(ESEAnews) - The past two weeks have felt like a bit of a grind for some teams, with the unfamiliar and awkward Metalworks being followed up by the grueling and harsh mistress that is Gravelpit. We return to the standards for week six, with a regular old five capture point map in the form of Snakewater coming out. Chess Club, Xensity, and Fully Torqued are all stuck together in one big playoff clump; look for this week to create some space.
ESEA TF2 INVITE SEASON 13 - WEEK 6
froyotech · cp_snakewater · Thu, Feb 7th at 3:00pm
Prediction: 4G > PLEASE 5-0 by djc- Word on the street is that although the AG boys will be fighting to the bitter end, doing their best to drive a knife into the Achilles of the LAN contenders, their drive to put full effort into every match has taken a hit. So of course, their reward is a match against an undefeated team who roll over everyone in their path! Cyzer is going to be happy to get away from Gravelpit/engineer week and back to his scout position, and I expect some big numbers out of him in a completely dominant bp win.
tri hards vs Classic Mixup · cp_snakewater · Wed, Feb 6th at 3:00pm
Prediction: WANG < mix 3-5 by djc- This might be the hardest match of the week to predict. Mixup will be rolling out a brand spankin' new lineup: Ruwin on scout, Harbleu moving to medic, and Enigma taking over roamer. That is a scary lineup to face just because of the sheer pressure you will be under - Harbleu calls such an aggressive game, and he will have two of the best aggro scouts in TF2 history backing up his calls. A team that was already pushing out more pressure than most teams is now going to effectively double it. Chess Club do have the pieces in place to counter it, including a solid pocket who can defend his medic pretty well from the hordes in tri, and a demoman who can push enough damage through chokes to keep Mixup back in alfa. It still should go Mixup's way, but with the shakiness of the roster switch and the good play of CC lately, expect it to be a good one.
xensity vs Vector Gaming · cp_snakewater · Thu, Feb 7th at 3:00pm
Prediction: xen > vec 5-2 by djc- Vector pulled off the upset of the century against Fully Torqued last week and will hope to carry the immense outpouring of community support for them into Snakewater week. Xensity will be a tough one to overcome, but Vector did look pretty solid against FT - jaybenaduchi seems more fit for pocket than mile was, and phife's addition on scout has been big. Still, rb has been having a fantastic season, smaka is playing well, and Ma3la's ubers are strong. Look for xensity to take it, but Vector to make it look much closer than the scoreboard will say.
froyotech vs xensity · cp_snakewater · Fri, Feb 8th at 3:00pm
Prediction: 4G > xen 5-2 by djc- ESEA's Match of the Week right here has tremendous playoff implications. With Xensity and Chess Club being the two big boys looking for the fourth spot, and CC having by far the easier schedule, Xensity will need to pull off at least one win against bp (who they play twice) and Classic Mixup (who they play once). With news that shade will be out of action for two weeks on bp's side, this might just be their chance to do it. blaze will be stepping in to do some healing work, and as he is, the fact that b4nny is so used to having shade as his medic could harm their coordination. Xensity will have to capitalize on it with superb ubers; lucky for them, Ma3la has been using blinky's pops to superb effect and high damage output so far. I think that Xensity are a little too weak on scout and a bit too far behind on demoman to overcome, but with their playoff life pretty much on the line for every match until season's end, maybe they can show an unseen gear against TF2's top team.
Classic Mixup vs Vector Gaming · cp_snakewater · Fri, Feb 8th at 2:30pm
Prediction: mix > vec 5-1 by djc- Vector look much better with their new lineup, but they will be running into a squad debuting some newness themselves. Yz50 and Ruwin has the potential to be the most dominant scout pair Invite has ever seen, and I cannot see an answer for that anywhere on Vector's roster. The doubly aggressive scouts will combine with the super aggressive medicing of Harbleu and Vector should spend the duration of this match up against the wall and looking for some way to push back. That answer should come in the form of DougyG following up milehighmilitia's bombs, and I do expect to see Mixup extend a bit too far at some points and drop a round or two to the VG boys.
SMTM · cp_snakewater · Fri, Feb 8th at 3:00pm
Prediction: PLEASE < SHOWME 2-5 by djc- The last time these two teams met, it ended in the most action-packed and intense manner imaginable: a flip of the coin. AG are still understandably sore after being unable to reschedule the match, and no doubt regret not taking the forfeit win in server. They will look to play a LAN disruption game, but I just do not see it happening. Seagull has been so strong since his comeback, and despite FT's double loss on Gravelpit, AG are a much weaker opponent than the top teams in ESEA. Fully Torqued seemed to have a bit of a coordination problem on Gravelpit, and if that holds true through Snakewater, AG could take a few rounds on the strength of some Boink bombs and Kapowww meatshots, but any more than that would be a surprise.
INVITE POWER RANKINGS - WEEK 6
1. bp -- (~)
2. Classic Mixup -- (~)
3. Fully Torqued- -- (~)
4. Xensity -- (~)
5. The Chess Club -- (~)
6. Apocalypse Gaming -- (~)
7. Vector Gaming -- (~)
8. Don't Trip -- (R.I.P.)
I was hoping that the teams in Invite would make their positions a little more solid last week and, uh... hilariously, it happened. Nobody did anything particularly impressive or particularly terrible, they just all stood pat at one time and are waiting to see who makes the first bad move on the road to the playoffs. Xensity, Fully Torqued, and Chess Club will be fighting for their playoff lives in these last few weeks and there should be a ton of exciting action to close out our season. Be sure to tune in and catch it all on ESEA TV, every Thursday at 11:00 PM EST!
Originally published on ESEA on 2/6/2013, 8:43 AM by djc-.
Archived from ESEA TF2 Invite S13 - Week 6 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.