Note: I’m crossposting this week old article from mygamingedge.com – a few things have happened since then (TCM and Blame played their game – 5-0, 4-3 and idk? and Eternity folded).
ETF2L’s Season 9 has kicked started this week, with Badlands and a surprising choice in Warmfront (an “improved” version of Coldfront). These teams know Badlands inside-out, but most teams have struggled to find time to practice the unfamiliar Warmfront. The map could throw some upsets, though most of the games seem to be one sided affair.
*Read more to get all the details! – Honeymustard *
| Team 1 | Score | Comments | Score | Team 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TCM-Gaming | Badlands 5 Warmfront 6 | TCM-Gaming (formerly known as Byte's Team) have proven themselves as a top team recently in the ESH Full-Tilt Poker cup, beating Team Thermaltake in the finals. Blame (formerly Princess) on the other hand got a fluke win over Epsilon in said cup, but ultimately got stomped on by Power Gaming in the bronze final. It seems very unlikely that Blame will be able to keep up with TCM's pace on Badlands, though they have been seen regularly practicing Warmfront, whereas TCM's activity on it could be questioned. Expect to see Blame take a round or two from TCM on Warmfront, but ultimately lose. | Badlands 0 Warmfront 1 | Blame |
| Monster Munch | Badlands 5 Warmfront 3 | Crack Clan were the only team in Season 8 to defeat Monster Munch across two maps, though it was a close affair on both maps (Obscure and Gravelpit). Badlands and Warmfront are a different kettle of fish. I would expect that Harbleu's wealth of experience on Coldfront from playing it in US leagues will have been transferred to the Monster Munch team, giving them an edge over Crack Clan. Badlands, on the other hand, will certainly be a close game. I'll give Monster Munch the edge, simply because I have to think that they will be coming for retribution for their Season 8 loss. | Badlands 3 Warmfront 1 | Crack Clan |
| Button Bashers | Badlands 5 Warmfront 6 | Button Bashers are coming off from a huge win at MaxLAN last weekend, whilst the idk? team have not been seen playing recently, with their medic Knoxx spending most of his time practicing for the LAN. I feel that this game will be a rather one sided affair, with Button Bashers simply having too much momentum coming out of the LAN for idk? to cope with. | Badlands 0 Warmfront 1 | I Don't Know? |
| Team Thermaltake | Badlands 5 Warmfront 5 | Team Thermaltake (formerly FakkelBrigade) showed a lot of promise in the recent ESH cup, ultimately losing to TCM in the finals. Since picking up Dorkan, the team has never looked this strong. Knights are a Division 1 team who only got placed in the Premier Division due to a lack of teams signing up for ETF2L (and weren't even initially seeded in the division). Expect a paddlesacking. Watch Kaidus on Warmfront, GibbZ tells me that he's a beast. Don't watch Koeitje. | Badlands 0 Warmfront 0 | Knights |
| Eternity | Badlands 2 Warmfront 1 | Eternity currently have 4 active members on their roster, with gdk leaving, and Mefistic marked as inactive. If they even manage to field 6 players in this game, I'll be surprised. K1ck eSports should have a fairly easy ride here, though anything could happen depending on which two mercs Eternity pull out of their Russian hats (if they even manage to). | Badlands 7 Warmfront 6 | K1ck eSports |
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2011-03-30 by honeymustard.
Recovered from the Internet Archive (archived copy) as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of VanillaTV's TF2 coverage. The original site is no longer online. All rights remain with the original author; reposted for historical reference.