VanillaTF2

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!

Torden — Perhaps the biggest change of late comes in the shape of a an FB/Tt fold, but I’ll take matters into my own hands for a more proper obituary later on. In the meantime, there are some immediate effects, who will take their prem spot and where will the remaining players go? -And so starts the latest news post of the type only I can be arsed with writing.

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).

Leftism — The ESL Premiership playoffs continue tonight as  K1ck eSports take on  TCM Gaming in the second round. The winner of this match will go onto play  Team Thermaltake in the third round.

K1ck eSports Pescanova, Harryhook, Mike, Retsh0ck, Estanis, Royze

20

TCM-Gaming Pena, Flisko, Byte, Coinz, Skinnie, Torden

ESL Premiership Playoffs - Round 2

(29 comments)

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TIME

• Tuesday July 19th
• 21:15 cest
• 15:15 edt (na)
• 05:15 est (aus)

CASTED BY

• VanillaTV Livestream
• VanillaTV Mumble
• TF2World.Ru TV

SOURCETV

• tv-tf2.redline-hosting.net:29004

Who will win this match?

• TCM-Gaming (84%, 75 Votes)
  
• K1ck eSports (18%, 16 Votes)
  
• Tie (0%, 4 Votes)
  

Total Voters: 89

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MAPSSCORE

DEMO

VIDEO

cp_badlands5-3Retsh0ck

cp_granary2-0Retsh0ck

cp_gullywash

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K1ck, having finished fifth in the Premiership table, had to beat redCode a few weeks ago to get this far whilst TCM’s third position guaranteed them a bye through to the second round. Early team news indicates the TCM camp will be down a man tonight as antty is still on holiday – VanillaTF2′s own Torden will be his replacement. No news regarding any changes in k1ck’s lineup but if anything unfolds we’ll be sure to post it as soon as we can.

The maps to be played are the usual suspects: Badlands and Granary followed by a Gullywash as the decider map. Tune into VanillaTV who will be covering the action as it unfolds with casters flushy and Greg.

Tonight is where it gets real.  With 4 teams left in the competition, one of which has already booked their place in the Grand Final ( Power Gaming) with a thrilling match vs Team Dignitas 2 days ago, the remaining 3 teams need to hold their nerve to be able to beat off the competition to grab the last spot.

Update: TCM win, and go through to the Lower Bracket final vs Team Dignitas!

TCM-Gaming flisko, antyy, skinnie, pena, Coinz, byte

21

Team Dignitas rebelli, darn, bybben, ryb, agron, haza

Esports Heaven TT eSports TF2 Cup Lower Bracket Final

(22 comments)

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TIME

• Thursday May 12th
• 21:15 cest
• 15:15 edt (na)
• 05:15 est (aus)

CASTED BY

• Level Up TV

SOURCETV

• tf2.team-thermaltake.com:27100

Who will win this match?

• Team Dignitas (69%, 9 Votes)
  
• TCM-Gaming (38%, 5 Votes)
  
• Tie (0%, 0 Votes)
  

Total Voters: 13

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MAPSSCORE

DEMO

VIDEO

cp_badlands5-0

cp_granary2-3

cp_gravelpit2-0

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Tonight sees TCM face off against TT at 20:00 CEST, with the winner of this game moving on to play Team Dignitas at 21:15 CEST for the elusive Grand Final spot, and a chance at winning the 500$ prize!  Read on for more information.

TCM-Gaming flisko, antyy, skinnie, pena, Coinz, byte

10

Team Thermaltake Exfane, Leon, Mirelin, kaidus, Dorkan, Bash

Esports Heaven Tt eSports TF2 Challenge Lower Bracket Round 9

(22 comments)

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TIME

• Thursday May 12th
• 20:00 cest
• 14:00 edt (na)
• 04:00 est (aus)

CASTED BY

• Levelup

SOURCETV

• tf2.team-thermaltake.com:27100

Who will win this match?

• TCM-Gaming (58%, 79 Votes)
  
• Team Thermaltake (38%, 52 Votes)
  
• Tie (4%, 5 Votes)
  

Total Voters: 136

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MAPSSCORE

DEMO

VIDEO

cp_badlands6-3

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ESL’s third week will be wrapped up as of tonight, so why on earth am I writing these predictions today? Welcome to top level TF2, where we only play one game per week. And don’t start throwing i42 at me as an excuse, only one of the teams listed here actually attended. Top players are always complaining that there isn’t enough coverage for TF2, but you’re really not making it easy for us. Get your games scheduled and play them on time.

Read more for the predictions – honeymustard

iSeries has ended. None of the competitive teams decided to make an effort and show up, except for Tt, who lost in the finals to some div7 also-thermaltake shitnerds.

It wasn’t the prize money being too low (higher than i39/i40), or the date that was bad (same as i39), teams simply decided not to bother.
TCM, Dignitas, Redcode and Power Gaming, they all decided not to show up. This is how a game dies. The veterans no longer care.

100% of prem teams @ i42

We all booed DrGonzo, for his article on how small TF2 was at i41, claiming how it was intentional, that i42 would show TF2 going strong again. But we’ve failed, i42 was nothing special, not anywhere close to the spectacle that was i39/i40.

So what’s on the horizon for TF2? The best thing that might happen is a proper TF2 tournament at Dreamhack, partly sponsored by Valve maybe? Is this going to happen? Only dunc knows.

Stealing Dignitas' seats

On a positive note, the casting/coverage was at least as good or even better than it has been for earlier iSeries. Cadred had some excellent articles and TF2TV covered all the matches that mattered.

But good coverage is not going to keep the game alive. It’s good tournaments with decent prize money and high level teams attending, showing off great games of TF2 for big crowds. We’ve done this before, what’s keeping us from doing this again?

Arie