Commemoration of the Early TF2 Era: EU 2007-11 w/ Byte interview

2009 Team Formations

2008 had presented the first three ETF2L seasons. 4Kings won the first two as mentioned before. TmG (Trademark Gamers, a.k.a. Übersexuals) became the second ever title winner in Season 3, after a final match played against Team Coolermaster in the first days of 2009.

2009, and the next three ETF2L Seasons (4 through 6), saw the formation of the teams that would play almost two years together at a top level until a destructive incident. The timeline leading to that will be the subject of this article. A quick look at each of these teams now will provide the necessary context.

K1ck eSports (a.k.a. eSrael) arrived on the scene in Season 4 during winter 2009, made their Division 1 (top division) debut with Season 6 in autumn 2009, and had become the destination of the top Israeli players for the next two years.

FakkelBrigade was formed by one of the community’s rocket launcher heroes Exfane, and had played Season 2 and 3 in Division 3. With the additions of their to-be-eternal players such as Arie, after only one season in Division 2, they made their top division debut in Season 5, summer 2009. Just as back then, Arie still continues to provide servers for the community to this day.

TCM Gaming (a.k.a. YoYoTech *) forms before Season 6 from the union of two veins: Team Coolermaster, which had played finals in S3, and had disbanded after S4. The other is the bloodline that started off as Team Druidz (Div2 in S3, Div1 in S4) and continued as Vale! (S5). Byte from Coolermaster would make a short detour with FakkelBrigade in S5, before joining TCM in S6.

Having played with the early team Fracture which rostered many to-be-legendary players, mvp (Marco) had joined and left various teams for a year after that, sometimes mid-season, sometimes pre-season. His moment of truth came before S6 when he started r@ts (a.k.a. The Last Resort, Blight Gaming or Button Bashers) with a particular goal in mind: “Forming a team of German players who have the potential of becoming very good players”. After a successful season in Div2, their roster would be complete by December 2009.

Power Gaming (a.k.a. illegal, or Crack Clan) is a peculiar case because by the end of S6 and the year, the two Finnish teams that would eventually mix up in one, had the 2^nd and 3^rd spots in ETF2L’s top division. Neither the earlier separate teams nor their surviving union has ever finished the top division lower than 4^th-place throughout Seasons 3 to 8.

Epsilon eSports (a.k.a. I Don’t Know? or idk?) had a little delay, but it was definitely worth the wait. Although having entered the scene in Season 2 and already having half of the ultimate roster from the beginning of 2009, the other half would not be in before the first months of 2010. The most crucial move of that change would be F2 switching from Soldier to Medic, and cube joining as a main calling Soldier. Therefore, the 7^th-placed team they were by the end of their top division debut in Season 6 would transition into something totally else in a few months.

4Kings, which was an all French team except Riemu, had made some Scandinavian additions along 2008, such as ryb. In February 2009, the MGO, hence the name, changed to Team Dignitas. More player changes followed in the next few months, until no one was left from the original roster. By the end of 2009, Europe had a legendary team who won all three ETF2L seasons that year as well as the Assembly Summer * in Helsinki and the UkeSA Finals * in London, and was represented by players like Darn and Agron.

2008 and 2009 were the years some of the still active veterans of the game entered the competitive scene. b4nny in North America is one of them, having started in 2009, he would make his Invite debut in 2010. schocky (a.k.a. stefan) started in 2008, made his Premier Division debut in mvp’s team in 2010, and played up until last year. Clark, the engineer of the now-disbanded Highlander goliath SDCK, started in 2009. Highlander did not exist as a common game mode back then, and his first Premiership experience would have to wait five more years.

Predz might be the only one who has played the game at the top of the scene all the way from 2008, with the famous wotr (Weapons of the Rebellion, also briefly named 4Kings in 2009), and is still playing in Low to Mid divisions for the last fifteen years. His last five years have been in the well-known clanda.

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