SEN most likely wont keep their form (serious)

this isn't a bait thread btw, ive been seeing a few of those lately, this is a ramble post tho

the meta in this game is a lot more important than you think honestly. Teams with the earliest meta reads almost always perform better than those who are still lagging behind, and this sort of rule is even more present down the line as the teams with the early reads go on to refine themselves and their gameplay. LOUD performed to their peak during LOCK//IN despite it being an entirely new meta after the death of Chamber that they just won Champs with, they are the prime example of what makes a great team great, their ability to ACTUALLY prove that they can adapt to a world-class level.

SEN on the other hand found themselves questioning their comps during must-win matches in Americas especially after convincing losses, they lagged out finding their place on certain maps due to uncertainty, and the lack of proper igling can be both seen as the outcome AND at the same the problem to this issue (seeing dephh's success last year on XSET however, it wouldn't be crazy to lean towards the former). Too little change though is also bad at the same time of course, 100T during the same tourney is that example.

SEN didn't suddenly become greek gods or whatever, the comps that are currently being ran (mainly around Cypher) is the meta they've adopted and even popularized to the T since the start of the pre season. They found their comfort that works best optimally and have been seeing abnormal growth because of it. Teamplay and coordination becomes way easier and more relaxed as a result, and if this meta continued then these guys are obviously gonna be top tier for 2024.

But the issue I'm addressing is that we're very obviously going to see another meta change heading into VCT 2024. These guys found their shit at the worst time possible, because now they gotta do it all over again but this time during the pressure of the actual ongoing season. If they lag behind, they're gonna be fucked and its going to be visible. What they showed from us is their performance with a great meta read which looks really insane btw, but then again it's honestly a certainty that their current form will change (for the better if that's even possible or most likely for the worst) once Kick Off begins.

what we've seen from them so far have only been good news, but that can all crumble down within two weeks give or take, hell it's even possible that they've gotten too comfortable with the current meta now. If they performed like this during the start of VCT, then they're pretty much set for the rest of the year because we rarely see heavy meta shifts during a season, but this is the off season unfortunately lol.

allat

If the igling and coaching are great and quick to understand and adapt what is needed i think they wont suffer at all, + all the 5 players have atleast 2 years of competitive and are all top tier at their roles, i dont see them falling odf bcz of meta

bro is actually cooking

TLDR; idk, I ain’t readin allat

So, they showed they are good at playing the defined meta, but haven’t created anything, which caps their skill level since a top team can overwhelm them with new metas?

Interesting argument
Don’t agree nor disagree, but if 2024 proves this then you will be a man with a huge W in analyzing

so they wont keep their form because theres a chance any team in the league wont be in good form?

Yappin

spittin.
however, they are all so flexible (outside of maybe tenz) so idt that they will face any problems
johnqt on perma senti hes fine.
zekken is gods gift to duelists, insane mechs, can play every duelist ever created.
sacy recon initiator is better than his skye, so if skye falls out of meta, hes still fine.
zellsis is p good too. not too worried about their prospects after a meta shift

they will still have their best form ever even if it will become worse

Right now it doesnt look like the meta is going to change very severely as there isnt an agent that is as OP as old Chamber. At the start of 2023 there was a huge meta shift due to 2 reasons : (i) Chamber got nerfed hard making him not viable on most of the maps. (ii) Harbor was introduced and he had good util.
We didnt have any agent absolutely dominating and getting free kills this year and the new agents we got are Deadlock and ISO ☠️There will certainly be new interesting comps coming next year but the old comps will still be relevant and wont feel like those comps fell off meta.

Sentinels definetly wont have the meta change problem because, first of all they defined meta on sunset which means theyve a very good idea on the meta. and second they are a veryyy flexible team, even in the past few months we saw tenz go from initiator main to controller player, pancada out zellsis in- its not like they had the most consistency role wise.

The reason why Sentinels will be good next year is because during afreeca TV they showed every player was fundamentally good and understood team play and team fighting. It looked like every single person was on the same page following the game plan which is far more important than sticking to meta. Proof of which is old FPX (NAVI), they didnt play a single meta comp during 2022 but they won a championship because the players made a really good team.

This is a solid take.

TLDR:
Being good in the off season doesn’t mean you will be good when the season starts because of the large patch that happens before kickoff.