Editor's Note
And that is that! Four months, twelve articles, over 20,000 words, too many hours of research and fact-checking. The list isn't perfect, far from it in fact, but I'm pretty happy with what I was able to put together and the levels of discussion it generated hasn't been seen on TFTV in quite some time.
First things first, the NA Invite Top 100 would not have been possible without the contributions of TheFragile, SpaceCadet, mustardoverlord, and dMenace. The former two were with me at the inception of the Top 100 and we originally planned to have individual lists that would've merged into a final product before real life circumstances took over. The latter two I consulted quite regularly throughout the process over various information and opinions. All four provided me with incredibly valuable insight especially from eras and players that I was far less familiar with. Others that helped me with various aspects include Jojo, Crasian, and fleskore.
While the Top 100 naturally focused on the players, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least take the opportunity here to mention notable community figures throughout NATF2's lifespan. People like CB and Lange, the minds behind MGE, Flame for TF2Lobby and HUD customization, and SizzlingCalamari and zoob for SizzlingStats and logstf respectively. cinq, reilly, erynn, and KevinIsPwn for various pug systems utilized through NATF2's lifespan. The eXtelevision crew and close affiliates like eXtine, duder, Salamancer, and Lucky Luke. Casters from all branches of the ancestral tree including but not limited to leogeo, cbear, djc, Sigma, MR SLIN, Marxist, gecks, and Jarrett. Writers like rK and london_calling, the former for providing coverage during NATF2's infancy and the latter for inspiring me to give writing a try. League head admins Kalkin, Killing, and tri for ESEA, Daffodil, Makkabeus, and reno for RGL. Head of TF2 operations for RGB LAN TheFragile. Sponsors like Nahanni, Kredible, and Witness. enigma for creating TeamFortressTV which has been the home of NA competitive discussion for the past decade. And anyone else that has made signficant contributions to the NA scene: the various TFTV staff, TOTH staff, Newbie Mixes staff, frag video editors, etc. There's simply too many great people to list and this would've turned into an article series of it's own. But the community appreciates all that you've done, make no mistake.
Here are the plethora of resources I used for the project.
* NA Invite Top 100 Main spreadsheet - includes a timeline and previous drafts
* NA Invite Top 100 Candidates spreadsheet
* SpaceCadet's Invite Player Index - statistics and details of all Invite players up to ESEA S26
* TF2 Liquipedia
* ESEA League Leaders spreadsheet - fun little piece I did a while back that came in handy
* ESEA Statistics - ol' unreliable
Perhaps in the future if another person or group of people decide to tackle this challenge again after more TF2 stories get written, all this can be the blueprint for their ambitions. Lastly, I must thank you the readers. Making such a series would be pointless if there wasn't anyone around to view it. The NA Invite Top 100 at its core was meant to be a celebration of our scene and community so I hope you enjoyed the journey, and if nothing else I hope it was able to teach you something new about the incredible history of our game. May the new year bring bigger and brighter things for competitive Team Fortress 2. God Bless, stay safe.