To make matters worse, there's still one big problem that Chill 2 Good faces: the loss of moonchild and the acquisition of Deltafox on scout. Apparently, moonchild's somewhat selfish playstyle, as well as attitude problems, led to his removal from the team (although there's more to it than that, the drama has been aired out elsewhere, and this isn't the place for it). A lot of people, myself included, were excited to see the return of Lambert, the scout Chill 2 Good was originally supposed to have. Lambert, who possesses some of the scariest raw aim I've ever seen, is certainly an aggressive scout, something the team was sorely lacking. However, it seems as if his schedule is simply not compatible with Chill 2 Good's (he can only make two of the five standard scrim days), and so the team is stuck using Deltafox, their former medic before shrew. To his credit, Deltafox has picked up scout better than I thought he would on such short notice, and hasn't played completely awful. Still, playing at a high IM level on one's first season of scout is a tough ask, and it's hard to deny the negative impact it's had on the team. Losing to what many people saw as the worst team in the playoffs isn't the best way to start a championship run, after all.

When I was first contemplating where to rank Chill 2 Good, which is when they still had moonchild on their roster, I was going to predict a 4th or 5th place finish. When I thought Lambert was returning, I was going to predict top 3. Now, with Deltafox, I have to say 6th to 8th seems more likely. Still, the team has a lot of talent, and a big game by Dun could nullify any other flaws against most of the IM playoff teams. Good luck bros, you'll need it.

royalty (#7 seed)

Medic - mason
grape - pocket
jake rockwell - roamer
ranga - demo
zZa - scout
delvin - scout

written by Sakura

Interestingly enough, royalty is one of the oldest rosters in IM where the core group of players haven't changed drastically; the only other similar team is snailboat's boat. Every season in IM, they also grow and improve as a team (or at least get one more win than they did last season). Starting off we have ranga on demoman, who is probably the most versatile demo in IM right now. Ranga will search through every nook and cranny to find weird traps that leave an enemy medic screaming WHO PUTS A TRAP THERE?! The pipe launcher seems fitting as a primary weapon for ranga, since he is able to hit directs that devastate a team. He is capable from playing extremely aggressive, bombing in to throw a miracle pipe at the medic, to playing a more passive style and letting his pocket grape soak up the damage. Starting season 12, grape changed from being a quirky roamer with creative jumps and odd offclassing to a strong pocket with an aggressive playstyle similar to TLR. Grape always looks for opportunities to take ubers into a team so his teammates can clean up on his damage. In a dire situation, grape is good at turning into a roamer and getting a key pick to trade with. zZa is the passive scout for the team. Refining his strafing through a mod on CS 1.6 called Kreedz, he is able to frustrate the enemy team with his DM and movement. An adjective that pops into my head when I think about him is “slippery”, as he is able to sneak into a combo and pick off the medic even when he has already been spotted out. Delvin is the other scout, having only UGC experience before playing on Disposable Heroes and eventually this team. Delvin isn't new to FPSes though, having played around 15 games competitively including Battlefield 2 and Left 4 Dead. Having put up good numbers in his matches with Disposable Heroes and ringing for royalty often, he was the first choice for scout when cringe was benched. Jake Rockwell will be subbing in for St. Patrick as roamer for playoffs. Jake is somewhat of a wildcard here as he has not played a season of soldier in ESEA yet. However, Jake is known for having good DM on every class and has enough experience that it doesn't seem like it'll be a problem for him to adapt. Mason is a soldier turned medic since according to him, he “really wasn't comfortable with anybody else being a part of the combo”. Even when he roamed, mason was a strong caller for royalty and playing medic seems to strengthen those calls since he is now part of the combo. Initially, it seemed like there were some problems adapting to some medic mechanics, but now most of those kinks have been worked out.

Since royalty already played their match against Mad Men, they will be playing Runaway 5 on viaduct. While the experience that cringe and St. Patrick bring to the table are no longer there, as long as Delvin and Jake can keep up with the aggression needed to play viaduct then royalty will stay as strong as they currently are on viaduct. All of the other players on royalty that I've personally played with (ranga, zZa, grape, and mason) are very good at turning super aggro from a single call, which is needed for quick decision-making on viaduct. Ultimately it'll depend on which medic can survive and play the point better. Out of any map in the rotation this is probably one of the hardest for medics to adapt to since there will be moments where 4 fragging classes are bombing. Thus, if mason can control his team and survive when needed to then royalty will have a very strong game on viaduct.

Runaway 5 (6th seed)

medic - overseer
demo - duwatna
scout - xalox
scout - downpour
roamer - Skarlett
pocket - djc

written by Sakura

After a solid run in Open S11, Runaway 5 was able to get a respectable third place against teams that had many established veterans on them (to name a few: Droog, davis, Dun, and ryanr). After taking a season off, the core of downpour, overseer, Skarlett, and just recently xalox have stuck together. The main changes are djc, who was previously their mentor in S11, and duwatna, demoman extraordinaire. Duwatna is one of the top demos in IM this season, being flexible enough to play both aggressively and passively depending on the situation. He is always able to put out large amounts of consistent damage and is always a thorny presence for the enemy scouts and soldiers. Skarlett and djc originally started as roamer and pocket respectively, then switched roles, then switched back roles again. Their temporary role switch suffered some inconsistencies with their soldier bombs and pushes. This lineup seems the best as on pocket djc is able to give clear comms and direction into their uber. On roamer Skarlett is able to wreck the flank with incredible DM and skybox airshots. Overseer is able to guide her team with solid mechanics and necessary medic calls. While there was initially some problems with uber management, these kinks seemed to be worked out and have helped this team to become a lot stronger than they were initially in the season. Downpour plays a passive scout playstyle where he cleans up off the large amounts of damage that their heavies put out. When match time comes around, downpour is guaranteed at least a few huge kill sprees that turn the tide of the match around. Xalox helpfully stepped in for foster as scout towards the end of the season. While xalox doesn't seem to have foster's well-timed clockwork-esque aggression on scout, he does play a pretty solid combo scout and is very good for being a demo main.

The Runaway 5 are probably pleasantly surprised with their current seeding right now. djc stated that at the beginning of the season, their highest goal was to “make playoffs in the 8 spot”. Now they are the 3rd seed. In their season run, Runaway 5 has had some close games in their favor against the top IM teams and have adapted well even after losing foster. Despite their seemingly uncharacteristic upset from eGO, Runaway 5 seems to be a solid contender in IM playoffs after seeing recent scrims. However, this does not mean that playoffs will be a cakewalk for them. Their next match is against snailboat's boat, a team in which last time they faced on metalworks they won only by 3-2. While bman's sniping and SS's aggressive ubers are bound to throw the Runaway 5 off at some point, this is also a map where duwatna can reign stickies through the long fields of snakewater. The only thing certain at this point is that it'll be a very close game between the two teams and a possible match of the week.

djc's closing remark: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_ykAXB3JFy4

Mario Party Pros (5th seed)

Medic- WirelessFox
Demo- Mythikal
Pocket- Phrakture
Roamer- Mangachu aka LuciusTF2
Scout- watt
Scout- Jav

written by mustard

Let's start this writeup off with a slightly melancholy observation- MPP is the only playoff IM team that played in Open last season. The rest of the open moveups all finished relatively low in the standings, and many of them are crumbling or making drastic changes next season. For me, that fact is important, because where MPP really excels is in its team chemistry, which surely comes from the fact that the majority of other playoff teams are in the midst of their first season as a team, whereas MPP has a full season behind it. The team only had a single roster change from their days in open, swapping out their obvious weak link rastsy for watt, who has done much better thus far. The result of this roster stability has meant that the team can execute its various strats very well, as everyone on the team understands the way everyone else will play. This comes in particularly handy because MPP plays one of the most bizarre playstyles of any of the top IM teams. First off, much like Vector has always done, the team focuses REALLY hard on keeping their medic alive, having him retreat from mid super early and play in very safe positions. Second of all, the team turtles a huge amount, not content to push until they build up a really large advantage. Third, and perhaps most unique, is the way the team plays around its roamer, the wacky savant known as Mangachu. Mangachu loves to make the kind of plays that will boost his kills more than the average roamer and make the other team look really foolish in the process, whether it be a well-timed offclass play or simply jumping behind and baiting his team by attacking once the other team is distracted. As odd a playstyle as that is, MPP is so used to it that they really play around it. Mangachu often gets the tail ends of ubers to allow him to chase and do crazy jumps, and Phrakture, the team's pocket, sometimes plays super expendable just to let Mangachu clean up on his damage. Is this strat ideal? Perhaps not, but the team executes it well enough to allow them to be one of the better teams in IM, and they excel at slowly grinding down the other team and making them rage at what they let MPP get away with (unless that's just me!)

So, let's break down the roster player by player, other than the infamous Mangachu. On medic, you have WirelessFox, who I believe plays an enormous role in making MPP as good as they are. Wireless is a solid medic overall, with decent comms and heals, but he particularly excels in one area: staying alive. His positioning, surfs, and even needle aim are all amazing, to the point where it's rare to see him get as many deaths as the other team's med. Supporting him is Mythikal, one of the more passive demos in IM. Mythikal definitely understands how to play the more defensive style, always keeping a blanket of stickies between the enemy and himself/his medic. Following that is Phrakture, a solid but unspectacular pocket with strong DM. Phrakture's job seems to be to make openings for the rest of the team to follow up on, and not to get tons of glory himself. watt on scout brings very solid DM, aggressive play, and one of the scariest snipers in IM, an ability he loves to trot out whenever possible. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is Jav. A more passive scout than watt, Jav is one of the VERY few scouts in IM who takes a large role in coordinating the team and creating strats, a role that is extremely noticeable when the team pulls off amazing backcaps and when their flank comes in at exactly the right time to clean up. Few teams have the breadth of comms that MPP has, with a decent amount coming from several players both in the combo and on the flank.

(continued in next post)

Unlike some teams, where the pros and cons can be divided by putting half the team's players on the positive side and the other half on the negative, MPP's players tend to all have both strengths and weaknesses. Mangachu can get too caught up in trying to dick around and be clever and die constantly for it, Wireless can be too passive at mid fights, Mythikal is very often not putting out enough damage, Phrakture dies too easily, watt also overextends, and even Jav has been too passive at times. I think that, as flawed as it may be if the team ever hopes to compete in invite, MPP plays better when the passive players hold sway and the team plays a slow game.

So, where do I think the team will fall in playoffs? My guess is around 4th or 5th, but it really depends on matchups, as some teams are better at controlling MPP and keeping them from playing as silly as they do than others. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see.

ostrich poachers (4th seed)

Demo- unf
Medic- thrill
Pocket- marmadukeGRYLLS
Roamer- Rick
Scout- thorn
Scout- Sezco

written by mustard

It's pretty hard to make sweeping statements about a lot of the IM playoff teams, seeing as how even all of them are. However, there's one observation that I feel particularly confident in making about instant breakfast: they have the best DM of any playoff team. Well, maybe not if you count Mad Men, but I don't see how you could at this point! Anyways, it's hard to deny the team's super strong DM at every position. Unf has probably the best raw DM of any demo in IM, marmaduke and Rick have strong DM as soldier, Sezco is a rising player with very strong raw aim, and thorn is just utterly ridiculous, winning about 90% of the 1v1s he takes. In short, if you go 1 v 1 with any of these dudes, you're pretty likely to lose.

To make matters worse for the opposing team, 1/2 of the players on this team have invite experience. thrill, one of the better medics in IM, played on the Mighty Ducks, unf played invite several times with teams such as the Purple Cobras, Spacewhales and nNn, and Rick was the demo for HRG. And the team's best player isn't even one of those three! If any team seems to have the perfect mix of DM and experience, it's instant breakfast.

So why isn't this team a shoe-in for finals? It all comes down to the nitty gritty of practice. No team in IM has had more lax a practice schedule than instant breakfast, and ironically the invite experience and DM of the team has somewhat justified this fact, allowing them to coast through matches on mere muscle memory alone. However, sometimes more than brawn is needed against the other top IM teams, and so instant breakfast has several losses this season, including an embarrassing 5-4 collapse against MPP on granary after being up 4-1.

Despite their DM and experience, the players on instant breakfast do have their flaws. Unf has sick DM, but hardly ever comms, which allows him to become out of position without his team realizing that he's there. Grylls and Rick have great aim but try to flaunt it a lot, sometimes overextending against many players. Sezco has weak movement, and seems to die fairly easily despite being the most passive player on the team. thorn does tend to take a few too many 1v1s, but his DM is so strong that he gets away with it most of the time (I'd rate him as the best scout not on Mad Men this season). thrill is a solid medic, but not perfect, and does make more mistakes than the average invite or ex-invite med.

A lot of the team's flaws could be fixed if the team coordinated better, which they could do if they scrimmed more. Thus, the team is probably my pick to finish 2nd or 3rd in IM, because they have the most potential for improvement with an increased playoff scrim schedule. However, it remains to be seen whether that will happen.

snailboat's boat (3rd seed)

Medic- Sparrow aka "erdssorc"
Demo- crux
Pocket- SS
Roamer- dummy
scout- bman
scout- snailboat

written by mustard

I've spent the last few minutes trying to think of a perfect analogy for snailboat's boat, and what I've decided on is this: snailboat's boat is like a box of chocolates, you never know which team you're gonna get. Sometimes, they'll come out of nowhere with bona-fide invite level play; a perfect uber from SS and Sparrow here, a clutch 4k from bman there, a miracle pipe from crux every now and again, and you sit their in awe of their collective skill. Other times, they'll bleed their entire flank, lose both soldiers instantly on a mid fight, or succumb to the cheesiest of spy plays (shouts to nja!). The bottom line is simple: snailboat's boat is not exactly the most consistent team in the playoffs.

Of course, that's definitely not to say they don't have a lot going for them. The core of this team (SS and Sparrow and kinda~ Frio) goes back all the way to Season Nine of ESEA-O, to the legendary team schicken with schicken. As anyone who has ever been in mumble with them can attest, SS and Sparrow give off the vibe of an old married couple, or perhaps two particularly goofy fraternal twins. The two will follow one another to the gates of Hades, bickering all the way. In light of that history, it should come as no surprise that the two play together very well as a combo, always using ubers effectively (and not using them when there is no need to). In addition to the strength of their combo, snailboat's boat also features a lot of players with very strong DM, including crux (whose superb pipe aim really shines in 1v1 situations) and bman (one of those pesky “scouts that don't miss”, as well as most likely the best sniper in IM this season). No one can say that snailboat's boat lacks players with the ability to go huge and clutch a push or a mid fight when push comes to shove.

So, what keeps snailboat's boat from being a very top contender in IM? First and foremost has to be the lack of coordination between their combo and flank, an observation made independently by both myself and Sparrow when I talked to him about his team. Unfortunately, it has been an extremely common sight to see the team's scouts and (former) roamer get caught out and die in 1v1s or 1v2s or 1v3s or...well you get the idea. The team's scouts seem to play off of buffs much less than those on other IM playoff contenders, and can get caught out of sync with the rest of the team. In addition, a few of the team's key players can be kind of streaky, for several reasons. Despite his very solid DM, crux is one of the least vocal demos in IM, and as such gets caught out a lot due to his team not being aware of what he's doing. The team's eponymous scout snailboat, while a solid player, has the occasional stinker of a game, and sometimes seems to play riskier than a “passive scout” should. His insane DM aside, bman is the most easily caught out of all the players on the team, and no level of aim can fully justify the amount of 1v1s he takes. Also, the team has been somewhat lacking in breadth of comms, with most of the calling done exclusively by SS and Sparrow, leading to a lot of disorganization. All in all, I think it's fair to say that snailboat's boat has more flaws in their play to work on than most of the playoff teams.

Still, it would be a lie to say that snailboat's boat hasn't had matches where everything has “clicked”, so to speak. On viaduct, a map that the legacy players (SS and Sparrow) have always excelled on, the team definitely came together, and easily beat down Kawaii 5-0. And of course, the team remains the only one to legitimately beat Mad Men, the easy favorites to win playoffs (as Mad Men's other loss was a forfeit loss to Chill 2 Good).

(continued in the next post)

Another thing that might instill hope in snailboat's boat to perform well in playoffs is the acquisition of top 20 demoman Tim “dummy” Olson onto their roster as roaming soldier. After the last match of the season, the team's starting roamer Frio mysteriously vanished, leaving the spot open (my theory? He knew that if the team cut him they would succumb to the “curse of Frio” and immediately fall apart, as all teams Frio is cut from have done, and decided to save them the pain of doing so). I believe that, despite his inexperience in the role, dummy will be a big asset, more so in managing the other members of the flank than in making huge plays of his own (although that's always possible as well). Frio is kind of an odd, mercurial figure, and his plays often left his team scratching their heads and wondering what in the Sam Hill he was trying to accomplish, so dummy will most likely lend the team a level of consistency in decision-making that will be useful in the long run.

When I talked to Sparrow, he was fairly pragmatic in assessing his team's chances, predicting that they would neither make it to the finals nor exit the playoffs without a win. I'd have to agree with him, and feel that the team will end up finishing within the 4th to 6th place range. However, if the matchups go right and the team brings their A-game, it's very possible to see them 3rd or even 2nd (1st seems a little farfetched for everyone other than Mad Men right now, of course). I also think the team has probably taken practice more casually than many of the other playoff teams, although not the most casually. If the team buckles down and practices hard before the playoffs, it's possible that they can iron out many of their kinks and excel. Good luck, and may Frio's black majik not strike you down!

FIRST MATCH PREDICTION UGUUU~~~

The first team snailboat's boat will be facing is the number three seed, r5. I think this is a very interesting matchup and can definitely go either way. Neither team seems incredibly strong on snakewater, with all of their prior matches on it going to 5-3 or 5-4 with teams I consider to be a fair bit weaker than either of them. I think that duwatna isn't QUITE as scary as snakewater as he is on, say, gullywash or gravelpit, and that the real force to be reckoned with will be Skarlett on pocket, who has consistently done a huge amount of work on the map. Conversely, I feel that bman has always excelled at finding ways to go very aggressive successfully on snakewater, and expect him to be very hard to contain for downpour and xalox. I think that snailboat's boat matches up fairly well to r5 on this map, as the combo battle is so important and SS is a better match for Skarlett than most of the playoff pockets, but I still probably have to give the game to r5 because of the momentum they have going into the game. 5-3 r5 but I think it will be extremely close and could go either way.

Mad Men (2nd seed)

medic - Nosferatu
ocket - bl4nk
roamer - MemphisVon
scout - Mike
scout - snoopy
demo - rr

written by Sakura

Although they are currently at the 2nd seed right now, the stats tell a different story with Mad Men giving up only 10 rounds the entire regular season while Chill to Good gave up 26. And honestly could we expect less from a team that could compete with the invite LAN playoff teams? One of the surprises of this season is rr- on demoman. No one expected him to do poorly, but no one expected him to be one of the best demomen in IM either. His low-death, high-damage playstyle allows him to serve as the backbone of his team, supporting his aggressive teammates while keeping Nosferatu safe. Bl4nk plays a long-leash kind of pocket, always looking to find openings for aggressive ubers. His comms are invaluable as they are very clean-cut and let his team have a clear understanding of the situation at all times. Nosferatu can boast about having the least number of deaths this season, with the next closest being shade. His mechanics and decision-making make him and bl4nk one of the best combos in IM. Mike plays as the aggressive scout after coming from a very successful season with Nexzil and Xensity. The impressive thing about Mike is that he's really good at knowing what battles he can win and cannot win, finding openings for his team to push off. Snoopy complements him by playing the passive scout. There are few things more annoying to low health soldiers than a buffed Canadian crouch-jumping scout. To top off the roster is MemphisVon on roamer, who has several seasons of high-level TF2 to back up his intelligent roamer play.

At the beginning of the season it seemed like the Mad Men would simply be a group of high level TF2 friends who could play at the top of IM without scrimming. However, this seemed to change when Mad Men got their final 6. Mad Men then changed into a team that would only be satisfied by competing with the top invite teams. Initially, there were some difficulties with finding a playstyle that let them compete at this level. As bl4nk said, “the only way to crack the top invite teams would be to take a different approach to the game.” There were some difficulties trying to find this playstyle as it's easier to play a standard form of TF2 then to persevere and find a new way that can throw people off. However, some memorable scrims against teams such as Fully Torqued and Classic Mixup shows that their perseverance is paying off.

So can anyone stop the Mad Men? Probably not. Besides gravelpit, there are very little matches where the Mad Men have struggled on. The only one that seemed fairly close was their match against Mario Party Pros and that was a match where defy was subbing in for snoopy. While defy played the passive scout role admirably, very few can fit the shoes of the buffed crouch-jumping meatshotin' scout. However, if a team is able to take a map away from Mad Men and have them play gravelpit, then it could be anyone's game.

Kawaii 5-0 (1st seed)

medic - dbw
scout - ukm
scout - Decimate
roamer - waffleb
pocket - remedy
demo - ctrlfmuffin

written by Sakura

At the start of the season, DOWN TO POUND was considered one of the strongest IM teams next to Mad Men. However, after starting off the season somewhat inconsistently by using backups frequently and switching classes, a falling out occurred in which doggles and topshot left and were replaced by remedy and waffleb respectively. And thus, Kawaii 5-0 was born. Waffleb is a roamer who can win a lot of 1v1 battles for her team after refining her DM with “5 million hours into mge” (source: ukm). Although she is a bit heal-heavy for a roamer, she is able to compensate for it by putting a consistent amount of damage sometimes matching her pocket. She often tries to think of new ways to create or equalize advantages of the team and likes to try new things to throw a team off-guard such as Buff Banner pushes. Not much needs to be said about Decimate; he was one of the star players from Mighty Ducks and utterly destroys teams with his precise tracking; to emphasize this point a little, he currently holds the most pistol kills in intermediate with 44 frags. He is also a very talented sniper that can create openings for the team during stalemates (when he is not getting set on fire by a pyro on snakewater last for 5 minutes). Ukm is the passive scout for the team and when he’s on, he looks like one of the best scouts in the game. Often he will be able to get the clean-up frag streaks that give his team a huge advantage to push on. As long as he can have a good game he will be one of the star players for Kawaii 5-0. Ctrlfmuffin is the backbone for the team and is the one putting out the huge damage numbers for the team. While he isn’t the flashiest demoman, if he isn’t being pressured enough he will slowly eat away at the enemy’s team health with pipes and stickies. He can be counted on to give his team a health advantage by simply doing so much damage. Remedy is a pocket that complements the team with tons of experience. While somewhat quiet, if an enemy flanker gets behind them he is able to destroy them with ease. Dbw is an experienced medic that has refined her mechanics to be one of the best in IM. While she plays somewhat conservatively, her low death count and low ubercharge drop count (1 drop to be exact) helps her team recover from bad pushes and keeps everything held together.

So since the first playoff match for Kawaii 5-0 already happened, I'll just post my thoughts on it. Ctrlfmuffin looked extremely dominant on mids and was able to do enough damage for his scouts to get kills easily. The combo looked a bit hesitant sometimes and that just may be because they're still adapting to their new pickups. Doggles was playing for waffleb for this match and it seemed like he was able to get behind their combo in some crucial times. Overall though they looked really solid and Kawaii 5-0 should be a feared contender in playoffs.

nice research
good write-up
big ol' dick

Should ask enigma to put it up as an article next time. Good work.

Yeah we basically procrastinated on the writeups and I just wanted to get this stuff in before the IM match (well 10 minutes after the match anyways). Sorry for the undecuple post.

mustard overlord refuses to talk about me in any discussion about my team

thanks for the article sakura

its devin though

for some reason he was devlin on esea

we can start calling him delvin though, i think he would like that

Sakuras being too kind, I procrastinated, he finished his like a week ago :( )

tl;dr chill 2 good lost their mojo :(

Since you didn't say Memphis was the best player in the game I can only give your overview of our team a 3/10 at best. Sorry.

you spelled carry wrong

we're #1 seed now woo

shit we're in the lower bracket

I forced sakura to post these so last min that he didnt have time to find the original seedings, so he just used the standings after the first week

we plan on having the whole article formatted by radium/london in a chill-ass pdf file, in which we will use the original seeding

Hey London, looks like we just got put on the spot. PM me this evening so we can figure something out.

sakura so god damn sexy

and dont believe 'm' whoever that is, its devlin

great read guys, definitely kept me entertained all day at work :D