For those of us who don't know the players would it be possible to get a brief summary of their playing styles as well as opening, middle and endgame strengths? Nothing detailed. Just something to give us an idea of how they play so we can better enjoy the games.
Also, are they playing from their homes or some secret bunker location that has a good internet connection... just curious.
Here's a quick rundown of a couple of our players in the first match.
Raptis is a very solid all-around player with strong endgame skills. He can attack, but most of my games with him have been positional squeezes where he gets an advantage and I try to hang on for dear life. He's fast; he plays a lot of bullet and blitz, and tends to use less time than his opponents in longer games as well. I consider him to be solid IM strength, but titles are hard to get when you live in an area where you easily outrate the competition and nobody holds tournaments that can give you norms.
Cigan has a very dynamic attacking style and he's not at all afraid to sacrifice for initiative. He's very well prepared in his openings, he studies very hard and has improved rapidly. I think he'll surprise a lot of people with his play, especially if they underestimate him for not having a FIDE title.
As for Tarjan and Smail, both are relative newcomers to Portland. I've only played them once or twice, so I don't feel comfortable summarizing how they play. I've played both Raptis and Cigan more times than I can count.
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Here's our intro article from the league page, for any of you who may have missed it. One quick correction: Raptis and Breckenridge are both FMs, even though the article only credits them with the NM title.
https://www.chess.com/news/view/gm-james-tarjan-re-enters-team-play-with-portland-rain-2163