playing against a better team for a pregame is definitely better if you can find one and don't tilt. it's like how baseball players put a weight around their bat while practice swinging before taking it off when they step up to the plate. same concept.

RGL S14 Advanced Power Rankings - Week 1

1) XIAO - aimer, Yi-ge, sakura, yosh1, manacute, yuice

Despite making some noise in the invite qualifiers, XIAO find themselves in advanced. Although there may have been a gap season or two taken by most of these players, their level of talent is more than enough for the top of advanced. By default it is safe to put the invite qualifier team at the top of advanced, so that is where I will settle for now.

2) g*ming - AvrilLavigneFan95 (?), Scream, Pinaepple, Krispy Kreme 2012 (?), GMK, apathy

Obviously, I do not know the aliases of some of the players on this rosters. However, the ones I do know are very good TF2 players. Starting off the season with a convincing win over the 2nd place div 1 team from last season makes me think this will be one of the top teams in the division. Judging from a tftv post, this is a match only/low scrim team so who knows where this team will end up.

3) SuperZAZA Bomb - Slicerogue, Fireball, Holly, Dogdayboy, skull, mono

SuperZAZA Bomb is back again with most of the same roster that earned them 3rd place in div 1 last season, and the same core of Fireball, Dogdayboy, and Holly that have been together for around 5 seasons now. This rendition of the roster looks to be the strongest to date, and they are off to a great start with a victory over THE GOBLIN ZONE. I expect another good placement and playoff run from this team this season, and possibly going even further this time around.

4) THE GOBLIN ZONE - tomato tom, HEDGEHOG HERO, saam, bear, yosh, arcadia

This is a hard team to rank, because I have no idea how hard they will actually try. On paper, this team looks like they should undoubtedly be competing for 1st place with the amount of invite experience on this roster. Fortunately for me, I made these rankings late and get to see they dropped their first match in a nail biter to SuperZAZA Bomb, so I will put them at #4 for now.

5) Grantus Vincere - Wild_Rumpus, Math, raven, TIGER BALM, bane, Macron

It feels weird putting this team down here at #5, as I feel like they can achieve much higher if the teams above them are not at the top of their game. Even if they are, Grantus Vincere looks like they could beat just about anybody in the division. When I first starting writing this up I actually put them at #2, but with the teams above them being of similar strength, Grantus Vincere is drawing the short end of the stick for now.

6) The Village - Taylor, tacocat, Rapscallion, denisavich, starka, nikola tesla (?)

Depsite what I just said about Grantus Vincere, this ranking probably makes the least amount of sense. This same roster got 2nd place in div 1 last season yet here they are at #6. A big reason for that is I believe advanced is stronger than div 1 was last season. I am excited to see where these teams that did not play div 1 together last season compare to this team.

7) Tripping Hazard - bones, Tec, reverie, Michaelpc1, Grnny, mur

This is the team I probably know the least about. Aside from Tec and bones time together on WANG GANG, it seems this team does not have much experience playing together, at least on official RGL teams. That being said, they are currently 1-0 with a win against refugees, so this team could be a lot better than where I am ranking them now. Maybe I just don't know ball.

8) refugees - nomad, Mobe, taiko, earl, monkey, draco

I want to rank this team higher, but after dropping that first match to Tripping Hazard, it is hard to. I know these players are capable of beating almost any team in this division on any given night, but they may need some time to get on the same page. Also, adding draco to the roster certainly isn't helping anything.

BONUS NOTES:
- If I put a (?) next to someone's name, it is because I do not know their actual alias or if that is their real alias. I don't know why players in this game never use their normal alias.
- Some of these teams were very hard to rank and I do not expect this to be accurate at all as time goes on. I felt like I kept hinting at "I don't really know what I'm talking about" because I mostly don't. This will be a lot easier once I see some more match results.

RGL S14 Invite Power Rankings - Week 0

1) froyotech - b4nny, gungon, hubida, saxophone, logan, KJKUOD

Once again, we have another roster rehaul of the most decorated team in North America. The only remaining paid up player from last season's championship winning team is, of course, b4nny. The rest of the team consists of very talented, high-invite players from various teams last season. Will this rendition of froyotech win another championship? I don't know, but on paper this team looks weaker than last season. It is hard to bet against the goat (no glaze), but for now, being the defending champs earns a #1 spot in preseason power rankings.

2) Boys' Night - sandblast, marmaloo, mirrorman, jay, donovin, phorofor

This team undoubtedly has championship winning potential. In fact, some might say they are the favorites. With basically everyone on the roster being ex-froyo, they are no strangers to the peak of competitive TF2. At this moment in time, I am not sure who will be playing what class, but with players of this caliber there are quite a few options that will work out just fine for them.

3) Global Clan - Grape Juice, Shamoo, hannah, Scratchh, SIN KARMA, quacks

Similar to the two teams above them, Global Clan is filled with experience at the top of invite. What separates them? There are no invite champions on this roster. I would hope this results in a lot of hungry, driven players as they will need to be working overtime in order to finally reach the TF2 promised land. While contesting the top of invite, I expect this team along the team below to be the "gatekeepers" of high invite this season. Slightly disappointed we do not have one of the four elements in the team name this season.

4) COZY! BLACK - kev, catface, meyy, scouty, tripbwai, glimmer

In my eyes, COZY! BLACK is the final piece in the top tier of invite. The reason I put them at the bottom of this tier, is almost all of them were not on a starting roster in invite last season. The only exception is the up-and-comer scouty, who was on flank with the multi-talented monster, throne, on the invite juggernauts fgp last season. This roster is definitely capable of making some noise in high invite, but they may need to shake some rust off before their true potential is unlocked.

5) The Mafia - nehcro, dinko, loafe, deimos, nurfu, deadlyseed

I think The Mafia are going to surprise a lot of people this season. They are coming in as the div 1 winners, and honestly had no business being in div 1 last season (not their fault, they were just better than everyone). The reason I used the word "surprise" earlier is because this will be the first season of invite for most of the players on this roster, so some people who only pay attention to invite may not have heard of these players before, but real ones know.

6) Anglerfish - tristen, TheGreatMage, degnan, ally, zia, golden

Anglerfish has returned to the invite scene. After some silly roster renditions/having a revolving door roster and class selection in advanced/div 1, they are back in invite with their core. If this team stays together and players do not have to step away for extended periods for various reasons, they can definitely achieve a higher placement than what I am giving them now. I would assume with how long they have been playing together that they have good chemistry. Combining that with their previous invite experience can result in wins over the lower invite teams and possibly even some upsets in the upper ranks.

7) ROME - Vio, ghadilli, darty, Frisbee, scumbag steve, MiG-21bis

Guess who's back. ROME is running it back yet again for the 3rd straight season with basically the exact same roster. If there is one thing for certain we know about ROME, it is that they grind. With that being known, along with 3 season of experience together, it seems they are due for a breakout season. Will this season be the one? Only time will tell.

8) Clowngore - idk

At this moment, Clowngore has 5 players on their roster and one of them is banned. I have no idea who is going to end up on this roster, so for now they #8.

BONUS NOTES
⦁ The teams in the bottom 4 were particularly difficult to be exact with the rank.
⦁ This season is mickey because no fgp
⦁ I now realize making power rankings requires a lot of glazing and that kinda bothers me tbh
⦁ Potential podcast and advanced power rankings coming soon ?

top 10 most epic people to touch this game

holy crap

^facts he would pound in main playoffs pick him up

your channel got fanum taxed

if you’re looking for a dm god to mold into a goated gamer then this is who you want. and you’re worried about toxicity i can say he was not toxic a single time in vc the whole season.

cons are he can sometimes be too quiet in comms and HE CAN SEE THROUGH WALLS (allegedly)

https://youtu.be/qzd5mYgtWkE

absolutely goated players

seeding wise you guys technically had the easier first round matchup, which was the benefit of winning the stage 2 group B matches. but in every bracket ever made the high seeds play the low seeds early on, no idea how it is a 4 vs 6 seed and 3 vs 5 seed matchup instead of a 4 vs 5 seed and 3 vs 6 seed. RGL should definitely change it.

i know this isn't basketball but here is march madness doing it correctly:

https://i.imgur.com/tS1MURg.png

and the NBA playoffs (which is 8 teams per conference):

https://i.imgur.com/bEvUZwi.png

https://clips.twitch.tv/AthleticTriumphantLeopardMingLee-9Ji1afWkDjWaDGSt

it changes all the time but right now probably razorblade

https://cdn-ssl.s7.disneystore.com/is/image/DisneyShopping/1231000443596?fmt=jpeg&qlt=90&wid=608&hei=608

https://youtu.be/GH7TZcJYCL0