From Pegasi: Thanks to Ginger Kidd for letting me hi-jack this thread. It had basically turned in to the general Pro Teams and changes discussion thread, so I thought why not solidify it as such and use the OP to compile the important information. Pros, Teams and Changes The bulk of information on this subject basically comes from Post-Orlando Pro Teams, Seeds, and Predictions Thread on the MLGPro.com Forums, but as anyone who has visited that thread knows, it's a bit of a behemoth (nearing 30,000 posts since it was started after Orlando). As I said above, this thread has basically turned in to a massively scaled down version of the MLGPro.com thread for those who follow MLG here on Forge Hub. As such, the information gleaned from that thread will be kept in here so that FH style discussion has an easy point of reference within the thread. The VAST bulk of the work put in compiling this information has been done by INE_xReason who runs the thread over at MLGPro.com, so props to him for basically staying at the centre of this rumour mill and keeping his OP updated with great information. If you're a member over on the MLGPro.com Forums then I'd personally say he deserves a bit of rep sent his way if you're over there. The following is quoted from his OP (which can once again be found here): INE_xReason has also compiled a complete list of post-Orlando team changes in a blog article which you can check out Here. Again, a quick thank you comment would seem a nice gesture if you have an account when browsing his blog, as you can see it was no small undertaking. Rumours The other aspect of the MLGPro.com thread being so vast and unwieldy is that picking out specific posts can be near impossible and potential nuggets of purest gossip gold can get lost if you don't follow it with a certain amount of dedication. If you get wind of anything juicy either in that thread or from other sources then post it, anything to help substantiate it is helpful (MLGPro.com forum posts or other links are best).
Apparently Str8 is considering dropping Elamite. I'd like to see them pick up Heinz, personally. Elamite to Final Boss (?), that would make some cool changes.
Where did you hear that they were considering dropping Elamite?!??! That is heresy! I think FB should die, not Carbon, FB has been bleeding out ever since they dropped walshy. I don't see the walshy playing with anybody from FB anytime soon though, except for maybe Strongside. I might have to go pro and fill Shockwave's spot
Thanks. Believe the Hype - 3rd seed. Wow. I never thought they would go big. It's really weird that Karma used to be such a well-known player but now, he (at least from the way I personally see it) barely goes noticed. In closing, I sure hope Str8 will get their mojo back and reclaim their dominant status.
I'd like to point out that Clutch has stated on the public forums that he will no longer be a member of BtH. This change has yet to be reflected in any of the team threads though.
It's weird that Clutch is leaving BtH just after their team winning the national championships. Saying they do not have any personal issues, is there any other reason why Clutch will be leaving BtH?
People say that Neighbor can't ever stay on a team. I don't like making those assumptions, I really want to see what TD does with this new player.
I really hope Instinct picks up Heinz. He is a great player. He may not be as individually skilled as Neighbor, but he is definitely one of the best support players on the circuit. Roy can now step up as the main slayer of Instinct and the rest of the team can do what Instinct has historically done best...dominate objective games with superior teamwork.
I for one, am a Carbon fan, and I'm super excited about the new roster. BtH surprisingly went big, but Classic lucked out against tD for 2nd. Lots of bullshit calls.
I heard that Final Boss was going to be splitting up and dying. I haven't heard about any of this, but I want another MLG event on ESPN, it will give me a reason to watch TV lol.
FB as stated has been dying since the dumb shits dropped Walshey, i was utterly shocked when they did that. The new line ups are interesting at best, oh and Neighbor has had some past difficulties on teams, but once he gets with on that he can connect to its like godly magic.
wow so many changes i never thought would happen. and for neighbor i agree that he is immensely talented on his own but he on every team i see him on he doesn't look happy at all and then he gets quite. if tD can fix that then to me they will be the best team out there
Neighbor just doesn't work on any team, IMO. I think picking him up was an awful mistake and tD will probably be going down in the rankings as Neighbor becomes more comfortable, especially with 3 slayers (??? why would you need Neighbor when you have Pistola and Hysteria?!). Neighbor's just not a team player, and never has. He's proven that he feels he needs to lead teams, and doesn't do a good job at that whatsoever. He doesn't call out except when he dies. He even wanted to lead over Tsquared when he was on Str8, and luckily they got rid of him before he could cause any damage to the team. His one chance to be successful was with Ghost (Ghost leading, Neighbor slaying, 2 support players with Roybox), and he kicks him off so he can lead the team himself, even with a... top 3 finish, was it? Sure, he's individually skilled. But I'd rather have Pistola over Neighbor any day. Neighbor destroys teams. Plus, he looks like Ken. WTF.
I'm really excited to see what carbon will do this coming year with best man and strongside. Best Man and Defy have some of the best BR's on the circuit, and Strongside has unlimited talent, teamed with Walshy I really think these four will prove to be a major threat this upcoming season. In TS I don't see a single team other than Triggers Down that could defeat them.
I hope that SS teaming with Walshy signifies a change from the attitude that saw Walshy leave FB. The talk then was focused on the rest of FB disagreeing with how Walshy thought that H3 should be played, and I think it's pretty safe to say that history has proven Walsh right in that difference of opinion. If Walshy can make SS do what Sundance has been saying that he and OGRE 2 needed to do all this time, ie. stop playing so damn passively and actually utilise his insane skill, then Carbon could go massive in '10. And hey, Walshy and Wav3 (who I will sorely, sorely miss...) managed to turn Naded in to a beastly team player, so why not? Wouldn't it be funny if new Carbon go huge and it convinces OGRE 2 that he was wrong about how to play Halo 3 back in '08, then we see him join new Carbon in an eerie FB recreation? Quote me. But only if it happens... I personally thought that Carbon could have done better than Best Man, but then I said the same about Defy when he joined and look how wrong I was. I more or less agree with every single point you just made (especially the bits about how awesome Pistola is <3), but I just can't bring myself to come to the same conclusion until I see it for myself. The staunch tD fan in me just can't see them making such a rash and apparently questionable decision such as this without better reason than is apparent to us as observers. It's easy to say that Neighbor doesn't work as a team player (I should know, I say it a lot lol), but I think its true of any player that the right environment can bring potential out (potential and skill are two things that no one can really deny Neighbor has in bucket loads). What's going to be the result if Neighbor actually does find that environment at tD? They've proven themselves to be very serious and level headed about practice, determination and working at getting better, enhancing their team play more and more. If Neighbor can be worked in to this (and I'm looking at SK and Bravo in particular to achieve this) then we're gonna see some serious shows of strength from tD in '10. Though I'll agree I still can't quite get my head around the whole 3 power players thing. People have called it with Str8 (ie. Neighbor/Snip3down, T2 and Legit), but I don't really think that's the same situation as here, especially since none of the 3 on tD are also filling a leader role like T2. The only comparable situation I could think of would be old 04/05 FB (ie. everyone except Walshy lol), but frankly, things were different back in them days, with the kind of team play that's developed since then it's hard to see how it will play out in terms of roles for each of the three. Plus that's the kind of MLG history I've had to learn about as opposed to having experienced, making it even harder to find a frame of reference whereby I can imagine new tD really working. But, like I said above, I just can't pass judgement until I see how they play. Also, LOL at the new MLG Front Page article on BtH coming out just after the team as it stood basically falls apart. I learned one solid thing from that article: It will never matter how much the MLG forums were abound with hate for '09 National Champs BtH, it will always be more than countered by how much the team themselves rode their own dicks to a level which beggars belief. Maniiac's whole "I'm the best in the game" thing on Ons Flag was excusable with the heat of the game, but obviously that's just honestly what they think of themselves. '09 Champs is obviously a pretty amazing feat, but if even Walshy started verbally stroking himself like that I'd still be pretty taken aback, and he's more than any of them will ever be. And then look what happens, another ego ridden fight as far as one can tell and half the team are gone. Chig and Tizoxic are actually two really solid pickups in potential, but honestly I just see this being another mish mash that peters out after an event or two. Needs less mega ego, 2/5.
In case anyone missed it the most recent Straight from the Source article takes a look at Heinz and SK's perspectives on the recent dropping of Heinze and pick-up of Neighbor. I honestly expected more from these guys. It basically turns out Heinz was down because of the poor placing in Orlando, and because of that he decided to focus on school and catching up on non-Halo aspects of his life. SK mistook this as hesitance to stay on tD, and from there decided to drop him... Its like middle school all over again...all the freakin drama.