Depends on if any funny business happens again. I don't think anyone was expecting much from EMEA at Iceland after FPX couldn't attend and Fnatic were playing with 2 stand-ins effectively. G2 are a meme team and Liquid is shaky at best.

Only teams in EMEA its worth having faith in at the moment is Fnatic, M3C and Guild. If somehow none of those 3 make it to the next Masters then I reckon EMEA makes Top 4 at best.

EMEA viewership is low because we’re still relevant in CS so don’t have a reason to switch game in large numbers.

KRU were always doing the best out of the minor regions bar KR, they just got furthest in Champions. I'd be surprised to see a similar performance out of Zeta again though.

Yay was more impactful until the finals. Without Marved I don't think Optic closes out Ascent or Bind. He had really important swing rounds on both maps towards the latter half.

Gambit has beaten Optic...

Ah I see. So realistically more waiting between tournaments this year.

There should be 4 lans this year right? Maybe another region gets the 4th?

Jesus you're obtuse. Loud looked shaky against Liquid meaning there were clear holes in their gameplan. Liquid didn't take advantage of it because they aren't that great a team at the moment, but if made adjustments they could have probably beaten Loud in that matchup. Since then Loud have looked way better prepared and polished each consecutive match.

Optic beat them 13-2 by simply outplaying them on a map they dont seem to be prepared for, I dont think Loud themselves were expecting to win that map. The other 2 maps Loud were very polished and seemed well put together, not easily flustered.

Imo Masters 2 was the best so far with Champs a close 2nd. Masters 3 was pretty dead outside of Optic dethroning Sen in NA and Gambit breaking into the limelight. This Masters was good for the Zeta run and BR finally doing well, but the competition itself seens a bit meh compared to previous events.

Loud only looked shaky against Liquid, since then they've gained a lot of momentum. I expect it'll be similar to the upper finals match. Would be unexpected for Optic to win for sure.

They're stupid for EMEA too. Starting at 6 for a bo3 with riot tech pauses means the match is probably still going to be going at 10-11 if it goes to a 3rd map.

Primetime for EMEA would probably be to have the matches be at 4 GMT considering most of Europe is GMT+1, would be fine for the pros too because Iceland is normally GMT-1.

The meta was different back then though. Postplants and duelist solo plays were pretty much that entire tournament. Having a different smoker isn't going to have the same impact as if they had to replace Penny for that tournament.

I always forget that Kiles is Ukrainian. Any idea what the mental issues with Zeek were? Haven't heard about that before. Was just going by their in server performances.

Delusional take to be honest, just looking at the NA and EMEA teams at the moment its clear that roster changes and other things are going on so the teams that made Iceland aren't necessarily the best, just the survivors. Gambit is clearly struggling since the whole Russia fiasco started, FPX couldn't attend after looking their best in 2 years, Acend struggled to maintain their performance with the recent meta changes, Fnatic had 2 stand-ins. 100T and Sentinels are both in the middle of significant roster shuffles and struggles with adapting to the recent meta changes too.

Other regions have definitely stepped up and become more competitive, that's undeniable. But they aren't really facing the best of EMEA or arguably of NA either. (Optic is the only team from EMEA or NA that was actually expected to qualify for Iceland imo)

I don't expect LOUD to win the whole tournament but I do expect to see them win at least a series.
NiP on the other hand might get flushed out of the tournament. Never know considering how little regions get to play each other.

People thought that after NiKo in CS but it keeps happening and they never are worth the money.

Honestly after how dominant SEN have continued to be in NA but then have done shit 2 international LANs in a row, makes me think NA had gotten a lot weaker over time.

That is unless SEN is simply a kryptonite to better NA teams. 100T are pretty fucked now though and C9B or NV needs to prove that they can take the top NA spot this Champs.

Speak for yourself, I have them to qualify through Group A over Envy. I figured Acend would slightly edge out VK purely because of having the roster solidified for longer.

NGL, I'm so happy that mwzera lived up to his regional stats. Was worried it was going to be a case of a Brazillian countering the general BR playstyle, looks like he's genuinely just bloody good.

So are TACO, devilwalk and pronax, nobody is about to say they’re good anymore. Just because a player was good once doesn’t mean they can continue to compete at the top level.

Based on most recent performances I reckon top 4 are Gambit, Envy, Liquid, VS.

100T was underwhelming in LCQ, Sen was underwhelming in Berlin, C9B didn't dominate LCQ at all like Liquid did in their region.

Just to explain why Liquid look so good now, they're stomping through opponents they struggled against before and they honestly look more convincing doing it than other heavy hitters.

Map 2 just started. They could reasonably win it in less than an hour.

I would say TenZ is better overall but yay is definitely the better Jett.

TenZ plays well even as a Sentinel whereas I've never seen yay even try something like that on a stream.

Is LCQ LAN or Online? That makes the difference imo.

If its LAN I would wager Keloqz. Online I reckon Nukkye. I can't see G2 playing Anubis and not fielding an ace just because the region isn't expected to be super competitive.

Why would nitr0 play Jett when he's the best aggro Omen player around.

Cned > Keloqz > D3ffo > Derke > Jamppi

Jamppi just seems to have consistency issues. I wonder if its a lack of confidence because he's literally the life of his team so I can't imagine morale is often high.

Chronicle definitely made them shut the fuck up.

Just clone Boaster and play 5 Boasters.

Yeah Qikert is painfully Slavic it hurts. Didn't know Kazakhs had that much of a slavic influence population-wise.

Im interested to see a Belarussian or Kazakh team in Val, love watching Nemiga in CS.

Scrims do matter because it shows a team is trying new things. It showed this grand finals when Gambit tried some abnormal comps and strats that paid off.

Scrims dont mean a team will definitely win, but gives them a much better chance provided they are trying new things. I think the reason Vikings did great in scrims at Iceland but poorly in the event was because they were playing to win scrims and not try new things so got read easily.

Yeah tbf i was thinking more in terms of land on a map rather than population. Kazakhs are a decent sized part of CS CIS region but can't say I've spotted any in Val yet beyond Dima.

Moldova might be, i know Ukraine actually isn't technically for some reason. Doesn't seem logical to me that it isnt either.

If Envy and G2 can both 2-0 SEN, im pretty sure Gambit can do it as well.

SEN came into Berlin cocky and underprepared, streaming instead of praccing. As a result they got BTFO, honestly reckon if they had a group like 100T or VS they might have gone out in groups. F4Q clearly weren't getting out of groups so it was basically free.

Over time tournament competition should only be getting stronger so it will be harder to keep up, earlier tournaments look so easy compared to newer ones.

This guy clearly doesn't understand that CIS isn't just Russia. Most of CIS isn't European. Only Belarus and Russia are.

NA Copium

For real. NA is just cringe as per usual.

yay
Keloqz
cNed

In no particular order imo.

Literally who?

Are you dumb? Russians are clearly European. Turkey on the other hand is distinctly not.

I would say CIS is a subregion of EU like Scandinavia, Balkans. Russia is clearly European, Kazakhs get a choice though imo if they're CIS or Asia imo.

As I previously stated. Being good back then does not mean they were Tier 1 when they transitioned to Valorant. Also Gen G was tier 2 and part of the stints under Daps I mentioned. I say that as a huge fan of Daps and follower of his teams.

Fnatic isn't even a British team you melt. Tenstar is the only Brit team now.

Your bait is bad

Americans literally can't take any banter. Wtf are you even on?

Seriously American banter is so dead they make Germans look humorous by comparison.

Honestly I think part of it is weather dependent. Northern Europe and CIS are pretty strong in CS which is currently the highest skill ceiling FPS eSport. I reckon the lack of stuff to do sports wise from poor weather could be a factor. After all can't be money based because average russian isnt anywhere near northern european scale on that.

Hes an ex CSGO tier 5 up and comer since 2014. Played for Defying and DreamEaters a couple of times.

Dude is pretty much a perfect example of how much CIS produces FPS prodigies.

Throughout this GMB - VS match the talk of team styles is pretty prominent given how Gambit is very distinctly patient and VS are pretty reactive with combined utility. What other styles would you say there are?

I think Gambit is distinct.
A lot of NA teams seem to play a faster version of how VS plays with a bit more gunplay and slightly less focus on Util.
I think Acends style of set plays to take sites can't be unique to them.
BR and some other teams have been pretty individual heavy like TSM and G2 used to be.

No SEN could never struggle against G2, lose to G2 and drop a map to F4Q in a LAN.

Gambit are probably the most patient and meticulous team around at the moment. Against CR they weren't struggling imo. They won on their weakest map of Icebox after all.

Maybe back in 2018/19.
Until EPL14 Liquid were tier 2 and weren't even the Top team in NA. Furia were top for the last year really with EG having a small resurgence last year before Ethan left. As a big EG fan, they havent been Tier 1 since that period of 2019.

Just because a player was tier 1 once doesnt mean they still were when they left. You have to maintain Tier 1. Get_Right and TaZ clearly arent anymore as examples. The top rated player who transitioned was Ethan and at the time EG wasn't a top 10 team, they were struggling to stay in top 20.

The only players who moved to Val from CS that were still playing well against higher tier opponents were Nitr0 and Ethan. Skadoodle and Auti peaked in 2018 and have been trapped in tier 3 NA for a while with brief stints under Daps.

I thought NA was meant to be better than EMEA? So why would you not want 1st seed to play against EU teams?

This will be hilarious if they get 100T or VS and get knocked out. Envy might even do it.