The year is 2022. MR SLIN and squid recorded their first podcast episode, #savetf2 is trending on Twitter, and the community is buzzing over RGL Season 10 Playoffs. With not one or two, but three champion-caliber teams duking it out.

The New Veterans & The Fresh Faces

Whether they’re new names that everyone now knows or established Invite players who would go onto star status, over time, the best rise to the top. We’ve chosen to highlight a handful of these players from each class, some overlooked and some even unheard of, who have made noteworthy progress in the interim.

Having been no stranger to Invite, or even Invite placement, very few people were sleeping on logan. However, in the four seasons since that fateful G6 championship, logan proceeded to win three of them with both G6 and froyotech, cementing his legacy as one of the best North American demos ever and, seemingly, the missing piece that teams need to get 1st place.

Getting picked up as Soldier onto froyotech out of Advanced, donovin showed that he can not only hang with high-Invite competition, but that he could excel, with two podiums followed by back-to-back championships.

Another Advanced soldier, saxophone, didn’t have the same accolades entering Invite from the division below, placing only 3rd in his best season of Advanced. Despite this, saxophone has managed to skip low-Invite all together with a 5th place debut season, only to make playoffs in the following two. After securing an Invite championship under froyotech the only new ground for saxophone is in establishing legacy.

Continuing with soldier players, quacks is another name to look out for. Unlike other players who tend to move their way up the ranks with the same core, quacks has jumped around from team to team and, in just three seasons of Invite, he has secured himself two placement medals. With a knack for leading new teams, we’ll have to stay tuned for what quacks cooks up next.

gungon is a player who keeps finding big shoes to fill and keeps meeting the task. With only mid-Invite experience at best, gungon was thrust onto pocket scout for G6 hot off their first Invite championship and helped them secure a repeat performance the season after. In G6’s dormancy, gungon had more humble success with repeat 3rd place finishes before finding his next big challenge: playing Pocket Scout for b4nny. Needless to say, gungon is now a two-time Invite champion.

While jimmy was a well-known personality back in Season 10, he was not a well-established Invite Medic. In the year since however, he has not only had respectable mid-Invite finishes but even a championship under froyotech, earned with a stellar performance in the grand final.

Known only at the time for a belligerent copypasta, hubida has not only kept clean but proven to be an elite Medic, having not placed lower than third in Invite since his froyotech breakout, with a nice championship recently to cap it off.

An Eye on the Teams

Teams come and go in Invite. Rosters and names change, but it’s not uncommon for a core to play together again. What are some of these new teams, and where are the old teams today?

froyotech are the big dogs of the scene. Even though we left off when they were at their weakest, b4nny is no stranger to building & rebuilding teams, and they clawed their way back from third to second to first and have been winning ever since. Names have come and gone, with most of their recent success actually being a rebuild roster which welcomed KJKU0D, saxophone, and gungon to the FROYO family, putting b4nny on Soldier.

Many treat Like A G6 as hometown heroes, as they were Invite underdogs who stuck together, got better season to season, and proved not only proficienct but dominant. In their time, it seemed like G6 solved froyotech, and then the team just disappeared. Members like logan, caps, and gungon have all played seasons since, but the community still awaits the G6 return with bated breath.

dynasty is a collective of players who have competed under many names by now. wonder, Divine, and fancyson are all currently active members of this group of friends who always seem to be able to put together a solid mid-Invite or even low-playoffs team. Not only was this the start for now Invite champion saxophone, but their presence is felt throughout mid-Invite as these players continue to branch out across the division.

ROME have stuck out as a unique story over the past year. Led by Vio, this low-Invite team has been dedicated to grinding and refrained from cutting players as a means to advance. Unfortunately their success has been pretty limited and their future coming into Season 15 is unclear, but ROME has stuck out for their resilience and dedication to improvement.

A LAN to Remember

LAN is where bitter rivalries are settled, lifelong friends are made, and the best TF2 is played. We’ve been no strangers to in-person events over the past year: from community meetups such as RESUP’s event in St. Louis, to smaller tournaments like RGB 6, and even a stacked tournament where the best of the best came out to compete at RESUP Philadelphia 2023. The latter of which saw a deadly froyotech lineup head-to-head against Like A G6, with an excited venue erupting as G6 took the trophy.

A New Meta?

The game is always in a state of change as strategies and tactics come and go, what are some of the most impactful ways that TF2 has changed in the time since?

Much deliberation went towards getting the progressive ruleset tested in Invite as we saw in Season 10. Offering a new way to play 5CP, this ruleset attempts to do away with draws and garbage time by reactively adjusting the score limit when a time limit is reached. Not only did this config stick but actually progressively worked its way down to Advanced and Main before being adopted across all RGL divisions.

A weapon unlock that was grumbling around in the lower divisions before making an Invite debut in dingo’s hands, the Loch-n-Load is currently a very popular choice for Demomen. Recently being banned across the pond in ETF2L, all the new exposure from its newfound popularity has some in NA raising questions about the whitelist going forward.

All Caught Up!

So much has happened to look back on and remember in just a year’s time. Now that we’re all caught up, look forward to more news coverage in the upcoming RGL Season 15.