Written by Tery and Alkaline
Introduction
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Invite Playoffs for ESEA Season 20. For the first time since S4, the Invite Champion will not be crowned via LAN but by an online event. The general idea is still the same: it's best-of-3 double elimination bracket. An important difference is that the maps are predetermined, so teams don't get to pick maps. And of course, there is no LAN ping, no LAN computers. Soldiers don't have the crisp rockets and ping is going to be very different for players across the scoreboard.
Overview of Regular Season
To my surprise, this season of Invite had some exciting happenings throughout the division. I suppose the highlight would have to be Ascent's 5-3 upset over Froyotech in the latter half of the season. There were also some roster changes but we'll get into the details later.
- Froyotech vs. Street Hoops eSports: 5-0 // Stats
- Street Hoops eSports vs. The Five Dollar Club: 3-5 // Stats // VOD
- Ascent vs. Froyotech: 3-5 // Stats // VOD
- Ascent vs. Street Hoops eSports: 4-0 // Stats
- The Five Dollar Club vs. Street Hoops eSports: 1-4 // Stats
- Ascent vs. The Five Dollar Club: 5-4 // Stats // VOD
- Froyotech vs. Ascent: 3-5 // Stats // VOD
- The Five Dollar Club vs. Froyotech: 0-5 // Stats
Unfortunately, the season was not as polished as we'd have liked, with a flurry of forfeits across the playoff teams. Still, we had relatively good showings, mostly from Ascent's corner. Given that playoffs are online, the matches from the regular season actually mean something (at least more than nothing) this time around.
Gun Mettle Alert
Perhaps the biggest happening was the arrival of the Gun Mettle update, which hit TF2 about a week ago. This update brought new maps, weapon skins, and more groundwork towards the implementation of competitive matchmaking. The Medigun change is perhaps the most interesting shift from Gun Mettle (that and the short-lived Demoman / stickies abuse). With the ability to pickup dropped Mediguns, Medics will be able to effectively "steal" uber percentages and sometimes, uber itself. This creates a lot of variance in keeping track of ubers, and will reward the most keen players who are tracking percentages and location of Medic deaths to fully take advantage of the chaos. There will surely be hilarious scenarios where Medics pop two ubers in a row, or some Kritzkrieg shenangians. One thing is for sure, pop it don't drop it. Seriously.
1. Ascent // Record: 15-1
Scout: Decimate- Scout: Shrugger
Pocket: rando- Roamer: Ma3la
Demoman: Bdonski
Medic: TheFragile :3
Ascent comes into playoffs at the #1 seed, a repeat of their S17 performance. In fact, the only differences from S17 eLevate are Shrugger over alfa on Scout, Fragile over cozen on Medic, and one extra loss to Froyotech. They've cemented themselves as the #2 team in Invite with this season's strong showing, and are looking to taste their first championship. They have had a solid season from start to finish, with only a slight hiccup 5-4 nailbiter against Mangachu's squad. Ascent are primed and prepared to challenge for the S19 crown, along with the Insomnia55 title later this summer.
As mentioned above, this season's lineup is just a slight variation to the S17 roster that went 16-0. Rando returns to Pocket after a season of hiatus and has put out the damage and good ubers along with Fragile, everyone's favorite Medic-cat (cat-Medic?) enthusiast. Ma3la's back on the Guboats and running the flanks with Shrugger and Decimate, who have proven themselves on the same level as the clckwrk / cyzer / b4nny giants. Finally, we have good ol Bdonski connecting pipes and dropping Medics with traps. It seems that from a numbers standpoint, this was his most quiet season. He's earned less frags but also less deaths. But hey, if that's what moves the team forward it's clearly working.
I don't see Ascent having too many problems tackling Five Dollar Club in UR1. Pretty much every member outclasses their Kripparrian-loving couterpart, with the possible exception of squid. Rando and Fragile will be outplaying 5$ with their ubers and the BFNS flank will prove to be too much. I'd expect some clean 5-1 and 5-0's over the BO3.
2. Froyotech // Record: 14-2
- Scout: clckwrk
- Scout: b4nny
- Pocket: ash
- Roamer: blaze
- Demoman: duwatna
- Medic: shade
The team that usually needs no introduction might need a little this time around. Froyotech suffered another loss to rando and company, underwent their first roster change since S16, and will be another one of the American titans heading over to Europe for i55. A 14-2 finish is still nothing to scoff at for these gentlemen, and curiously, 4G's other loss was a forfeit to Hawaii Beach Vacation. Perhaps the general gorgeousness of a Andrew "tooth" Mayer was too much to handle.
Even with the loss against Ascent fueling the rivalry further, that wasn't all there was to 4G's S19. Lansky, b4nny's Pocket since S13, stepped down due to other commitments which would prevent him from attending i55. Serv0 subbed in for a handful of matches but that didn't last. Once again, b4nny turned to one of Street Hoops' star players, this time bringing ash on board the 4G train. Everything else is the same roster we've watched for many seasons now. Shade is still surfing away from danger while blaze, clckwrk, and b4nny terrorize the opposition. My gut feeling is that Froyotech is still very much the team to beat. But with a different Pocket and online playoffs, anything can happen.
In UR1, 4G takes on 20b. Even if they haven't looked like their past selves, Froyotech should still have more than enough firepower to win this matchup handily. Specifically, if b4nny and clckwrk go unchallenged throughout this set, I'd imagine these games will be over very quickly. It'll be up to cyzer and paragon to keep the 4G Scouts in check.
3. Street Hoops eSports // Record: 10-6
- Scout: paragon
- Scout: cyzer
- Pocket: showstopper
- Roamer: cozen
- Demoman: deadbolt
- Medic: ninjanick
Alkaline: Street Hoops do not look healthy going into this playoffs season. They're a team which has always been defined by big plays from their soldiers, but now both Grape and ash are gone. Although as a #20believer I would love to see them beat the Five Dollar Club and give Froyo or Ascent a run for their money, I don't see it happening. With Ninjanick on vacation until after their first match vs. Froyotech, Cozen will until then Medic and alfa will stay on roamer. I honesty don't give 20b any chance to beat Froyotech, so they'll have to focus on their LR match, presumably against the Five Dollar Club. There they might have a shot, since cozen has proven himself to be a very solid soldier in IM and will done doubt perform admirably in Invite. But the Five Dollar Club now have a competent main caller in mason (aka chairuser) and a solid roster across the board. I predict a three map loss for Street Hoops, but I would still love to be proven wrong.
4. The Five Dollar Club // Record: 10-6
- Scout: squid
- Scout: arcticjoe
- Pocket: milo
- Roamer: Mangachu
- Demoman: dingo
- Medic: mason
The Five Dollar Club can now officially be referred to as "Wood Pig + squid," as they sport most members from the S17 campaign. All-around superstar milo played his first full season of Invite since S14 Solace Esports and is reaping the fruits of his labor, making Invite playoffs. Dingo and mason were late additions to the party, but are more than capable of replacing their predecessors xalox and dbw. Really, it's wood pig 2.0, and their S16 and S17 campaigns were good, being competitive with the LAN teams. Can they recapture the magic for another season?
Squidder and arcticjoe are proven Scouts though I would label them as the weakest Scout pair for playoffs. The Demoman trend is also relatively close, and I'd wager that with online performance, duwatna is the only one slightly ahead of the crowd. Mason has a wealth of experience on Medic and calling, so this is his chance to get bumped up into the upper echelon of Invite Medics.
Unfortunately for 5$ I don't see them making it past Ascent in UR1. Unless we have some god-level performances, expect fairly close games but for BFNS to walk away with the win after 2 maps. The key players in this matchup will have to be milo. If he can match the performance of rando, it'll give his team some breathing room and let his Scouts and Mangachu make plays.
Predictions
Tery:
- Ascent // 2. Froyotech // 3. Five Dollar Club // 4. Street Hoops eSports
This seems like a pretty cut-and-dry case to me. 4G are no longer the monsters they were the past couple of seasons and even if they were perfectly matched with Ascent I'd still bet on Ascent. Unfortunate as it is for the 20believers, I don't see them getting more than 1-2 rounds off Froyo and similar with Five Dollar Club against Ascent. As for 20b vs. $5, if cyzer comes to play and squid can't respond I could potentially see the upset, but milo and Mangachu will be more than enough firepower against showstopper and cozen / alfa.
UR1 (Snakewater, Granary, Metalworks)
Ascent vs. Five Dollar Club: 2-0 [5-2, 5-1]
Froyotech vs. Street Hoops eSports: 2-0 [5-0, 5-1]
UR2 / LR1 (Snakewater, Badlands, Viaduct)
Ascent vs. Froyotech: 2-0 [5-3, 5-3]
Street Hoops eSports vs. Five Dollar Club: 0-2 [2-5, 3-5]
LR2 (Sunshine, Gullywash, Granary)
- Froyotech vs. Five Dollar Club: 2-0 [5-2, 5-0]
Grand Finals (Process, Viaduct, Badlands)
- Ascent vs. Froyotech: 2-1 [5-3, 2-4, 5-4]
Alkaline:
- Ascent // 2. Froyotech // 3. Five Dollar Club // 4. Street Hoops eSports
I have to agree with Tery here, which is a shame because I love arguing with him. Ascent and Froyotech look to be far above The Five Dollar Club and Street Hoops, so those are the only two matchups which could produce exciting matches. It's hard to choose between BFNS and Froyo, but I have to go with Ascent as the more motivated team who have stuck with the same roster, all season long.
Meanwhile, The Five Dollar Club has a solid new roster, with Mangachu back where he fits in best on roamer, while Milo beasts it up on pocket. Street Hoops may match The Five Dollar Club in all other areas, but when it comes to soldiers, I have to favor $5. I actually think The Five Dollar Club will take a map off Ascent, while Ascent will initially lose a map to Froyo before warming up, finding their groove, and beating Froyotech in both the final two maps, and later the Grand Finals.
UR1 (Snakewater, Granary, Metalworks)
Ascent vs. Five Dollar Club: 2-1 [5-1, 4-5, 5-3]
Froyotech vs. Street Hoops eSports: 2-0 [5-0, 5-1]
UR2 / LR1 (Snakewater, Badlands, Viaduct)
Ascent vs. Froyotech: 2-1 [2-3, 5-3, 4-3]
Street Hoops eSports vs. Five Dollar Club: 0-2 [2-5, 4-5]
LR2 (Sunshine, Gullywash, Granary)
- Froyotech vs. Five Dollar Club: 2-0 [5-2, 5-0]
Grand Finals (Process, Viaduct, Badlands)
- Ascent vs. Froyotech: 2-1 [5-4, 2-4, 5-3]
Conclusion
TeamFortressTV will be providing all the Invite coverage for playoffs starting next week. Be sure to check the events tab and the TFTV Twitch for all the action!
And remember, everything changes after online playoff matches that are just the same as regular season matches because we don't have LAN anymore. Just doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
Editor's Note: Sorry team. I dunno what it is but I it seems whenever I try to write about Invite I get severe writer's block. I tried my best. Thanks to alkaline for helping me out and collecting questions from the players.