Hello! London and Sakura here with some thoughts and analysis for some teams to look for during season 14 in the ESEA-IM division! Big thank you to Kohaku for taking the time to edit and proofread for us!

1. Chill to Good Ratio

by Sakura

Chill to Good finished the regular season 14-2, turning a lot of heads. Sadly, they've had an unfortunate post-season from having to change their medic to scout. With their new roster, it seems like Chill to Good is wanting to perform even stronger this season. bman is a welcome addition who can replicate Lambert's aggressive playstyle and adds a very consistent sniping utility to the team. Mangachu is an interesting pickup; while he is a DM upgrade and very consistent in getting key picks, his playstyle will accidentally bait his team at times—it's something that needs to be fixed and played around. The core of the team hasn't changed too much; Dun manages the team and hits those key directs that often win team fights, and Deltafox is a very solid medic that will provide the team with much-needed calls. Overall, the runner-ups of the Invite poll are looking to be the favorites of IM, taking off games from the low Invite teams and showing very strong performances against everyone else.

2. Sal's Canal

by Sakura

Sal's Canal appears to be the merger of some of the more impressive players from a potpourri of playoff IM teams. The results look successful and this team looks like one of the most coordinated teams in IM. This may be the first time where Sparrow isn't going to play medic for SS, which may affect the combo chemistry. While SS is pretty aggressive with ubers, he is also very effective at calling the shots, so the experienced slipz should be able to adapt to his playstyle. Phrakture has done well transitioning from pocket to demo but has experienced some inconsistency problems. Sparrow has also transitioned smoothly from medic to roamer, using his jump map expertise to create clever plays to make openings for his team. Sal and zZa are a solid scout combo, the former having plenty of raw DM ability and the latter being one who uses his slippery movement to the fullest. As long as this team keeps improving, they'll have a very strong chance to win it all.

3. Mario Party Pros

by London Calling

The marriage of the team formerly known as Hard2Kill and the Pwr Rangers has produced a strong team looking to compete with the best teams in IM. This roster may not look that strong on paper for some, but to anyone who has actually played them they know this team plays together extremely well. Nja and Jav in particular are a great scout pair that are going to surprise a lot of people this season. Their flank is very strong; Nja is fast becoming one of the strongest DM scouts and backs it up with smart play; and their roamer, a little girl (aka Sakura #2), is another sleeper hit for the division. The flank plays really well together, but the player with the most presence on this team is their pocket Tone-Pot. Tone is a high-damage pocket who makes the most out of the amount of heals he receives, and usually puts out more damage than his demo. Recently this team had to cut their original demo, mustardoverlord, due to some unreliable internet connection issues; replacing the outspoken Overlord of Mustard will be Rex from last season's Open champions, the Crunchy Bunch. Rex probably has better DM than mustard, but it'll hard to say if this team will do as well without their main caller. Regardless, this team is looking very strong across the board and will shake up the top of IM.

4. 6cuties

by London Calling

This team was turning heads last season; they were a menagerie of veterans and IM newcomers that started out great but eventually ran into a tough losing streak towards the end of the season. Many talented new faces have joined this season's iteration of 6cuties, making this team a real force to be reckoned with. Remedy will be pocketing, snailboat will be Br0nze's new scout partner, and Pharaoh will be replacing Puff. Judging from recent scrims it is already apparent that these scouts will be one of the most dangerous duos in IM; Br0nze has only improved over the off-season and his new partner complements him very well. While the flank for 6cuties is very strong, Puff's departure means that a large part of the combo dynamic has changed considerably. While I do consider Remedy an upgrade in the pocket department, the coordination between Pharaoh and the combo appears to be their weakest link so far. Pharaoh is a great demo, but filling big Puff's shoes is going to be a challenge for him until he's had a chance to play with his team a bit more. Once Sakura (aka Sakura #1, my esteemed co-writer here) gets the core up to where he wants them to be, 6cuties should have no problem securing their playoff spot by the end of regular season.

5. Rent-a-Homies

by London Calling

Rent-a-Homies are a team reborn, having merged with normalcool after Season 13. The team has been scrimming since post-season with their new line-up, and have been proving to be a quite a noteworthy group of rentable homies. Their scouts are long-time veteran John Milter and relative newcomer goku. ESEA newcomer goku made some waves at the end of the season with Rent-a-Homies during their playoff matches, spirit bombing the competition with his positively incredible name and surprisingly strong showing. Serv0 will be pocketing again this season with normalcool medic Caspian. Both of them are smart players and should be solid in terms of coordinating with their flank. The biggest question at the moment for this team is how well Nomadic is going to stack up against the considerable number of talented demomen in the division. Ultimately, the strength of this team is going to be well they play together; backed by solid leadership from their veteran players, the only limiting factors seem to be how well they'll stack up to some of the big DMers from the top teams and how well they can handle them as a team.

6. Knightz of Grillz

by London Calling

Hear ye, hear ye! All rise to witness Knights of Grillz! This team was looking crazy good at the end of last season, but with the loss of Shootist and zclipse its hard to say how much catch-up they will have to do this season to get back to where they were. Even with the loss of two of their valiant knights, the talent on this team is still palpable. Chaaz—or boogie from Hostile Faction of medieval times—is still a top demo, sureshot and grillz are a great combo, and Dennis is just about everything you could ask for in a “passive” scout—although the roles seem to be less defined without zclipse. The two open spots on the roster haven't been quite confirmed yet but the two likeliest candidates, based on who they have been scrimming with, will be Paddie on roamer and rb on scout. If they pick up rb, there's no doubt the scout duo will be as equally scary as it was last season, and while Paddie lacks the experience of his potential teammates his DM is comparable to Shootist's. The raw fragging power of this team is only eclipsed by their teamwork. Depending on how seriously they take the season and how well Paddie meshes, this is another team that has the potential to finish in the top 4.

7. Ducks to Pound

by Sakura

The announcement of the revival of the Ducks excited the hordes of nostalgic fanboys reminiscing about ghos7ayama's pan and PUFF's sticky jumper. Unfortunately, they have been plagued by roster instability throughout the preseason that has caused their ranking to suffer. They seem to be doing well in their latest incarnation, consisting of ukm and Decimate on scout, PUFF on demo, ghos7ayama on roamer, doggles on medic, and currently undecided on pocket. This team is known for bull-dogging, or playing super aggressively and getting key picks with their bombs—expect PUFF to evoke nostalgic feelings of Season 3 as he bombs in to get those nipple hairs of damage. On paper, it's harder to find a more intimidating scout duo in IM than Decimate and ukm, with strong clean-up and 1v1 ability coming from both of them. I'm expecting Ducks to Pound to return to their old Invite form as soon as they get used to their new roster.

8. Playground Tactics

by Sakura

The DDoS heroes of last season enter IM with their roster relatively unchanged, with the only changes being DarkStar on pocket and Rekuso on roamer. The rest of the roster remains the same with London as medic, sonnnn and insom on scout, and Rikachu on demo. Already I can see a noticeable change in their playstyle with DarkStar playing a more traditional, aggressive, heal-heavy pocket than preston's passive style. Rikachu will have no problem matching the DM and damage of the other top demos in IM; however, his tendencies to play pocket demo may cost his team now that they're in IM rather than Open. Rekuso is a nice addition to the team as well, providing great bombs and solid roamer play. Overall this team seems to have transitioned well into IM and are in it just as much as anyone else to earn a playoff spot.

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