(ESEAnews) - Season 12 of TF2 Invite has finally arrived! It feels like the time since the S11 LAN has been short, mostly because there have been so many show matches and events happening in the meantime. With the season actually officially kicking off last week and Invite having its start tomorrow, it's finally time for me to drop my preseason preview/power rankings on you kids. Last season, enigma did these based off of scrim results - I have chosen a different method, and I'm actually just going to rank these teams in the positions that I think they will be when the season ends. You have plenty to read, so I will shut up now and let you guys enjoy ~~~djc's Season 12 Power Rankings~~~
ESEA TF2 INVITE SEASON 12 PREVIEW
TEAM
RANK
COMMENTS
? Classic Mixup
Central
0-0-0 (.000)
Streak N/A
1.
I envision a world in which every season, one new team spawns that pushes the boundaries; a team that decides to see how many cooks they can throw in the kitchen before someone concocts a poisonous stew that slays the entirety of the TF2 community and come away with a LAN victory. Last season, Mihaly's Flow brought together Harbleu, Ruwin and PYYYOUR – three of the best thinkers in the game, and also three strong main callers. So when that team fizzled out, the next step in the plan for LAN dominance was to pop that number up to four with the addition of Platinum, and hell, throw in another giant TF2 brain in the form of Enigma and bring in silent assassin TLR to airshot some kids and give a smug grin to his stream viewers after. Preheat to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and throw it all in a casserole dish and somehow you get Classic Mixup out of it.
Last season, everyone said that Mihaly's Flow was perhaps the biggest collection of talent Team Fortress 2 had ever seen. And now Mixup blows them out of the water – the difference between Enigma and Shrugger is colossal, ww- was clearly in the twilight of his career last season, and as good as Soup is capable of being, Platinum was nuts in his prior stint as demoman. As an avid viewer of streams, I have spent many a night watching various Mixup members deliver a viking massacre unto the lower Invite teams and they look just as dominant against the rest (except for LG, since Mixup had a long-standing “No Scrimming Tyrone” policy in place). Flow were good enough to go 15-1; Mixup are definitely good enough to go 16-0. But that's online; what's going to happen at LAN?
There was a very obvious ginger scapegoat for the last super-team we had (rest in peace, Shrugger) and at times, it felt like every bit of blame was pushed on to him – ignoring the very obvious flaws that the rest of the team exhibited on LAN. PYYYOUR was the worst LAN medic, dropping Harbleu repeatedly and getting caught alone and out of position far too often. It felt even more bizarre when in the post-game interview, PYYYOUR diffused the blame out by saying “it was like healing an open team at times.” With bitter comments like that popping out, it comes as no shock that there was massive tension and frustration in the air for Flow. According to some on-site reports, Harbleu was reduced to a screaming mess when their last game versus srsly br0 came up, several times getting flustered when he failed to secure a medic pick. The only player from Flow who had a good and consistent LAN was Ruwin, and he was coincidentally the one player who seemingly did not lose his mind while playing.
Nobody reading this should be shocked that two superstar Invite players get heated and ultra-competitive on LAN. I am in fact bringing this point up to display why the fusion of Flow and Mixup will work well for the team. That heat and passion is going to be well offset by Platinum, Enigma, and TLR. Watching TLR's stream shows you just how statuesque and motionless he tends to be, minus the occasional furious leg-shake when he misses an airshot. Enigma comes off as the most stoic person in the game, even when he's eviscerating Bloodsire or Tyrone in a forums post. Platinum has been one of the best captains/leaders in the game for about six seasons now and has helped keep a variety of eclectic and flamboyant personalities in check.
? Dont Trip
Central
0-0-0 (.000)
Streak N/A
2.
The narrative that surrounds LG, has always surrounded LG, and will always surround LG is that these dudes play better on LAN. I watched the last LAN – they play exactly the same on LAN as they do online. The thing that wins video games for them is that Clockwork and B4nny are really fucking good regardless of where in the continental United States they happen to be playing. Tyrone picked up his play a bit when they got there, of course, but nobody at the end of the weekend went “damn man, can't believe Tyrone carried LG to another win! This kid's a regular Seagull!”
Nothing at all has changed for the previous LAN winners, except that Mackey will be subbing in for a while so that the team can play with their full lineup in Europe. So little has changed that it is honestly hard to think of things to say about the team. Hey guys, did you hear B4nny did 500 damage per minute in that game??? Yo dude, Clockwork just got a mad sick four kill to win middle. Wow guys, I can't believe LG won a round where Mackey killed himself with his own rocket two seconds into the midfight! The biggest thing LG has going for them is consistency – they will be the exact same team every game, playing mostly default strategies, and relying upon their superior talent and well-developed teamwork to win them games. And you know what? That's boring to a lot of people (especially article writers trying to come up with funny jokes or analogies). Classic Mixup are passing the ball seventy times a game, winning off of Hail Mary plays and crazy toe-tap touchdowns. Leviathan just kind of pound it in there over and over, squeaking out three yards at a time until the levy breaks and Clockwork or B4nny get a huge spree.
My one big concern about LG this season is what happens after i46. It seemed like a big part of what motivated Tyrone to keep playing TF2 was the potential for a European video game vacation; he spoke about it with the love and devotion that a perma-virgin would hold towards his lifelong next door neighbor. Once beautiful England has come and gone, will he really carry that much about the prospect of winning a fourth ESEA LAN? Hell, what motivation does any of this team have? In Europe, pretty much every team who were as successful as LG lost their desire to play because it became too much of the same. There had to be something to push Epsilon and Dignitas to keep doing – I just wonder if the new megazord team is enough of a motivating factor.
? Spacewhales
Central
0-0-0 (.000)
Streak N/A
3.
Season twelve for the former br0 boys will be more of a scientific experiment than a season of gaming. The basic hypothesis is “A Team Fortress 2 team is capable of winning a LAN while never actually playing the game.” Since LAN ended, Spacewhales have played about two scrims – and they lost. Badly. To the team I'm putting at number eight in these rankings. It could serve as a destructive force and propel Blaze to actually quit the team, like the rumors said he was planning on doing if they didn't start to play more. The alternative is that it serves as a catalyst and propels them into another LAN appearance.
Much like Mixup and Flow, Spacewhales also underwent some big roster changes this offseason. The first move was that oPlaiD left (was cut? It sounds like a half-and-half situation more than anything else, with Samuel Lingle's gaming desire too passionate to quell but both sides realizing that there were better fits). Taking his place will be scout-turned-medic-turned-soldier-turned-scout-wasn't he also a demoman, Mesr. The last time I got to watch Mesr play video games on scout, he was quite impressive and he will no doubt fill in for oPlaiD quite well. Replacing him on medic will be the early season candidate for most bizarre position switch, as Mihaly's Flow's own Soup has swapped over from demo to shoot some kids with a crossbow. He got to flash a bit of his medicing in the i46 qualifiers; while br0 were not playing to their highest potential in those games, Soup showed that he has the fundamentals down pretty well with some strong surfing, good survivability in general, and he killed the fuck out of some kids with arrows.
The rest of the roster has stayed pat, with Blaze trying to once again be the best roamer in the game despite having triple digit ping, and the Golden Boy of Gaming Tim “dummy” Olson continuing his ownership of the longest nickname in video games. Yz50 is back and word on the street is he was a bit “disappointed” in the way br0 went out of season eleven; could he rediscover his love of TF2 and go back to playing 500 hours of DM in a month to return to glory?! Even if he doesn't, there will no doubt be a group of people three lines deep asking him to sign scatterguns until he leaves the game. The big question mark about the Whales continues to be boomer, who just did not match up with the rest of his team's play on LAN. There is some talk that the team will scrim four nights a week this season ,and also some talk that boomer will take on a more traditional pocket role after spending the bulk of last season trying out the roaming pocket thing. Both of those changes would be for the better of Spacewhales, but even if they fail miserably to do both of them, I just think the team is too good to miss out on a LAN spot.
? egyptian flamingos
East
0-0-0 (.000)
Streak N/A
4.
So now we come to the entire reason I wanted to be the Invite writer – I really wanted to talk about my Brazilian best friend and all of his banana/monkey-related issues and adventures. Last season, dante and powah decided they wanted to make a team. They spent a few weeks scrimming and proceeded to cause intestinal disorders to every Invite team much like the kind powah experiences when he drinks his country's tap water. Now, with The Mad Men having won their way into Invite and picking up dante, the probability of powah earning a LAN spot is looking even more likely. Boasting one of the strongest flanks in Invite is what's going to get them there – the scout pair is obviously lethal, but the one other player on the team that turns heads is roaming soldier rr-. And God forbid you draw the team on Viaduct, where powah will be perma-sniping with rr and dante scouting together. Check out the little Brazilian's frag video if you want to see how my experience with that went last season.
We can start off the rest of the team with Unf, the forever-IM demoman who finally broke his way back into the big leagues. His first move upon winning IM: changing his stream channel name to say “Invite demoman” instead of Intermediate. I refreshed the page within an hour of them winning and it was changed; Big Gabor knows how to prioritize. Their medic position will be filled by Invite returnee Blackymonster, noted master of the Tri-Finger Turnabout, which is both a style of dodging and a little something for all the TF2 ladies out there. Pocketing will be bl4nk, who has finally decided to drop the joke of an esport that is DotA2 to focus on his soldier DM. Good to see a man know when a sinking ship has sunk and make the leap over.
Along with Spacewhales, it feels like this team is helping to kickstart a trend where dominant teams work at their best through aggressive and dominant flank play. Bl4nk and Unf are both solid, sure, but powah and rr- are consistently at the top of the frag list and they don't seem to have any problems matching up with even LG's and Mixup's scouts. The one issue that will plague the team (and its sponsor) this season is how the hell you find $1,000 in the budget to send a poor Brazilian child to LAN.
? GOIN HEAVY
Central
0-0-0 (.000)
Streak N/A
5.
Around this point in the rankings is where things just kind of blend together. For a variety of reasons, none of the bottom four teams really stand out. I have seen all of them lose to each of the other teams and none of them were particularly convincing or demonstrative of a team's dominance. So for now, I'll put the team named Mihaly's Flow in this spot, although talk is their future name might simply be “oPlaiD.” They do field the gaming legend on scout and the plan was to pair him up with hero, but some things have come in and blocked hero from playing this season. His replacement will be the deep voiced radio jockey-slash-serial killer named Tony Swan, whose voice has exploded eardrums and no doubt driven fear into any telemarketers calling his home trying to pimp out their mediocre goods. When hero the Queefmaster was in the team, it felt like each scout had a defined role, oPlaiD on the passive role and hero being super aggressive and double jumping while twirling his mouse in the face of a soldier. Tony Swan plays a very passive style himself, perhaps only because he spent so much time in a team with a scout who dies about two times per minute, but I can see some growing pains coming out as he and oPlaiD try to adapt to each other.
The strongest player on the roster is by far the former LAN demoman, sweater, fresh off of an ESEA ban and hopefully not planning on repeating his season eleven results of kicking everyone from the team's roster and filling it with his assembly of internet waifus. Even if the team were comprised of the lowest of the low Invite players, sweater does enough damage and plays a smart enough game to keep them in any contest. Flow's combo is completed by kbk on medic, coming off of an impressive but rather inconsistent first season of Invite. He will pocket his old Pinball Wizards pal, lansky. Assessing this team is difficult, because they would compete for a LAN spot with ease if they made a few adjustments, especially young streamer lansky. It seems like he never quite got used to pocketing and it hurts the team's ubers because he has a bad habit of going into a fight, shooting all four rockets, pulling out his shotgun and then never putting it away. This is a weird little hitch that a ton of scouts-turned-pocket have made where they just become so reliant on their shotgun even though rockets are kind of the best. Fix that shit up, lansky, you need to go stand on a chair and yell “FUCK YOU FOR CUTTING ME, ENIGMA” towards a crowded room.
Their roamer is a dude named 2c a.k.a. craig a.k.a. tehoreoz a.k.a. a dude who mostly has played DotA2 and LoL for about two years. I'm not sure there's a player in Invite who people ask more questions about than 2c, because nobody has a damn clue who he is. It's been about six seasons since he last played, but luckily, he gets to roam so there's almost no way he will actually be bad.
? tri hards
Central
0-0-0 (.000)
Streak N/A
6.
If anyone really challenges Team Brbrbr Huehuehue for the fourth LAN position, I think it's this one. The team is stacked full of LAN-capable talent but they're just having some trouble putting a total package together. Probably the best feature of the team is the fact that every player is fairly selfless and understands that the team comes first. Weeble especially embodies this, even though he does tend to get overaggressive and a little too quiet when he's running in and trying to meatshot kids between scoops of ice cream. SonmyChest serves as a pretty amazing complement to him because he's talkative, he never really dies at bad times, and he is more than comfortable sitting right on his medic's ass at 185 health.
Sadly, the lack of comming isn't unique to just young Weeble. Their pocket soldier is Tri, noted for his LAN appearance with High Rollers Gaming. When you're in Mumble with Tri, you never really notice he's there until you see some poor roamer flying through the air getting double airshot. But again, his complementary piece is pretty talkative, as Kermit is one of the best demos at calling his damage and coordinating actions with his players – if they do make LAN, it'll be interesting to see if Kermit can finally make his debut, four years too late. Finishing off the combo is young lover and once in-high-demand medic, stultus. It was only about two or three seasons ago that people were saying stultus could play at the top of Invite, that he was the best medic without a team, that he was going to come in and rub Shade's face in the dirt and call him a bad video game player. Unfortunately, it was also about two or three seasons ago that stultus last played and from what some members of the Chess Club tell me, he isn't really as in-tune with the style of play and the strategies people employ today, which hurts his ability to call.
Roaming is former Leviathan Gaming member Taggerung, last seen doing some coverage work of the ESEA LAN for LG in between aggressively flirting with Clockwork on Steam (and who can blame him? That's a beautiful Mexican). It seems like Tagg is actually the most intelligent player the team fields which is what a group of heavy-DM and aggressive lineup needs on its roaming position. I think this team will struggle a bit early, but as soon as someone steps forward as an authoritative voice and main caller, they will find themselves in competition for a LAN spot.
? Mighty Ducks
Central
0-0-0 (.000)
Streak N/A
7.
Hey, speaking of teams with calling problems! The Ducks are a hard one to assess. If they played to their absolute best, if everyone hit 100% on the potential bar and their calls were on, I think they could push for a LAN spot. As it is, things can get pretty ugly. It's obvious there's a lot of talent here: Decimate is still in the process of up-and-coming-ing and plays more DM than anyone I've ever seen save Yz50, Seanbud has good DM that is marred by some inconsistency, and Thrill is a pretty creative medic with some crafty dodging. But that just isn't enough for Invite these days.
About a week ago, the Ducks were rocking with Lange as their pocket soldier and ready to go into a second season with a stable lineup. Sadly, that was not to be! Being a bro-of-Seanbud-and-also-Lange, I tended to watch a ton of Ducks scrims on their streams and their problems with Lange in the lineup were readily apparent. Nobody seemed to actually enjoy playing, the mood was clearly bad, and Lange definitely never seemed like he wanted to be there. The change was probably a good move for both parties – the move the Ducks made afterward is what I'm curious about. Relic is not a bad soldier by any means, and it was only two LANs ago that he went absolutely crazy to help Mixup win their championship. He just doesn't fix the team's biggest issue: nobody really seems to know what to do at any given time.
Any time someone in the team makes a call, it's said with uncertainty and it feels like nobody really commits to it because of how unsure the initial call is. PUFF and Thrill are the ones making the bulk of the calls, but they tend to just be a “hey, let's go into the shithouse! That sounds cool, right dudes?” with no real defined goal in mind. Their calls also tend to be pretty clouded with people complaining about dying, and any actually useful information that could come from their scout pair or roamer Ghos7ayama just does not seem to make it through. Again, I think all the ingredients for the Ducks to be good are there, but maybe they haven't figured out who the head chef should be yet.
? Pinball Wizards
Central
0-0-0 (.000)
Streak N/A
8.
Sorry Zbryan and crew, but someone has to be last. This is honestly the one team in Invite that I look at and go “this team has more problems than anyone else does.” It seems like their only good performances come when Shrugger has an absolutely insane game, which he is well capable of so long as he sticks to online play, but it isn't the most dependable of strategies. The mix of talent is once again there, but something is keeping it from coming together.
A good amount of it comes down to experience. Namlay hasn't played a ton of medic in his life, and right now he likes to hold on to his ubers to try and milk as much out of them as he can – that strategy does not work when you never wind up popping. Zbryan has good DM on soldier but he's more of a roamer at heart and his pocketing game sense is not quite up to snuff with the rest of the league, which definitely does not help the communication between he and Namlay and the quality of their ubers. There's also a good bit of push and pull in the lineup, as Squid and Shrugger are both used to playing passively whereas boulder loves having the heals kept on him while he presses forward into the enemy team and tries to burst through choke points aggressively. The team is currently without a roamer, as their former starter Panic lost interest in the game and opted to quit and save his sanity than pushing through while not enjoying TF2. Rumor is that their number one target to pick up is former demoman/scout/spy/Huntsman sniper/machete assault victim Smaka.
Pinball Wizards just seem like another in the pile of teams who could be quite good but just haven't developed teamplay – which is to be expected, considering four of the players are newcomers, with only boulder and Squid having been around last season. The difference that I think exists between PW and the rest of these teams is that their players are not individually talented enough to just soldier on through the lack of coordination.
Originally published on ESEA on 8/13/2012, 2:11 PM by djc-.
Archived from ESEA TF2 Invite Season 12 Preview 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.