Once more our love-hate, dunc, decided to actually do something for the community instead of just insulting us:
I’ve got nothing to do at work. Literally nothing. Again.
I love JimmyBreeze, and his predictions are excellent and insightful as always, but I’m not a great fan of MGE and I’ve got nothing better to do. The result is that I’ve decided to hook together my incoherent ramblings for the benefit of Vanilla’s loyal readers.
I’m going to go into some detail and draw on my personal experiences of recent events where possible. I suspect I’ll upset a few people, and I’m not sure how I’ll deal with that, because it’s never happened before. Guess I’ll just have to cope.
Here goes.
Every game is played on the classic Badlands and Granary for Week 1 of Season 8.
Epsilon vs TCM-Gaming
**Lineups
[** Epsilon ] F2 (M), Sneis & cube (So), Extremer (D), Jh & Shintaz (Sc)
[ TCM-Gaming ] Byte (M), Haunter & Coinz (So), numlocked (D), zerox & skinnie (Sc)
Comments
A week after i40, this would’ve been a fantastic game. With Sneis replacing Wai, who in my opinion never returned to former glory, one would generally think that Epsilon now have what it takes to bridge a gap that had previously stumped them – consistent top level victories and tournament wins.
However, with Extremer being out of action for over a fortnight courtesy of Valve’s excellent account-disabling regime, Epsilon will be out of practice. If you couple that with their first ETF2L opponent being the one team that they’ve never convincingly beaten, I just can’t see Epsilon managing a victory.
Although I haven’t mentioned TCM much, and nobody ever seems to, I’d like to think they’ll take it as a compliment. TCM have certainly become the team to beat and it appears that in match predictions contenders are only capable of beating them if either TCM have an off day or said contenders play above their standard ability level. A quick OFF-TOPIC here – happy birthday Byte, hope you have a good day!
Prediction
TCM to take both maps. I’ll go with a 4-1 on Granary and a 5-2 on Badlands.
Made in Germany vs Team Dignitas
**Lineups
[** Made in Germany ] Ronny (M), mvp & GeaR (So), Thy (D), bash & aves (Sc)
[Team Dignitas] dunc (M), Haza & Darn (So), ryb (D), bybben & Rebeli (Sc)
Comments
This game will be a bit of a grudge match. Darn and mvp’s planet-sized egos simply can’t interact in a friendly manner and the result is some barely-hidden resentment between the two teams. Made in Germany have an excellent record against Dignitas and their recent recruitment of aves is a massive improvement over the one player that in my opinion stopped the TLR of old becoming a genuine top team. Having played with aves for a long period of time, and contrary to the opinion he thinks I hold of him, I genuinely believe he’s one of the most consistent scouts in Europe. Aim and a brain, that’s a rarity these days. If you can take one thing from this epic essay of bullshit, please let it be a reminder to watch aves in this game.
Saying that, Dignitas have played a few games last week and will be playing a few games before the Made in Germany game, so they won’t be completely unprepared. If we can stay focused and play our own game rather than getting bogged down in the seemingly natural “we’re better than them” mindset, we can take both maps. Darn will be the decider in this game, in terms of attitude. If his mind is on the game, I predict a Dignitas win.
Prediction
Genuinely difficult. I could see this going three ways – Dig outright win, MiG outright win and a draw. Not much of a prediction though, is it? I’ll suggest a 6-3 win to MiG on Granary and 5-4 to Dignitas on Badlands.
k1ck vs overGame
**Lineups
[** k1ck ] Royze (M), pbL & daf (So), Macisum (D), Super & wltrs (Sc)
[ overGame ] cuspide (M), Jan & lork (So), Hiper (D), glongas & Dorkan (Sc)
Comments
overGame are probably seen as one of the weakest teams in ETF2L’s new Premiership division. Any team outside of the Premiership that has played against overGame will attest to the quality that statement proves we’ll see in Season 8. Our Spanish friends are far better than any Division 1 team and their consistency and level of activity have helped them to take a lot of rounds from opponents deemed better than them.
Unfortunately, their first week in ETF2L sees them playing against a team that I believe to have massive potential. I haven’t played against k1ck yet, but on paper their lineup looks fantastic. pbL and daf form the best soldier combination I’ve seen outside of the illustrious “Top 3″ and everyone knows wltrs cheats. I imagine with wltrs, Super and Macisum, k1ck will attempt to employ a very particular style of play including a lot of back-caps and Medic picks. This might not work too well against overGame who are an incredibly organised team, but when it comes down to it in terms of pure deathmatch, k1ck certainly have the upper hand.
Prediction
k1ck to take both maps. 6-4 on Granary, 5-1 on Badlands.
Fakkel Brigade vs Team Refuse
**Lineups
[** Fakkel Brigade ] Mirelin (M), Exfane & Dr Leon (So), kaidus (D), Fisshu & Arie (Sc)
[Team Refuse] paavi (M), ollii & Dreadi (So), xzar (D), Fluffy & tommi (Sc)
Comments
Alongside oG, Team Refuse are likely the bottom seeds of the Premiership. They have a number of experienced, proven players in the likes of paavi, xzar, ollii and Fluffy, but no real game-breaking star players. One thing you can guarantee you’ll get from Team Refuse is solidity, organisation and a very deathmatch oriented style of play. My opinion is that their season will be defined by one saying: “close, but no cigar”.
Fakkel Brigade are, as ever, a difficult team to predict. Their latest recruit kaidus brings a slightly different dimension to the team than LoopeR (who is now reportedly becoming a father? Dear Lord, that’s one ugly baby!). kaidus lacks top level experience, and it shows in his gameplay, but he’s a very aggressive and talented demoman. Given time, I believe he’ll become a top player, but right now his inexperience is very spikey – he’s winning rounds and losing rounds single-handedly. I’m also interested to see how big a problem his ego will become in the near future. As for the rest of the team, there’s not much to say – Exfane and Fisshu are deathmatching experts and Mirelin is a fantastic medic when he’s on form.
Prediction
Fakkel Brigade to take both maps. 4-3 on Granary, 4-2 on Badlands.
Imperial vs Power Gaming
**Lineups
[Imperial]** dajackal (M), Honky & snifz (So), hymzi (D), Rake & Sturmis (Sc)
[Power Gaming] kyynel (M), hocz & Punpu (So), mafu (D), cookye & WHO KNOWS?! (Sc)
Comments
As with JimmyBreeze, I’m positively delighted to see hymzi playing competitive TF2 again. Everyone enjoys watching a complete and utter idiot sticky jump into six players and pull off a medic and demo kill before limping back to a health pack in single figure health points. With his ultra-aggressive playstyle and incredible pipe aim, hymzi is the defining star player of Imperial’s new lineup, as he tends to be in most teams. New, inexperienced scout Rake provides hymzi with an aim-reliant aggressive manner of support, but one that seems to work very well.
Once again, unfortunately for the new Imperial team, they’re up against a side that are literally on fire. hocz is finding his form again after a dull period and Punpu is raining homing missiles left, right and centre. There’s no other way of putting it – that guy is just a massive twat. I fucking hate playing against him and I can see his bastard, grinning face every time he gets one of his retarded triple-jump kills on me. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him miss a rocket. Team those two up with Europe’s most consistent medic and a demoman that is really coming into his own and you’ll see a heavy lineup that barely even needs scouts. You could put me and Byte in there as scouts and they’d still be a top team. To make things worse, Power employ renowned hacker and generally awful person cookye. Contrary to what the Yanks think, cookye does miss, but not very often. His raw damage output is huge, but he wields it with an intelligence little seen in the lower divisions from whence he came.
One point of question with Power is their second scout. Vallone seems to have disappeared off the radar, and I have reports that Moose is looking to re-recruit either Jambo or Masiina. Failing that, who knows? He’ll probably be forced to opt for a particularly awful, overrated Division 2 scout. Interesting!
Prediction
Power to Power Through (LOL) both maps. 4-1 Granary, 5-2 Badlands.
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2010-10-18 by dunc.
Recovered from the Internet Archive (archived copy) as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of VanillaTV's TF2 coverage. The original site is no longer online. All rights remain with the original author; reposted for historical reference.