s desk does not return to him).
- marquee
- dango
- ryugawa
- conductor
- bsc
- vortex
The Sad Men showed this week they can still hang around top open. After a disappointing start to the season, and heavy roster changes, I didn’t expect a close game vs bird noises. When indust dropped by and decided to become bird noises’s new med, I expected it even less. But, despite all my expectations, The Sad Men came out strong. Conductor came back to familiar territory playing Demo, and it showed, with conductor doing 328 dpm vs Mikey’s 231.2. The rest of the Sad Men came out strong too, and they ended up with a 3-2 first half, but then it all fell apart. I remember watching in frustration in the second half as Voll constantly got into garage in mids and either killed everyone in garage or was able to get massive damage spamming from catwalk. This is something Voll did every mid, and it was fairly easily counterable, but it contributed heavily to their 3-0 loss in the second half; The Sad Men died to it once, then lost the round, then momentum kicked in and bird noises just kept going and going and going. While a map where the mid is so integral may not have been optimal for a team just trying out their new roster, they have a chance to rebound this week on Viaduct, playing against bad joke (a ffw) and Klickin with Klicka, a team I expect them to do well against. Conductor should be able to deal out massive damage and the scout combo of bsc and vortex will be rolling all over the map. I predict a 4-1 for The Sad Men; please don’t up and embarrass me by dying this week.
- Luxor
- Cheesy
- fight
- odb
- Throne
- Guru
Gold man-sacks finally got to prove what they were made of this week vs MeowMixup. Although the match could be seen as a poor indicator of either team’s performance due to the numerous pauses and player drops, it’s at least some data. While gold man-sacks dropped three rounds early, they rallied back in the second half with a changed mid strategy and won a round, then won another, and on and on until their momentum had reached supersonic levels. Then a 40 minute pause happened, which obviously ruined their momentum. Even after the pause, though, they managed to hold mid and were preparing to push second--but a massive miscommunication between Luxor and his pocket led to a crucial drop that wrecked whatever momentum man-sacks had left, and they lost a close 5-4. Gold man-sacks had cleaned their game up a lot in the second half, eliminating most of the little mistakes that MeowMixup had capitalized on, and they certainly knew how to play aggressively and work off of odb and throne’s huge frags and Cheesy’s damage (unfortunately marred by a 40 minute pause), showing promise. Gold man-sacks will have more chances to cement themselves in these rankings with two Viaduct matches against Five Knights with Freddy and Clam Bake. While odb and Cheesy will have a field day on this map, it will be challenging for throne and guru to compete against the scout pairs of capnfapn/pie_hero and kaithephaux/tri/harbleu. I’d predict a 4-2 against both Knights and Clam Bake, but it’s certainly possible to see an upset.
9. Back to the Lab Again (6-1)
- Chingoo
- griffith
- IamSMART
- The_Scotsman
- saint-
- watterson
Back to the Lab Again was a team I had my eye on for a while. I knew they had something, but a drawn-out 4-1 loss to Le Chatelier’s Principle on Metalworks had kept them out of the rankings until this week, when they won a convincing 5-2 over 2wycked esports. I had expected this game to swing the other way, but Lab’s excellent DM, experience in Chingoo and Saint, and overall teamwork won them the game. Lab played the aggro game really well on Granary, pushing in on minute advantages and often winning, or at least trading. Everyone on the team performed really well, with no player truly carrying the team - and that will take you farther than DM in the long run. This week they have quite a challenge in 6cuties, a match that may be a bit early for their game. I think at the end of the season they could definitely take on 6cuties, but for now I’d give it 4-1 for 6cuties. Their other match is against Elite Pwnage Squad, a team that they can certainly take, but it won’t be particularly easy; I’d give them it in a 4-2.
- Plinko
- elliot
- flatline
- Row
- moolkey
- Phone
Written by row
With several forfeit wins in tow of this rising team, it's hard to get the best idea of what to expect from a team that's essentially only 5-0; however, scout pair Phone and moolkey have been partners for 2 seasons now, and with Viaduct around the corner, we can expect some strong scout play from these two. Flatline expresses his confidence on Viaduct as an avid jumper, while elliot maintains his lead as top-damager on the team from his previous granary scrims and match. Expectations are high for elliot's play coming into this week's viaduct matches vs two of the major playoff teams, but row's maincalling should assist his DM-heavy teammates. Plinko maintains his responsibilities as a gamer dad, who would rather read to his daughter than MGE as medic. This week Aliasing Lefty goes up against Clam Bake and xfinity weight loss, two challenging teams to be sure, but there may be an upset potential from Lefty.
- tron
- shiki
- displace
- morin
- smashysmashy
- market
2wycked is another team that seems to be falling off a bit. After their close win against kayc and close loss to bird noises, I expected them to come out strong in their latter 2 matches vs Cool Sloths on blands and Back to the Lab Again, but this was not the case. They dropped 3 rounds to Cool Sloths, a team that hadn’t even crossed my mind, and outright lost 5-2 to Lab. Against Cool Sloths on blands 2wycked’s soldiers often were beaten to mid (and train) by Sloths’s soldiers, who proceeded to do work from their height advantage. In addition, they had a really odd last hold, with Morin playing on the top left and easily rushable by a scout from bottom left (especially if displace looked away for even a second). They ended up winning the game, but there were obvious holes in their playstyle that transferred to granary. 2wycked once again had bad last positioning against Lab, often ignoring the point (one time, they even had half their team in resup and gave Lab half of last after a failed push by Lab). Granted, displace was lagging somewhat in the first half, but he wasn’t out for long and his ping was not as wild as it could have been. The DM seemed to be slightly in Lab’s favor as well, with veteran player Saint getting a 3k on the last mid to secure it, alongside watterson topfragging in the server as his scout partner. Everyone on Lab seemed really focused and tight and were able to exploit weaknesses in 2wycked’s play and setup that cost them the game. This week 2wycked will get somewhat of a break playing No Megans and ESEACantMeltSteelTeams. No Megans should be a good game, and I’d call it at a 4-2 for 2wycked, but after these matches, I’m not so sure.
- ily
- scrimshaw
- wflb
- sparrow
- SS
- kayc
john wayne kayc is another team that eluded me. They performed admirably in week 1, dropping a narrow 5-4 to 2wycked esports, but the rest of their schedule was a myriad of 5-0s and ffws. In that space, however, they made some interesting changes, moving goat to backup, bringing in wflb from dead ggglygy team #2134932, and swapping SS with ily (aka omar?), scout to medic. These interesting roster changes finally got their chance to shine against bird noises, dropping a narrow 5-4. Their DM was on point, with scrimshaw and SS both delivering solid performances, and they had a 3-0 lead into the half off of their strong, DM-focused mids. They were always aggressive, always considering the point, sometimes even wrapping bird noises’s combo completely to get the point. However, the success of jonwayne may also be partially undermined by the fact that train was constantly dropping connection due to our friend the ESEA Client (in fact, he was out so long during the first half it may as well have been a 5v6). Regardless, bird noises made an unbelievable comeback in the second half, nabbing all five rounds in the second half with a revitalized train to round out the game 5-4. While they won most of their rounds when train was lagging out, I still have to give some credit to kayc for winning those rounds. Hopefully they will have a chance this week to play some good teams on more even ground, but it doesn’t seem like that will be the case as they face Out to Lunch and THE TERROR OF LOW OPEN on Viaduct, both games that I imagine they will take rather easily.
- Idrae
- KevinIsPwn
- ??????
- Whisker
- dippidy
- Auzzie
Tip of the Toucans is in a tough spot right now. Dashner, their roamer, has parted ways after their 5-4 loss to Stag Party due to time constraints, and they are currently in roamer limbo. Word is that syath may be replacing him, but nothing is solid yet. Regardless, Toucans this week lost 5-4 to a team that wasn’t even on my radar beforehand. Looking to the match itself, it was mostly decided by mids, and often the entire team got stuck in choke and were flanked from garage or just spammed out entirely. In the second half, however, they started taming the momentum that gave Stag Party their 4 rounds and got 3 themselves to bring the match to a 4-4, but mids decided it again, and despite an early pick the Toucans could not pull it together and eventually lost the match. Not helping was the fact that Whisker dropped early in the first half for a 10 minute pause and played with intermittent ping issues throughout. Idrae’s expertise showed through however, with good surfs and often pushing in on small advantages (and making it work), being a driving force behind the team’s 4 rounds. After dashner left, syath showed up for their game vs Klickin with Klicka, and performed very well, with 350dpm on roamer, and an almost 2:1 k/d ratio. Although there is officially still ?????? on Toucans’ roster, I think they would be mistaken not to keep him. This week they have some decent games vs Pinturillo Professionals and Elite Pwnage Squad, both of which could go either way. Toucans has a solid scout combo in Dippidy and Auzzie and both are capable snipers, so look to them to dominate these games, but Pinturillo’s HL experience could certainly give them an upset chance.
- Cyntro
- aZn
- ry4n
- Jaguar
- brrrton
- glop
SASABE hasn’t changed much and really only moves down because of the spot claimed by Back to the Lab Again. Their granary week wasn’t very exciting, with a 5-1 against Looking for Trees and a ffw from Rand Paul 2016. Their Viaduct week holds an interesting match, however, vs Blue Elephant. Blue Elephant has the offclass potential in Platinum spy Scruff McGruff and both Inco and Jaguar should be able to deal out massive damage for their team to clean up on. This is an interesting match, but I’d give it to SASABE 4-2, with high upset possibility.
- gecks
- S
- nimby
- AltitudeCow
- marty
- glukkon
Elite Pwnage Squad had another relatively easy week, rounding out their pre-determined schedule with a ffw from Extra Chromosome E-Sports and a 5-0 against South will rise again (3rd worst team name in open?). Each player on this team has some pretty solid DM and as 2nd season veterans they no doubt have some good teamwork in their comms. With the end of the pre-scheduled games, however, Elite Pwnage Squad will start to face some tough challengers. Their first match this week is against Tip of the Toucans, who are still in limbo without a true roamer but, as evidenced by their Klickin with Klicka game, are still a solid team. There may be a chance for Elite Pwnage Squad to exploit the unfamiliarity that syath (or whoever they end up getting) will have with Toucan’s playstyle. Their second will be against Back to the Lab Again, a previous bubble team that rocketed into the power rankings with a solid win over 2wycked. While Chingoo on med won’t have a chance to spread his scout wings on Viaduct, he has a nice supporting cast of players that should easily be able to back him up. I think Pwnage Squad may be able take the first game but the second one is going to be close. I'd give it to Back to the Lab Again in a 4-2.
- gandalf
- reimu
- june
- zalfy
- spamfest
- dash
...Although I don’t mean to entirely discredit umjammer. They sneak into 16th place here after a game against xfinity that’s tough to take away anything from. Umjammer did some team management since we last talked about them, bringing in Spamfest on scout and shuffling their roster around to what reimu super-super-triple promised me would be the “final tony jawk product” Umjammer did show signs of improvement with this new roster against xfinity, taking aggression on mids and coordinating spam well, and playing with good aggression overall, but it will be some time before we see umjammer’s true potential. This week they play against merry griffmas and Rand Paul 2016, two teams I expect them to dispatch, although griffmas could give them a bit of trouble.
Just Outside: No Megans, Smoke Nothing Everyday, Pinturillo Professionals, Le Chatelier’s Principle
Match of the Week: MeowMixup vs Five Knights With Freddy
- matt
- Ghostac
- froot
- sigh
- alder
- bowswer5
- Pryokanetis
- Marxist
- Xen
- fredwardo
- capnfapn
- pie_hero
What a perfect place for these teams to meet up. Viaduct is the home of heavy DM and amazing, nail-biter games, and I think we’ll see another one here. Both scout combos will be butting heads throughout the entire game and the offclass potential from pie_hero and bowswer5 should make for some tense sniper sightlines and rapid-fire sniper battles. Both teams will have to play at their absolute best to claim this victory, but I think Five Knights has a slight edge in their scouts. Victory lies in Freddy’s ability to play off of their scouts’ and demo’s damage, and with such a controlling, powerful strat-caller as Marxist at the helm, I don’t see how they couldn’t. 4-3 to Five Knights With Freddy
Tetro's Open Spotlight: SASABE
This week on the open spotlight we're giving you not one, but TWO new features to enjoy. To start things off we're taking a look at a SASABE, or as everyone knows them: Jaguar's team. I spoke with the man himself about his team's new roster and their chances in what could be the most competitive season of Open yet. After that we're bringing you an exclusive catchup with Mr_Owl where he gives us the latest details on what he's been up to lately. Enjoy.
So what got you guys into open?
I've been playing in open for a long time and so has brrton on and off. The rest of the guys have considerably less seasons under their belts, some with a bit of previous UGC experience, but are all capable, enthusiastic and fast learners.
What are some of your goals for the season?
The goal is always the same every season: Find a group of people with similar goals and dedication level and play together. Besides playing hard and having fun, we try and get as far as we can during the season and ideally as many of us as possible stick together between seasons. It's sad how difficult it is to keep people together in this game and there are a number of reasons for that. When teams constantly break up and reshuffle, sure, the individual players improve by adding a season to their resume but you spend a great deal of time the next season just getting back to the same level of team competence that you had at the end of the previous one. It really is a shame how much team chemistry and coordination gets tossed out the window with player turnover.
How did you come up with your team name?
Team names have never been particularly important to me (for example, the old "Echelon" was picked eons ago when someone thought it sounded cool, and it was good enough) and a bunch of us echoed that sentiment. We all have a reasonable amount of veto power during the choosing process and a few of us had some basic rules such as "no anime", but besides that it's whatever. Brrton is very 'talented' at being spontaneous and random and came up with SASABE, and it was good enough. It really is a town in Arizona.
Who are your strongest players and why?
Brrton and myself have been around for a long time and bring many seasons of experience to the table while aZn and glop are versatile, smart, and deadly dm'ers. Cyntro and ry4n are the most junior in the group but have been working hard and are improving well, for which we appreciate and respect them a lot. When assembled as a squad we have a lot of potential and it's great fun to play together.
Who do you want to beat; do you have any rivals?
We don't have any particular rivals or anyone to beat. I suppose the handful of losses we've taken this season make us hungry to rematch those teams later because we feel like we can do a lot better than we did on those particular match nights. Disappointing losses are the biggest motivation to review demos very carefully, figure out what went wrong, and work to mindfully avoid those errors in the future. This way even the saddest times help to make us stronger in the end.
What teams are you scared of right now?
No real answer. I suppose there's the typical few teams like 6cuties who are loaded with higher div players that are worth watching out for but you never know how it could go once the game actually starts, and we're always eager to go hard and test ourselves against any opponent.
Bets on who wins it all?
There's lots of teams that aren't too far apart from each other near the top so it's anyone's game. It's actually really nice to look and not be able to instantly see one or two teams that are miles ahead of everyone else.
Any funny stories so far?
I asked this question to everyone and we couldn't come up with anything good to write down. I assure you we have plenty of fun times every night but it may not be not story- worthy.
Shoutouts?
Shoutouts to all of the newer teams making their way into open. It's going to be a rough, loss-filled journey for you but stick with it, keep playing together, get mentored, and you'll see yourself improving soon. Shoutout to our backups Raphiam, Bereth and Slider. They're awesome and have bailed us out on short notice before for which we are very grateful. As well, a shoutout to all the better teams that scrim us at least from time to time which helps enable our improvement. Other shoutouts gathered from the team: Teebs, ed, elliot, Salmonbun, peyote, Rex, Raisin Bran Crunch, Cyntro's Mom, kent, PinKushin and tooie.
Sasabe Spotlight: The official border-crossing point in this southern Arizona town is one of the loneliest outposts on the entire 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. The Sasabe Port of Entry is so isolated U.S. officers once set up a barbecue grill on the front deck to fend off boredom. The grill has since been wheeled away. But the armed U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to the port still spend much of their time standing around in their crisp blue uniforms with little to do but wait for the next car or pickup to pull into the single entrance lane from Sonora into Arizona.
The Owl Prowl: When I asked our friend Mr_Owl what he's been up to lately he had this to say: "I saw Avengers recently and it was really good and scarlett johannsen is a beautiful woman."
Owl's rating: 8/10
CREDITS
Written by: flatline Open Spotlight: tetro
Shoutout to row for watching all these demos with me!