The actual sad opinion is that fnatic, going off last years results, will probably be the best. only top 4 team of last year to not either implode or lose a key player. Still a chance for dark horses like Sen and Nrg, but I think it will really just be weaker loud and prx vs fnc

Goat Mod

I played it briefly when it had just come out. Imo, the main issue is that if you don't want to spend money on the game, it was incredibly boring between big updates. Don't know if they changed it though.

Demon1 and c0m.

I was pretty annoyed that EG dropped Bcj and kept c0m and brought in Demon1. I thought it was a really stupid move at the time, and was hoping that they would do badly to prove a point, but they ended up winning champions. So, good for them.

Remove monyet and add zellsis to the bottom of the list.

Bro what is with all the Sinatraa fans recently?

I don't hate the guy or anything, but there's so many glazers out of nowhere.

Contracts, could be he just got that image from the production team and the videos not finished yet, could be that they're waiting to finalize some legal documents.

Odds are he's going to 100T.

Ludwig actually had a good video on swatting that addressed why many popular streamers get swatted despite talking to the police about it. More of a breakdown in communication between dispatcher and responders, rather then police feel like they have to go anyway.

Team pancc 2-0 Team Leorge

Can we get a TD:LR for people that can't watch the video.

I'm kinda talking out of my ass here, but I assume that Potter would want players that she can mold into her own system (assuming she stays w/ EG). Seemed like that was her idea with picking up more rookie/inexperienced players last year. I doubt players who have been playing for as long as these would fit that category.

I wouldn't be surprised if they pick up players from OXG and TTR who haven't really been playing at this level for too long, but are showing promise.

Fennel from JP, assuming the roster doesn't change, is who I'm thinking wins.

Looks more like Vitality want trexx. KOI assistant coach (I think?) worked with his replacement in the past, so they don't think it's that bad of a loss.

Don't know why they would give up Trexxx for a practically free agent. At least use him for something else. Idk, guess they got the bag for him.

There was a good thread by BoDork this morning on this topic. https://twitter.com/Bo_Hoogland/status/1737787907430076680

Also if you want a fun read, https://twitter.com/Tanizhq/status/1737798066407604313 . Him starting off the post with, "This is wilfully ignorant at best." is pretty funny.

There's no reason to think that an org would be rejected from ascension for any reason other than their actions. From what's publically been released. TGRD didn't sign the contract that they were presented at the beginning of the year, not because they were not financially stable or Riot didn't like them. It seems TGRD tried to use it as a bargaining opportunity to try to get team skins, which apparently weren't in the contract.

The reality is that NA salaries are way too high, and a big reason for that is the players choosing to live in some of the most expensive areas in the US. It's not the only factor, but it's certainly not something one can ignore.

Would be, also essentially enforces a 4 year period where you need to be good enough to be in t1, opening up more positions on the teams.

Would be hilarious if the NA T2 scene just goes the way of every other American sport where you have collegiate and then pro level.

It's okay, I hear he made it big in crypto, so trashing his reputation with most of the community was surely a good idea

The production team kept trying to push that narrative for the season, but TBH I really couldn't get into it. I like all the players, but watching that team play was just not very entertaining. I liked the storyline of them finally breaking the chokenatic curse, but the entirety of Tokyo I found myself more invested in the EDG and EG storylines.

I agree with your previous example, but I still think c0m played sova better. His ults and util were just so good. With Leo, it didn't feel like he was getting the most out of sova. You could've put him on other characters, and he would've been able to get similar results, baring the agents being bad on the map. C0m's sova single handedly reinvented the meta on fracture, a map where teams historically stayed away from Sova.

I still believe that Leo is a better all over player.

Maybe this is just me, but I always feel like most good smoke players get overshadowed by people who can 1v4 or igl well.

People like Mako and sugarzer0 seem to have a great awareness of when and where to smoke, while Pancada and Marved have that to a lesser extent, but are known more for their clutch/fragging.

This clutch from sugarzer0 always impressed me with how he played around his smoke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BagbwF4TtyQ

Better 👍

Do you guys draw a distinction between the two?

For example, someone like c0m, imo, has the best sova util, but someone like cauanzin or leo brings more overall impact, mostly because of their aim and impact fragging.

Can you think of any other examples.

"decided" is a strong word.

It's always funny when people find literally every excuse to take away from someone's achievements. EG coaching staff could've developed his talent, that doesn't all of a sudden mean that if he leaves EG, he loses all that developed talent.

This is just my belief, but I think the 2-year limit ascension teams get is to test to see if the orgs would be financially stable to remain in a partnership. Riot will probably expand the leagues in the future, but doesn't want to commit to bringing in new orgs when they don't know how stable they are. It wouldn't make sense for Riot to not expand the league, the game's getting more and more popular, and having small tournaments with few teams is just making them lose fans, viewership, and brand recognition that they could be getting.

He also IGL'd for 100T for a little bit, I believe.

Don't know why I got down voted for this. https://twitter.com/ethanarnold/status/1495898103093899264

I think DFM gained quite a few fans after the CR team up. A lot of those players are pretty popular, and will bring quite a few fans. You just won't seem them on VLR.

The Union waiting to make their comeback announcement.

I thought the same thing when I saw the title. Thought they were signing the Crimson chin

USA-24 (Demon1

Don't let EMEA fans see this

I don't think VLR publishes theirs, but there's others out there. I know RIB has one, and if you watched the video about quantifying the GOAT, there's one there as well. They're both paid for though, I believe.

All I know is that the VCT EMEA logo is the worst, the Americas ones isn't that much better tho

To be fair, he's making educated guesses. He's using results, and comparing them to a similar example from last season. We won't know what will happen until the season, but it's not like he's just saying, SEN will do well because I like them.

Maybe I'm missing things but Keiko did not look good. There were tons of moments where his missing raze util was what cost Team Liquid a play. I didn't watch the Fancy United game, so maybe he did well there, but the rest didn't look great.

Because he plays Yoru and Kay/0 on maps?

Most still consistent tho

Imo 2 different factors.

One, he was duelist on the roster for a long time after not performing well, so people think he's overrated.

The second, people like to hate anything that's popular, and do an "anti-circlejerk" circlejerk, so any criticism of him gets compounded with personally disliking him, causing it to be more harsh and often.

Just my opinion tho

Big shoes to fill

Tbf, they were 3rd best in pacific last year, behind PRX and DRX. It's not a crazy leap to put them in 2nd.

God, zekken is so good

I believe Twitch overtook them in popularity. Probably because of the access to foreign markets of viewers compared to Afreeca, which is largely only korean.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/business/media/twitch-korea-shut-down.html

Not really, they can just watch it on Youtube.

They've been playing matches almost nonstop for what like 3-4 months. They're playing against new teams that have just rebuilt their rosters with no vods, meanwhile, they have whole libraries dedicated to vods of them. Not the easiest position to be in.

I mean, we just saw at the GCC where someone interviewing the players didn't even know who was IGLing for EG. I would trust Paperthin and Achillios to get it right, but there's a chance they're wrong.

Rossy, Xeta, Xccurate, and two of the remaining (iZu/Saya/K1ng/Carpe). I don't think we've gotten any confirmation on the remaining two, but I'd say it's most likely going to be Saya and k1ng. But who knows, they could put iZu in over Saya on duelist to see how he performs in the offseason.

The best thing you can do with Semmler is just block him and stop reading it. He doesn't legitimately care about anything related to GC, he only wants to use a socially divisive topic to farm impressions in the hope of making money or rekindling any remnants of his casting career. Stop giving the fucker any impression money he might get on Twitter.

He claims to want to the support the womens/gc scene despite being very openly against it from it's inception.

That's the thing. They always talk about how much they care for women in the scene, and how they're being negatively affected by trans participation. However, when push comes to shove, they never watch any of the games, they never support any of the players, and they don't interact with the scene outside of the times they can use it as a platform to gain any sort of interaction. In some cases, they'll switch from making fun of the GC scene and women, but will then act like a white knight anytime a trans issue comes up.

Would be huge for T1 if iZu can keep up his Jadeite level performances.

Sen could (and probably will) lose, and Zekken would still be better.