Several of the most elite teams in Oceania aims to win the highest prize of all (Banner by jen).

With everyone in the world suddenly finding themselves with ample time to frag, ozfortress has seen one of the biggest signup booms in recent memory. Season 27, which officially concluded on April 18th had 39 teams competing for glory over four divisions. As of the writing of this article, Season 28 has a whopping 52 teams signed up to battle it out in the Oceanic region’s premier tournament, making OZF 28 the biggest season in ozfortress history.

As for the elite of the Oceanic region, there's an extra incentive this season in the form of a $3000 AUD prize pool. Teams in the Premier division will each have a crack at winning this prize thanks to the incredible generosity of multiple incomes such as Patreon supporters and other sources, who both knocked the community over with $500 AUD donations less than a week from the season's start date. On ya mates!

So let’s take a look at some of the potential front runners, in no particular order, starting with:

Jasmine Beef

• Scout: silvo
• Scout: lau
• Roamer: Elmo.
• Pocket: susurrus
• Demoman: Paulsen
• Medic: Dave

A familiar face to many, but with a grass-fed twist for this season. Players will recognize names such as Paulsen and Dave from their famous appearances at i58 and Rewind LAN with Jasmine Tea. Veteran Scout Elmo. joins them on Roaming Soldier off the back of a 1st place victory in OZF 27 with happy feet. Elmo. is a long-standing member of various iterations of Jasmine Tea and is widely regarded as one of the strongest players in ozfortress history. With an unbelievable ten 1st place victories, nine best Scout awards, four best utility awards, and 2 MVP awards under his belt,Elmo. is a force to be reckoned with. Joining them on Pocket Soldier is susurrus. Regarded as one of the strongest scouts in the AU region, susurrus is coming off of a third-place finish in OZF 27 with NoG and a first-place victory with Team Victoria in ozfortress’ recent State v State tournament. lau and silvo round out the roster each on Scout by bringing a high level of experience and DM ability to the roster. Team captain Paulsen had this to say about his new roster:

I think the community should be extremely excited for this season. The sheer amount of beef that will be served up by Cooki and Elmo alone will be an astonishing sight to behold. The total number of failed rocket jumps from this unstoppable duo will be truly unparalleled; matched only by the illustrious heights set by Dave's average number of drops per map. Not only this, Dave has also assured us that his overall brain cell count has finally surpassed this number too, with Silvo and Lau's combined amount of skull indents not lagging far behind. Despite how impressive all these statistics are, the number of digits required to write down even a fraction of my current reaction time still dwarfs them all.

Given all this, anything less than the complete and utter obliteration of every other team in prem is impossible. Reaching the grand final and taking it in a clean 3 map sweep is a certainty that will have to be pried from our rodent-like claws (even with the constant distraction of Enrith begging us to watch k-drama with him...)

BUTTERFLY DEFECT

• Scout: krollic
• Scout: Raze
• Roamer: Shupah
• Pocket: Spade
• Demoman: deft
• Medic: v4na

BUTTERFLY DEFECT is made up players from a few different teams, most notably krollic, Raze, and Spade from BUTTERFLY EFFECT who are coming off of a nail-biting second place in Season 27. This core has played together in OZF 25 and 27 taking second place both times. krollic (A.K.A. Rocky) is known as one of the strongest DM players in ozfortress, mostly for his Pocket Soldier. In recent seasons he’s taken up the role of the combo Scout and has been putting out excellent performances. Raze, Spade, and deft are all also known for their high-level DM abilities and each has made podium finishes in Premier in recent memory. Shupah and v4na complete the roster, both bringing considerable experience with them, making BUTTERFLY DEFECT a very dangerous team. Team captain deft had this to say about his team’s roster:

Butterfly Effect has had strong performances in the past and we hope to live up to or exceed the previous expectations that they had. It was made clear that a positive team atmosphere was a necessity this season given past experiences. The $3000 AUD prize pool for Premier creates even more incentive for us to continue to show up and put in the effort.

Spade also contributed:

rky is a defect

Head Cavers

• Scout: Sam.
• Scout: dauq
• Roamer: riot
• Pocket: HERTZ
• Demoman: enrith
• Medic: doge.exe has stopped working

Head Cavers look to be a serious contender this season with some of the strongest names on each role. Sam., enrith, doge.exe has stopped working, and HERTZ all have been at the top of Premier for over ten seasons with various different teams. The latter three are coming off of a 3rd place finish with NoG in OZF 27 in which enrith took out the “Best Demoman” award. These stats add to enrith’s illustrious career including seven “Best Demoman” awards and three MVP awards. riot adds more power to the roster as one of the key parts of Coffee Clock’s rise to the top of ozfortress in past seasons, now looks to dismantle some of his former teammates and potentially add to his own three “Best Roamer” awards. Finishing the roster is dauq, one of the best up-and-comers in recent memory. dauq is the most unknown factor on Head Cavers, and to see where his head is at moving into the top of Premier we reached out to him for a comment:

I am eager to shed the dauq pack label shrouding my career by smoking my foes on the battlefield.

Team captain HERTZ also had this to say about his new roster:

We are doomed. Enrith has been getting worse and worse over the last few months and I dont see us winning this season, he first has lost us many seasons due to his ridiculous ego and believing that he does not need to practice as everyone demo in au other than himself are garbage. Last season was a wake up call but Enrith is still sleeping and no matter how many phone calls, he wont wake up for our scrims, we believe this must be related to his k-drama nights with Lau and its done nothing but harm to our team environment as he cannot stop talking about all of his drawings. Regardless of the current situation we have agreed that we should take on the "friend" approach and create a team that has nothing but good vibes. As Enrith would say, Friendship is magical and Hentai is an industry that he wants to get himself into. You wouldn't believe all the drawings he has of Kung Fu Panda.......

happy feet

• Scout: AiShou
• Scout: down
• Roamer: Feyn
• Pocket: yewl
• Demoman: redcoatzygote
• Medic: dogroll

happy feet is the new name for a core of players that called themselves Coffee Clock a few short seasons ago. The team consisted of a core of players that started playing together in OZF 21. While players may have taken a season off here and there, redcoatzygote, riot, and yewl have spent the last eight seasons playing together. Star scout AiShou takes on the role of combo Scout, even with the higher ping that comes with connecting from Singapore. He has had no problem ripping through all the competition ozfortress can throw at him for the last eight seasons. redcoatzygote and yewl have become quite the combo since their first season together back in OZF 22. Together they have taken five first-place victories in every season since they joined forces. down, who takes on the role of flank Scout, joined in OZF 25 and has contributed to their dominance in no small part. Feyn and dogroll complete the roster with both players have been around the top of premier for the last few seasons, most notably finishing second in Season 27 with BUTTERFLY EFFECT as the pair looks to reach grand finals once again and this time take the cake.

redcoatzygote commented:

Let's just say we're breaking some records this season

Oceanic TF2 looks to be in a superb place going forward with both recording-breaking signups and prize pools, the teams listed above will begin fighting it out in the usual eight-team bracket on Sunday, May 24th. As always you’ll be able to watch the action over at TFLIVE and CappingTV.

A big shoutout to the ozfortress staffs for putting together their biggest season yet, we can expect big things from Down Under!