Greg — Season 11 is over; the undisputed champions Epsilon have been defeated, which sees Team Infused crowned the new champions - breaking their curse of never beating Epsilon. We now move into the off season break, however pretty much every team has had a mid-season or post-season team change, which has gone unreported except for live on PirateRadio (with CommanderX, kaidus and myself). I am going to take you on a journey through the Season 11 team changes and look forward to the Season 12 Prem teams.
Current Premier Teams
Team Infused:
Lets start with the Champions of Season 11: Team Infused. It has been a season of progression for them, beginning with a player change, the former dignitas scout cookye came in to replace the quad pistol and just a few days after this pickup the team lost out narrowly in the first Excello final of the season to their nemisis Epsilon eSports. They took this in their stride and pushed forward, eventually repeating their first place in the regular season; granting them first seed into the playoffs, where they finally defeated Epsilon and secured the title “Champions of Europe” for Season 11. However it has not been plain sailing for the English team as during the playoff period I made the decision to leave the team, the Team UK and former Team Thermaltake scout JoeyC (also known as Fisshu) replaced me.
Lineup: numlocked, dunc, flisko, mike, JoeyC, cookye
Epsilon eSports:
Epsilon eSports started the season unchanged from the previous title winning side and put an early victory in Excello under their belts, however they have been riddled with activity issues throughout the season. This mainly stems from KnOxXx’s inactivity and as such they have been looking to recruit a backup Soldier, who in turn will be replacing the Frenchman once he decides to leave the team (rumoured to be after Gamer’s Assembly, which took place last weekend). Are these issues the reason that Epsilon were finally toppled by their rivals Team Infused just a few weeks ago? If so we will have to wait and see who comes into the lineup to replace the team’s main caller. As for rumours Mitsy seems to be the front runner having merc’d for Epsilon in pcws, playing for them during their victory at Gamers Assembly and being KnOxXx’s protege.
Lineup: randa, F2, Gear, KnOxXx, schocky, wltrs, ???
CrackClan:
CrackClan have had a choppy season, mainly down to the loss of the Spanish superstar scout combo Estanis and HarryHook. Estanis was the first to leave, replaced by basH. This scout change seemed to take a few weeks to fully develop, but just as the chemistry seemed to combine Harry also made the decision to leave the side, leaving a scout crack in the clan again. However where one Spaniard leaves another joins and we saw the former Dignitas scout longas join the side. This addition seemed to spark a new energy to the side and they seemed revitalised as the playoff season began, unfortunately they couldn’t topple Epsilon in the second round of the playoffs and ended third, however there was a lot of good to take off the back of these lineup changes, and it wouldnt surprise me if they could push forward in the next season. However their ever stoic pocket soldier matnun has announced that he will be leaving the team before the start of the next season and they are currently looking for a replacement, just how big of a setback will this be? Since writing this I have heard a rumour that they are no longer looking for a soldier, so whether this means matnun will continue or they have a replacement, only time will tell.
Lineup: Retshock, Royze, Pescanova, matnun, basH, longas, ???
Team Yoyotech:
This is probably the most disappointing news of the post season and for those of you living under a rock the team has made the decision to fold thank to the loss of both TviQ and Hat. They tried to replace the destructive scout combination with zappis and saemzi, however the team decided to call it a day due to the loss of two of the biggest characters and loss of the friendship bonds that the team was built on meant they called it a day. Where will we see these players end up?
Lineup: kaidus, TheSucker, boomeh, Linus, TviQ, Hat
Promoted Teams
UV-Gaming:
I don’t have much knowledge about these Eastern Europeans, all I can tell you is that they came out of no-where and tore up Division 1, only losing games to Equilibrium. The other thing I know about them is that they are unsure if they want to enter the next season of ETF2L due to the upcoming exam period that season 12 falls around. Here’s hoping they do enter the next season and bring a new full out aggressive style into the TF2 metagame.
Lineup: Hitman, Whiteglow, Ordinator, Forsak3n, reko, Redzzzz
Equilibrium are another team in Division 1 that I honestly didn’t expect to take one of the promotion spots, I believed that the loss of Haunter and t0dA after last season would be to much for the team, however they both proved me wrong and showed why they deserve to be in Prem next season, thanks to the team’s character and determination. They have had yet another big roster change in the post season, the former TCM Soldier/Scout Coinz has decided to leave the team, so we see the former player Hurricaner rejoin the team. However they seem to have had a fair few internal problems over the past few weeks, from almost folding to heated arguments and ragequits, which seems to have led to the removal of Volum from the team. It also seems that the team might have multi-accounted during the Saffron Cup (a violation of the ETF2L rules), which is currently being investigated, so we will have to wait and see whether this team makes it to Season 12.
Lineup: Reapy, ???, kαlhó, Hurricaner, Marcu, kiler4fun
Gone But Not Forgotten
Karnage eSports and Tryharders
Karnage eSports and Tryharders are the last teams to guarantee themselves a Prem spot for the next season, Karnage have already confirmed they will be folding, so we will definitely see 1 Prem spot up for grabs to either a new team or another Division 1 team. I have absolutely no idea what Tryharders will be doing for season 12, there are rumours that Taimou is looking to do something with the team, possibly with the Spanish scout duo of EstaniS and HarryHook or a mixup where he himself moves to scout. We will have to wait and see whether this team enters Season 12 and whether they even keep their Prem spot.
Karnage Lineup: antyy, Admirable, KLar, Raliator, quad, croutonTryharders Lineup: erectus, Taimou, Traxx, mineral, havok, longas
So from my count that leaves at least two spots in Prem open to the teams who didn’t retain their place or get promoted during Season 11, which leaves the final places open to discussion. Its time to look at the new teams and potential Division 1 teams: The notable teams are the newly formed team lead by Byte (currently being dubbed TCM, however they are not officially TCM and to get that accolade will need to prove themselves worthy to both Byte and the TCM-Gaming management), the Finnish/Swedish Dignitas/Relic mix ‘n’ match team, Decerto and Quarantine.
Newcomers
TCM-Gaming
The newly formed TCM roster boasts some highly rated players among its ranks, with players who used to be in teams such as; TCM-Gaming, broder, Dignitas and Team Thermaltake. The team are taking their practice regime slowly at first to see where they want to go with the project, plus trying to fit everything in around player activity. They are currently looking for a backup scout as Zerox is not always available, and will definately be looking to grab one of those Prem spots, and it will be a travesty if a team of this quality gets put into Division 1 next season.
Lineup: kaidus, Byte, hocz, Zebbosai, Zerox, hymzi
Dignitas/Relic mix ‘n’ match
The Dignitas/Relic mix ‘n’ match team: Whether this team is actually going ahead I do not know, but I thought it would be worth covering, so that those of you who don’t listen to PirateRadio know that these guys are back in town and considering playing in Season 12, from my understanding though it is just a fun team at the moment, but who knows whether they will decide to compete in the season, and if they do it will be hard not to put them in Prem. If they don’t enter this season though I would expect to see the majority of them appear near the end of the season in preperation for Insomnia-46.
Lineup: Ryb, kynnel, dajackal, ??? (seen olli + Darn), Rebelli, Bybben
The Division 1 Chasers
Team Decerto:
Team Decerto finish Season 10 in third place, just outside the promotion places. They started the season being one of my favorites to take the automatic promotional spot, unfortunately they were outdone by UV and Equilibrium and will now have to wait and see if they can guarantee themselves one of the Prem spots. They have also seen a change to the lineup in the post season, with Norrla leaving the side. They have been seen playing with Saemzi, Qun and myself.
Lineup: poop, skeej, daleth, oronoc, r7an, ???
Quarantine:
Quarantine are the other team I thought would be fighting for the automatic promotion spot this season, however due to some roster changes and the fact that Knuttson cannot play past 21:30 CET they have faltered in their progression through the European TF2 ranks. They brought a backup soldier in the form of Baribur into the side to replace Knutsson when he couldn’t play, however Ipz the team’s pocket soldier didn’t want to continue without Knutsson being fully available. The team are now looking for a new soldier, with rumours of TviQ swapping to soldier and joining his fellow Swedes, we will have to wait and see how the team looks at the beginning of the new season.
Lineup: fuo, Kritzonite, Knutsson/ Baribur, ???, Nace, Beavern
Who will get the Spots
So now its time for some journalistic license, being realistic who would I put into Prem? Obviously the top 3 guarantee their spots so lets look more closely at the other 5 spots. Equilibrium have signed up to the next season and as such accept the teams promotion (if they are not banned from the next season), UV-Gaming have not as yet signed up, but I think the lure of Premier TF2 will force them to play the season. I highly doubt that the Dignitas/Relic mix will enter the season and as such my final 3 spots would go to TCM, Decerto and Quarantine. But we will have to wait and see if any teams that I haven’t covered try to grab a spot. Without a doubt it will be a tough decision for the ETF2L admin team.
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2012-04-11 by Greg.
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.