Introduction

Hello ladies and gentlemen, friends and family, to another season of ESEA Invite. I'm Tery, and I'll be hosting all of the Invite coverage that I can provide you guys with this season. Last season was quite the competitive battlefield, with too many close games to count and a fierce race for LAN. But for this season? It's hard to say. Invite as we knew it got picked apart and was able to be put back together again. This rehaul welcomes 4 new teams to the division, while simultaneously keeping 3 of the last LAN teams around. Compared to last season's Invite start which was stable, this season sees many new players enter from the waters of Intermediate. Who are all these teams, and how will they develop as teams and players and establish themselves in the harsh division of Invite?

The Yomies. They go by many names. The Manly Maws, Yin Yang Yomies, etc. etc. From their start in S14 Open, the core members had been waging war against the ancient "Yomie curse" which had continuously tried to kill the team, but their S17 IM campaign symbolized their victory against the curse, coming in 4th during playoffs and the Yomies now find themselves in Invite. Yeremy's grandmother would be proud.

Scizor and ATT AKA Animeyro AKA Arturia make up the Scout combo for the Yomies. ATT replaces young prodigy pangy, who went off to chase after his DotA dreams. ATT is a talented multiclasser and has taken many roles with the Yomies before, and has more than enough aim to fill pangy's role from last season. Yeremy, the Demoman, is a core Yomie member and has been a part of every Yomie incarnation. He, like Animeyro, plays just about everything and has played just about everything during their climb to Invite.

The Soldier pair is comprised of CJ and Rekuso, and have the most experience among the team: CJ previously Pocketed for Blockback Mountain before becoming a Yomie last season while Rekuso was part of S13 Open Champions Crunchy Bunch. CJ is Medic'd by Zillyhoo (Zilly who?), the lone Canadian on the team. The Yomies generally play combo-centric, though they aren't afraid to send CJ over to help flank aggression from time to time. Given the holiday offseason, they haven't fully solidified a playstyle since the recent addition of their newest Yomie Rekuso, but they're willing to try new things and find whatever works that let them get into fights. The Yomies are also just a fun group of people to be with. During the early days of Yomies I spent time in their Mumble watching them play and after tuning into recent streams I see that the environment is more or less the same. They're just friends trying to play together as a team and have fun.

"I don't think any of us have high expectations for this season. I think most of us assume we're probably going to get 9th but I think there is a chance we could do decent." - Scizor

With the youngest group in Invite, both in terms of history and age, the Yomies have a lot of work ahead of them but with their good attitudes and flexible playstyle, I think they'll handle it well. Besides, who doesn't love the Yomies?

"Scizor Scizor Scizor." - b4nny's Twitch donators

Cisco Adler's Balls were the S17 Intermediate Champions, so naturally they would end up promoting into Invite. However, this victory would not come without a cost, as they would lose 4 members in the transition. Cosa and schnell joined Ding Dong Daddy, Kapoww retired, and tri left due to his ESEA admin restrictions which would have otherwise allowed him to continue to play.

Returning members of the Cisco crew are Medic dbw and Roamer Boink. Dbw spent a portion of last season playing from Austria, and is looking to play the entirety of S18 in the U.S. Playing from Europe makes dodging and staying alive substantially more difficult as Medic, and as someone who has also played Medic with 150+ ping for an extended period of time I'm sure that the return to the U.S. is a warm welcome for both her and the team. Boink will (finally) be making his return to Invite after 3 seasons, and will continue to flash his Roamer antics across the map.

The new recruits to the team are Freestate and squid on Scout, Mangachu on Pocket, and xalox on Demoman. Xalox and squid were teammates briefly for one of the many Mixup lineups they fielded that season, but are reunited on Cisco. They've both played at the very top of Invite, and will no doubt bring additional knowledge and firepower to the team. Squid is also reunited with old AG teammate Boink, and it'll be exciting to see these two run the flanks again. Mangachu has never Pocketed in Invite before, though did so for a few games with Cafe Monster last season in IM and before that with Xero Error. While Boink, xalox, and squid (and to a lesser extent Mangachu) have already established themselves in Invite, dbw and Freestate will need to prove themselves in a season full of rookies, but with the wealth of experience they have as individuals and together, that should be more than enough resources for them to play well.

"I think we're going to do really well. We have a pretty good shot at LAN since every person on our team that has played in Invite has made it there before or they've won it. Dbw has had the chance to play in Invite numerous times in the past so I'm confident in her play, I think this is Freestate's 2nd season on Scout but he's been really good whenever we play and he's extremely dedicated." - Mangachu "Kinda sucks that I'm getting into Invite when it seems like things are dying down a bit, like Mixup dying, other players leaving, etc. I've been wanting to play Invite since the game came out, but I had other real life stuff so I didn't really commit, but I'm still excited to be here for sure. With the recent developments, it looks like the season could be really interesting; I think our team can definitely hang." - Freestate

With strong pickups on every class, the new Cisco Adler's Balls looks revamped and refined for S18. Once they have their starters all back and are scrimming regularly, this team will likely be a tough competitor in S18.

The Ding Dong Daddies are back! Recipients of both the "Worst Team Name in Invite" and "Most Bizarre Stream Music Suggestions" Award, the Daddies had a rough first season of Invite, but with a recycled roster, they're prepared to do better this time around against all the new blood.

And speaking of new blood, every new member of the team is an Invite baby. Cosa and schnell recently won IM with Cisco Adler's Balls as mentioned above, and honestly they've played together for so long I'm starting to think they're the same person. Their Roamer SneakyPolarBear is also an IM Champion, winning with Meat Market during S16. I'd argue that at current the flank is weaker than it was last season, but if Sneaky gets back into his IM Grand Finals form Ding Dong Daddy will have a destructive flank and will surprise people this season. The last Invite rookie is the Medic, phorofor. Phorofor is the least experienced on the team, having just 3 IM matches and a season of Open under his belt, so it's interesting what showstopper sees in him that earned this shot at Invite. Peyote was overlooked last season merely because of their record, but phorofor has some shoes to fill.

Showstopper is the captain and Pocket for the team. Known for the awful music choices made on his stream by viewers, showstopper is incredible at predictions but wasn't able to make enough splash (no pun intended) last season in Invite. The other returning member from S17 is alec, who enjoys long walks on the beach, impersonating alfa with his Sniper switches, and destroying nerds at Tetris. (seriously this man is a god).

"Last season kinda sucked because we sucked, but Alec and I decided to make a new team together. This will be our 5th straight season playing with each other. We picked up cosa and schnell because we decided we needed players that get high as balls. Ash found me some Highlander moron named phorofor to Medic for us and he is completely useless. Finally, Alec and I decided to play another season with our former teammate from S15, SneakyPolarBear. I hope this season is filled with spicy memes and fat binds, xD!" - showstopper

I'm glad Ding Dong Daddy are ready for maximum memeage(?) but I worry that they fell behind during free agency. The newbies all have potential that cannot be questioned. However, when other rival teams are making pickups like squid, Shrugger, and harbleu, it seems like Ding Dong Daddy will be in for another tough learning season.

eLevate washed away all doubts of just being an "online team" last LAN, defeating Mixup and making their way into the Grand Finals. They're looking to carry that momentum into the new season with some roster changes and shuffling.

The eLevate combo would be shuffled out. Rando moved to backup and cozen went to troll around by joining showstopper's team. To replace rando, they've shifted alfa over from Scout to Soldier, and brought in Shrugger to Scout along Decimate. This is Shrugger's return to a top team after playing for 6cuties for a little over a season, and to round out free agency they picked up kbk, the Krossbow Kid himself, to Medic. (At time of writing, eLevate is still unsure of their Soldier setup, but I'm just going to write as if Ma3la will be on Pocket and alfa Roamer, because I think this is the stronger setup.) Personally, I'm overjoyed to see Ma3la back on Pocket. I just really think his Pocket days on Xensity and Runaway 5 were really solid and if he can return to that form eLevate will be in a comfortable place as far as their combo in concerned. It's been a few seasons off from Soldier for alfa, but for the man who's literally played everything in Invite he'll get back into the groundshooting swing of things in no time. Plus he still has the utility (excuse) to switch to Sniper whenever he wants. Bdonski will probably be the best Demoman in Invite, and Decimate is still that Swiss Army Knife package of Scout, Sniper, and backcap. But with the loss of players their chemistry will take a hit, and with Froyotech and Street Hoops walking into S18 without these troubles, eLevate is now a move behind their main competition.

"I think it will take some time to get adjusted to our current positions and scrim schedule as we won't scrim besides match nights, but I would say we are still top 3." - alfa

Still, even with player changes and a more lenient approach, this team is on the upswing from their S17 performance. Whether or not eLevate will remain the regular season monster they were last season remains to be seen.

ESEA S16 Champions. Insomnia52 World Champions. CEVO / GXL '14 Champions. ESEA S17 Champions. This is the long list of accomplishments that Froyotech has made ever since their formation in S15. With a staggering regular season record of 78-2 (starting from S13 bp), Froyotech is likely to go down as the most dominant team in NATF2 history.

Shade and lansky continue their streak as a combo, with duwatna providing support. Blaze will play the flanks as the best Roamer in Invite, while b4nny frags unsuspecting players and sneaks capture points with his Scout partner clckwrk. Speaking of clockwork, do you remember the mumblings we heard during S17, that clckwrk would be leaving or quitting after the season, and how this generated buzz as to what Froyotech would do in the aftermath? Looks like that was all a ruse, and Froyotech gets to sport the same lineup from last season going into S18. That's scary. That's really scary. Just think about this for a minute. Classic Mixup is no more, eLevate underwent significant changes and Street Hoops were unable to prove a challenge (though they did not matchup during S17 LAN). Outside of those teams, I don't think anyone will be able to provide a challenge. Also of note is that eLevate were able to retain the same roster from S16 to S17 and I said that would work wonders for them. Just imagine what this will do for 4G.

It was at this point where I almost forgot one of Froyotech's most critical pieces to the puzzle. Bloodsire, a 5-time recipient of the "Best Invite Backup" award has been with b4nny's group since bp and his loyalty has never been stronger.

"A lot goes into benchwarming these days that I feel might be underappreciated or overlooked. It's not just about keeping the bench warm for the starters. No, no, no. It's much much more. For one, you have to be a student of the game. You have to have access to countless Mumble and server IP's, and you have to be an expert, no check that, a master spectator (the 10th class). Naturally, I've had an advantage in this area, as over the years my indispensable experience as a shoutcaster has honed my spectating abilities to a fine edge — a gaming edge, if you will. I've been fortunate enough to carry these skills over to spectating pugs and even scrims, ensuring I take in a wealth of knowledge to impart on my team, should they ever ask. They don't ask. But if they did, boy would they be moderately thankful. Aside from that, you have to know when to interject in Mumble with a line of comedy for levity's sake, or when to bow out, and let the team coordinate pushes and less important game stuff. Lastly, it really just comes down to getting out of the way. Like I always say, "you've got 6 other bros to fight your battles. Just sit back, grab a bench, and let them do the work for you." It's been my winning strat for countless seasons now, and driven my team to more LAN wins than I have 3 fingers for." - Bloodsire AA

With the same exact roster and the most talented backup available, Froyotech shows no signs of slowing down their dominance over Invite and are without a doubt the top team to beat in S18.

What is a Mad Man? These guys sure are a good example. After having come so close to LAN last season, Mike and friends have reassembled for another chance at Dallas, keeping some old faces and adding some new ones.

"Last season was a bit different from previous ones. It was my first season off Pocket. Pockets in general are the class which moves the Medic and as a result, it's the class that moves your team in a certain direction. I know from my season of Medic in IM S16 that I'm more of a fan of your Medic moving the heals to places pre-emptively in places where other teams aren't likely to be able to rotate or respond in time. S17 Mad Men was an interesting team which saw many new faces on the roster. With such an assortment of players, I think we played a bit more passively and traditionally to sort of naturally let the team work out. There were times though where we did try to let Scouts lead pushes rather than the traditional Pocket spearhead. In general though, I felt like we were a bit of a milder version of former iterations of the team." - bl4nk

Returning Mad Men are YouMustMike on Scout, Pharaoh on Demo, and bl4nk, who will be switching (back) over to Pocket. Seymour is no stranger to the Mad Men crew, having played on the S14 iteration of Mad Men and S15 AG with a similar cast. The most powerful pickups come from indust, which technically is more of a return than anything since he Medic'd for them last season before joining Classic Mixup. And speaking of Mixup, indust brought a friend with him back to Mad Men in the form of harbleu, who will get to play Roamer once more. This is a really solid roster. Mike and seymour as a Scout pair will easily hang at the top of Invite, while harbleu's Roaming is crazy effective with his bombs and distraction plays. Harbleu was the best Roamer on the market and this acquisition will give Mad Men's flank even more power. As for the combo, it's difficult for me to gauge Pharaoh's performance since he only played in 3 matches following Chriztafah's departure but I'd imagine as long as he can work to the Mad Men playstyle I'm sure he'll do well.

"A Mad Men playstyle. Well normally when people think Mad Men, they think aggressive as balls. I remember when I left Snooplicity S10 Invite, I was sort of getting bored of the game already and was tired of the stalemating that always took place in the game. I'm generally a very active person who always enjoys taking the initiative and trying to set the tempo for things. So as far back as the first iteration of madmen in S11, I tried to play a way that was always about applying pressure or trying to be active in some way. I would jump in deep almost like a Roamer with a Shotgun back then while the rest of my team followed in behind me getting heals. Fast forward to S13/14, people began to see us doing a lot of dry pushes. I always figured that most teams hold in rather predictable places where you could generally apply pressure on parts of the map where there were no heals and crack into teams. I think this is what people really enjoyed seeing from us back in those days that sort of made us fun to watch. You generally never saw many dry pushes and hectic fights back then. I feel like this time around we very likely have the right assortment of guys to make us play the sort of aggression we'd all enjoy. I think the story of Mad Men in general has always been a team of dudes that just want to have fun being aggressive and we certainly hope to be doing that this season." - bl4nk

I can't disagree with bl4nk. This is easily the strongest incarnation of Mad Men to date. With the restructure of Invite and their roster (transactions), I'd say this is as good a chance as any to see the Mud Men go to LAN.

Before the Invite division was solidified (read: in jeopardy), I discussed with some friends that, combined with the high death rate of previous IM teams, another problem with Invite's scarcity was that there was no "ragtag" team of Invite players making a team. In previous seasons we had teams like Chess Club and Wood Pig that essentially formed "out of nowhere" to play in Invite and a lack of that this season certainly didn't help Invite's future. Then, as registration neared, Show Me the Monet jumped out (once more?) from the shadows.

S15 Show Me the Monet was Ggglygy, SteveC, grape, milehighmilitia, ranga, and ninjanick. This time, only Ggglygy returns from that season's cast. The father of both YouMustMike and ChinGoo, Ggglygy is the #1 pick to end the season with the most capture points and backcaps in Invite. Gggly is also the person most likely to call damage numbers 100% of the time. His Scout partner is icTus, who last played on The Hurricane before their untimely demise. Keith 'Buick' Smerbeck will dish out the heals from his lovely new gaming house while hopefully making more highlight videos. By the way, he's really pumped about jamming in Invite this season. How pumped you ask? This pumped. (Seriously, look at that)

The Soldier duo for Monet is comprised of marmadukeGRYLLS and that guy Tagg(erung). Marmaduke had a good run with Mad Men last season but was even better at GXL where he literally stared down the competition. His experience should give him the upper hand against Pockets like CJ and paddie. Tagg makes an overdue reappearance in Invite, not having played since the S14 High Rollers Gaming era. Tagg was known for his clean methodical bombs during the bp / HRG days, and it'll be interesting to see if he still plays that style of he's shifted towards the more unpredictable, all-over-the-place style that Roamers like harbleu and Boink utilize. The last member of the team is Demoman flame. Now, I don't know much about flame. Almost nothing, actually. The only thing I know about flame was that during S12, when clckwrk left Leviathan Gaming to join Spacewhales, he tried out or rang for LG for a match or two on Scout before hero stepped in. But other than that, his ESEA history shows he was on Blast TF2 in S8 Invite and Sweater Never Forget in S9 Invite. On a side note, ESEA seriously needs a function where you can see previous team names of a roster. I don't know my pre-S10 Invite history so I have no idea what that S9 team was. By the way, rumors are there's a possible Sezco sighting and some roster changes in the near future, as well.

With the roster rule shenanigans regarding ESEA, Show Me the Monet still doesn't have all their players yet thanks to the "3 roster transactions per week" deal, but hopefully everything will be sunshine and rainbows in time for their first match against Cisco Adler's Balls.

"If I lose to Ggglygy's team I'm deleting my Twitch account live on stream." - [joke]Mangachu[/joke]

"No one loves me. I'm fat. No one understands me. Dark, dark, dark. My mom is a bitch. The roses are dead. I'm ugly, too. Dark, dark, dark. E-mo-tion-al." - paddie, in memory of Cole

Runaway 5 first made their Invite debut in S14. After reforming and reclimbing through Open and IM, they're back for another round. Their first stint in Invite ended in a 5-11 finish with djc, duwatna, and yuki (yes, the Australian yuki) (fun fact: the current Cisco Adler's Balls roster was the old Runaway 5 roster). For this season, they've picked up returning Invite players and rising talent.

The only members from the S14 Runaway 5 are Medic Overseer and Roamer Skarlett. Overseer is pretty standard as far as Medics go but Skarlett is really good and has potential to be a top 4 Roamer this season. Let's talk about the new members of r5. Returning Invite players paddie and ChinGoo take another stab at the Invite challenge. Paddie spent S15 and S16 playing Pocket for Blame Game and 6cuties, respectively, and is a solid addition to their roster. ChinGoo was an Invite rookie last season and put up pretty good performances on Blame Game. The "new" Demoman Rikachu actually played with another variant of Runaway 5 in S16 IM. Rikachu was at the top of the Demomen class when he played in Open with Playground Tactics and I imagine he will continue to be a powerful force in Invite. The other Scout Brandon (not to be confused with Ggglygy, the other Brandon) is someone who has no previous ESEA experience, let alone Invite experience. Maybe he's the next coming of ant, who went from UGC to Invite and was an impressive DM machine. Who knows.

"Although it will be a struggle, I'm fairly optimistic about the season with this roster and my expectation is to be extremely competitive with almost all the teams in the division as the season progresses. With up and coming talent like the ever so toxic, degenerate Rikachu, and my favorite alcoholic Korean boy (son of Ggglygy) ChinGoo it's a recipe for success. I believe these gamers will not let me down when it counts. The team revolves around me, because I am a really good player. So as long as I am playing my best we will win because no one else matters." - paddie

I believe The Runaway 5 has enough spark with this roster to put up a good fight in the middle of the pack. Besides, if Froyotech has the best backup in Invite, then r5 surely has the best cheerleader in Invite.

"Yo r5 got this shit." - foster

Are you a 20believer? Street Hoops Esports have created quite a legacy from their humble beginnings as Highlander players in S14 Open. Though players have come and gone, the core of the wonder twins deadbolt and paragon, and ash ascended into Invite at a ferocious pace, and now after two seasons of Invite and two LANs under their belt, 20b is looking to have their strongest season yet.

Street Hoops have the same luxury as Froyotech in that they will be fielding the same six from last season. I don't want to repeat myself from the Froyotech page, but just know this will be fantastic for 20b. Paragon, ash, and cyzer (Big Brown) will run the flank side of Street Hoops, while REAL Ultiduo '14 Champions grape and ninjanick are likely to be the 2nd strongest combo in Invite after lansky and shade. Deadbolt on Demoman hasn't sparked a lot of noise, but he really deserves more credit. I didn't write up any Invite Awards for S17 but if I had, the "Performance / Achievement" Award would definitely have gone to deadbolt. Just two seasons in Invite, and he's played both Scout and Demo on LAN. Not just mediocre performances, either, we're talking solid play and that's worth applauding. Of course he'll still have his hands full matching up against Bdonski and xalox but I was certainly pleasantly surprised with deadbolt on Demo throughout the season.

As we're talking about LAN, let's keep in mind that 20b fought very hard and the 4th place finish disguises how well they played. Outside of the 0-5 game against Mixup, their other maps were decided by 2 rounds. With the changes to eLevate and the end of Mixup, Street Hoops only benefits from it all.

"We're pretty confident that we'll be the 2nd place team. Elevate is a big question as of right now with the new roster changes so I guess we'll just have to wait and see how the first match goes this week to gauge where they stand. We haven't had many opportunities yet to scrim as a full team before the start of this season, but judging from the few pugteams ash and I have put together it looks like most of the other Invite teams are going to have a difficult time beating us and the other returning LAN teams." - ninjanick

20b have a right to be feeling good about this season. With the same exact roster while other teams are going through changes or are new to Invite, their momentum should be strong, and the Week 1 match against eLevate should have huge implications.

Number Corner

14 ~ Invite Rookies: Brave souls who have stepped into the highest level of competition our game has to offer. They are (in alphabetical order): ATT, brandon, BUICK, CJ, cosa, Freestate, phorofor, Rekuso, Rikachu, schnell, Scizor, SneakyPolarBear, Yeremy, Zilly. Seymour is an honorable mention, as he's only played 4 Invite matches in his career. Regardless, welcome to Invite, boys. You made it.

-1 ~ Classic Mixup: If you were scrolling through the teams looking for a Classic Mixup roster, I'm afraid that roster lies here. For 9 seasons, Classic Mixup was the team right along there with b4nny's teams at the very top of Invite. Classic Mixup was home to many superstars in our game. Platinum, enigma, mesr, relic, Seagull, to name but a few. The dynasty is no more but the legacy lives on as players like harbleu and indust are still playing.

9 ~ Returning Invite Players - These guys spent a couple seasons inactive or were playing in other divisions, but have finally come home to Invite. Most if not all of them have fans who are looking forward to watching them compete at the highest level of TF2 there is. We re-welcome Tagg, Ggglygy, paddie, Skarlett, Boink, seymour, Overseer, kbk, and flame.

+1 ~ Season of Roamers: Again. Every season it's like the 8 week long Roamer fragshow. Maybe I just like Roamers too much to have noticed, but you can't tell me that a season with harbleu, blaze, ash, Boink, Tagg, and Skarlett all Roaming is going to be fun as hell to watch. Mix in the new rookies SneakyPolarBear and Rekuso, and the jack-of-all-trades alfa and we literally have Roamers all over the place.

5 ~ Aliasing Players: Please change your names back, it's confusing to casters. People wanna know who you are, Overseer, alec, schnell, ATT, and squid! Clockwork gets an honorable mention, currently aliased as "Clocktwerk." And most people in the community know schnell and squid despite their long-running aliases but still.

The Outset of Week 1

A few rosters have yet to be finalized, but mostly just on paper as the players haven't yet joined their respective teams, which is part of that rule where you can't have more than 3 people join your roster per week or something. I would have figured Invite would be an exception but there are no exceptions. That, and I think a few seasons back they changed stuff or whatever. Anyway, Week 1 should bring us some pretty interesting matches that I want to go over briefly here.

Grudge match! Ready set go. Since S16 eLevate and Street Hoops have clashed many times. Elevate holds a 3-1 lead over Street Hoops in the regular season, while LAN performances are split 2-2 (not including CEVO / GXL because I have no idea how those went down map-wise). This is a healthy rivalry that has developed between these two teams and this time around should be no different. I expect that going in with no roster changes gives Street Hoops the advantage against eLevate who is still trying to settle on a lineup. We get to see a LAN familiar matchup: Bdonski vs. deadbolt, bp / HRG Scouts reuinted: cyzer vs. Shrugger, and the Pocket clash: Ma3la vs. grape (hopefully). This should be a close game and I expect many stalemates across the map, but 20b to pull away with the win in the end.

Prediction: 5-3, Street Hoops eSports

Hard to say how this match will go. Both teams are essentially brand new or close to it, with showstopper adding 4 new players and Show Me the Monet being a revamp team using an old name. The Soldier matchups will be pretty good, though I give marmaduke and Tagg the upper hand against their counterparts. I don't know what to think about the Scouts since they're all a rollercoaster of memes and emotion. Maybe this comes down to how well flame plays on Demoman, since I know cosa is solid. Phorofor vs. BUICK should also be pretty good. Like I said, I have no idea. Hopefully it's good. Shoutouts to my boy icTus.

Prediction: 5-2, Show Me the Monet

Only Week 1 and eLevate have their hands full with Street Hoops and Mad Men. I don't even know if this match is happening this week, or with the roster action rule preventing bl4nk from joining the roster until like Friday but I'll talk about it nonetheless. This will be a good game! Last time they faced off it was an hour long affair with eLevate just squeaking by. Mad Men will for sure have the stronger flank, but Pharaoh will have his hands full dealing with Bdonski in the Demoman fight. My heart says eLevate will win, but as seymour's #1 fan I will root for Mad Men here.

Prediction: 5-4, Mad Men

Power Ranks, Week Zero

Instead of a traditional Power Rankings, I'm going to instead tier the 9 teams in where I think they stand in comparison to each other. Part of it is due to laziness, but I can't really be lazy when SizzlingStats has been so awful the past couple of weeks that searching for logs is near impossible. Regular Power Ranking articles will of course be Power Rankings but this is just a loose estiation for now.

Tier 1: Froyotech - Obviously the reigning champions should be here after they easily dispatched eLevate during the S17 Grand Finals. Do I think that other teams will be able to challenge them throughout the season? Of course. Do I think that there any teams of that caliber right now? Probably not.

Tier 2: eLevate TF2, Mad Men, Street Hoops eSports - This tier was another natural selection. Both are LAN teams fresh from the offseason with slight roster changes for one and absolutely none for the other. Street Hoops and eLevate will be the toughest opponents for both Froyotech and each other early on.

Tier 3: Cisco Adler's Balls, Runaway 5, Show Me the Monet - This is the "lower middle of the pack" at the moment. I didn't want to have Cisco here but at the same time it'd be silly putting in their own intermediate tier. I hesitate to put Monet at the bottom, either. With a Soldier duo of marmaduke and Tagg that just doesn't seem right.

Tier 4: A New Yomie, Ding Dong Daddy - Unfortunately there has to be a bottom. Right now I think Yomies and DDD occupy the last tier if anything for a lack of experience. 10/12 of these players have no prior Invite experience but they'll be quick learners. Some of the best parts of predicting and writing is getting proven wrong. So go prove me wrong, fellas.

Closing Thoughts

There is a lot going on this season. A healthy dose of new talent and rising stars, returning faces and the fall of an empire. Will Froyotech's dominance be unparalleled, or will teams surprise us along the way. How much playtime do you think alfa will spend on Sniper this season, and when will we ever see the return of the Heavy + Pyro submarine strats on Gullywash? Only time will tell. To close this piece, I've asked b4nny on his thoughts regarding the death of Classic Mixup, and Invite as a whole this upcoming season. Here's what he had to say. Until next time, thanks for reading, and here's to another solid season of ESEA Invite.