about various open teams. the order is very specific.
Astronerds
The one thing everyone thinks about when astronerds is mentioned is "oh bullshit, why is mackey allowed to play in open". I think this does a disservice to the other members of the team, especially with mackey playing scout. eulogy is a very strong demo, as shown by his short lived debut on tim lays pipe before roster issues did them in. ricr, mackey's scout partner, is looking to follow up a hot and cold S12 which seems to have gotten derailed in the second half. The soldiers WILDFIRE and Neko-tan are question marks as neither have any previous ESEA experience, but in preseason scrims, they seem to be performing as well as they need to.
basic's octopus emporium
Basic's Octopus Emproium features several players with IM experience, with bsc, tooth, reemix, and slipz all having played in IM. Joining them are dana_scully from Community Clown College of 16-0 regular season fame and mastodon of poop-on-me-in-dm fame. However, every one of these octopus enthusiasts, other than bsc and dana_scully, are offclassing and it shows. Their timing and positioning aren't quite right yet, and they lack a strong shutdown demo that many of the other top open teams have with reemix having made the switch from scout to demo very recently. However, they have the potential to be a very strong open team and I would look for them to make a run in the latter half of the season.
BIG BOYS
Big Boys features a lot of very experienced players, with all of them having multiple seasons under their belts. The strongest part of this team is the demo and combo, with pt and hooli putting out heavy damage for moolkey and bio to capitalize on. The team should utilize their jump map extraordinaire Walka to get their combo's ubers in cleanly. When points get stalled, they will need to be careful not to have their flank pushed in as Walka tries to make plays.
Boshton Bashers
Boshton Bashers is mostly a collective of players who made open playoffs on different teams last season. Their demo, rex, does a lot of the team's damage and plays very aggressively to accomplish this. Linkuser and WalterWhite man the scout positions and both bring solid dm to the table. Playing the soldier positions are peyote and bosh, who are both new to the class. Peyote is making the move from medic to pocket this season, with bosh transitioning from scout to roamer. Peyote's medic experience should allow him to direct the combo well, but whether he has the dm to keep high open scouts from killing his medic is yet to be seen. This team's success will largely depend on whether they are able to keep the heal heavy rex alive and play around his damage.
Hanky Panky
Hanky panky is another open team featuring several players who played in IM last season, with collide and hugh_laurie dropping down after a rough season with barely not open. On pocket is fanofangels who last season really made a leap in his soldier play and is probably looking to make another jump and compete with the mid IM pockets. masterpainb, their roamer has been around for quite some time, mostly playing medic, but has popped up on fragging classes every now and then, helping gank and the meisters make the IM cut in S12. The real question mark is their second scout embryo, who I've never actually seen play so I can't comment.
about various open teams. the order is very specific.
Astronerds
The one thing everyone thinks about when astronerds is mentioned is "oh bullshit, why is mackey allowed to play in open". I think this does a disservice to the other members of the team, especially with mackey playing scout. eulogy is a very strong demo, as shown by his short lived debut on tim lays pipe before roster issues did them in. ricr, mackey's scout partner, is looking to follow up a hot and cold S12 which seems to have gotten derailed in the second half. The soldiers WILDFIRE and Neko-tan are question marks as neither have any previous ESEA experience, but in preseason scrims, they seem to be performing as well as they need to.
basic's octopus emporium
Basic's Octopus Emproium features several players with IM experience, with bsc, tooth, reemix, and slipz all having played in IM. Joining them are dana_scully from Community Clown College of 16-0 regular season fame and mastodon of poop-on-me-in-dm fame. However, every one of these octopus enthusiasts, other than bsc and dana_scully, are offclassing and it shows. Their timing and positioning aren't quite right yet, and they lack a strong shutdown demo that many of the other top open teams have with reemix having made the switch from scout to demo very recently. However, they have the potential to be a very strong open team and I would look for them to make a run in the latter half of the season.
BIG BOYS
Big Boys features a lot of very experienced players, with all of them having multiple seasons under their belts. The strongest part of this team is the demo and combo, with pt and hooli putting out heavy damage for moolkey and bio to capitalize on. The team should utilize their jump map extraordinaire Walka to get their combo's ubers in cleanly. When points get stalled, they will need to be careful not to have their flank pushed in as Walka tries to make plays.
Boshton Bashers
Boshton Bashers is mostly a collective of players who made open playoffs on different teams last season. Their demo, rex, does a lot of the team's damage and plays very aggressively to accomplish this. Linkuser and WalterWhite man the scout positions and both bring solid dm to the table. Playing the soldier positions are peyote and bosh, who are both new to the class. Peyote is making the move from medic to pocket this season, with bosh transitioning from scout to roamer. Peyote's medic experience should allow him to direct the combo well, but whether he has the dm to keep high open scouts from killing his medic is yet to be seen. This team's success will largely depend on whether they are able to keep the heal heavy rex alive and play around his damage.
Hanky Panky
Hanky panky is another open team featuring several players who played in IM last season, with collide and hugh_laurie dropping down after a rough season with barely not open. On pocket is fanofangels who last season really made a leap in his soldier play and is probably looking to make another jump and compete with the mid IM pockets. masterpainb, their roamer has been around for quite some time, mostly playing medic, but has popped up on fragging classes every now and then, helping gank and the meisters make the IM cut in S12. The real question mark is their second scout embryo, who I've never actually seen play so I can't comment.
Indust we trust
Preseason scrims show that this team isn't to be taken lightly after cutting the paper mache link of dopewolf from their otherwise strong iron chain of a team. Their demo .k.L. and scout mumbo in particular have consistently good dm. Replacing dopewolf this season is billuster, making the move from soldier to scout. Darkstar has been picked up as their new pocket, and while he may have no previous experience in esea it doesn't seem to be holding him back. Good continuity and strong chemisty makes indust we trust a powerful early season contender. The question going into the latter half of S13 will be if they can keep up with the newer and more DM heavy teams as they build chemistry and "catch up".
LAZER BRYANS
LAZER BRYANS has several players from the S12 incarnation of treason, with benefit, swedes, and sinner bringing their demo, roamer, and pocket services respectively. On scout are yodogz and khorma, two very solid players, with yodogz performing very well in IM last season, and while khorma hasn't really played since S11, he has strong DM. The strength of their flank play should push them past a lot of teams in open, but against the other top teams, it remains to be seen how their combo has improved after a rather lackluster 8-8 outing last season.
Playground Tactics
This will be Playground Tactics' second round in open, and they should have a stronger showing this time around. The team has had a number of roster mixups from last season, with their medic typhus moving to roamer and london calling and insom of server depopulation squad being picked up to fill in the medic and scout gaps. This will be insom's first season playing scout, having previously played demoman for SDS, but his scout dm isn't something to be taken lightly. Sonnnn, preston, and Rikachu are the three players from S12 who are returning on the same classes this season. They all have strong DM at their respective positions and should be an anchor during the transition into the new roster.
theRUSH tf2
The players of Rush have loads of previous experience and it should show in their play. The scouts and the demo of this team are something to watch out for. Freddy should be among the best demos in open this season, dropping down a division after accumulating experience in IM. The scouts, Testify and Reimu have both had long breaks froms starting for a team in TF2, but they have plenty of experience under their belts and strong DM. Rush's soldiers are bombdigiti and nixnyte. Nixnyte played medic in IM last season and is making a return to his old class, while bombdigiti played soldier in open last season. The team should do well if the soldiers can support the work getting done by their scouts and demo.
Tonight's Entertainment
Tonights Entertainment is another team in open this season with a lot of players who have im experience, with dflame in particular having played in IM playoffs last season. Bwat bwat bwat and bot_tay also bring some im experience, both having played their respective classes in im before. The team's combo, Stratovarius and Bopper, are both playing new classes this season, which I would expect to stem some problems early on in the season. Finishing out the roster is stoperr. Stoperr does a lot of damage for the team, but his style of play takes a lot of heals. They need to balance the heals given to STOPPER so Bopper isn't left in the cold. If Stratovarius can find a good balance between the two, they will be a dangerous team, with heavy damage from STOPPER backed up by smart aggression from dflame and bot_tay.
Roctenao probably should be somewhere up here, but conductor and I both have no idea about their team. Though from their S12 performance, they appear to be a strong S13 contender. Bonus points to anyone who can point out who wrote what.
Indust we trust
Preseason scrims show that this team isn't to be taken lightly after cutting the paper mache link of dopewolf from their otherwise strong iron chain of a team. Their demo .k.L. and scout mumbo in particular have consistently good dm. Replacing dopewolf this season is billuster, making the move from soldier to scout. Darkstar has been picked up as their new pocket, and while he may have no previous experience in esea it doesn't seem to be holding him back. Good continuity and strong chemisty makes indust we trust a powerful early season contender. The question going into the latter half of S13 will be if they can keep up with the newer and more DM heavy teams as they build chemistry and "catch up".
LAZER BRYANS
LAZER BRYANS has several players from the S12 incarnation of treason, with benefit, swedes, and sinner bringing their demo, roamer, and pocket services respectively. On scout are yodogz and khorma, two very solid players, with yodogz performing very well in IM last season, and while khorma hasn't really played since S11, he has strong DM. The strength of their flank play should push them past a lot of teams in open, but against the other top teams, it remains to be seen how their combo has improved after a rather lackluster 8-8 outing last season.
Playground Tactics
This will be Playground Tactics' second round in open, and they should have a stronger showing this time around. The team has had a number of roster mixups from last season, with their medic typhus moving to roamer and london calling and insom of server depopulation squad being picked up to fill in the medic and scout gaps. This will be insom's first season playing scout, having previously played demoman for SDS, but his scout dm isn't something to be taken lightly. Sonnnn, preston, and Rikachu are the three players from S12 who are returning on the same classes this season. They all have strong DM at their respective positions and should be an anchor during the transition into the new roster.
theRUSH tf2
The players of Rush have loads of previous experience and it should show in their play. The scouts and the demo of this team are something to watch out for. Freddy should be among the best demos in open this season, dropping down a division after accumulating experience in IM. The scouts, Testify and Reimu have both had long breaks froms starting for a team in TF2, but they have plenty of experience under their belts and strong DM. Rush's soldiers are bombdigiti and nixnyte. Nixnyte played medic in IM last season and is making a return to his old class, while bombdigiti played soldier in open last season. The team should do well if the soldiers can support the work getting done by their scouts and demo.
Tonight's Entertainment
Tonights Entertainment is another team in open this season with a lot of players who have im experience, with dflame in particular having played in IM playoffs last season. Bwat bwat bwat and bot_tay also bring some im experience, both having played their respective classes in im before. The team's combo, Stratovarius and Bopper, are both playing new classes this season, which I would expect to stem some problems early on in the season. Finishing out the roster is stoperr. Stoperr does a lot of damage for the team, but his style of play takes a lot of heals. They need to balance the heals given to STOPPER so Bopper isn't left in the cold. If Stratovarius can find a good balance between the two, they will be a dangerous team, with heavy damage from STOPPER backed up by smart aggression from dflame and bot_tay.
Roctenao probably should be somewhere up here, but conductor and I both have no idea about their team. Though from their S12 performance, they appear to be a strong S13 contender. Bonus points to anyone who can point out who wrote what.
Additionally, I have super shitty power rankings from polling open captains. Out of 8 voters*, I got these rankings (If I haven't spoken to you, you either were offline or weren't on my list, add me and I'll update this accordingly)
1. Playground Tactics (43)
2. Indust we trust (33)
3. trans-autistic railroad (28)
4. basic's octopus emporium (26)
5. theRUSH (21)
5. Roctenao (21)
7. LAZER BRYANS (12)
8. Tonight's Entertainment (11)
8. BIG BOYS (11)
also getting votes: hanky panky (8), Boshton bashers (6), the baddies (4), Astronerds (4), Reign of Terror (3), Team Echelon (3), SteveCGamesA (3)
*1 voter didn't rank teams, so I just spread the points out. Terrible methodology, fire me please.
Finally, in the future, I plan on dragging conductor into doing this weekly or biweekly (probably the latter) with the teams being written about decided by the voters.
Additionally, I have super shitty power rankings from polling open captains. Out of 8 voters*, I got these rankings (If I haven't spoken to you, you either were offline or weren't on my list, add me and I'll update this accordingly)
1. Playground Tactics (43)
2. Indust we trust (33)
3. trans-autistic railroad (28)
4. basic's octopus emporium (26)
5. theRUSH (21)
5. Roctenao (21)
7. LAZER BRYANS (12)
8. Tonight's Entertainment (11)
8. BIG BOYS (11)
also getting votes: hanky panky (8), Boshton bashers (6), the baddies (4), Astronerds (4), Reign of Terror (3), Team Echelon (3), SteveCGamesA (3)
*1 voter didn't rank teams, so I just spread the points out. Terrible methodology, fire me please.
Finally, in the future, I plan on dragging conductor into doing this weekly or biweekly (probably the latter) with the teams being written about decided by the voters.
binarystaryou talking shit?
all of it
[quote=binarystar]you talking shit?[/quote]
all of it
I'm glad someone knows something that's actually true about the teams in open.
I'm glad someone knows something that's actually true about the teams in open.
binarystaryou talking shit?
he's talking shit
[quote=binarystar]you talking shit?[/quote]
he's talking shit
[img]http://i.imgur.com/KQugL.gif[/img]
It's interesting how Gettin' Cozy has not even been mentioned... I think Noko and Sneaky are gonna catch some people off guard, those two are gonna have a crazy good season.
It's interesting how Gettin' Cozy has not even been mentioned... I think Noko and Sneaky are gonna catch some people off guard, those two are gonna have a crazy good season.
talk shit get hit
good read, will be an interesting season
talk shit get hit
good read, will be an interesting season
0/10 on shit-talk, 10/10 on preds and knowledge
C-
0/10 on shit-talk, 10/10 on preds and knowledge
C-
mustardoverlordif I had to guess I'd say the best teams in open will be
1. Trans-Autistic Railroad
2. our medic carries
3. Playground Tactics
4. the argentinians? idk how much they're improving on na pings
there are mad teams being slept on though, like the sourceop team with zalfy on demo for instance, or gettin cozy
mustardoverlord stays winning
[quote=mustardoverlord]if I had to guess I'd say the best teams in open will be
1. Trans-Autistic Railroad
2. our medic carries
3. Playground Tactics
4. the argentinians? idk how much they're improving on na pings
there are mad teams being slept on though, like the sourceop team with zalfy on demo for instance, or gettin cozy[/quote]
mustardoverlord stays winning
good read gents, hope to see some more of these kinds of articles in the future.
good read gents, hope to see some more of these kinds of articles in the future.
Good write up breloom. +1
Good write up breloom. +1
haha roctneao
still better than rocutaneo
haha roctneao
still better than rocutaneo
Why does no one think were good D=
Why does no one think were good D=
One thing about our team. We had to change up our style and so stoper no longer gets as many heals but he still does a ridiculous amount of damage. Good luck to everyone this season. Should be good!
One thing about our team. We had to change up our style and so stoper no longer gets as many heals but he still does a ridiculous amount of damage. Good luck to everyone this season. Should be good!
c4shI'm glad someone knows something that's actually true about the teams in open.
i also know something that's actually true about the teams in open:
they are all bad
[quote=c4sh]I'm glad someone knows something that's actually true about the teams in open.[/quote]
i also know something that's actually true about the teams in open:
they are all bad
petc4shI'm glad someone knows something that's actually true about the teams in open.
i also know something that's actually true about the teams in open:
they are all bad
mean as fuck
[quote=pet][quote=c4sh]I'm glad someone knows something that's actually true about the teams in open.[/quote]
i also know something that's actually true about the teams in open:
they are all bad[/quote]
mean as fuck
petc4shI'm glad someone knows something that's actually true about the teams in open.
i also know something that's actually true about the teams in open:
they are all bad
accurate
[quote=pet][quote=c4sh]I'm glad someone knows something that's actually true about the teams in open.[/quote]
i also know something that's actually true about the teams in open:
they are all bad[/quote]
accurate
I feel like everyone in open is going to be blown away by how good linkuser is going to perform
I feel like everyone in open is going to be blown away by how good linkuser is going to perform
Tone-PotI feel like everyone in open is going to be blown away by how good linkuser is going to perform
wouldn't say blown away but he's definitely one to take note of
[quote=Tone-Pot]I feel like everyone in open is going to be blown away by how good linkuser is going to perform[/quote]
wouldn't say blown away but he's definitely one to take note of
conductor and breloom tried to hide the truth about the notably absent trans-autistic railroad from the writeup, but it's alright. I am on your side. Here's the section of the writeup they left out, the dark side they don't want you to see.
trans-autistic railroad:
The worst team in Open last season is back for another round with a brand-new lineup that they had since last season except their latest pickup, breloom, on pocket Soldier, who wanted to be pro but his Asian parents wouldn't let him so he ended up on this shithouse of a roster, in the trash where he belongs. Glued to his ass is crumpet, a Medic who has almost as many ubers dropped last season as he does extra chromosomes. Noted pedophiles Kohaku and conductor make their returns to Scout and Demo respectively. When they aren't busy blowing each other, watching anime and camping out beside elementary schools, they're busy being on godawful teams and staying in Open. Last but certainly least is the Scout MeskedJackel, a lunatic who believes that he is a bird, known to caw wildly and meatstrike when agitated, keep back 30 meters. Who the fuck is LdK? Overall, strongest team in Open, will probably win, watch out.
conductor and breloom tried to hide the truth about the notably absent trans-autistic railroad from the writeup, but it's alright. I am on your side. Here's the section of the writeup they left out, the dark side they don't want you to see.
trans-autistic railroad:
The worst team in Open last season is back for another round with a brand-new lineup that they had since last season except their latest pickup, breloom, on pocket Soldier, who wanted to be pro but his Asian parents wouldn't let him so he ended up on this shithouse of a roster, in the trash where he belongs. Glued to his ass is crumpet, a Medic who has almost as many ubers dropped last season as he does extra chromosomes. Noted pedophiles Kohaku and conductor make their returns to Scout and Demo respectively. When they aren't busy blowing each other, watching anime and camping out beside elementary schools, they're busy being on godawful teams and staying in Open. Last but certainly least is the Scout MeskedJackel, a lunatic who believes that he is a bird, known to caw wildly and meatstrike when agitated, keep back 30 meters. Who the fuck is LdK? Overall, strongest team in Open, will probably win, watch out.