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poLANd.tf 2026 Group A Preview
posted in News
Benpl
17 hours ago

Aragosting Hazard

  • triple
  • BeaVerN
  • jekeb
  • matek
  • Dejvi
  • KO

A conglomerate of familiar faces to any seasoned European LAN-attender, Aragosting Hazard is the latest of Matek’s teams to do battle in Łódź. Compared to the “Bloking” version from poLANd.tf 2025, alba and aidelos are replaced on soldier and demoman respectively by the recently crowned D1 champion duo of jekeb and Dejvi, the latter of whom is bringing some Italian flair to the new team name as he reunites with his ex-Aragosta teammate triple.

Bloking Hazard’s 2025 outing in Poland met a swift end as they finished 6th in their group and lost in their first round lower bracket game, and in 2024 they failed to win a single map. However there is good reason for the new and arguably improved Aragosting Hazard to be hopeful of a longer stint in the bracket this time around: a favourable looking group draw, good recent online form from their individuals, and most importantly a roster of six players who embody the LAN TF2 experience. Could 2026 be the year where it all clicks together for Matek and the crew?

The Compound

  • pijacka
  • Tob
  • Storm
  • Evie
  • happy
  • Aoshi

The Compound earned their spot at LAN via the qualifiers, where they finished as the third seed. A clean 2-0 win versus lastminute.com was enough to guarantee qualification in advance of their round 3 match against eepy nappers, and they will be glad they had this berth as they went on to lose this match, much to the disappointment of the consequently eliminated lastminute.com. The Compound didn't have to wait long for revenge against the nappers though, as they earned the 3rd seed from qualifying by defeating the eepy nappers in the playoffs.

Unfortunately for The Compound, they were one of many teams forced into making last-minute roster changes. happy, fresh off the back of his debut Premiership season with The Sopranos, was called in to replace cento as the team’s demoman. Then roamer tobs had to pull out days before the LAN, tragically breaking apart the iconic Tob-tobs duo. Aoshi was brought in as a replacement on medic, with Evie exchanging medic for her arguably stronger position on roaming soldier. Will these changes break the stride of The Compound, and how will the team fare in their first offline competition together?

DIRTY MAGGOTS

  • aph
  • bomo
  • Jordy
  • kn
  • zambz
  • juxta

DIRTY MAGGOTS was only formed relatively recently. Half of its roster, aph, Jordy, and kn played under the name “my project” in ETF2L’s AFS 2025, winning this slightly experimental season. After that, the team renamed itself to “DIRTY MAGGOTS” and started preparing for ETF2L Season 50 and ÜBERFEST 2025. By bringing in experienced players like zambz, voxtec, and piggles, the team gained further strength and they managed to reach the Grand Finals of both tournaments, but it was still not quite enough to beat the behemoth that is Witness Gaming, which made quick work of the DIRTY MAGGOTS on both occasions.

In the run-up to Season 51 and with their eyes set on poLANd.tf 2026, the team had to make some roster changes. piggles was replaced by juxta, and keen North American readers will have noticed the non-European presence of bomo in the roster list above. Despite high ping and timezone differences, these technical hurdles seemed to have little effect on the top NA player’s performance. After some initial difficulties against MANDEM in Week 1 of S51, the next time these two teams would meet was in the Upper Bracket Final, where DIRTY MAGGOTS caused an upset, knocking down the season favourites into the lower bracket. They faced each other again in the Grand Final, and the DIRTY MAGGOTS proved once more that they are the better team. Will this changed roster make a more worthy opponent for Witness Gaming?

TFTV: You had to replace voxtec and piggles with two new players and decided on bomo and juxta; have these replacements changed how your team plays together?

Jordy: Replacing voxi & pig was tough, we wanted a break after UBERFEST, everyone had agreed to stay together and start playing again in 2026. Then both their schedules exploded a week before the season so we basically had to start from scratch whilst the competition never stopped playing. With picking up botmode we sort of knew we were sacrificing the idea of having a stellar online performance considering the guy is playing with high ping and it was always gonna take more time integrating an NA player with NA defaults. We've done a good job in merging the playstyles. Juxta is the most underrated med in Europe he's insane, integrated easily.

TFTV: MANDEM were the favourites to win Season 51, but you managed to snatch the win away from them. Now going into LAN with a season win under your belt, will this give you good momentum versus teams like Witness Gaming and The White Lotus?

Jordy: I mean yeah this playoffs weekend was very important for us as we got to play with our full roster with our heads fully in it after a whole season of consistently needing a merc or two. I think its a huge boost as we proved to ourselves that we adapt to teams quickly. It's hard to know how good White Lotus will be as with any team from another region, they seem strong though as they were beating FROYO regularly in scrims. We'll have a look.

TFTV: bomo will be joining your team from across the pond after playing for you online all season, do you expect that he will gain a big LAN buff?

Jordy: Yeah botmode for obvious reasons but I think our whole team thrives at LAN. It's hard to get others and even myself going for some online scrims sometimes but I think most of us have proven by now that we clutch up when it's crunch time.

eepy nappers

  • Vitun Jonne
  • Potato
  • Charon
  • fnutek
  • SolarLight
  • gugle

“Intercontinental LAN” and “Demoknight” aren't usually phrases you’d expect to hear in the same sentence, but with eepy nappers sneaking through in the final qualification spot for poLANd.tf 2026 there will indeed be a Demoknight team competing at this intercontinental LAN. 2025 ended on a high, as demoknight SolarLight and the gang earned D3 silver medals online and a second place finish in the Open Bracket of Überfest 2025, narrowly missing out on joining the invite teams due to a map 3 golden cap defeat to DaneGer Dinosaurs. Whilst their 2026 online form has been poor, their focus now turns to their attempt to prove the viability of demoknight in front of the world stage.

With no stickybombs to lock chokepoints, holding back is rarely an option. Aggression is their only plausible response to many situations, and this fact can completely warp the game flow that traditional 6s teams are used to. But for eepy nappers, this is their way of life. They manage to make 6v6 feel like an entirely different gamemode, and one that they are one of the few teams in the world with true comfort in. Yes, online results haven't been great recently, but eepy nappers are a team to be feared, with gigantic upset potential against anyone who is unprepared for their antics.

Fjord Gaming

  • Nicholas
  • nehcro
  • Fireball7d7
  • Alexandros
  • Yosh
  • bearodactyl

Fjord Gaming’s attendance in Poland came as a surprise to some, but is certainly a welcome one. The team have been in RGL Invite for the past two seasons with a variety of players, with the Division 1 1st place finish (5th place overall) at RGL LAN 2025 being their greatest accomplishment to date. We spoke with team leader Alexandros to hear more about their team and ambitions for LAN.

TFTV: What was Fjord’s main motivation for travelling to Europe for LAN?

Alexandros: Frickmynick doesn’t know how to pull out and therefore will not be able to play tf2 after transforming into NIckIsDad. So this is the friendly send off.

TFTV: How do you think you will compare with the European teams at this LAN, and do you have particular goals for the LAN?

Alexandros: Not last place - we have literally not played the game before this lan.

TFTV: Is there any particular player on your team that you expect to step up this LAN, and that new European viewers should look out for?

Alexandros: Honestly, European viewers should cover their eyes during these games, lest they lose their sanity.

JOEY GUNZ

  • junnu
  • varnu
  • alov
  • tiram
  • yak
  • alba / piggles

The spirit of poLANd.tf 2025’s 4th placed finishers Venomcrest lives on, now under the new name JOEY GUNZ. Following their run all the way to the final day in Łódź last year, the roster split apart and spent the remainder of 2025 across a variety of teams. kn and varnu won AFS 2025 with DIRTY MAGGOTS, with the former remaining on the roster to this day and the latter joining Aragosta for Season 50 and Uberfest. junnu and EoN joined Mak’s Buccaneers for those same events, with a 3rd place ETF2L medal the highlight of their run. Meanwhile tiram and yak took some well-earned rest from top level competition.

Coming into 2026 the roster reassembled, but roster changes were in order. kn and EoN had both found new long-term rosters and didn’t want to return home, so there were vacancies for local-lad alov and the ever-energetic piggles to join the roster for the upcoming Poland trip. However there was one small problem. piggles was not available in the online season so he was covered by Doughy, nor is piggles available for Day 1 of LAN where he is due to be covered by alba. These shuffles are proof of how much the team values having piggles’ guiding voice in a LAN playoff environment.

Despite these changes in personnel, their playstyle remains as chaotic as ever. varnu regularly plays 5+ different classes in a single map, yak is still keen for the occasional spy play and the kritzkrieg is often used even more than the stock medigun. Even if it’s highly unlikely that JOEY GUNZ will go all the way, they always guarantee great entertainment and Europe will eagerly await the inevitable time when an NA team faces their antics for the first time.

Witness Gaming EU

  • toemas_
  • ixy
  • papi
  • Silentes
  • LUKASTANK
  • auto

To say that Witness Gaming EU have dominated the European TF2 scene for the past four years would almost be an understatement. Seven back-to-back LAN wins is an unthinkable streak, and a streak that the reigning poLANd.tf champions are looking to extend further by completing the three-peat in Łódź. There is an argument for every single player on the team being the best in Europe at their role, and with roster synergy built up over multiple years of playing together it's easy to appreciate why they are such a hard titan to topple. At PFD 2025 this was on full display, as even the top AU and NA teams proved no match for Witness.

The drop-out of Froyotech and Witness Gaming AU unfortunately denies the reigning intercontinental champions of the chance to repeat their Denver feat, but in a strange kind of way this may only increase the pressure that they are under. Witness Gaming must win. They must extend their LAN streak. They must become the latest entry in a short list of European teams to win an intercontinental LAN on home soil. But honestly, who can realistically stop them?

With contributions from JMaxchill, lacy avenue and Samus.

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