I think realistically you could put Sheydos or Nukkye in at sentinel instead of Alfa and be fine, and Suygetsu is still probably the better individual on the role. After that I really think the only one I'll give you is Sayf for Derke. Leo and Chronicle are so far ahead of the rest, and Ange1 and Redgar are fine but rn Boaster is out calling and more importantly performing at a far higher individual level that I don't think any of them are replaceable. Cloud is great, redgar and ange1 are great minds, but those 3 don't have anyone close, and IDEK who in emea has the closest agent pool to chronicle, maybe Atakaptan?

For sure
M80(I just don't see them not winning ascension)
Trent and Valyn and Flyuh should almost be assured
After that it gets really weird, how many spots in NA '24 are open? SEN and 100T IGL for sure IMO but that's Valyn and Flyuh. After that I feel like NRG and EG stay the exact same, and C9 probably isn't changing anything knowing how MCE runs teams.
From there SEN's roster looks set as long as they have an IGl, but if pancada and sacy leave it would just be Trent and Valyn. I also doubt Tenz or Marved are moved even if they had their struggles(Tenz at the start and Marved after he had to IGL)

Maybe Verno comes in for Derrek at 100T, but apart from that Asuna Cryo and Bang probably are and should be untouchable, even if Bang and Asuna had some lowlights at the end.

So of non M80 players? My bet is really on four players. Now if guys like Ardiis or Tenz get moved on from I can for sure see Yay or Tex back up into the big leagues, and maybe if Jakee isn't seen as the answer C9 can actually get Skuba this time, or if Marved wants to go back to content and stay in Canada Thief could get a shot, but either way I think 4 is the number we see with potential of maybe 2 more given random leaving players.

The ones to look out for most at each position I'd say (not gonna add m80 players)

IGL: Valyn Flyuh
Duelist: Tex Yay(back in T1 he can be a star)
Initiator: Trent Verno
Smokes: Skuba Thief
Sentinel: neT Aproto
Flex: JonahP Nature

The closest we'd get to a super team is
Tenz Duelist
Zekken Flex
Trent Sova
Valyn IGL
Marved
with one on smokes other spending literally all offseason learning kj and the new sentinel.

Atleast Denmark has Avova, look at the best german player lol. Luckerr? Musashi?

It's a great meta for them lol

Jett is the best duelist and Neon is relevant, they don't have a star chamber or raze
Skye and breach are the most played initiators, both Stax's best characters
Info initiators are weaker than usual, they don't have a high level sova/fade
Controllers are absurdly meta, they have the best ITW
KJ is the only good sentinel, Buzz is great on KJ

There hasn't been a better meta for them in ages.

Stax and Mak0 are the only ones whose roles really makes sense. Buzz I'm confident can play both duelist and KJ and even kay/o but he will eventually need to commit. From there, they don't have a star star jett player/awper and no one is proficient on info initiators. Just seems like even though Rb plays a lot of agents he isn't particularly special on any aside from Neon. He's the teams third best duelist, initiator, and second choice sentinel. It's cool that he can go from neon to astra to kj in a game but if that's not winning them matches and sometimes it's hurting them why force it?

no meddo yes Wedid

dephh
yay
meddo
zeek
sinatraa

zyppan is another example, one of the better players in the world, won a LAN, and has under 40k subs with no twitch. Dude plays the easiest character to farm content on and he's like top 3 in the world at it, just tweet and stream a bit more and if ur career somehow goes to shit you have something to fall back on.

That's why every notable esports player should set up some sort of stream or brand. The fact that a guy like Kiles won a LAN and speaks three languages yet has no stream archives at all is stupid. It's already worked out amazingly for the SEN roster and even the GMB guys who all have some sort of following.

Literally all they need to do is stop being stubborn and learn the intiators that are good. When they won they thrived because the only initiators you really had to know where kayo and fade, which shao and zyppan are number one in the world on in each. Now they're too stubborn to actually commit to having shao learn breach and skye and for zyppan and cned to expand their agent pools. Don't change up the roster, but cned needs to let zyppan play raze in favor of him either doing the demon1 brim thing.

beyn
buzz
xeta
stax
mak0
Eraser HC

well no one is claiming dgzin or heat are better than aspas and derke after less than 10 international games, and he played in the weakest region and he's a great player of course he'd look good.

You're basing this off of three games?

All I'm saying is Zest still performs better than RB has at LAN and he's been their oldest member bar stax yet they haven't won with him at any international event

Their new Lotus comp is undefeated and Loud outplayed them on bind. Their current form is much higher on Lotus, especially when Navi is 33% WR and doesn't have a set comp yet

NAVI Ban Haven (perma)
NRG ban Ascent (their worst, NAVI best map)

Navi pick Pearl
NRG pick Lotus

Navi ban Bind
NRG ban Fracture

Split Remains

This pool likely favors NRG but we also really don't know what NAVI will play on split or Lotus. Have played 9 different comps on the two maps but I think Lotus will likely be fade jett vs skye neon, IMO favoring NRG on their map pick. NRG does have strength on Pearl but have been shakier on it recently. It will be the true test of harbors strength, as them beating NAVI on their likely map pick while they don't run it would probably convince the world of Harbor's strength.

Split is where it is interesting because I think NRG win if NAVI doesn't match their double duelist comp. Victor + Ardiis on duelist will just overwhelm the solo Jett IMO, and not running Zyppan Raze would be troll. That, IMO, is the decider, and if Zyppan doesn't come out as Raze on Split I think NRG takes this 2-1(

I'm pretty sure I could name 15 better Raze players than cNed at this event.

after a year and a half of IGLing on and off what does he have to show for that?

he's not that good of an IGL and that's what they need rn

His KJ is for sure the best in the T2 scene and I'd argue he's probably the best of all NA players ATM

I mean look at their playoff stats rn Tex would for sure be favored

They have two Jett players in a meta that only has one viable double duelist map, and Penny has failed to learn the flex role in time(IMO he's by far the worst flex of the playoff teams.) Dapr can't play KJ even though it's 2023, Shaz is a good not great IGL and they don't enable Oxy at all since the MSFO.

is Tex the weak link? Isn't he like top 3 among jett players in rating and acs?

TSM are trolling if they dont get him or Penny

mak0
qw1
Saadhak
cauanzin
nukkye

How is leaf not there?

FNS
Leaf
Crashies

Should be locks

IMO from there you go s0m or marved and then victor/ethan/demon/zekken based on what roles and what form you most care about for the other 4 players.

I just noticed I said a year ago instead of start of they year I'm a goober

DRX's first games

it doesnt help that his IGL picked reyna instead of skye and Yay has died like 3 times where having long form flashes would've helped him get a multikill or at worst survive

There's a reason a lot of these teams are struggling. Literally just biting the bullet and learning how to play harbor and spamming viper on most maps would help so many of these struggling teams. No reason a team like OR shouldn't be playing optimal comps

Sova was meta on pearl a year ago LMFAO

Turkey is up there

I'd argue this is the best supporting cast we've seen on TSM since the OG roster. Nature is insane and kanpeki,even when his fragging isn't at the level you like, knows how to play flash characters very well. If N4rrate can look this good with trick and blackheart I feel like he could excel on TSM

-corey +n4rrate

Corey has consistently been pretty much a raze one trick and no matter if he's tried to be put on jett, chamber, sova, skye or even gekko it just doesn't work. When he's on raze he's one of the best in NA, but you can't keep a guy around who will only be solid on 3 maps max(if the map pool even favors that). N4rrate is by far the best player in the relegation map and is one of the brightest prospects in T2, and TSM's main downsides this past year have been 2 things.

1. consistent IGLing and
   2. a star fragger.

gMd can work on the IGLing in the break and I think he, Kanpeki, Nature, and Seven(who I used to be very critical of) can create a very solid lineup with no obvious agent pool or fragging weaknesses, we just need to see them bring in a fragger that can contend with babybay, tex, koala, sym, etc and n4rrate is just that.

On paper a roster of
N4rrate duelist
Kanpeki flashes+sage
Nature sova viper flex(similar to the way runi does it)
gMd igl and controller(learning harbor)
seven sentinel with a bit of jett flexibility for a map like split
Engh as head coach
Could be one of the top 3-4 in NA next year.

C9
MEGA TIER BREAK
SEN
Furia
LEV
100T
(in that order)
Tier break
MIBR
KRU

Yes they're probably number 3 if Something can play.

Every player to ever play with FNS got substantially better after joining his team(I guess ardiis being the one exception) but guys he's just really lucky

Feels like 7 teams all have a really good chance to win

Zander>Skuba>thief>>>>wippie/valyn/v1c

zyppan

They're all good not great players and Bonecold is a good not great IGL. They seem like they'll be a perpetually mid team but I also don't think any singular player deserves dropping.

I have gotten downvoted for saying he's not a top 5 flex ITW and have had multiple people put him in the top 3 convo he's disgustingly overrated.

I just think he got really overrated from the S1 run. He definitely didn't carry as Sugarz3ro was by far their best player, and though he was a good chamber the only people that played chamber back then were all better than him. Since then he's kind of had this icon status because of the Japanese popularity(I see it similar to early mixwell where he was just extremely popular but hasn't backed it up much) but hasn't actually been good since that stage. In s2 when they didn't qual he got chamber diffed by 2 different NTH players, and since 2023 started he's just been good not great. I personally just see him as an average player but because of his popularity and one tournament where he stole the spotlight from a more deserving teammate I feel like people still think of him as some top tier player.

I disagree I personally think NZR has had the better Sova and Skye for a while but I think Mazino is better in a flex role where he was playing fade and kayo and viper. I think he definitely gets hurt by Kingg being such a good flex player but I still just don't rate him that high.

I've personally been more impressed by NZR throughout the season but the argument is there. In general LEV's roster is a bit dysfunctional atm.

I say Rb because we do this every time with him. The Rb circle starts in open quals when DRX shits on teams and looks amazing, he looks good but the level of competition is bad. Then they get to LAN and his group stage is good as they get easily through bad teams. Once playoffs get around, however, he's statistically one of the worst players at every single playoff and frags at the level of an IGL. The problem is that he does that for 2 games, they get bounced, and people forget. Then group stages come around, he looks good for 10 games, and everyone calls him a top 3 flex ITW. It's just a boring cycle and I hate that he gets called top 3 ITW as a flex when he is consistently the worst playoff performer of all time.

I'd argue d4v4i is one of the most underrated players ITW atm

C9
GIA/BBL if FUT doesn't qual, NAVI/TL if they do
Zeta or GES

Where do u rank him among sentinel players? I feel like the consensus is he's top 3-4 and I really don't see an argument any other way. I do think he skips by criticism for being not great on KJ too much but apart from that, and especially after playoffs, there's no way in my mind he's not top 4.

Nukkye
Cloud
Hoody
qw1
Bonecold