(ESEAnews) Up next: The Experiment
? EG TF2 RIP
Central
0-0-0 (.000)
Streak N/A THE TEAM
Matthew "Basik" Arenas
R "ww" C
Tim "dummy" Olson
Samuel "oPlaiD" Lingle
Ryan "sycknesS" Mitchell
THE JOURNEY
After placing a disappointing third place finish at the Season 9 LAN and substantial drama involving green hats, chairs, and one-fingered medics, the new Experiment settled on a deceptively strong roster in the offseason. Returning from the previous season would be wonderwall, a roamer widely recognized as the best in this game, and dummy, a demo with a massive backing of experience. The four new pickups came as much of a surprise—Seagull, a veteran but rusty pocket; oPlaiD, a dependable but retired scout; Basik, a soldier-turned-medic; and dante, a Natural Selection and MGE superstar with no actual TF2 experience.
It became apparent as the season progressed that Experiment would take the third seed. They took easy wins against their immediate competition in HRG and Area 51 and secured themselves enough of a lead early on to protect their standing from the losses that came in the final weeks. Finishing the season an even 8-8, they remained third seed ahead of HRG (also 8-8) due to a head-to-head advantage.
Although their 8-8 record suggests Experiment has little more than an outside chance at the title against the 15-1 Quantic and 14-2 Mixup, closer inspection of the regular season matches reveals a different story. The week two match against Mixup on Warmfront ended in a nail-biting 4-5 loss after Experiment failed to push last with complete uber advantage and then got re-pushed to lose the round. The rematch on Gullywash ended in almost the identical fashion with Experiment choking in the very last moments of the game. Experiment’s only game against Quantic ended up in a 3-4 loss on snakewater, the same map on which Quantic convincingly defeated Mixup 5-2.
These narrow losses showed that Experiment was perfectly capable of playing in the arena with the big boys. Unfortunately, whatever momentum and chemistry the team had was quickly destroyed following some raunchy post-season drama.
DIRTY FRENCH CANADIANS
The conclusion of the season left Experiment with a new challenge: to scrounge together enough money to pay for travel and accommodations in the absence of a sponsor. Wonderwall and dante immediately bowed out, both citing financial difficulties too difficult to overcome.
In similar fashion to seasons past, the competitive community quickly rallied to the cause, raising well over the required amount to send Experiment to LAN in just the first eight hours. Wonderwall quickly recommitted, but Dante, for reasons unknown, was still a no-go.
A dante-less Experiment is no doubt a weaker Experiment. Dante played a well-defined role that his thousands of hours of MGE grinding left him particularly good at—cleaning up. He pioneered a super-passive scout play style and led the invite scout pack in K/D, leading his team to victory with impressive performances on more than one occasion.
Replacing dante on the Experiment LAN roster is sycknesS, a well-known scout star from such iconic teams as EG and Pandemic. The problem: he hasn’t played this game since season 6, almost two years ago.. It’s likely impossible sycknesS will be fully able to acclimate to a meta that has evolved significantly since his time. This scout swap leaves Experiment’s scout pair rather lacking. Neither scout is known for particularly strong DM or craftiness, and in a field of extremely able scouts, Experiment’s lack of scout power may end up being their biggest weakness.
Luckily, their two powerhouse soldiers more than compensate. Both Seagull and ww have extremely strong DM and maneuverability in addition to plenty of seasons of invite experience under different teams and play styles. They bring to the table a soldier-heavy team dynamic that’ll be much more effective on LAN ping.
Rounding out the roster is Experiment’s demoman, dummy. A veteran of nearly four years, dummy has seen the rise and fall of TF2 dynasties and witnessed the evolution of the game since the beginning. But it’s this very experience that seems to haunt dummy, whose style of demoman hasn’t changed much if at all since his days with Reptile and company on the original Experiment. If you’re going to compete with demos such as Platinum and b4nny, arriving at mid full seconds after the opposing demo just isn’t acceptable.
THE PREDICTION
Experiment’s fate will ultimately be at the hands of their soldiers. An extraordinary performance (ww on granary, Season 8) will possibly net a grand finals appearance; a mediocre one and you’ll likely see Experiment make a quick exit on day 1.
Less than two weeks ‘till LAN leaves little time for change, so I’ll go with an optimistic 3rd but a realistic 4th.
Originally published on ESEA on 2/20/2012, 10:22 PM by 11enigma.
Archived from TF2 LAN Preview: The Experiment as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of ESEA's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and ESEA; reposted for historical reference.