Radium and London Calling! give us an extensive look at the teams headed into the ESEA Season 13 Open playoffs. Check the official ESEA standings here or read the original thread here.
Indust we trust
15-1, 1st seed overall -- first match: rent-a-homies
By: London Calling! ###
Currently the favorites to win open right now, Indust We Trust (with many members of the team formerly known as Cosmic Brownie Swag) have played solid TF2 all season, ending the regular season with comfortable 15-1 record.
At the beginning of this season, anybody that scrimmed this team could easily tell you they were going to be the team to beat this season. In fact, Indust and his team were scrimming most mid and high IM teams since week 1, and have continued to stay in good shape since that time. As the name would suggest, their medic Indust is the voice and direction behind this team. Anyone who has played with Indust can tell you he is a very strong caller and has a very good understanding of the game. If he isn’t working with his team, you can always find Indust in a pug or working on his mechanics to improve his game. It would be hard to find a more dedicated player in any division. His uber management is great, and he is rarely caught out of position, always playing a very conservative style of TF2 not seen in Open very often, or even among the low IM teams for that matter.
Not to be outdone, Billuster (known to his friends as Bully Bill) and k.L. (k1eptomaniak) are the main damage dealers of this team. While k.L. is holding it down on demo putting out good damage behind his combo, Bill is a great enforcer who uses uber very efficiently and consistently puts out 300+ DDM every match.
On the flank side of things, Lunacide has really clean bombs and in a pinch his spy plays are usually well timed and effective, which is rarely seen in this division. The scouts on this team have definitely changed the most since last season. After playing pocket for the first week of the season, Darkstar switched with Bill and filled the scout role during viaduct week and stuck with it for the rest of their regular season matches. Being the newest edition to this group, Darkstar’s competitive history before TF2 was in TFC where he played soldier and scout for about 11 years on and off. His first season in ESEA has been a good one, as this team has really become one to contend with since he was picked up. His scout partner, Mumbo, has always been a very strong scout and has shone brightly all season long, usually scoring right behind his medic in just about every match. All in all, this is a well-rounded team with very strong leadership and should be the team that everyone in playoffs will want to beat.
Hanky Panky
13-3, 2nd seed overall -- first match: new faith church g.
By: London Calling!
Sitting pretty at the number two seed, Hanky Panky features a mixture of new and experienced players that have torn their way through Open this season, with their only significant loss to the number one seed, Indust We Trust.
Word on the street is that Hugh Laurie is building a new computer so that he’ll have more than 45 FPS when he plays which can only mean good things for their flank. Hugh and Collide are both coming from a rough season in IM on Barely Not Open/Goomba and Friends/DNC Gaming but are clearly showing their dominance in Open now.
Collide may not be putting up those huge damage numbers you might see from some “carrying” demomen, but with that said it is hard to ignore his presence, as he is arguably one of the best demomen in open this season. Some of the damage done can be attributed to their pocket, FanofAngels, formerly the pocket for Sunday Funday last season. Fan has improved quite a bit from last season, putting up a large number of frags every game and creating a lot of room for his scouts to come in and clean up.
Hugh Laurie needs little introduction, being known as a DM heavy scout and an all around smart player. His scout partner Embryo is popping his ESEA cherry this season, coming away from playing scout/sniper on Gun Runners in UGC Highlander and really looking like a high open scout right out of the gate.
Their medic Yumi has played as a back up for Disposable Heroes, and was recently the medic for Bonus before their demise in UGC Platinum. Say one thing about highlander, the format definitely produces some of the best scouts and medics who can seemingly dodge anything that can be thrown at them. MPB has been their starting roamer for the majority of the season, but for the last few matches Dashner has been filling the role pretty solidly, coming away with a lot of decisive wins in the games he has played. At of the time of this writing, it looks like MPB will be filling in for Hugh if his computer isn’t ready, and Dashner will continue to roam.
The season has been pretty eventful for this team, with some close wins including both of their gravelpit matches where they held Point A with a sentry, heavy, and pyro to win the round in overtime. This team should do well in playoffs, and will make a strong showing in IM next season.
The Crunchy Bunch
13-3, 3rd seed overall -- first match: randy and chums
By: radium
There are a few places that you could turn to in regards to why this team was so dominant during the middle of the S13 campaign, but in my honest opinion I feel that without Rex this is a team that is closer to the bubble mix than you’d like to think. Rex has shown the ability to control a map’s opening fight with some of the quicker times to mid as well as some excellent early placement of stickies. OK, so maybe Bosh has been making nasty game-winning plays all season. Keep in mind though that for every great play he makes there is often a “so-so” one to go with it. He’s proven to be explosive – but also dangerously inconsistent. Rex has been a more constant factor in regards to this team, and that’s why I think he’s the MVP of this roster despite some fantastic runs of play from Bosh.
There aren’t that many truly creative roamers in Open, but Rekuso is one of the craftiest out there. His game plan often consists of putting up elaborate diversions and dives that will splinter the attention of a team in a holding pattern. Rekuso’s k/d isn’t always that impressive, but perhaps understanding his play is more of an acquired taste – without his flashy and clever movement there are no holes for a playmaking scout like Bosh to take advantage of. Another key part of his game is his wonderful concept of time within a match – and that comes from experience on a top open team in S12. He’s been here before – and won’t be the one that buckles on this roster.
Moving onto the combo, I really don’t have any complaints when it comes to McCharger and peyote. They both bring experience at the high open level (good thing), they both have a workable personality on a team that probably doesn’t need another “bold” kind of guy (another good thing), and neither of them make the kind of mistakes that will regularly cost them (very good thing considering we’re talking about the combo). McCharger is a “lunchpail” kind of guy – good teammate, shuts his mouth, and does his job. He’s not going to carry this team anywhere, but to be honest The Crunchy Bunch don’t need a diva that wants to do everything. That would be suicide on this roster. As for the 6th spot, there has been a lot of turmoil. Here’s a statement from Rex on who will be starting:
“Okiewater will be replacing Rill as the 6th player and passive scout. Okie does main roamer but his scout is solid and he is a quick leaner so he has been doing very well as scout in scrims, but we really expect him to cap those points, anything more is a godsend. Okie fits in well. We play with him often, so we naturally love him. I think okie will impress not only others, but us as well.”
That’s some serious optimism. The good news is that okie isn’t a trashcan and is actually capable of fulfilling that role. As a matter of fact, I predict that he’ll overachieve – and that could be huge in the later rounds that this deep, multifaceted team will eventually reach.
The only hang-up for me here is how well okie will be able to meld with a player like Bosh on such short notice. I don’t think that just anyone can play effectively with such a flamboyant scout alongside them. It’ll be a fun thing to watch no matter if it fails or succeeds this postseason.
There is a ton of emotional gas in the tank, and this team has the kind of IM-level playmaking ability that only 2-3 other Open sides share. This is not the most balanced side in the bracket, however – and that will keep this team from winning a championship. The good news is that they’ll have IM well locked up before they get exposed – and when they do get beaten it really won’t be by that much. This team will bring some major promise going into IM next season – and could be the kind of team that doesn’t get crushed upon arrival.
The Crunchy Bunch will go on a storybook run early and will stay alive late until they fall in a spectacular lower-bracket final against Hanky Panky.
Playground Tactics
12-4, 4th seed overall -- first match: the peppercock family
By: radium
Pretty good team overall. I like how they have an overall balance across the board, with no real weaknesses to exploit in terms of individual skill. I’ve heard some people go on about how Rikachu is one of the best demomen in Open, but we need to keep in mind that he took up a HUGE amount of heals this season. When you have a good team and you’re taking that much love from your pocket, you damn well better be a dominant player. At least he is, which justifies the slightly different playstyle you see from Playground Tactics.
At the scouting position, you have two very talented players in insom and sonnnn. Insom brings a lot of raw fragging power to the table, as well as being a decent shot on sniper maps. Do I think he’s a gamebreakingly good sniper? No – but he won’t surrender an inch to a team that thinks they’re going to get away with running an average one against him. Sonnnn is also a versatile player himself, with the ability to flex between aggressive and passive roles seamlessly, depending on what the team needs on a specific map. Neither scout is going to destroy the field – and neither scout will fold like a lawn chair. Sonnnn does a lot of the little things that don’t get seen on scoreboards. Let’s move to the soldiers next. The first word that comes to my mind when I think of either player is “underrated”. Typhus has the top-open DM needed to win 1v1s on the flank without help – and that’s huge at the Open level of play. His bombs aren’t superb, but they do the job. With that said, telling a player in the mold of typhus to make crazy bombs all game would be a waste of some of his latent talents. He’s a rare specimen of a roamer in that he has very real pocketing ability, and can’t be game-planned against like most other Open roamers.
Typhus has the complete tool set – which allows him to play roamer in three different ways:
He can throw on a shotty and function as a third flanking unit, turning scout vs. scout trades into won frags.
He can function as a utility soldier and provide additional medic cover – thus opening up new lines of attack that allow more ubers to move to their pseudo-pocket Rikachu. They did a lot of this in S13.
He can throw out any sense of reason, put on the gunboats, and turn all aggression knobs up to 11. Personally, I’d like to see this side of him more often. Playground Tactics have in the past forced advantages at times against top opponents – advantages that were not directly pushed upon.
As for preston (<3), I’ve always seen him as a “thinking” type. He’s probably more hesitant than he needs to be, but he’s also never really caught off guard by anything. His medic protection is respectably good, and it needs to be as the actual combo on this team isn’t designed to stop scouts.
I would like to see a more authoritative preston in these playoffs – not in terms of how he acts in mumble but in terms of creating an increased presence in top-level matches. I feel that what I’ve seen from in pugs and scrims is that he’s very wise player, but one that has a nasty habit of passing up the smaller pushing windows that can make the different in close matches. And oh yes, this very balanced-yet-not-elite team is going to see a lot of those come playoffs....
I’m not going to go too far into detail about my co-writer here, but I do think that he’s done a good job at keeping everything in check this season. There were moments early on where it appeared that there was some trouble brewing in paradise (at least according to rumors), but nothing happened. That’s a sign of solid leadership in the team, and I know that London has been a huge part of this team’s newfound sense of zen and balance in S13.
This is a rugged little team that will hang around this bracket like a cockroach, scraping off wins and knocking teams out along the way. I think this ends for them later in the bracket – but not before they eliminate two teams from the tournament first. I’ll go for a 3-2 record and IM promotion from this technically sound bunch of lads. Maybe X makes an appearance at some point as well....
Trans-Autistic Railroad
12-4, 5th seed overall -- first match: slippin' with slipz
By: London Calling!
Every season there are a few teams in Open that come up with a group of mostly ex-IM players that look great on paper, have a rough start to the season, and then end the season looking as good in matches as they did on paper in the beginning of the season.
With easily the best team name in ESEA and well-seasoned players all around, Trans-Autistic Railroad is looking to mix things up in playoffs with their weird sense of humor and winning personalities.
On medic we have LtCrumpet (also known as adumbbaby) with his pocket Breloom (aliased as conductor) and on demoman is conductor (aliased as an emotionally charged girl-gamer with strong convictions named kailey).
Making all these clowns look good is Kohaku and Abramelin (pronounced friskybird) on scout and LdK on roamer, who have all shown to be strong players. All jokes aside, all these guys have been playing 6s for many seasons, most of them in IM at one point or another.
Looking at their performance throughout the season, it seemed that despite all this experience that the team synergy wasn’t quite all there, dropping rounds to mid-open teams and losing some early matches to a few playoff contenders.
By the end of the season, however, Trans-Autistic pulled it together to finish with a 12-4 record including two close wins over New Faith Church Gaming and Zaboomacrew. Their granary matches were fun and exciting to watch, and it was some of the best play we’ve seen from this team all season.
With a team page riddled with silly inside jokes, and a tag that simply says “McRib”, its apparent that these guys have fun with each other and can still play the game to win. This team has come a long way since nine weeks ago, and have shown that they will do well during playoffs and hopefully in IM next season. Their first match will be a good one versus slippin with slipz v2 whom Trans-Autistic lost 5-1 to on cp_process during the regular season. Good luck to both teams!
Toon Gang
12-4, 6th seed overall -- first match: zaboomacrew
By: radium
From the mouth of Bape: "The combo is the tank, and the scouts are the fighter jets." Poetic.
radium: Do you guys feel you have something to prove after FFW-gate against New Faith Church Gaming?
bape: Well we beat playground tactics after it was predicted by 2 people that we were gunna get 5 – 0’d so no not really. We don’t really care about that now.
radium: What are your teams goals heading into playofss? IM? The title?
bape: We are probably going to go into IM. We improve a lot faster when we play teams a lot better than us. We have been scrimming invite pug scrims for 4 days straight.
radium: What would you change about your own play if you had the opportunity to heading into playoffs?
bape: Well I dont have my computer right now so I dont have a 120hz monitor, my mouse, my mousepad, or my headset. I want to get my calling on point, and bl4nk is helping me with that.
radium: Props on getting bl4nk to help you. He has his own personal style of play, and if you can adopt it then I like your odds of reaching IM.
Alex_ortiz: We decided that we have trolled the community and we want to start again and not troll.
radium: How do you plan on beating the top teams in Open, assuming you win that one game to reach IM?
TWSS: We’re pretty sure we’ll get past Zaboomacrew, but our next match will be against the Crunchy Bunch. We’re nervous about that, but after that match will come granary, and as evidenced by our win on Playground Tactics we should do well there.
Bape: I was the only player on this team since process. We have not had the same starting lineup all season.
radium: Props on the synchro pickup. What do you demand of him on your team?
Bape: Synchro needs to do a shit ton of damage. He acts a support for our pocket in matches. He’s been picking up the slack for Bape while his computer went MIA. Power_Mangoes will play very aggressively.
One more good point from Bape:
“Playing with bl4nk has truly opened my eyes as to what TF2 can be. It is far more than DM, and I am now paying attention to recognizing what the other team is doing and my own personal gamesense.”
This is a team that feels like they’re beginning to gel together. They truly get along together seeing how they treat each other in an interview.
They are tactically changing how they push in order to emphasize the “big play”. They have shown concern about specific matchups with their current lineup (I couldn’t get them to elaborate on it).
I know that taking a supportive angle towards this team is going to put me on the wrong side of a lot of you in this community, but I don’t care. The only way that people can change is if you treat them as adults and help guide them into the right path. These guys are people that have flaws like all of us, so I hope this community chooses to give them one last chance going forward to redefine themselves as a serious, legitimate team.
I’m watching you, Bape. Good luck. I was absolutely blown away that a team so vilified my 90% of the community could actually be so open and willing to cooperate with me on this piece, so I’ve decided to give you a little rope to work with. Don’t you dare hang me with it.
I’ll keep my prediction short since I’m running a little long here. I think they’ll claw past Zaboomacrew in round 1 – although I’m not so sure about such a new project taking them as deep into the bracket as they are planning. There is more of a future behind this team than I initially thought – and backing from bl4nk might give them a bit of wisdom that the other teams in the loser’s bracket may lack. Perhaps a deep run could come from there? I’d bet on a 2-2 overall record – although there are so many moving pieces that everything is still on the table going forward for Toon Gang.
Tonight's Entertainment
12-4, 7th seed overall -- first match: very good bad boys
By: radium
...are any of you still reading this? Let’s go back to some facts about this team before you wander off to far.
I’ll be interested to see what comes from the scout pair this tournament. Thrasher and their newcomer demoman are known quantities – but they will become not as effective if their scouts don’t provide adequate cover on maps where offclassing is impractical. I don’t know if Open has a better sniper than dflame, but that’s only going to be a factor in specific situations – situations they won’t get to if they do not properly shore up the flank. This team can destroy anyone provided that dflame hits his shots and the demoman lays out the damage we know he can.
This is a team that might benefit some running more “sets” in which specific offclassing tactics are utilized. They become a totally different animal when they do. I’ve seen scrims and matches where it was so overbearingly good that it can force an ill-prepared team into playing a game that is not their own. Only a few open teams have the versatility to match up well with them – and that could make them a sneaky little underdog in the middle rounds.
As for the supporting cast: I like KTB’s deathmatching ability – and I respect his growing understanding of the position as well. He’s begun to chain in the beast a little bit and become a sound player that doesn’t beat himself up as he used to do. This might not reflect in his numbers – in fact it really doesn’t show in match stats at all – but in truth their new demoman would not have come up big like he has without his growth. Furthermore, I think thrasher will be given further creative license in the postseason, giving this back of tricksters some teeth.
This is not a title-winning side, but it’s a nasty dark horse and a difficult out. Perhaps they’re not well balanced, but this team’s organized chaos could give someone a bad headache on cp_snakewater. Another huge factor: there is little fatigue on this team as they have not been tested in the final two weeks (their one big match was a 5-0 roll vs. an unfocused contender. All-in-all I like this team a bit more than a sane man should, and I’ll figure them to end with a 2-2 record and IM promotion.
After speaking with dflame about this piece, he made a point of it that he no longer wants to be known in this community as an elite sniper – but rather as an elite scout. Unfortunately for him, I am not going to give him that title until he proves it to me in these playoffs against top open teams. He’s struggled at times as a scout during scrims against Wu-Tang Financial (my S13 team). As a pocket that used to scrim against him, I must say that his sniper was my number one concern when facing this team. His scout was a bit of an afterthought in my mind, even though he certainly was never a bad scout this season.
So you’re an elite scout now, dflame? Prove it. Make me eat my words.
gettin cozy
11-5, 8th seed overall -- first match: big boys
By: London Calling!
At the beginning of season 13, Gettin’ Cozy wasn’t on too many people’s radars right away, and with this being the first season of ESEA for four of the players on the team, that wasn’t too surprising. Not to say they didn’t have TF2 experience as all of the players on Gettin’ Cozy have been playing Platinum highlander for a few seasons now, and have decided to make a jump to a different format. The combo for Gettin Cozy features Cozen on medic and TF2 veteran Crazy Tom on pocket.
Crazy Tom is a more recent addition to this line up, playing the last 2 matches on cp_granary against their toughest opponents all season, Indust We Trust and The Crunchy Bunch.
SneakyPolarBear had been playing with them for the majority of the season and then left after some differences between him and cozen. While Sneaky had done a lot of damage in matches and put up some impressive stats throughout the season, the team felt like they had to step up their game past out fragging teams to compete with the top Open teams in playoffs.
On demo we have Frostfire, who shared a highlander team with Cozen on IFA Reborn. Atomsk is playing roamer for Gettin Cozy after playing in IM with Goomba and Friends last season, and also played on Reborn with Cozen and Frostfire.
On scout is KillEmAll, who plays on the Platinum team kLite, and Noko of Blunderful fame. While the team is pretty solid across the board with not one player really standing out as a carry, they all have great deathmatching ability (SO DAMAGE) that have let them easily roll over mid and low open teams.
They will be looking to get some revenge over some of the teams they had close losses to this season like Randy and Chums, where after being down 3-0 in the first half, rallied up and had a near-comeback in the second half bringing the score to 4-3. After their last two matches versus Indust We Trust and The Crunchy Bunch, these guys and gal have changed their focus to improving themselves as a team, reviewing maps and watching demos together in order to make some waves this post-season. Regardless of the results of their playoff matches, team captain Cozen is determined to keep playing 6s next season and will strive to do better every season, especially after a tough time last season on the appropriately named team, The Awfuls.
Maybe Gettin’ Cozy weren’t on too many radars earlier this season, but they definitely will be now. Their first match will be against BIG BOYS for the first match of playoffs, best of luck to them both!
BIG BOYS
11-5, 9th seed overall -- first match: getting cozy
By: radium
Does this team have the focus to win Open? Critics may say that they’re not sure after seeing their latest matches – which added up to an ugly 0-2 record on cp_granary.
I think such accusations are absolutely baseless, however. This is a team that had the playoffs sewn up already and wound up taking the foot off the pedal late in the season. They can make plays from virtually any position, and have an enviable amount of fragging ability. The problem with all of the DM they have is that I’ve seen them get lazy before and decide to grind past opponents they should crush by trying to win 1v1s the entire time while Bio goes on a meandering escapade that either winds up with him winning the whole round for his team after a huge set of picks - or throwing the round after an ill-timed death on cpgranary. If Bio plays a disciplined game then I honestly think that half of this field are going to piss themselves as his raw tools are downright scary. Vile – the other soldier in today’s BIG BOYS lineup – also had a weird run on cpgranary in which his positioning was not to his normal standard. I’m betting that he’ll shape that up in a hurry for the postseason. If he doesn’t then this playoff run is going to go belly-up in a hurry. Vile has really matured over the seasons – and I think he’s living proof that just because you were a blithering idiot at times back then doesn’t mean that you have to stay one. I hope the bandwagon is savvy enough to notice how the young man has changed his attitudes to the game – and is a better player because of it.
Let’s continue on about Vile here. He’s an intense kind of pocket that combines both incredible command and aggression – and these traits forced mistakes out of many of the weaker teams they played this season. I think that sometimes he takes minor advantages a little too far – which opens him up to good counter play on structured maps such as cp_granary. Overall, I think he’s a dominant player provided he keeps his nerves down and watches how much ground he’s taking when he pushes on minor advantages.
To reach the championship rounds, these absolutely tremendous building blocks will need to come into shape. Bio will need to come back down into this astral plane – and probably have to play some incredibly disciplined matches in the later rounds where he won’t hold a huge advantage in terms of DM.
BIG BOYS as a team have the opposite problem that most Open teams have – they’re often TOO aggressive, and wind up overcooking their own pushes and believing in their own aim to a fault. This is easy to correct, however – and if hooli kicks some ass in mumble and tightens this one key mistake up you can bet the whole farm that this will be a team that badly outplays it’s own seed.
They haven’t shown us 100% for a few weeks now. I think that they might be able to surprise a few teams if they can get back to that scary “second gear” we’ve seen from them before.
If hooli can keep this dangerous little science experiment under wraps, then BIG BOYS will be a team that blows the entire bracket into the stratosphere. They have some of the best raw DM and playmaking ability in all of Open – and I honestly think they even exceed The Crunchy Bunch and indust we trust in that regard. I just don’t know if they’ll be able to put out 100% in 4-5 consecutive games.
The scouts on BIG BOYS pack the movement and the sex appeal that we all like to watch, but the real question will be can they combine seamlessly on the flank? I think they could do so in time for the playoffs, even though I do expect them to struggle at times to stay at home and show constant discipline (which is another bad thing that happened to them on cp_granary). In terms of DM, I think they’re in the better half of all playoff teams and will not struggle in the early rounds of the tournament. The limiting factors will be a lack of attentiveness to the flank and a lack of positional awareness (they can be caught out chasing at times). To be fair, these are just minor points – but it’s what I’d like to see from a team that is a contender to bust the whole bracket. Margins of victory can be thin in this division, and that is one of those “winning margins “ in my opinion.
I think that they’ll win 2-3 matches – but exit the tourney after a few “off” nights in the middle rounds. They have a ton of raw potential, but I don’t know if they’ll maximize it. This coming offseason will be huge for them going into S14 IM. What will Bio’s role be? Will Walka come back to roamer? Are there going to be new faces in camp? I almost want to think that hooli should just stay with what he has – as further replacements could complicate the team’s coordination in S14.
Very Good Bad Boys
11-5, 10th seed overall -- first match: tonight's entertainment
By: London Calling!
The tradition of having pre-game speeches meant to pump up your team have somewhat fallen by the wayside, but not for Very Good Bad Boys. After listening to a hilarious pre-recorded rally speech by team captain buckweet, one really gets an idea of how much fun these guys had this season.
And what a season it was: after a solid start to the season with six wins, the boys had a tough five game losing streak and then came back in the second half of the season to end with a respectable 11-5 record. After a great comeback from what would have killed a lesser team in this division, VGBB has to be feeling good, especially as it is their combo, roamer, and demo’s first season. Both of the soldiers on this team, north^star and buckweet, are both coming from Counter-Strike to come try out TF2, while their medic OMZ and demoman master are both ESEA virgins.
Formerly on Soft-Served in season 11 (now known as Playground Tactics), the scouts Jay and Jesus represent the more experienced TF2 players on the team. According to buckweet, their biggest strength “is the fact we don’t just show up in mumble for scrims and matches. We enjoy one another’s company enough to hang out in mumble when we aren’t practicing, and play other games together.
One of the main goals when North^Star and I were forming the team was to find a group of people we enjoy being around. We learned in our years of playing counterstrike competitively that these types of team games are only as fun as the people you play them with. Besides that, our pocket’s damage output is supreme.” Going through a roster mix-up after cpmetalworks week and having some internet issues that magically cured themselves before cpbadlands matches are just a few things that have made this first season for the Very Good Bad Boys an interesting one.
While the team has been tested against a few playoff teams already in the regular season, hopefully by this point they have worked out the kinks and will bring the same performance we saw from them at the end of the season, walking away from three solid victories against Aurora Lights, DJINNOCIDE, and Suddenly TF2. The match against Aurora Lights was especially entertaining, as the boys were trailing 3-2 in the first half and then came back to win the match 5-3. Mistakes were made by both teams throughout the match, north^star made some truly huge plays to save the day, including a beautiful airshot on Rigel while jumping the medic, dropping the enemy combo and then somehow making it back to his medic! Every time it looked like VGBB would truly lose the initiative, they would come back and take the round. Expect to see some sweet sniping from Jesus and ridiculous pipes from master.
A few things that the boys would like to add:
“First off, just wanna express our love to papa johns, never fails to give the squirts. Love ya John. Secondly, we want to give a shoutout to SizzlingCalamari and Technosex, we’ve been loving the use of sizzling stats, keep up the good work. Lastly, shoutouts to kyky, blockhead, hrorek, and manderson. CHEERS and glhf to all in playoffs.” Their first match will be against Tonight’s Entertainment, a great match up for the first round.
Zaboomacrew
11-5, 11th seed overall -- first match: toon gang
By: radium
This will be done differently than the other sections as I’ve know shlaner for quite some time and have therefore built a talking relationship with him.
radium: Imagine that you’re the Toon Gang. How would you gameplan against your own team on a general level?
shlaner: Umm. Take note of which players are weaker, and abuse it. Do I have to give you a long answer? :P
radium: Some people would say that Avast is your carry. What is your response to such claims?
shlaner: Avast is not our carry but he is definitely a very strong player. He does good damage and knows what he is doing. He can work on things, but that can be said about anyone. Our team is generally a very well balanced team.
radium: Name one player on your team now that nobody knows about – but will know about come later next season as a star.
shlaner: (after some thought) kace – but I can’t say that no one knows him.
Keeping in the interview theme, I’ll move to a little mini-scouting report of how to approach Zaboomacrew from Rex of The Crunchy Bunch:
Rex: [I’d approach them] with confidence. I’d shut down okas by sticking together and not 1v1ing him if it can be avoided. Perey seems to drop shlaner more than he should - take advantage of that.
radium: How do you counter a demo like Avast?
Rex: Sticky chokes, hes a solid demo but its not something that needs to be particularly worried about. Okas and shlaner are the ones to matter. Avast is good support but I don’t really see him as a play maker.
By opening your ears and simply listening you can damn well guarantee that you will always learn something new from other people. I’ve always seen Avast as a sort of a semi-carry, setting up all of the plays with his immense damage output. I never considered the perspective that perhaps his good play was being cued by the hard work of okas (who is a relatively new player into the side).
If Zaboomacrew are a scout dependent team as it was suggested, then this really sets up some complicated matchups in round 1 against Toon Gang. I would see them as an underdog in such a match – but a timely explosion from okas could cue an upset considering what I’ve learned about Toon Gang from a candid conversation with them earlier yesterday evening.
They will need some help going forward. The matchup they get in the loser’s bracket will be huge. They’ve got the firepower to overcome Randy and Chums – but do they have the nerve to hold an early lead against ex-invite players that have long known how to dig out a hard victory? Can they find a strong 2nd banana behind okas – is shlaner already there in terms of skill? Can they keep Avast clean at mid long enough for him to dictate the pace of the game – allowing for their stronger players to shine?
At this time, I think it is also important to metion that this is a team that has decidedly good maps where they can beat anybody, and bad maps in which I’ve seen mid/high teams show up and give them a proper hiding.
I think okas makes a difference in the lower bracket and this team steals one of the final bids to next season’s IM. With that said, should they take the promotion if they can achieve it? This is a team that could grow a whole lot more from one more season in which they are not just an also-ran, but a true contender for the title. However, if this team does go 1-2 in playoffs and decides to NOT go into IM, will players such as Avast and okas ulitmately choose to stay on? Decisions, decisions....
slippin' with slipz
11-5, 12th seed overall -- first match: trans-autistic railroad
By: London Calling!
If you are looking for tips to go from offclassing to onclassing in 16 games or less, the team formerly known as Basic’s Octopus Emporium are the people to talk to. Undergoing many roster shake-ups throughout the season, the starting line-up for the aptly named slippin with slipz v2 will be slipz on medic, bsc on pocket, defiance on demo, reemix and dana scully on scout, and tooth on roamer.
It seems that its taken these guys all season to find their comfort zones with everyone switching to different roles and classes throughout the season, with slipz having a horrible match on cpgullywash on soldier, bsc moving to pocket early in the season after playing scout, and dana going back to his roots on medic for awhile before switching places with slipz on scout recently, which seems to have been a good decision after reviewing their last match of the season versus Big Boys. All this roster shuffling has produced some inconsistent results during the regular season, but it looks like are happy with their current starting roster. While there have been some close losses for this team, particularly during cpbadlands week against The Peppercock Family, this team definitely has shown they can beat top Open teams as well with some great performances in both of their cp_snakewater matches.
Slippin with Slipz v2 will be somewhat of a wild card with their twelfth place seed, as their current line-up seems very strong and fully capable of finishing in the top five at the end of the post-season.
Their first match will be against Trans-Autistic Railroad, whom they had a decisive 5-1 victory over in week 1 on cp_process, however, both of these teams have come such a long way in terms of roster changes and team synergy throughout the season that it would be hard to say this will be a repeat performance. Five out of six of these players have played in IM, and it would be great to see this team get bumped up, even if their only goal would be to kill another IM team next season.
Although, if you really want to beat this team, apparently the secret is to have bsc mentor you, because he eventually loses to all the teams he mentors. All jokes aside, best of luck to this team in the upcoming playoffs!
The Peppercock Family
11-5, 13th seed overall -- first match: playground tactics
By: London Calling!
It’s rare to see teams with any kind of theme that isn’t boring and contrived these days, but The Peppercock Family has some great personality and great players. It seems though, that the original theme of aliasing to some Peppercock or another was interrupted by some roster mix ups due to some scheduling conflicts, but you can’t say they didn’t try. You’ll still see their scouts aliasing to something hilarious during scrims, most recently as Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin.
The roster has a mixture of older players and newer players with a rollercoaster of wins and losses throughout the season, but their starters for playoffs will be a force to be reckoned with. The affectionately named Nigel and Simon Peppercock (TwitchJohn and Zalfy, respectively) are a strong scout pair that have made a good showing in open this season.
Their demoman is eddeh, aliasing as Harry Peppercock, who played a bunch of games with Feces and Friends last season and sharing the roster with the current team captain of the Peppercocks, Reginald Peppercock. Reginald (or hle000) will be playing roamer for playoffs, with wieks on pocket and kissme on medic. This will be kissme and hle’s first full season of ESEA, and they seem pretty pleased with the team as far as the regular season goes.
In fact, one of the biggest challenges they faced was just getting some of their older players to dust off the cobwebs and for their newer players to get up to speed.
The second half of the season showed that this team is a real top 10 contender with an upset 5-4 victory over Slippin With Slipz, and then winning some hearts and minds with their last match.
For those not in the know, their last match against Zaboomacrew was delayed and had to be rescheduled due to client issues, but unfortunately Zaboomacrew wouldn’t have been able to reschedule in time. Instead of taking the forfeit win which would have knocked Zaboomacrew out of the playoff running, the Peppercocks decided to let them have the forfeit win instead in order for them to stay in it. Often times its easy to forget in such a competitive setting that its okay to be decent human beings, but The Peppercock Family have set the example for how teams should truly act in the spirit of good sportsmanship and true competition.
Regardless of how either team does in playoffs, this act of generosity should be an example to all players on how to have respect for your peers and the spirit of the game.
Randy and Chums
10-6, 14th seed overall -- first match: the crunchy bunch
By: London Calling!
A lot of people were asking the question of why there were former Invite/IM players playing in Open this season, and the answer is simple: play to have a little fun with your friends while still playing competitively and striving to win. But even with this attitude going forward, there were still some bumps in the road for these guys, with multiple roster shake-ups and position changes throughout the season. The starting line-up for playoffs will be blacky on pocket, fearless on demoman, spammy on medic, showstopper on roamer, and kraka and snowy (also known as bunny) on scout.
While they have only been playing with that roster for a week, it seems to have been a lot better than previous weeks. Randy and Chums may be comfortable now, but their season has had its fair share of ups and downs, mainly with a few inexperienced players making a hard transition into ESEA who are playing with players with experience of higher tier TF2. Despite some of these issues though, they are still trying to have fun, which is easier said than done in a competitive setting. But when your medic drops 2 ubers to a market gardening soldier (hence the team picture that reads “I don’t always drop uber, but when I do, its to a market gardening soldier”) and your high DM scout randomly goes negative in a match, sometimes you just have to laugh it off and call snowy a cheater.
These guys are friends first and really show that you can still play 6s and have a good time without being too serious. It would also be fair that unlike a few teams in playoffs, Randy and Chums have played relatively good teams throughout the season, and even after some rough games towards the end of the season, still have good attitudes going into playoffs With some close wins over a few high-open teams in the regular season and a somewhat disappointing loss on cp_snakewater against Slippin With Slipz, it will be interesting to see if this new evolution of the roster has put the time in to cause some upsets.
It is unclear as to what the plans are for next season with this team, but hopefully we will see some of them stay together to play in IM in season 14. Best of luck to these guys in the post-season, it will be one to remember!
New Faith Church Gaming
10-6, 15th seed overall -- first match: hanky panky
By: radium
It’s a good thing to see this team survive in spite of the travesty that recently involved them (FFW-gate) and Toon Gang. However, this team is going to have their work cut out for them now that they’ve clawed into the postseason. The opening match of the tournament for them will likely not end well, so they’ll need to make do with the loser’s bracket and try to earn an IM placement through that route.
In terms of overall form, it’s not looking that good. After a commanding 6-0 start, they finished at a very pedestrian 4-6, and have not played their best TF2 since a 5-2 win over bsc’s team on cp_badlands.
This is not all that balanced of a team, and they also lack consistency in terms of overall performance this season. Cprice has been the one constant performer all season, and he packs respectably good DM with relatively good positioning. He is not a particularly aggressive pocket, but in spite of this he’s able to put out commendable damage output similar to that of a demoman. Cprice is a classy guy – and I kind of hope he can make IM next season because he deserves it on the merit of what he’s helped his team achieve so far.
Cbn, the roamer, is also putting out some nice damage for the most part. So far this season, he has shown that he can put up top-level performances against playoff open teams. I think part of what has helped him is that he is not on a team that asks for him to senselessly bomb everywhere, as much like typhus is a deeper player than that who deserves to have more asked from him. His growth over the past season (I’ve witnessed this myself) has been really staggering. I think he’s going to be in IM before we all expect him to get there.
The current/past strategy of this team (and thanks to cbn for his input), revolves around clorg playing as a heal-heavy demoman that can press enemy teams into mistakes. Unfortunately, that is often stripping precious healing points away from the scouts. As a result, the scouts are unable to play at a consistent level and suffer from constantly being at a health disadvantage against other scouts. Even further, if Cprice could see more heals himself, then there is a decent chance that he would be able to dominate come playoff time and just MAYBE be able to win his team a match or two.
Thankfully cbn is claiming that changes will be made – and that clorg is being asked to move into a passive background role while the inconsistent scout pair are going to receive a greater chunk of heals. He’s expecting the results in matchplay to step up as they have in scrims so far with the recent changes. Apparently, there is also a little pressure on crypt to put good games together – he’s played well one day, and then gone invisible the next. That can’t happen if this team is to reach the promised land.
The problem with making such a harsh change on such short order is that telling your oft-aggressive demoman to change his colors can often destroy his own confidence – doing more damage to the team than good. In addition, are we all willing to buy that the scouts on this team will take the heals clorg doesn’t get and push their own play forward? Cbn and company are taking a HUGE gamble by making such a key tactical change this late in the game.
I think these tactical changes are a very good thing. What I don’t like is the timing, however. At some point, you need to kiss the girl you took to the dance and work on refining your style instead of blowing the current tactics book up right before the biggest matches in team history. Everything is riding on this risk.
I’m sorry, but I don’t buy that things are going to come into form fast enough. Furthermore, there’s a chance they fall short even IF clorg can adjust as needed. I don’t like their odds in round 1 against Hanky Panky, and even seeing the 10th seed in the bracket may not be the respite they think it will be. They have the talent to steal a match and make IM, but I want to see a good show from them against Hanky Panky before I stick my neck out and say that they win a game.
Rent-A-Homies
10-6, 16th seed overall -- first match: indust we trust
By: radium
Give these guys credit – they’ve wildly overachieved this season, reaching the postseason with a roster that really didn’t scare anyone on paper. With that said, they’ve got a few pieces of the puzzle needed to go on a nice multi-season run. The objective this season will be to pick up valuable postseason experience in order to allow for further growth down the line. This team will be special if they can survive the lickings they take in this postseason go-around.
Looking at their body of work this season, they seem to have made bank by beating everyone that they should have in the bottom half – however they have struggled so far against teams with a winning record. That might be an issue now that they’re going to play opponents that are equal to or better than the teams that they’ve already lost to this season.
If there is someone on this team that could possibly cause problems for an elite team such and indust we trust, it will be serv0. I haven’t seen anyone this season step it up like he has over the course of the season. He’s single-handedly taken games over for this team, and without him I don’t know if they’d have made it to the playoffs this season. His damage output is absolutely fantastic, and he provides a framework from which everyone else in the team can work from.
Shenn should become one of the most complete scouts in Open after this coming offseason (where he’ll surely shore up the deficiencies in DM that have stopped him against elite competition this season). I think Shenn brings a lot of intangible qualities to the table, but he needs to introduce some additional aggression as well as tune up his scatter aim in order to take the next step forward.
Going back to serv0, I think we need to sit and respect the fact that we may be witnessing the birth of a future star – and I sincerely hope that he doesn’t let his confidence get too far to his head. Personally, I don’t think it will since I’ve only known him to be a grounded individual with a selfless attitude.
Fuzion is an alright roamer. He’s capable of making plays that are needed – and he converts a decent percentage of his forcing attempts from the matches I’ve seen. He’s also another “team” guy as well – although anyone would look like a “team” guy compared to the force that is also known as serv0.
Nomadicc puts out good damage numbers, although he isn’t as influential as some of more dominant demos in Open. He must step it up early in the postseason or this team could go home quickly. If Nomadicc can outlay early damage at mid (keyword: early), then I think Rent-A-Homies have the combo play to catch a team out of place in the lower bracket.
According to other sources, a key flaw in this team going forward has been poor link-up play between combo side and flank side. That must get shored up for this team to have an outside shot of making IM. Perhaps our white knight can not only lead in damage and frags, but can also lead in terms of communication? It’s a lot to put on his plate, however – so maybe this would be a good time for someone else in the side to prove themselves as elite and step up. I think a player like fuzion could do well if he studies the communication style and attitudes of Jaeger when it comes to team development. By next season I think he could begin to mold into that archetype – and that could make this team good for 14-15 wins next season. No, that’s not a misprint – this team has THAT much of a solid foundation to work with.
Great guys, great improvements, great potential. With that said, they’re a season away from being good enough to topple the kinds of teams needed to make a run this season. Two and out – although don’t be shocked if they steal a bunch of rounds in the lower bracket. I’d be scared to play this team next season – real scared.