A few familiar faces from the Nordic territories resurface just in time for the start of the new season
The world and his wife wept at the death of the classic Team Dignitas roster this summer. The death knell had sounded back in late July when the declared that they would not be attending Assembly, a series at which they had been undefeated with their fearless Finnish medic, Arto "I've-never-lost-at-LAN" Gröndahl.
The players cited a lack of interest in the game and scene which they had quite literally won everything there was to win. Even though they had been a chronically inactive for the twelve months prior to folding they were able to find their classic form at the drop of a hat when motivated; Assembly Winter 2011, a case in point.
Their retirement has been a short lived one with Darn, Haza and Rebeli being dusted down and wheeled out of the museum for the Team Dignitas mix of old and new rosters that attended i43 at short notice. Something was up... the spark had been rekindled!
The positive energy generated by Valve's decision to go the Free2Play route has been reanimating the corpses of fallen veterans at an alarming rate, like that pink goo from Ghostbusters II and it's got our competitive toaster is dancing. Darn & Co are back in business with a new face in their ranks and unfamiliar name to boot.
Does a rose by any other name still rape face so hard? (Source: coolclan.eu)
Obviously with Team Dignitas having picked up the more than worthy SG-1 roster to fill the void, the old generation have had to come up with a name for their team and they have settled on "relic"; quite apt. Although I have to admit they will always be Dignitas in the hearts of the community, and I found myself unable to adapt to the change when casting their first official games in the Excello ZOWIE Pre-Season showdown earlier in the week.
Their first round fixture against Infused.Tt eSports didn't go entirely to plan, as they were eventually overwhelmed by the whippersnappers from the UK despite having taken the first map, Gullywash Pro the home turf of Infused, in emphatic style.
The latest edition to their roster, a relatively unknown Swedish soldier by the name of Larsa, put in a strong performance on Gullywash, top fragging as the eyes of the world watched on in judgement. The curse of the caster was then invoked, as he proceeded to bottom frag for the next two maps having been singled out for praise on the first. Cruel fate!
It's very early days yet for this new line-up, even though the original five are very familiar with each other's play style they will have to put in some hours to integrate the fresh-faced Swede about whom Darn nonchalantly told me "I just saw him on a DM server and I needed a soldier" whilst remaining tight lipped about the team's prospects or any plans to look for a sponsor.
These guys are former greats, but whatever way you cut it they are underdogs now in the new era which may well be the motivation they need to tackle the top three contenders for the ETF2L Season 10 crown; Epsilon eSports, Team Dignitas and Infused.Tt eSports.
Team Dignitas relic are now:
Arto 'agron' Gröndahl
Jukka 'Rebeli' Kauppinen
Rauli 'Darn' Savela
Ruben 'ryb' Ljungdahl
Brjön 'bybben' Andersson
Martin 'Larsa' Bottenfraggar
Originally published on Cadred.org on Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:59:51 +0100 by James J. McDonnell.
Archived from Relic From A Bygone Era 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.