Only 4 weeks have passed since our first article about the top 8 teams in Europe, but the balance has shifted yet again. Of the former 8 teams, only Weapons of the rebelion remain without any change.

Animate, one of the new teams featured in our article, is no more. And with the demise of both Animate and Clan United, two slots need to be filled. Unfortunately, the most promising newcomer and high aspirant for one the looming spots, Cruciamentum, has folded as well.

Cadred.org is giving you the latest changes in Europe:

4 Kings

After leading the team for almost 7 month, former 4 Kings team captain Riemu has left Europe´s alleged No.1, retiring early from active gaming for personal reasons. Replacing him is no one less than UK´s presumptive best Soldier, former Animate headliner Abomination.

TeOch has taken over as team captain, leading 4 Kings with a new 2 Soldier line-up into the upcoming LAN events and their first big challenge: The EMS Overall Finals against America's No.1, Pandemic!

Statement from John Harrison // Abomination:

It's an exciting time for TF2 the recent interest from event organisers has really reinvigorated the scene and motivated many clans and players to make bolder moves to succeed.

I've seen an opportunity with 4K and decided to take it, for a well established clan to divert away from its rehearsed strategy in the interests of advancing the team is quite unique and I don’t think anyone can deny the potential the line-up holds. I’m sure there will be a period of transition while new strategies are formulated and I learn just who’s head those sexy accents are coming from on mumble.

Line-up:

John Harrison // Abomination
Björn Andersson // Bybben
Jean-Baptiste Champlong // EpsyLon
Mikko Vilkkilä // Masiina
Mickael Fernandez // Mick
Ruben Ljungdahl // ryb
Alexandre Shalit // TeOch
Aurélien Thevenet // W1nNy

Oslo Lions

As reported earlier here on Cadred.org, the Norwegian eSport team Oslo Lions have chosen Blood Pressure to represent them in upcoming Team Fortress 2 events.

Returning to the team is newly-wed Rebeli, who recently turned down Interrobang's offer in favour of Oslo Lions. Rebeli will be joining hands with his cousin Darn, hoping to revive the devastating Scout-Duo Blood Pressure was famous for.

Line-up:

Rauli Savela // Darn
Antti Kunnamo // Kuntsi
Lauri Rasi // mafu
Anders Örndahl // Pjoxt
Tuomas Kunnamo // Punpu
Jukka Kauppinen // Rebeli
Jussi-Heikki Piipponen // Scock
Toni Riikonen // Sexy

Interrobang

Emerged from Clan United, Interrobang has already proven to be a worthy contender for the crown these past few weeks. After Rebeli's rejection, Interrobang had to look for a worthy replacement and found one in the former novel scout pripple.

Also joining Interrobang is another TF2 veteran and novel player, kyynel. He will be replacing Interrobang's medic paavi, who has recently been called up by the Finnish Army.

Statement from Eetu Rehelä // pripple:

I started playing TF2 almost instantly when it came out and joined a clan called Novel after a few months. They were a bunch of people who had played Tribes together in the past and we were actually quite good at some point and even won a map against the mighty Kompaniet!

I started my TF2 career as a soldier but we already had 2 soldiers so I got to play the scout and I have been in love with it ever since. So after we noticed that we aren't actually that bad, things started to get more serious but with around 10 members, our line-up was way too big for that because everyone wanted to play so we had a different roster in every game and that didn't lead to anything good.

After a while people got fed up with the game and we decided to quit the clan. After that i played some public every now and then, few "thematsi" which is a Finnish tf2pickup thing but nothing too serious, waiting for Age of Conan to come out, and when it finally came i played for a month, only to see that there was nothing to do in the end.

One night I got an interesting offer from Moose and got to join Interrobang, because their main choices for the scout spot were unavailable. So now I'm leeching easy victories with these guys and learning to play on the way.

About the future of Interrobang, well there are many of the best players Finland has to offer, so expectations are quite high. We haven't played official matches against any of the top clans yet, so we are yet to see how well can we do.

Line-up:

Jaakko Pelinappula // haza
Anssi Asunmaa // humis
Kalle Honkala // hymzi
Antti Kinnunen // kyynel
Juho Pättö // Moose
Eetu Rehelä // pripple
Tommi Saarinen // snifz

The Last Resort

After the departure of their Demoman BOOMting, TLR had to rotate players and shift classes in order to compensate their loss. Now, with the recruitment of German Demoman phL everything seems back to normal again.

Everything? Well, not quite: RuneSky has quit TF2, while Medic lezek, who has only recently joined up with TLR, is leaving again. Back to his roots, lezek will reunite with his former team mates in Excello. A suitable replacement has yet to be found..

Line-up:

Keith Nichols // AcidReniX
Michael Merola // Beta
Ziggy Orzeszek // nVc
Phil Körner // phL
Andrew Waite // wai
Rob Rendle // Wlv

Dead Cows Strike Back

Of all the teams currently out there, DCSB have probably impressed and improved the most. If you had asked someone about 2 month ago whether or not they know DCSB, they would have probably responded with a firm "No". But if you ask the same question now, you are most likely to receive answers like "DCSB? Haven´t they recently defeated 4 Kings and The Last Resort?"

Their latest performances definitely put them among the current best 10 teams and we seized the opportunity to ask Mole a few questions:

Mole, tell us a bit about DCSB! How long have you been together?

DCSB has been around 6 years this month, on July 9th. We were originally formed as a group of friends just playing for a bit of fun, but had a bit of success over the time. For the majority of 2007 we weren't competitive in much but with the release of TF2 I started to get a new team together for it. Got some old members back and recruited some new ones and now we're back into activity!

DCSB was hardly known a few month back. What changed?

We are hardly known because we're not a clan that is really looking for reputation or trying to get known as such, it just seems to have happened recently with some of the results. The team we have now got together just before i33 so this side is still fairly young.

We did well in picking up some quality players with good gaming backgrounds in CSS and COD as well so we have a nice range of experienced players. But generally nobody in TF2 takes a lot of notice until you are higher up which is why we appeared to 'burst' onto the scene. We were always there, just in the shadows :)

With all your recent success, where do you see yourself in, lets say 3 month from now?

In 3 months from now it would be nice to be in a situation where we can attend LAN events. Its not an option at the moment simply due to funds but lately we've had a couple of suggestions that we look out for an organisation to get us there. It would also be nice to be able to hold our own in Division 1 and not be a team that goes up one season and comes straight down the next.

I believe we have the players capable of doing it, but right now we don't practice a lot or actually discuss tactics and without doing that its going to be hard to break into the 'big 5' or so. If we were picked up by an organisation then I'm sure that would change because we'd have to goal in mind of competing at LAN, so I guess the next step is to look out for someone who is going to help us take our game to the next step. We're open to offers :)

Line-up:

James Guinane // Falling Away
Tim Foggin // Forsaken57
James Carter // Hunter
Simon Du Feu // Loco
Matt Ashton // Mole
Tobias Schäfer // Saiboat
Kenneth Nilsson // Youngblood

Excello

Excello, who only recently lost to Pandemic in the EMS Consolation Final, is getting a complete makeover. While inS is still on a trip through China, russie has been removed from the team.

Weqo will take over the main Demoman slot and the Medic position will once again be manned by lezek, who is transferring over from "The Last Resort".

appe is heading back to his old team "Fracture", leaving Excello without a Soldier. Serendipitously, a former Swedish legend is returning to the game and will be joining up with Excello: Me is back and was also kind enough to answer us some questions:

Hello Me, let me start by expressing how thrilled I am to see you back in the game! How does it feel for you?

Hey there Riemu! and thanks! :) Feels good , juuust goood . played my 5th pcw today in 6 months or something but its all good :)

You vanished completely from the scene after Kompaniet's downfall. What happened?

Well to be honest me and my ex went our own ways and i had to sell my apartment and lots of other things as well.

Then I was pushed to much to play COD 4 by some old Quakers so I bought and started playing it around February

How did that turn out for you?

COD 4 was really great i must say but it has a lot of cheaters and im a mood-player so it doesnt go hand in hand :D.

But anyway it went good we got a line-up pretty fast and then we just played on and had lots of fun but then after just 2 months or something we lost ruff since he had to much at work. But we got second place at "The Gathering" in Norway before ruff left with just 2 months playing and 1standin so its alright.

After that we just searched for 1 last play but we never found the right one and then we just stopped searching and playing

What led to your return and what are your future plans?

Well I'm not doing anything right now just chilling and travelling so i have time, loooots of time. Work starts the 18th of September ;D. But it was weqo who called me about starting playing again some weeks ago and we are old buddies from Stockholm.

Don't really know of future plans, maybe cod5? Quake Live is coming as well

Line-up:

Michael Wolff // FeTTe
Christoffer de la Motte // Glufse
Fredrik Höglin // inS (currently in China)
Pontus Isaksson Greman // lezek
Fredrik Ladsjö // Me
Ricky Eriksson // sommie
Karl Terävä // weqo

Clan Fracture

Fracture. A name that many people still remember. What has been rumoured for a long time is now finally official: Fracture is back!

It´s not the first time that mvp. has tried to reunite his old comrades, but this time everyone has actually answered the call of duty.

Returning to the team are therefore mvp. and treigzak from Animate, Agron from Cruciamentum and appe from Excello. Chode, former Fracture headliner and one of the best Demomans Europe has ever seen, has finally dusted off the blood of his Age of Conan opponents and is re-assuming his old position as team leader. Zerox from German team "It's a farm" is going to replace Cosmic, who has yet to step into his old shoes.

We felt it was about time for Chode to give us some answers:

Hey Chode, could you briefly introduce yourself to the "new" TF2 players out there?

My name is Chode aka "Morten S. Nielsen", I am a 19 year old Dane and the leader of Fracture, which I founded back in the BETA of TF2 and where I currently play Demoman.

You are back, huh? Tell us more about it! What have you been up to these past few month?

The months after Cosmic left us as scout, was really demotivating for me and that was what finally led to me leaving the game. The rest decided to stop the clan, in the months I been gone I have tried the game Age of Conan which was a huge disappointment, and else just adjusting the Real life scene a bit, from the 5 fracture guys I was the only one that stopped playing, so I have some training to do.

Rumours about a possible Fracture revival have been around for quite some time now. What made you do it now? Was it simply your time?

Ye its true that a reunion has been in the air for sometime, but at that time I wasn’t sure if I could commit to it fully, like I am now. I am back at that state of gaming mentality where I run around the house half naked wearing an eye-patch shouting KABOOM!

What are your plans for the near Future?

The plans is to get ready to the LAN events and qualifiers, and reclaim our position on ETF2L. I know a lot of people want us kicked down to DIV2 because we finished early in last season, so we need to bust some heads in TF2 style to show that we still have some spark left.

Line-up:

Arto Gröndahl // Agron
Morten Nielsen // Chode
Matthias Kühl // zerox
Marco Wichmann // mvp.
Sindre Børresen // treigzak
Erik Karlsson // appe