European Team Fortress 2 League decided to cancel their cup event and instead go for the fifth league season straight away. The division tables are now out and the first week of games starts on Monday. Cadred brings you a short introduction on Premiership teams and predictions for the top divisions.

In short: No. Season 5 will be mostly the same as our previous season(s). We did not have that much preparation time this season as we had for previous leagues, so we wanted to keep it simple. Our format appeals to a lot of people, so why change it? Of course there are some minor tweaks here and there, like changes to the map pool and the new winlimit of 5 points difference, but nothing big.

We try to make the season as enjoyable as possible for the players in it. This includes not only the top teams in division 1, but everyone. One of the most important things in a league is, for the majority, playing interesting and exciting matches. No one likes getting steamrolled all the time, and steamrolling yourself gets boring after a while. That is why we spend a lot of time to make our divisions as balanced as we can.

Our most important source of information is of course our previous season, but if we cannot get anything conclusive from that, we will check results of teams on their website, at other leagues, personal experience and anywhere we can find basically. We have admins in every division, from 1-6, so there is a big chance that one of us has played against the team in question. This all goes through a several-stage process to ensure that the seedings are accurate.

All this takes a lot of time, and if we have more teams, it takes more time. If we spend the same amount of time on more teams, our seedings will become less accurate, making the divisions more unbalanced, which is not what we want. We have drawn the line at 250 teams because of this, but we realize there are a lot of teams left out in the cold. For our next season we will think about how to increase this limit and still keep the balance in place.

There are a few measures you can think of, but each has its drawbacks. We could punish teams by putting them a division lower if they return, but that would inbalance the division too much, so that isn't plausible. We could also disallow dropped teams from entering the next season, but that would be unfair to most players of that team, as it's usually just a few players causing a team to drop.

The only reward you get for finishing the season is being put in the division you've earned for the next season. I can't really think of any effective counter measures against dropping teams.

We don't have much planned. Of course you can expect our 5th cup and season 6 somewhere along after the summer, which will be our main events. We are also in the final stages of several of our fun cups, so we will probably be hosting new fun cups in different formats in the near future. Something to look forward for those who don't have much to do in their summer holiday. Besides that, we don't have much plans, the weather is getting nice for us as well :)

Division 1

clan00:

The German squad clan00 or Die Doppelnullen was forced to go international after losing aves and Johnny to Trademark Gamers. Apparently they felt that there were no suitable replacements to be found from Germany, so they ended up recruiting perry and Fragga. Before this change I would have said that 00's team play and stability were top notch. Now I'm beginning to think that the language change and two new players have hurt their team play which used to be so solid. Having an unpredictable soldier like Fragga certainly doesn't make things easy for the rest of the team.

clan00 finished sixth in ETF2L season 4, but now they've struggled in the EMS qualifiers and ESL League against supposedly weaker opponents. Right now it's hard to see them beating the top 6 but they certainly are a team that have created upsets before.

Strengths and weaknesses:

GeX is one of the best snipers I've seen and he's definitely a big asset to clan00 on open maps like Freight or Fastlane where snipers can be deadly. AAL and perry are both highly skilled scouts but I think they still might have problems with working together and this is one of the most important factors in the top level games. Fragga is a great dm soldier with accuracy that makes people watch in awe. However, he also is rather inexperienced against top teams and is often seen making aggressive moves at wrong times and this can leave the rest of the team very vulnerable. He is one of those players who can turn the game around by himself but my opinion is that he's still not much of a team player. And in the end, that's what matters the most in this game.

Line-up:

GeX
bpf
pbL
rts
Inqui
AAL
ekse
perry
Fragga

Crack Clan:

Crack Clan has been a clear no. 2 in the European scene for a while now. Adding Punpu to their roster has given them a stable six man line-up and by now they have fixed many of their earlier problems with team play and tactics. This year they've been second in UKeSA Premiership group stage, ETF2L season 4 and ESL Major Series III. All of these are tournaments that Team Dignitas won so it's safe to say that this rivalry is currently clearly in Dignitas' favour. The only league where Crack Clan was on top was the Enemy Down TF2 League but even here they only tied against Dignitas but won the title with better round difference.

On the other hand, Dignitas seem to be the only team that keeps winning CC. They have lost a map here and another there but match defeats have been rare for Crack Clan this year so I think it's safe to say that they remain to be the top contender for the throne of the best TF2 team in Europe.

Strengths and weaknesses:

Since I play in Crack Clan myself, I asked wotr's nos to give his opinions for cc's strenghts and weaknesses.

Crack Clan have some of the best soldiers in the game playing together, Punpu and Moose, along with one of the top demoman hymzi which makes them a nightmare for the lighter classes like scout to play against. They keep their medic well defended so it isn't often that they lose an über. Their weakness would probably be their scout team play. They don't seem to work together and protect each other when pushing and holding very often.

Line-up:

Moose
hymzi
Punpu
Jambo
kyynel
snifz
humis
Glufse

Fakkelbrigade:

Okay, hands up, who predicted Fakkelbrigade to be in div1 this season? Oh shush. I know you guys have a big or at least loud fan base in the TF2 scene but I for one wasn't expecting to see FB in the top division. FB made their way to div1 by beating plan-B in the division playoffs. Possibly not the strongest opponent and it's hard to predict their level just from that.

I'm guessing however that FB will finish at the bottom of division 1 and will be one of the teams facing demotion when the season is over. Oggy sums it up nicely in the song recording from FB's mumble after they had beaten plan-B and secured a promotion to div1: "So a... looking forward to getting raped in div1?". Hopefully they can prove me wrong though. Wouldn't be the first time.

Strengths and weaknesses:

It is really hard for me to write anything about FB's strenghts and weaknesses since I really don't know the team that well. I'm being told that their individual skill might not be enough against the top tier teams but they compensate that with great team play. Will that be enough remains to be seen.

Line-up:

The Insane Exfane
jonni the juicy jew
Arie
Dr.Leon
Fisshu
cook
Vice
emptynoflow
Tedman

Team Dignitas:

The number one team in Europe, propably in the world as well. After changing organisation from 4Kings to Dignitas, this team has steadily continued to lead the way for others to follow. They had a small streak of setbacks during the ETF2L season 3, when the team only finished third after TMGamers and TCM, but they came back to season 4 with a vengeance. Dignitas won last season by playing a 1-1 tie against Crack Clan in the season final where cc would have needed to take both maps to secure the title. This was the only map loss for Dignitas in ETF2L season 4 and they also took home ESL Major Series III and UKeSA Premiership group stage wins. The only recent competition that Dignitas didn't win was the Enemy Down TF2 League season 4, where they tied again with Crack Clan but finished second because cc had better round difference after both teams won all their other matches.

Dignitas is by no means unbeatable, this was proven by I Don't Know?, a division 2 team which just recently won a map from Dignitas in the ED League. However, they remain the clear favourites for season 5 and others will have some catching up to do if they wish steal the title from Dignitas.

Strengths and weaknesses:

Dignitas has so many strenghts that I could take the whole day listing them. They work great as a team and they have some superb individual players. The one thing they are often criticized from is their soldier and medic team play. It is often seen that agron, the team medic, is left without any cover or tries something suicidal with an übersaw in hand. But so far they've been able to afford this. Dignitas' scouts bybben and Masiina and demoman ryb are in my opinion the best in the world.

Line-up:

agron
Masiina
Darn
Appe
ryb
bybben
Mick

Team YoYoTech:

Vale, Team Druidz, Vale and now Team YoYoTech. This team has certainly had their share of name changes. They didn't finish season 3 and folded after playing only one match. They came to quickly regret that decision and are now back in action. The team seems to be stronger than before. They've added numlocked, boomeh and Coinz to the roster and they are all strong players when compared to the previous Vale players DrJustice and Matt. In my opinion at least it was a good trade for YoYoTech.

Team YoYoTech is one the most active teams. They practise a lot and I'm expecting them to be one of the best teams if they keep this pace up. However, I don't think they're quite ready to challenge the best teams yet so they might be left outside top5.

Strengths and weaknesses:

YoYoTech's biggest strenght is their activity and stable line-up. They play a lot and rarely do they need additional substitute player. This helps their team play tremendously when everyone knows what to expect from their team mates. They still lack the experience from big games so it remains to be seen how they perform under pressure. They too seem to be struggling often to keep their medic alive. Springer tends to die, a lot. Unlike Dignitas however, YoYoTech haven't developed similar special "send agron out as a bait to die and then kill everyone" kind of techniques which usually turn the game in their favour.

Line-up:

Arnold
SkiNNie
Springer
boomeh
numlocked
Haunter
Coinz
t0dA
Riemu

The Imperial:

The Imperial has been at the sub-top for quite some time now but never really has managed to reach the top teams. Even now it's hard to see them competing for the podium positions but then again I think it's very likely that they will remain in division 1 and won't have to fight for their position against div2 teams in the division playoffs after the season is over. For season 5 they had to face plan-B in the playoffs before securing their div1 spot but this proved out to be an easy opponent for the Imperial.

They had a hard time in the EMS qualifiers, having to forfeit many of their matches because of player availability issues, but in the end they were the third and last team to make it through from the third and final qualifier cup.

Strengths and weaknesses:

The Imperial doesn't really have any star players. Player Thirty-Two comes closest to being one, he's an exceptional sniper after all but the class is limited and can't be used as often as the team would like. He is a freightening opponent on certain maps and situations though. The Imperial only has six players in their roster. This certainly makes team play easier for them but on the other hand not all of them can be always available and this might cause them some problems like we clearly saw in the EMS qualifiers.

Line-up:

nubonamission
BEAST
Renegade
Player Thirty-Two
Animal
Matt

Trademark Gamers:

The season 3 champions. For a while TMGamers or Übersexuals seemed to be the next big thing in the TF2 scene but the team has faced one line-up problem after another. TMGamers has many players that can only be active a few days a week and that really has hurt the team. The problems were culminated to Appe leaving for Dignitas because of the activity and roster issues. TMGamers was able to secure two excellent replacements from clan00, aves and Johnny but even with their current eight man roster the team finds themselves in a need of one more recruit for the new season.

Currently TMGamers is a team that can beat anyone on a good day but on a bad they they can crumble and lose to any other team in division 1. Still, I'm willing to rank them to the top half of the highest division. Their individual players are still as highly skilled as ever and they are certainly capable of just outfragging many of the weaker teams in div1.

Strengths and weaknesses:

Like mentioned, Trademark Gamers has brilliant individuals and that's what they rely on. Their scouts Haza and aves make a deadly duo. One of the players who is both a strenght and a weakness for them is definitely sommie. He's easily the best heavy in Europe, but as a soldier he's not all that the team captain dunc could hope for. On maps that favour heavy he's a great asset to the team but often they find themselves in a situation where they could do much better with a soldier instead. On top of that, he's one of the players who can't be fully active because of other commitments. Luckily Haza can play soldier to back him up but the constantly changing line-up is the biggest issue this team has. They just can't find the kind of team play they would want when they always play with different players.

Line-up:

dunc
snap
Haza
aves
Johnny
skre
sommie
weqo

Weapons of the Rebellion:

Weapons of the Rebellion has gotten strong results recently. They finished third in ETF2L season 4 and fourth in the UKeSA Premierhip group stage, thus being the last team to secure a spot in the LAN finals. It's tough to make a prediction for wotr, YoYoTech and TMGamers. In my eyes they all seem to be really even at the moment and on a good day any of them could take down Dignitas and Crack Clan as well.

It has not been too long since wotr might have been considered to be a mediocre team. They've really learned from their mistakes and the few line-up changes clearly did them some good. Even though Reptile doesn't play for wotr that often, I'd guess that he has brought some experience from compLexity and the rest of the team has clearly benefitted from this. In my opinion, they're currently the strongest challenger for Dignitas after Crack Clan, just a thread ahead of TMGamers and YoYoTech. Knowing the team has tight relations with Team Coolermaster, I wouldn't be surprised if wotr were to became the next TCM.TF2 team.

Strengths and weaknesses:

Predz and Jh make another strong scout combination. Especially Predz seem to have developed a wicked aim but then again Jh is one of the few really good snipers in the scene. Wotr is another team that prefers sniper friendly maps because of him. When wotr was searching for a new demoman, nos asked me what I think of Bash. I told him that he's like our own hymzi: really aggressive player with great pine aim and good skills with stickies as well. However, same as hymzi, his aggression often gets him in trouble when he finds himself to be isolated from the rest of his team. Such players require extra effort from the rest of the team to be able to keep up with him. Bash has stepped up his game a lot since joining wotr though, and currently I rate him very highly. Maybe the least impressive link in wotr's lineup has been their soldiers but they usually do what's required from them and they don't make clear mistakes that often anymore.

Line-up:

nos
daf
Predz
Bash
Jh
blind
torden
Reptile

Weapons of the Rebellion 2:

Weapons of the Rebellion 2 received a direct promotion to division 1 after winning division 2B on season 4. They also were voted as the most surprising team of the season, an award that wasn't really theirs to get in my opinion. I was fully expecting them to win their division and so they did. They also made it to Cadred's official top 10 rankings for the first time in March.

Wotr2 is a rather new team but they've risen in the ranks with an astonishing pace. Give them time and I'm sure we'll hear a lot more from this team. They don't have too many official results against the very best in the scene so their level is still a bit of a mystery.

Strengths and weaknesses:

It's clear that Wotr2 holds great potential and have many talented players in the team. The few games I've seen from them tell however that they lack the experience needed against top tier teams and they still make many tactical errors which can prove to be fatal against the likes of Dignitas and CC to name a few. These teams are known to punish you harshly if for example you make a push at a wrong time or if you fail to retreat early enough. Division 1 will be a whole lot more unforgiving in that sense than division 2 was for them.

Line-up:

kevorkian
Admirable
wltrs
archu
Patriarch
sherpa
Altbst

Division 2A

Division 2B

Player awards

Player of the season:
bybben

Demoman of the season:
hymzi

Scout of the season:
bybben

Soldier of the season:
Punpu

Medic of the season:
kyynel

Sniper of the season:
Jh

Heavy of the season:
sommie

Team awards

Fairplay award:
clan00

Most surprising team:
Weapons of the Rebellion 2

Division 3 team of the season:
Team Fruit

Division 4 team of the season:
Fakkelbrigade 2

Division 5 team of the season:
Team SdX'08

Division 6 team of the season:
demiSe-esports