After finishing second at i39 and fourth in ETF2L Season 7, Power Gaming have announced wholesale changes to their TF2 roster, bringing in five new players.

Let's get this straight: there was the old Power Gaming (the one that could never beat Dignitas no matter how hard they tried), up until today there was the new Power Gaming (the one that could never beat TCM no matter how hard they tried) and now there's a new new Power Gaming.

Rumours of an impending revamp have been circulating for a few days already, and the official announcement broke on Power Gaming's twitter earlier this evening:

We'd like to welcome some new and old faces to our new TF2 lineup which is: cookye, kyynel, vallone, hocz, Haza, Punpu & mafu. GL guys!

And, indeed, that's pretty much the long and the short of it. Team manager and TF2 legend Juho "Moose" Patto elaborated in a statement to us:

It became obvious that our old TF2 squad was crumbling during i39. Mostly due to some internal disputes that went unresolved. With Kalle "hymzi" Honkala leaving for army service this summer, and Henry "fluffy" Rantanen deciding to take a break from high level play, now seemed like a good time to make a change.

Luckily, Blood Pressure [who had been rumoured to make a comeback to the scene] were having some issues with inactive members, so they were very eager to merge their active squad into our team. We were still one scout short, as Jaakko "Haza" Pelinappula doesn't have enough time to be a starter, but I didn't have to go too far to find Tony "Cookye" Hänninen, a genuine talent that has risen to the top of Division 2 with SpecialAttack.

We now have a seven man lineup with some of the highest rated names in the game. Including the infamous two frag man Tuomas "vallone" Vepsäläinen, possibly the strongest soldier duo in Europe, Jani "hocz" Laakkonen and Tuomas "Punpu" Kunnamo, award winning medic Antti "kyynel" Kinnunen and super skilled demoman Lauri "mafu" Rasi.

You have to feel sorry for the other two guys from Power Gaming version 2, medic Olli "paavi" Kettunen and soldier Olli "olliii" Hiltunen, who appeared to do no wrong. Moose will be expecting more leadership skills at the medic position out of kyynel, and, well, as far as olliii goes, he's just straight out of luck. He's a really, really, really good soldier who played a great complimentary role next to the powerhouse that is Hocz. But Hocz and Punpu together should be awesome. A wrecking ball with the word "AWESOME" painted on it level of awesome.

The last personnel change we have to talk about is perhaps the most significant. A lot of the unresolved internal disputes that Moose alluded to probably refer to this guy. Regardless, hymzi is the kind of talent that you only let go of if threatened with jail time. So, with his army service due, as it was with Punpu a year or so ago, it has to be. I just hope it isn't the last we see of him. Mafu has huge boots to fill.

As much as I rate stability and love teams working through problems, I like the change. Credit to Moose for being proactive about it and making this happen. There's an arms race at the top end of TF2 right now, and unless you're prepared to make changes, sometimes drastic ones, you won't be at the top end much longer.

The message from Moose and the organisation is clear: second, third or fourth place just isn't good enough.

The New New Power Gaming:

Antti "kyynel" Ville Kinnunen
Lauri "mafu" Rasi
Jani "hocz" Laakkonen
Tuomas "Punpu" Kunnamo
Tony "Cookye" Hänninen
Tuomas "vallone" Vepsäläinen

Jaakko "Haza" Pelinappula (backup)