Hildreth – It’s been a couple of months since the end of ETF2L’s inaugural Highlander season but this week it all starts up again with 6 weeks of 9v9 action to go between Season’s 11 and 12, making it a busy period in the TF2 calendar. So far we have over 200 teams signed up for season 2 at the moment with SNSD the current holders and still yet to be beaten although Colony cut it close with an exciting finale in the first ever Experimental Highlander cup. To add to this ETF2L have a cash prize pool of up to £1000 (courtesy of an anonymous Highlander loving donator) for the winners and second placed team in the newly formed Premiership for the top level teams, to add extra incentive to those to practise and beat SNSD – I don’t want to see another gold medal parading on TheSucker’s chest, do you?
Anyway I promised a preview – some of you may remember a preview I did for season 1 reviewing some of the line-ups and making a prediction on who will come where. Let’s just say the only position I got right was who came first. However the only other person to make a prediction was Permzilla, the Demoman for May Contain Nuts who got every position correct; therefore I will leave the honours to him when he comments (no pressure you smart-arse).
Teams
Well they weren’t going to be 2nd with their history and have changed their lineup up once more, Yoyotech pipe-machine Kaidus has joined the roster, maybe to replace Cyber on demoman who was noticeably absent in the experimental cup. Other changes to the roster which are confirmed is TheSucker on Medic and ex-Nuts leader Beef coming in as Engineer.
Everyone’s favourite team with some of the best TF2 players never to grace the 6v6 format and they’re back once more to give SNSD a run for their money (literally this time). Their only roster change was picking up the Finnish pieces from May Contain Nuts, taking their out of favour soldier Letko. Keeping Zoob and Jormund is huge for this team, if they can replicate the standards they showed in the experimental cup final and have big plays from SabaSaba and Furbo (called an ‘upcoming talent’ by Admirable, poor guy he didn’t deserve that!) then we could see our resident pub star team go huge.
Our Russian friends managed to finish second place and from what I hear they were motivated by my prediction of them coming last – those pesky Russians will do anything to prove me wrong. As far as their line-up is concerned I understand there won’t be any changes to the Soviet powerhouses with the likes of Rubikon, Zef, Barrtech and Hamster.
Nuts have the most interesting line-up change, abandoning the tag as ‘pub stars’ replacing the core of their HCC bronze medalist team with top level 6v6 players. I should point out that nobody was actually dropped from the team; it is a case of activity that prompted the line-up changes according to my source. Former TCM soldier turned heavy weapons guy Haunter has moved away from his community sideto oversee the new lineup which includes Klar going to Soldier, ETF2L admin Ashkan on Spy and rumours of Crack Clan’s bash joining as scout. Sadly for Pyro lovers out there, Nuts did lose one of their best players in Jack to retirement along with their old leader Beef to SNSD – making me lose my secret love for the team as they no longer hold the pubstar’ status – whether it affects their performance of third place last season it remains to be seen.
SNSD v Colony in the most recent Highlander clash
27
One of the two promoted teams from last season, 27 have some of the best Spanish players in the game with familiar names like Harryhook, Longas, Pescanova on the roster along with many other high level Spanish TF2 players. I don’t know too much about who will play what or how seriously they will take the season considering the level of activity involved with a lot of the players on the team but with talent and experience like that on your roster you can bet they can give anyone a game…if they turn up.
Aka Kilberzona Choir Tai were the other side to be promoted last season and one of the more active Highlander teams in Europe, led by the always fun-loving Emb. An impressive season last time out saw them go through the mix teams of Division 2 as if their opponents were not trying too hard and they now sit amongst the Highlander elite. Their lineup has changed somewhat however with dauk and happycrow leaving and a few others going inactive, they ditched the Lithuanian only membership quota they have picked up ex-LTG medic Rinta, ex-Perilous medic Ritalin – so a lot of medics plus Pynklùùùnningen who plays for RASTA. On paper these pickups aren’t as strong as the other teams and pcw/UGC results suggest Choir Tai are destined for a return back to where they came from but this side have earned their shot at SNSD, Colony and Nuts and who knows what crazy upsets they might pull off.
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2012-03-10 by Hildreth.
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.