Team VsParadise has descended on PC LA with a vengeance. You may not know the team by name, but its players are impossible to forget. They’ve put up some of the most consistent numbers on the Pro Circuit.

I had an opportunity to speak to the Aussies after round 7. I managed to corner them near the restrooms so there would be only one exit before I applied my finely honed journalistic skills to the task at hand. The first thing I found out—and I believe it’s the most important fact—is that Australia is, in fact, another country. And it isn’t in Europe. “I can’t believe I had an opponent actually ask me that,” laughed Andrew Corney. I would say it surprised me, but I promised myself I’d never lie in print.

These guys are some of the best people I’ve had the pleasure of interrogating in my illustrious and short writing career. I really wanted to get to know them a little better, so I asked them to regale me with tales of their ludicrously long journey to the States. When I couldn’t get a good answer out of them (a.k.a., something I could print), I asked them about their stay thus far.

“We went to a Brazilian steak house the other day. You know, the kind that brings you meant non-stop,” Alex Brown began. “We were separated into two tables of four and let the battle begin. Let me warn you to never try and out-eat another table at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. We would have been fine, but TBS couldn’t hold his own. He has a tiny stomach.” Let me just say that I love a person who can have a contest about stuffing your stomach with an uncomfortably large amount of meat as fast as you can.

That actually sums up my first impressions of the Aussies pretty well. They appear to be a fun-loving group that is more than capable of both having a good time and ingesting mass quantities of food. Ah, my kind of people. But don’t believe that they’re nothing more than good times and meat. They are also real players. These guys have put up some of the most impressive numbers of any team in the world.

Alex Brown is the perennial bridesmaid. He has played in six $10Ks in his Vs. System career and has managed to make Top 4 a whopping five times—that includes a win! Andrew Corney has managed a couple of Top 8s as well. Luke Bartter has managed to not only make three $10K Top 8s, but he’s also finished in the Top 25 of three PCs. Add to that Scott Hunstad’s impressive Vs. System resume, and you get a veritable laundry list of good performances.

The best part of all of this is that they’re all still doing well today. Of the eleven Aussies who started the tournament, nine of them are still in the running for Day 2. They like their chances, too.

“We draft all the time. Any of us would feel very good about our chances in the Draft portion of the tournament,” Alex explained to me. “Yeah, if we could only get them to switch the order of the formats,” Luke smirked. They should be happy with their performance so far, considering that they’ve taken their Faces of Evil deck and run so many players into Day 2 contention.

I’ll be rooting for them for the rest of today and tomorrow. Who knows, we may soon see an Aussie hoisting the PC Champion trophy atop his shoulders. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, oi, oi!