CommunityFortress

Welcome to Season 6 of ESEA Open. Quite possibly the most competitive season of TF2 yet. Sure the skill gap between the #1 team to the #20 team might be as wide as CEVO's early leagues when they only had one division, and sure there will probably be a 25% chance your team will break up before the season ends, but I currently count sixteen teams, almost half the league, with the ability to make a difference in this league. I will take time to talk about each one of them in my first power ranking of the year.

Before I get started, I would like to address an interesting situation.

Looking at the rankings, I see only two medics that actually played an entire esea season and actually made a showing in the playoffs. Tons of medics who were considered low/mid a few months ago are getting a shot at the mid/high level. This is really the ultimate trial by fire, considering that most non-medic players on the ranked teams are solid mid/high to high players. Will definitely be interesting to see which medics come out of this season "best improved", because I see that even the Invite teams are lacking solid medics, especially blight, team blight and blight gaming. So you never know guys, low/mid one day, invite medic the next. Best of luck. This ALSO means we are low on medics in tf2 comp! So give the class a shot, maybe you are better at that than playing scout. 

Alright, let's dive into these rankings. Killing said they will have 16 teams in the playoffs this season, so I will try to do 16 teams every ranking. I might get bored and just do 10 eventually though. Mad props to zack from Fix It Freddy for helping me get info and put together the rankings.

1. Lightning Bolt -

I can just hear sherr muttering to himself "I'm getting too old for this shit." Just when we were sure we would never see this name again, Lightning Bolt comes back with a roster stronger than last season. This time without the players who wanted to retire from this game even before season 5 started. With 2/3rd of the eMg scout combo that won open last season. sureshot, arguably the best solly in open if he is back to his old form, and open championship experienced players in Sherr, Lopert, and DaveMD. This is the most complete team in open this season, I look forward to seeing what they can do against the other top teams. My question is why wicked left their roster and who their roamer is going to be now. An interesting matchup would be these guys against blight-coolstory on viaduct. I look for lightning to announce their presence with authority and start with a 4-0 record.

2. Hostile Faction -

Replace smaka with chupa, sx with ggglygy, platinum with oh noes and luciious with aaronlol. Bam, you got a contender again Vharblen. I really dig this team, and just like last season, I know Vhalin and Harbleu will do anything to try to win this whole tourney. Which means everyone on the team is on the chopping block from day 1. This is a very dangerous team, gggygs and vhalin, if both on their game, can take out any scout combo in open and harbleu and ohnoes are two aggressive soldiers that can give any team a hard time. Chupa, who already tasted the highest level of competition in TF2, is ready to come back to open and show us the difference between an invite and an open demoman. There are two issues I see on this team. Aaronlol is a great guy, mid medic with plenty of experience, but takes too much spam and just isn't a top 5 medic in open. I also see an issue with all 5 of the players being very aggressive players...almost the same playing styles...going to be interesting to see these guys try to adjust to a conservative/smart team (like VG) that counters well to an aggressive playing style. They have two tests in the next two weeks, Spoko on Viaduct and Thrick or Threat on Gravelpit. Expect these guys to pass easily and coast to a 4-0 record.

3. Die Hard -

After being let go by his previous invite team, Drone decided that he rather live free than die hard. Just when I thought I had the power rankings all sorted out, Drone crashes the party with his goons like Hans Gruber at a xmas party. Drone puts together an unbelievable team that has a chance of easily taking open if the reach their full potential. hell and REP are two proven high players, throw in ninjitsu, arizona and jmitchell, drone can probably take this team into invite and get a few wins. Hell instantly becomes one of the best players in open, and Rep can probably dominate as solly. I am pretty sure jmitchell is going to back up and they still don't have a demo, so it looks like they will need 2 more guys to compete this season. Will these guys fail and fall off the building or will they unlatch the watch in time? These guys have a relatively easy start to the season. The hardest match being harmonic on viaduct. Expect them to easily get to a 4-0 record after the two weeks.

4. Vicious Gaming -

Just when you think the Businessmen are going to be disbanding, they come back with a nice looking lineup. They have two invite level scouts in slardel and daniel. What tilts the scale is their last minute pickup of Moose, and you know my crush on that dude...one of the smartest players you'll ever see play TF2. There are still big issues on the team. Droog and Buick both decided to move to backup due to real life issues. I wish them the best of luck. VG thrived primary on the Droog/Buick combo last season. I really doubt Sheep and ehfk will be able to emulate that. VG will be forced to change to a completely different playstyle. A pretty easy four game schedule to start off the season, expect these guys to take care of business and be 4-0 at the end of the two weeks.

5. eXpertise -

For the 3rd straight season, most of the starters of expertise left the team for one reason or another, and DaishiKiller manages to reload with a more dangerous looking lineup than before. I heard plenty about forcestealer, throw in Kermit and that is one deadly soldier combination. Shakr is the best demo you don't know about, and I was very impressed with DaishiKiller's evasive medic skills last season. The big question is at scout. As far as I know, they are still looking for a second scout. Will that scout and cometojesus be able to match the great output of ggglygy and ukm from last season? Probably sporting the hardest schedule out of the top 5 teams. eXpertise will need to get by blight-coolstory on viaduct and Cause of Death on gravelpit to keep a perfect 4-0 record and keep up with the top 4. I think they can definitely do it.

6. Have Fun -

Have Fun is my darkhorse team to watch. Although I would separate them from the top 5 teams right now, I still believe that these guys will make a big impact this season. Cringe and St Patrick are two of the best players in open, and they have one hell of a supporting cast in Fabri and lansky. Fabri has developed into a solid scout/sniper that should be able to pair up with St Patrick (or Cringe) at scout and make a difference in any match. unf is also a very efficient demoman that puts out a ton of damange. My big question is how much gas is left in St P and cringe's gastank as well as their inexperienced medic Chimpfeet. If these guys wants to be considered contenders, they will need to prove it early. Four games, three against teams in my rankings. They SHOULD take down all 4 games, if not, then I might have overrated these guys a little bit.

7. Blight - coolstory -

A collection of a bunch of mid/high to high players. I do like the fact that they decided to make their own team in open instead of just jumping on an invite team as a backup. It is strange how they all got together though, I don't see a connection in former teams from any of the players. They all played for separate invite or playoff caliber open teams. The blacksheep of the group is blackfoger, the owner of blight, playing soldier for the team. He really doesn't have a lot of competitive experience and told me that they were all just in it for fun. coolstory's season result will depend on if the 5 other starters are ok with just having fun with blackfoger, or thinking that they can do a lot better if they picked up a mid/high soldier instead of him. Starting with the hardest schedule in esea open on viaduct, blight gets a rude welcoming from Lightning Bolt and eXpertise. Then it gets a little easier for them on gravelpit. But I don't think they will get past viaduct without at least 1 loss.

8. Focus Gaming -

Focus surprised all of us last year by easily taking out Area 51 and giving the eventual champs, eMg, a very difficult match on yukon in the open playoffs. With the addition of mesr, one of the best scouts in open, you would think there is nowhere to go but up for Lore's Merry Men. However, recently Kayaws, their demo found out that he had to put TF2 in the backseat, so instead of finding a new demo, they decided to hand the demolition duties to killing in the name. Kayaws has worked out a schedule where he only plays against the difficult teams while Killing demos against the lesser teams (so you will know what Focus thinks of your team right away). With one of the easily two week schedules in the league, expect Focus to cruise to 4-0, probably without even giving up one point. But an interesting matchup to point out is them against Smile Theory (Focus Team B). They all are friends, share the same mumble and help each other with their game...Kayaws proposed to use the same mumble channel for the match. If they do, expect a crowd there listening in for the comedy.

9. Team Spoko -

Talk about a giant mess. This team was supposed to be one of the top contenders in open with moose, arizona and tictac. Suddenly, everyone except yoyo leaves the team. I am not quite sure what happened, so I won't comment about it too much. Within a 24 hour span, yoyo formed his 3rd team in 1 month. This team definitely doesn't have as much "pop" as the previous roster, but they are still solid playoff contenders. kayp and turtle alone can already win a few games for you. The big question is how much output the 2nd scout is going to give to them as well as kbk, an inexperienced medic. Spoko will get a double dose of HF on viaduct and then an easy two matches on gravelpit. I expect these guys to come out of the two weeks with a 2-2 record. Anything other than 2-2 would surprise me a lot.

10. Cause of Death -

I really like this team. Always been a fan of Gremaud, and we all know sting can take over any match. Sweater is their demo, a little unknown in comp, but whenever I played against him, he is ALWAYS busy, doing something useful. Kinda like a really really tight turtleneck sweater just pressuring the crap out of your neck. The weakest link is their scouts, you need better than a mid scout to be over .500 in open this season. Rough way to start off the season, playing 3 teams in my rankings. The first two games are against teams right under them in the rankings. So if they want to keep this spot, they will need to win both of the matches.

11. Mobility Gaming -

Losing Sever was a pretty big hit. But this team is still pretty solid. Jake is becoming a smart medic. Hoegie, apy, minivan and thirtytwo are all very experienced players. I expect this team to give every team they play a hard time. They will be able to take that 10th spot from CoD in the first match of the season..and they will try to keep their spot above Pixilated Disposition in the 4th game of the season.

12. Fix It Freddy -

Jewbagel and Zate has to be one of the longest standing medic/soldier combos in tf2. They've been doing their thing since season 2 or 3. Throw in a dangerous scout in freddy and no0 at demo, this team will be able to give anyone in open trouble. However, I just don't think these guys can win any big games against top contenders. They will get an early shot of proving me wrong with matches against Businessmen and Blight-coolstory.

13. Pixilated Disposition -

An aliased team with a bunch of mid+ guys. Minsterl, Chapin, Hubes, and 3 other dudes. Losing Arizona to Die Hard was pretty big, but they will recover just fine. Expect them to be hanging around the power rankings all season. They have a chance to prove themselves early on as the first four teams they face are all on my power rankings. I expect them to go 3-1 or 2-2 in the 4 game span.

14. Thrick or Treat -

This team on paper does not look very impressive, but after scrimming against these guys a few times, it seems like the have some great teamwork, and can make an impact this season, maybe take down one or two teams on this ranking.

15. Harmonic -

A solid mid+ team with plenty of league experience. They'll probably upset a couple teams on the ranking and squeak into the playoffs. Three tough matches for harmonic against Have Fun, Die Hard and Pixilated Dispotition. Good luck guys.

Apoplexy Industries -

If n0em didn't give me a lecture about journalistic integrity, my team would be in the power rankings somewhere. If we happened to be in the rankings in the future, I will get someone else to write about it.

12:42 AM - nOem: not journalistic integrity if you have to mention it
12:42 AM - nOem: dick cheese
12:42 AM - djfivenine: OMG FUCK YOU