Article by fingerinthebum_ and Zildjian

Rounding off an abnormal season of prem, the final four teams have made it into playoffs for ozfortress Season 30. This season saw a drop in signups compared to previous seasons which had increased to a record 52 teams in Season 28, and 51 in Season 29. With only 42 this season, the impact of this drop was felt mainly in Premier, as only a handful of rosters were formed from the usual pool of Premier players. This resulted in the 5th division “High”, which filled a gap between Premier and Intermediate, being dissolved. Teams aiming to play in High were then seeded into Premier instead. Although ozfortess did not see the Premier division they have been accustomed to, competition between teams in the division was still fierce throughout the season.

soirée

After being crowned champions of both ozfortress Season 29 late last year and the ozfortress Summer Cup 2021 in January, soirée have kept their characteristically high standards throughout OZF 30 so far. They enter the playoffs in pole position after dropping but one map, the newly introduced koth_clearcut to alt and the humans in week 7, during the regular season. They however immediately bounced back to winning ways in the Upper Page Playoffs this time beating alt and the humans in convincing fashion two to zero.

The players that have been coming out on top in recent memory are:

Scout: silvo

Even before joining soirée, silvo has been showing his class at the top level for some time now. The last time silvo missed out on a podium finish was all the way back in OZF 25 with just ( essence! ). Since then he has been showing off his characteristic highly aggressive and frighteningly accurate flank scout at the highest level possible in Oceania.

Scout: cooki

cooki has been a force of nature at top of ozfortress Premier for what feels like forever. With 1st place finishes in every season bar one since OZF 22, cooki has surely planted himself as one of the best, forever in our minds along with names like sheep, Elmo. and Sam.. He’s also managed to maintain this level despite using what most would consider an inferior loadout in the past few seasons. cooki will surely continue to be one of the difference makers in the remainder of this season.

Roamer: down

down goes into Season 30 playoffs on roamer, a role he last played while on happy feet in Season 27. Since then he’s been showing his class on Flank Scout taking out both season twenty eight and nine’s best flank scout awards. down returns to roamer for OZF 30 and has been a prominent part of soirée’s dominance this season.

Pocket: riot

riot has been regarded as one of the best roamers currently active in ozfortress for the past few years but has made the switch to pocket since joining soirée. Known as one of the highest mechanically skilled players around, riot must surely instill fear in those who oppose him. riot and down’s ability to be flexible and adapt while on soldier has been a key feature of soirée this season.

Demoman: enrith

Along with cooki, enrith is another name on soirée’s roster that must be considered a great of the Australian game. enrith’s highly intelligent and methodical style of demo adds a level of stability to soirée and it’s this combined with his raw deathmatch ability that has won him the best demoman award in seasons 27, 26, 24, 21, and 20 in recent memory.

Medic: lau

Finalising soirée’s roster is lau. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience on Medic and has firmly cemented himself as one of top medics in Oceania right now. Having taken out the best medic award in seasons 29 and 27, it’s obvious that lau is someone upon whom any team can rely. That’s helped in no small part by his ability to perform at the highest level on combat classes too. lau featured as flank scout for Jasmine Beef in season 28 and managed to secure a third place finish.

As favourites going in, will soirée be able to withstand the pressures that come with being so dominant during the season?

alt and the humans

• Scout: dauq
• Scout: namey
• Roamer: ALT
• Pocket: redcoat
• Demoman: dogroll
• Medic: conor

In close competition with soirée is alt and the humans. This team was initially seeded 2nd and have come into playoffs keeping this rank for themselves. An early switch in the scout roles moving namey from combo to flank and dauq to replace him on combo saw a mostly undefeated season from alt and the humans. The change saw an improvement in their performance due to dauq’s experience in main-calling but team captain alt commented:

“idk our calling still sucks”.

During the main season the team only dropped two maps, one to soirée and one to ww51.essencecsgocupleague.xyz/vote. Although alt and the humans have lost their first playoffs match to soirée, their match against ww51.essencecsgocupleague.xyz/vote is sure to be a good match up, and they are far from out of the race. Going into the rest of their playoffs matches, alt had this to say:

"if the team evolves from being single celled beings to something more complex we might have a small chance of taking on soiree"

ww51.essencecsgocupleague.xyz/vote

• Scout: heebs
• Scout: starbucks
• Roamer: lexx
• Pocket: feyn
• Demoman: daz
• Medic: Doge.exe

Playing in the lower page playoffs this week will be ww51.essencecsgocupleague.xyz/vote. Being a close contender with alt and the humans throughout scrims and officials, this team has strong potential to make it to grand finals. A midseason change in roster, replacing mirimu with Doge.exe has stopped working, saw an improvement in their team’s performance. Team captain lexx commented on the change:

“We have the epic sauce since we acquired doge because mirimu was awful at medic, that is all.”.

Preparing to play their first playoffs game this week against suSpicious, other captain heebs had this to say:

Got soccer practise sorry I’m goalie Maradonna coming

. suSpicious

• Scout: smazza
• Scout: kai
• Roamer: rintincan
• Pocket: mix
• Demoman: Cobra
• Medic: raina__

The Premier underdogs of this season have been the team suSpicious. Initially 8th seed, they went above and beyond expectations in making it to the playoffs. Kicking off their season playing the first seed soirée did not dampen their spirits as they only dropped maps to their playoffs contenders throughout the rest of the season. With an unchanged roster, the team worked hard to be able to secure the last spot in playoffs, beating teams with considerable Prem experience. Team captain raina had high spirits about their season:

“we’ve had a good season, did way better than anyone ever expected, with 5/6 players new to prem, making playoffs is pretty crazy And lexx will be very hard to beat, but we’re gonna try”

The remainder of the playoffs matches for ozfortress’s season 30 are sure to be a great watch, you can catch them on TFLIVE, CappingTV, or quid’s stream, which are all announced either on teamfortresstv or through the ozfortress discord.