Admirable & django join dd+5abs

Originally posted at: http://www.teamfortress.tv/33277/admirable-django-join-dd-5abs

Following their meteoric rise at the end of Season 23, which saw them qualify for playoffs in 3rd but lose out to  Publiclir to finish 4th,  dd+5abs have made significant changes to their roster. After cutting their previous medic  Honey Badger and losing their pocket  qnx and their scout  ixy, dd+5abs have now found replacements to complete their roster. Veteran player  Admirable and rising talent  django have joined the team on medic and scout respectively, adding experience and fragging power to their line-up.

dd+5abs languished at the bottom of the table for the majority of Season 23 Premiership, until victories over  Infused,  LEGO, and  Foreskings propelled them to a playoff spot. The addition of  feeling,Admirable, and django to the roster is a large shuffle for the team, who have struggled in the off-season so far with disappointing results in both of the DreamHack Summer Qualifiers, only winning a single map.

Admirable with his game face on (picture by Getawhale)

Admirable is a player perhaps known best for his casting and behind-the-scenes work, but has a wealth of experience gathered from years of playing in Premiership. He was last seen playing medic for  coolclan in Season 19 Premiership, surrounded by upcoming players struggling to play at a low Premiership level. WhilstAdmirable is not known for his exceptional gameplay as medic, his experience and motivational qualities within a team environment can provide much when his ubers cannot.

 Admirable spoke to us about why he has come out from the shadows to join this team:

Honestly I still love this game even eight and half years later. Every offseason I look at the ETF2L recruitment section and theorise what sort of fantasy team I could put together, I even trialled (unsuccessfully) for Planet Express last season. Perhaps this season in particular appealed to me because I see so many up and coming players, but an obvious lack of grizzled veterans.

Watching dd+5 abs make it to the playoffs was an incredible story last season, but beyond that the team already composed of exciting players that I have followed for some time. It feels like every season for the last two years Tomas has talked to me about playing together, but it never happened until now. I've got time to invest in competing at present, so I was more than happy to try out when asked.

I think I can bring a lot of experience and offer some insights to the team. It has been a year and half since I competed seriously in 6v6, so I've got a lot of work to do shaking off the rust, but my natural strengths lie in being a good communicator and a good teammate. That seems to have been enough to get my foot in the door, now I just have to actually get good at medic!

When I do actually compete I give it my all and I think this roster is equally keen. Qualifying for DreamHack Summer and making ETF2L Playoffs would be the two obvious goals to strive for in the immediate future, but my personal motivation is to see how good I can get individually and see what I can bring out of the team. Hopefully a name change for starters… smh.

His newest partner in crime, django, is a player with no prior history in Premiership or indeed in many teams. Whilst his abilities on scout have been noticed by top players such as fellow Icelandic citizen  Hafficool, he has never had a stable team in which to prove his worth. His potential on scout is yet to be fully tapped, but appears to possess a reasonable level of raw fragging ability. This will be his time to prove himself.

 shappie gave us the team's thoughts on these roster moves:

Well, we have gone with Admirable because from the trialists we had, we enjoyed playing with him the most. Before we started trialling Admirable, we had in mind trialling CondoM, but LEGO reformed and he came back to LEGO. We also have trialled pablo, raptor and cube. We kinda enjoyed playing with pablo, but after his first trial, he decided that he is not keen enough to play seriuos tf2 again. Raptor, was good, and he is great young talented player, but some of us, thought that old man Admirable is better than young talent. We picked him because he was giving us the advices and telling the conclusion, what went wrong, and on which places we should improve to reach better results. The gamesense and calls that he brings in team are awesome, and the best part, that he is great buddies with feeling!

After the season ended, we had no plans in looking for a new scout, because we were happy with our current lineup and didn't wanted to change anything. But after several weeks off season, ixy decided to leave us because he wanted to focus on his school, and we all understood the reason, and wished him best of luck! Then we got stressed that we are going to be able to find same good scout as ixy. But then, feeling offered us to try django, same, young talented scout, just from Iceland. After several trials, we were impressed with his keenness and the results that he brought us, so we decided to keep him, and finally finalize our roster, so we have all 6 players and we finally can begin practising properly and reaching our new targets.

We are not hoping to win any play-offs or anything, but in our plans we have, to be between top 5 best european teams in prem. Also, we think, that this roster is strong enough to repeat the same madness like last season and guaranntte our selfs a play offs spot. But this season, we will have two new strong prem teams, which are Bagser Five and Top5 rocket,who are also talented people and we are looking forward giving them a great games!

The roster for  dd+5abs is now complete, with:

•  Scout:  django
•  Scout:  Sjoeberg
•  Roamer:  dd5f
•  Pocket:  feeling
•  Demoman:  shappie
•  Medic:  Admirable

Publiclir.se cut fl1p, lose Medico

Originally posted at http://www.teamfortress.tv/33253/publiclir-se-cut-fl1p-lose-medico

In a move to revitalise their roster after shaky performances in Season 24 and the first DreamHack Summer Qualifier,  Publiclir.se have cut  fl1p from the starting roster and are also looking to replace  Medicowho left to join newly reformed  top5 rocket.

Publiclir finished ETF2L Season 23 in third place, after narrowly making playoffs in fourth place by a single point. However, after their peak in the playoffs, they had a sloppy start to the off-season and failed to overcome a high-ping mix of  froyotech players in the first DHS Qualifier, getting knocked out in the first round. Frustration from that result and a desire to improve led to them benching fl1p, whose motivation appeared to be at an all-time low.

Publiclir were last seen playing in the DreamHack Summer Qualifiers with free agents  p-rez on scout and  alle on roaming soldier. The team appeared to have altered their style slightly as well, with pocket  AMSrunning shotgun and playing a more stable role. It is not clear yet who will be replacing fl1p and Medicopermanently for Publiclir.

ex-Publiclir players Nation and Herr_P could be suitable replacements... (picture by Ness "uberchain" Delacroix)

Soldier Medico had indicated since the end of the season that he was planning to rejoin his French compatriots in top5 rocket, and a good performance for the squad at Gamers Assembly sealed the deal. The French side will be aiming to play in Season 24 Premiership with Medico on pocket, and are reportedly considering fl1p as well.

 Smirre gave his team’s comment on the roster moves:

Medico left because he wanted to play with top5 rocket, and fl1p was moved because he was always late and did not seem motivated during games. Moving forward, we are aiming to be top 3 and our main goals are LANs.

 Publiclir.se’s roster is now:

•  Scout:  atomic
•  Pocket:  AMS
•  Demoman:  Smirre
•  Medic:  ondkaja

zen replaces dmoule for LEGO

Originally posted at: http://www.teamfortress.tv/33130/zen-replaces-dmoule-for-lego

 LEGO's roaming soldier  dmoule has decided to part ways with the team, after a disappointing 5th place result in Season 23 and subsequent loss of motivation. Former scout  zen will be rejoining the team as roamer during Season 24 and DreamHack Summer, should LEGO qualify.

After dmoule's explosive first outing with LEGO in Season 22 he was already considering taking a break, but couldn't resist the allure of competing for playoffs in Season 23. As the team fell one place short yet again, in what appeared to be easier competition, dmoule has now left the team and has no plans to play in a starting roster for Season 24 Premiership.

 dmoule spoke about why he has left the team:

It's a bit of everything. I'm done playing roamer, we didn't make playoffs and it was a gifted slot. And I hate TF2 because of the current meta - slow gaming. As for my team this season, we were always inconsistent but losing to dd5f was a bit too much. I just told my team that I'm done playing prem - we already tried to switch classes before and it didn't work. Last season I said that I won't play, but the call for TF2 was too strong, you know. But this season the meta is too slow. I'm just gonna backup for whoever wants me in Prem, or just stay in LEGO as backup.

His replacement zen previously played four seasons of scout for LEGO from Season 16-19, experiencing three victories in Division 1/High and one season dead last place in Premiership. It marks a return back to the Danish roots for the team, although the once national Danish team still only has two Danes in the current roster. zenhas no Premiership experience on roaming soldier.

The roster for  LEGO is now:

•  Scout:  iZon
•  Scout:  sorex
•  Roamer:  zen
•  Pocket:  Josh
•  Demoman:  Dr. Phil
•  Medic:  Condom

ixy leaves dd+5abs

Originally posted at: http://www.teamfortress.tv/33132/ixy-leaves-dd-5abs

 ixy has decided to leave Premiership playoff team  dd+5abs for personal reasons. After recently cutting Honey Badger, this leaves the team searching for a new medic and scout.

dd+5abs were most recently seen in the DreamHack Summer Qualifiers, knocked out both times in the Quarter Finals first by  PC Master Race and then by  Publiclir.se. For a team looking to build on their Season 23 Premiership results, these losses are disappointing, and losing their aggressive scout ixy puts the team in further shaky territory.

Allegedly, demoman  chappie was considering the switch to scout, which would mark a return to his original class, but he has decided to remain on demoman and the team will continue to search for replacements for ixyand Honey.

The roster for  dd+5abs is now:

•  Scout:  Sjoeberg
•  Roamer:  dd5f
•  Pocket:  feeling
•  Demoman:  chappie

kaidus retires from nerdRage due to wrist injury

Originally posted at: http://www.teamfortress.tv/33122/kaidus-retires-from-nerdrage-due-to-wrist-injury

 kaidus has stepped down from his role as demoman, caller, and leader of  nerdRage due to his long-standing wrist and forearm injury. The team is now looking for a replacement for ETF2L Season 24, DreamHack Summer, and Insomnia58.

kaidus has been the driving force behind nerdRage since its creation in late 2014, leading the team for over a year. In that time he has chopped and changed players, turned Premiership debuts into star talents, and led the team to become the best in Europe. Throughout all of that era, and for many years before, he has had to balance playing and practising with managing a painful wrist injury which is exacerbated by gaming. kaidushas now made the decision to stop playing TF2 in order to alleviate his wrist from the strain and turn his full attention to treating the injury properly.

kaidus steps down from nerdRage, but plans to continue casting/analysis (picture by Ness "uberchain" Delacroix)

The injury, according to kaidus, is not any worse than it has been for years, but he now has other priorities which have forced his hand and made it necessary for him to quit nerdRage. He currently has no plans to return but remains hopeful he can make a significant recovery and potentially play at a later date. kaidus has indicated he will remain involved in the team in some capacity, though unsure as yet whether that will involve coaching his replacement, the team, or subbing from time to time.

nerdRage have already begun seeking a replacement, and earlier this week approached  spudd of Perilous Gaming with an offer. He is reportedly considering the proposal, potentially leading to knock-on effects for the Premiership scene if Perilous have to make a replacement as well. No other names have been specifically mentioned for the spot.

 kaidus explains why he has stepped back at this time:

I made the decision to stop playing on a team because I don't have the motivation to play with an arm injury any more. I would still play if it was easy, but for now I'm going to focus on other things and improving my physical condition. I will still cast and do analysis, but I have no plans to return to having a commitment to the game until my condition improves significantly.

Earlier this month, CS:GO stars olofmeister and Guardian announced they were unable to play at DreamHack Masters Malmö due to severe wrist injuries, with Guardian cleared at the last minute. A plethora of top-level players in almost every esports scene have suffered similar problems with their wrists in one form or another. This is an issue that demands to be taken seriously.

The  nerdRage roster is now:

•  Scout:  Stark
•  Scout:  Hafficool
•  Roamer:  Drackk
•  Pocket:  kaptain
•  Medic:  Permzilla