ESEA Season 22: Invite Division Offseason

Overview

Invite

Intermediate

Open

Offseason

Main Season

The ESEA Season 22 Offseason between Season 21 and Season 22 is taking place from the 22nd of April, 2016 to the 25th of May, 2016. It featured many roster changes and team folds, many more than seasons past.

-bird noises-

-bird noises'- former medic indust.

-bird noises- were the first ESEA-Invite team to make a roster change, dropping roamer Hellbent two weeks prior to the end of the ESEA-Invite Season 21 playoffs. During the month long offseason the team trialled various different replacements for Hellbent before finally settling on Invite veteran boomer, who was last seen in ESEA-I Season 15. Team captain Vand spoke of the underlying concerns of boomer's lengthy downtime in a TeamFortressTV interview, stating that boomer has "a great attitude towards teamwork and the game itself that is very similar to the rest of -bird noises-", and "[his attitude] was one of the most important things for us to consider while we were searching for new additions to the team".

The addition of boomer also came the withdrawal of Linkuser, who stepped in as scout for -bird noises- during the latter parts of the Season 21 group stage. Linkuser opted to step down to focus on his real-life commitments, yet only five days later on May 4th corsa was brought in to replace him.

-bird noises'- long time medic indust was replaced by Nursey on May 17th, three days after the disbanding of Luca Goers of which Nursey captained, due to time commitments and a shift of the team's playstyle that both conflicted with indust. However, Nursey's addition was short lived as she later joined RONIN gg two days before the start of Season 22 to replace RONIN gg's former medic phorofor. Vand expressed his frustrations regarding the transfer and how close it was to the beginning of the season, saying that "the manner in which this was all handled and the timing of it relative to the start of matches is really, really lame for the team that is now down a medic and is scrambling to solve that."

Player changes
		Hellbent	April 7th
		Linkuser	April 30th
		indust	May 17th
		boomer	April 30th
		corsa	May 4th
		Nursey	May 17th
		Nursey	May 27th

Aeonic

Aeonic is a new invite team led by veteran medic lucrative, who has competed in ESEA since Season 4. Aeonic formed hoping to win the invite poll with players mu and mausy from The Bugs, as well as Hellbent from -bird noises-. They also bring in experienced ESEA-Invite soldier SureShot, last seen in Invite playing for THE HURRICANE and round out the roster with split_, who had played medic and scout in Intermediate previously. Aeonic originally lost the invite poll to dog2, but following the death of Luca Goers they were granted an invite spot by ESEA administrators.

Aeonic swapped their poll scout mu with ex on May 27th due to "cohesion issues" with mu. ex was last seen on the roster of dog2 before its disbanding on May 25th

Player changes
		Hellbent	May 4th
		SureShot	May 4th
		mausy	May 4th
		lucrative	May 4th
		split_	May 8th
		mu	May 8th
		mu	May 27th
		ex	May 27th

Elÿsian Fields

Elÿsian Fields, formerly known as The Bugs, parted ways with four players during the Season 21-Season 22 offseason. Scout newspeak, soldiers goldfish_ and Cole as well as demoman mausy were all dropped from the team's active roster in late April, leaving only core players mu and Digi_ left. Be that as it may, the team was swift to replace their losses; bringing in FARNSWORTH, topshot, and, four days later, kuestif.

Elÿsian Fields were still yet to bring in a second scout, however on May 6th the team's ESEA roster was emptied out. Elÿsian Fields made the announcement they had disbanded on May 8th, with captain mu stating that the team broke up due to a struggle to find another scout, poor performance in scrims and an ill-guaranteed spot in the Invite division.

eL cLaSsIcO

eL cLaSsIcO, winners of the previous ESEA-Intermediate season, have picked up pocket ranga to replace sneaky____. ranga had most recently played for dog1 in their Intermediate Grand Finals against eL cLaSsIcO, and is noted for his demoman appearances in ESEA-Invite during Season 15 and Season 17.

Player changes
		sneaky___	May 7th
		ranga	May 7th

EVL Gaming

EVL TV have decided to once again sponsor an ESEA-Invite team, this time captained by garbuglio.

EVL Gaming has undergone a complete roster switchup after its previous team, captained by arekk, fully disbanded on the 3rd of May. One day before, the aforementioned arekk and roamer botmode had made the decision to leave the team for various reasons; with arekk having lost interest in competing and botmode stepping down due to "scheduling conflicts". The team made the conscious decision to disband after further time conflicts with their other scout, slemnish, along with pocket soldier aim resigning because of a lack of motivation also. Nursey and Hassassin elected to recruit players for a seperate team, Luca Goers, choosing to discontinue their sponsorship with EVL and its partner Sloth E-Sports.

Only two days had passed before EVL had found its next sponsorship team, headlined by the core of the ESEA-I Season 19 cafe monster in garbuglio (known then as PurpleShirt), highfive and zilly; as well as picking up Scizor and sen- from the previous season's Running with Scizors lineup. delpo, an Invite newcomer joining from mid-table Intermediate team Don't Slip, was also picked up by the team. In an interview, the now team captain garbuglio said EVL Gaming is "hoping to place at least 5th but definitely looking to achieve top 4".

Player changes
		arekk	May 2nd
		botmode	May 2nd
		slemnish	May 3rd
		aim	May 3rd
		Hassassin	May 3rd
		Nursey	May 3rd
		Scizor	May 5th
		sen-	May 5th
		garbuglio	May 5th
		highfive	May 5th
		delpo	May 5th
		zilly	May 5th

froyotech

File:Blaze at i55.jpg

Season 22 will feature the return of legendary roamer blaze for team froyotech.

froyotech, reigning champions from the previous season, gained considerable attention when they announced that six-season long scout clockwork would be retiring once again from serious Team Fortress 2 competition in favour of Overwatch. Having retired initially at the end of ESEA Season 20 for the same reasons, he was replaced by his teammate of the same season, blaze. The addition of blaze to the froyotech squad reacquires another member of their original two time world championship team. The provisional lineup for the team is to shift erstwhile roamer paddie to scout to succeed clockwork and make way for blaze.

Player changes
		clockwork	May 4th
		blaze	May 4th

FROYO BLACK

High Rollers Gaming after winning ESEA-I Season 13. shade, cyzer and tagg (pictured second, third and fourth from left) all feature in the FROYO BLACK roster.

FROYO BLACK is an active-listed ESEA roster consisting of numerous retired Invite champions, primarily from the cores of High Rollers Gaming and the first rendition of froyotech. There have been no announcements from the team regarding their intentions for Season 22, but statements from b4nny and clockwork (the latter of whom is listed on the FROYO BLACK roster) suggest that FROYO BLACK aims to be a "no-scrim" team for ESEA-Invite, with a current roster of shade, hassassin, bl4nk, tagg, clockwork and cyzer. The team also plans to utilise alfa- and grape as backups for the season.

Player changes
		cyzer	May 5th
		clockwork	May 5th
		tagg	May 5th
		shade	May 5th
		bl4nk	May 21st
		hassassin	May 21st

Luca Goers

Luca Goers' pocket bl4nk competing alongside indust (left) for The Mad Men at the ESEA-I Season 18 LAN.

Luca Goers was a team made up of the remnants of the initial EVL Gaming team along with newcomers icTus on scout and bl4nk on pocket. Both icTus and bl4nk are noted for their frequent PUG play, with bl4nk having also played across a multitude of previous ESEA-Invite teams such as WOOOPS, The Mad Men, and most recently backing up for Street Hoops eSports.

While Luca Goers were speculated to be recruiting players such as alec_ or Connor_, the team completed their roster on May 7th with the addition of marmadukeGRYLLS on roamer. Luca Goers made their first announcement on the full extent of the team's roster changes on the same day.

Despite his intended inclusion in the team for the full season, slemnish chose to depart Luca Goers on May 12th. The roster made the decision to fully disband on May 14th, with Aeonic (formerly Uncharted) replacing them in the Season 22 Invite Division.

Running with Scizors

Team Running with Scizors have successfully picked up Sezco, a talented scout with a plethora of ESEA LAN experience.

Running with Scizors, a relatively consistent team in terms of results and rosters, made their first change of the offseason by letting scout sen- depart on the 10th of April. Reportedly leaving to play with friends before joining Invite rivals EVL Gaming two weeks later, sen- was a continuous performer for the team and was vital to their 6th place success. After trialling with a handful of potential replacements, Running with Scizors settled on Sezco two weeks later on April 26th. Sezco played out the previous season with 8th place disbanded team The Grime, but is also noted for his Season 15 spell with lost in translation (now RONIN gg) where the team ended up third in the peak of Sezco's TF2 career.

Player changes
		sen-	April 10th
		Sezco	April 26th

Street Hoops eSports

Former 20b` scout cyzer, who has competed in every TF2 season of ESEA, has joined the star-studded lineup of FROYO BLACK.

Street Hoops eSports made the call to disband on the 5th of May after their 3rd place finish in the previous season. The team's captain and pocket soldier, showstopper_, stated that the team lacked motivation and commitment for the whole of Season 21, and that both him and the team's medic cozen will be pursuing success in the ESEA Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Intermediate division.

Player changes
		alec_	May 5th
		cyzer	May 5th
		ash	May 5th
		showstopper_	May 5th
		duwatna	May 5th
		cozen	May 5th