Wait, Saadhak played Paladins? LEZ GOOO

Pretty sure he beat Tenz' performance in 2021 Iceland

LOUD's trophy should go to Liberty then. Thanks trem for your infinite wisdom

Americas league is gonna be so much fun to watch for both the main stage and ascension. There will be teams left in the ascension tourneys that could arguably be at the top half of the main stage.

I'd say LOUD is the better team between the two because of consistency. ignoring the fact LOUD won champs, Optic has some ugly losses to Xerxia and Guild, not to mention their inability to win their own region. However Optic is still the only teams besides maybe FPX that can claim to be at the top.

Fixed!

Record for the year : 30-4
Records vs each region :
Brazil : 21-0
LATAM : 1-1
NA : 3-3 (All Optic)
EMEA : 2-0
Japan : 2-0
Korea : 1-0

Map win record for the year : 68-14
Map win record against each region :
Brazil : 46-2
LATAM : 3-2
NA : 9-9
EMEA : 4-1
Japan : 4-0
Korea : 2-0

LOUD RECORDS WITHOUT OPTIC :
Win Record : 27-1
Map Win Record : 59-5

Loud is clearly the best team in the world right now, and only Optic has stood in their way all year. LOUD is basically Optic if Optic never played down to their competition.

We're all in the same region now.
Americas 3
EMEA 3
:)

Top 3 minimum. They'll play the winner of the lower bracket semis and lose that at worst.

More scared of icebox. I personally would have let it through since it's a good 100t map as well, and furia beat them on it, but it's still fair to just say no.

Liquid domestically vs. Liquid internationally

BCJ has the power of fried chicken on his side. They winning Champs for sure.

Maybe that's why DRX always stops at top 6. They're scared of that second place curse hurting them in Korea.

To further hit on the second place masters curse:

Masters 1 2021 runner-ups
FaZe - NA
Team Heretics - Europe
BBL - Turkey
forZe - CIS
GL Blue - Brazil
Wygers - LATAM
NUTURN - Korea*
Absolute JUPITER - Japan
Team SMG - SEA

*Only Team to make a masters event, making a top 3 run in Masters 2 Reykjavik. However they never came close to matching their early success and failed to make Champs.

Yeah, I would've added more, but wanted to make it short and sweet lol

FNS must've sensed this and told optic to throw vs. FPX to guarantee a solid Champs performance.

True, I forget they had a "M1" that was just regional

Performance of each second place team after each international LAN

M2 2021 - FNATIC (fails to make Masters Berlin)
M3 2021 - Envy (Gets grouped in Champs)
Champs 2021 - Gambit (Failed to make a single event in 2022)
M1 2022 - LOUD (Gets grouped in M2)
M2 2022 - Paper Rex (Gets grouped in Champs)

Get second at your own peril.

Thinking : LOUD, PRX, 100T, FPX
Wanting : ZETA, Liquid, 100T, KRU

I hope so, would love to see both kru and Levi in playoffs.

No EMEA team won their group, so all 3 EMEA teams are at risk of being grouped.

FPX vs KRU rematch
FNATIC vs 100 Theives rematch
Team Liquid vs. PRX

I think EU goes 1-2 here. Fnatic hasn't looked great in their 2 games, and PRX should be able to beat Liquid. KRU has to win their map pick above all else to have a chance.

Same place as fnatics 😎

100T would run EMEA, they've never lost a game to them after all.

Fnatic has yet to win a title despite being overhyped coming into every event they play.

Anyone saying prx is bad is an idiot. I'll give a bit more leeway to fnatic, only because there is no excuse that they should have been struggling with the roster they have. Before Copenhagen they were the favorites to dominate the whole year, now they might get grouped in Champs. I still think they're a good team, but they fail to live up to the hype.

If anyone says FPX is bad, I have no words. Even if they managed to get grouped here, they are still a top team in the world. XSET on the other hand needs a lot more than 1 good win to prove they are top 5 team.

Finally Leviatan. They proved themselves in Copenhagen imo. Going back to even their 3-1 win over kru it led to some of the best valorant by a latam team yet. Kru, DRX, XSET, Fnatic, Liquid, and PRX as their last 6 games is a hell of a gauntlet of games to face and they are 4-2 (11-6 on maps). They are a legitimate contender to win Champs.

Stinger is arguably better than the spectre up close. It's real advantage is price though. It's more consistent than the Marshall except with top players, it's half the price of the spectre, so it doesn't break the bank, and it is only 100 credits more than a sherif.

Kru beating an NA team to make playoffs in Champs. Wait I've seen this before.

Mazino better than both.

Keznit has a higher ceiling, but yeah consistency wise, mazino isn't just one of the best in latam, but one of the best in the world.

Nah, mazino is so good too. He should definitely stay on the roster

Very flukey player. He can compete with the best when he's going off, when he's not, it's often just keznit and Mazino having to carry

Zellsis was just a loan from V1.

Latam has a better performance in the tourney than Brazil.

It was, but we haven't seen it since Berlin.

I feel your pain as a V1 fan

Would be surprised if ghost get a spot.

Last sentinels win on Split was in Masters Berlin vs. F4Q.

Since then they have lost to G2, F4Q (rematch), Envy, Liquid, Kru, Akrew, NYFU, and Luminosity.

With the exception of the S2 Qualifiers, this is their first 2-0 since Masters Berlin against F4Q.

Phoenix could be Keznit, since he was the only one who ever played him consistently this year. So best by default.
Jett is def not tenz, he isn't even the best Jett in NA.
Would pick Jingg on Reyna. Rest I am fine with for the most part.

Im talking about games sanctioned by riot. Don't really care to dig through mickey mouse tourneys

I disagree, 9z looked bad on ascent. However they could've won both Haven and Fracture more convincingly had they been less sloppy. Still, a win is a win.

I wouldn't have said 9z before this game, but I saw flashes from both Xolos (in stage 1) and Fusion (in stage 2). I'm not advocating for saying latam is a top region or that kru up until the stage 2 grand finals didn't run the region, but that people put latam down way too hard.

You mean in official games?

Latam leads all-time 9-7
Kru accounts for 5 of these.

9z 2-1 NIP - LCQ SA 2022
Kru 2-1 LOUD - Masters Copenhagen
Kru 3-0 NIP - Stage 2 LCQ 2022
NIP 3-0 Leviatan - Stage 1 LCQ 2022
Kru 2-1 Furia - Champions 2021
Sharks 2-0 Xolos - LCQ SA 2021
Australs 2-1 Furia - LCQ SA 2021
Australs 2-1 Sharks - LCQ SA 2021
Furia 2-0 Xolos - LCQ SA 2021
Gamelanders 2-1 Six Karma - LCQ SA 2021
Liberty 2-0 Infinity - LCQ SA 2021
Liberty 2-1 Six Karma - LCQ SA 2021
Australs 2-1 Liberty - LCQ SA 2021
Furia 3-0 Australs - LCQ SA 2021
Kru 2-0 Vivo Keyd - Masters Berlin
Kru 2-0 Sharks - Masters Reykjavik 2021

Latam doesn't get the credit it deserves. They've been called the worst region, a 1 team region, a region that shouldn't exist, etc. for way too long. For anyone who actually watches LATAM, they would know Latam has been very entertaining and solid all year, with 4 or 5 solid teams. Not saying they're the best, but there needs to be some respect put on their name.

True.

Definitely got aim diffed in the PRX game. The confidence lev had allowed them to win a lot of duels you wouldn't predicted, and today suygetsu was a monster

As the clear favorites going into the tourney, they had a dominant run until the PRX game and you started to see the cracks in their armor.

Hopefully fnatic doesn't do anything rash because this roster is still somewhat young, but Fnatic is missing that final push that can get them that top spot.

Liquid is built for international events, not so much domestic. I do hope more chaotic teams make it into Champs though. Imagine a Champs with teams like PRX, TL, FaZe, Leviatan, Kru (or the NIP we saw in M1), and NORTHEPTION. While these might not all be the best teams that could make it, it would be fun as hell to watch.

Literally pushed Fnatic harder than any team in EMEA. Incredible

My bad, got them backwards