March's Top10 TF2 Teams

Here are Cadred's monthly TF2 rankings from March.

Like last month, we have six well known players from the TF2 scene forming the panel which decides the ranking with their votes.

The points system is simple: a first place vote earns that team 10 points, 9 points are awarded for second place, and so on. We also add the points from the previous month to this months votes to make the ranking a bit more stable.

On page two you can read who the panel members are, and see their thoughts and opinions on this month's rankings

Juho "Moose" Pättö

Juho has worked for Cadred as TF2 editor since spring 2008. He's the only man still remaining from Cadred's original TF2 team.

He plays in one of the top teams, Crack! Clan and is also the captain of Team Finland, the ETF2L Nations Cup champions. He is constantly following the events in the TF2 scene and is very well aware of the balance of power between the best teams.

"
It comes as no surprise that Dignitas is the number one team in the March rankings as well. Crack Clan still remains second but Team Coolermaster has managed to climb up to the third place, dropping Trademark Gamers fourth. And I'd say this position is well deserved for TCM, after all they won the Reality and beat TMGamers three times there. However, they can't get the second place this month after losing to both CC and wotr in UKeSA.

I'm glad to see that both wotr and Vale! are doing strong against the top4 teams recently and I wouldn't be surprised at all if either of them manage to get top positions in future competitions. Wotr has already secured a top4 placement in the UKeSA Premiership and a shared third place with TCM in ETF2L season 4. Vale! is still lacking official results because they missed the start of ED and ETF2L seasons but I think their team is now stronger than it ever was while they still carried the name Team Druidz. I'm looking forward to see them challenge the likes of Dignitas in the very near future.

The bottom end of the list doesn't really offer any surprises. Weapons of the rebelion 2 has finally been awarded with a spot in the top10 and in my opinion they really deserve it. They are promoted to the highest division of ETF2L for season 5 and it will remain to be seen how they'll do against the top tier teams.”

Karl "weqo" Terävä

Karl is an ETF2L admin and a player in Ubersexuals as well as Team Sweden.

He comes to the TF2 scene with a Q3 background, but he already has an extensive experience from this scene after playing in top teams like Kompaniet and Excello from the very beginning.

" A lot of the teams in this list have had numerous changes to their lineup for this month, making the list a bit unstable as usual. Luckily everything hasn't changed though. Dignitas are stable as ever and sits at the top and wins ETF2L. Crack! Clan's recruit of Punpu a while ago has proven to be a big boost of their skill. Them drawing Dignitas in the last ETF2L game of the season shows us that they are a force to be reckoned with.

The biggest event in March apart from ETF2L has to be The Reality LAN in Holland where we find Team CoolerMaster as the winner, beating both Trademark Gamers and Vale! Too bad more top teams weren't able to participate at this event.

At the lower half of the list we find Weapons of the Rebellion that keeps on surprising. Performing way better than I'd expect them to do a few months ago. Vale! also seems to have find a solid lineup and are active as ever. Delirium folding wasn't too unexpected and, while being sad, brought us a few positive effects allowing some teams to fill the empty spots in their lineups."

Matt “Mole” Ashton

Matt is a former ETF2L admin and he is also the man behind the ETF2L Radio.

Playing in a division 2 clan Dead Cows Strike Back, Matt also has an hefty amount of experience.

"
TCM have had a great month, including winning The Reality LAN with a couple of wins over TmG, however CC just make it into the second spot by not only beating TCM but also by pulling off a draw with Dignitas who are sitting in first almost untouchable at the moment.

Wotr have also had a great month, beating TCM and securing a place in the UKeSa LAN finals, and drawing with a TmG side who have had a hard month with the only real result to show is a good win vs CC. Expect them to bounce back strong. Wotr vs TmG in UKeSa will be good to watch!

Vale are still lacking results in officials bare a draw with TCM. I was hoping to be able to consider a result vs wotr but that got rescheduled. Unless some of the other panel choose to go on results from pcw’s (I tend to look more at officials than pcw’s) then they will be stuck in 6th/7th until they get some proper results under their belt. They’re perfectly capable ranking higher, they just need to prove it. Though its great to see Vale and wotr catching up with the top pack. Results are a lot more varied and the ranking for the top teams are becoming a little less clear cut.

Picking a 10th team gave me some issues. Zee (formerly k1ck before being dropped from the org) could arguably be considered for the list possibly even higher than 10th, however with little to show for official results along with those they have being affected by the cheater(s) caught within the squad recently I didn’t think it right to put them in, so this month see’s wotr2 creep into 10th in my list (also because numlocked loves them)."

Anders "F2" Carstensen

Anders is running the popular news portal TF2 Gossip. Besides this, he's also the main admin and developer for several TF2 pickup channels and bots.

He currently plays for the division 2 team I Don't Know?

" Deciding the top 4-5 spots isn't as easy as it used to be. dignitas is still an obvious number one. But it is difficult to rank TCM/TmG/CC/wotr/Vale.

TCM was very strong at the Reality Lan, beating TmG, who they also beat in ETF2L. Wotr has pulled off a map draw against TCM and a match draw against TmG in ETF2L, and a two map win against TCM in UKeSA. CC got a map win against dignitas in ETF2L and a map draw in UKeSA, but they did badly against TmG in UKeSA.
Vale got a match draw against TCM in ESL and seems to be doing well against the top teams.

Based on those results I will put CC on 2nd place again, they are the clan closest to dignitas' level at the moment. But in the end all the teams are pretty equal. They can all win against each other depending on the day and map. And that's a good thing - it makes matches more interesting and enjoyable to watch."

Keith "AcidReniX" Nichols

Keith has been working as shoutcaster for the ETF2L Radio and QuadV. He's been a strong force in the UK TF2 scene since the beginning and also played for Team UK.

Keith plays in Zee (former k1ck.TF2).

"This month's number one through to number five spots were the hardest choices I've ever had while doing this top ten. Well o.k, number one wasn't too difficult, I could write an essay on how well Dignitas are doing in ETF2L, UKeSA and even CEVO-P! But let's talk about a few of the other teams!

TCM have been on form recently, but I feel it has only been in the second half of the month, however their win at The Reality has justified placing them higher on (my) the rankings. Weapons of the Rebellion have been ON FIRE lately. They have suprised pretty much everyone in the community with a great ETF2L record and an even better UKeSA record. They have come a long way and in my opinion deserve a placement higher than in February.

TmG have slipped a bit. They were probably favourites on paper to win The Reality at the end of this month but it didn't happen for them and in all fairness, a first time team lanning in holland is only going to result in a tonne of drinking which obviously won't aid performance ;p

Down the other end of the table we have Vale holding steady, always improving, same goes for clan00 and with their new recruits, I could see them pushing hard to gain some places next month.

Crack Clan are still playing solidly. A few minor slip ups in the leagues but they are still a dominant force to reckon with. We can all expect a high placement rank yet again from the boys from the North!

Weapons of the Rebellion 2 might make a break into this months top 10 and in my opinion, they deserve it. They have been a little inconsistent but when they get their A game on, they can take down pretty much anyone. Same goes for Imperial and Zee. If these teams work on their consistency, they might make regular appearences in future rankings."

Hidde "Amonsilas" van Manen

Hidde is the second active TF2 editor in the Cadred team. He became known as the head admin of Clanbase's TF2 side, but has now retired from that position. Two weeks ago he joined the ETF2L admin team as Coverage Supersivor and general league admin.

Currently Hidde is working to organize the TF2 Community LAN in July.

" March was the month of many encounters between Crack Clan and Dignitas, Europe's current number one and two. Although Crack Clan drew Dignitas twice, Dignitas managed to win all the other matches, making them this months top team once again. Right below are Crack Clan for winning the other important match against TCM, although they lost from TMGamers on the 5th.

I feel that this month it is Team Coolermaster that belongs at the 3rd spot. Their incredibly strong performance at The Reality LAN in Holland and their wins over TMGamers and wotr in the ETF2L have proven that they are definitely not to be underestimated anymore. Next is Trademark Gamers, who actually drew weapons of the rebelion in the ETF2L, but on the other hand completely annihilated The Imperial. I believe that adding German scout aves and soldier Johnny to their line-up increases their strength and stabilises their spot in the top four.

In the sub top we have got Weapons of the rebelion who are clearly the strongest team below the top, since they practically can take any opponent down bar the four named above and are still improving with a steady pace. Results of their improvement are seen in March, they beat TCM in a UKeSA match and drew TMGamers in the ETF2L. On the sixth spot comes clan00, for drawing TCM (one match) and Crack Clan (one map) in official matches.

After this it becomes harder to rank the teams. Vale! still seems to me as the strongest team left, followed by The Imperial and Nervous (YoYoTech), who drew each other in their only official encounter. At the bottom of my list is Weapons of the rebelion 2.”

You'll be able to catch more thoughts from our panelists next month with Cadred's April Rankings!

---

Originally published on Cadred.org on Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:37:45 +0100 by Juho Pättö.

Archived from March's Top10 TF2 Teams as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of Cadred.org's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and Cadred.org; reposted for historical reference.