(GotFrag) - After quite the hiatus that stretched more months than I care to count (not to mention a foray back out into the treeplanting abyss of Northern Manitoba), I decided to bring back one of my favourite features of our coverage here at GotFrag TF2, the Play-by-Play. Now, before we start I feel like I should come clean about something - with absolutely no offense intended to the two teams featured here, this match was not my first choice. Originally, I was going to do a Play-by-Play of that epic cp_granary battle between EG and Loaded from a few weeks back, but the sheer scale of that match proved simply to be too much for me. No lie, I had two pages of back-to-back, top-to-bottom, scribbles-in-all-the-margins notes documenting all the major moments of the match so far... and I hadn't even made it to the 4th round. Ultimately, being a student with a (relatively) limited amount of time to dedicate to what is essentially the ultimate hobby, I had to sue for peace and move on to other things - but please, if you're not one of the 850+ people who've already downloaded the SourceTV demo from this link, give 'er a click and prepare for some stunning TF2 play. casey for prez.

OVERTURE

Yet, out of the ashes of a failed feature comes an opportunity for me to save face and make up for something that we've been sorely lacking here at GotFrag TF2 - namely, ESEA-Open coverage. The dirty little secret of competitive TF2 these days is that ESEA's Open Division (Open, not Invite) has turned out to be one of the most competitive seasons of TF2 play seen yet, with three distinct tiers of multiple teams duking it out for only 8 playoff slots with precious few matches left to play. Tonight's Play-by-Play reviews the recent clash of the top dudes in ESEA-O on cp_gravelpit, Tool Academy Grads vs eXpertise.



Many of the names peppering both rosters are well known to the competitive TF2 fan, being former members of more than a few high-flying teams, so it's no wonder that these two teams find themselves firmly in the #1-#2 spots heading into the playoffs, with [t00l] having the extra caveat of an undefeated record going. If ex. was to have any chance of catching [t00l] in the regular season, this match was pretty much make-or-break for them since they'd already dropped a costly match to Royal (frm. Nefarious) in the opening week of the season. The stage was set for an epic battle on that spamfest of a map, cp_gravelpit, as both teams put it all on the line in a 3-round classic.

ROUND 1A - [t00l] ATTACKING

Both teams opened with the traditional setups for offense and defense, with ex. defending B hard and placing their SG on the backside of the house, a spot that's really gained popularity over the last few months. You could kinda sense the tension felt by both teams in the early going of the round, as neither were particularly aggressive as [t00l] pushed their way into A. ex.shakr was playing pretty passive, giving up on the traditional sticky-trap early on and rolling back into B to reset, leaving [t00l] to cap A and push up through C fairly quick.

[t00l] made some tentative peeks (which lead to a disarmed sticky-trap), forcing nothing as their scouts suicide their way through B to get a little intel. ex. continued to play super-passive, with one soldier on roof and the combo/demo chilling with engi way back near the rocks. This ended up biting ex. in the ass, as [t00l] was able to get some controlled spam on the SG and destroy it while keeping [t00l]-DaveMD's uber intact. [t00l] rolled into B from the C ramps, but they failed to clear the roof after a missed rocketjump by [t00l]-forcestealer, leaving ex.pesus (who was holding the roof) a clear shot to bombard [t00l]-DaveMD (SS). ex.pesus was belatedly bounced off by [t00l]-PYYYOUR, but a forced uber almost always leads to a pretty disorganized push, and ex. rolled around to the front of house with an uber of their own and picked [t00l] apart as glowing blue graphics faded. The push wasn't a total loss, however, after a neat flank by [t00l]-pokey around the back of the house caught ex.DaishiKiller (and ex.pesus) as he was retreating post-uber, leaving control of B still up in the air. What followed was a small taste of what would dominate this match - prolonged battles over B with neither team really gaining the upper hand while they spammed each other into oblivion. The real crux of this type of fight is that, as the defender, you can never really keep track of all in incoming enemies (on fast respawns), something that [t00l]-PYYYOUR took advantage of by sticking from short to roof and raining hell down on ex. to deadly effect. This was, ultimately, what gave [t00l] the edge in this particular (short) B-battle, and ex. made a disorganized retreat to C.

With a couple bodies still missing and ex.Ggglygy going heavy, ex. managed somehow to hold off [t00l]'s first attack on C from the recently-conquered B-side - in fact, they managed to get both of [t00l]'s soldiers and ex.gizzy chased [t00l]-DaveMD all the way back to A before he was saved by a respawning [t00l]-PYYYOUR, a missed opportunity ex. would soon regret. [t00l]'s next attack twofold, coming from straight-away A halls: first, [t00l]-PYYYOUR flung himself out over the action, scattering ex. (who were all chillin' on the tower) and taking down ex.pesus before getting picked off himself. He was quickly followed by [t00l]-forcestealer, who maintained the pressure and allowed the real key to this push, [t00l]-pokey, a little space to wreak havoc (he, by the way, had switched to sniper). With most of ex. focusing on all the tools flying at them, [t00l]-pokey picked off ex.Daishi, ex.TicTac and eventually ex.shakr, clearing the way for [t00l] and giving them a very quick captime.

CAP TIME: 5:12

ROUND 1B - ex. ATTACKING

Neither team change much as the two swap, each running the standard attacking-and-defending strats - although, [t00l]-DaveMD & [t00l]-wicked decide to push up a lot harder in AB once the gates fall, which ends up paying major dividends for them. ex. rolled out straight at [t00l]-PYYYOUR (ie. out the right from BLU spawn), who was hanging out with [t00l]-pokey as sniper. A bit of spam is exchanged and ex.'s soldiers, feeling the rush of desire to kill PYYYOUR, extend way too far near the AB entrance and run right into [t00l]-wicked and are caught totally off guard. In a matter of moments both ex.TicTac & ex.pesus are down, with only ex.shakr's holding the [t00l] combo back from really ravaging the rest of ex.

[t00l] falls back to B, their work done and a good minute gone before A is even capped. After the cap, ex. rolls through to C and attacks B through the first entrance, but are immediately stalled by a barrage of spam and stickies while also being hampered by a recently respawned [t00l]-pokey (now as scout). Once more on the offensive, [t00l]'s combo of wicked & DaveMD head straigt for the embattled ex. combo, who are still dodging [t00l]-forcestealer's spam from the roof and the odd sticky from [t00l]-PYYYOUR. [t00l]-wicked catches ex.pesus overextended (he'd been preparing to assault roof) and even manage to force uber before popping themselves, resulting in a typical slaughterfest once the glow fades. With only 3 minutes left at this point and [t00l] with an almost 30% uber advantage, ex. is forced to stall around short for a time before making a pretty disorganized push, taking hits from roof and random pipes from [t00l]-PYYYOUR's position near the rocks - two of which land right at ex.DaishiKiller's feel and pop him like a rotten tomato (with uber, by-the-by). The round ends with a pretty confusing choice by ex. to make a Kritz-push through C with only about a minute left, hoping maybe to leave a scout on the C tower while the rest crit their way in to B, but ex. doesn't manage much and the time ticks down.

[t00l] LEADS 1-0