(GotFrag) - What began way back on August 19th, 2009 has wound its way through 8 grueling weeks and over 100 matches played to what many call the only season that matters, the Playoffs. Eight teams started this journey and, as always, not all of them managed to outlast the grind and make it to the finish line, with LIGHTNINGBOLT! succumbing to the pressures early and Hostile Faction in the second half of the season. But, regardless of the losses, we find ourselves with four battle-hardened teams advancing, ready to take on the next phase of their journey and claim the ESEA-Invite Season 4 crown.

OVERTURE:

ESEA-TF2 was on a bit of an upswing heading into Season 4, with four seemingly solid contenders ready to duke it out in the top division and a variety of other teams maybe a step below but looking to make some noise. But things didn't quite work out that way. The big dogs on campus, compLexity, the all-star roster that dominated this game in one form or another since almost its inception, had finally died. Their players scattered, but instead of peppering some of the lower-tier teams with their awesome talent, most of the coL roster elected to play as backups on either EG or 20ID, which - along with Loaded - further ostracized the top tier from the rest of the pack. Yet, to be fair, it also helped solidify those teams and stave off any further deaths, as real life pressures took an effect, especially on EG.

The lower tier still did benefit from coL's death, though in a different way - with coL gone, a playoff spot was suddenly available to them that didn't involve upsetting one of the big dogs, something that (no offense intended), wasn't too likely to happen. They took their own share of hits too, though, as the season progressed - lbolt went down early as they faced the fact that their medic couldn't commit to both TF2 and his fiancée, while the TF2 gods just seemed to stack things against HF schedule-wise, and their lineups from week-to-week suffered because of it. But the three squads - Strickland Propane, point & click and
Vicious-Gaming - persevered, and ended up giving us a little playoff excitement that went right down the final match.

The only major downside to coL bowing out was the fact that the top 3 teams were suddenly under a lot less pressure to perform, since their talent level is just too high to really be challenged by any of the lower teams - and, therefore, the playoffs became an inevitability towards in the second half of the season. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the case of 20ID, who rolled into the season just like they rolled through the end of Season 3, but put things on cruise control for the second half of the season and just coasted to the #2 seed.

But still, despite a few hiccups and mass rescheduling from week-to-week, the end result was a season that ran pretty darn smoothly and gave us some of the most exciting TF2 play we've had all year. The obvious, shining glory was a great mid-season battle between EG and Loaded on cp_granary, featuring some great back-and-forth action and a epic save or two - though I'd be amiss if I didn't mention pac's big upset victory over Loaded in Week 2, or some of the epic battles between Strickland and [vg].

But the regular season is in the history books now with four teams advancing to the playoffs, which kick off October 19th, 2009, so let's take a closer look at these teams.