North America - In a mid-season pickup, the Frag Dominant eSports Organization brought the CEVO-P team High Self-Esteem into the fold, along with a couple freelance pickups in former aG.RentAKnight and dr-george. The move seemed like a great one, but newly-minted fragD struggled down the stretch in CEVO-P and fizzled out in the playoffs admist rumours of some in-team turmoil.

Yet, to kickstart what looks to be a very active off-season for the top level teams, FD`TF2 has reformed with a core from the old squad and some pretty big named steals from other clans. Surrounding what was essentially the 2nd place team from the P.TV Shotgun Shootout, the new Frag Dominant lineup consists of:

Brad "Doze" Herrlinger
George "George" Kaspiris
Clint "saber" Appleseth
Mithun "animeman" Balachandran
Jason "ashenhaste" Pittman
RocketSurgeon

I had a chance to chat with fellow FD`TF2 newcomer animeman, who shared his thoughts on the team, what happened with RA and the future of CEVO TF2 - read on!

GotFrag: So, who was the brain behind this? George, Doze, mix of a few guys?

FD`TF2|animeman: I think it was Doze, George, saber and probably ashen. I was asked to join [shortly after the idea was born]. I've known Doze competitivly for a long time, we played on rival teams in halo pc, and I've known George since he played for rival teams in RTCW.

GotFrag: Any hints at why the breakoff from Eximius is happening?

FD`TF2|animeman: That, you would have to ask them, I don't know. We are probably one of the older teams age-wise, I think our youngest person is me at 25 about to turn 26.

GotFrag: Any thoughts on the fate of your old team, RA?

FD`TF2|animeman: RA is going to continue playing CAL 6v6, though xack is probably joining 20id. The rest are off playing WoW.

GotFrag: Which is probably why you lost interest with them?

FD`TF2|animeman: Yeah - after beating the dr's it went down hill, CEVO scheduling one match every 2 weeks.. lead to them reinstalling WoW. I believe dm had a similar situation, and it's hard to replace people mid-season when you have teamwork built up. We started our season like 4-0 and didn't win a match after that, using ringers in the last 5 weeks.

GotFrag: Any initial thoughts about FD's future?

FD`TF2|animeman: I think the core of the team (after taking 2nd in the Shotgun Shootout 5v5) plus me, we should be able to challenge Pandemic. I know a lot of teams that are going to have roster shakeups post season.

GotFrag: What about next season?

FD`TF2|animeman: Well it depends on how CEVO is gonna do it, and what kind of interest gets built between now and then. I hear they might do another tourney between the season, which should build up some excitement. I think if CEVO can do what they did for CEVO-A with a fresh schedule every week instead of a set schedule it will help things a lot - although the scene seems smaller. A lot of the higher level CEVO-A teams were challenging the mid tier CEVO-P teams by the end of the season - namely dm, xen, $hot and Legacy. Some new teams are also coming in that are probably a few months away from being decent, like fidelity which I think is a cs clan.

GotFrag: Well animeman, congrats on the move, looking forward to seeing FD compete next season - sounds like a solid team.

FD`TF2|animeman: Thanks, we are too - we have an interesting strat idea for next season, too, should give us an edge over most teams.

GotFrag: Oh? Any hints?

FD`TF2|animeman: ..nah, not yet, but we pretty excited about it.

GotFrag: lol, alrighty - any shoutouts?

FD`TF2|animeman: Just xack is gay. That is all.