What teams to watch out for in your region?

Just trying to catch up the scence before Berlin.
Aside from VS and F4Q who are already decided, which teams are favorites in your region?

Sen are still looking dominant but Envy has assembled some serious fragging power w/ FNS as a strong IGL they could be very good, TSM is on the rise rn and they could be very competitive now that they have had some more time as a squad

Zeta Division and Crazy Raccoon are the current best teams in Japan with Northeption which has Korean Jett(Seoldam) as it's Jett/Skye player. Northeption may make an upset here with the addition of Ten which has seemed to make the team look better. But Crazy Raccoon are most likely still reaching Masters 3: Berlin.

probably Soniqs. They're undefeated in NA right now so i think they might stand a chance at winning Berlin.

Team Vikings - the best and the most consistent team in Brazil(won masters 1 and stage 2 challengers finals ).

Sharks Esports - They recently were in Europe to bootcamp, scrimmed against the top EMEA teams, people are really curious to see how much they improved.

Stars Horizon - A "new team" that were able to beat a couple of top teams in Brazil, I'm curious to see how they will perform.

Gamelanders Blue - They have the best Brazilian player(mwzera) and probably the best Astra in the country(Belky).

These are the 4 teams who are the favorites imo, some Brazilians may disagree with this list.

Kinda tough for NA, best team in region just disbanded, they were sure to win Berlin (RIP Brimstone Gaming)

NA - contenders are probably SEN, 100T, NV, XSET, TSM.

EMEA - heavy favorites are ACE and G2, some teams that can surprise are SMB and Gambit. FPX and Guild are also up there.

SEA - the map pools of teams from this region are very weird, making top teams drop maps left and right, even if the game should not have been close at all. x10 is still very very heavy favorite, as sushiboys is slotting well into patiphan's role while zeus plays his old role. for the other teams, i think anyone can make it the rest is a very close race.

JP - The 3 top teams are Zeta, CR, and Nth. Zeta is rebranded Absolute Jupiter, and they are probably in their best form since first strike currently. CR even after going a huge roster move still looks very strong. Nth have Seoldam (korean jett) so they are a fan favorite for fans outside of japan. their most recent addition, "ten," is making them look a lot better.

BR - favorites are still VKS, even though they haven't been looking nearly as strong as masters 1 & 2. the rest will be a close race. Sharks are consistent top finishers, GLB have the best player in the BR region (mwzera), and stars horizon are on the rise, and took down vikings recently. Furia is not doing their best, but I would not count them out.

LATAM - KRU is still looking as a favorite, and are looking even better with keznit. the other 3 teams in contention, 6k, inf, and australs all have a close to equal chance. I can see all of them beating each other.

KR - We already know 😁

S TIER
*Acend (They look really strong. I expected them to be worse after Zeek addition but they became stronger. Team chemisty looks perfect. They don't just play the game, they also feel it especially starxo lol.)

A TIER
*G2 (They had created a superteam after a huge disappointment and they became succesful. Nukkye, koldamenta and Avova were perfect additions. However, their chemisty has to be improved. They need time but even their firepower is enough to be A tier team.)

*FPX (For me they are the most unpredictable team in Eu because they play perfect until clutchtime. They didn't prefer to have jett in their past comps which was a bad idea but Shao started to play jett in some matches at challengers 1. I would pick a new jett player instead of forcing Shao to play jett because I believe he is the best sova in Eu. Moving Shao to jett may help them to play better in clutchtime as a good jett can create comfort zone for other players.)

*Liquid (I hesitated to put Liquid on A tier because they hardly get a spot. However, we have to give credit to teams which participated in the Masters. They didn't have enough time to rest and create new tactics. The main problem with Liquid is Scream played kay'o in challengers 2 and they hardly won their first matches. They understood the problem and stoped to overthinking. If you have an aim like Scream just give him a flexible agent.)

B TIER
*Gambit (The best CIS team. Their loses against Team Finest and Gydom Galva were surprise but I think they didn't care this tournament.)

*Guild (The first challengers' surprise. They play really good but I don't think God Leo will be enough to get a spot for Berlin.)

*SMB (New Turkish superteam. I understand the expectations but It would be surprise if they qualify for Berlin because they are a new team and they couldn't work a lot because of Brave's health issues and Paura's marriage.)

*Giants (Surprise of Challengers 2. They play good and if someone helps F1tinho maybe they can qualify but it looks difficult.)

Even though it might be impossible, I wanna see some SEA teams such as BREN, X10, Paper Rex upset some teams that will qualify from EU and NA

VS (just another asian team to wipe out everyone including americans and europeans lol)

ACEND's tier seems to be superior to other teams. Fpx Guild and G2 are behind. It would not be surprising if Team liquid and SuperMassiveBlaze qualify.

For SEA: There's quite the amount of teams that honestly could cause quite a coinflip if they were to match up against international teams. Region-wise,

Thailand is pretty much still the best region. X10 hasn't exactly lost a step even with Patiphan not playing, and with the addition of FULL SENSE and Sharper, they might bring the big guns now.

Indonesia is interesting, however. With the self-immolation of NXL LIGAGAME, new teams have stepped up onto the mantle. Alter Ego finally rediscovering their form in the early stages of SEA competition. BOOM Esports had a rough time, but they finally made it up in Challengers 3 with the addition of fl1pzjder. However, ONIC is a real sleeper team. They've always been a good fringe T1 / top T2 team, but with the addition of Monyet, they might surprise some folks.

The Philippines is an interesting one as well. Bren making it to the playoffs is to be expected, but with Zeal (ex-6045Pirates) gone, the return of Galaxy Racer (ex-Ark Angel) and the rise of Oasis Gaming should bring a fresh new outlook for PH teams coming into the next stage of VCT SEA.

MY/SG is pretty much the Paper Rex show, but with UwU defeating them on Challengers 2, MY/SG might not be a solo performance for much longer.

HK/TW is also pretty much the CBT Gaming show. KPC dissolved and absorbed some of its members to CBT, a practically super team within the sub-region. Five Ace is a team that has always been on the fringes but gets cut off by either CBT or KPC in the past, so it's nice to see them moving up the ladder.

Vietnam is pretty much somewhat unknown. I have faith, but their limited showing in the last Challengers Playoffs might cloud my judgment. Team Big BAAM (ex-SYG) might be their best shot so far, but on the other side, I have zero idea how EGO would perform.

At the end of the day, I'd expect X10 to be the surefire representative, with either BOOM or Bren behind.