What women want, also known as Teddybears, Dynamite, Dunc's Team, The REJ Wannabes, and a bunch of other awful/unfunny names, who recently placed 6th in Cadred's March Top Ten and finished a strong 3rd at i39, have decided to fold. As they ride off into the sunset, now feels like a good time to finally settle on a name.
Maybe we were foolish to expect greatness from them. But the mix was there.
The ego brain behind the team, Duncan "dunc" Wraight, already one of the best medics and most skilled callers around, surrounded himself with top-drawer talent, including a potential superstar or two, and they had a genuine desire to be the best.
On paper they boasted one of the hottest rosters around - including former Power Gaming refugees Arto "Bash" Alanko, coming off an MVP worthy Winter Assembly performance, and one of the game's most dynamic players, Robin "wltrs" Brinkestål - but it never quite clicked in-game the way they wanted it to.
That's despite some outstanding individual performances and a fantastic debut ETF2L season which includes points taken from each of the elite teams. And their i39 showing where dunc raged the team to a podium finish with two mercs was something special. Anyone else would be new-parent proud and looking to the future. So it's a real shame to lose this team. They had a tonne of potential.
what women want at i39. Dunc is the unhappy looking one.
But there were always problems. Whether it was dealing with Seb "numlocked" Barton's temperament (apparently reflected in his dodgy internet connection, kind of like a mood ring), Bash's reported whininess rivalling his in-game ability, or even dunc's own bi-polar roller coaster ride of being in charge one minute and buck-passing the next, it seems like being amongst the best - even potentially - wasn't enough for them.
I don't buy the bad rap on Alex "ajones" Jones. He's a fine soldier. He has good games and bad games. He's not a top-tier soldier, but top-tier soldiers are exceedingly rare (that's part of what makes them top-tier), and he wasn't too far off. Pair anyone next to Paul "Evil" Doyle and you're going to struggle to keep up. But ajones tried his best and that's all you can ask from your teammates.
Dunc likes to talk about their ESL fixture against FakkelBrigade, where he endured over forty deaths over two maps, as the breaking point. He didn't play for the team after that, apart from his i39 semi-mix team. If you're a good captain you take those forty+ deaths, rage about it and move on. But dunc quit on them.
And with that, whether it actually was that game or the wheels had fallen off a long time ago, the team was done. For all its ability, the team never had a working chemistry. They lacked that essential glue-guy personality. The team never found an identity - not quite an elite team, not satisfied with being middle of the pack - just like they never had a proper name. What women want, Dynamite, Teddybears... whatever. This really was Dunc's Team.
The mix was there. Maybe they were foolish to expect greatness from themselves.
Dunc's Team was:
Duncan "dunc" Wraight
Arto "Bash" Alanko
Alex "ajones" Jones
Paul "Evil" Doyle
Murrough "predz" O'Brien
Robin "wltrs" Brinkestål
Originally published on Cadred.org on Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:15:44 +0100 by JimmyBreeze.
Archived from What Women Want Call It Quits 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.