You sure got me!

Supported G2 since TGRD days but now they’re just habitual chokers. It’s nice cuz it’s basically guaranteed that they’ll get to internationals but they feel like underdogs in high pressure matches.

Trent’s Sova has the same stats across a larger sample size. The only thing that’s suffered is his clutch rate.

I don’t think even Leo had a higher peak than Trent on Tejo. Convenient to exclude that part of his career.

N4rrate looks really good this split but I need to see how he performs under pressure against better teams. Will he still tilt like he used to?

They didn’t win even with missiles so not much has changed lmao

Trent has been better this year.

You might go cross eyed but keep an eye on the minimap if you wanna enjoy the macro. Sliggy co-streams are great for it too!

Phoenix is only strong when ult orbs are easy to collect on attack and defenders don’t have a ton of cover to hide behind on site. Otherwise you’re better off running a Yoru or even an Iso as a secondary duelist.

He’s going to replace Leo as the gold standard by next year.

G2 3-2 TL

Damn that last take is kinda spicy. Oxy has a lot of potential but he tends to disappear for the big qualifying games while Jawg shows up then even if he’s inconsistent otherwise.

Except that Trent is just more flexible than Sacy. He has reps on all of the initiators, Viper, and Raze.

Three of them are in the top 5 in stats after this week while playing with a sub jfc. It’s hard to argue that they’re not all at the top of their respective roles — who would you even rank above them at least in Americas?

It makes me wonder how different 2023 would have looked if they weren’t stuck in T2, whether as TGRD or as free agents joining different teams.

G2 need to embrace the double duelist and flood heavy meta. They’ve been way too reliant on their retakes because it worked for them during the Tejo meta but it’s made them readable.

They’re a solid 3rd itw right now but until that adaptation you can’t really say they’d be the best. Their playstyle sets an insanely high floor but they have a lower ceiling than more explosive teams because of it.

Just G2 man. 100T looks promising but SEN is inconsistent as always. Nobody else looks good.

Apparently G2 picked Babybay over Demon1 as well because he fried in the tryouts and had good intangibles. I’m sure some teams that fail to make Champs will try picking him up for next year.

His interview with Ravishing is going on rn and apparently they only had 2 days of prac with him.

Corrode goes to OT and Sen doesn’t get more than 6 rounds on both Ascent and Lotus.

That looked like a clutch to me pffft

TGRD Ascension Split comp.

They play slower than G2. They just have a ton of fans because of they carry all of EMEA on their backs and get away with a disgusting amount of clutches.

Yeah but they’ve gotta survive Icebox to get to those others.

This was a comment but I realized it probably needs to be a separate discussion.

Americas has a stylistic issue coming from Tejo Meta to a double duelist/smokes Meta. They’ve historically favored retakes and utility flushing over the suffocating aggro we see in teams like PRX and TH or the stable defaults seen from GENG and FNC.

G2 finds themselves in the middle though with their stinger set plays and their slow attack defaults. Their main issue, is that they get hard punished against mechanically oppressive teams that can secure first bloods consistently. Every single loss they’ve had from EDG and T1 at Bangkok to their matches against PRX and FNC at Toronto proves this in their FB/FD stats. They often go negative on the attack half and make up for it on defense.

So how do they fix it? Just play some of their rounds the way they do their stinger thrifties with more risks and they’ll either guarantee first bloods or even trades with more map control. They have some of the best spacing for trades and they need to abuse that in a post-Tejo Meta.

Edit: typo (problem to probably)

No, Americas has a stylistic issue coming from Tejo Meta to a double duelist/smokes Meta. They favor retakes and utility dumps over the suffocating aggro of PRX or the stable defaults seen from GENG and FNC.

G2 finds themselves in the middle with their stinger set plays and their slow attack defaults but get hard punished against mechanically oppressive teams that can secure first bloods consistently. Every single loss they’ve had from EDG and T1 at Bangkok to their matches against PRX and FNC at Toronto proves this in their FB/FD stats. They often go negative on the attack half and make up for it on defense.

Their defaults against a team with incredibly strong fraggers meant they kept giving first blood, sometimes without a trade. They went 7 - 16 on Lotus and then 6 - 17 on Split. No matter how good you are, playing 4v5 that many rounds will lose you the match.

Their best rounds were fast paced death balls and retakes where they could dump util and use their incredible spacing for trades. This issue doesn’t come up frequently, but today just proved that they can run into a wall when their opponent is in great form.

Americas was definitely hit hardest by the Tejo nerfs given their top teams relied so heavily on it (RRQ and XLG are the same). It’s definitely just them struggling to adapt.

I need to see him back on Raze/Neon.

G2 need to work on their site anchoring because they crutch too heavy on their retakes. Without the utility surplus of Tejo, they’re gonna struggle. I really want to see them move Jawgemo back onto the Raze for the zoning utility or have Trent pick it up if they keep running the Yoru.

What does this mean?

Yeah, it was a fun match with a ton of clutches and thrifties. Respect for the good sportsmanship!

FNC truly representing EMEA by carrying the KC banner

G2 wins lotus cleanly with a pistol.
Split is a toss up and Haven favors them.

Not because of Boaster’s calls though. You got some incredible fraggers in Alfa and Chronicle and some braindead fans in yourself.

G2 doesn’t lose rounds on time my guy.

FNC barely pulled that win out of their asses with double pistol and some insane clutches from Alfa and Chronicle. Let’s not pretend like they were expected to win it.

You don’t know ball

That’s false. People were saying this about G2 since Shanghai.

You can’t watch this FNC attack and pretend like they’re not the slowest team in the tournament.

FNC have a pretty bad map pool matchup against PRX.

That wasn’t GenG bad. That was G2 better

KEEP LAUGHING YOUR WAY BACK HOME.

They just beat all of the most bandwagoned teams: SEN, PRX, and EDG. Pair it with the fact that they used to play slower with a huge preference for retakes and utility abuse and it feels suffocating playing against them.

I’m still hoping for Trent to play Raze like he used to on double duelist split comps with Tex. He’s in the form for it and it lets JonahP get off Breach duty to play Fade/Sova instead given how uncomfortable he looks on Breach now.

Yeah, I don’t get why they continue to play the Breach when every other team is moving away from it. It has some of the worst win rates prior to the Tejo Meta.

I need to see them pick up double duelist like PRX or lean into the GENG comps with Viper + Sentinel. They’re still playing for retakes like they have the utility surplus for it when they should be hard fighting chokes and anchoring sites for floods — which is something they abandoned when they stopped running a sentinel.

I think they need to drop Breach and put JonahP on either Kayo or Viper. Then have Leaf flex between a Sentinel or secondary Duelist and they should be good no?

His utility on other agents is clearly a bit rusty with missed Fade eyes and shock darts. Despite losing 0-2 though, he was still the best player in the match today.

You think the team with the highest success rate for thrifties with stingers are boring?

Because they’re an academy team, they can’t even ascend right? This is just to give these players official experience outside of their regular practice with the main team.

Vyse, Omen, Fade, Raze, Yoru

Or

Vyse, Astra, Kayo, Gekko, Neon