"A competitor thought to have little chance of winning a fight or contest."
Chaplain -- If I was at all familiar with baseball or American football I'm almost certain that I would be able to reel a dizzying tyrade of names that satisfy the base requirements of being underdogs; maybe the Mets, the Jets or the Yankees or something. Fortunately I'm British, and therefore blissfully unaware of any allure that HandEgg or some weird-ass form of rounders could ever hope to instill in me, but I still get the concept of the underdog and I love it. Crack Clan have been the underdogs as far as they can remember, suffering from a blurry drunken deluge of negative punditry in every event they entered and thriving because of it, establishing themselves as the number 2 team in Europe. On the other hand, Broder have without a doubt been the most overrated team this side of the Atlantic, receiving a series of sloppy forlorn kisses from TF2 commentators who should know better and lustful glances from weak-kneed fanboys; did people REALLY think they could hold a candle to Epsilon? did the public REALLY think they could win a season on their first try?
The word on the street is that due to the hype rollercoaster they've been whisked through, Broder have the most to prove against Crack Clan, but I have a firm belief in the contrary; Broder have nothing to prove.
Season 14 Broder vs Crack Clan Overview
Medic -- Mirelin VS Admirable
An interesting clash between 2 very different medics. Mirelin is without a doubt the most soldier-centric medic in TF2, placing his pocket on a pedestal and letting Ryb fend for scraps from his table. Admirable will be sharing the heals out a lot more, but I'll be surprised if T-mac is happy with the heals he's getting.
Demoman -- ryb VS Brego
Ryb is the TF2 equivalent of liquid mercury, and I for one have absolutely no idea what he'll pull out of the bag. Brego is a lot more predictable, and after his allotted dinner-time segment he will sit down and perform.
Roaming Soldier -- Tek VS T-mac
T-mac & Ipz haven't been playing together for long so it's a lot harder to predict how they will play. Tek will almost certainly reprise his role as the Janitor, cleaning up the kills that Zebbosai thought too lowly to take.
Pocket Soldier -- Zebbosai VS Ipz
Zebbosai is treated as a prince in Broder, recieving 60% of the heals and doing an inordinate amount of the damage in comparison to the downtrodden angry pauper Ipz, who only recently switched to pocket so he could see Admirable on the map.
Scouts -- Cookye & Bybben VS TviQ & smzi
Cookye & Bybben are an amazing partnership, but I would love nothing more than TviQ to gobble them whole; we will see.
Broder
Broder have been poster boys for the European scenes for as long as I can remember, only re-emerging as a contemporary world power recently. They used to be 'Torden's Boys", enjoying a long period of success in the old Division 1 and gaining the support of the community and the ire of their peers. They eventually disbanded due to personal reasons but were never forgotten, establishing themselves as one of the three greatest teams in EU history (next to Diggy and 4kings obvs)
Crack Clan
Crack Clan are without a doubt the team of the people, laying down foundations for excellent resources (CC TF2 Hub and a Battle Report system) and scoring themselves the all important Season 13 Community Award. They have become somewhat infamous for their ability to slide into the role of the underdog, often getting off to a shaky start just to triumph and exceed expectations through pure effort. Crack Clan have utilised a wide range of different tactics and strategies in the past, ranging from the use of a dedicated pocket scout in order to free up their soldiers and allow TviQ to do the hero plays he's known best for to more conventional 2 scout pushes and rushes.
Now for some predictions:
Lynchpin -- Smzi
Smzi was unbelievably unfortunate last game, running into the blazing guns of Epsilon's sterling scout combination.How he behaves around TviQ and functions on mid will change the pace of the game
Man to Watch -- TviQ
I'm really looking forward to seeing how TviQ progresses and mans up against one of the strongest scout partnerships the premiership has ever seen, or if he just wimps out and goes sniper.
Clash to Catch -- Brego vs Ryb
I can't wait to see who will do what on mid first. Ryb is very unlike Numlocked in that he arrives quickly and it will be interesting to see how Brego copes.
Most likely to Choke –- Admirable
James, sleep on your side or something.
If this game is good, then I will try and write an analysis article similar to the ones I have produced in the past.