hello vlr! recently graduated (AKA unemployed) journalist here.
Since I've finished my studies, I've missed writing paragraph upon paragraph so I thought I'd do a post on how I would rebuild each Americas team going into next year. This is MY opinions and these are not based on leaks, but I will try to keep things logical (LEV picking up academy players EG and C9 not paying massive buyouts etc.).
Before we get into it, I want to say that I think that E-Xolos will win ascension 2025, so I wont be using any of their players for the rebuilds, and any other tier 2 players are fair game for me to put in any teams. I'll also try to build balanced teams, and give an idea on how roles/ comps would look on each team. I'm gonna go in order of least changes to most changes, and I'll do a part two post for LATAM and BR tomorrow so if you wanna look at the South America rosters but not the NA ones then let me save you reading the whole thing for nothing. I'll also give a little explanation for my thought process for each team :D
NA:
Team: G2 (0 changes)
Players (roles): you know what they are... smh my head
Explanation: Boring start but you can't really expect me to change a team that won back-to-back-to-back Americas titles, so G2s main priority should be resigning their 4 free agent players and their staff, which should be easy to do because they pay the most alongside SEN in Americas
Team: SEN (1 change)
Players (roles):
Zekken (duelist)
N4RRATE (sentinel, 2nd duelist, 2nd initiator)
Bang (controller)
VERNO (initiator)
Zellsis IGL (sentinel, viper)
Explanation: YES I know that this will be very unpopular with SEN fans, so hear me out before you say "Keep John Drop Zellsis". I think SEN did not replace what Sacy brought to the team, which was great initiator play, which is why I've chosen Verno as I am putting MIBR back to a Portuguese speaking team and his contract is expiring. I would have N4RRATE pick up some sentinel in comps where SEN would run a double controller with Zellsis as the viper, and he would also be this teams second initiator/duelist in any comps where they run two of those roles.
Now for the controversial bit, I think in this hypothetical rebuild, Zellsis would be better for this team because of his ability to manage players mental. Verno has been on two teams whose vibes, N4RRATE doesn't seem too horrible but not a mental giant either and I watched bang tilt on 100T for 3 years, so imo this team would need to keep Zellsis over John because he would honestly need to keep the winning mentality of this team intact, and while I dont know the players or SEN as better as someone who is a proud citizen of SEN city, I do think that this team could mentally implode if they kept John. Plus, Rob Moore seems to LOVE Zellsis, to the point where I question whether they rub each others heads at night (dont ask me which heads)
If it really makes you piss your pants that I would choose to keep Zellsis over John, just swap them in your heads because they are both playing the same roles and both are IGLing in this headcanon of mine, so just swap them and keep it pushin
Team: NRG (1 change)
Players (roles):
Mada (duelist)
Ethan (flash initiator, fade, omen)
Skuba (controller)
Brawk (recon initiator, sentinel)
JOHNQT IGL (sentinel, viper)
Explanation: I think that s0m will retire after this year, especially after champs, and with Ethans IGLing looking a bit one-dimensional at times and JohnQTs contract expiring, I think that he'd make a great fit in this NRG team. They get to move Skuba onto his comfort roles full-time, while keeping John on his best roles too. It would also allow Ethan to go back to midrounding instead of doing prebarrier calls, and him and John feels like the modern version of him and Boostio on EG.
Team: 100 Thieves (2 changes)
Players (roles):
TIMOTINO (duelist)
eeiu (initiator)
Zander IGL (controller)
Cryo (Sentinel, second duelist)
KYU (viper, second initiator, some sentinel)
Explanation: considering they have some of the worst role issues and some of the worst retakes and postplants, 100T being consistently top 6 in Americas for the last two years says everything about their talent in a good way, which is ruined by poor coaching and team building. I'm not talking about coaching in this post as I dont know enough about coaches and who would fit best, so I decided to fix 100Ts roles at least.
Let's start with Zander, I actually dont think he did too bad contextually as an IGL. He hadn't IGLed for nearly a year before being thrown in at the deep end, with a new player who'd never played sentinel before. With a functioning team and better coaching staff and a full offseason to build chemistry, I think that Zander has potential as an IGL, especially with vocal guys in eeiu and Kyu to help him midround. Cryo would be a perfect fit for sentinel, some ppl bring up the Trust in Plug loss from last offseason but ppl forget he topfragged both Cypher games, with that being his first time on the agent. With a full offseason to learn it, I think that he would benefit greatly from the Meteor/Leaf pathway.
Team: Cloud9 (changes)
Players (roles):
OXY (duelist)
v1c (controller)
Mitch IGL (second initiator, sentinel)
C0M (initiator)
SATELLITE (sentinel, viper)
Explanation: C9 are in a somewhat easy position compared to teams like 100T and EG because they have a very obvious core worth building around. OXY and v1c are two future superstars, and I personally think mitch is a solid IGL, but what they missed most this year is a good recon initiator. I think c0m would bring great initiator play and good leadership, almost what neT currently does but on a role which C9 is desperate for, and I think Satellite has shown some great flashes of who he could be on Cubert this year.
Team: Evil Geniuses (4 changes)
Players (roles):
ALYM (duelist)
OKEANOS (2nd duelist, omen, 2nd initiator)
ASUNA (initiator)
NERVE IGL (controller, viper in double controller, sova)
yay (sentinel)
Explanation: EG last year just lacked firepower. They somehow had a worse duelist than Asuna in Icy, Derrek and Supamen were streaky and Nature also struggled with consistency while IGLing. The deciding factor to keep yay was partially because he has shown flashes of brilliance, but also for business reasons because lets be real who GAF about EG if not yay fans. For the rest of the team, Alym is looking really promising as a duelist and will be available as a free agent, Okeanos I think looking promising but I have him leaving LEV so they can go back to being full South America. Michael "nerve" Yerrow has been getting active for years now and has IGLed QOR to an overperformance this split, while showing that he can play roles other than controller to a high standard. Asuna is probably a somewhat controversial pick, but I think that he would look a much better player than he currently does if he was full time initiator in a low-pressure environment, instead of having 100T fans breathing down his neck and being depressed every split. He also midrounds well, which would add a lot of value to this team.
(LATAM and BR in separate post)
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