It’s true that G2 don’t look as dominant as they did before that Bangkok GF but they’re still 5-0 while shaky. If JonahP regains individual form and they clean up their pistols — most of their matches would look like that NRG one except against the other top 4 teams itw.

G2 absolutely have weaknesses on Fracture and Haven that they need to rework for sure though. I agree the gap is shrinking but they’re still a cut above right now.

Why are you rating EDG so highly? They lost to regional competition in NOVA and XLG — they’re not even guaranteed to win against BLG to qualify.

T1 looks just as shaky too tbh. I could see them missing out if they get unlucky and get upset in the lowers after losing to DRX in Round 1.

I’d personally give MIBR a bit more credit since they’re looking like heavy favorites for America’s second seed.

The hopium for NRG and PRX is actually obscene though. Neither of these teams are surviving their knockout match.

You can always find historic examples of teams pulling out niche Yorus alongside another duelist whether on Bind, Breeze, Pearl, Split, etc. G2 are the first team that are successfully running SOLO Yoru on the majority of maps though and it only works because their utility usage and surplus from Tejo + Flash Initiator is clinical.

Potter
Kaplan
JoshRT
fROd
mCe

Edit: just realized it’s NA and not Americas. Replace fROd with Sean Gares or Immi.

But he’s not a pure flash initiator. He’s a flex support more similar to Chronicle and iZu — in that regard he's an S tier player no?

Odd take. If G2 isn’t S tier, then nobody is right now. They’re the only top team from Bangkok that hasn't dramatically dropped in performance.

I’d also argue they’re looking a bit sloppy because JonahP is just not in form this split. Even so, I’d be surprised if they don’t comfortably make top 3 at Toronto.

Who do you rate above them internationally given current form right now?

Jawg is a world champ and has made 3 international finals — being the MVP of 2 of them. Zekken has made 1. What are you waffling about?

Yeah, they send him face first into a blender with a ton of supportive util but with the full expectation that he’ll die and they’ll trade him out. He’s only surviving so much because he’s on perma-Yoru.

You’re right. I shouldn’t beat them when they’re down. I just saw the flair and couldn’t help myself.

G2 vs. MIBR

In this one? Maybe this game will help remind you: G2 vs. NRG

Why do you have either Aspas or Famouz over Jawgemo? Is it just cuz you can’t have too many G2 players in the list?

Not at Toronto though

Your naming is slightly off.

2021: Double Duelist to Astra/Viper Meta

2022: Chamber/Fade Meta

2023: Kj/Skye Meta allowing double smokes

2024: Double Initiator to Neon Meta | Postplant spam + Retakes

2025: Yoru (double duelist) and/or Breach/Tejo Meta

“What if [insert best team rn] aren’t that good?”

G2
T1
MIBR
EDG
TH
BOOM

Top 3 at Shanghai before Tejo Meta and they had Icy. Your take is so incredibly bad.

Hard Calling is what wins you tournaments. Having said that, you want both — like in a Valyn or Nobody.

His value comes from both? People were glazing Boaster for that match against Vitality but that’s how Valyn plays every game.

I got bad news for you. You’re gonna be here for a while

He plays trigger discipline and the crowd griefs him. You’re not very bright are you?

Looks good to me! All of them are so flexible though that you could jumble up their roles every map and they’d still be relatively competitive. It’s honestly quite funny how Valyn is their least flexible player when so many other IGLs have been attempting role swaps.

For Example:

Bind
Jawg: Raze
Leaf: Skye
Valyn: Astra
Trent: Viper
JonahP: Vyse

Split
Leaf: Jett
Trent: Raze
JonahP: Breach
Jawg: Omen
Valyn: Cypher

Icebox
Jawg: Gekko
Trent: Sova
Valyn: Harbor
JonahP: Viper
Leaf: Killjoy

Trent has a surprisingly good Raze. They used to run him on it for Split and Bind for TGRD when Tex would play Jett or Chamber respectively.

G2 could do last minute role swaps across the board and still beat LEV.

Yeah it’s G2. There’s nothing biased about my comment though. You should come up with something more substantive bud

His fixation is really weird considering Jawgemo is considered the best Raze player right now. He’s arguably a top 3 Neon and Yoru as well, and leading the pack on Waylay. His Jett and Iso aren’t particularly notable but they’re sufficient for a trophy aspiring team.

There’s no other world class duelist that doesn’t have a glaring hole in their agent pool.

T1 lost Pearl to EDG and barely took it in OT against G2.

Pick up Flor.
Pick up Sinatraa.

Flor | Sinatraa | NaturE | Supamen | Yay

Did I cook?

He’s just Cryo

Alternatively, a variation of this comp on every map:
Cryo: Jett/Iso
Eeiu: Tejo
Asuna: Kayo/Gekko
Boostio: Breach
Zander: Smokes

Have Boostio take the eco hit every round and ensure Cryo can always buy and is taking a fight with all of his team’s util behind him.

Yeah, they’re not shit but it’s unlikely they find themselves at champs until they fix their game plans. I haven’t watched enough of them to give solid suggestions but they seem to heavily rely on Cryo fragging without necessarily setting him up the best they can.

IMO, it might be better to just have him play Jett/Iso only and just accept that double duelist will be necessary on non-Jett maps. They can have Asuna pick up Yoru for some maps and use Vyse for supportive flashes as well.

It’d also be pretty funny if they just had Asuna on full time stinger/bucky so Cryo can have rifles even on ecos but what do I know?

100T sit between 6th-8th in the region. I could see them losing to NRG or Loud and they won’t break past SEN or any of the teams above.

That’s hardly “upper mid”.

Like 3%

TH last year

TGRD to G2. Two player swaps but the same core. The difference isn’t really that big when you pull from the top talents of the T2 pool. Keep in mind they all scrim each other.

Have you not watched G2’s Ascent?

Edit: they’ve played it for three matches now so there’s plenty to watch if you wanna see how fleshed out their playbook is. It looks like it could replace the old Meta comp ngl.

Speak up, be bold, and take risks, I’m an atheist.

I don’t think an Americas team outside of G2 make a GF this year — it’s just statistically unlikely for both grand finalists to be from the same region.

Flag checks out

It’s really hard to judge a region’s strength because we only get to see relative performance. Unless you’re eye-checking every single team and account for style matchups, some teams are bound to be over/underrated because of local competition variance. Think of how SEN and VIT were overhyped going into Bangkok only to get exposed pretty hard.

• Americas only looks top heavy because G2 is so overwhelmingly dominant while the bottom 8 teams are still inconsistent. We’ve got one of the top two teams itw and one of the bottom two (Furia).

• Pacific is definitely the strongest region overall though with two trophy contenders (T1 and DRX) while the rest tend to be competitive. They have the highest floor across all of their teams.

• CN is going through some dramatic shifts right now with the majority of teams improving into “middle pack” status with real upset potential. I still think they’re behind on average but at least EDG is a trophy contender.

• EMEA is probably second behind Pacific for the most “middle pack” teams but they lack a serious trophy contender right now. At the same time, it’s not like their bottom four teams are much better than that of other regions’.

On the bright side, LANs aren’t about each regions’ weakest teams competing. Until I see more from China’s top teams at internationals, they’ll be the weakest followed by EMEA, then AMER, with PAC at the top.

Ah yes. That one map of sunset with Jawg playing with the worst iteration of EG in its history. The same map where Jawg went 7-6 in their h2h.

The only agent Aspas is better at is Jett — and while he might be the more consistent fragger across his history — Jawgemo is the better entry on literally every other agent. The better Yoru, Raze, Neon, and Waylay.

And it was true then too. T1 rapidly improved since the Pacific GF during Bangkok and were undoubtably underdogs. They were definitely the better team that day but by margins so slim they’re basically statistically insignificant. I’d still bet on G2 if you ran that GF back 10 times.

Yeah but G2 are probably the favorites against literally everyone else. This is the closest we’ve seen to 2023 FNC dominance since Tokyo.

T1: None
T2: VIT • FNC • FUT
T3: M8 • TL • TH
T4: KC • GX • BBL
T5: NAVI • KOI • APK

Duelist | Jemkin
Initiator | Trexx
Flex | Chronicle
Smokes | Shao
Sentinel | Nats

G2 • MIBR • KRU

T1 • DRX • RRQ

VIT • FUT • TH

EDG • BLG • WOL

It’s all about hype and whether or not a player under or over delivers on it. El Diablo became y0y because he couldn’t keep up with the “best player from 2022” hype and it’s happening to Demon1 rn too. Aspas has consistent individual performance but some people (Bren + Mimi) have rightly called out his tendencies to take minimal risk at the expense of his teams after 2023.

Only a number of players have escaped this by redeeming themselves after hitting lows. To name some: Jawgemo, Nats , Stax, and Tenz.

That would be a massive pick up for EG though. They’ve built a roster of hungry players with something to prove and Flor fits perfectly there and would be a straight firepower upgrade over Icy.

You say that like they didn’t have multiple chances to close out the Bangkok GF. Anderzz is a win-more pick up so long as the players maintain form in high pressure situations.

Sliggy has strict rules so that players who want to VOD review with his streams aren’t dealing with a slew of toxicity.