I say 0% chance it's not in APAC. Probably korea.

From this tournament? Definitely not. This is a ranking for champions alone.

I do understand your point. But even as an EG fan, I disagree. Do i think EG's path was significantly less difficult than the others? Not in the case of PRX and thinking about it more maybe(big maybe) Fnatic.

But loud? Loud had to contend with Liquid, DRX, and NAVI in groups. Obviously liquid didn't show up in good form but both NAVI/DRX looked good. Then in playoffs, Fnatic, PRX and EDG. Both PRX and Fnatic were tournament favorites on paper coming in and now they're in top 4. I think making a thread about it is dramatic but completely understandable, that is definitely a hard path when considering how strong people perceive all these teams as.

Also, I don't think there's any argument at all for EG having the most difficult path. To suggest it sounds ridiculous tbh.

I don't really understand what you're thinking tbh. EG opponents were FPX, FUT, EDG, DRX. Strongest opponents on that list in my perception are EDG/DRX. All the other teams have opponents that match those and exceed the others. PRX is the one team that is close. Both PRX/EG beat FUT and EDG. But I think with top 4 settled, most would see LOUD/KRU to be overall more challenging than DRX/FPX but honestly it's close.

With Fnatic/Loud, I don't think it's comparable and I'm not sure what you're confused about. Especially with Loud.

EG did indeed have the easiest path but so what? All they can do is beat the opponents put in front of them. No worries tho, they'll have to collide with those favorites this weekend. We'll see how it plays out.

Having casters/analysts/players/production work is not the same thing as holding a public event during a hurricane. The latter probably isn't legal while the former is.

If there's one place where I'll never be worried about t2, it's china. The talent pipeline, with or without riot support, will be absolutely fine. And they already scrim apac teams all the time. There are no ping issues between China and Korea.

no worries happens lol

he was making a joke...didn't actually call alecks top, he called alecks' desk top.

Ethan and Demon1 sure. Definitely can't be saying that about the others. If I chopped this team to bits and threw the pieces elsewhere, there's no shot I expect the individuals to perform to the level we've seen at tokyo/champions. EG are more than the sum of their parts and synergize extremely well. Not a super team.

Definitely can't call EG a super team. Did you see the top 20 lists prior to champions? All their players might be performing super well atm, but they ARE NOT a super team.

Agreed. Game has advanced.

They do. But EDG isn't playing. It's still an american crowd. Primarily chinese american at times but american nonetheless.

They wanna be able to choose what the last map is. That's why they go B.

It's a reverse pickem where he advances who he thinks will lose a series.

You'd be wrong. Even if we can't see their exact viewer counts; you can compare champions heat metric to the heat metric of other well watched events like the LPL. There are plenty of people watching.

The pools are done by performance within your own region at tokyo/lcq

Fnatic+liquid 1st/2nd of emea teams at tokyo and are both pool 1 because of Fnatic winning the event. Fut was the third of the emea teams so they get pool 2. Giants/Navi 1st/2nd at lcq(4th/5th overall in emea) and get pool 3+4.

The other regions are more straightforward: EG 1st, NRG 2nd, Loud 3rd in terms of performance at tokyo so pools 1, 2, and 3. Kru, 4th overall by winning LCQ, so pool 4. Same deal with APAC. PRX, DRX, T1 are in pools 1, 2 and 3 respectively because of tokyo and Zeta are pool 4 because of winning LCQ.

You might not like it but it does make sense. There is no riot bias as you claimed.

Lol they're not biased. Fnatic earned two pool 1 spots for EMEA by winning tokyo. From there, it's literally just placements from tokyo+LCQ for rankings. And china doesn't get a pool 1 seed.

yep pacific looking dangerous with DRX revitalized and PRX in great form

Americas: 4-4
EMEA: 5-5 (4-4 against other regions)
APAC: 5-3
China: 2-4

One each of Americas, China, Apac, and EMEA out in the bottom four. Pretty good parity in terms of results with day 6 finished.

First time he's looked as good as people were probably hoping he would be going into the year. Doubt it'll continue but it's definitely a great showing from him.

It was such a dumb take in the first place. Anyone who watches LoL knows this. If china actually gets invested in a game, they will do well. Just because it doesn't happen in CSGO and some other popular esports, doesn't mean it isn't gonna happen in newer ones.

Lets list achievements for both the Loud/Optic cores in international events

Optic core:
2nd Masters Berlin 2021
9th-12th Champions 2021
1st Masters Reykjavík 2022
3rd Masters Copenhagen 2022
2nd Champions 2022
5th-8th Lock-In 2023
4th Masters Tokyo 2023

Loud Core:
2nd Masters Reykjavík 2022
11th-12th Masters Copenhagen 2022
1st Champions 2022
2nd Lock-In 2023
7th-8th Masters Tokyo 2023

I disagree with the idea champions>masters. The additional 4 teams that attend champions don't make winning the tournament significantly(or even much at all) more difficult than winning masters. Also, I don't think the achievements listed make them pretty equal. In my opinion, the optic core definitely have the edge with showing such consistency over such a long period of time.

I don't really understand the logic. If loud was more talented roster wise than Optic with similar success, doesn't that just prove even more so that optic is less fraudulent?

Enlighten me. I know nothing about ddk other than he was a caster and then became a coach/gm for 100T.

Its the major for vlr

Sure, that's why i'm getting downfragged and you aren't. Oh wait. The exact opposite is happening. What a paradox.

Doesn't matter. The prestige of winning champions is on par with winning any of the masters events in the majority of the community's eyes. That is what matters. Call me wrong if you want. That isn't gonna change that fact.

The term major does not translate from CSGO to valorant. You can pretend it does but it doesn't. No one is gonna arbitrarily assign significantly more value to winning champions than to winning any of the other masters/international tournaments. That is reality.

There are plenty of transgender players in GC if you look at the rosters playing in playoffs (V1, Shopify, Xset, DSG, EG). Some even have two like DSG and EG(i think?). So even if you take into account that trans players tend to be better than their peers, it's not like V1 is special or has some massive advantage in that department.

Not exactly sure what you're trying to say. If you watch enough television/movies for long enough, then whether you want to or not, you're going to naturally come to observe and appreciate what is being done well when it comes to narrative progression, pacing, characters, etc. That's just reality. Doesn't mean i'm watching everything to "rate it."

edit: And it certainly doesn't mean i think everything is mid just because i think most of what marvel has put out recently is

I guess we just have different tastes/expectations. It was better than some of the other shows I called mid. But the pacing was out of wack(This seems to be the case with most of these shows) and a large portion of the cgi was horrendous.

Gotg 3 and wakanda were great. But honestly thought antman 3 was mid and while I was entertained by black widow(it wasn't amazing tho), it sort of felt pointless with her already being dead in end game. This is just the movies tho, cant pretend all of the mediocre shows on disney+ haven't been coming out.

falcon and the winter soldier is mid
moon knight mid
ms marvel terrible
loki was good
she-hulk mid
wanda-vision good
secret invasion haven't finished watching but seeming mid to me

That's a lot of mid

edit: Forgot hawkeye, it seems to be well-reviewed, don't really understand why, very underwhelming

Because it has. You been watching all the tv shows? I have. They're definitely advancing the mcu story but almost every single one is extremely mediocre. Movies have also been w/e. The mcu definitely hit a high point with infinity war into endgame. And has since fell off hard.

Probably referring to both brazil and latam together since their qualifications to internationals last year were combined.

What does that even mean tho? Is she not just in high school? Or is the school system different in bahrain making this a crucial time?

reported

yup lol

No, team went their separate ways after GC championship last year.

Mel and Alexis on V1, Katsumi and Bob on Xset, Jazzyk1ns is on complexity.

yup

If DRX remains in tokyo form, there is no difference between T1 and DRX.

Lol. Have to sort of agree. I was so angry when they dropped yay. While I'm some what disappointed as a fan of NA, C9 getting punished for their incompetence does make it feel better.

That is the system. Teams that promote get 2 years then drop as of now.

Partnership isn't franchising. There is no spot to sell.

"innocent"

lol

Can't really understand what you're saying.

2022 Masters 1: Optic 1st, Loud 2nd
2022 Masters 2: Optic 3rd, Loud 11th/12th
2022 Champions: Optic 2nd, Loud 1st

Definitely not the same

lol it definitely is kinda funny. Good on bonkers for doing better than what were people expectations overall. But in this game they're just beating on the team that's gone winless at this event. Really no reason to get super hyped. If they can beat bleed tomorrow and guarantee advancement, then i'll get hyped.

If we're just talking tokyo, these lists don't make sense. Some more EG players should be here.

Not trying to disparage your love of tokyo ghoul anime. But that anime is the single worst adaptation of a manga I've ever seen and I've been watching anime/reading manga for a long time. I suggest you check out the manga.

World trigger. Once the manga finally raps up several decades from now.

Crazier things have happened, like this eg run