Blimey! Is it that time again?! Another playoff on Europe's horizon? But where is our lovable Irishman bearing tasty playoff article fruit? Whilst it's customary for him to arrive fashionably late, tales tell that he cannot make it. So, perhaps you'll indulge in an Englishman's bargain bin bounty instead. Hey, at least I'm giving you a whopping TWO days notice as opposed to just one like last season. Enough crying over spilt potato milk. Onto the Season 21 Extravaganza!
So it has been written in the stars; the best three European Team Fortress 2 6v6 teams have been pulled up to the end of season podiums after a gruelling two months of Premiership TF2, and all this just to decide who is seeded where in the back-to-back best-of-three show-stopper games to take all the marbles. Or mousepads, or Euros... you get the idea.
If you're intrigued about this two month gruelling competition and want to watch coverage, TeamFortressTV have you covered for the second season in a row. ALL of ETF2L Season 21 powered by Tt eSPORTS has been documented and plastered into a handy-dandy playlist which you can find right HERE
This is a hype article that writes itself, when you get down to it. Let us paint the picture; Season 20 was over and SUAVE were crowned champions. But this is it. LAN was coming. This would be the season for the big i55 teams to set up the foundations of their possible LAN victory like so many teams before them. L'Avant Garde de Plouvorn, Lethal Weapon, CPLAY, Ze Knuttson Rollerbladers and even the champions themselves, SUAVE, broke up. Only LEGO and Reason stayed together. Some players retired or hid themselves including Mirelin, numlocked and most of the German players. Meanwhile though, some came back from the Prem of the past, such as HYS, sheepy and the Dennia/Hank combo. New teams began to form for the new season.
*credit to comp.tf for the picture
But what was different you may ask? There was no clear top dog (even the ones with "dog" in their name). Sure, everyone had their educated predictions, but no one was 100% certain. This season was looking to be the closest and most unpredictable ever. So, what better time for Gentleman Jon to grace us with the beta of FantasyTF2, a website to score and rank your very own fantasy team whilst we were all still putting our money where our mouth is for real on Saloon.tf? The season began. We see some minor upsets in the shape of a Golden Cap here and there but no season drop-outs, no major roster changes... until Week 6. Following an upset defeat from Danger Dogs and news of busy LAN schedules, kaidus and Reason Gaming sacrifice wltrs, zoob and skeej to the TF2 gods (Admirable's words, not mine!) and resurrect former summer i-Series LAN champions KnOxXx, MGEMike and Season 20 scout kiler4funn to hopefully claw back the season and pave the way to Insomnia 55 and another international crown. The League part of the season ends: Three contending teams stand out of the eight.
The Show
SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY, July 12th 2015. OUR TWITCH CHANNEL BE THERE, BE THERE, BE THERE at 18:45 CEST / 12:45 EDT with Caster of the Season-quality caster (but never actually Caster of the Season) Sideshow and his partner-in-crime Gecks , equipped with all the bells and whistles the production crew can throw at them. STATS, OVERLAYS, LOGS, TEAM COMMS, INTERVIEWS, RAFFLES, GIVEAWAYS, EXPERT PANEL, TWITCH SPAM, MORE STATS. SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY.
The order of business sees the tied 2nd/3rd place teams of Reason Gaming and nerdRage.tf2 face off for the rematch at 19:00 CEST in a best-of-three map scuffle to be determined through the good ol' modified map elimination system, the winner having to go that extra mile against The Last Resort at 21:15 CEST.
Beater has even gifted us a taste of how these players can perform under pressure with a lovely Season 21 Highlights video!
The Contenders
Reason Gaming, the longest running team of the competition and the team everyone is talking about, stands as a chiselled husk of what it once was. It has evolved from the humble kaidus team with up-and-coming new talents to a juggernaut of experience and home to multiple ETF2L award winners.
Reason, who were once a team made up of a mix of keen up-and-comers and experienced veterans, had turned into a team made of relaxed up-and-comers and complacent veterans. Kaidus talks in interviews of a team without the same keen spark as what was once formed. Players now fall silent where they once were foaming at the mouth with theory crafting, comments and discussion.
LAN can make people do drastic and sometimes even cruel things... like cutting players. Reason were no exception, as I've touched on already. As of a time between Week 5 and Week 6, the team of kaidus, skeej, kaptain, zoob, wltrs and Hafficool are long gone and put to bed. Say hello to the new Reason Gaming: kaidus, KnOxXx, kaptain, MGEMike, schocky and Hafficool. "Wait?!" you ask. "Where is kiler4funn?" Good question! Its nice to see you paying attention. Sadly, kiler4funn cannot commit himself to another international LAN so more shameless pruning has been made, but don't worry; the Reason Gaming tree seems to only flower more potential and beauty with every cut. That flower, this time around, being the 12-time ETF2L award-winning scout schocky of Epsilon pedigree. A Pweety wittle fwower schocky.
Since the new incarnation, they have destroyed wonderland in Week 6 as expected and nerdRage in a Week 7 game that was set up to be a doozy but turned out to be an easy dud. However, who knows if this is a true indicator, as Star-- sorry. TONYTHETIGER was GGGGGRRREEEAAATT...ly missed in this match. Perhaps over-confidence could be a Reason for their downfall? HEH.
nerdRage.tf2 at first glance could be mistaken for Ze Knuttson Rollerbladers of Season 19/20 fame, or if you are a glass half French sort of person you could also say this team looks like L'Avant Garde de Plouvorn of, yet again, Season 20. Well, either way you would be right!
Despite the god awful name re-branding inspired by breakfast cereal, tonythetiger's partnership with the Swedish Zebbosai and ryb and the French Tek, Bulle and Flippy has built a well-respected and feared team from the very start of the season which, at the time, were Europe's most super of superteams.
At the beginning of the season and even in the pre-season the team did suffer from Zebbosai's inherent trait of switching class. They even went along with the bipolar Swede despite everyone's fantasy team being ruined; in Week 1, he was roamer, gets 6 dominations in an official match. Still not good enough for the Zebbosai. JUST TOO EASY. Another week or two passes, he's pocket. Hell, at some point he was scout, putting poor Flippy on roamer, although that might have been in practices only. After much criticism they decided to slap him onto roamer. But who knows? He could change his mind again. I wouldn't be surprised.
Nothing seemed to touch nerdRage.tf2 for weeks during the season. Not a single point out of place until Week 6, where The Last Resort wrestled them to a draw, which isn't so bad. Certainly a better result than their sporting rival "Ye Olde" Reason Gaming. So perhaps it must be bittering to end joint 2nd with the very same Reason, especially being only 4 points away from that 1st seed. Yes, that Reason rebirth sucker punched them hard and having your mascot tonythetiger missing with a broken monitor doesn't help, perhaps itself the result of some nerdRage. HEH. Thankfully nukkye came to the rescue, but it was all for naught as they still lay defeated by KnOxXx's Iron Hand.
Now, with only 3 days between their delayed Week 7 game being finished and the playoffs, can nerdRage.tf2 adapt quickly enough to change their fate? They've made their first good step by replacing tony's monitor..
The last on my list, but by no means the last by position, is The Last Resort. The team cobbled together by HYS at the beginning of pre-Season 21 is made up of players who barely speak English, let alone experience playing with each other. With only Herr_P and AMS having previously played together, it seemed like a team that had to start from the very foundations but have now proven a dark horse of the competition who are raring ahead of the pack on the final stretch.
HYS found his way back into the scene as kaidus's backup demoman drone but that backup spot gave him a taste of that sweet, sweet TF2 and as we all know, once you get this high in TF2, you're here forever... most of the time. Anyhow, HYS started picking up the pieces of the great Season 20 explosion and by pre-season had a roster comprised of... Serotone. A High-tier medic then but given a shot at the big leagues. NiCO; A French DM-lord scout that had been making waves in the old E-SHOCK rosters from previous seasons. AMS, the High talent that Ze Knuttson Rollerbladers took under their wing in their time of need. Silentes, another 'diamond in the rough' soldier from High tier. Last but not least, Herr_P... that guy who keeps missing the train and therefore missing his officials.
Its a shame that a disagreement about three letters and 20x20 pixel picture ended with Silentes quitting the team before they had even set foot in an ETF2L official, although it did spawn a whimsical TLR tag-up train on my friends list. Anyhow, "the show must go on!" decreed the The Last Resort and so they picked up the infamous ShaDowBurn to tie the roster up into a nice complete package, ready for Season 21.
The Last Resort surprised almost everyone by beating Reason in Week 3 and taking points off the at-the-time invincible nerdRage.tf2 with a whole new take on the game, centred around ShaDowBurn pocketing with the Black Box and Concheror. To their luck, Reason sprang their dark ritual after their tussle so by the end of the season they happened upon first place by the mercy of KnOxXx and his pet MGE Welshman.
Now, here stand The Last Resort. No longer able to ride the wave of being the underdogs but now must confirm the hype. They must use their first place seed time wisely, study their opponents and finish them off in the Grand Final whilst they are tired and dazed. There are talks of some secret strats and ideas from the Fully Charged Podcast where HYS was a guest... or maybe they are saving them as a Last Resort. HEH.