ilike2spin — With two premier division spots up for grabs, it’s looking increasingly likely that there will be a play off coming up over the coming week or so to determine who gets to compete vs the best Europe has to offer. The most likely candidates for this playoff based on recent results and my own completely unbiased opinion are as follows:
| Last Man Standing Medic: wg Demo: gdk Soldiers: Ordinator (p) & empty (r) Scouts: reko & Forsak3n | Furbo Pandas Medic: Byte Demo: Hildreth Soldiers: Sideshow (p) & Zoob (r) Scouts: Sheepy & Furbo |
|---|---|
| Vinland Medic: Jose Demo: Suqp3r Soldiers: Darn (p) & Salmon (r) Scouts: Rake & delzic | Revoluzion la metagame Medic: ilike2spin Demo: Exon Soldiers: Haunter (p) & Snyyppis (r) Scouts: Flippy & quad |
There isn’t a lot to say about LMS‘ recent results, gdk has been absent for two weeks and as such their form has dipped with losses to both SOLAR and Team Reverto Goliath. Gdk’s return for the playoffs will be crucial for their success. Despite being the longest running of the teams who have applied for the top division, have had to considerably change their roster in recent weeks. Forsak3n has made the move to scout, replacing redzzz, leaving empty and Ordinator as the soldier pair. Perhaps they’ll be able to overcome the other teams with the aggressive play style we’ve come to recognise from them as well as what they’re known best for – Great Demoman Kritzkriegs.
I spoke to Forsak3n about their hopes and plans for the playoff and beyond, he gave this simple statement:
We are hoping to pass the playoffs and play a stable season in prem and do NOT fold after it. By stable I mean the results for being able to stay in prem.
The furbo pandas roster has seen a number of changes in the off season. The departure of Shifty as roaming soldier and Ritalin as medic have made way for backup, Sideshow to step into the main roster. Their search for a medic replacement has so far been fruitless although after recently playing with Byte, it is most likely that we’ll see him playing for them in the coming playoffs. This team has talent across the board with some of the best deathmatching skill seen outside of the top division and Byte’s experience and leadership could be the factor that helps them step up to become a premiership lineup. With recent results including a draw with nerd party (previously BFF) and a win over WebOne*, a good performance from the pandas on the day could be enough to find them securing one of the top division slots.
Hildreth had this to say on the topic of the team’s plans and aims for the coming season:
After last time it was a mistake to enter Prem playoffs, we were too raw and the night didn’t go well. This time we got a season in Div 1 under our belts, our scouts have been doing a lot of work in pcws, Zooob has been casting his Finnish Wizardry so I think we have a better chance of competing, depends really how we play as a combo, we’ve recently replaced Shifty with Sideshow with an eye on i-series LAN and been looking for a new Medic, it has been a bit of a transition and we’re no closer to finding a new Medic, we’ve had good results with Byte as Medic but I don’t think he is a good long term solution or is interested in joining, but we’re still looking at the minute and playing with our backup Fallen . If we play in Playoffs I would just aim to win a map, take it from there.
Vinland
Darn’s new team has seen lots of iterations over the off season, having tested the vast majority of clanless players in the top end of the Finnish community. Finally they’ve settled on a roster but but finding results of theirs as a full team has been difficult, having only recently picked up Rake and dropping tomzi who showed some promising form before being ruthlessly cut from the lineup. That being said, in its various forms the team has been playing vs some of the best in Europe and began earliest, with the first trials including dinosaur of the TF2 scene hymzi, beginning even before Season 14 finished. I’d look to the soldier pair and the impressive upcoming talent of delzic and Suqp3r to make some waves this season, but their success will ultimately come down to how well Darn can lead some of the more inexperienced players on the team. Could this be the first time we see an all Finnish team complete a season in the top division since Season 10?
Darn was not available to comment at the time of writing but I will update the post when he is.
What Revoluzion la metagame lose in French diction, they make up for in experience and potential. The team was originally a Ghost town project featuring the fresh-faced nerd party scout kiler4fun and ex.Crack Clan demoman Retsh0ck, but after Kiler left for greener pastures and Retshock went on hiatus, they’ve needed an injection of new blood. Stage Enter broder backup Flippy, ex.PyRo|GEN demoman Exon and the ever-present Quad, a group of new additions that should cement this team’s position in the premiership playoffs and extend their potential by a considerable amount. Despite being very new, the team already has furbo panda and WebOne-shaped notches on their belt whilst becoming jagged scars in Crack Clan‘s bedpost. RLM are the only roster comprised solely of last season’s Premiership contestants, however it’s fairly unlikely the team will go the distance, regardless of Haunter’s leadership skills or any glue-like qualities the team may possess. Nevertheless, RLM have strong individual performances across the board and could definitely be the growers of the premiership in the rounds to come.
Haunter had some strong feelings about the team:
Spin is the best medic I have ever played with and this team is perfect in every way, we will beat every team but make the final close so the spectators have something exciting to watch. We will never fold even after TF2 is dead because that’s how stable the team is.
Finally, I’d like to mention Team Reverto Goliath once more. After speaking to Stark, it seems unlikely that Alba’s team will play off and are happy to play in division 1 for the coming season. However, with wins against various incarnations of LMS, WebOne, SOLAR, Vinland and furbo pandas, it’s reasonable to suggest they would be right at home against the teams shown above. Look out for them as strong contenders for automatic promotion to the premier division next season.
Also thanks to Chaplain for his input.
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2013-04-27 by hippole.
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.