Season 19 powered by Tt eSPORTS: Week 1 Report Card

In a shocking turn of events ETF2L Season 19 week 1 fixtures have actually been played in week 1 giving us an easy to start to this season’s weekly (maybe) summary of events. I’ll be looking at the Premiership teams through a statistical magnifying glass to produce a regular report card, it’ll be unstable and surprising to begin with but will settle down over time. In this first round of reports we discover who deserves a gold star and who needs to be sent to the headmaster’s office. Read on…

SUAVE

Predictably SUAVE are the top team and teacher’s pet after the first week. Everyone’s favourites for the season made heavy going of Badlands but finally hit stride on Process beating coolclan on win difference despite practicing Classic Mixup’s bore-you-to-death strategies. IPZIE and WARHURYEAH were almost inseperable but IPZIE just shades the stats.

Although not their top rated player, Rising did notably well on roamer, while their scouts although potent did seem relatively restrained in comparison to the all conquering combo. In the coming weeks I’m sure we’ll see them taking the spotlight.

Too early to anoint them champions in waiting? Possibly, they’ll face much stronger competition than coolclan before the season is out. Theoretically they face Awsomniac in week 2 (there’s no way the schedule will stay on track for long) who should prove a significantly sterner test.

Star performer: IPZIE

 

Planet Express

Carrying Planet Express to victory over Politically correct pander and to 2^nd place in these standings the mercurial sheepy dog's hand registered some crazy good stats ably backed up by Setlet. Planet Express looked like they lacked team cohesion in comparison to their opponents but the DM ability carried them through a see saw match.

On the flank Samsa got off some nice plays, but Hafficool was exploited and for Planet Express to have any chance of maintaing this lofty position he’ll have to up his game. Even so at this stage this win will have boosted their chances of being a surprise playoff team in what promises to be a closely contested mid table this season.

They face 4-25 in week 2 who, on current form, will represent a true test of any claims of mid table legitimacy.

Star performer: sheepy dog's hand

 

4-25

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In the battle of ETF2L’s eastern outposts 4-25 and Lethal Weapon split the points but in terms of the player performances 4-25 were the victors, with gdk leading the way. This was in spite of Shyyou appearing to take a leaf out of Sideshow’s book by binding s to kill, achieving the worst performance by a pocket soldier by a significant distance.

sid vicious was the better of the two scouts with kensi. being perhaps a little disappointing. Dikker is our top rated medic this week racking up the assists with the help of only 2 Kritz, a relatively modest amount by gdk’s standards.

One of what I hesitate to call the Russian teams has a chance to do well this season and right now 4-25 looked better placed to do that, particularly if Shyyou can improve from that dire outing. If they can control sheepy dog's hand from their Week 2 opponent Planet Express they have every chance to enhance their playoff claims.

Star performer: gdk

 

Awsomniac

The widely celebrated return of the Frenchies ended in splitting the points against Ze Knutsson Rollerbladers and the baguette botherers narrowly come in ahead of them in my estimation, largely down to the pocket soldiering of Tek (back home from the Epsilon eSports flank) and the teamplay of dmoule who put out good damage on scout and made sure every point available was capped. Also extraneous offclassing was limited.

As ever Exon.’s roaming style meant he was less central to his team than most other Demomen but his absence meant T-Mac was one of the better buffed roamers. Flippy’s outing on scout was so-so, even his sniper cameos weren’t up to their usual standard, but if fl1p is going to come into the team for him the future must look bright.

A good performance overall but with improvements to come. Facing SUAVE in the next week is likely to lead to a setback however, so a mid-to-late season charge is on the cards. A win on the other hand makes them instantly elite.

Star performer: Tek

 

Ze Knutsson Rollerbladers

So despite having a better round score total than the Frenchies, Ze Knutsson Rollerbladers find themselves behind mostly because of their execrable off-classing play, with many of the week’s uneventful pyro, sniper or heavy plays coming from them (with one conspicuous exception). It would be unfair to say Zebbosai carried but his scout exploits were matched only by sheepy dog's hand this week and ryb although solid was some way behind.

Although not reaching the heights of some PCWs Knutsson struggled a little with drops and amppis was unspectacular but solid. zappis however bucked his team’s trend by putting in an epic 2 minutes on sniper to eclipse his soldier play. Give this man the sniper rifle.

It’s a solid beginning but this doesn’t look like the team likely to challenge SUAVE. Week 2 pits them against the Politically correct pander, a decisive victory should see them climb the rankings.

Star performer: Zebbosai

 

Lethal Weapon

It’s never a quiet time for this team with a huge part of their core quitting on the eve of the season. Forsak3n has now turned to huhystah in an effort to solve the demoman position and statistically he delivered scoring massive frags (thanks Shyyou!), but is a player regularly called out for baiting his team really the answer? With huhystah now a fully paid up member of the roster it appears Lethal Weapon think so.

Forsak3n also acquitted himself well and premiership debutant nukkye put in a good performance, but emergency scout vani proved to be something of a liability and the mercing Bulle found himself victimised a little.

If they can get the roster chaos under control there’s still potential to challenge mid table but equally potential to occupy the division dungeon. Decisive action is needed. Week 2’s fixture vs coolclan offers Lethal Weapon either the perfect opportunity to bounce back or fall flat on their faces.

Star performer: huhystah

 

Politically correct pander

furbo returns to Highlander’s own corner of 6v6 Prem, and they are perhaps a little unfortunate to find themselves this low down after losing very close maps. The combo of zoob and Hildreth struggled to decisively win the fights in a see saw battle, and although furbo was pretty efficient on cleanup Muuki was perhaps a little too one dimensional on roamer feeding Planet Express a constant stream of man advantages frags.

On this performance Politically correct pander could be headed for a relegation battle again, but they won’t be facing a scout with the scrub shredding ability of sheepy dog's hand every week so sharpening up their coordination which let them down at a couple of critical moment should see them through, and there’s always the Epsilon eSports result to remember from seasons past.

Week 2 brings Zebbosai, so it’s the sheepy dog's hand nightmare all over again. Honestly it won’t be every week.

Start performer: Hildreth

 

coolclan

Unfortunately coolclan got the opportunity to be the first team on the receiving end of a damn good thrashing by SUAVE. Although they produced a competitive performance on Badlands, which so often helps newer teams, on Process they could offer no meaningful resistance.

TF2 fossil wltrs was their best performer while the combo of Bonkers and Smirre were mercilessly abused by IPZIE and WARHURYEAH. They also had a variety of players who fancy themselves on sniper, and once again the old dog came out on top with phromelo and Dennia producing lacklustre results.

Right now it looks like this rag tag bunch of mercenaries will be in a struggle for survival, but they won’t face a tougher opponent this season. Week 2’s 4-25 are wounded, will coolclan have the killer instinct to compound their misery and finish them off?

Star performer: wltrs

 

Team of the week

Each week I’ll be giving the players who most effectively gamed the logs and baited their team (OK, sometimes they’ll actually deserve it as well) their due with a spot on the team of the week. Obviously this is neither scientific nor particularly fair, but that’s why I like it.

Demoman: huhystah

Pocket Soldier: IPZIE

Roaming Soldier: Rising

Scouts: Zebbosai & sheepy dog's hand

Medic: Dikker