wait

what?

does this take more or less time than mge glory stories

I mean i dont wanna get in the way of your hate parade but it's only been 10 hours since this thread was made (and most of that time was at an hour that no normal person would be spending time working) and I don't think we should be expecting someone who doesn't even play tf2 to spend every waking moment on tf.tv.

It is really shitty that the client is having these issues after we were promised that the issues were fixed, but let's blame the right people here at least.

imo depends on if they stick on the classes they're currently playing. If they do, I can see a mid-playoff seed by the end of the season for sure. If they switch like bosh and rill to scout then yeah they'll probably be up closer to the top of the list by season's end.

blink also pledged to match platinum's offer so he does have some say in where his money goes as well and I can see why he'd want to exclude those four teams.

If I were offering bonuses I'd probably exclude Arizona and Goldman Sachs personally, but it's really up to each person who wants to give extra money to a winner.

Agree, although besides dancenumber and differentcolors, basically nobody on silky has more than a season of experience. The top three are definitely all really experienced teams though.

Looking forward to watching some open STVs tonight. It's currently my goal to watch every esea match this season, which shouldn't be too hard when you consider that I have literally nothing else to do at home.

get your priorities straight, lamp!

do you want to be good at tf2? why? it seems like you don't even like it if you don't want to dedicate time to getting better!!

I believe in you, lamp! If you really want to succeed, you have to put the effort in! Now go out there and practice!

dedicated as hell

nice guy

this just goes to show that old stigmas die hard

you carry too hard sorry

jesus christ

cloudmaker sux

audie is cool tho

edit: ded

6. Ascend to the next level – Like We Made Silkthread, ascend to the next level is a team made up of former open players from a ton of different teams. Crossfire is the most experienced member of this team, and he’s making the switch to pocket for this season. Accompanying him from his s15 team (Lockdown) is underrated scout NoOneFromNowhere. NoOne is a cleanup machine, leading all of ESEA in frags for a significant portion of last season. Joining him on the flank is Sen on scout and PurpleShirt on roamer. Desca is a very talented demo who should spend most of the season near the top of the damage charts. Healing the whole gang is Zillyhoo aka healbot who had some experience on No Fear last season. These guys have had a full roster for a bit longer than some of the teams below them in these power rankings, and the importance of team chemistry in open cannot be overstated. These guys know each other well and should be safely in playoffs when the time comes.
Players to watch: NoOneFromNowhere, desca, crossfire

7. Straight Edge Virgins – Another ‘new’ team with a bunch of experienced players, Straight Edge Virgins is probably best defined by their combo. Kig (medic) and Farns (pocket) have played together a lot, and Jarrett on demo is an underrated addition. Both botmode and soapy on scout are talented DMers who will follow up well on Jarrett’s damage. Yankee is back after taking a season off and will frustrate plenty of medics with his bombs. While I don’t think this team currently has the guns to take them to an open championship, I do think they’ll be a tough out for anyone foolish enough to overlook them.
Players to watch: botmode, Jarrett000, yankee

8. Ducks Per Interface – The remains of s15’s This Is A Team (the 18th seed and one of just two teams to finish with a 10-6 record and outside of playoffs) have picked up the pieces and are making another run. Urban, rastsy (scouts) and pengi (demo) are all coming back on the classes they played last season and have added some up and coming talent in Benroads, Dryillic (soldiers) and Olive (medic). Pengi is a converted scout main and is very good at putting damage out where his scouts can get to it for cleanup. On viaduct week at least it seems that Olive has been sinking a vast majority of the heals into pengi while Benroads and Dryillic both roam, which shows a lot of faith in pengi’s ability to protect himself. I think Ducks Per Interface can expect a middle seed in playoffs to go with a couple victories and a safe trip to IM.
Players to watch: pengi, rastsy, Urban

9. Tony jawk 44 kickflip – My pick for best team name and avatar in open, tony jawk is most definitely led by their outstanding scout duo, newspeak and reimu. Newspeak was one of the better scouts in open last season and after a full season of working together on the flank, look for these two to roll through many teams. Dashner will be supporting them on roamer, and he’s no stranger to winning, most notably playing on Hanky Panky in s13. The combo is a bit less-known, with Gandalf on medic, sky on pocket, and redban on demo. Redban has really impressive pipe aim, but in the past he lacked a little bit of the damage output that really good demos can do. Sky is a good pocket as well, but as with many teams with a very strong flank and less experienced combo, I worry about disconnects and poor timing on pushes for tony jawk.
Players to watch: newspeak, reimu, redban

10. Block from Top Gluttons – Most of this team is made up of the same people that started the season with a rough patch and folded. If they live this season, Block from Top Gluttons (note: team does not actually have Block from Top Gluttons on it) will be a strong team. Ricr, General Shenanigans, joey, and Matt (aka MushroomElf) have all spent a lot of time playing with each other, even if most of that time was spent in pugscrims. Club has always impressed me with his ability on any fragging class, and after most of a season off, it seems that we’re seeing the return of ryugawa to his old team. These guys aren’t known for taking TF2 especially seriously, but if they do decide to put some work in, I can see them moving up these rankings as the season goes on. As it is though, I’m not sure that this team will even finish the season together, much less find themselves in playoffs.
Players to watch: club, ryugawa, ricr\

Just outside: LARGE Gamers, Chilling in North Korea, Prestige Worldwide, No Expectations

Matches to watch for Week 1: Japanese Culture Addicts vs. We Made Silkthread, Goldman Sachs vs. We Made Silkthread, tony jawk 44 kickflip vs. ascend to the next level

I'm basically just c/p'ing from a word document I just threw together so I apologize if there are any formatting errors. Also I don't have an internet connection so I can't watch streams or anything which makes me NOT a good person to write these, but whatever, I like writing and I do watch STV's when I can get them.

1. Arizona Iced Out Boys – Every season there’s a team in open that looks like they’re gonna blow the rest of the division out of the water, and every season they come back to earth a little bit as people realize that there’s not THAT much difference between dedicated open players and former invite players having some fun on offclasses. That said, Arizona Iced Out Boys does have a pretty crazy roster that could definitely win Open if they cared to. From very limited scrims, it looks like people can prepare to see Dimento on med, Panic on pocket, and tri and snacks on scout. Milo has been playing demo for them but apparently confirmed on stream that he’ll be roaming. If Xalox doesn’t make his return to invite, could we see him playing demoman in open? Could it be boulder? No matter who they put in on demo, this team should be near the top of the division all season long and it wouldn’t surprise me if they turned out to be the S16 Open champs.
Players to watch: Panic, milo, tri

2. SYOPS TF2 – I have to admit, I’ve been following SYOPS very closely through this offseason, and because of that, I may have a slightly inflated opinion of them. It’s hard to ignore the talent on this team, though. Cheeriss has put together a team with a very aggressive mindset that suits their immense fragging ability well. The combo classes are especially strong on the DM front, with Air playing the high-heal pocket to (open) perfection and Skyrolla making another foray into open after helping Street Hoops make their way through Main last season. The flank also has some talent with Wilson on roamer and Maik and Geknaiir on scout. All three have been around for a while, and while Geknaiir deservedly gets a lot of shit for wasting his lives, he is very good at clicking on people. I believe that if any team is gonna go out and win all that prize money promised by Platinum, Squid, Twitch John and Blink, this will be the team.
Players to watch: Skyrolla, Air, Geknaiir

3. Goldman Sachs – There were some people upset that this team didn’t use the Main roster that they had access to (and paid up on) for this season, but as devon posted, they were likely not going to be competitive against other Main teams, and it’s hard to blame them for not wanting to be forced to use backups to fulfill the roster rule just to get rolled in most of their matches. Instead they’ll be competing for one of the top spots in open this season. Devon and X are the players to watch on this team. X is very good at getting damage out and Devon will lose very few 1v1’s against the other scouts in the division this season. The Slin/goldfish combo will be a strong anchor for the team to fall back to and receive calls from. Assisting Devon on the flank will be the experienced roamer zigzter and CS old-timer TeCH_N9ne on scout. Goldman Sachs is definitely a safe bet to make playoffs in open this season, the real question is can they win the whole thing?
Players to watch: Devon, X, goldfish

4. We Made Silkthread – I honestly don’t really know what to make of this team. They switch up classes a ton from scrim to scrim, but generally have decent results no matter the lineup. As far as I can tell, dancenumber is playing demo and Mafio is playing pocket. The rest seems pretty fluid at the moment, and it doesn’t help that they seem to use a rotation of 7-8 players. If someone from this team wants to chime in and help me out a little with the lineup issues, that’d be awesome. No matter the final lineup, We Made Silkthread should be competitive with any of the top teams in open. Most of these players have former open playoff experience which should serve the team well in the season to come.
Players to watch: Dancenumber, Mafio, Lumines

5. Japanese Culture Addicts – The brainchild of longtime TF2 player error (you probably know him as WhitePowerJesus), Japanese Culture Addicts projects as one of the surprise teams in open this season. The combo of this team has a lot of experience, with error on demo, money_b on medic and highlander pyro extraordinaire pudding cup on pocket. All three are smart players with a good understanding of the game, and while the calls generally flow through error, I’m sure that money_b has the ability to step in and call if needed as well. While the combo has a ton of experience, it’s the flank that’s most interesting about this team. While people who follow open very closely may know audie or cloudmaker, Nick is a complete unknown, and none of the three are household names. I’m here to tell you that all three will be forces to be reckoned with by the end of the season. Outside of Goldman Sachs, I expect this to be one of the most disciplined teams in open this season, and their careful style will make good on the mistakes that so many open teams make.
Players to watch: error, Nick, pudding cup

180 should convince v3kz to come back

#imisshim