EMEA as a region is not strong and it's not good for the quality of competition at Champs that EMEA is getting the extra LCQ slot
how did EMEA perform at Tokyo?
FNC went 4-0 (champions, 1st place)
NAVI went 0-2 (11th-12th place)
FUT went 1-2 (9th-10th place)
TL went 1-2 (5th-6th place)
for a total of 6-6 and a 50% winrate. other than FNC, the rest of EMEA went 2-6 and their only wins came against China (FUT 2-1 ASE, TL 2-1 EDG)
i'm going to start with an NA comparison and then extend it to include BR/LATAM as well, i'm only doing this because a lot of the trash talking and comparisons are between EMEA and NA specifically, not between EMEA and Americas as a whole
how did NA perform at Tokyo?
EG went 5-2 (runner-up, 2nd place)
NRG went 4-2 (4th place)
for a total of 9-3 and a 75% winrate.
even including LOUD going 0-2 (7th-8th place), Americas as a whole went 9-5 with a ~64% winrate.
how did Pacific perform at Tokyo?
PRX went 3-2 (3rd place)
DRX went 2-3 (7th-8th place)
T1 went 1-2 (9th-10th place)
for a total of 6-7 and a ~46% winrate.
how did China perform at Tokyo?
EDG went 3-3 (5th-6th place)
ASE went 0-2 (11th-12th place)
for a total of 3-5 and a 37.5% winrate.
while FNC is undoubtedly the strongest team in the world at the moment and they rightfully deserve the Masters trophy, I think that EMEA honestly doesn't deserve them. if you're going to have a team that wins to give your region an extra slot you would expect a lot more from the rest of the region, at least a better performance than 2-6 from the other 3 teams.
looking at the quality of competition in the LCQ too, EMEA's seems to honestly be the least competitive. NAVI is clearly the favorite (despite flopping at Tokyo), and GIA is probably the favorite to take home the second spot, but not necessarily because GIA is really that good but because the rest of the region just kind of... sucks? KCORP, KOI, and TH have been some of the biggest jokes in the franchising league so far, and while BBL has impressed at times there's a reason they only managed to go 3-6. and... that's it? that covers the entirety of the EMEA LCQ competition, NAVI is almost guaranteed to take a spot while the other spot will almost certainly go to GIA or MAYBE BBL if they can somehow pull off the upset
the bottom of the other regions is obviously not great either, DFM and KRU are 0-18 combined and MIBR managed to look even worse than KRU for most of the season, but I honestly think they are pretty comparable to KOI/KC/TH. sure those teams might have 2 wins each, but when you match two trashcans against each other someone has to win right?
looking at the favorites for each region, the clear favorite in Americas is C9, the clear favorite in EMEA is NAVI, and in PAC it's not really clear at all but based on playoff results it would probably be Gen.G. but what would the other regions have had to offer with the EXTRA LCQ slot, OTHER than the favorite?
Americas has LEV/FUR to offer as decently solid teams with potential, with SEN/100T being possible sleepers (if they get their shit together).
Pacific has TS/ZETA as pretty solid teams as well, and other than DFM all of the other teams have shown some potential too, even 9th place TLN started to heat up near the end of league play.
EMEA has Giants i guess? and... BBL as a somewhat okay sleeper?
(remember I'm excluding the favorites to win LCQ from these lists since this is referring to the second LCQ slot)
I might be biased but I would definitely take LEV/FUR or TS/ZETA over GIA/BBL.
TL;DR: FNC is an amazing team and I'm glad to see them succeed, it's just kind of disappointing that they're earning their region extra spots when the rest of their region frankly just seems undeserving of them and doesn't seem like they're up to the level of the other regions