av3k, the legendary Quake and Shootmania pro, has joined TF2 stars Byte, Moth (previously known as Mike), and zoob to form a new team, called Fortress. The star line-up also features two of av3k's former team-mates, ShaDowBurn and Forsak3n, both renowned TF2 stars in their own rights.

The formation of Fortress comes shortly after av3k, ShaDowBurn, and Forsak3n were seen playing with two other CIS Quake legends, Cypher and Cooller, but the roster wasn't able to gel due to their conflicting approaches and understanding of the game. They decided to amicably disband, with half of the team left searching for players with the right blend of talent and teamwork required to fulfil their potential.

At this point, they ran into TF2 legends Byte and Moth. Moth was last seen playing DPS for G2 Esports, before having to drop out due to his University finals and dissertation; his raw aim and talent saw him easily able to excel on a fragging role for the team, and his return will pit him against his former team-mates in Creation eSports. His team-mate Byte was an old-school master of TF2, having played the game since its beta in 2007 and led many accomplished teams to success. He will be picking up the support role for this new team, and leading them in-game with his famously insightful calling style.

Alongside Byte on IGL support is av3k playing support/flex. With his excellent aim he is comfortable playing both the supports and Zarya/Soldier76, and the entire team is built on the core concept of flexibility. Following them is zoob on the tank role and Forsak3n on offtank/DPS, a role which he has taken on with gusto in his previous teams. Although practically everyone on this roster is famous for their excellent aiming abilities, they are relying on their star players of ShaDowBurn and Moth to be the carry DPS and McCree/DPS respectively.

IGL for Fortress Byte gave us his thoughts on the newly formed line-up:

Coming back to a competitive game could be a decision I regret however with the members in this team it’s hard to say no. Obviously Mike, Zoob, Shadowburn and Forsaken are great premiership TF2 players and have great DM, and it’s only a matter of time when we sit down and do the strats and game knowledge plus map control it will show towards the end of the year most likely.

Like with any game it requires time and patience, the gamesense required is manic in this game to the point that it hurts my head and too hard to track. Having said that Forsaken and Shadowburn feel I could live up to maincalling in this game and deliver so who knows. I’m not planning to achieve much initially, just playing as a team to see how it goes, if there is any potential.

As for the players transitioning over, it shouldn’t take long, has a lot of similarities to TF2, but more variances. Just applying logic and what to do in x y z situation, problem is there is a lot of situations, so mindful of that hence I predicted only till the latter part of the year will this team really grasp and be superb. Not to mention that their dm will need to be like ‘MGE’ Mike :P

The Fortress roster features:

  • Ahmad "Byte" Fansa
  • Maciej "av3k" Krzykowski
  • Antti "zoob" L
  • Viktors "Forsak3n" Bernevs
  • George "ShaDowBurn" Gushcha
  • Michael "Moth" Adams