CommunityFortress

Dear Swaty,

Mainline was not a fun map. At all. My team wasted hours scrimming and matching on this map, only to find ourselves in a stalemate on 2/3 as my soldier nOem cries in frustration and I start to have flashbacks of TWL matches on fastlane. There are a lot of things you will need to change on this map, because I refuse to support a retarded baby made from well and fastlane for another league rotation until there are changes made.

Please use this week's map, gullywash, as an example of what a fun competitive map should look like. There is constant action everywhere, there are original aspects on every single point, and the name is fuckin awesome.

Also, Lost finale was FINE, I wish people would just stop whining about it and realize that they are mainly just upset that the show is over.

Love,

djfivenine


Nothing really to add after my mid-season awards. So here are the rankings.

1. Team neXziL - LW: 1 (10-0)

Not quite sure what is going on with them dropping Hostile Faction or the other way around, but it looks like they have moved on from their sponsor. Their name sounds like half nexus and half zilla gaming? I also heard something about idemise being in the picture as well? Whatever, let's not worry about sponsors, let's talk about the team. Yes, Harbleu left the team for invite. Going to be very difficult to replace the top fragger on the top team in open. Rumor has it that the team is not interested in giving their backup, tehoreoz, a try at that roam solly spot. Instead, they are going to try out Warpy as well as try to lure some sollies away from their current teams. I guess I cursed these guys when I said they were going to have a perfect season. It is still possible, but with a new soldier coming in, you never know how the chemistry with the team will be like. That exult/unr match on thursday is a huge trap game for these guys. New map, new solly, facing a team with solid teamwork.

2. Vicious Gaming - LW: 2 (8-1)

With the roster issues on ex-HF, VG is definitely excited to get a shot at that #1 spot. They will need to beat AI, Lightning Bolt and Purple Cobras if they want to keep pace with the #1 team. They added sting to their roster to solidify their backup soldier spot and prepare for the toughest stretch of their roster, he whined about how I don't talk about him on my rankings at all....so here you go dick. Also, apparently I was wrong when I heard that Droog was trying to make a comeback. It looks like Sheep is going to be their starting demo for the season.


3. Lightning Bolt - LW: 3 (7-2)

Bolt just passed their first big test of the season, beating Purple Cobras 5-2 on mainline. There were rumors of blaze being in the running for that starting scout on Blight. The team must be stoked to hear that mesr took that spot, because I honestly think the team would have died if another original member left their roster. The crappy thing about sandbagging in the beginning of the season and getting an easy schedule is that you will have to finish out the season with a very tough schedule. I see that happening with Bolt, as they will have to face Harmonic, AI, VG and exHF in the next two weeks. Going 2-2 will help them secure this #3 spot, anything less will drop them. The usual suspects on this team will perform well, but smash and paintrain will need to step up if they want a shot at beating any of those 4 teams.

(Every week there are requests for AI to be put on my rankings. I'm not going to write about my own team, but VG's ehfk was kind enough to step in and place AI on my rankings and do a writeup on the team. Thank you ehfk.)

3 & 1/2. AI - LW: N/A (8-1)

AI has had a great start to the season, and they have put up wins against formidable opponents. They have however undergone some recent roster shake ups with the replacement of their pocket soldier teto for ex - besserman 6 (too far back?) all star Ekos. Also it is not known what the recent pickups of mainline carrier cowpimp will have in store for the team. With litany as the centerpiece this team has a lot of potential, however it still remains to be seen whether or not this team can crack into the upper echelon of open teams, and their match versus vicious gaming will tell a lot about where they stand.

4. Purple Cobras - LW: 4 (7-3)

I thought these guys were going to go on a huge winning steak and just demolish the rest of their schedule. They made quick work of the softies and Tony Hawk, but they were struck by a lightning bolt, especially Fabri (7-22, really?). Hopefully that loss is just a small roadbump on their road to the playoffs. They have a showdown with VG on gullywash that will reveal exactly how far these guys will make it in the open playoffs this season. After the VG match, they have a few "should win" matches against teams below them on the power rankings. From the stats, it looks like SOMEONE other than Fabri and Cringe will need to step up and perform above their expectations if they want to beat the tougher teams.

5. Harmonic - LW: 6 (7-2)

har·mon·ic
adj.
1.
a. Of or relating to harmony.
b. Pleasing to the ear: harmonic orchestral effects.
c. Characterized by harmony: a harmonic liturgical chant.
2. Of or relating to harmonics.
3. Flame hates my power rankings

6. exult/unr - LW: 5 (8-2)

exult was embarrassed by Vicious Gaming on mainline. VG revealed a simple game plan for beating these guys. Stop catas, their roamer from getting to your med. Make sure dchow doesn't get behind you. Profit. But hey, it was VG, Slardel and Daniel can make dissembling a bomb look easy. You gotta give some love to these guys though. Their medic, deerhaunter, is having one hell of a season being top 5 in points/minute, deaths/minute and assists/minute. The next 3 matches will reveal if exult is a contender or a pretender as they face the #1, 3.5 and 4 teams on my power rankings.

7. Blight - coolstory - LW: 7 (5-4)

4 straight losses. I'm just begging for someone below them to get a big win and pass these guys on the rankings. Pokey did his job, but the rest of the team didn't even try against exHF on Mainline. Time to get blackstar back or they will be a first round playoff knockout. They will need to win the next 5 matches in a row against weaker teams to be considered a contender again.

8. eXpertise - LW: 8 (6-4)

Whew! expertise almost fell out of my rankings if they lost against i7. It was looking pretty bad too, down 0-4 after the first half. These guys were able to stage a huge comeback and win it 5-4 in OT behind Daishikiller's 240pt, 40 uber performance and a solid match by cometojesus. That come from behind win however does not erase their poor performance of late, as they have lost 3 out of the last 4 matches. They have 4 easier opponents coming up, I would be very surprised if they don't end up 10-4 at the end of these two weeks.

9. The Softies - LW: 10 (7-3)

Look for these guys to slowly crawl into contention as their favorable schedule will probably get them to 10-3 before their faceoff with VG on yukon. capslockcommando has stepped in to replace sting on soldier. Caps is a solid mid soldier, but probably will not be able to match the contributions of sting in matches. They also replaced my favorite medic in open, dbw, with Redstripe. Wtf dudes?

10. Focus Gaming - LW: 9 (7-3)

If TF2 was the NBA, Focus Gaming is the Miami Heat and they just lost Dwayne Wade. If you have no idea what I am talking about...Focus just lost their best player in Mesr, and you're a nerd. Mesr topfragged and/or top-pointed in seven out of the eight games that Focus played. It would be stupid to argue that mesr wasn't their irreplaceable star. Looks like they have picked up Let It Riot to try to fill the other scout spot. Now, for this team to be successful, they will need the soldiers, ghost and green, to step up the fragging. These guys are still playoff contenders, but I am just not sure on how far they will go in the playoffs now with arguably 2 of their best players in the beginning of their season (mesr and kayaws) gone. They have two big showdowns on gullywash against Softies and Purple Cobras. If they manage to get one win this week, they will surely stay in the rankings. If they lose both, then it might be time to give Tony Hawk or The Legion a shot at this 10th spot.