VanillaTF2

Torden — 1 prem spot, 5 contenders?

Update: Added news about Equilibrium reform, above Rejects. Also added Clippen comment.

The pre season mating period has officially kicked off, as vibrant as ever. Last season, Crack Clan had a pretty clear edge on getting the free promotion. This time around, it’s more difficult to predict – and not from the lack of hopefuls. Quarantine, Decerto, Exotic, Karnage and Taimou’s new crew are now on a path to a brawl to figure out who’s best of the rest. Here’s the insight.

CommanderX – Myself,  djc, and  Greg have record a pilot for what will be the first of our (hopefully) weekly podcast covering the latest TF2 goings on, matches, gossip, and general scene news. Firstly i’d like to apologise for Greg’s intro, i don’t know what he was thinking, we’re all embarrassed for him, and it about sums up how much use he is without quad.  Secondly as a bit of a disclaimer, the views expressed in this broadcast are ours alone and are not condoned by VanillaTF2/TV or anyone else.

This is a pilot, so we want as much feedback as possible. Use the comment section or PM us individually. Let us know what was good, bad, what you want more of, what you want less of. We’re thinking of maybe doing it live next time to allow more audience interaction. Shoutout to  huhy (djc’s favourite ETF2L admin) for helping me with the technology side of stuff, that i’m useless with.

Hope you enjoy

Podcast Edition #1

Torden — We’re halfway through the season, and there are still some major fluctuations going on the top end. First off, Diggy’s Punpu and Mafu seem to be heading off the Finnish power line, with a dwindling interest for the game. This move should see Hymzi back to playing demo, as he once was renowned for. Admirable once wrote the real meat in the team were Cookye, Hocz and Dajackal - Now we’ll be able to see if he’s right. In the words of cookye:

We want to be more active so we’re replacing mafu and punpu

This upcoming Dignitas cup, the team will be trialling los bandidos Longas and  Jan who were recently seen in the defunct attempt at a TCM rejuvenation. Like I’ve previously mentioned for Mister and idk? Frogs, turning single nation teams international tends to be risky, only time will tell if Dignitas can break that curse.

Meanwhile, Infused.Tt are taking their part of the TCM cake, with camel rider  Byte now expected, although unconfirmed, to join their ranks. The team will be identical to Team UK who rose to the top on last Summer’s ESL nations cup, aside from  Quad trading for Fisshu. Flushy appears to want to focus on university, he’s written an elongated statement right after the jump.

In other news, it seems idk? Black’s search for a medic has finally come to an end (so far), with the recruitment of the Swedish kukjävel,  Ceder. Yoyotech traded out Zoob, having Hat go back to soldier for main calls, and taking in  Origo as a new scout.

Torden — It’s been a hard struggle for TCM the past months. Having already lost/removed  Pena,  Flisko and  Antyy, ranks are thinning out, what could be the grand reunion last year’s near unbeatable team backfired. Haunter, Coinz and Skinnie quite openly abandoned ship last week, after internal disagreements. Additionally, super demo Kaidus reported to be having an unstable net.

The abandoning trio is still to be found on the ETF2L roster, but Byte’s description on his latest video leaves a pretty clear message:

TCM’s first week and probably last week playing in Season 10, due to insufficient players available at the top level since the bastardly departure by Coinz and thus leaving Skinnie/Haunter not wanting to continue! So I thought I’d record this and show you that despite using 3 merc’s as such (Zerox/Leon/Jan).

Bad news for season10, as we could be losing the 2nd finalist of the previous season. However, knowing the perseverance of Byte and manager Xman, we’ll be damned to be seeing the last of these thugs just yet!

Martn — This afternoon the one and only  Marco ‘MVP’  Wichmann, also known as the Angry German Kid, tweeted that he might consider making a comeback to TF2. Not very later he tweeted about having some UberSexual feeling.  Torden told me that this could possibly lead to the following team:

• MVP
• Dunc
• Haza
• Predz
• ???
• ???

Torden — It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there…now where to start. One of the biggest dogs right now is Infused, who’s secured themselves 2 new recruits, Quad and Flisko. The former was seen pulling something as hilarious special as a quadruple (fitting, yes) overbooking of trials this past Monday, until Infused pulled the longest straw. The latter, recently cut from TCM alongside Pena, as things simply weren’t working out, was ironically what pulled Quad away from TCM and into the infused roster. -Much to the despair of byte’s boys, who is trying to find a new scout to accompany the return of powerduo Haunter and Coinz as soldiers.

Those portoes aren’t the only ones back to old tricks, as members of the former Dignitas have been seen playing steady this week, with upcoming talent Larsa instead of Haza. The new name is “Relic“, and is said to have signed up for ETF2L. As top scouts are removed from the available pool left, right and center, the options for TCM and Tt are getting scarce, however all is not lost as Qun‘s newfound backup position might see him seeking a new team to play badly for on 1 map at lan. Meanwhile, MrMystery claims a return of Broder, but inside sources are adamant they’re still lacking players to take over the world (of div1) just yet.

One thing that is certain, Infused are now confirmed for ETF2L, with Boomeh also moved to backup, which should now ensure all top teams will be collected in (at least) one place this season! That’s the compact version, we haven’t been short on tips this week and 1 of them were from Daleth, who was kind enough to supply us with rosters (edited for known details).

ShoX — According to the StageLAN website there’s less than 10 days left for something (Registration at a guess – it’s not that clear) and a little over 2 months until it’s supposed to happen proper. Seems odd for a LAN that was met with huge enthusiasm and energy when it was first announced several months ago.

What’s going on? I spoke with ‘staff’ member Qun some weeks ago and Hofven just today, neither have any information to report. So is that it? Get everyone’s hopes up, launch a website and disappear? Has there really been nothing to update the community with since the one and only post in June?

Even if it does go ahead I have my doubts; will players from the top teams actually buy flights to the Ukraine? Or will all the energy and good intentions fritter away when it comes to keying in a credit card for a flight to an unproven event in a far away land? Time will tell.

* Update – Catman was kind enough to answer a few questions.

Torden — Carrying the torch for awful journalism, this post features a summary from me browsing a website, you fill in all the details! The pre season mating period is perhaps my favourite time for TF2, and it’s been long since as prosperous as now. Instead, The first spiked news comes in the form of a Sovjetan re:union, Eternity, the side that worked their way up to premiership in ETF2L’s season8, but folded before the delayed season9.

5 players have been added to their ETF2L roster, which by estimated guess looks like this:

Vad
gdk
Spicke
Waiz
Whiteglow
Blade

But, that’s only the start. Let’s indulge.

Lord Khronus — After the announcement of S10 of the ETF2L two new teams have come to compete at the highest levels of Team Fortress 2.

The first team might look familiar for those who followed the nations cup.  Mister is back to give his best in Premier.  Starring the Spanish selection with some tweaks, here’s the full lineup.

Mister:

• Taimou (Medic)
• vayne (Demoman)
• Lork (Soldier)
• Pescanova (Soldier)
• longás (Scout)
• Harryhook (Scout)

honeymustard —  The new Epsilon is all well and good, but there’s plenty of other happenings that we haven’t talked about yet. So let’s take a looksies:

Here’s another one of those interactive posts, where I put things out, and you can fill in the blanks. Let’s rumble!

Infused
As we’ve covered before, the last Infused is no more, while they’re said to make a final appearance together at the upcoming Epic lan. Meanwhile, scouting protégé Greg is at work with a new roster to compete in i43. I had the pleasure of having a chat with him earlier, and he confirmed the following preliminary lineup:

Hat (medic)
Boomeh (soldier)
Ghent (soldier, trialling)
Numlocked (demo)
Greg (scout)
“” Viqun (scout)

With Numlocked confirmed, this will surely throw some pebbles into the cogs of Epsilon (see below). Furthermore, Mike (soldier, k1ck) is also rumored to be a candidate, but this is unconfirmed.