When is Team Liquid going to field a competitive roster and win trophies? Bring back Scream, Redgar, and Sliggy.
The way to build rosters, in any sport, is to start with a strong supporting staff and find individual players that work. They've finally STARTED that side of it. They've been stuck on a poor roster construction since 2022 Champs when L1nk got dropped. Even if you don't love eMil, they've gotten a full staff and have gotten rid of most of the old guard. From there, you go the full season and see what works. Keiko already looks like a smash pickup, I still have confidence in nats and enzo. If they don't win this year, they can drop 1-2 dead weight pieces and dip their finger into either T2, or get a splash pickup on the lines of a dropped NAVI or FNC player. IDK why you're complaining now when this is the first time in over a year that it seems like they have the right plan.
Look I don't want to go into the details of roster building because that takes time. Of course, support staff is important but most important is players that can win trophies and perform on the biggest stage. Enzo has already lost a final and Mistic has lost 2 finals and are rejected by one of the best teams in EMEA. They shouldn't get a chance to play in T1 until they prove in T2 and prove their potential. Last year FNATIC picked Chronicle (Big game player and champion), and Leo (Biggest talent in EMEA). If you don't want to take that route then pick all young and upcoming talent and build team cohesion and structure like what KCorp is doing.
We're really gonna act like Enzo didn't go 24-2 in T2 last year? Act like Mistic didn't average over a 1.2 rating over the whole year? What more do they need to prove in T2 to deserve another T1 shot? They literally were the most successful players that weren't on the team that got ascended. It is very rare that a team can just pickup 4 young players and an unproven IGL and it works. For every Kcorp there's a TS, a KRU, an MIBR. You can't expect a team to be good because other teams were outliers. They didn't have the chance to pickup Leo and Chronicle, but they pretty much did as well as they could given their situation, minus the Sayf decision.
Keiko was the best duelist they could've gotten
Jamppi and Nats were by far their best two players last year that weren't Sayf(again that was botched)
Enzo was the best IGL in T2
Mistic was the highest rated controller player in all of EMEA, and historically how many controller players are better than Mistic?
No one expects them to win a LAN with this team, and its unrealistic to expect that. But if 3/5 of these guys look like true building blocks, why can't they be a true competitor as soon as early 2025? Let's say Keiko, Enzo and Nats are all still great players and they have to replace Jamppi and Mistic. If any of the NAVI or FNC boys becomes a free agent they would be the top destination, same with someone like Trexx, Cloud, N4rrate, Kicks, Riens etc. Add one of those guys, a young T2 player and is that any different than how FNC did it? Not really.
First of all, ratings don't matter if you lose the most important match of your career without giving a tough fight. Of course, Enzo and Mistic are good but are they T1 category players competing at the highest level and on LAN, I heavily doubt that. If you want to build a team that will win trophies or even qualify for the biggest tournaments then you need to sign heavy hitters. You cannot compromise on that. At the start of 2024, everyone predicted TL wouldn't qualify for a Masters and the reason is clear. Enzo has time and again proven that he gets nervous during high-stakes matches and so does Mistic and that's a key quality of Champions. Take the example of Leo, Shao, Derke, Alfajer, and many more.
And of course, I don't want to discuss the quality of T2 in EMEA when compared to NA.