CommunityFortress

At a glance:

1.    Pinball Wizards
2.    Leviathan Gaming
3.    Laser Beams
4.    Farmers Market
5.    Mayhem

In depth:

Please, if I have made any errors, please feel free to correct me. Let it be known, these are only preseason guesses. In all honesty, its hard to tell how well a team will perform before the season even started. Hopefully I didn’t butcher it too bad! Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Pinball Wizards

Rank #1 - Kicking off my preseason rankings, at the top of my list, are the Pinball Wizards. The team has been around for a while, this being their 3rd season together in ESEA. Having finished a mid-pack 7-9 last season in IM, the Pinball Wizards seemed to have a shaky future ahead of them. You might ask “how can these guys possibly be ranked #1?” It all comes down to two players: Sweater and Vhalin. Each bringing to the team over a season of invite experience and an extremely high level of DM, it’s hard to argue against the forthcoming success of this team. Vhalin, now on roamer, has the Invite-level game sense to make the crafty picks that are so essential to his new role. With the extremely high damage output from IM’s potentially top black man in Sweater, Vhalin and the scouts should be able to clean up effectively against opposing teams. Yet, with the addition of new players comes the obstacle of teamwork. Surprisingly enough, the Pinball Wizards have been able to return 3 of last season’s starters in the highly skilled, at times controversial (cough cough, Tang), scout combo of Tang and Squider and the experienced pocket soldier Cannon. Should Cannon and his medic, KBK, a seasoned demo/soldier/scout turned medic, be able to keep up the aggressive pace of their teammates, I don’t see the Pinball Wizards losing very often this season.  Word is, these guys have been beating some high level IM teams down pretty bad, and it’s no surprise. The teamwork of returning starters Tang, Squider, and Cannon mixed with the experience and DM of newcomers Sweater, Vhalin, and KBK will undoubtedly propel these guys deep into the IM playoffs.

Roster:

Medic - KBK
Demo - Sweater
Soldier - Vhalin
Soldier - Cannon
Scout - Tang
Scout - Squider

Projected Record: 14-2

Leviathan Gaming

Rank #2 - My boys, Leviathan Gaming. Having revamped their roster, picking up Grillz on medic, Zclipse on Scout, Tagg on roamer, and moving Chompa over to pocket, Leviathan seems ready to compete at the top of IM this season. Zclipse, one of the rising stars as scout last season in open, brings to Leviathan a level of DM that doesn’t come along very often in this game. Paired the intellect and experience of fellow scout Chaz, who is heading into his 3rd season as scout, Zclipse and his partner seem to have put together the Carnage-Enigma complex of brawn and brain seen several seasons ago.  In addition, picking up Grillz on medic has brought to the team the experience and coordination seen at the invite level. The teams success heavily depends on how Chompa, formerly a scout, can perform with the combo on pocket soldier. Working with a very smart and experienced demo in Magus, who plays his role extremely well, Chompa and Grillz should be able to put out a constant supply of damage for their highly dangerous scout pair to clean up. Yet, getting to mid fast seems to be one of the few flaws Magus has on demoman; that being said, fixing jumps is one of the easiest skills to practice as a black man in this game. In the end, the game comes down to coordination. Should Leviathan continue to develop the coordination needed at the top IM level, they easily have the potential to be a top 2 team this season.

Roster:

Medic - Grillz
Demo - Magus
Soldier - Chompa
Soldier - Tagg
Scout - Zclipse
Scout - Chaz

Projected Record: 12-4


Laser Beams

Rank #3 - The Laser Beams, coming in at number 3 on my rankings, have one of the most individually experienced rosters in IM this season: Between PYYYOUR, seanbud, and Lange, they have nearly 10 seasons of invite under their belts. With PYYYOUR and seanbud together on scout, there won’t be many opportunities to flank against these guys. Ben, making the move to demo this season after scouting for Avoided for quite some time, should be able to peer deeply into the minds of opposing scouts… and plant stickies right on their heads. After all, from a nooby demoman like myself, stickies are RIDICULOUSLY easy to use. Lange, one of the veteran soldiers of this game who’s been around since season 3, will bring to this roster a little more of that invite level intellect and DM that every team could use. Once these guys begin to click together as a team, they could very well take IM altogether. My only problem with them is they’re fairly new together; yet, their experience is beyond that of an IM team, and it is only a matter of time before the chemistry is perfected… and once it does, look out: these guys will be harder to beat than Panic’s penis after he sees one of them good-lookin’ shemales he’s always talkin about!

Roster:

Medic - DrDonutMan
Demo - Ben
Soldier - Lange
Soldier - djc
Scout - PYYYOUR
Scout - seanbud

Projected Record: 12-4


Farmer’s Market

Rank #4 - Ahh, the Farmer’s Market: once again, a team with plenty of invite experience and DM through the roof. With Blaze, unf, and fabri all having their slice of the invite cake, these guys will undoubtedly be in the right places at the right times. Blaze, playing scout last season for invite area 51, will bring his top-notch DM this season to roaming soldier. Working off the heavy damage of former invite demoman and present top 3 IM demoman unf, Blaze and his scout pals Fabri and tmarshall, whose DM abilities are unfathomable, should be able to frag with the best of them. A highly aggressive and coordinated team, with Dchow making his debut on medic, Farmer’s Market capitalizes swiftly on opposing teams’ mistakes, leaving little room for error. Pending on the success of their combo of Primo and Dchow, these guys have the potential to be one of the most dangerously aggressive teams we’ll see this season. The best part? As the season goes on, this DM savvy team will only improve in terms of teamwork and cohesion. A top 5 finish this season for IM should be no surprise for the Farmers Market.

Roster:

Medic - Dchow
Demo - unf
Soldier - primo
Soldier - Blaze
Scout - Fabri
Scout - tmarshall

Projected Record: 11-5


Mayhem

Rank #5 - Back in the day, constant mayhem society (CMS REPRESENT) used to be one of the biggest, baddest motherf@#ckers of a team in all of TWL. Nowadays, known merely as Mayhem, these guys are potentially one of the top teams in IM. In all seriousness, the 5th spot was the hardest to choose for these power rankings. Plenty of teams could have taken it, but one thing separated Mayhem from the pack: team experience. These guys have been around since season 7 with Defiance at the core running the show like the boss he is. This will be their 3rd season in IM, having improved from 5-11 in season 8 to 8-8 in season 9. This season, I can only see that record improving. With Gremaud, one of the smartest and heavily damaging demomen I’ve been fortunate enough to play against, Mayhem should be able to win a great deal of their mid fights. Scouts MaskedJackal and Zephyr, both having IM experience of their own, do a great job covering the flank and making opposing over-extenders pay. Caidh also does a great job keeping his medic alive while Defiance bombs in like the maniac he is. If Root can adapt to medicing at an IM level, these guys can easily place among the top 5 IM teams this season.

Roster:

Medic - IamRoot
Demo - Gremaud
Soldier - Caidh
Soldier - Defiance
Scout - MaskedJackal
Scout - Zephyr

Projected record: 10-6


P.S.: Special thanks to Ben, Blaze, KBK, MaskedJackal, and Zclipse for helping me out with these write-ups! I really appreciate the time given from these guys to help me get my facts straight and making these predictions as enjoyable to read as possible. Thanks a lot, and hopefully, with more help from players like you guys, there’ll more articles to come in the future!