CommunityFortress

With TWL playoffs in the books and Cevo almost done, all eyes are on ESEA playoffs. The regular season is over and now the true battle begins. Records are forgotten along with upsets, comebacks and unnecessary losses.

All in all it has been one crazy season with 200 point performances (Felraiser and Banjo, (sorry delirium), a euro invasion and evacuation (Slaughterhouse Gaming and Terribles), 70+ frag nights (Gremaud and Mesr) and a 4-0 comeback (NoGrid over Businessmen) with much more to come in the playoffs. With just a single win, the team automatically gets 100$. In playoffs, as Vince Lombardi put it “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing”.

In order to get a better perspective on the teams and their structure, I asked each leader/captain from each playoff team in ESEA-O on their thoughts on the season and their team. Enjoy.

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#1 Tool Academy Grads (16-0)
eXult! Killing in the Name: Tell us a little about yourself and your team

s/x: Well I’m s/x depending on who you ask a nice guy or a complete jackass, been playing Tf2 from early 2008. My team 'Tool Academy Grads' Is more or less an all-star team from several dead teams brought together by forcestealer. We are competing in Esea-O for various reasons and are planning to move into invite for the next season.

What have you found has been your key to success this season?
s/x: I would have to say overall we are a very solid team. Often we do make mistakes but someone always seems to clutch it when it needs to be. Our soldiers work great together as they have pretty much opposite play styles, and they are never competing for heals. Our scouts more or less contain the enemies’ scouts and take out any stray players like they should. Pyyour, our demo does what he does best, and that is lay down sick pipes and guide the team when we are getting off track. Our medic Dave loves to play aion and I’m sure that contributes to his awesome healing skills. <3

Since you guys came out of nowhere, people question whether you guys are just a pug team, are you guys here to stay?
s/x: Without a doubt we started as a pug team, and were subject to several roster changes. As of now though, for the most part we plan on staying together and going to invite next season like I mentioned earlier.

On average, how much do you guys scrim a week?
s/x: ooh, I knew there was going to be something along the lines of a question like that. Well to be honest as a team, we probably get in ~3 scrims a week. Of course some weeks are better than others, and others less. Like the week of cp_waste, I believe we scrimmed it once with our 6 before our first match. Although we don’t get in solid scrims many of our players do pugs, pug scrims, and practice on their own time.

You'll be playing Royal first round, any thoughts?
s/x: I hope they give us a good match. But statistically I wouldn’t bet on them.

Thank you very much. Any shoutouts?
s/x: Shoutout to fluffyanimals Korean girlfriend, Craig for his monthly support, and the esea admins I frequently abuse.

#2 eXpertise (13-3)
eXult! Killing in the Name: Tell us a little about yourself and your team

e×.DaishiKiller  #eXpertise: I guess you can just say this is our first season with these players. essentially after last esea season most players quit playing and we had to find 4 new players (2 scouts, demo, and soldier). eXpertise was made in the beginning of CEVO Season 3 early this year.

What have you found has been your key to success this season?
e×.DaishiKiller  #eXpertise: no player in particular. All players contribute

Are you happy with the roster changes, do you feel this one is more succesful than the last?
e×.DaishiKiller  #eXpertise: In the beginning it was hard we really didn’t look too good and a lot of people were hating on us because we were one of the best teams in open last season and obviously weren’t anymore. We worked things our and finally got things together after a lot of work. But yeah I would say this group is better than last season now. Last season we had to rely heavily on our scout play, while this season our heavies have really gotten a boost.

You'll be playing Slaughterhouse Gaming first, any thoughts?
e×.DaishiKiller  #eXpertise: Unfortunately for them they haven’t been using their euro scouts much anymore. They had a strong start this season but now it seems they haven’t grown much now in the end. I think we've really improved a lot and shouldn’t have too many problems with them.

Thank you very much. Any shoutouts?
e×.DaishiKiller  #eXpertise: Thanks to our sponsors SteelSeries, HostLeet, and GamersUniform. Support us in #eXpertise @ irc.gamesurge.net

#3 Harmonic  (12-4)
eXult! Killing in the Name: Tell us a little about yourself and your team

F!ame: Well after attempting to make a team for S3 which failed hard, and joining 2 or 3 fail teams in-between I decided it'd be best to just make one with people I knew and had played with before. It just so happened that Overthrow and Cool Dudes has just broken up, so myself, seanbud, and hoppy potty spent a few months trying out people and through a month or two of nothing, mesr got his internet back and pmb got more active, and jestr replaced md who quit playing tf2 midway through cevo.

What have you found has been your key to success this season?
F!ame: getting a stable 6 on our roster who can be relied on, sean sending Adam his computer so he could keep raping as hard as he did all season, and our soldier medic combo getting much more used to their styles of play, as well as very reliable backups in obey, sigma, and radioraheem when someone couldn’t make a match or scrim and hoppy potty’s gypsy internet shitting out on him in the middle of every match allowing for 15 minute pauses to kill momentum

The start of season started out so-so and then you guys went on a tear winning 10 straight, what changed and can you keep it going into the playoffs?
F!ame: if you check the rosters of those first 3 weeks, they’re very inconsistent. Our medic change mid season proved to be worth-while, pmb becoming active, as well as mesr being able to play online made for a very stable six who all get along in mumble with the exception of my occasional rage but still they’re all a great group of guys who are cool in and out of game. If we can keep playing how we're playing and keep the comms up and the rage to ourselves we could make a pretty solid run into the playoffs

How much do you scrim a week?
F!ame: it depended more on seanbuds work schedule and college class schedules but we try to get at least 2 to 3 in a night about 5 to 6 times a week

You guys will be playing eXultance first round, any thoughts?
F!ame: I'm not too sure as to how this will end. Their roster has been pretty solid all season, and I'm still impressed by Kayaws' pipes based on the matches I’ve specced them in. But the only time we played them, we didn’t have the roster we have now or the understanding of the maps we have now. The outcome could really go either way but it will definitely be a close and exciting match. Watch for jestr to drop 3 or 4 ubers

Thank you very much. Any shoutouts?
F!ame: JAMMIN! with JAMMAR for being our new scrim buddies (who really deserve a good sponsor), obey, bd,  radioraheem, and copulating duck for helping us out all season, and buddha, our l4d buddy who is currently looking for a team. pick him up.

#4 No Grid  (10-6)
eXult! Killing in the Name: Tell us a little about yourself and your team

marmell: Well I started competitive tf2 with playing in sta and ugc, and from there went to cevo then esea. I originally joined this team to start demo, but soon took over leadership when we lost 3-4 members. I was able to get a couple people in (delerium and tyrone); from there we were able to get a couple more members to fill out the roster and pull through a pretty successful season of esea. We had a rough off season with teammate’s computers dyeing and such, luckily  we able to get a couple people in mid season (kaytee and jnkx) to solidify our roster for the rest of this esea season

What have you found has been your key to success this season?
marmell: One of the major things we have worked on this season to try and advance was to fill out our scout pair and really getting them to mesh (we had always lacked a bit in the scout area). We also have been keeping a steady practice schedule to really work on maps and our team. encrypt has really taken over the calling and has helped our playing

So is there no more question at the scout position as in Kaytee and Jnkx all the way?
marmell: Well there is always room to work on things, but we have been really satisfied with how that area of the team has been developing, so not really.

You'll be playing the terribles first round, any thoughts?
marmell: If we are seeded against the terribles 1st round, it'll be a good match. When we played them on well, it was a close 3-2 game. We were able to out them on waste 5-0, but since the first round map is badlands, both teams should be well prepared for the map, making for a good matchup.

Thank you very much. Any shoutouts?
marmell: shoutouts to my team, jeah pugs, smithers, and our sponsor essentrix

Last question, why does everyone love tyrone so much?
marmell: cause he has the biggest heart, is to nice to everyone, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKu-vTxLdcA

#5 The terrible (10-6)

Tell us a little about yourself and your team
terrible ! volt: Personally, I've been playing TF2 since day one pretty consistently. I decided with a few friends online around a year ago that it'd be fun to play competitively, and put a team together. Most of us came straight from pub play to competitive play, and this is the only team we've been on. In the last 8 months the only roster change we've made is our medic.

What have you found has been your key to success this season?
terrible ! volt: This season cake!'s gotten very good at sniper and crazy tom is always improving at playing pocket, protecting the medic and such. With our misfortunes with medics in the latter half of this season, we are happy to have Jack Frost on our roster, hopefully giving us the stability we need at the medic position in time for playoffs.

As you said before you were having some problems with your medic (I think four) care to tell us what has been going on? 
terrible ! volt: Drackett was a good medic but when Heroes of Newerth came out, he wasn't around to scrim as much and never responded when I asked when he would be around to play. So we added a backup medic, etep, to our roster and Drackett left immediately the team to join BOSS. So we started playing scrims and matches with etep but that wasn't the right fit for us. We added another medic Aaron aka s0meguy to our roster and etep presumably left us to go play Aion. Finally, after a night of scrims with Jack Frost last week, the idea was mentioned to have him finish the season with us because of how well everyone was playing with him on medic. So that's where we stand.

Is Jack here to stay or just a temporary fix?
terrible ! volt: We'd love him to join permanently, but we know he can't play TWL with us because he's on a team with friends and there may be scheduling conflicts, so it's yet to be decided.

You'll be playing NoGrid first round, any thoughts or remarks?
terrible ! volt: Well, while it does depend on the exact seeding ESEA chooses from the three teams that are 10-6, it does seem likely that we'll play them in round one. I'm just glad that my initial thought that we'd play Harmonic is wrong, because I'd hate for our team to have to deal with mesr on badlands again. I'll admit it will be nice to see how we stack up against United Gamers on a real map with a real medic (I’m kidding Aaron)

How much do you scrim a week?
terrible ! volt: We usually do at least two to three a night, Sunday through Wednesday. Occasionally on Thursday. And if there's a match we try to do one or maybe two before the match and maybe one or two after, all depending on how long they take

Thank you very much. Any shoutouts?
terrible ! volt: NONE. HAAAAAAA

 #6 eXultance TF2  (10-6)
I had to interview my 16 year old solly since the others were dumb. Please bear with me. Sorry in advance

eXult! Killing in the Name: Tell us a little about yourself and your team

eXult-Ghos7ayama: alright well I came on to what was /<. back then now exult about a year and 3 months ago, back then it was just me green deth lore infidel and smith (RIP smith) but we've had our trials and tribulations throughout but I’ve grown to like the guys from greens off mic rage to lore’s silence but we've gone through various sponsors also we went from /<. to I think distinguished gentlemen to HAUSEN /caps and then into eXult (with everyone but me having the dumb tag).

What have you found has been your key to success this season?
eXult-Ghos7ayama: well now key players would be everyone as they add their own little flavor to the team, lore and his epic saves when I do stupid stuff, greens an alright pocket infidel and killing do what they can <3 :P and me, I hate talking about myself in a bragging aspect but I’ll just say that I have been with them for awhile and I play rather well with them we have our ups and downs in the season a lot of stupid loses and retarded wins  we're an unpredictable bunch I’d like to say.

Over the offseason, you guys went through quite a few demos care to tell us what went wrong and are you happy with the acquisition of Kayaws?

eXult-Ghos7ayama: well we started off with just almost falling apart over the loss of embier, as we couldn’t find anyone we then picked up hoegie (LOL)  after we kicked him for not being really the nicest one of the bunch we got kayaws and his nerd rage now kayaws is something interesting, he’s a solid player who will rage ALOT in scrims and matches but he tries to apologize later and is an all around fun guy in and out of game, oh and his steam engine likes to crash in cevo playoffs against tech

On average, how much do you scrim per week?
eXult-Ghos7ayama: On average we scrim about 1 hour around 3 nights a week

You'll be playing Harmonic first round, any thoughts?
eXult-Ghos7ayama: ok well I think pmb, hoppy, and mesr will be big players on their team

Thank you very much. Any shoutouts?
eXult-Ghos7ayama: shoutouts to deth and infidel for starting /<. now eXult, and js` for being an awesome friend and amazing demo.

#7 SlaughterHouse Gaming (9-7)
eXult! Killing in the Name: Tell us a little about yourself and your team

SG| OAFMEAL: I'm from the west coast of BC Canada, work at various things;  as a musician, welder, sawyer at a lumber mill (honest, and yes, I do wear high heels, suspenders and a bra!) Jack Frost had a large hand in putting our asses together in the early stages, so he needs some recognition! We've just gone through some roster changes recently, and had a shaky week or two, but things are looking up. Our euro scouts, Acid Renix, and Vlad Drac are basically our secret weapons, and manage to have a huge influence on the outcome of our matches in spite of >100 ping. Alan's picked up the medic mantle (or albatross if you prefer) and he's doing work for us when he's not running his mega corporation, or trying to buy his whole town.

What have you found has been your key to success this season?
SG| OAFMEAL: More than anything, it's solid teamwork.  When we're where we're supposed to be it all goes well.  Acid's sniping has won us matches, and b4nny's probably the most under rated demo out there. A few crazy strats have been key, too.  Weird shit makes the game more fun, really. Acid's got a good imagination for strats, and we tune up his ideas for the most part.

People say that you get carried by your Euros (7-2 with them and 0-4 without). Do you think you can bring this home without them?
SG| OAFMEAL: They're going to be around for the playoffs.  There's no doubt that our scouts carry, and when any team misses 2 starters it hurts.  The odds aren't as good without them, that's for sure!

They've been missing for the past three weeks, what's going on?
SG| OAFMEAL: people get busy, and scheduling with 2 guys playing at 3-4AM their time isn't always easy.

Will they be there for playoffs?
SG| OAFMEAL: yes

On average, how much do you guys scrim a week?
SG| OAFMEAL: We're getting back on that horse now, so it's around 4 nights a week or so

You guys are playing eXpertise first round, any thoughts?
SG| OAFMEAL: They're a very solid team, and beat us at the buzzer on gpcit last time we played.  They deserved that win.  Gpit isn't our strongest map, however, and our scouts will have a little more say on Badlands.

 Thank you very much. Any shoutouts?
SG| OAFMEAL: Jack Frost, Cerpy, Kiba, San, my MFing Misfits, bhslaughter, texasteamplayers (thanks for the push only pub!), and everyone out there that makes this game fun to play, or takes the time to help out the TF2 community.

#8 Royal (9-7)

Tell us a little about yourself and your team
Luciious+: we began the season as Nefarious and with a very different roster back then and a lot has changed since, with big pickups through the season like notor. We have had a bunch of roster changes through the season trying to figure out what fit us, and we really only got into the groove of thing mid way through, and then kind of fell off again near the end ha-ha but we are looking to try and make an impression in the playoffs

What have you found has been your key to success this season?
Luciious+: the key to success in our season is really everyone keeping interest in the game, everyone on the team contrasts each other well so no one in particular really "carries" us. When we are playing with a plan we always do well and I think the fact we have lots of fun while we do it helps as well

It seems that every night you have a different 2 starting scout, who's the starter and who's the backup?
Luciious+: it’s been a mix and match situation with our scouts ha-ha, in the beginning of the season we started with nos and bigwill, but things didn’t work out with nos so we brought on blaze to replace him (who previously played soldier and was new to the scout class) which ended up working well for us. Part way through the season bigwill started to get busy and wasn’t able to play all the time, so we tried again to pick up a starter in Jason, but he wasn’t really available all the time ether. We always had someone different, sometimes we had to put in Kenneth at scout as well, who’s our backup solly

Do feel that that affects you, having no idea which scouts are going to be starting?
Luciious+: yes, it’s hard to play with our scouts rotating all the time because literally, all of them have different styles of play, so sometimes it was hard to keep a cohesion going

Do feel that that affects you, having no idea which scouts are going to be starting?
Luciious+: yes, it’s hard to play with our scouts rotating all the time because literally, all of them have different styles of play, so sometimes it was hard to keep a cohesion going

On average, how much does your team scrim a week?
Luciious+: well, when we were really into the season, around the middle, we would scrim for 2-3 hours monday-thursday, sometimes on a weekend but very rarely. we like to take some time out of scrimming some nights to talk about a map, get a plan and then scrim and work on that setup, and then change it if we find any problems with it

You're going to be playing t00l first round, any thoughts?
Luciious+: I think that the biggest part of that game for us is going to be controlling their scouts, but it’s hard for me to say seeing as their whole roster is filled with raw talent, but we are practicing up and are hoping for the best, we have seen this season that they aren’t invincible lol

Thank you very much. Any shoutouts?
Luciious+: most importantly, I gotta give a huge shoutout to my boy Kenneth, he’s so cash. Shoutout to the whole royal crew, Tyrone marmell cups and the rest of the UG crew. Shoutout to pink riots (obviously) and a big shoutout to my boy slop! And shoutout to shorei for being a boss and letting us use his mumble.

 Good luck to all the teams,

eXult! Killing in the Name