Duncan "dunc" Wraight

Duncan is a TF2 journalist from the community news site Resupply.eu.

He's also one of the most widely recognized British TF2 players, having played in teams like TCM and Ubersexuals. He is also the captain of the English TF2 National Team. Dunc currently leads a new up-and-coming team, which has finally decided on the name 'what women want'.

"Apart from the ESH Sennheiser cup where idk? Black caused a huge upset, TCM have been undoubtedly dominant in February. With 7 wins and only 2 losses under their collective belt, not even Dignitas can compare. In EMS, TCM succumbed to an unexpected defeat against Power Gaming on double cp_well. Reputedly Well was one of Power Gaming's weaknesses, where their generally aggressive approach is nullified by the map's lack of open space, confined corridors and multi-level roofs. On the contrary however, Power spent some time practicing Well and came out victors on Well in the first EMS final, despite having lost Gravel Pit. This allowed them to battle it out against TCM in a Grand Final, which TCM took in a 2-0 win on Badlands and Gravel Pit.

Dignitas have had an awful month, but it would be entirely the wrong presumption to say that TCM are now the better team. TCM have definitely warranted their number one spot this month, but Dignitas are still managing to compete against the top teams despite barely playing at all. In the ESH ASRock cup, Dignitas had to use Fragga as merc because he was literally the only available D3+ soldier. Everyone that knows Fragga will know how much of a negative effect he had on Dignitas' otherwise superb teamplay, but they still managed to scrape a win against What Women Want before being beaten by TCM in the Finals. Considering Dignitas probably played 4 practice games in February compared to TCM's 20+, I definitely don't think it's time to write them off. Regardless of that, it's a positive move for the scene - hopefully now Dig will feel the need to play a couple of practice games to get back into the swing of things and show everyone that they're still the best EU team.

Power Gaming haven't followed their January form through to February, their only notable win being versus TCM in the first EMS Final which was nullified by losing to the same opponent in the EMS Grand Final. Although Power beat Blight fairly comfortably in the ESH Sennheiser Challenge, they again lost out to TCM in the Semi Finals. In ETF2L, Power barely managed to scrape 3 points from What Women Want, utilising Kritz particularly well with only a few minutes remaining on the clock, giving them a 3-2 victory. Unfortunately it was of no help to them at all on Badlands where www dominated a straightforward 6-2 victory.

Although I don't feel it particularly correlated with the whole of February's results, I think it's only right that idk? Black should be awarded fourth place this month. It's too early to tell if they'll be able to maintain such high expectations, especially with the renowned Extremer emo and Shintaz immaturity, but for this month, purely because of the results they managed in the ESH Sennheiser cup, I'm putting them as the #4 team. As Agron said on ETF2L - credit where credit's due, "and all that".

In fifth place I'm opting for my own team, What Women Want. A comprehensive victory on Badlands against Power and two comfortable victories against TLR in ESH tournaments show that www have what it takes, even despite replacing their Demoman mid way through the month.

From 6 to 10, the teams seem to be much of a muchness. Empire took points from TCM on Well in ETF2L, but were comprehensively beaten by Blight. TLR beat Crack Clan and idk? Frog, Broder managed to beat idk? Black but lost vs idk? Frog.

One team that deserves a special mention this month is FakkelBrigade. They only took a default win from www in the ESH Sennheiser Cup, so for that reason alone I'm not placing them in the Top 10."

Dave "dave" Hopton

Dave is one of the new recruits to Cadred's TF2 coverage team. Dave concentrates fully on the coverage side, and unfortunately doesn't play the game as much as he would like, but in the past was a top Division 2 player in Team YoYoTech.

According to himself, Dave is a generally awesome player, amazingly attractive and an all-around incredible guy. This certainly qualifies him to be part of our respectable panel.

"Considering how much some of my colleagues have written, I'm going to keep this one short and sweet.

February has undoubtedly been TCM's month. After countless instances of coming close, the many hours of practice they put in has finally paid off with 7 wins, including some big finals - the the EMS Grand Final, ESH Moray Menace and ASRock Cups. Giving them a run for their money however have been the boys flying the idk? Black banner. As I suggested last month, the new faces in their lineup have added some great skill and their surprise win in the ESH Sennheiser Cup should hopefully motivate Team Dignitas and Power Gaming to pick up the pace, and make March's competition even hotter.

As expected, What Women Want have also leapfrogged up 5 places as they continue to develop as a team, and we can expect some interesting results from them as Season 7 of ETF2L progresses, so long as their players turn up. TLR continue to put in some solid performances, whilst further down, it's fairly close between positions 7, 8 and 9, and I'd say that depending on whoever turns up on the day feeling confident, and works as a team, will take the victory.

I wish all the best to Russian newcomers Team Empire in the coming month – the Russian scene has a lot of talented players, lets hope they can produce some more teams to challenge at the top."

James J. "Admirable" McDonnell

James is the new head of TF2 coverage at Cadred. He concentrates to the daily coverage more than the others in our new team. James has been a long time community enthusiasist as well as a player in the Irish national team.

James has played in well known teams like Coolclan in the past and he's now playing in a promising young team called PENTIA.

He is also rumoured to be the best Medic in Europe.

"What a staggering amount of data I have before me this month, this may actually be the most accurate Top Ten since records began. This is in no small way due to the meticulous JimmyBreeze and his bluffers guide to February’s matches, enabling me to actually make some informed choices rather than spout a load of bollocks.

I hear shit rolls downhill, so I’ll start from the summit of Perfection Mountain this week. At number one as per usual it’s the unbeatable Team Dign... oh wait? What fresh devilment is this? The crown has slipped this month as Darn’s band of merry men have actually been losing games, and they weren't even playing Turbine. A shock defeat in ESH’s Sennheiser Challenge at the hands of idk? Black was the exclamation mark at the end of a subpar month for January’s numero uno, and has allowed the hardest working team in European TF2 to ascend to the top spot; TCM-Gaming have played a blinder this month picking up three titles and a silver medal across the ESH and EMS competitions.

I felt Dignitas slip further still in my estimations due to unconvincing victories over www and idk? frog. On the whole it seemed Power Gaming put up more of a challenge to TCM this month so they climb one place to take second with Dignitas relegated to third place. I’ve found myself jumping on the I Don’t Know? band wagon this month; it’s just so hard not to get excited when my Polish homeboy, cube, is shaking things up at the top! Their exceptional performance in the Sennheiser Challenge justifies their fourth place ranking and covers up for a multitude of sins including two defeats at the hands of Divison 2 side Broder, although I am assured Extremer was not there to carry them on those occasions.

Teddybears/What Women Want are starting to find their groove now although mostly attracted attention this month by failing, both to field a team versus FB last week and in gifting Agron extra e-penis inches in a calamitous finish to their ASRock Turbo Challenge campaign. Strong performances against Power and The Last Resort make it easy to place them fifth. Things get much less stimulating from here on in and I’ve found myself writing walls of text recently so I’ll just cut to the chase: TLR, Blight, Broder, Frogs, Empire.

The Last Resort looked confident against lesser opponents but couldn’t cut it against the top five, Blight did well beating Frogs and Empire considering their internal conflicts and roster reshuffle, Broder’s wins against idk? Black look good in light of their victims recent success, Frogs generally got pounded by all and sundry but did manage to hold their own against Dignitas and take down TLR and Broder by narrow margins, and Empire did well (no pun intended) to claim points against TCM in ETF2L but generally failed to convince. What a mouthful."

Patrick "JimmyBreeze" Harvey

Patrick is another new addition to Cadred's TF2 coverage team. He retired from captaining a TF2 team last year, but since then he's only become busier in TF2, taking up positions as an ETF2L admin, Resupply editor, and as a columnist for Cadred.

Patrick is well known for his insightful, witty and sometimes subversive writing. He's either loved or hated by many in the TF2 scene because of his articles which often tackle topics that others are thinking about but are too timid to say out loud.

"This facts based Top 10 brought to you by the JBreeze eSports Consultancy (all facts generated from meaningful games only):

We all know that TCM were great this February, but how great exactly? Over 5 competitions, TCM played 22 maps and won 17 of them, making for a 81% win rate. They won 86 rounds and lost 42, an eye-popping +44 round differential. Their largest margin of defeat was only 2 caps (twice, 2-4 Gullywash vs I Don't Know? and 2-4 Well vs Power Gaming). 1 ESL EMS title defended, 2 ESH Cup wins and 1 ESH Cup second place. I'm getting vertigo just thinking about what these numbers mean or if they'll ever be bettered. All of these stats distil down to a number we can't disagree on: rank #1.

To show just how gaudy those TCM numbers are, here are the stats for the next most active team, Power Gaming: 5 competitions, 15 maps played, 7 won - a 47% win rate. Their overall round differential is -5. That stings, but what adds insult to injury is their head-to-head record against TCM: 10 maps played, 3 wins, 7 losses, and a -13 round disadvantage.

Before I get too carried away with the nitty-gritty of CP1 to CP3 counter-attacking efficiencies, let's remember that sometimes a narrative is so good that you just have throw the stats out of the window. And the story of the month, of course, was the Cinderella fairy tale of I Don't Know? winning the ESH Sennheiser Challenge, upsetting Dignitas, FakkelBrigade and TCM on their way to €500. That, for me, despite it being a true One Night Wonder, is good enough for third this month. Cinderella was played by Shintaz, in case you were wondering.

Statistically speaking, Dignitas aren't far behind Power, converting 70% of their 10 maps into wins. Their best win was a super close single map versus new-comers What Women Want, but beyond that, their other sometimes unconvincing wins came against lower tier teams while Power had more map wins against significantly stronger competition. Interestingly, Power and Dignitas didn't meet in February, so I'm rubbing my trousers in anticipation of their ETF2L Week 4 date on Gullywash and Turbine.

The rest of the pack: what women want, Broder, TLR, Blight, Empire and idk? Frog.

The Air France 447 Award, for the best plummeting off the radar, goes to FakkelBrigade this month. 2 map wins (5-3 Badlands over The Last Resort and a nervy 3-2 Gullywash over Crack Clan), 1 draw, 2 losses, one of them being an incomplete 0-1 Gravel Pit to Broder. A default win and a default loss. Sometimes the numbers really do tell the story."

Juho "Moose" Pättö

Juho is the only remaining member of the original TF2 coverage team here at Cadred.

Juho formerly captained one of TF2's most legendary teams, Power Gaming. He is currently taking a well deserved break from playing at the top end of the scene, but is staying active as an editor for Resupply and writer for Cadred.

"February seemed like a pretty good month for TCM. Or perhaps it was just a difficult month for their closest competitors, Dignitas and Power Gaming. In any case, it´s the first time ever that Dignitas have been knocked off their top position in our TF2 rankings, and that´s a noteworthy achievement for TCM. However, the month was not perfect for TCM as I Don´t Know? managed to surprise everyone by beating both TCM and Dignitas in the ESH Sennheiser Cup. This one Cup win is not yet enough for idk? to take a spot in the top 3, at least in my books, as their other results were either missing or less than stellar.

What Women Want is another team that has improved their ranking but this was completely expected. Blight have lost some ground but their very tight game against Dignitas shows that there´s hope that we´ll see them challenging the top 5 again.

All in all, things are looking more even than ever before in the top 5. To me it looks like TCM, Dignitas, PwR, idk? and www could all take rounds from each other depending on the day and maps. The biggest question however is whether or not Dignitas start practising again after such a lacklustre month. They might have to if they plan to regain the #1 spot from TCM."

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