North America - fragDominant is the latest American eSports organization to dip their fingers into the TF2 competitve scene with the pickup of the TF2 team High Self-Esteem. With a history that includes good run in the TGL Roughneck Challenge and a finals appearence at the Nvidia GeForce LAN in November, the newly minted fragD|TF2 squad currently sits 3rd on the CEVO-P ladder with a 4-2 record.

The move also includes the addition of two top-level players - the former dr.george and aG.RentAKnight - to the team, both of whom were freed from their previous teams due to the Doctors dedicating themselves to CoD4 and the boatride-breakdown of Adreneline Gamer.

fragD's pyrogenix caught up with george as the move was announced:
"Once I heard how motivated fragD was in seeing TF2 do well as a competitive platform, I was sold. As I learn more about this organization I'm becoming a lot more impressed so I'm excited to be apart of it. As for TF2, I would like the 8v8 community to at least get more involved in 6v6. I think there's room for both formats, as long as the 8v8 teams also play 6v6 which some already do. Another thing I'd like to see happen by the next season of CEVO is the removal of crits in 6v6. It's desperately needed."

Meanwhile, I was able to hook up with new recruit RentAKnight for a few quick questions about the team and TF2 in general.

How did you get involved in this? Were there any hints before aG fell apart or was it just good timing?

aG fell apart when we lost 2 of our key players; Tiger and Krall, after the free CEVO tourny, decided they dind't want to play TF2 anymore, so at that point it was pretty clear we were in trouble. We were forced to recruit in a very short period of time. As soon as it looked like aG was going down I started looking around.

Who approached you?

I heard that the Doctors stopped playing tf2 and started talking with george. I asked george to finish CEVO S1 up with me and the recruits that were left of aG, changing the team name - but the recruits dind't want to finish it out. So HSE approached both me and george and asked us if we'd help them out seeing as they had players that were losing interest. In the meanwhile apprently fragD was looking for a TF2 team and on account of HSE's excellent CEVO record made a good candidate. So HSE joined the fragD community, and hoepfully me and goerge will be well integrated with the HSE lineup to put up a good fight against any of the competitors.

In CEVO, who're you most worried about?

Well I think it's pretty clear. With Doctors out of the picture the only team that consistantly comes out on top is what was Experiment, now Pandemic.

Do you see yourself sticking with TF2?

Well, george and I both committed in a sense to #boatride with Doze and Ashenhaste. We are both currently rostered and play for their 5v5 shotgun shootout team. We also told them that we'd probably play in CEVO season 2 with them come that time - but with the current HSE merger with fragD, stayin with HSE looks promising.

Can think of one major cause of CEVO-Ps trainwreck S1?

I think most players that play TF2 get genuinly frustrated by crits, enough to where the game becomes too frustrating to be fun to play. So when a team loses and thinks that crits are to blame, most players just say the game is flawed and move on.

I suppose I can guess where your vote will be when CEVO reviews their rules after the season?

Yeah, I mean personally I've never been super frustrated with crits - I get killed by them as much as the next guy. But being the soldier who get to rain them down I guess I'm biased. I still wanna play more non-crit scrims before I decide.

I kinda like crits myself, but then again I'm also a soldier - I wonder if there's a soldier who doesn't like crits..?

lol, there are. Axe and nadagast rage quit c.opt after I crit their team.

Wow.. not only do crits "ruin" matches, but teams too? Damn.. it's good to be a soldier.

Haha yeah, I singlehandedly started the demise of Comedy Option getting some lucky ass well placed crits.

Well, big thanks to you Rent, and good luck with the new team!

No problem and thanks.


fragD's TF2 CEVO-P roster gets their first shot of action against REK tonight!

Steve "Palarity" Wyckoff
Brian "Foust" Mathis
Paul “Plato" Bargerstock
Scott "Decanter" Elwood
mark "Brute-" amiot
Nick "goonter" Owens
daniel "bravE" almond
Aaron "Rent A Knight" Beal
George "George" Kaspiris

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