Fog —As North American TF2 content hasn’t been covered as much as it should be, I will be taking charge of NA TF2 content, and will try my best to provide more covereage of TF2 across the pond. For now, I will be focusing on ESEA Invite (comparable to Premier for ETF2L).
Another week of matches have finished for ESEA Invite, with matches this week being played on koth_pro_viaduct_rc3. Where’s the second map, you may say? The North American TF2 scene only runs matches on one map per week, with teams playing two matches per week on the same map. It’s probably a good idea to go over the basic rules of ESEA while we’re early into the article for those who have never watched an ESEA (or NA TF2 match in general).
The rules:
- First to 5 (4 in KOTH matches, 2 in Attack/Defend) wins the match
- Two (2) 30 minute halves (20 minute halves for Attack/Defend)
- Once a team has won 3 rounds (or after the time limit is reached), half-time commences and the teams switch sides
- If both sides are tied after the two halves, an overtime round is played with the team winning that round winning the match (similar to golden-cap)
- Unlocks are generally allowed (Gunboats and Equalizers ARE allowed), but there ARE weapons that are banned.
More info can be found here: ESEA Rules
The map, koth_pro_viaduct_rc3, is a modified version of the regular Viaduct, which changes the scenery from a snowy (more-like FPS-drop inducing) map to a grassy (optimized), thawed out version of the map. Those aren’t the only changes made to this map, however. The amount of sniper vantage points found in the original viaduct has been reduced, but even with those reduced vantage points, the Sniper class is still a viable (if not preferred) option to run instead of the usual cookie-cutter classes. Another noticable change found in this pro version of Viaduct is the tunnel which opens up the once walled stair-side of Viaduct. Viaduct in general is more of a DM-oriented match with plenty of action usually happening at the middle point.
Now that the basic rules and the map has been covered, lets get onto the matches that happened this week.
The matches overall for this week were pretty one sided, save for a close match from 3rd place The Experiment and 4th place Area 51 Gaming TF2 (more on this match later). However, the matches this week have pretty much solidified the position of the bottom 3 teams in Snooplicity, High Rollers Gaming TF2, and The Spacewhales, with the top two teams still undefeated in Classic Mixup and Quantic Legacy (former eMazing Gaming TF2). The battle for the final LAN spot is still hotly contested with Area 51 Gaming TF2 and Mighty Ducks tied in win/loss column. Now onto the match of the week from 3rd place The Experiment and 4th place Area 51 Gaming TF2
Match of the week:
The Experiment
Basik, dante, dummy, Seagull, ww-, oPlaiD
(4-2) Match stats
Area 51 Gaming TF2
TheFragile, -soup, ender, MempisVon, carnage, justin_
This match was very close in the first half with Area 51 and The Experiment trading rounds back and forth for the first few rounds. However, with the aggressiveness of The Experiment (specifically roamer ww- and scout oPlaiD), they were able to pull ahead and eventually win the match over Area 51. Area 51 in this match came out pretty flat (with their demoman -soup in particular) against the seemingly superior Experiment with every member of the team coming out with a negative kill/death ratio, while The Experiment had almost every fragging class with a positive kill/death ratio with the exception of oPlaiD. The Experiment played with pure aggressiveness against the more passive Area 51, getting key player picks throughout the game to secure the win for them. Newcomers to invite Basik (medic) and dante (scout) played very respectively in this match against Area 51 with dante providing 40 frags for The Experiment.
The rest of the matches this week were pretty quick and easy for the winning teams, with all the matches resulting with either 4-0 or 4-1.
Other matches this week:
Quantic Legacy
CB, clckwrk, Tyrone, cyzer, mackey, b4nny
(4-1) Match Stats
Mighty Ducks
thrill-, PUFF, moonchild, Decimate, fobiabscared, doggles
——————————————-
Classic Mixup
Harbleu, TLR, Platnium, enigma, relic, moose
(4-1) Match Stats
High Rollers Gaming TF2
Trekkie, TechDude, omar, anonemouse, rick, tri
——————————————-
Mighty Ducks
thrill-, PUFF, moonchild, Decimate, fobiabscared, doggles
(4-0) Match Stats
The Spacewhales
Zakirll, boomer, ricco, rr-, wb-, slnt_
——————————————-
Quantic Legacy
CB, clckwrk, Tyrone, cyzer, mackey, b4nny
(4-0)
Snooplicity
Sash, weeble, 38special, whaz, bigac, bl4nk
Match Stats
——————————————-
The Experiment
Basik, dante, dummy, Seagull, ww-, oPlaiD
(4-1) Match Stats
High Rollers Gaming TF2
Trekkie, TechDude, omar, anonemouse, rick, tri
——————————————-
Classic Mixup
Harbleu, TLR, Platnium, enigma, relic, moose
(4-0) Match Stats
Area 51 Gaming TF2
TheFragile, -soup, ender, MempisVon, carnage, justin_
——————————————-
Snooplicity
Sash, weeble, 38special, whaz, bigac, bl4nk
(4-0) Match Stats
The Spacewhales
Zakirll, boomer, ricco, rr-, wb-, slnt_
The rankings for ESEA-I hasn’t changed much from the rankings last week, however, The Spacewhales are now the only team left without a win with Snooplicity defeating them 4-0. The rest of the team rankings have stayed the same, and will most likely stay that way for the rest of the season. Here is how the team rank this week.
Rankings
Teams
Rank
+/-
Classic Mixup (6-0-0)
1
–
Quantic Legacy (6-0-0)
2
–
The Experiment (4-2-0)
3
–
Area 51 Gaming TF2 (3-3-0)
4
–
Mighty Ducks (3-3-0)
5
–
High Rollers Gaming TF2 (1-5-0)
6
–
Snooplicity (1-5-0)
7
+1
The Spacewhales (0-6-0)
8
-1
Thats all for this week, stay tuned for Power Rankings and Predictions for Week 4 (hopefully) later on this week.
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2011-11-19 by Fog.
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.