Eh, I see the point that it feels wrong to criticize something that someone has gone out of their way to do for free just for our entertainment but... I also have some issues with some of the content presented. However it's just as wrong to say "your overview is bad" and not even provide examples. So I'll just preface the rest of this post by saying I appreciate what you do Whymeo, but here are just my opinions based on your opinions.

#1 No Johns vs. #16 Bobby and the Bobbettes
Nothing to add here. No John's is definitely the team to beat going into playoffs.

#2 Every Villain Is Lemons vs. #15 Bob-omb Squad
We seem to have different impressions of EVIL's makeup. No offense to their DM ability, but I think it's mainly their coordination that's brought them to a 16-0 open record. In my opinion, along with Cookiejake, Fabulous is in the top 2 medics in open and I don't even think it's close after that. As for Bob-omb, while I think Jaaay over Ebsikl is an improvement, I don't think it's enough to win this matchup.

#3 The Westbrook Effect vs. #14 Wut Dude
Westbrook Effect seems to have been forced into recent roster changes and they haven't been scrimming for ages. For most of the season, they've looked like a clear top 2 team but I think going into the playoffs, they seem to be vulnerable. I still don't think Wut Dude is going to upset them, but I'm really interested in seeing if Westbrook Effect can remain dominant throughout the playoffs.

#4 Not Around Bears vs. #13 Can’t Predict Stupid
I think here is where the lower seeds start to have a legit shot at causing an upset. Can't Predict Stupid has taken rounds off of every team they lost to this season aside from Kawaii Sexu on Product, so there's always a chance they can pull together 5 of them. But it was after that Product match that they picked up Monsta who has been, well, a monster for them. However, Not Around Bears are one of the most well-rounded teams in open. All six of their players are very, very good so I don't think they're going to lose this.

#5 Egg Salad Dressing vs. #12 System 2
I'll just disagree that our team was "shaky" this season as I feel it discredits the performance of the teams we played. This feels like as good a time as any to say GGs to NAB, No John's, Milters, Bote, Can't Predict Stupid, Bob-omb, Kawaii Sexu and finally, System 2 for the hard fought games this season. I haven't been on top of my congratulations post-matches so hopefully you'll forgive me for that. You're all really good teams. Good luck to System 2 heading into this match. Also Jynx should be a player to watch; he's been our best player this season.

#6 malicious activity vs. #11 kawaii sexu desu desu
I respected Whymeo's decision to limit content of Malicious Activity all season but... c'mon, it's not really like they're some super team. With the loss of Circa, they're entirely beatable. That's not to say they don't have a chance to roll all the way to grand finals, but I honestly think a team like Kawaii Sexu, who have been playing really, really well 2nd half of the season, can win against this team. This is my match of the first round.

#7 Milters vs. #10 Hurricane Watch
I don't really have much to add here. I think Milters can win without Fubuki going off and will probably win regardless but we'll see.

#8 Minty Fresh vs. #9 Bote 6v6
I don't know if this will be a roll like Whymeo does since Bote has had its share of issues, but those seem to have been addressed. Bote has lost out on rounds from Rightjustify's internet problems but that's apparently fixed and they've pull Penguin out of IM to be their pocket now. Bote should be better than their 9th seed suggests so I'll side with them too in this matchup.

Just my extra two cents. Sorry I don't have much more analysis on the teams from the eastern conference.

He's the pocket for one of two teams that are (going to likely be) 16-0 in open... logically, the next step is to play in IM, right? He's a solid player, difficult to play against.

I swear to god, this guy was responsible for half my revenges this seasons. Apt is very good at baiting aggression, picking targets off, and playing an overall well-rounded brand of scout. A rapidly improving player and solid pickup for any roster.

I think Cayda was spot on with her assessment of herself. From what I've played with her, she's been very receptive to what the team needs at any given moment and is an all-around solid team player with good comms. I think once she gains that confidence in her own dm, you'll be getting the complete package in scout, so definitely look into getting that early!

There are just over 20 teams in a conference and you're getting 16 matches in a season. It was pretty likely you'd get to play them at some point. Especially considering your team has yet to play a high open team.....

With that said, I'd like to echo the sentiments that I'm really not a fan of the conference-based matchups.

I'm probably on it tbh

But yeah, that seems like a real good idea if we're looking to start more shitstorms of drama, but I think everyone seems to love that in their open threads anyway.

Edit: Scouts I've played against and have a lot of respect for: Troopo, Saturn, Emperor, Yuki/Fubuki

Yeah, why play TF2 for fun, or competition, or improving when you can play for the chance at a minimal amount of money in eight weeks at the low cost of ruining the enjoyment for everyone else in open!

It's apparently a "win-win situation" after all.

You guys are awesome! Personally it's really exciting to see people interested in these teams and I'm really humbled by the attention we received last night. I'm sure both teams had pushes from last night we'd like to redo better and it got kinda stalematey but I hope it was still worth the hype. Glad the soldiers on both teams got the accolades I believe they deserve. :]

Hope you guys continue to cast more matches as I'd be really excited to watch. Once again, thanks for your time and entertaining casts, I genuinely appreciate it!

Not Around Bears and us (Egg Salad) tie or close to it in like... 90% of our scrims so I will say that I disagree with us being separated across tiers. I think now that they have their roster stabilized again, they're gonna end up being a tier I team.
But they're also like my other favorite open team so playing them to start our season is crazy and and should be fun. Really cool that you're considering casting us too, Tery, I appreciate the thought!

I literally just found out we're in currently placed in IM from reading this post.

Now that the regular season has ended, I kinda wanted to make an account and use this space to reflect on the season I, and Egg Salad Dressing, have had thus far. https://play.esea.net/teams/119535

So coming into it, our team's known each other for about a year. We just met in valve pubs and decided to test the waters of comp play with a season of highlander and finally, last fall we made the transition to UGC steel 6's where we went 7-1 (and no playoffs). Quickly recognizing that this league was ass, our competitive spirits set our eyes to something higher; ESEA-Open. By the end of the UGC season, we for whatever reason were offered to have our fees paid by Brooky12, which we are all eternally grateful for! Thanks to him, we were able to for sure play in ESEA. Moving on, we've got like, okay dm, idk, but the real question was how effectively we'd be able to learn our roles and adapt to the 6's meta. And during the winter, we started truly scrimming open teams and the general feel was like "cool, we think we can hang in mid-open." And I got the confidence I needed to go up against other good scouts in this league without embarrassing myself. Going 8-8 or whatever probably would have been a big success to us in all honestly, competing in our first season of open, but I know personally, I'm always aiming higher.

So the start of the season rolls along and our first game is against the Baddies. We'd scrim them a few times in the offseason, with them generally getting the better of us but we felt that with our full roster playing to their ability, we had a chance. Our medic's first death in open was a drop and then we subsequently dropped the first two rounds of our season before halftime rolled along. A little bit of doubt crept into the back of my mind. But then we just decided to try and shake off the jitters and play more aggressively and somehow, some way, we managed to pull back 3 rounds and fend off an intense last push from them for a narrow 3-2 victory. Little did I know at the time just how good a team the Baddies were as they now finish the season among the middle of the playoff-bound teams. Good game Baddies, you guys are a great group.

Honestly, the win was a huge boost to our confidence and we were excited to be playing in ESEA, couldn't wait for our next game. It was against Bong and the Rippersons and no offense to them, but we thought we were going to win and still think we could have won. However, they put up a great fight and they were the better team that night as we fell behind and were unable to pull it all the way back this time around. They ended up having a good season too, finishing 10-6, so kudos to them as well.

After this game, we realized we needed to refocus and approach our games better. We looked at the random schedule we were dealt at the start of the season and figured that aside from Diexxxtrecrispy (who as expected rolled us) that our schedule was pretty easy and so we ended up at a 7-2 record halfway through badlands week. Because of the wins we were accumulating early in the season however, our schedule was about to get a lot tougher and to complicate matters further, our other scout decided he hates playing scout so we went through some tryouts in the middle of our season.

We went into our badlands game against Thai Guys pretty much expecting a loss but it was still disheartening to lose as we did. But we moved on and I urged our pocket and team leader, Brimstone, to seek a mentor. Thankfully he did make the effort and we now have Shiki to help us not be dumb. Thanks Shiki! After granary week, we then picked up Sandblast who now still plays with us on the flank. I felt that his very aggressive style would compliment well with my more passive style and together we could do a lot of work off our solders' damage. With these changes, we ended up winning our last five games of the season by scores of 5-3, 4-3, 5-4, 4-3, 5-3 with three golden caps in there.

Egg Salad Dressing now finishes the season 13-3, in 9th place. I still feel our schedule has been relatively easier compared to what some teams had to deal with so there are surely better teams more deserving than us but still, I'm really proud of what my team has been able to do this season. We've had our share of yelling and being frustrated and all that jazz, but I'm still happy we played this season and learned a lot and improved. Personally, I'm very happy with how I've played in every game this season and am excited to continue improving and helping my team win. Sorry for rambling on perhaps a bit longer than I would have liked, it just felt good to finally step back and look back on the season. Thanks to all the other players I've played with in scrims and matches this season, thanks to my teammates for putting up with my passive aggressiveness in comms, and thanks to whoever actually reads all this!