The European Team Fortress 2 League managed to gather 330 teams to their sixth league season. The division seedings are now done and the teams are busying themselves with map picks and preparations while we wait for the first week of the games to start on Monday. Resupply.eu kicks off the new season with a preview of the six top contenders from Division 1.
Season 6 Division 1 Teams:
LOL Team
Team Dignitas
Vale!
Afterlife
(Auto resize: show original) The Finnish team formerly known as Illegal has a good chance to become the new rising star in the TF2 scene. While their competition has been mostly inactive during the summer, Afterlife is one of the few teams that has maintained a steady pace of practise matches. This combined with the fact that their line-up is quite talented makes them the top challenger for the usual pack which consists of Dignitas, cc, TCM and Vale. If these teams don't start practising and soon, I wouldn't be surprised if Afterlife takes the title home this season. However, it seems more likely that the others will sharpen up now that the new season begins and that Afterlife is not yet ready to challenge the top teams.
**Prediction:**4th
Key players to look out for:
vallone - Has quite a wicked aim as a Scout. Former CS player who could be described as a "in your face" type of a Scout. Plays overly aggressive and might get himself and the team into trouble because of it, but he's guaranteed to snipe your Medic and other key targets more than a few times.
hocz - One of the most prominent Soldiers in the game today. Has had the dm skills for a while but with the experience he has gained in Afterlife, he's now capable of tactical thinking which is required when playing Soldier at the top level.
paavi - A dependable Medic with strong experience from several top teams over the years such as coldFusion, 4Kings and Interrobang. He's able to steer his team with confidence, and is no doubt one of the reasons why we've seen such a tremendous improvement in hocz' game play.
hymzi - The Finnish Demoman. Already quit TF2 after UKeSA finals, but made a comeback after the Assembly tournament. At this time Crack Clan had already recruited Bash to become their new Demo, so hymzi moved on to Afterlife. This was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, with Xzar staying as a backup demo for a while, but it remains to be seen whether or not hymzi will be playing the full season. He's a very aggressive player who excels in deathmatch skills but is often found over-extending himself and getting killed for little to no worth. Still, he's such a massive force for the team when things go right that I see him as a definite improvement for Afterlife.
Roster:
vallone
paavi
hocz
hymzi
Xzar
Crack Clan
(Auto resize: show original) Crack Clan was the div1 team with the most stable line-up, until recently. First they lost Punpu, who left for the Finnish Army in early July. Shortly after hymzi decided to quit and just recently both of their Scouts, Jambo and Glufse, went inactive. Luckily they've been able to find some fine replacements for these players. To replace Punpu, cc already had their original Soldier snifz in the roster. The demise of wotr was good news for cc, as they were able to recruit another top tier Finnish demoman Bash to replace hymzi. And more recently, coolclan folding was also surely welcomed in the cc camp, as they got an experienced Scout pair in form of vaxjo and walters. The new recruits are first class players, but the line-up changes will certainly affect them to some degree. Especially since the team has not been able to practise with their new setup with Bash's absense. Even so, Crack Clan remains as one of the top contenders but the start of the new season may come too soon from their point of view.
**Prediction:**3rd
Key players to look out for:
kyynel - The Medic of the Season from ETF2L's previous season. His popularity was sparked with the release of his "I am ze Ubermench" frag movie, but he's also a player worth the credit. While the tactical decisions are left for others in cc (currently Moose and Bash), he's usually doing the right things to help his team to win the games. All Medics make mistakes at times but kyynel is generally perceived to make fewer than his top level counterparts.
walters - Superbly talented Scout and a mean Sniper. Seems to work seamlessly with vaxjo and I am looking forward to see what these two can accomplish with the support from the rest of the cc team. While vaxjo is a great player as well, my impression is that wltrs has a slight edge when it comes to pure fragging power.
Roster:
Moose
snifz
kyynel
Bash
vaxjo
walters
Glufse
I Don't Know?
(Auto resize: show original) While I'm including I Don't Know amongst the top teams from div1, I don't think they have much of a chance against Dignitas, Crack Clan, TCM, Vale or Afterlife. But then again, they probably shouldn't have any trouble beating the remaining teams. Losing Shintaz will definitely hurt them, but besides that, they've stuck together with the same line-up for several seasons. As a result, now they should be able to perform well as a team. However, in my eyes idk has only a few real star players at the moment. Their Demoman Extremer is a dangerous foe and pure brings some top level experiense from North-America to the team, but the others have not yet impressed me on an individual level. They might suprise us if they practise harder than the rest and find the team play they need, but at the moment it doesn't seem likely.
**Prediction:**6th
Key players to look out for:
Extremer - The guy hits with every damn pine? Good aim, good game sense. Definitely the carrying force for idk? at the moment. Like kyynel, Extremer has gained some internet fame by making his own frag movies, but as with kyynel, there's some real skill behind this guy. He's also an entertaining player to watch, does some flashy pine frags instead of constant sticky spam.
Roster:
F2
Night
pure
Extremer
Slick
Team Coolermaster
(Auto resize: show original) Team Coolermaster has been an unstable and sometimes very inactive mix of raw skill and tactical ingenuity. Because of their activity and line-up issues, I've been predicting them to fail one season after another. I'll do so this time as well by predicting a 5th place for them, but I have no doubt that they'll prove me wrong yet again. I don't think anyone really knows what these guys are capable of right now, not even themselves. Most of their players seem to be concentrating on other games at the moment, but even a small burst of activity would probably be enough for them cause some upsets against other top ranked teams.
**Prediction:**5th
Key players to look out for:
dunc - A capable leader and a dodgy Medic. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I keep missing my shots against this guy from the easiest of situations, but then again that might be just me. What I can tell for certain is that he has an impeccable game sense and dunc and Haza's tactical awareness is probably the biggest reason why TCM has been such a major player in the TF2 scene.
Haza - I was talking about raw talent before and that description fits Haza more than any other active TF2 player from Europe that I know of. He can play any of the classes at top level, though currently he has taken the role of Soldier in TCM. His aim may lose to others but when it comes to situational awareness, in my eyes he's the best. He knows what the enemy is doing and more importantly what he and his team are supposed to do to counter it. Paired with dunc who also excels with his game sense, they make a very strong asset for TCM.
Roster:
dunc
Haza
Team Dignitas
(Auto resize: show original) The reigning champion in ETF2L and god knows where else. The only tournament with any real meaning which they haven't won recently is the fourth EMS season, where Vale managed to upset the considerably less active Team Dignitas. What can be said about them that has not been written a dozen times before? Well, for one thing, I think that benching Appz and bringing in Rebeli was a good move for them. Both players have the dm skills but Rebeli is a team player where Appz likes to fly solo. They really haven't practised at all during the summer but if they start playing again now, Dignitas should be the favorites for Season 6 as well.
Prediction: 1st
Key players to look out for:
Darn - Darn is often overlooked when talking about Team Dignitas. He might not be in the spotlight as often as ryb and bybben, but he has grown to be an important in-game leader for the team. Darn is the player who makes the big decisions in game for Dignitas and controls the flow of the game. And it should be obvious for anyone by now that he does it exceptionally well. Plays the role of a more aggressive Soldier in Dignitas, he's the guy who usually kills the enemy Medic when their team needs it.
ryb - The best Demoman in the world, period. Ever since he moved to 4Kings, others have copied his moves and play style but still he manages to top everyone else. Without ryb, Dignitas would have most likely lost many more tournaments than one EMS and ED seasons. With him, they're just that good.
bybben - Credited to be one of the best Scouts in the world, but recently he has been one of the least active players in Team Dignitas. Definitely a huge asset for the team, if he rekindles the motivation to keep playing.
Roster:
Darn
Rebeli
ryb
bybben
appe
Vale!
(Auto resize: show original) Along with Afterlife, Vale! is pretty much the only top team that has managed to stay active for the whole summer. This should give them an edge against their rivals and this was already seen in the EMS finals, where they decimated the seemingly sloppy Dignitas. Vale has been a team mostly known from their strong Scout pair, but right now I'd say their line-up is thoroughly solid. They will be a hard team to beat, especially in the early season when others are still trying to find their game play after the summer. I still believe that Dignitas have players with better game sense than Vale, so I am predicting a second place for them.
Prediction: 2nd
Key players to look out for:
SkiNNie - Practise makes perfect, SkiNNie is definite proof for that. He's one of the most dedicated players in the game and nowadays also one of the best Scouts. Paired with zerox, this is one dangerous Scout duo.
zerox - Brilliant aim both with Scout and Sniper. However, I've heard some criticism towards him that his comms and his game sense are not the best. It doesn't really show when you watch him play however. One would probably have to play in the same team as him to know if this is true or not.
Byte - "Byte is down! Puuuuush!" A phrase we associated with TCM for the longest time. Byte is a careful and calculating player, and his play style often dictates the way the rest of his team plays. There is no doubt that he brought much needed experience and tactical insight to Vale and in my opinion he has always been one of the strongest Demos in the game. And also one of the most annoying ones to play against. Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be any stickies around the corner, half of your team dies to them since he laid them there two minutes ago.
Roster:
SkiNNie
Springer
Matt
Coinz
Haunter
Byte
boomeh
zerox
The Others
While I was able to make some kind of prediction for each of the (in my opinion) top six teams, I simply don't know rockit, eSrael, LOL Team andFakkelBrigade well enough to write about them. From the comments I've read, I gather that they're not strong enough to challenge the better half of div1. On the other hand, since I haven't played against these teams or watched them play in recent history, I simply can't make a prediction for how these teams will perform. Hopefully they'll prove me wrong and show us that they're worth their place in Division 1.
That's it for now. We will be back with more ETF2L coverage when things will get busy in the league. We'll also cover both TF2Nations' and ETF2L Nations Cups once the uninteresting group stages are over and the real fighting begins in the playoffs.
Originally published on Resupply.eu on 23.09.2009 by Moose.
Archived from ETF2L Season 6 Preview as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of Resupply.eu's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and Resupply.eu; reposted for historical reference.