One week remains until the FINAL roster lock takes place.

Any good updates on IM teams, guys? There are 12 paid up now, with about 2-3 more teams projected to join the field. That would make for a division of 14-15 teams - about 2 teams short of the 17 needed to run a proper round-robin.

Since 8 teams will make the postseason in IM (as noted in ESEA rules), I would project that the postseason cut-line will be at 8-8.

The bad news about a small division? We cannot afford to have any teams die before the final week.

The good news? Every game down the stretch is going to have playoff implications as nobody is going to be mathematically out until the final week (or two). This will make for some good viewing and casting material in my opinion.

It's hard to do IM power rankings right now as IM teams continue to trade scrims and play each other REALLY close.

Was an absolute tank on Wu-Tang Financial. He's still very aggressive and has some good DM ability.

He's IM.

EDIT: Double post - please delete.

If you're going to main call, it is important for everyone on the team to completely respect you. One issue that I've seen other teams have is that the main caller says something and then half the team undermines him because they think that they know better.

A great way to get others on your team to respect you is to LISTEN to their criticisms and realize that you do not know everything about the game. The quality of the interpersonal relationships in a team has a direct correlation to the kind of response that your team will give to your calls.

I know that all sounds obvious and stupid, but I see too many teams suffering from it when they shouldn't.

Hello everyone.

I'm radium, the current medic for the trans-autistic railroad. Due to a number of weekly circumstances, we will need a readily available backup for S15. We're currently in IM, so we expect that you'll be able to hang around the current stock of IM teams in scrims. You will probably wind up playing a few matches over the course of the season, and you WILL be needed 1-2 times a week for scrims.

Please see the team page for further information: http://play.esea.net/teams/61594

We typically scrim on Sun-Thurs between the hours of 9 EST to 12 EST.

Thank you for your interest.

crossfire, there you are!

Best of luck to you guys this season.

High open pocket as of right now. He needs to be paired with a medic that can main call as his calling ability hasn't developed as of yet. Non-asshole personality that will not develop PSS halfway through the season. DM is above average for what he is looking for.

http://play.esea.net/index.php?s=league&d=standings&division_id=2184&find_entity_id=73975#entity73975

Things are starting to come into focus at this point.

The strangest part about this is that I have no idea what my team is going to do - we could go anywhere from 4-12 to 12-4 and I wouldn't bat an eyelash. The old foundation of last season's team has been completely uprooted and our roster is starting to build a new identity. Our scrim results have been wildly all over the map during this process.

I'm curious about what the Open call-ups are going to do vs. rosters that have been there. I think Bubble Buddies are going pull a few nasty surprises. I like what I see from crux and I think he'll continue to play well this season.

I'm a bit nervous about Manly Maws. They are young and growing - but do they have the firepower to win the 50/50 matches needed to stay in the playoff hunt? I think this will be a "learning experience" for them. Next season will probably be the one in which they make their next big move. (Nice group of people, too)

I think PCW makes the postseason. unf has a hefty experience advantage over most IM demomen and is going to create a few ugly mismatches this season. unf's supporting cast has a nice amount of experience - what is phelon going to do this season? If phelon reaches his old form these guys are going to make a run.

we kings now are probably a long shot right now. I'm not sure what I'm going to see from their new scouts - this is important since jerr0 was a huge factor in their early season dominance last season. pie_hero must play his ass off for this team to climb to the top half of the table. The good news: the correct building blocks are in place, and I don't see any nasty attitudes on their roster that will run after an early loss or two. They'll finish better than they start, but the question is: "will they run out of time late?"

Off Top, unlike a lot of peer IM teams, know who they are. They aren't an old team that is renovating (Sharknado, trans-autistic), they aren't a overnight construction (kace's edition of She Spilled My Coffee), and they aren't a DM collaboration either (delpo's team). They do not have any superstars on this roster - and as a result they are going to be a team that EVERYONE expects to beat...

...and that's when they get to play the spoiler role. This team is very beatable, but you have to play technically sound TF2 to do it - they aren't ego-charged and they sure as hell aren't going to consciously beat themselves. I predict that they'll hover around the playoff cutline for a while - and they're going to absolutely ruin the season of 2-3 IM teams in the process.

Honest question: Why is our community so piss poor when it comes to timeliness? There are about 4-5 teams that we held up this offseason due to playoffs, but most of us had over a month to figure shit out.

While I do expect a deadline extension to happen, I really do think we need to be a bit better about things. One of these days an extension is not going to happen.

I have a question for Killing/Kalkin: What happens if Main and/or IM do not have enough paid teams by the deadline (whatever it winds up being)? Would the divisions re-merge for a season and then split up for the following season?

I hope it ends on 17 so that everyone can play a full round robin. At least then there can be no complaints about who you did/didn't play twice this season.

There are a few rather strong teams at the top, but for the most part this season's IM should be well-balanced.

I don't know how you could force people to play in a division that they don't want to play in. Sometimes people want to try new things and have a little fun in Open - and I think we're going a little too far if we're looking to take that aspect of the game away from them.

An alternative solution to this problem would be if those "invite pugteams" were to seize existing IM rosters (and there are a few of them left). The issue with this is that they have to follow the ESEA hijack rule - and there are some good reasons as to why this is a bad idea for their purposes.

There will always be teams in every division that do not belong there. That's life, and I don't know if revising the rulebook to deal with 3-4 specific teams this season is a good idea.

The last three seasons of Open had the exact same problem - and we still saw some "original material" make it into IM despite having a few stacked teams in the way.

Rent-A-Homies, Tonight's Entertainment, Disposable Heroes, Street Hoops, TA railroad, Sunday Funday, and a few others were all promoted out of Open against the odds.

Hey there everyone.

http://i43.tinypic.com/nx5gjs.jpg

Deadbolt <3.

They have shockingly good chemistry for a team with so little experience relative to those around them.

Has anyone come into contact with you yet?

I'm radium, and I'm currently playing medic on an IM team. If you cannot obtain guidance from a Main or Invite medic please let me know and I'll do what I can.

Would you consider entering Open this coming season?