I don't know the full extent of how much it has effected the various teams, likely no one outside the orgs does. But I do know that in the interview it was stated that the DDoS attacks have also effected their Val team.

Being the class act that Faker is, he also said that these DDoS attacks do not excuse their poor performance. They know what they're going through, give them some time to work things out. They generally haven't looked lost or anything in their Val matches (the DRX game being a slight exception, though I didn't get a chance to watch those games so maybe it was closer than the scorecard indicates).

I mean it's probably worse for the League team than for the Val team, but Faker literally came out and said teams were cancelling scrims against them because the scrims would get DDoS'd and that they couldn't play ranked at all even on alts because the attackers were able to find them so easily.

The T1 org as a whole gets DDoS'd so much that it effects each of their team's practice. Their Val team struggling due to not being able to play ranked or scrim is understandable. I'd say it's impressive they can play as well as they can if they aren't able to get efficient practice in.

Oh I didn't even contemplate the DDoS problem stemming over from LoL. Is it really hitting their Val players too? Man that sucks.

Wasn't the EG reserve roster from last year supposed to also be kinda cracked by the end of the year?

There are plenty of health problems you can have that wouldn't prevent you from going for a night out
Could be a common wrist or elbow injury from playing too much with harmful form, usually these issues don't prevent you from doing other things in life
Or he could have just gotten sick after attending aforementioned club

But also who cares? The man is allowed to party if that's what he does to unwind. No matter how much you grind, at some point you need a break. I know plenty of people who embody "work hard, play hard".

Yeah aren't they from Edinburgh?

Did you mean Sentinels (Sage, KJ, Cypher, Chamber) or controllers (Brim, Omen, Astra, Harbor)?

I think that's the joke.

TH played super well in kick off quals, but as a brand they pale in comparison to many of the others in EMEA. I'm not surprised if their fan base isn't that big, though the chants during halftime got good response

I play a few times weekly, but mostly just a swiftplay warrior (formerly spike rush warrior), but I really just wanted to have shorter games. I ranked when I first started playing in the beta and was placed like silver 2 or something, and though I often don't finish my ranked placements each act the games that do play are full of plats and diamonds. So I imagine my rank to be closer to that than silver 2 at this point.

K Corp did a similar thing in EMEA. They didn't play nearly as many off season matches, but they went through play-ins to get to playoffs and then won in the finals in a revenge match against the team that put them in losers in group stage. Madrid is shaping up to be a great tournament.

Actually Sacy ended the tourney with the worst rating of the 5

Heavy underdogs feels like a stretch to me

VLR be trippin then. I came to the page after the match was over and your post said "posted 1 minute ago"

I honestly do not know why they were so sure about NAVI. They looked fine, but TH looked GOOD.

My man posted this after the first game was over...
Trying to look like a prophet... and for what?
XD

I used to be a big Vanity advocate, but he is so streaky. Sometimes he has the read and he looks untouchable, but sometimes the enemy gets the read on him and he cannot seem to adjust. In those cases nothing he calls works and the team looks miserable.

G2 had interesting ideas but did not look polished in their first match vs KRU. I was not able to watch their match vs EG, but they looked much more polished against KRU in the rematch.

I agree that Furia looked like the worst team, 100T are maybe better than C9, KRU and MIBR as well.
Regardless, one thing is for certain, the bottom level of play in Americas this season is drastically higher than it was last year (which was drastically higher than the bottom of other regions as well).

Maybe I'm just huffing hopium though.

Based on the way the teams played in groups, I would be surprised if the overall outcome changed. I think the GenG v Zeta games are probably closer, but still go in GenG's favor. GenG actually put up a fight against PRX, I think it's possible both go to Madrid.

What a weird take
Also, calling this team "legit the strongest" is only hopium until we see them in action.

classic keyboard warrior using his feelings as his facts

I'll preface this with I'm much more of a Val enjoyer than a CS enjoyer (re: I play and watch Val a lot, but don't play CS at all and only watch occasionally at best).
But, I am watching some of IEM Katowice and one thing that I've noticed (and don't like) is that in between rounds the replays often go 5-10 extra seconds into the next round.
I don't even feel like the length or amount of replays even adds much of anything.
Iirc missing more than 2-3 seconds at the start of the round while watching a Val event is unusual.
I want to see all of the round if possible, even if it is just the few extra seconds of briskly walking out of spawn. But often times smokes or mollies have already landed before the camera is back on the live match. As a Val player I like watching the start of the round to steal lineups, but I feel like cutting back to it mid round really just takes me out of everything.
Am I the weird one here or do you guys agree too? Is this normal across all of CS, is it just ESL events, or is more like a change that happened after CS2 came out?

Oh wow. How did I miss the RA core getting picked up by JDG announcement? Lowkey kinda wild that they are seeded second though lol

Time for Munchkin to change his name to MunchKIM to join the squad.

bro said in terms of raw mechanics, not in terms of game sense and other factors

So0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0on!!!

I mean if you're just looking for a Shonen... In no particular order:
Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, Hunter x Hunter, My Hero Academia, Yu Yu Hakusho, Mob Psycho, One Punch Man, Fairy Tale, Undead Unluck, Chainsaw Man, Bleach, G Gundam, Saint Seiya, Saint Seiya Omega, Fire Force, Soul Eater, Mashle, Magi, World Trigger, Noragami, Jojo, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Seraph of the End, Hajime no Ippo, Haikyuu, Slam Dunk, Kuruko's Basketball, Blue Lock, Diamond no Ace, Major, Air Gear

Some of these shows are better than others, but a lot of that will come down to taste. All of these have good... fight scenes. Even if they aren't what you're thinking a typical fight scene is. I implore you to give one of the sports anime's a try even if you have no interest in sports because for the most part they end up just following the Shonen formula of training arch into tournament arch.

What have you already watched and liked? Post your MAL list

The Tokyo Ghoul anime got worse with each successive season. The last one was so terrible I considered dropping the show entirely.

Yeah, dude was actually exciting to watch before he fell off into obscurity.

SR have now gone 1-13, 2-13, 3-13, 4-13 in order. Obviously they are just going to keep counting.
So 5-13 and 6-13 against G2 then 7-13, 8-13 and 9-13 in Grands.

Hope my data helps.

Karmine Corp is doing wonderfully in France. I think if an org starts off with a commitment to a certain locale it goes better. But most orgs, especially old ones, were essentially just some random org. So in OWL where it was essentially an org buying into a team tied to a location (and losing their own brand in doing so) it really didn't help the esports scene. You don't have to have the location in your org name to represent a place if you want to (ie K Corp is not French Corp), just make a commitment actually commit.

Josh was their coach after mCe left to C9. They've talked in interviews about how good Josh is and how mCe seemed to have more strength at finding and helping the talent grow/mature into the scene, but after the players have been around a bit, had grown and were comfortable, that mCe's style of coaching wasn't as effective as Josh's.

Idk about best, but when I was a kid I played nearly 600 hours of Pokemon Gold. By that point I was just taking my favorite team of 6 and going to fight Red or the Elite Four over and over and over again. My team was all level 100 so there was no real point, but I enjoyed doing it for hundreds of hours apparently.

It's crazy how the people are so consistent about trying to hate on the author without realizing that views and clicks on his articles are literally just helping the guy out. Any comments on the article literally just buff his engagement percentage.

The bubble is popping, the esport isn't dying. Many people have called most pro esport players overpaid for some time now. But if the players cannot find the deals they want, they will either settle for less money or retire. Most of the best players will still be playing.

Idk man, that's like saying any hot take with no actual info behind it (which this may or may not have been) is equally justified just by saying "changes may be made".

I was really hoping to see the core stay together. But it is almost always the case that teams make changes in the off season, even if they win the championship. Can't wait to see where everyone ends up.

So if the argument is that the meta is stale on certain maps (like Ascent) doesn't that just put it in the same place as CS? Where everyone is used to what the utility is supposed to do and it comes down to execution, on the fly adaptation and reads.

I'm not arguing one game is better than the other, just saying that even if the meta comp doesn't change on a level for awhile the way people play it is most definitely still changing at the pro level (which does generally trickle down a bit to us normies).

Team will be built around mCe and jakee huh?
This didn't hold up to well.

Yeah I remember seeing clips of people talking about 5k a month in T2 was considered very well paid.

With the reversing of the decision allowing The Guard's players to make tier 1 again by finding a new org, do you really think they would split up and go to different rosters?

I'm honestly not sure being top 25 matters. EG already demonstrated that you can take players who aren't known as being THE BEST and turning them into a winning roster. NOBODY believed in C9 after they picked up the basically unknown Jakee and Runi, but they did very well for themselves. mCe is a fantastic coach and I'm sure they will be able to compete even without figurative star talent. They just have to find the players that learn the best and gel with their teammates.

This isn't to say that already being a star player doesn't give you an advantage. But often times it can be more work or a rougher road to retool an established player to fit your coaching scheme / play style, than it would be to mold a newer face to the scene with cracked out aim. Taking the lesser established player doesn't always work out, but I suppose you could say it really comes down to how much you believe in mCe.

Well let's start with alphabetizing the player names in the player flair flyout. Then go about adding all the other players you're missing.
I only used it for a minute or two, but the general layout was a bit worse imo and the texture on map results made them more difficult to read which was also less desirable.

Keep updating and you might get something good, but this isn't there yet.
Good luck to ya.

Dang, games were super close. Certainly a fun watch with the lead changing so many times. Did not expect NAVI to go out like this though. GG's to both teams.

We've seen plenty of times where a great player moves teams and doesn't reach the same heights because they aren't utilized or integrated properly. I feel like Boaster + Mini have not only been able to keep good players good, but also turn unrefined players good as well. Boaster is probably definitively the GOAT IGL right now and in the off season good players likely wanted to work with him. So it's easier for FNC to build a good roster when the good players want to come to you.

Even as an EG fan, I am still aware that this was an upset. NRG have looked like the better team the whole split. EG has had flashes of brilliance, but their playbook seemed too small at the beginning and when their patterns are read or their anti-strats didn't work they looked completely lost.

I have a friend waiting to find the Araxas bulldog in their shop
Been a few weeks now