NOTE: Due to personal reasons, ESEAnews' TF2 Invite writer John "djc" Carter was forced to hand off the planned LAN Preview articles, causing the semi-retired Everett "rk" Wells to dust off the keyboard and slap together the following piece.
(ESEAnews) - My, my, how time flies.
This weekend, the Doubletree by Hilton in Dallas, Texas, will play host to the ESEA Season 13 LAN Finals, which will feature the ninth LAN Finals for the Team Fortress 2 Invite division - not bad for a game rumoured to be dead a few years ago.
That first LAN wrapped up on March 14th, 2010, and featured the likes of EG.cyzer, Pandemic.TheFragile, coL.SoLIDSnaKE, Blight-Seagull, and an epic Grand Finals duel between compLexity and Blight TF2 (anyone remember relic's notorious Equalizer?). A great deal has changed in the last three years - great teams have crumbled, great players have lost their edge, and new dynasties have emerged as the community constantly evolves. But that core feeling - that spectacle that the LAN creates - has endured, and this weekend will no doubt demand the attention of TF2 fans the world over.
This LAN will feature an interesting mix of old and new, with some of those same stars from the first LAN popping up again to do battle against the new and future establishments. Though I am a big proponent of anything being possible on LAN, one can't help but assume another chapter of the great rivalry that has defined the last year plus of competitive TF2 will be written, with one side or the other getting another notch in the belt.
For me, it is these constantly evolving storylines that capture the most of my attention, and will be the focus of this Fast & Dirty preview. This coincides with the obvious truth that the tactical, meta-strategy of TF2 has long-since left me behind, having stopped covering TF2 weekly some time ago. For a more technical breakdown of each team, I highly recommend MR.SLIN's incredible detailed post over on TF.TV - it will not disappoint.
What follows are the four things I'll be watching develop over the course of Saturday and Sunday, and how they affect the outcome of the LAN.
#1 - HRG.SHRUGGER
Not to harp on a pretty over-analyzed concept, but the fact of remains that Shrugger's first appearance at an ESEA LAN two season ago was... less than spectacular. Playing with the Season 11 version of Mihalys Flow, my first impression of him was a simple one: he looked totally out of sorts. He seemed a nervous, unsure guy who couldn't settle in to the tournament setting, to the point that I felt bad about pushing him to get in game and ready up. It's a completely understandable reaction to one's first LAN, and it probably didn't help that he was on a team of LAN vets who were familiar with the process of setting up, making the little adjustments, shutting out the excessive yelling of retarded CS kids (probably the most jarring thing for LAN rookies), and so on.
Even before I found out about the mouse and equipment mishaps, it was clear just from his body language that Shrugger would struggle in the first few rounds, if not maps. What I didn't foresee was the entire LAN being a bit of a washout - the guy simply could not settle in and play his role as he had during the regular season, and it (unfortunately) severely hindered FLOW's chances.
Fast-forward to this weekend - Shrugger is a more experienced player now with multiple Invite seasons and LAN experiences to back him up, and can even take on the redemption-angle to fuel his efforts. But considering how stacked the Scout field is this weekend, there is literally no room for error for Shrugger and his partner (no matter how much b4nny can carry). Shrugger's performance this weekend would be crucial enough for HRG's chances regardless of past history, so to have the specter of Season 10 hovering in the background makes the whole thing especially interesting.
#2 - FT's BIG BET
Unless you were living under a rock, chances are you heard about some of the drama that hovered over FT this season (hell, even I heard about it, and I was putting up curtains under that rock). The mid-season roster stuff is kinda fluff to me - the only people that that matters to were in the mumble chat, and if they've all been able to move on from it, that's good enough for me.
What I'm more interested in is FT's tactics through the second half of the season, which MR.SLIN goes into details on in his LAN Preview. Taking intent out of the picture, the fact that FT is squaring off against a team they think they're more suited to play against (HRG) is, in my mind, a huge risk. If there's one lesson I've learned in my time chillin' behind Platinum & harb in however many LANs, it's that you don't want to mess with b4nny. Period. The only time I have ever seen b4nny completely shut down was last season - and mix^ had to put together an entire team of rockstars to do it (not too mention LG was a flawed team sans-clockwork).
The idea that you can out-maneuver b4nny is, in my mind, a flawed concept - no matter how well you prepare, now matter how thorough your strategies, no matter how on point you play, b4nny can and will mess you up if he's on his game. FT was pretty cagey in the second half of this season, hiding strats and playing possum - and who knows, maybe the great minds of PYYYOUR, Fragile, or whoever have come up with something that really will work. But my gut tells me that, in the heightened atmosphere of a LAN, strategy and tactics give way to DM and raw talent 9 times out of 10, and until I'm proven otherwise, I think FT will have a tough go of it.
However, I absolutely love being proven wrong.
#3 - CLOCKWORK'S NEW DIGS
The title is a little misleading, because I'm more focused on Chess Club overall, but the fact of the matter is clockwork is the best player on this team, and carries the burden of being the one real shot Chess Club has to making a splash this weekend.
The main question for me concerning Chess Club is a simple one: are they better than S12's Spacewhales. They've got two of the players, a similar setup with a highly mobile and aggressive flank, and maybe even a better heavy core (no offence, boomdog), but is it really enough to overcome the titans of seeds #1 and #2? Because it wasn't last season.
The problem is, a number of things could go right for Chess Club - tri could have a huge coming out party and dominate, clockwork and boomer could roll through their competition, visitor could wrest the title of Roamer king from Tagg - and check. would still come out on the losing end of things. With the calibre of teams attending this LAN, the margin of error is smaller than the chances of a coL comeback, so not only does everything have to go right, but you need a healthy dose of luck too.
Don't believe me? Go ask S12 Spacewhales, who played out of their minds last LAN and still could only get a couple rounds off mix^.
#4 - THE RIVALRY
It's somewhat fitting that this is the big story for me heading into the weekend - hell, I'm the one that pitched djc on the Eighth Encounter article. I'm a huge fan of rivalries; regardless of sport, a good rivalry makes everything about that sport better, and brings the very best out of every player involved.
To be honest, I don't even know what I want to happen this weekend (aside from great plays) - all I want is the next chapter of the b4nny vs. Platinum story to be written, and to watch (popcorn in hand) the fallout for each side. Both guys are super-competitive, super-talented, and super-hungry for more TF2 titles. They've been at the top of the game for a ridiculous amount of time, and have forged battle lines within the community (could you ever see harb Medic'ing for b4nny? Or cyzer watching Plat's back?) that just add to the drama.
I'll admit, most of this stuff is probably just in my head, but as long as these two combatants - and the great teammates they surround themselves with - continue to duke it out LAN after LAN, it's a damn good time to be a TF2 fan.
SIDE NOTE: I don't think harbleu got enough props in the EE article, but he's been just as involved in the rivalry as Platinum has... however, the dynamics of each team's offensive punch have always kinda flowed through those two guys, so it just makes more sense to stage things in such a way. But don't worry harb, if I had a 5th storyline, it would be "Will harb get his 5th title". Just missed the cut.
At this point in my, umm, career, I've forged too many bonds with too many players on too many sides to really make a fair prediction for this weekend (took me a while, but I finally found some journalistic integrity I guess). The only prediction that I'll make for this LAN will be its intensity. We had a pretty rudimentary run in S12, with mix^ rolling through all but one half of Snakewater, but I have a feeling this weekend with be an entirely different kettle of fish, and I heartily look forward to draining the cheap Bangladeshian bandwidth as I watch every moment of the stream.
(oh yeah, btw, I'm in Bangladesh)
Best of luck to all players, and to the eventual winners... I salute you.
Originally published on ESEA on 4/19/2013, 6:38 PM by 1rK-.
Archived from TF2 S13 LAN Preview: Fast & Dirty Edition 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.