9men

Sunday marked our last official match of 2009 — and with that, the decade. It also brought the latest season to a close with its share of triumph and disappointment. Thankfully, not too much of the latter.

The season started in Wireplay 6v6 where we enjoyed a pretty successful run in Division 5c — no matches lost and only one drawn meant we were able to take top spot and will enjoy Division 4 competition next season. It was an enjoyable season for us — probably helped by our good performances, but we are under no illusions about next season — it’s going to be much tougher and will require a lot of hard work to perfect what we’re aiming towards.

ETF2L started not long after Wireplay 6v6 and was met with a lot of enthusiasm of optimism amongst the team with many predicting us to win promotion to Division 4 this season. SnowiE has written an excellent summary of how things went down, so rather than rehash his efforts, I suggest you head on over to that page before reading on.

Done? Good.

During ETF2L we had a mini member crisis — we lost kirkeh as our main medic and needed to field mercs or stand-ins for some of our games. Thanks to all the clans that allowed us to use a merc in our games against them. We did manage to recruit a scout / sniper to replace Shambler – who had gone inactive before the season had begun — in the form of Krian, who had settled in very nicely. Regardless, we finished the season in 5th place which, considering the Division o’ Death we were placed in, isn’t too shabby. We promise to have a proper go at it next season!

Wireplay 7v7 started towards the end of ETF2L and was, for many, the first taste of Premiership TF2. This was, without a doubt, our chance to show off our strongest side with our walking tank Ditchy and ubersneak Sh3ll as spy. The season went pretty well when all was considered — five out of the eight teams are Division 4 and above in ETF2L and we definitely held our own in a very-competitive league. In fact, the only match I can think of that we essentially rolled-over in was against logix when we were completely out-classed on pl_goldrush and koth_viaduct.

We enjoyed some very close games against GoT, box and 31 to finish the season in joint-4th place — which does not do us justice at all considering how close a lot of our matches finished. A few seconds shaved off a couple of maps and we’d have finished 3rd, which is definitely something to be proud of considering this was — for most of us — our first flurry of activity in the Premier League. Once again, thanks to the clans that allowed us to field a merc when required.

Unfortunately, now that the season has finished, we have to say goodbye to darkness who is busy cramming as much information as possible in preparation for his exams. We wish him the best of luck and look forward to him returning as soon as they are over. On a happier note, we welcome back two faces — 9men-stalwart gryzor and our medic kirkeh. Our thanks to everyone who applied to trial for us over the last couple of months.

And…that’s it. Our season wrapped up in less than 600 words. We’re now on “official” break from TF2 until January 4th when we will start preparations for the new season with our new squad. So, thanks to the entire clan for what has been a blast in 2009. Have a fantastic Christmas, y’all… and a Happy New Year.