My name online has always been Dan, and when I figured that it was too generic, I decided to rebrand

I've never been a book guy, and I never heard of J R R Tolkien before (I knew some of his work, but never knew his name)

But I'm a really big fan of Epic Rap Battles of History, and I crossed upon the "J. R. R. Tolkien vs George R. R. Martin" rap battle. This video piqued my interest, so I decided to google some of J R R Tolkien's work

I opened a tab that showed all of his work, and one of them was "The Hobbit"

Didn't really care that much when I saw it, but when I decided to create a Blizzard account to play some Overwatch and it asked me to select a username, I thought that naming my account "Hobbit" would be funny, and it's been my username ever since

I'm also a casual CS viewer, and one of my favorites players from the scene is HObbit

I mean, Bleed dropped the bag for only one player

fnc - real madrid
navi - man utd
nrg - chelsea
lev - psg
sen - liverpool

cant think of more

Keiko staying and Sheydos joining Liquid is not realistic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDgGfr2XAtM

53:43

I mean, 2023 Liquid had a lot of problems, but Soulcas wasn't one of them

All of his teammates and scrim opponents said he was really confident and frying people on scrims

Just like Boo in 2023, a scrim demon that lacked confidence in officials. I actually think that this is a reformed Soulcas, if he has the confidence and the correct team enviroment, I don't see a reason to not give him one more chance

Liquid can take advantage of the Apeks partnership, he has synergy with the coach and ScreaM, really vocal teammate. There's not much Ascension initiators that plays the game on a level like he does

This list is by no means team I'd want on MY team, but rather players that I think would fit on Liquid the most

I think that my roster would be the best team for Liquid given synergy points and taking advantage of the Apeks partnership

I also don't know enough of Profek's and Waddle's personality to put them on an emotional team like Liquid

Just like Fnatic, Sentinels, or Heretics

Derke is the emotional leader in Fnatic, Zellsis is for Sentinels, and Benjyfishy too

As I said in the post, ScreaM is an emotional player, so I think that he would take that emotional pillar role in the team again

I don't see the synergy on this

I don't think that Liquid will ever go for a CIS roster. But if that was the case:
-d3ffo
-B1sk
-Zeddy
-Kiles
-sickrey
-Sayonara
-chiwa
-sheydos

Just spitting some names. But I really don't think is ideal building a CIS roster given the amount of talent there is in other countries

+ANGE1 +Redgar +Sheydos +d3ffo

keep enzo

The only reason I put him is because I want to see how different he will be after getting is confidence back playing for Apeks

One of the players I had in mind instead of Soulcas were (in order):
-paTiTek (I think that he's better than Soulcas, but I think that getting Soulcas will be a faster option for Liquid, and probably a "safer" pick for the players and coaching staff)
-Ruxic (Awesome controller player, didn't choose him because of potential language barriers and role flexibility)
-zeek (Great initiator in tier 2 currently, same as Pati, I think it's a safer bet for Liquid to choose Soulcas. And everyone knows all the trouble zeek had with certain tier 1 team in the past)
-sociablEE (Really good flexible player, though really old for any team to pickup in my opinion. Same as Ruxic, may have potential language barriers)
-Flickless (Possibly the 2nd best flex in Rising, but fails to perform greatly in the important moments. Thought of him because of possible sinergy with ScreaM cus of the french roots)

I'm also a Soulcas fanboy, and I just want to see him return to tier 1 and perform well

Jamppi's firepower has slowly declined since 2022

He plays a LOT of agents, but that fact is a double edged sword, since he doesn't quite master any agent in particular. You can see that he's always a lot more comfortable when he plays flashes. But making him play a different agent every map is not good for his performance

Flexing is already hard enough, the only players in EMEA that can play any role at a high level are Chronicle, Alfajer, wo0t, and N4RRATE. I would only keep Jamppi under the condition of being a full time Breach/Skye/KAYO/second duelist

But I honestlly think that is time to move on for him. He would find a new team regardless, I'm sure of that

People forget that 2023 Apeks shit on every other Ascension team, they had a 19 winstreak until they choked the grand finals against Gentle Mates. Keiko didn't only farm Polaris, but farmed every other tier 2 team in 2023

Bringing DANNYTO is only a reinforcement, the idea is not to play like Apeks, but to innovate and help emiL. Liquid didn't innovate comps this year because of the flexibility of their players. You COULD get other tier 2 talent, but it would be ridiculous to waste the Apeks partnership

This roster would never win a championship (in paper), but this is rather a team for long term. If ScreaM doesn't work, you get a rookie, if Soulcas doesn't work, you get a rookie, if nAts doesn't work, you get a rookie. But this is probably one of the best rosters given Liquid's aspirations

Liquid is a team that always succeeded when they had a flexible roster. That is why I think that this roster was destined to fail, the only flexible player they have is Jamppi. Mistic could only play smokes and a mediocre Sage, Enzo only played spotters but wasn't impactful enough, and Keiko's only good agent was Jett. I'd rather have Soulcas or kaajak play controller in certain maps and let the team innovate with more comps

The only player I would keep locked in a certain role is nAts (Sentinel/Viper.) I think that he's just too good at sentinel to swap role

Except that this time you have only one tier 1 renegade instead of 2, and you're giving 2 top rookies a chance in tier 1. Might be Apeks academy 2.0, but I think that this is way better that what we got this year. It's technically not a rebuild since we got 2 past members, but I would bet on this roster if I was Liquid. There's a ton of LFT talent that they could get like paTiTek (even though I think he's going to Vitality next year), but this is probably the best and cheapest alternative they have

My dream liquid "rebuild" (based on cope):
-Remove Enzo, Mistic, Keiko, and Jamppi (sad to see Elias go, but he had too many chances)

-Only keep nAts, and let him keep the IGL role. nAts IGLing looked a bit shaky agaisnt Fnatic, but made Liquid look better towards the end of the season

-Bring back Soulcas. He may suffer from the same problem as Enzo and Mistic in 2023, be an espectacular tier 2 player, but be a mid/terrible tier 1 player, though I think Soulcas was already a solid player for Liquid in 2023. I think that this version of Soulcas is the best version we've seen from him in a long long time

-Bring back ScreaM, the GOAT. We know he's been scrimming already with the Liquid boys, and he was one of Liquid's most valuable assets back in the day in my opinion. Only his firepower will already be an upgrade for Liquid (which lacks a lot of it), maybe his agent pool is a bit shaky, is not 2021 anymore, and people is not running Jett in every map or Phoenix (and his Raze mechanics were questionable sometimes), but I think that it could be interesting see him flex or watch Liquid play double duelists on some maps. He's a very emotional player, so I think that the correct team enviroment could help him go back to his old form

-Bring kaajak. I don't know who would take the duelist role if he's on the same team than ScreaM, but I think that kaajak is so good that he will likely perform in any role you give him, we've already seen that in other main duelists who transtioned (heat, mta, TenZ, N4RRATE, tomaszy, etc.) The kid has proven that he's worthy of a tier 1 spot, he's a no brainer if I'm Liquid

-Bring kamyk. He already got a taste of tier 1 Valorant in 2023, and boy he was good at it. He's had a stellar performance in almost every game he's played so far in the French league. Assuming that JobLife doesn't win Ascension, this is probably one of the best pickups for most tier 1 teams looking to rebuild

-Bring DANNYTO. Apeks has had some nice ideas along the entirety of Split 1 and 2, their Haven and Sunset have been looking REALLY solid for a tier 2 team. Their Abyss on attack side looks phenomenal, and there's some stuff they need to work out in defense (even though Abyss is a really hard map to defend because A, mid, and B have a lot of gaps.) I think that bringing one more cook to the kitchen could really help emiL in 2025

Ain't reading allat bro

My predictions (not based on what I want to happen but rather on what I think Liquid is likely to do):
-They keep Jamppi and nAts, either of them are going to IGL
-Enzo and Mistic part ways with the organization
-Keiko stays as a 6th
-Liquid sign Kaajak
-They put Soulcas into the main roster
-They sign paTiTek
-d00mbros joins as an assistant coach (this one I don't think is realistic since I think that KOI is more likely to sign d00mbros)

People underestimate how much the lose of a pet can affect you

Personally, If I lost my cat, I'd be destroyed for months bro

My energy goes to Sachi

Still light work

My personal picks:
-Alexiiik
-Click
-xuss
-xeus
-kamyk
-MAGiK
-Ruxic

Only nasty against other EMEA teams

Enzo

What's so insane about replacing moose with dapr? it's litterally an upgrade. Unless you want to get a 18 year old, since both dapr and moose are kind of old at this point

Maybe just sign mada and make him rerole to sentinel just like Alfa did back when he joined Fnatic. But I seriously don't think that replacing moose with dapr is "insane"

Surely we keep OXY no? The kid has proven to be worthy of a spot in the roster

I mean... Shahz? There's really a lot of better IGLs out there, Mitch, Stellar, Zander, flyuh...

Corey is an OK pick, I think that he has tier 1 level but I don't know in which team he would fit (maybe EG)

I don't think that Victor and Marved fit on this roster. I'd rather hire some unproven rookies than two pros who haven't had great performance in the last two competitive years and are really out of shape

I also think that bringing Marved and Victor would bring baggage from NRG, so...

I think Xeppaa is in a very similar position to Asuna in previous 100 Thieves rosters. A good flex player that fits in tier 1 but never has the team to exploit his full potential

Even though Xeppaa was a little horny against KRÜ (which tbf, I don't know how much of a difference it made, I feel like C9 would've lost regardless), I still think that Xeppaa has to find a roster that helps him to improve

Xeppaa had some really good games individually this season in my opinion, but I don't know how much better the team would be with NiSMO replacing him (I still think that NiSMO is a better flex though)

I kinda agree, even though dapr has those games every now and then where he's carrying with impactful frags. I think that he understands the sentinel role more than anyone in tier 2 and most players in tier 1. And having a cypher master (especially on this meta) could be really handy for most teams looking for rebuild

Who would you keep and who you replacing in C9? (not reading bait)

My personal picks are:
-moose +dapr
-vanity +Zander

I would also like to see NiSMO and verno, but I don't know if Immi will replace runi and xeppaa

qRaxs

I would never sleep on FUT and EDG man

Hot take but I think that group d is a group of death

They have G2 (arguably a top 3 team in the world)

They have Paper Rex (they're looking like poo in APAC, but they go for deep runs 80% of the times when they play international)

They have FUT (a team that reminds me of Vitality early on this year, they have the capacity to be the best team, but they need to exploit their potential. They have the players to be the best team)

And they have EDward Gaming (arguably the best chinese team that can always surprise you on international events)

wo0t is really tappy, I'd say his mechanics are top 2 (not firepower, just raw mechanics)

1. NA
2. Türkiye
3. France
4. Brazil
5. Japan
6. Philippines
7. Spain
8. MY & SG
9. DACH
10. LATAM

(I recon I haven't watched much APAC tier 2)

ACE is a pretty cold team tag, but I don't like the player tag cNed

1. NV yay
2. C9 TenZ
3. KRÜ Klaus
4. LLL Less
5. Liquid Nivera
6. EG Demon1
7. XSET Cryocells
8. XSET Zekken
9. SEN Johnqt
10. G2 Leaf

I want him back on VCT

Idc if he's not that good, or if he's overrated

I need dapr on VCT

C9, make it happen

We go against Billy billy, I've seen this before

In 2022 I guess, he looks jolly all the time, I don't think that's aura

His voice doesn't match his face, he has this manly face but sounds like a 17 yo, that's negative aura points I fear

I kinda fw his hair, I think that he has more aura than most APAC players

1. Jawgemo
2. Chronicle
3. Xand
4. Johnqt
5. Shyy
6. N4RRATE
7. Sayf
8. Leo
9. SugarZer0
10. Stew

? Icy JonahP and Valyn have so much aura (and also JoshRT)

I also think that the goat should be determined by role (like Overwatch)

It depends on what criteria you use to determine who the goat is

Is it by trophies/career? then it's Chronicle or Sacy

Is it by performance? the debate would never end

If the criteria is based on performance: Sayf, Aspas, Demon1, Alfajer, Leo, Less, nAts, f0rsaken, Jinggg, are only SOME of the names that come to my mind

It could quite literally be anyone, but regardless, my personal goat is and always will be Chronicle

that might be one of the coldest comebacks I've seen on this website

I love how you missed a lot of FNC predictions and when it was playoffs time you said: "fuck it, we're so back"

ding ding ding ding

Hiko
Asuna
BabyJ
Ethan
ec1s
🔥🔥🔥

the goat dos9