The regular season of CEVO-Main has finally kicked off! One change to note since the teams were posted – it turns out Loaded isn’t competing in CEVO this season, so Xensity has reformed with nearly all their old players and has taken Loaded’s spot in Main. Week 1 is on cp_follower, a custom map that features wide open spaces and long sight lines for snipers that’s worked its way into multiple league rotations. Let’s get down to the predictions:
Slaughterhouse Gaming vs. Lightning Bolt!
The addition of famed British shoutcaster and former ETF2L Division 1 scout AcidRenix should definitely make SG stronger, and Lightning Bolt has been relatively inactive as of late, with their leader, notor, unavailable to play. SG could really give Sher & friends a run for their money on a map like Follower, but I still think LB is too strong of a team to lose to anyone but the top CEVO-M contenders. 5-2 Lightning Bolt!
VG - Knights of Goku vs. Hostile Faction
I can’t predict this one since I play for KoG, but the match should be an interesting case of déjàvu, as we played HF on the same map not a week ago in TWL.
Strickland Propane vs. Stackers Union
Strickland has suffered a bit losing Platinum, their star pocket soldier, but they’re still a contender in the division, and the Stackers are likely going have a lot of trouble here. Strickland’s weakness is their scouts, and the scout battles are critical on Follower – if Tyranny and Dchow have great games, SU has a decent chance of winning through smart flanks and backcaps. I don’t see that happening, though. 5-3 Strickland Propane
Team EG vs. the terribles
Unfortunately for cake and company, this is gonna be a quick one. The terribles are a solid group of guys who don’t give themselves enough credit, but tackling a top 3 team in the first game of the season is asking a bit much. Hopefully the terribles learn something they can use in future matches. 5-0 Team EG
Team Caboose vs. Xensity
This is my runner-up for MOTW. Caboose is really underestimated – their soldiers could probably compete in CEVO-P if it still existed, and the rest of their team is solid enough to give Clockwork and TLR chances to beast everybody. Xensity is too good, though, and I doubt Caboose has the ability to beat them quite yet. Maybe by the time the playoffs start. Xensity will probably win by a significant margin, but I have a hunch it’s going to be a really entertaining game regardless. 5-1 Xensity
Businessmen - #blight vs. bitch bangers.usa
Both of these teams just look like a bunch of players that the captains jumbled together almost randomly. I have no idea how strong either of them are at teamwork or communication, so I’ll just focus on their respective deathmatch abilities – and the bitch bangers have a pretty big advantage. With monsters like apy and opey and really solid players otherwise, BB looks pretty good, and while Gremaud on the Businessmen is great, he won’t be able to do everything himself. 5-2 bitch bangers.usa
pointandclick vs. Area 51 Gaming
My MOTW. PaC is a much stronger team than people apparently think, especially with their recent pickup of American TF2 legend Lucas “eckm” Eckman, but they’ll still have a tough matchup against the ESEA-O champs. This is going to be a really close game, likely with some 15-minute back-and-forth rounds. Watch for some vicious cleanup from pac’s scouts and lots of sniping on both sides. I’ll flip a coin here and say pac takes it, but it could definitely go either way. 5-4 pointandclick
No Grid vs. Complexity
I love No Grid, but they don’t have much of a chance here against one of the big dogs. It’ll be interesting to see what class Reptile ends up playing, at least. 5-0 Complexity
Good luck everyone!
