guys just fyi:

sometimes when people put things in quotes, they're not being serious about them

like this

ckap that is definitely a "normal and appropriate reaction" to a forum post.

hm. player makes a thread looking for a mentor and asking for people to ignore mistakes he made in the past so he can move forward and get some help with his game.

In the thread you get people reminding him that nobody likes him and people pointing out the mistakes that he's looking to correct with a mentor.

cool

lonely hearts is not playing this season, according to sherman gluck

http://sizzlingstats.com/stats/59998

http://sizzlingstats.com/stats/59983

the most recent testaments to Paragon's ability.

Dude is a monster.

Also, some other teams to watch as the season starts:

The Robot Cult - I know Air pretty well and he's an absolute monster with 300 health, and the rest of his team supports him well, it seems.

Medical Geniuses - Stochast1c's team has been playing together for a while and is gonna make some waves in ESEA this season. They don't really have a carry, but their team play, offclassing ability, and rachel's survivability will combine to make them quite a threat. Think Street Hoops but not quite as good.

And my thoughts on some other teams that have already been mentioned as contenders:

TF2Jump is Retarded - It's tempting to say the scouts carry this team, and Yeegz and Cheesy are definitely the most dangerous people on the team, but overlooking the heavy classes is pretty silly as both Broking and Zambler are capable of putting out a ton of damage. If there's a weak link it's HiveMind on roamer but frankly, he's better than almost every roamer in open anyways, so it's less a matter of him being weak as it is the rest of his team being really strong.

big bongs long dongs - I haven't had the chance to scrim against this team yet, so I can't offer too much in the way of an overview. Dancenumber seems to have been a pretty good pickup, if logs are any indication. I'd like to add more about this team after playing them.

Budsquad - I already discussed them in my above post. I'll leave it at that. If mana is correct in saying truktruk is not starting, I'd like to see who their second scout will be . It'll go a long way in determining their success as a team, with an already weak flank with powah on sniper.

Party Boys - Stealthy's squad has gone through a pretty major overhaul from the end of last season. Desca and CJ are damage machines, and Patrol has some of the funkiest bombs I've seen. Honestly I don't know who the roamer and who the pocket is for this team, as they seem to interchangeably bomb at any time. Stealthy and Tobi are a decent scout combo, but they're both cleanup style scouts rather than guys who will go out and make massive plays without support. Shutting down the heavy classes of this team and being prepared for some massive bombs at inopportune times will be the way to beat the Party Boys.

Salt Miners - Again, I haven't had the chance to scrim this team as a whole, but I've played against all of them on and off for the past couple seasons. Rummy is the star of this team, regularly doing 400+ dpm. Flippers and Max are both solid soldiers with a good mind for the game. Flippers is the king of weird offclasses that end up working, but sadly he's no longer the best sniper on his team. That award goes to wiggles, who is a monster on sniper as well as scout. Mathias is his scout partner and is very steady, rarely getting caught out of position or sacrificing himself without a reason.

I'll probably type up a bit more as I get free time throughout the day. I'm gonna be real, theorycrafting and predicting in tf2 is probably the only way I can still get myself through the increasingly awful days at my job that it took me a college degree plus two years to figure out that I hate.

I was more talking about Quantum Flux and Airshot Casino. Having seen Budsquad as well, I'm mostly focusing on truktruk and seanbud. Star is ok at scout but is better when he and powah switch and he plays roamer (I don't know if this is a normal thing or if they just tried it in a scrim against us). Powah on sniper is scary, but as long as you play out of sightlines at all times and know that sometimes you're just gonna get sniped, it's not a huge deal. We had our roamer or a scout get aggressive with him immediately when we spotted him and it cut down on his lanes. He and truk both on scout was pretty nasty though.

A big part of taking rounds from budsquad is exploiting Whisker's tendency to get caught out of position and the relative lack of damage coming from their demo (Lange?). Seanbud majorly anchors the combo, but it's still possible to overwhelm them, especially if you rotate a scout over when powah is sniping.

I really wish some of these offclassing teams would scrim once or twice so I can read way too much into the logs and start coming up with some predictions to fret over until the season starts.

rummy is really good, the others are all names that have been around and are good but i'd say rummy is definitely the standout there

I skipped ugc and now after two seasons I'm a mediocre medic on the open playoff bubble.

Follow your dreams, I hope you get a team!

???? i said it was cool

cool dude i'm really glad u posted this

can't believe i just got ninja'd by mana

Of the teams registered so far, not counting Quantum Flux (who have not scrimmed but will likely be at the top of open if they stay in the division), the wonderfully named TF2Jump is retarded is probably the strongest at this point. Other teams I find interesting are the BUDSQUAD, Canadian Milk Bags, and Network Issues. Teams I'll be following because I know some names and think they'll be playoff contenders are The Party Boys, Mexibeam Gaming, Chillin in NK, Monitor Down, and Stay Offclassy.

I'm sure we'll see a bunch more open teams register before the deadline, and there are a few teams I've scrimmed who aren't registered yet (so I won't pass judgement) but for now those are the teams I'm watching

Mahal Kita to still suck 8(

they haven't scrimmed at all that i've seen but judging by the people on that team and the classes they're playing, they would be a much better fit in IM or Main.

I guess it remains to be seen if the rules will be broken in these situations for this season (they won't be) in order to flesh out the new IM and Main divisions.

That's certainly true, and I'm sure the Budsquad would show up on casts, but my goal with open casts would be more to showcase up-and-coming players who will be making a splash in IM/Main in just a season or two. People know the 'stars' for lack of a better term. I think there'd be at least some interest in getting to know those who could be challenging those stars down the line.