(ESEAnews) - Roster changes galore as we close in on the midseason swing, and get to experience a brand new map that seems to be perplexing most teams. With Classic Mixup still down a Ruwin, Don't Trip seemingly on the verge of collapse, and a mutiny ticket being successful, what sort of drama and intrigue will the next week of Invite hold?!
ESEA TF2 INVITE SEASON 13 - WEEK 3
Classic Mixup vs Vector Gaming · cp_metalworks_rc3 · Wed, Jan 23rd at 3:00pm
Prediction: mix > vec 5-0 by djc- Even with Classic Mixup running out their second new lineup in two weeks (OOV coming in to medic, with Harbleu returning to roamer), Vector will have trouble just getting a mid cap off of this team. There just sadly is not much to say about this matchup at this point in the season - Vector are 3-28 in rounds in this season and are coming off of a week in which thrckstr combined for two kills over two games. While I love the guys and appreciate that they are sticking it out through a tough run in Invite, Mixup outclass them at every class and should be in and out without much suffering (except for having to hear OOV's persistent giggling and adorability pouring through on comms).
froyotech vs tri hards · cp_metalworks_rc3 · Wed, Jan 23rd at 3:00pm
Prediction: 4G > WANG 5-2 by djc- Chess Club made a nice little run in their match against bp last week, but still fell 5-1 in the end. It sounds like with the departure of omar, Chess will be rolling out boomer on scout and bringing kermit back in on demoman. Boomer is nuts on scout and has great movement, which he showed off by top fragging and top pointing in some scrims against Fully Torqued last night, and kermit has long been one of the top demos in the game. That all considered, I find it tough to see bp losing. The team is 6-0 at this point, having given up a total of seven rounds, and even if all goes to hell and Chess Club make a strong push against them, b4nny showed that he can just hit five kritzkrieg stickies in a row to wipe the team. Expect some encouraging and strong play from CC, but also expect it to not be enough.
SMTM · cp_metalworks_rc3 · Thu, Jan 24th at 3:00pm
Prediction: PLEASE < SHOWME 2-5 by djc- Fully Torqued- have dropped some Metalworks scrims to Chess Club and are not looking quite as impressive as they were a week ago, after pushing bp to the limit and taking a game off of Mixup. Expect them to sort their issues out quickly, however, as the team has had a few lengthy map discussion sessions and will no doubt be checking out their demos to see what went wrong. AG pulled three rounds a piece off of Chess Club and Xensity last week, but I think on a new map against a tough team, they will not be finding as many rounds. With squid now sitting out due to his moving across the border to the United States of AMERICA!!!!!!!, fellow Canadian Ggglygy has made his glorious return to Invite. He will cap the hell out of some points, but his rust has shown and the swap hurts them a bit. Despite high damage output from Rando and Chriz Tah Fah, the team does not seem to have a way to deal with a strong pocket like Seagull and the ensuing cleanup from Justin and Seanbud.
Classic Mixup vs xensity · cp_metalworks_rc3 · Thu, Jan 24th at 3:00pm
Prediction: mix > xen 5-2 by djc- Xensity are looking fly with their new lineup, Ma3la fitting in perfectly on pocket and giving the team a more than adequate replacement for TicTac. The move also seems to have helped Relic, as he is now more free to roam and pile on flank damage. Good feelings seem to be flowing in the team after their mutiny ticket got leadership transferred from Arc to Blinky, but I get the feeling that Mixup will make the beautiful rainbow above Xensity's heads a little less vibrant. With their initiator back on roamer in the form of Harbleu, maybe the Curse of Moose will be broken this week; Mixup are going to want come out and show that they are still as strong as ever. Expect Yz50 and Enigma to continue their dominance on the midfights, with Platinum's and TLR's aggression being a bit much for the Xensity combo to handle.
Dont Trip · cp_metalworks_rc3 · Fri, Jan 25th at 3:24pm
Prediction: enoryt > PLEASE 5-3 by djc- From the sounds of it, Don't Trip are in a weird state. The team's comms are pretty rough around the edges, with descriptors such as "miserable" and "despair-inducing" being used to describe the general atmosphere. The positive for DT is that they look like a legitimately good Metalworks team so far, and with scouts like clockwork and blaze, that should come as no surprise. AG might win the pocket battle with Rando besting Tyrone uber-on-uber, but I expect the fights on the flank to go heavily in the way of DT. AG are good enough to challenge the struggling Don't Trip regardless, and look at this for a big upset possibility.
Vector Gaming vs Dont Trip · cp_metalworks_rc3 · Fri, Jan 25th at 2:30pm
Prediction: vec < enoryt 0-5 by djc- Don't Trip are struggling, but not nearly as much as Vector have been. One team is making a slow and treacherous walk through some quicksand, while the others are neck-deep and gasping for air. I think that with DT looking pretty solid on Metalworks so far, Vector will not even be able to pull off some surprise rounds; DougyG should do a decent job of going jab for jab with Dummy on mids, but as always the thing that pushes DT ahead is its scouts - clockwork and blaze are too much for thrckstr and hibachi to handle, as evidenced by their last match where blaze went 15-0 and clockwork did nearly 500 damage per minute.
SMTM vs froyotech · cp_metalworks_rc3 · Mon, Jan 28th at 4:22pm
Prediction: SHOWME < 4G 3-5 by djc- Fully Torqued and bp met up on Gullywash last week in an intense exciting affair that went back and forth, but ultimately saw the game dominated by b4nny's ability to control and zone out multiple players at once. Seagull did all he could to rival b4nny's influence, but it just was not enough. There were some highlight reel clips on FT's side, such as PYYYOUR's sticky jump into double pipe kill on b4nny and shade. Expect more of the same, more tension, more ups and downs, but ultimately, still a bp win. These are probably the two teams putting in the most effort on a weekly basis, doing internal map discussions and coming up with particular strategies and counters to who they are playing. Seagull and b4nny will get their's, but the big determining factor in the match has to be the secondar players - watch for big games out of Lansky on bp's pocket and Justin doing some scout/sniping over for FT.
tri hards vs xensity · cp_metalworks_rc3 · Fri, Jan 25th at 3:00pm
Prediction: WANG > xen 5-4 by djc- Word on the street is that Chess Club's current motivating fuel is beating Xensity; they know the team has pulled together a new lineup in efforts to push ahead of their competition for the LAN spot, but Chess had their own ace up their sleeve with the swap of boomer to scout and bringing in kermit's demo. These two teams might be the most evenly matched in all of Invite now, with Tri and Ma3la both being highly skilled underappreciated pockets, kermit and smaka both being experienced demomen with LAN success under their belts, and strong support out of the scout/utility positions with weeble and spadez. This one should be a close and exciting rumble, and the only reason I give Chess Club a slight edge is because of the dynamic roaming qualities of Jimmy "Visitor" Huang.
INVITE POWER RANKINGS - WEEK 3
1. bp -- (~)
2. Fully Torqued- -- (UP 1)
3. Classic Mixup -- (DOWN 1)
4. The Chess Club -- (~)
5. Don't Trip -- (~)
6. Xensity -- (UP 1)
7. Apocalypse Gaming -- (DOWN 1)
8. Vector Gaming -- (~)
I spent a lot of time anguishing over the 4-6 slots in these rankings. The teams are all very close, with Xensity at 3-3, Chess at 3-3, Don't Trip at 2-4, them all having similar rounds for and against, and two of the teams having just made roster changes to try and improve their squads. My grand solution - give me another week, and maybe then I'll change some things! Inaction, the solution to victory, ten times out of ten. bp still reign supreme, with Torqued's win over Mixup bumping them up into second place. bp would have to fail quite a bit in the coming weeks to lose a LAN position, but the other three look up for grabs still.
Originally published on ESEA on 1/23/2013, 10:18 AM by djc-.
Archived from ESEA TF2 Invite S13 - Week 4 Predictions 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.