tl did not look good on abyss in my opinion. Their comp had some weaknesses, the positional understanding was strong, but I think they lack a good astra player, and putting keiko on omen is good because keiko is insane on omen, but strategically, omen leaves some big holes, particularly in mid (solo omen mid is not a good strat btw). A good team should be able to exploit those weaknesses and beat tl on abyss. I don't think they'll want to play it.

th picking abyss would be stupid. They've been dogwalked 100% of the time they played on it, and they frankly look idea-less, while g2 looked good. I don't think they'll be working hard on it. I highly doubt either team will want to ban corrode, it's a game of chicken, but I think they both acknowledge neither team will pick it either.

canezerra is FAR better than timotino. Did u see all those whiffs on lotus yesterday?

keep hoping buddy

lurking on bind is super annoying tbf (I play viper, mostly, on bind). Since there's no conventional "mid" or middle site (like on three site maps there's b site, in between a and c sites), there's probably defenders everywherer, so u have to be super careful.

... aggressive omen down mid EVERY ROUND is easy to read wdym. You can't be smoking both sites from one site (b doesn't reach a, a doesn't reach b, not even close), so u HAVE to play mid every round. Just put a chamber in mid and u can shut down the omen every round. Plus get rid of their only smokes since they're playing unsafe/down mid. U should stay back if u are solo controller.

i like football and themaniel likes football too (even if he likes wolves and i like barca)

drx's comp had some bad weaknesses. They got taken to 24 rounds vs vitality's abyss comp (and vitality was bad on abyss). Pacific playstyle don't mean anything IF he has a perfectly good (amazing) astra player in f0rsaken.

tbf there's not a lot of chokes to watch, I just thought chamber would be good for someone with good aim.

agreed, skuba's lurks have been extremely exceptional. idk why he's hating on them, he was top fragger, top rated player in whole server against g2. You also just can't lurk every round. That is SO easy to read. sometimes u need to go with the team, and leave the threat of a lurk, while sometimes u go without the team and actually lurk. His lurk timings also looked great vs g2

jingg sage d4v4i vyse is a viable comp. it makes sense, strategy wise. For a team to successfully run solo-omen smokes on ascent, they need to be running it down EVERY round. That's super easy to prep against. It may work once, but it won't work all the time because abyss is a super open map. Running it down with w gaming works on almost every map, but abyss is like the only one it doesn't work on.

skuba's lurks were getting serious results against g2
it's really the map picks that are trolling them, which is what a lot of people don't see.
bind is a historically defense sided map, especially for g2, so obv nrg is going to win defense rounds against g2 on bind.
sunset, ascent are also notoriously defense sided maps, in fact u should be running up the numbers on defense there.
so far, corrode has looked defense sided globally.
abyss is kind of a toss up? and lotus depends on comp, but defense sided for lots of teams. That only leaves haven, which nrg's attack is okay on

yeah well alecks isn't dumb he understands that astra is almost a must pick on this map. The only way to run omen is if Jingg is always in mid and smoking off either site from mid, but that's a really weird playstyle and also super easy to read.

i mean u need an astra over an omen, but then u would have no sentinel. Why are u so insistent with double duelist? It won't work with jingg's limited controller playing.

yeah no phoenix please. the wall has no use on abyss

sage is actually kinda decent with vyse. Because of the long rotation times, sage's stall (slow orb + wall) can be very useful, plus she can get some nasty angles down sightlines.
I'd much rather have something on yoru, jingg on sage, f0rsaken on astra, d4v4i on vyse (vyse is super good for holding a site too), and patmen on sova (please no fade).
Honestly even jingg on omen for double controller. Just you MUST have an astra otherwise ur team will be suffering while ur sorry omen character has to run 5 seconds just to smoke off the choke by which time the enemy is already in the site.

tbf people are saying fnc had an off stage due to burnout (going all the way in both ewc and toronto, also having the least turnaround from stage 1 to masters toronto) or saving prep, so I think fnc is better than what we saw in stage 2.

so ur just gonna let the viper pick sit there?
and OMEN over astra????

absolutely not. PLEASE for the love of god do not pick omen over astra. Omen's range isn't even enough for the whole map on abyss, and it's just worse. F0rsaken is an amazing astra player, get him off yoru, put something on yoru, put jingg on like jett or maybe keep him on omen. and there is NO REASON that u should be putting ANYONE on viper on abyss. It sucks on abyss, period end of sentence. Her wall is useless, because the map is just too damn big.

VERY true. The first month I played astra, I found her astral plane to be super annoying, placing stars took forever. Playing astra takes a LOT of time and practice. But, in pro play, astra will probably show up. Astra is by FAR the best smoker on this map, really every other smoker sucks compared to her, but she's hard to play, so for lower ranks omen will probably be common. Though u really only need one controller on this map, not that many places to watch.

i posted an analysis of what is considered a meta comp on a different thread but
yoru, sova, astra are basically necessary for all teams because of the long rotations.
The long sightlines allow for a good chamber player to farm. However, if u have a bad chamber player, it's just harmful. So I think chamber depends team-by-team. However, on each site, there's really only two entrance points (the choke from main, and the flank from mid), so having just one chamber trip is fine, u can either watch mid with trip and hold site, or put trip on site and hold mid with chamber (which is more normal for chamber play).
The other agent varies. Generally, u want a lot of stall while ur teammates rotate to help you/prepare for quick retake, so I like kay/o with the flashes, or vyse, since her thorns can slow down, her wall slows down, and her flash can break crosshairs. Kay/o's flashes are helpful too, his knife slows down enemies because they need util to exec, etc. U really only need one smoker on this map, two smokers is both a waste and also inefficient since only really astra has global range on this absolutely massive map.
So meta comp will probably be yoru-sova-astra-vyse-kay/o if no good chamber player, yoru-sova-astra-chamber-vyse or kay/o if a good chamber player.

this may shock a lotta people since i'm basically the #1 trent glazer on this website but
he has been tilting in stage 2 playoffs and not been performing up to his earlier numbers from stage 2 (I mean he was farming on sova). In stage 1 and bangkok, he was def the best player in the world, his tejo imapct was unmatchable (honestly he was frying in kickoff too), even in stage 2 regular season he was farming those stats, especially on sova, highest rated player average in the world - but in playoffs, he was like 1.0 rating, which ain't bad but it ain't good either.
I think he's a bit burnt-out? but I'd put him a bit lower than 2nd. Like 3rd/4th/5th (kaajak, keiko, nats, something all are around/better than him)

lmao we both dumb relatable but also like damn he's still cooking even after not playing for 2 months like bro how i take a 1 week break and i whiff EVERYTHING

fathered on? that shit was peak entertainment. Really enjoyed watching it, even if we lost (though valyn was ~1 pixel away from winning the whole thing on that split round in ot after already being up 13-12). 5 maps!

It's the same trophy as stage 1 (at least same design). Most likely they have two of the exact same design and just got rid of one of them.

compared to stage 2:
abyss coming in for icebox
bind (stays)
haven (stays)
lotus (stays)
corrode (stays)
ascent (stays)
sunset (stays)

looking like a serious buff for g2, g2 was banning icebox and their favorite map at the beginning of the season was abyss. Could also help tl, and teams that like chamber

honestly, if it were up to me, I would play vyse instead of kay/o (u really need an extra flash), i don't think breach is viable anymore, and sova provides lots of info (as well as yoru)

oops i spelled it wrong lmao
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/crohns-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20353304
leaf has this ^ he missed most of stage 2 treating it. And u can't get rid of it, you can only make it better

yeah so cn is the worst region
blg and drg looked good against the rest of trash china, their playstyle is super unsound compared to slow teams like g2 or fnc in internationals (they're not as chaotic as prx, so they won't throw g2/fnc's slow playstyles off, but they're not slow enough so that they can actually exploit the problems of slow play, basically they'll just be too impatient)
edg looked bad, xlg looked not so good too. Really, only blg has a chance internationally (drg also is SUPER inexperienced internationally, on top of their weird playstyle), but blg didn't look good (at all) last lan, so we'll see. I personally think apac is first, emea close 2nd (btw I don't think fnatic was saving strats, I think they were just burnt out and needed rest after going all the way in toronto and ewc and stage 1 emea which finished last out of all stage 1s), amer 3rd (basically a 1 team region), and china 4th

1) leaf has to go treat crohn's disease again (i mean king babybay is still insane but he's not leaf)
2) they get hard-prepped on

and he like never wins with it bro should start watching results. Just focus on ur 6 good maps, don't mess around with ur perma-ban

their abyss WAS their perma-ban at the beginning of the season, now it's icebox, I'll assume they're just going to perma-ban it, though their reyna gimmick almost worked against g2

yeah well he won't because icebox got removed from the map pool y'know (like a month ago it was leaked)

Chamber
Astra
Yoru
Sova
Kay/o (probably)
was g2's comp at the beginning of season (well it was breach but breach is gone now), and they were frying on it. This does, however, rely on a good chamber player (which leaf is) and some very good sova lineups (i fortunately have memorized my sova lineups), because of the open ceiling on each site.

Going more in depth from a strategical standpoint, abyss is renowned for having THE longest rotation time out of any map for the defenders and attackers. As a result, u want controllers with good global range. Omen's smokes can't reach, brim/clove can't reach, etc. The only real option is to pick astra, which is why pretty much everyone universally picks astra in pro play. However, astra is a very hard agent to learn (her util takes forever to place, etc.), so in lower ranks omen is more popular, since u can have slightly less range but much easier to play with.
Now, for duelist, u want to be able to meet the site hit, and this requires fast rotations again. This makes yoru very popular, since he can send his tp, guard one site, and tp to other site if he doesn't see anyone, and keep doing that. Neon could also be good, though she would suffer in some of the tight chokepoints. Jett is also good, since she can easily break enemy crosshairs and it is a map that needs flying. All in all, yoru is recommended.
In terms of initiator, an open ceiling makes it prime for sova/fade as scan. That being said, sometimes the ceiling can be low in the mains or in mid, so it is helpful to have something that can bounce around, hence sova. However, sova has no flashes, and u can't just rely on yoru, so kay/o or breach are both popular, though I would recommend kay/o, as his knife supression can hold off enemies (and his molly) for crucial seconds while ur team rotates. And his flashes/knifes have fun lineups on open ceilings again.
To finish, for sentinel, there's LOTS of open sightlines, which promotes the use of a chamber. There's not a lot of routes to be flanked from, hence 1 trip should be enough to cover mid, while the rest of the team focuses on sites. Chamber can also put a trip on site to slow down enemies and watch mid, allowing for a fast retake. Now, if there is no good chamber player, vyse is good for slowing down enemies and bringing in the team, plus an extra flash can be very helpful. Due to this, it's also possible to play yoru/astra/sova/chamber/vyse (vyse replaces kay/o), since they serve largely the same role with flashes + slow down mollies + a slight bit of info (kayo with knife, vyse with wall) that slows down enemies too
hope that helped :)

https://www.vlr.gg/459827/bbl-esports-vs-karmine-corp-champions-tour-2025-emea-stage-1-w1/?game=207150&tab=overview
got to be the worst combined 10-man comp all season right (all of these earlier comps had the opponent making common sense decisions)? I mean kc's was somewhat (not really) viable, but i dont even know what chamber-clove is

true assmericas is truly a 1 team region lol very depressing
i personally think g2 will go deeper because the latest map pool change helped them (getting rid of icebox, replacing with their previous best map abyss at the beginning of the season (and their iconic jump))

i mean i play scan and viper and controllers and senti but i'm also gold so
eeiu >>> c0m on scan, c0m is washed af these days. But they need a new senti, cuz kess ain't the answer. And preferrably someone who also igls, because zander can't igl and frag he looks overstressed by doing both

i aint gonna lie it was hella annoying but as a g2 fan i was happy
and then i tried copying it in ranked and it didnt work so

lmao me too but in pdt so i can wake up early to watch first game then watch 2nd game at home after i come back

somehow i doubt it was an accident

babybay (duelist -> chamber) UNC IS COOKING

themaniel def

true but my point is like tejo and trent is similar to chamber and yay. he basically forced the tejo nerfs, which is why he's my best player this year, even if the gameplay was not my favorite thing to watch

why are they called dark days lmao not rest days?

meanwhile trent drops just as high numbers and people call him a tejo merchant. At least i see plenty of people glazing keiko.
what can i say trent is my player of the year u can't beat mr. tejorist

well the sa teams don't excite me either so

odin goat gone rip we'll always remember u for giving prx their first int trophy

i'm sorry nrg in 5th???? get them down
otherwise this list looks good

g2 didn't win masters #2 though and th didn't come second...

G2-0 DRG