ESEA-Invite Season 16 Week 8 Standings and Playoff Scenarios

At the conclusion of Week 6, we only had one team eliminated from the playoff race. Week 7 brought crazy games, including the close upset of Exertus eSports over Classic Mixup on Sunshine. When the dust cleared, Classic Mixup had clinched their spot and three other teams were sent packing their bags. In the penultimate week of the season, we may see the final two LAN spots decided, with two teams comfortably in control of their own destiny and one needing a lot of help to get in. [Continue Reading]

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ESEA-Invite Season 16 Week 7 Standings and Playoff Scenarios

We’re almost two-thirds of the way through ESEA Season 16 with only one last Invite game remaining in Week 6 on Granary, so it’s time to look ahead at Week 7 and the current standings in Invite. At this point, we’ve finally got teams clinching their spots and booking their tickets to LAN, while others are on the brink of seeing the dream disappear. [Continue Reading]

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World Champions – The Cream of the Crop

Perhaps one of the more prestigious accomplishments that a person may be able to claim is being able to compete directly against the best of the best with the world’s eyes locked upon you. In the new world of e-sports, it somehow becomes more prestigious when you’re sitting right next to them as opposed to not even in the same city. In any case, we call those who emerge victorious champions of the world. Team Fortress 2 is a curious case among e-sports of the modern day – it doesn’t have a recognized worldwide competition of its own which can… [Continue Reading]

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Sandbagging – A Problem?

TeamFortress.TV is known to many (and to some proudly) as a ripe source of drama within the competitive community. Whether it’s the newest revelations about the ESEA scandal, players getting VAC banned, or a top player leaving a team, TF.TV will gulp it all up. This week has brought renewed attention upon a certain phenomenon – sandbagging. To recap, the ESEA Main grand finals took place on Wednesday night between Street Hoops eSports and AG Rinkuing with Rinku. AG Rinkuing with Rinku, which had been a roster moved down from Invite that had recently picked up several Invite players to… [Continue Reading]

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A New Year

Well, it’s been much too long since I last posted here about competitive, but here we are, with too much happening while I was away. Thus, let’s go over the finer points of what exactly happened. Of course, we can’t forget the biggest event of competitive (well, at least in North America and 6v6) – the ESEA Invite LAN! Four teams traveled to Dallas, Texas to compete for the serious money on the line: WELOVEANIME, lost in translation, Classic Mixup, and iT. From the beginning, the fight was expected to be mainly between iT and Classic Mixup. iT, the team… [Continue Reading]

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Fall Recap and Look Ahead

Well, as I said in my column last week, it is the end of the season for most… or is it? Apparently not, as ETF2L Highlander will wrap up their regular season next week, and ESEA has decided to give us all a wonderful winter break and decided to start playoffs the first week of January. But enough of that. It’s time to cover our latest results. First of all is the TeamFortress.TV ZOWIE Invitational conducted this past Sunday. The first tournament conducted of its kind by TeamFortress.TV, it comprised top teams of North American 6v6 in a competition for… [Continue Reading]

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The End is Here

It’s that time of year again… most leagues are finishing up recording another winter season into the record books. Currently ESEA is in its final week of the regular season, UGC is nearly finished with playoffs, ETF2L 6v6 is proceeding with its Premiership playoffs, and ETF2L HL is in the second half of the season. So near the end, I think most can agree… this season has perhaps not been as exciting as it has been. For the ESEA Invite division, the LAN situation has pretty much stabilized… and it’s much less contentious than in previous seasons, with each seed… [Continue Reading]

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The Simmering Over of Long-Held Dislike

If you’ve been keeping in touch with more exotic TF2 news recently (or e-sports news in general), you might have heard of the recent settlement of a case brought by the New Jersey attorney general against E-Sports Entertainment Association, or ESEA for short, a gaming league with major divisions in Counter-Strike: Global Offense and Team Fortress 2. Obviously, if you’re involved in competitive, you’re probably monitoring the situation and seeing what comes of it. If you aren’t, and are wondering why this is such a huge story, consider this analogy: say the owner of a very well-known price guide for… [Continue Reading]

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