They literally fed against the Viper. No flashes, just going in dry through the walls.

This could be forZe vs Liquid...

Guild lost to this.

With the scorelines Gambit have had and the form they've shown, I would not be surprised to see Gambit take this.

What's even more funny about that win is, that they(CC) played with their coach subbed in as well. Fnatic should sub in their coach and it's a free 2-0.

C9B + V1 go to Iceland... Jk... Unless?

:D

I feel bad, that VS didn't make it through, but at the same time I'm excited, that Korea is finally to the point, where they get regularly challenged.

I guess it's to counter antistratting. Change up playstyle/comp so you don't let yourself get read.

Nuturn are playing so aggressive and it's working. I wonder why VS are playing Stax on phoenix instead of Skye.

Lets fucking go Crazy Raccoon.

Every time NUTURN has played Ascent vs Vision Strikers they've lost. This time they won. They're playing the Astra well.

Edit: The actual record is VS 3-1 NU

Massive L for 100T. Perfect storm of not adjusting to Astra meta.

True. The reason I wanted to see 100T in Iceland is because they are more tactical. I feel like they would still be nice to have in Iceland, the problem is, that the way this tournament is timed is bad for tactical teams. No prep time between the sen game and this. I still feel like they should win against NV, but it is still a thorn.

What an INSANE performance from Zellsis... Hats off.

This is the best timeline for OXG. It literally could not have been better. I still think Liquid is favored but man...

Edit: More like the best timeline for Liquid... LMAOOOOOO WHAT WAS THAT

I have yet to see a good viper postplant...

The hell happened? I tuned off when NRG was up 8-1.

100T are so behind not playing Viper on Bind.

I love ur comments bro

Doesn't really matter in this tournament, because only one is going to get selected anyways. The only diff is, that this is only a bo3 instead of bo5 so the probability for an upset is higher. I definitely think they should be in opposite brackets though. But because F4Q won, they're in the same bracket.

This is THE game.

Can we get a demo system in this game? We will never see the tenz 4k...

I swear y'all are ready to DUMP on a team, that's down more than a 5 round diff.

I didn't see much brazen aggression from Gambit. They were extremely controlled, obviously not without aggression. Their staple was constantly infostarving FPX and using d3ffo's operator to catch them off guard due to low info.

I hope to see 100T breeze through the upper bracket.

GGs. Derke gets to rematch vs Gambit :D

Of course, but I'm wondering what the reward was in his mind.

Can someone explain to me why Ange1 was running to screens with his knife out on round 18?

"Why is it much more likely that top1 is from challengers 1 and top2 is from challengers 2?"

Because there is no double elim in both challengers and the game is heavily centered on antristratting. So there is a high volatility factor, which means both the top 2 teams have to win every game and if they face each-other, one of them is getting eliminated, meaning the actual top 1 and 2 teams are highly unlikely to be chosen in the challengers 1 alone.

What do you think is more likely:
A: Top 1 & 2 teams don't face each-other in an elimination game and proceed to win every single game they play in challengers 1.
B: Top 1 & 2 teams don't face each-other in an elimination game and one of them has an upset game along the way, which causes an elimination. Or top 1 & 2 team face along the bracket of challengers 1.

Very simple question, if your answer is A, then what you are saying makes more sense, if your answer is B, then what I am saying makes more sense. And I agree, none of this would be a significant problem if there were double elim in challengers 1 & 2, like in NA.

But you also have to note, that what you are arguing "for" is not what the actual tournament structure is. Strangely enough, what you would consider the "top 1" seed(fpx) didn't get grouped with the "top 2" seed(guild), they got placed in opposite groups. And this creates more problems, which favor a proper double elim bracket as I suggested.

"The objective is to have the two top teams of this tournament qualify not the two teams you think are top2."

What I said was detached from the actual teams going in, or my views of them.

It is highly unlikely both the top 1 and top 2 team get selected in challengers 1, because it doesn't have a losers bracket. So it is much more likely, that the top 1 team gets selected in challengers 1 and the top 2 team gets chosen in challengers 2.

Based on that, it is better to choose the top 1 seed from challengers 1 and the top 1 seed from challengers 2 to face each-other in the same group.

But if that doesn't happen, then the next best decision is to format the challengers finals to be a normal double elimination bracket. It's as simple as that. You are just being very dense now that you're committed to this position. It only makes sense if the best 2 teams are chosen in challengers 1, which is clearly not the case with the way challengers 1 was formatted.

Futbolist failed to adjust to the new meta with Astra, that's basically what happened. Oxygen on the other hand adjusted. The game between Oxygen and Futbolist was still closer, than the 2-0 suggests.

The seeding fucks everything up, because they placed the top 1 EU quals from challengers 1 & 2 in opposite groups. If they're put in the same group they never face each-other in single-elim finals. Now with how it was, if either of them loses any of their games for any reason they will have to face each other in a single-elim finals. Now you may be saying, that this deserved to happen, because they didn't qualify challengers 1, but obviously those challenger tournaments had poor selection, because they didn't have double-elim brackets like NA does, there were so many upsets and EU is stacked.

Remember, the objective is to select the best two teams. And in this game, prepwork and antistratting play an enormous role. To an extent where the top 1 team can lose a BO3 easily to a top 10 team if caught off guard.

This is not nearly as big of a problem with a regular double elim bracket(also not the same, there is 1 extra game there), like is in NA, Brazil and Japan. That style WILL lead to a higher likelihood of the actual 2 best teams being chosen, because when they eventually do face each-other there is no chance for single elimination, unless they BOTH get dropped in earlier rounds.

GSL is superior for actual tournaments, it's much more exciting and the entire objective is to promote prepwork & volatility. You don't want those format qualities in a major qualifier, nor should they have existed in the regular challengers tournaments as well in my opinion.

I'm not gonna lie, this validates the narrative, that Guild fluked their way in with challengers 1. But also OXG are playing really good.

Well LATEKS is a Swedish IGL. Though I don't know if he's really better, than Bonkar. Guild are also big on keeping their core, so I don't think this is a realistic move.

Sayf aim is so sexy...

Ok that was clearly practice & aim diff coming to fruition for OXG on their pick, they played around Astra very well. Now the real tests begin.

Bro imagine OXG & GMB win both their games...

Wtf? What am I witnessing.

Tf SugarZ3ro is popping on astra

Edit: WTF HAPPENED FIRST ROUND OF OT HOLY SHIT THAT IS SOME NEXT GEN UNLUCK

Neither of them are running Viper on bind. I hope CR wins tho.

Envy just can't seem to deliver after their phenomenal run in stage 1 challengers 2. They don't hit the same.

Shazam always talks about studying other teams and adapting to their playstyle, timings & managing expectations.. It's pretty much a staple to them.

https://youtu.be/ZOabYL4UFNI?t=4234 ... Just listen to any interview with him.

Sick/Tenz were sleeping that entire game, I feel. If they wake up for the next map/maps, SEN should dominate.

I understand the incentive to keep the regions separate to maximize potential viewership, it's good for the scene. The only problem I have is the way the format plays out when you combine the regions & the way EU was handled in general.

This isn't to say Turkey doesn't deserve a shot. What I am saying; is that there should've been something in the other EU challengers, for example losers brackets(like in NA) instead of single elim so the best quality EU teams would've been chosen for challengers finals. The Turkey comment is in reference to the region diff, that is apparent only after the regions vs each-other, not much Riot can do for that.

Single elim is just too brutal in such a strong region, when there are only 4 slots for EU in challengers finals. On the other hand NA gets losers brackets on EVERY challengers + challengers finals + they don't have to compete against any other region + they get the same amount of slots.

And in this GSL format, if either top 1/2 team loses for some reason, they get placed against each-other in single elim, which is what happened. And then the top 3/4 teams get placed against each-other. The outcome is poor selection.

I mean SEN is very big on antistratting, maybe V1 will bring something crazy to the playing field, but I don't see them winning a BO3 in all honesty.

It's actually insane. Considering fantastic teams like Acend, Heretics & BDS got knocked on single elim and Turkey gets 3 slots.

I mean it's easy to say, that the format is fucked knowing the outcome post hoc and knowing the actual region diff, but still. If EU wins Iceland regardless of all that, there is no doubt in my mind, that EU is easily the strongest region.

A very bittersweet win for Fnatic... They have to go against FPX.

This is exactly why this type of GSL tournament structure is not appropriate for qualifiers. It's fantastic for actual tournaments. But for qualifiers in a game where antistratting and prep play a significant role, it's garbage. The only fix is a finals losers bracket, but I guess that's too many resources(?).

His analysis is fine(although a bit long-winded). But the problem is the fact that they coupled 2 analytical casters. Lothar would be totally fine with a hype-caster, like Uber carrying him in the intense moments.