(ESEAnews) - Furiously scribbled en route to Dallas, Carl "enigma" Yangsheng wraps up his previews with a look at the #1 seed and defending champion Quantic Legacy.
? Dont Trip
Central
0-0-0 (.000)
Streak N/A THE TEAM
Grant "b4nny" Vincent
Matt "clockwork" D
Paul "cyzer" S
Kevin "mackey" Mackey
THE JOURNEY
Ending the season with a more than respectable 15-1, reigning champions Quantic Legacy come into LAN with the always-intimidating first seed. As the only team to retain all six starting members from the previous season, Quantic unsurprisingly dominated the regular season, coming just short of Check Six's legendary perfect season by one match--a loss to Classic Mixup on cp_gravelpit.
Although Quantic's nearly unblemished record suggests unchallenged dominance, a few particular matches make it clear that this team is not unstoppable. Their greatest map weakness is on nonstandard formats (koth, stopwatch), which was reflected in the matches against ducks and mixup on standin and viaduct respectively. However, it's hard to ignore their perfection of the linear 5cp format, which is often all that matters at LAN.
THE PLAYBOOK
A cursory glance at the roster and anyone in the world will tell you that the star of the show is b4nny, a player so perfect and so striking in resemblance that many consider him the literal reincarnation of Jesus himself. Playing arguably the most overpowered, influential, and skillful class in the game (black Jesus), b4nny is seemingly unrivaled in gamesense, positioning, and damage output. In other words: he's really fucking good.
Yet even with b4nny at the helm of this team, it's doubtful that all eyes will be on him this LAN. Emerging as perhaps the strongest scout pair in recent TF2 history, clockwork and cyzer complement perfectly the monster damage output and zoning abilities b4nny provides. Their strongest trait however is not their deadly DM, but their excellent timing and coordination with the rest of the team. Clockwork's steady aim and patience and cyzer's well-tuned nose (jk) ensure Quantic's victory at the end of most team fights, providing the team an excellent fallback when the heavy classes fall short.
Leading Quantic both in game and out as pocket soldier is Tyrone, an invite veteran and two-time LAN champion. As the Quantic's main and most of the time only caller, he's without a doubt the most influential player in the team dynamic. His extremely strong and vocal leadership has no doubt played a huge part in the team's past success, but may also point to one of Quantic's few weaknesses. While a single caller may offer significant advantages in clarity and unity when the is caller still alive (which in Tyrone's case is quite often), the opposite may manifest itself when the caller is dead or limited in information. In the few chaotic instances where Tyrone is dead but the rest of his team isn't, the rest of a team (CB in particular) seems at a loss for what to do. This isn't to say that going for the head of the proverbial chicken is a good idea (in fact it's a really bad one), but it's definitely a weakness that competing teams should exploit given the opportunity.
Quantic's other weaknesses are their two remaining players, mackey and CB. Although mackey's roamer proficiency pales in comparison to that of his peers', his saving grace is his excellent offclassing capability. The problem with constant offclassing though is that it results in extremely inconsistent play--his presence swings from game changing in one game to nonexistent in the next. CB, Quantic's medic, is no stranger to the invite scene, but missed the last LAN due to his own wedding. It's unfortunately hard to call CB anything other than the worst medic of the four LAN teams, but perhaps his background in professional poker will allow him to shine under high pressure situations where other medics may falter.
THE PREDICTION
It's well-known in the invite community that Quantic doesn't bring their A-game until LAN, so the Quantic you saw in the regular season will definitely not be the Quantic you'll see this weekend. Quantic is a team that's more than the sum of its parts, and when the sum of its parts alone is scary as shit, you know they're not going to disappoint.
Originally published on ESEA on 3/3/2012, 1:04 PM by sapphiRe.
Archived from TF2 LAN Preview: Quantic Legacy 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.