Fog — The article is a bit late, but Week 7 is now underway. I’ve decided to stick with just Power Rankings for the rest of the season, so no more predictions or roundups (unless there is a good response for the roundups).
With only two weeks left to go before the end of the season, teams are going to be making the final push for the remaining 2 spots for LAN. At this point, Classic Mixup and Quantic Gaming have already secured their place for LAN (which team will be first or second is still up in the air). The race for the final LAN spots have heated up, with Area 51, High Rollers Gaming, The Experiment, and Mighty Ducks being in what is the closest race for 3rd and 4th that I’ve ever seen. This week, matches are being played on the recently made official map cp_gullywash_final1 made by Arnold.
Gullywash has seen many changes during it’s many revisions, the most noticeable change from the last Release Candidate to the final version is the addition of the drop-down at the middle/2nd point connector/choke. This opens up some new possibilities with flanks for soldiers and scouts, opening up the narrow corridor which slowed the game down a bit. Another part of the map that teams will have to watch out for is the passage to the last point from underneath, which also provides a massive point for players to flank and potentially backcap the final point with the team at last. The last point has 4 viable options when pushing into it, however, the last point is also notorious with being a hard point to push. With the rest of the maps for the regular season being the standard 5CP, maps should play in a similar style. Now lets get into the Power Rankings, which will be short and sweet due to my limited time.
Power Rankings
1) Quantic Legacy (11-1-0) Medic: CB, Pocket: Tyrone, Roamer: Mackey, Scouts: Clockwork, Cyzer Demo: B4nny
Quantic Legacy last week had probably the most surprising match against Mighty Ducks, with the Ducks having a commanding 4-1 lead in the second half in their match. Quantic, being down by a significant amount, came back from that deficit to take the win from the Ducks. Their other “match” this week was the complete opposite, taking the free win from The Spacewhales. This week’s matches for Quantic against High Rollers Gaming and Area 51 should be matches that they will win, but don’t expect those matches to be pushovers for Quantic. There will be some competition coming from both teams, but Quantic should still come away from this week with a few wins.
2) Classic Mixup (11-1-0) Medic: Harbleu, Pocket: TLR , Roamer: Relic, Scouts: moose, enigma Demo: Platnium
Classic Mixup also had a pretty close match last week, but against Area 51. It want as close as the match between Quantic and the Ducks, but it was still a close match none the less with a 5-3 for Mixup. The other match last week against High Rollers was much more decisive for Mixup, coming away with a 5-1 win. This week, Mixup are going up against the Mighty Ducks and The Experiment. Similar to Quantic, both of these matches should be wins but expect some fierce competition from both the Ducks and Experiment.
3) The Experiment (6-5-0) Medic: Basik, Pocket: Seagull , Roamer: Wonderwall, Scouts: Oplaid, Dante Demo: Dummy
The Experiment have only played one of their matches so far from last week, which was an upset loss to Blight TF2 3-5. It has been apparent that although this team is full of invite veterans from seasons past, the team has struggled with the non standard 5CP maps like Gravel Pit and Standin during their first match. Since Experiment have already lost to the Ducks during Gravel Pit week, i’m unsure how they will perform against them with the Ducks strong showing against Quantic last week on Standin. This week for Experiment, they will get the free win against the Deadwhales and go up against Classic Mixup. The match against Mixup will be a challenge for Experiment, and I expect that it will be a losing effort foot them.
**4) High Rollers Gaming TF2 (5-7-0)**Medic: Trekkie, Pocket: Tri, Roamer: TechDude, Scouts: Omar, Anonemouse Demo: Rick
High Rollers last week had a pretty good week coming away with a win against Blight, but got crushed by Mixup in their second match. Despite that, HRG have been working their way up from being out of LAN contention to being on the verge of potentially making a surprise appearance in the final LAN spot. HRG will get their free win from The Spacewhales, but will most likely lose their match against Quantic.
5) Mighty Ducks (5-6-0) Medic: Thrill, Pocket: Doggles, Roamer: Fobiabscared, Scouts: ukm, Decimate Demo: PUFF **
Mighty Ducks had a great showing in their match against Quantic, and although they lost their match to them, they seem to know how to play this map well enough that they will potentially beat The Experiment in their second Standin match which was postponed due to client issues. The Ducks this week play against Blight TF2 and Classic Mixup. The Ducks will most likely get the win against Blight, but will also most likely lose against Mixup.
6) Area 51 Gaming TF2 (6-6-0) Medic: The_Fragile, Pocket: Justin , Roamer: MemphisVon, Scouts: carnage, ender Demo: Soup
Area 51 have been somewhat on a slide as of late, but they got their free win last week against the Spacewhales and had a close match against Mixup. Things are stating to look up for Area 51, and it couldn’t have come at a better time with only two week’s of matches left in the season. Area 51 this week have a must win match against Blight and a match against Quantic which they will most likely lose. Area 51 are looking to make their final push to get them back into LAN for the second season in a row.
7) Blight TF2 (3-9-0) Medic: Sash, Pocket: Boomer, Roamer: Bigac, Scouts: weeble, whaz Demo: 38special **
Blight had the biggest upset of the week by defeating The Experiment with the score of 5-3, but lost their match against HRG. Blight are playing their roles as the team who will decide which team makes it into LAN. They will be playing LAN contenders Area 51 and Mighty Ducks which could potentially make or break both teams for LAN. Hopefully with the final few week’s of the season, Blight will be working on their team chemistry for next season.
The power rankings for this week haven’t really changed from last week to this week, partly due to the second Standin match between Mighty Ducks and The Experiment has yet to be completed. Otherwise, the standings remain the same. Hopefully by the end of this week’s matches, the final 4 LAN spots should be solidified.
That’s all for this week’s Power Rankings, stay tuned for next week’s Power Rankings. Until then, I’ll see you around.
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2012-01-06 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.