On The Point: TF2 Interview Series Playlist

Inspired by interview series in other esports, and with a view to creating something so far unseen in TF2, I have recorded a series of video interviews which I plan to continue.

The interviews are between 1 hour and 2 hours long, with little visual content besides the two people engaged in conversation. I ask the interviewee a series of in-depth questions on their history within the TF2 scene, and explore any interesting areas that uncovers.

Here is the playlist so far; I will update this site with new posts whenever I release a new episode.

Backcap: TF2 Weekly Recap Show

Backcap is a weekly recap show for the competitive TF2 scene. It combines highlights from featured games throughout the week, leaderboards of relevant leagues or tournaments, and news and talking points from around the scene. It aims to present all of the necessary information in an easily-digestible manner with a slick, professional feel.

Since the second episode I have been assisting shounic in his production of the Backcap series. My current duties are: to collate news and community talking points; to write the script for the voice of the week; to occasionally voice the episodes, on a rough rota; and to provide feedback, helping guide the project to become as polished as possible.

The current playlist of these episodes is linked below, and I will post on this site whenever a new episode is released.

Nursey joins Planet Express

Originally posted at: http://www.teamfortress.tv/31779/nursey-joins-planet-express

Once again playing in both Invite and Premiership teams,  Nursey (currently playing medic for  EVL Gaming) has joined  Planet Express, filling the spot left by previous medic  Raptor.

Nursey has previous Premiership experience playing for Season 22  TLR, and her team EVL Gaming is at the top of ESEA Invite at the moment (record: 6W-0L). While this will make the team less able to attend LANs in the short term, as the considerable span of the Atlantic Ocean separates the team, it does add experience to the roster for online play.

The team played their ETF2L match tonight with this roster and were unable to secure points against LEGO, despite two close maps.

 sheepy explained why the team picked up Nursey:

Nursey is by far the best medic out of everyone. We need a medic who can take control like she does and I think we will improve a lot with her over time and we can already see a big difference in our calls and gameplay. Our goal is mainly just to improve as a team this season with our new medic.

Planet Express will be playing with the roster seen tonight:

•  Scout:  sheepy
•  Scout:  p-rez
•  Roamer:  Damneasy
•  Pocket:  zoob
•  Demoman:  iikq
•  Medic:  Nursey

qnx replaces feeling on dd+5friends

Originally posted at: http://www.teamfortress.tv/31777/qnx-replaces-feeling-on-dd-5friends

After a mutual agreement with the team,  feeling has left  dd+5friends. He will be replaced by  qnx, who last played pocket for  Danger Dogs.

According to scout  ixy, feeling and  Honey Badger had a clash of playstyles within the combo. Honey Badger has been maincalling for the team throughout their rise to Premiership, and feeling's opposing ideas on how to play the game created a difficult atmosphere between the two of them. After considering taking a week's break to reset himself, feeling and the team decided that it would be best to split permanently.

His replacement qnx has experience playing for Premiership teams in the past as pocket, most recentlyDanger Dogs (4th place Season 21). The Norwegian pocket informed us he can only play until the end of March, at which point he expects his studies will become too limiting.

ixy, scout for dd+5friends, spoke for the team regarding the switch:

Both Honey and feeling are very vocal and calls were colliding and creating confusion. The playstyle was different because feeling is a lot more methodical than Honey, while Honey goes more with the flow. His playstyle and Honey's playstyle were colliding and it was creating tension in-game. [Honey and qnx] had time to play together last season with Danger Dogs, so I'm sure they will build up a good cohesion. We've had some tough games, but we are positive especially considering the draw against Planet Express and the really close sunshine map against Full Tilt.

The roster for dd+5friends is now:

•  Scout:  ixy
•  Scout:  Sjoeberg
•  Roamer:  dd5f
•  Pocket:  qnx
•  Demoman:  chappie
•  Medic:  Honey Badger

Raptor cut from Planet Express

Originally posted at: http://www.teamfortress.tv/31746/raptor-cut-from-planet-express

 Planet Express have decided to cut their medic  Raptor, with one team member stating "he makes too many mistakes" and "doesn't really take criticism".

It has not been a great start to the season for Planet Express. After winning the ETF2L Pre-Season 23 Cup and being hailed by analysts as a team with great potential, they have so far failed to perform like a playoff-contending team. They are currently tied for 7th alongside  LEGO, who they will be playing this week, with a map record of 2 wins and 4 losses.

While the team is hesitant to put the blame on Raptor for recent results, they have made the decision cut him from the roster and are currently searching for a replacement. Names floated for the position include Turbomonkey,  Serotone, and  vani.

Team leader  sheepy gave the team's reasoning:

When we picked up Raptor we didn't have much time before the season started so we only really got to trial him once and picked him up because he was quite decent in the trial. A few of our players didn't like his medic playing from the start but we decided to play the season with him anyway since most of us thought he would be fine. After our first official I guess people started noticing more and more of his problems like dropping ubers or dropping players. Our combo classes were getting more and more frustrated every night. I feel like we did give him a lot of chances to improve and listen to our criticism but nothing seemed to help and some of us feel like we were losing some points because of it. Whenever he made a big mistake in an official people would just get more and more angry throughout the map. I can't say Raptor is the sole reason for the games we have lost because that would be untrue so I'm not expecting to become that much of a better team with a new medic. In the end I feel like I don't have a choice and think it's for the best for the team as I think it's bringing the team atmosphere down and I don't think it's good for Raptor having people rage at him every 5 minutes. I don't think he is a bad medic although a little inexperienced but he is really keen and has a great attitude so it feels bad to do this. Wish him best of luck for the future.

I followed up by asking the team whether  Byte would be considered as a trial medic, after previously stating he had more free time.

 p-rez:

Who the fuck is Byte?

 iikq:

Kids these days.

The roster for Planet Express is now:

•  Scout:  p-rez
•  Scout:  sheepy
•  Roamer:  Damneasy
•  Pocket:  zoob
•  Demoman:  iikq

ex-Reason squad move to nerdRage

Originally posted at: http://www.teamfortress.tv/31701/ex-reason-squad-move-to-nerdrage

The ETF2L Season 22 champion team led by  kaidus, formerly playing under the banner of  Reason Gaming, have decided over the past few days to bid their previous org goodbye and play for  nerdRage. The team was with Reason Gaming for over a year and represented them in three ETF2L seasons, a variety of independent tournaments including the Challengers Cup and ZOWIE 16, and at i55 and DreamHack Winter 2015. The team has decided to make the change with a view towards the future, looking ahead towards Gamers Assembly, DreamHack Summer and i58.

nerdRage sponsored a team during Season 21 and i55, and the team made it to the Grand Finals through the Upper Bracket after knocking down  froyotech in a historical game. Since the team disbanded shortly afterwards, nerdRage have been looking for a new roster to repeat that success.

nerdRage spoke on their decision to pick up the top European team:

We are happy to finally bare our colours in the TF2 competitive scene again, picking up a great line-up who together will be able to achieve a lot under our growing brand. The team have really shown their skill and passion for the game and we're looking forward to supporting them!

ex-Reason Gaming have been at the top of the scene for over a year now, rising from their initial 3rd place result in early 2015 to finish 1st in the next two consecutive seasons of ETF2L. At i55 the team started slowly, with group stage games lost to  nerdRage,  TLR, and froyotech. They finished the first day with a BO1 win over  Ascent however, and over the next two days they knocked Ascent out of the tournament and were 1 round away from knocking out LAN legends froyotech after a victory on badlands. They finished 3rd at i55, but since then have been the best team in Europe, walking over  #tf2center in the Season 22 Grand Finals despite an earlier loss to them in the Challengers Cup. The team finished first at the DreamHack Winter 2015 tournament and is currently top of the ETF2L table alongside  Full Tilt.

 kaidus,  kaptain and  Hafficool have formed the core of the team since creation in January 2015 when they were originally paired up with  skeej,  zoob and  wltrs. The team has swapped out the medic and flank wholesale twice in that time; in Season 21 the team brought in  KnOxXx,  Mike, and Forsak3n until i55, after which the team brought in  Permzilla and i55 nerdRage scout  Stark. The team also recently settled on  Drackk in the roamer role.

The roster for nerdRage is now:

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