Part 2 of the ESEA-I Season Previews!  This half will cover eMg, Blight.Pandemic, Mindbomb/iQ, and coL.  Two new teams and two playoff teams from last year, what will this season have in store for the remaining lot of invite teams?


eMazing Gaming

The Introduction:
Projected Starting Lineup:
Scouts – raf, Yz50
Soldiers – mackey, enoryt
Demoman – b4nny
Medic – move

Fresh off of their championship season in ESEA-O, eMg is looking to take the next step up and start playing with the big boys.  This isn’t something they are unaccustomed to – eMg regularly scrimmed as many invite teams as they could find last season, and without a doubt it paid off for them.  Their roster has changed up a bit, mostly all of it concentrated in the Scout section.  Blaze and jnkx, the two starters from last season’s championship team, are both departed.  Replacing them are Yz50 and raf.

The Outlook:
One of the biggest questions for eMg coming into this season is how the chemistry in the Scout section will work out.  The team that everyone assumed was all lollipops and rainbows last season was mired by issues amongst their scouts, something which came to light in the past few weeks.  Yz50 is one of the calmest and coolest guys out there by all accounts, but raf has certainly developed a heady reputation of being hard to play with.  It got to the point last season with eMg that blaze and jnkx both refused to play with him.  Whether or not Yz50 and raf can get along will be a large factor in determining the success of this team.  Not unlike Area 51, the big strength of this team is their Demoman, b4nny.  An exceptionally talented player whose pipe spam on midpoints is so good it’s downright unfair, b4nny is asked to carry a large load of the damage dealing and fragging on this team and rarely disappoints.  Their Soldiers and Medic are all solid, if a bit unspectacular.  Enoryt has received more than his fair share of criticisms, usually revolving around “he always has 300 HP and anyone can frag like that.”  However, the same criticisms have been levied on players such as relic and Seagull, and last I checked those guys are pretty good at TF2.  Mackey will rarely put up killer frag totals, but he initiates almost every engagement for eMg and does a lot of the little things to help them be successful.  It’s unlikely that we will see any incredibly bold or ballsy play from their Medic, move, but that is no slight against him.  Playing safe and solid is probably the smarter idea for a team that will most likely be a bit overmatched in the DM areas most matches.

The Prediction:
Missing the playoffs, but proving that giving them a spot in the invite division to them wasn’t a mistake.  This season will be many of these players first steps into invite, which I have mentioned before simply isn’t an easy transition.  eMg will practice and scrim plenty, after all it’s rare to see a night go by when tyrone isn’t spamming “6v6” in the invite and scrim channels on IRC.  A season with a slightly below .500 record but with a couple of nice wins is likely in order.  However, don’t be too surprised if a few teams like Blight.own or TBA/Mindbomb falter due to roster or chemistry issues and eMg is suddenly within spitting distance of a playoff seed, even if they end up falling short anyways.

ESEA-I S5 has come and gone, finishing up with a successful LAN playoffs where some of the most intense TF2 matches in a long time were played.  The offseason certainly wasn't devoid of storylines with rapid roster changes, team formations, and player movement marking the scene.  In antipication for Season 6 the teams Apocalypse Gaming, Area 51, Our World Now (now Blight), and Evil Geniuses will be previewed.  Look for Part 2 containing the remaining 4 teams to be coming soon.

Apocalypse Gaming

The Introduction:
Projected Starting Lineup:
Scouts – zAlfy, TYRANNYLOL
Soldiers – Otter, x[sephy]
Demoman – You Must Recover!!!
Medic – Sigma

Apocalypse Gaming (AG) is the newest and final team to be placed in this season’s Invite Division after the Businessmen passed up on the opportunity to do so after winning the user-voting process.  An exceedingly likable team filled with personalities such as You Must Recover!!!, who might very well be the nicest guy in TF2, and Sigma, who constantly goes out of his way to post absurdly in-depth and useful topics on strategy on the CommFT forums, the AG crew is already a community favorite after their successful season in the Open division.

The Outlook:
The core of AG has been together for a little while now since they originally formed as Jammin’ With Jammar and there is no questioning their commitment.  AG will likely hold the title of “Team That Practices the Most” throughout the season by a wide margin, with really only eMg being even close.  Despite having top-tier understanding of the TF2 metagame coming from Sigma, a stable roster, and plenty of practice and preparation under their belts, really the question comes down to whether or not AG possess the raw deathmatching skills to hang with the upper level teams.  Most of the AG members have hovered around the high open level and developed a good name for themselves but have never quite managed to break into the Invite ranks.  The exception to that is zAlfy, a largely unknown commodity who seemingly came out of nowhere to make an extremely impressive rise.  Starting off with the lower level community AG team just a few months ago, he will now be the starting Scout on an invite roster with Jammar relinquishing his starter duties due to scheduling issues.  All of these players will be looking to prove that they have the DM chops to hang with the invite crowd, because honestly they have everything else they need to be successful.

The Prediction:
Unfortunately, as well liked as AG is and despite how hard they practice, it is difficult to imagine a wildly successful season in terms of win/loss record and playoff eligibility.  They will likely steal a few rounds off of underprepared teams on new maps such as cp_coldfront and cp_mainline but it’s hard to see them pulling off any major upsets against the top teams like complexity and EG.  Preparation and strategy help, but in the end it will hard to be successful when being simply outmatched when it comes down to landing shots.  They won’t go winless this season, but their playoff odds are probably the lowest of the invite teams as it currently stands in their first season of Invite.