TWL Division 1B Week 1 Predictions

TWL’s new invite division is shaping up to be a monster – with ten top CEVO-F/ESEA-O teams of comparable skill ready to duke it out, most of the matches here are going to be too close to call. TWL is also quickly becoming the best place to play competitive TF2 – skill-based divisions providing exciting and even games, shoutcasting, and administration that listens to the needs and wants (and complaints) of the players all are pretty legitimate reasons to consider TWL as TF2’s premier league at the moment.

Anyways, like I said – most of these games will likely be thrilling, down-to-the-wire, heart-pounding, riveting episodes of competitive Team Fortress 2 drama, and I’ll do my best to tell you what, in my horribly uninformed and misguided opinion, will happen.


Hostile Faction vs. Strickland Propane

Hostile Faction is a new face for some old players: St. Patrick has been around forever, and this time he’s put together a squad that can really compete with the best in TWL-I. Boogz is one of the best demomen I’ve encountered at our level of play, and scouts Cringe and his brother Forlorn (aka Alcabedies or whatever) dominate the flank. I don’t see Strickland’s star pocket soldier, Platinum, on their TWL roster, so I have to assume that he’s not playing with them here – and without him, I don’t think they can really handle HF. Unless wo0t plays like a man possessed and fritz and breather can manage keep the HF scouts off him, I see this going in favor of the Hostile Faction boys (and men). 5-3 Hostile Faction

Businessmen vs. Dejavu

Dosr has reformed Dejavu after a long break, bringing in members from dead top CEVO-F/ESEA-O teams like Balloons and Throwback along with everybody’s favorite Gotfrag admin, BUICK, to construct a pretty impressive roster. But speaking of impressive rosters, Businessmen has stacked the hell out of their team with Cyzer and Destro from EG, dummy from Complexity, and phelon (formerly of Idemise). That kind of talent is going to be quite a challenge to overcome even for established, experienced teams like Lightning Bolt – and this new Dejavu is likely still getting used to working together. Dosr is going to have to pull off a lot of unassisted quad-kill defenses if he wants his team to have a chance here. 5-2 Businessmen

eXpertise vs. Lightning Bolt

Expertise is in a bit of a pickle. They recently lost their starting demoman, Zeilo, and looking at their roster, it doesn’t look like they’ve found a new one that’s quite as good or experienced – which is really going to cause problems against a team like Lightning Bolt, and especially on a map like Granary, where a demoman can absolutely dominate. Expertise has shown that they’re capable of competing with high-level teams before; in fact, they beat Doin’ Work in the ESEA-O regular season, and that same DW just beat Lightning Bolt in the most boring match ever played – so eX just maybe could pull off an upset here. But probably not. 5-1 Lightning Bolt

Knights of Goku vs. Point and Click

My team’s match! I can’t predict it, obviously, but I thought I should mention that it’s being shoutcasted by the cool dudes at TGBF.tv at 10 PM EST Monday night. Everyone can come and watch me flail wildly in my laughable attempts to play this game while my team carries me.

Stacker’s Union vs. Team Caboose

Both of these teams are brand new, and as of yet haven’t competed in any kind of official league – so both will be looking for that big win in their first real match. Most of Team Caboose’s work is done by their soldiers; clockwork and TLR dominate virtually every team I’ve seen them play, and with smart scouts and Droog the demoman at their backs, I think they’ll take this game. As good as whizzlur and YMR are, I don’t think they have comparable DM skills to the Caboose soldiers – and they’ll probably be tearing their hair out anyways having to listen to both DChow and Tyranny on the same Ventrilo, at the same time. 5-4 Team Caboose


Good luck!