Greg "slick" Champagne

Those in the know recognise the luscious locks to the left as the most suave motherfucker around, none other than Epsilon eSports’s playboy manager.

Whilst his rumoured links to the European pornography industry add a certain mystique to beautiful Belgian, it is his passion for competitive gaming and more importantly, Team Fortress 2, that has earned him a spot on our hallowed panel.

The dinosaurs amongst you will also remember that the man is a Tribes legend. Shazbot!

"It has been quite a small month with not much too judge the teams where they are at. TCM had a one shot event and they hit it off splendidly, running through BB, RedCode, Power Gaming and Thermaltake. How can you not place them number one? Looks like Byte has done quite well with his picks!

Next off is ButtonBashers, running close by Epsilon with both losing in the early stages of the ESH Full Tilt Poker Challenge, on a map which is hard to really give a favourite, Turbine. None the less with the finals won at Maxlan, it seems logical to stick them in second.

Epsilon eSports with about a same month as ButtonBashers except losing that Maxlan are in on the third place. An upset in the early stages of ESH kinda leaves you wondering if that was their last breath. Hopefully, they will find their road on their winning ways soon. Shintaz, main Epsilon scout did however win the ESL 1vs1 cup in the finals vs cookye, giving that extra vote of confidence for the team.

Power Gaming deserved fourth place, they have been floating around 3-4 place for a while now, yet on paper the team is absolutely sick. Something is bound to happen, it just hasn’t gone the way it should go for them yet.

Thermaltake are doing well, although not a very entertaining road to the finals of ESH, they did take a map vs TCM, and absolutely raped Infused, our number seven on last month’s Cadred Top Ten. I am expecting a lot more next month, and maybe even i-Series: more to come for sure.

That closes the top five, and that leaves with the final last five. Thumbs up for Monster Munch with a very close loss to Power Gaming, gotta stick them up in #6. #7 @ Redcode, #8 @ k1ck, #9 Infused. As for #10, it would just be ridiculous to not put Team Dignitas, even though they failed to participate in anything. Rewarding them just on knowledge is something I usually do, but this month I’m in a horrible mood, so you will just get that closed 10 spot. Unfortunately, knowing Darn this will absolutely have no effect on them playing more ;)"

Greg "Greg" Bushell

Greg is the new kid on the block both in our panel and on the Cadred coverage team. Not to be confused with Mr Champagne above, this Greg is actually good at scout, having risen through the ranks with his fellow Brits at Infused.Tt eSports.

A shining example of someone who has made the brave step from Counter-Strike Source to Team Fortress 2, the Bushmaster should be applauded, but it’s probably best to keep him at arm’s length just in case he turns again.

"The final month before the league seasons restarted was meant to be a good one, with MaxLAN dubbed as one of the bigger events in the Team Fortress 2 calendar, however only two of the previous month’s Top 10 attended and neither of these teams even made it into the top eight of the second biggest competition of the month – ESH’s Full Tilt Poker Challenge. This makes it very hard to derive the top teams of this current month, but winning a LAN event tops winning an online cup and as such ButtonBashers take my top spot. TCM-Gaming claim second after they defeated ButtonBashers, RedCode, Power Gaming and ultimately Thermaltake in a close final to win the ESH cup, and as a result of that spectacle Thermaltake get my third spot showing form I believe they have been capable of producing for the past few months.

Epsilon just about scrapes in above Power, purely because they attended a LAN and offered some slight resistance to the powerhouse of ButtonBashers.

Monster Munch, RedCode and Infused.Tt all made it to the last eight of the ESH cup, and as such it is very hard to draw a line between the 3 teams, however looking at the games in the previous round and to troll randa - Infused.Tt come in at 6th, RedCode 8th and Monster Munch slot in the middle.

Finishing off my Top 10 there are still a few teams to take my pick from the recently folded YoYoTech, ESH giant killers Blame or the Spanish GIANTS. Obviously Blame takes 9th, following their ESH run and LANimals, BLAST, take my final point following a very long and hectic MaxLAN.

Team Dignitas are notably absent this month following the convincing victory they pulled off at Assembly. This is due to not playing any games this month, had they played any officials at all they probably would have claimed the top spot. Hopefully we will see them in action with the new seasons beginning and they have not counted out the possibility of attending i42."

James J. "Admirable" McDonnell

James is the (fore)head of TF2 coverage at Cadred and he has been a long time community enthusiasist and LAN slut.

James has played in the Irish national team and much-loved coolclan in the past. He is currently making up the numbers and bottom fragging at Team YoYoTech.

He is also rumoured to be the best medic in Korea.

"Ah I find my usual rhetoric of money talks troubling me again this month. ButtonBashers and Epsilon eSports scooped the big dough from under the Frogs noses at MaxLAN, and yet both teams fucked it up in the ESH. Granted ButtonBashers came up against a resurrected TCM-Gaming side eager to prove a point, but Epsilon were a shadow of their former selves losing to upstarts, Blame.

TCM-Gamings list of scalps has been impressive, felling ButtonBasher’s, Team RedCode, Power Gaming and Team Thermaltake in the hardest branch of the bracket in ESH Full Tilt Poker Challenge; truly impressive stuff from Byte. I am all about that paper though so I gotta give the Germans first place. TCM-Gaming and Team Thermaltake get second and third for making the ESH a pleasure to watch and demonstrating the power of a little hard work and professionalism.

Epsilon and Power Gaming coming in at fourth and fifth, not living up to their own high standards; I expect more! Whilst I’m on a roll in terms of being a cunt I’ll give French LAN heroes, BLAST, my sixth spot ahead of Team Dignitas as they actually played some motherfucking games in March and even won some cashmoney at MaxLAN. Monster Munch, RedCode and Blame round things out for good performances in ESH, but I’m afraid I’m just too much of a spineless fanboy to put them above the seemingly dormant Dignitas."

Sivert "Torden" Bakkeng

Don’t be fooled by is puppydog eyes; Sivert is a grizzled veteran when it comes to competitive TF2, having risen to fame in the revered Weapons of the Rebellion\4Kings squad that produced many of today's top players.

He has most recently captained Team Norway and the now defunct Scandinavians, Broder, playing the pivotal medic role for which he is recognised as one of the best in Europe.

"At the time of writing, there are 2.43 available premiership players per active team of ETF2L's top division. By comparison, the rate for division 5 is is 0.44. There are enough players searching prem to make 3 teams from scratch, and that's just for the ones with an active recruitment post. Not to mention, YoYoTech (and now, RedCode) split up, despite having 6 active players on the roster, who knows the actual number of "prems" out there who won't settle for anything else than the 2 free spots available. If you're one of them, I'm sure you'll agree with me, and laugh at how stupid all *the other ones* are.

Combine this notion with the fact that RaWr is becoming one of the most stable teams we've got, Dignitas not playing a single official, Maxlan losing its head at crunch time, and we've got a pretty crappy month at our hands. But, enough smalltalk: Onto my list...

This month: TCM debuts straight into first, proving themselves by ploughing down the 3 most nearby competitors (amongst others)... ButtonBashers gets a second place for complete dominance at Maxlan... Tt was riding a good wave, only losing to TCM... Power played similar to Tt, with lower scores... Epsilon showed the same weakness vs BB as they did vs Dignitas last month. The team is currently in the process of shuffling players, which might see them bouncing back near the top next month (there certainly are enough free players to take)... Blame pulled the TF2 equivalent of a Macarena, and provided some of the best entertainment, cya later... Monster Munch: See intro... Infused, played to a similar degree to that of RaWr. RedCode commenced the beginning of the end, as I called last month (-even sooner than expected!)… Blast fought like troopers at LAN - only to be knocked out by fatigue from an *insert ridiculous number*-hours schedule."

Jason "kaidus" Allen

Jason completes our ramshackle panel again this month.

Many of you will know him as the outspoken debate junkie from the ETF2L forums turned Cadred (non-)contributor, but he’s a nice guy really!

His biggest claim to fame is that he once played in the same team as Admirable at LAN. On a day to day basis you can now find him rocking huge airshots for Team Thermaltake.

"If you don't play you don't get paid, and the same can be said for how my rankings fall onto paper once again this month. Last time around a lot of jaws dropped at how some of the numbers turned out, but would you really prefer to see the same top five month in month out based on the reputation of players who'd rather opt out of every competition this month? I'd hope not.

ButtonBashers take the obvious #1 spot for a swooping victory at MaxLAN over Epsilon in the finals, and TCM-Gaming come in at #2 for winning, in my view, the second most important competition this month in the garb of ESH's Full Tilt Rush Poker Challenge. Despite their being a lack of competition to contest Epsilon's runner up prize at MaxLAN as well as some very sketchy performances in ESH, I'm sticking to my guns in placing them third on my rankings. In a similar fashion, the newly titled Team ThermalTake take #4 for a closely contested final and eventual runner up spot in ESH.

Following on from here things get a lot more murky, with the big-boys drop kicking the small fish in relatively unimportant fixtures. Power Gaming ride #5 home for swatting Blame and taking the bronze in ESH, with Blame taking #6 for impressive displays against Epsilon and finishing off a crumbling Eternity, eventually taking 4th in ESH.

Infused once again sneak into my list at #7 for hitting the last nail in the YYT coffin, and despite no dramatic results to speak of RedCode and Monster Munch take #8 and #9 respectively for decent displays in ESH. Finally, in at #10 is the barely-heard-of BLAST who clenched some last minute beer money at MaxLAN."

You'll be able to catch more thoughts from our panel with Cadred's April Rankings in a few week's time!