First of all i want to clarify that I don't think he's a baiter and he's the best mechanical player oat. With that being said at what point should we start questioning the fact that in the only international trophy that he won, he was the "worst" rated player of his team. My point is, what if maybe every team that he's been on after LOUD is using him wrong, maybe the best way to play with Aspas is not to feed him kills all the time, maybe it's to all 5 play as a team and let the rest shine a little bit more. For example this year, the second best player on MIBR was Cortezia (senti), usually as a sentinel you don't have any utility to enable your duelist, so he can be more focused on himself and he's by far the best of the rest. I think everybody else is so focused on playing for Aspas (which I think is pretty reasonable) that they forget to have some ego and play for themselves a little bit more, plus it probably doesn't help at the end of the day to check the scoreboard and see him +30 and the rest in negative.
Aspas's teammates/coaches.
he's not the best mechanical player oat. demon1 and yay are his equals. Apart from that this is a good take.
if we're talking strictly mechanically then yes their primes are equal to aspas
aspas doesn't do anything mechanically that would put him above any of these people. everyone else just plays around him, and he op crutches on defense
even my boy sato if improves and becomes more consistent he is going to be in that list lilbro, Demon1 in DRG showed us some insane shots that were just raw aim, in other hand, Yay prime was known to be one of the best mechanical players in the game but the guy right now I wouldn't consider him in the debate.
Agreed, his team really plays for him which works out well but atp we've got to question if its better to just let players be more selfish and share the burden of frags like how its divided in FNC between Chron/Alfa/Kaajak or how PRX splits with all their players
your argument is just dumb. they were a few rounds away from beating fnc, drx and nrg, 3 of the top 4 at champs. if the system was that bad they wouldnt even be close to those wins. aspas being +30 is literally the reason they were even in those games
mibr problem was inexperience. they failed to win clutches against nrg and failed to hold multiple ecos against drx
lill buddy NRG also has 3 rookies and they all went negative... its just in the important rounds they played better, their experienced player S0M clutched up while the other team didnt
while nrg rookies showed up and got 6 of their 7 clutches in that game, mibr rookies felt the inexperience more. thats just natural every player reacts differently under pressure
nrg "rookies" like brawk and mada aren't really rookies in terms of experience
https://www.vlr.gg/25203/sentinels-vs-pioneers-champions-tour-north-america-stage-3-challengers-1-lr2
skuba was playing prime sen in 2021 is all I'm saying
NRG does not have rookies. This is a misconception because people can't tell what was T1 before 2023. They were on top tier NA challengers teams (AKA playoffs) since 2021 and almost went to internationals more than once. They're also on their early to mid 20s while MIBR ones are not even 20 (except Xenom who is 22)
It's with posts like these that you can tell who actually watched 22 Champs and who didn't
22 Champs is irrelevant for these discussions though
Back then he was a pretty normal duelist in terms of playstyle. Talented for sure, but he just played "normal" entry duelist.
His stat profile also reflected this.
This discussions surrounds his new hyper carry playstyle and the tradeoffs this heavy investment into accommodating your superstar brings.
I agree i'm mentioning it because people (including OP) uses the argument of him having a "bad" rating in Champions 22 like he was Loud's worst player when it doesn't properly translate his impact on the tournament, especially the final. He was a lot more reckless back then and died a lot which fucked his rating; Sacy even recognizes his evolution on waiting for util and playing more safe
Disclaimer: I havent gone back to vod review any mibr games yet, so this is mostly based on 2024 Lev
I believe its a viable playstyle, with major tradeoffs.
One thing Id note is that from what I remember watching MIBR live, I dont think they really invested an unusual amount of util into setting up Aspas (couple drx-esque plays, but its normal for those)
Lev was essentially definitive proof that you can fully lean into entrying without your duelist as a spearhead. Even when teams knew how Lev wanted to play, they REALLY struggled to stop them.
The current meta being so well suited to double duelist makes this especially potent imo, since its easy to just slap a duelist into the comp when your comp gets figured out (/doesnt work in the first place).
For Aspas specifically the addition of Waylay (as well as him being a lot more confident individually this champs) is a gamechanger. His positions were a lot more unpredictable this time around.
Yoru next (cope).
However I dont think this can ever catch on as a major style.
It just looks like so much work for the coaches to create a playbook around it. But we're at 2 for 2 with great success now, soooooooo...
Additionally its also not exactly ideal to have your more valuable roles put their life on the line to entry (but again... 2 for 2). Im just not sure how they would be able to overcome the Lev vs TH hurdle from last year (TH proper prep + designed not to give Aspas easy picks)
Id love for MIBR to stay together just so we get a proper sample. How well do other teams adapt and are the coaches able to stay ahead?
Im just really happy they were able to transition to this hype-carry gameplan after Toronto so quickly; so huge props to everyone on MIBR ngl.
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