I'm still pretty inexperienced at this, so if anyone has any constructive tips/feedback on my writing or analysis, let me know!

I want that MOTW to be casted just so I can hear a caster say "Café is pushing through Café"

i46 was the first international one and Mixup swept it and LG only lost to Mixup.

i49 HRG (b4nny's team, successor to LG) went along with Immunity from Australia. HRG had a dissapointing showing and lost to TCM to take third. Immunity was really good but collapsed vs. TCM and took 4th. It was an all Euro final which Epsilon won.

i52 felt like a culmination of sorts because there were three International teams: Froyotech (b4nny's team again), Mixup (with TLR and Seagull pocketing and roaming), and Immunity (this time with a upgrades on scout and demo). Epsilon and Awsomniac (Kaidus's team with Mirelin and others) were the main Euro contenders. Those top 5 were far and away the best teams there. Aws turned out to be a bit worse than the other top 5 and took 5th. IM, Mix, and Epsi were really super close in strength with multiple Bo3's going to golden caps between them. In the end Epsi came out victorious vs Mix in the lower bracket final, but then they collapsed the next day vs Froyo in the final. It was a great tournament but Froyo was dominant and didn't drop a map in the knockout stages.

i55 this summer we probably won't have an AUS team because Immunity is dead, so it'll probably be back to two NA teams. Probably 4G and (pick one: 20b or Ele or Mad Men) depending on what happens after lan.

6v6: Lots of players are gone, but there's a steady cycle of players leaving and coming back. For example, Carnage and kbk are both back after taking like 4+ seasons off.

B4nny's team froyotech (aka 4g) is really dominant. They took i52 decisively and assuming they go they'll probably do it again at i55.

The top 4 teams NA are 4g, and then 2nd through 4th are pretty close between Street Hoops, eLevate, and Mad Men. You should root for Street Hoops though. Trust me.

A reformed Epsilon won i49 and took 2nd at i52, the EU scene looks really tight right now between the top 4 teams (Suave [remnants of Epsi], BK [Scandinavian team], AGP [Frenchies], and Reason [Kaidus' team]). But none of them look as strong/dominant as Froyotech.

Immunity, Australia's top team, went to i49 and i52 and got 4th place both times, but they were really a top 3 team especially at i52. Now they're dead, so that's sad. RIP

In NA there was a Cevo fiasco where the community got split up for reasons. Now its just ESEA again and although RIP Cevo it's good that we had 60 Open teams again and we seem to be growing once more so that's good.

I'm terrible at this game so I won't even try to talk about how the meta has changed. Someone else should totally do that though.

oh boy more taunts just what this game needs right now

Are there any other top level AUS teams that might go? It would be kinda sad to see the number of continents represented at i55 go down :/

And that's what highlander is for, not 6v6.

We saw the Valve showmatches. Yes, not all the unlocks were viable, but the inclusion of things like the BFB completely broke down the structure of the game and made it pretty un-enjoyable to watch and (from what I understand) play, especially as a longer-term competitive form as opposed to just a few pugs.

51:55

I will stick by my pred and say 5-4 eLevate.

Also because it would be really cool if the 20b, eLe, and Mad Men all split with each other going into lan. That would really make it unclear who's getting 2nd through 4th and would hopefully mean some really tight Bo3's.

Should be a great match either way though!

I have never seen a spy get a 3k after getting called out. Twice.

If you missed it 41:35 in the VOD for Alfa literally turning around after finding a spy.

Yes, and I have no regrets. :) And thank you.

Awesome, looking forward to the casts!

People seem to be liking this, so I will probably try to do a writeup again next week or the week after (unless invite power rankings resume). So, if you're an invite player who wants to make the next writeup more informative and less me blabbering about how good 20b is, then add me and tell me about your team (and trash talk others)!

Quick summary:
The top four teams are currently Froyo, 20b, Mad Men, and eLevate. Cisco is the only other team with a chance of making lan, but they need to start beating the top teams: specifically, they absolutely need to take either their match vs. eLevate this week, or their match vs. Mad Men next week. If they lose both those matches, they’ll be lucky to even reach a 9-7 record. Even if they do take the matches they need to, they might still need an upset from Daddies or Yomies to make it to lan.

Matches to watch:

1. eLevate vs. Cisco on Badlands, scheduled for Wednesday, February 18th.

Because eLevate is currently 4th with a 6-3 record, this is the match that Cisco needs if they want to have a shot at lan. In Cisco’s write-up we saw how if they beat Mad Men but not eLevate, they would still need Daddies to help them out to have a shot at lan. But if Cisco beat eLevate, the Lan race explodes. eLevate are then tied with Cisco with a 6-4 record, and anything could happen. Personally, I think eLevate is the better team (their scout combo Decimate + Shrugger in particular is really top-notch) so I believe they will pull through with a 5-3 score.

5-3 eLevate

Players to watch: Xalox, Squid, Decimate, Shrugger.

2. Street Hoops vs. Mad Men on Badlands, set for Wednesday, February 18th.

Another great match, but I expect Street Hoops to take this. This isn’t just because I’m a #20believer, it’s also because Street Hoops beat Mad Men 5-1 on Process. That was only 4 weeks ago, and I just don’t think Mad Men have improved enough to take this.

5-2 Street Hoops

Players to watch: Ninjanick, Grape, Deadbolt, Ash, Paragon, Cyzer.

3. eLevate vs. Mad Men on Badlands, set for Thursday, February 19th.

This should simply be a good match between two teams that are fairly close in strength. If Mad Men win, they should be set for lan while eLevate will be in danger, especially if they lose match #1. If eLevate win, Mad Men will want a win vs. Cisco on Sunshine (scheduled for February 25th) to secure their spot for sure. I think that eLevate are the better team now that they’ve had the chance to play with their new roster for a couple months, so I think they’ll pull this one out.

5-4 eLevate

Players to watch: Shrugger, Decimate, Harbleu, YouMustMike.

_________________________________________________________

Huge shoutout to Kevin for reading this before I posted it!!

Thanks for reading my write-up! If you liked it, tell me and maybe I'll do another! :)

Edit: typo

Hello everyone! I noticed there hasn't been much Invite content lately, so I decided to write a completely and totally unofficial update for those who want to know how the lan race is going but aren't following Invite super closely.

Alright then, let’s talk about competitive video games!

Standings
Stats

Current Rankings:

1. froyotech (9-0)
With Mixup dead and eLevate changing their roster, I think pretty much everyone expected 4g to stay on top this season. So far, they have satisfied all expectations, despite only scrimming on match nights. 4g haven't given up more than 2 rounds in a match, and their only game where they looked shaky was against the Daddies, where the first half was 2-2 before Lansky’s 370 dpm pulled 4g through to a 5-2 final score. At this point, 4g is guaranteed a lan spot for sure, although it was never really in doubt. Granary week (first week of March) should provide them with their closest matchups before lan, as they will play eLevate and Street Hoops.

2. Street Hoops eSports (7-2)
Street Hoops look strong. They have kept their full roster from last season and I believe their #2 spot to be well-earned. Looking at their results with other top teams, they have split with eLevate and beaten Mad Men once, and they did manage to take a round off 4g on Viaduct. Barring some major catastrophe, 20b should have their lan spot secured, as they will have forfeits off of Monet and R5, and it’s hard to see them losing to the Yomies although I’m sure that it will be a hard-fought match. Look out for 20b’s matches vs. Mad Men this week (Badlands) and Cisco next (Sunshine) because as we will see 20b definitely has the ability to indirectly affect the lan race.

3. The Mad Men (7-2)
The Mad Men aren’t out of the woods yet. Although their record is good and their roster is strong, they have a very tough Badlands week coming up with matches against 20b and eLevate. If they lose both of those matches, then they will have to beat Cisco on Sunshine to stay ahead of the field. However, I like the Mad Men’s odds. They have proven that they can hang with the top of invite, and although stranger things have happened it would be very odd to see a 7 and 2 team not make lan. The next five matches that Mad Men play (vs. 20b, eLe, Cisco, Daddies and Yomies) will all be very important. If they take 3 out of those 5 matches, they will be guaranteed a lan spot with an 11-5 record. Even if they take 2 out of the 5, they will probably be fine with a 10-6 record. Any less, and they will be in serious danger.

The only piece of actual strategy related news with regards to Mad Men is that apparently YouMustMike and Seymour are switching, so Mike is now going to be the passive scout while Seymour will be the aggressive one. I know Mike is one of their main callers so I’m optimistic that having him closer to the combo will help Mad Men out. We should get to see this week, however, and 20b and eLevate will provide them a very tough challenge on Badlands.

4. eLevate (6-3)
eLevate have, by losing to 20b in a flame-ridden (literally) match on Gullywash last week, put themselves in danger of not making lan. By all accounts, they are a top-3 team and should make the cut. But they really need a strong performance this week on Badlands. They face Cisco and Mad Men. If they beat Cisco, they should be set, because Cisco is their only rival for the lan spot, so to knock them down to a 5-5 record would really make things difficult for Cisco.

5. Cisco (5-4)
For the first 6 weeks of the season, Cisco looked like a team that was better on paper than in reality. But I think Cisco have been getting better, and I both hope and believe that they will give eLevate and/or Mad Men a run for the 4th lan spot. In my view, their results against top teams provide evidence for this improvement… Let’s take a look in chronological order:

0-5 loss vs. 20b on Process
1-5 loss vs. eLevate on Process
3-5 loss vs. Mad Men on Metalworks
4-0 win vs. Daddies on Viaduct

For Cisco to make lan, they need to beat eLevate or Mad Men. They had a closer result against Mad Men so let’s say they manage that while losing to eLevate. Assuming eLevate and 20b beat Mad Men on Badlands this week, at that point Mad Men will still be heading for a 10-6 finish vs. 9-7 for Cisco. Which means that we would need a heroic upset to come from the one, the only…

6. Ding Dong Daddy (3-6)
That’s right, everyone’s favorite memers will need to stage an upset or two of their own to make lan race interesting. Although they can’t make it to lan themselves, they can open the door for Cisco by beating Mad Men or eLevate. Although it may not be likely, Daddies have shown they can hang with the top of invite, so it could happen. Daddies should have two forfeits this week on Badlands vs. R5 and Monet, so I don’t have much to talk about there.

7. A New Yomie (2-6)
The Yomies have in my opinion done very well given how strong invite is this season. I don’t know much about them and I’d rather say little than make stuff up, so I will just say that they clearly have a lot of DM talent, and I think if they stick around next season the rounds they are taking off teams like Mad Men (http://play.esea.net/index.php?s=stats&d=match&id=4086951) will be become matches.

8. Show Me the Monet (1-8)
I am pretty sure Monet is well and truly dead, because Ictus has left and that leaves only 5 paid players. I guess that means only $30 goes to the snow leopards. RIP. :`(

9. R5 (0-9)
Sorry, I don’t have anything to say here… RIP R5.

Edit: typos

It would be really nice if we could step up our game as a community and send three teams, two NA and one from somewhere else. Maybe MONSTER (Brazil), maybe an Asian team, maybe a different/new Australian team. I dunno which. For me, that would be the best case. Maybe it's unreasonable, but I thought it was worth mentioning.