Deserves it with his boring ass strats

Rb is going great, plus if Buzz turns online? Uh oh, that's a top 4 team.

One day young one. One day.

also, it's only a casual 1024 episodes (1053 chapters) which is only AoT + HxH on top of watching Naruto, but the twist is that it's better than all 3 (4 ig with Naruto + Shippuden, don't get me started on Shippuden).

The comentators were talking about how Guild had such a good read and everything.

They sat in spawn, waited, pushed, ran away if they saw a single soul, repeated every round on fracture. I was watching just yelling

"HOLY SHIT, THESE GUYS ARE SO FUCKING LAME"

They were so fucking lame. You have sayf and trexx. Run at F0rsaken and if you kill him you deserve the round. If you don't kill him, you're shit and should FF now.

PRX never back down though. Run and kill em. Best team to watch.

Edit : Fnatic is also fun to watch. They are calculated, like Guild, but how they use their play and molding of the map is much more efficient and exciting to watch. Guild relies on the other team giving up space (by rotating because they're so bored) to gain space, while Fnatic pressure and mold the map around to where they want to hit.

I noticed you haven't watched One Piece yet...

I said this before. This game is either the greatest game we'll see in Masters or it will be a complete massacre of one side of the other.

Best game : They each counterstrat each other ; Jinggg, F0rsaken, Derke, and Alfajer all online. Super close 1v1's. Clutches. Everything

Fnatic dominate : Perfect counterstrat on PRX, Jinggg or F0rsaken have bad game.

Paper Rex Dominate : Fnatic get counterstratted + can't respond to PRX current strats. Derke or Alfajer offline.

The only possible scores for this game are a 13 - 4 or a 15-13. No in between. That's what I believe.

A fun bracket would be a snake-style, bracket draft rather than a random draw.

how that would work :
Top 4 regions from the last lan get seeded as 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then they each draft from the remaining 12 teams to put in their bracket.
1st seed gets to pick their first opponent. Then the rest do it in order 2-4. Then 4th gets to select the first team for the other side of their bracket. this then goes 3, 2 1, then 1 again for the last team in their bracket, then 2, 3, 4.

Why?

1. Some teams may think other teams are worse / better than others either against their playstyle or on Lan. For example, if you know you can beat a team in your region, put them in your bracket. Or, if you are VERY confident you can stack your bracket to take out stronger teams early.
2. This allows SOOOOOOOOO much more shit talk, rivalries, cinderella stories, upsets, and overall storylines based on selection.
3. Gives a viable 16 man bracket that either guarantees a series of banger games or lets a lot a potent, and strong teams through.

Examples :
Lets use champs as an example with these 16 teams, and the masters 1 finishers.
OpTic, Xset, Sentinals (SHROUD), Fnatic, FPX, M3C, Loud, Kru, NIP, Levitan, DRX, Zeta, Edward Gaming (china, cause hypothetical fuck it), PRX, Xerxia, and Team Secret.
MASTERS 1 PLACEMENTS

1. NA - Top seed : OpTic
2. Brazil - Top seed : Loud
3. Japan - Top seed : Zeta
4. APAC - Top seed : PRX

Now, Optic is able to pick anyone, not in bold, for their opponent. Let's go with a simple opponent : Team Secret.
Then it's Loud. They do their best pick as well, in Kru.
Zeta then picks Edward Gaming, in revenge for them beating the Japanese team in the East Asia LCQ finals.
Paper Rex decide to take their father home in a round 1 deathmatch against DRX.

From here we see different approaches. OpTic picked one of the weakest teams there. Loud and Zeta selected a grudge match : one based on LCQ and the other based on regional rivalry. Finally, Paper Rex was confident and decided to remove a problem and a heavy hitter from their bracket : DRX.

In a snake draft, 4th place gets the first pick of the second round. So for the far side, Paper Rex choses little old NIP. Zeta chose another 'easier' team in Levitan, where as Loud grabs a surprise in FPX. Optic then can pick their second bracket straight on with the last pick of round 2 and the first of round 3. They decide to trap Xerxia against XSET, as they believe either is a good second round win to get them heated up for playoffs. Loud set off their plan to grab M3C to battle FPX. Though very risky to grab a strong team in round 2, they want an experienced team in M3C or a very strong team in FPX out. They are also confident that they can beat M3C, whether it's in the uppers or lowers. For Zeta, two teams remain, one will take on their Levitan while the other fights NIP. Zeta drafts the weaker of the two : Fnatic. Leaving Paper Rex to be in the same bracket as Sentinels and Lord Shroud.

So based on this hypothetical, some things can be drawn out to increase the tension and storylines of each selection. Of course, M3C and FPX want revenge on loud for pitting a region against each other. Storyline. Paper Rex are dealt to slay their father in DRX and then face everyone's daddy in Shroud - who was the last pick and most feared team. Storyline. Zeta face Edward in an easier bracket, yet they are still stuck with Fnatic, a huge titan of a team. Optic draft an easier bracket, but contain both XSET and Xerxia, longtime rivals and reignited Storylines. This not only allows stark competition and strategy even before Champions starts, but it give an obvious advantage to top placements.

So if your a fan of high quality Valorant , or love a deep drive of a storyline, that'll be there in this format.

Plus, they could make it a live draft even and that would be so hype with reactions and such.

It's not perfect, but it's funny and entertaining and better than a fucking random draw that will produce marginally less storylines.

Riot wanted regional finals to actually matter, I guess.

Guild is a fraud but FPX at their fullest can REALLY fight with Fnatic.
Right now EMEA is suffering HARD from identity issues, which is unheard of in NA. Like M3C is scrabbling roles around, ACEND has been shaky and swapping positions and players, Liquid fell apart recently. I just feel like EMEA has what they have at the moment, unlike how NA has a push-pull ecosystem. For example : If a T1 player fumbles in NA they are either matched or upgraded in NA, while in EMEA there is much more downgrading of players when one doesn't fit. Link for example. ACEND too, with their mixing and such.

What I'm saying is that EMEA has to build and fix much more than an NA team which can build, upgrade, then fix. That's why EMEA has two great teams then a pool of ok teams, then a LARGE pool of bad teams. NA has two great teams, a decent pool of ok teams, then a massive pit of decent teams with good players, and finally a pit of bad teams.

With the skill of all regions, Major VS minor doesn't exist in skill. That's why I have it as inclusion, depth, and population, since this way Major vs Minor is much easier to validate.

Kurapika is now drowning in an indescribable emptiness

Minor regions send 1 representative to lan's.
Major Regions send 2 or more.

Brazil / Latam are minor regions that share spots.
Korea and Japan are minor regions.
EMEA, APAC, and NA are major regions. They have more spots and waaayyyy more teams in their ecosystems (NA opens like 200+ teams, APAC regionals combined are probably 50+ quality teams)

I genuinely think either PRX brings Fnatic to a 3 map overtime thriller of massive blows and really really close rounds, or one team absolutely stomps the other into an untold oblivion, the likes of which can destroy a mans heart and eradicate his future.

Basically.

Amazing close game
or
Boaster strat diff / Jingg and F0rsaken massacre the Europeans.

imo this will be either the single hardest match or the easiest the Fnatic plays. Every other team they can just skill diff, even OpTic.

Suygetsu landed in Copenhagen as soon as Fnatic beat FPX. They're back to being a top 3 squad, lower bracket better be scared.

he's in Copenhagen as of 3 minutes ago.

Don't face FPX in losers now.

I've never seen an approach to the game so lame. Just sit back and run away instead of Gigachad running at plat 2 Russ and friends

Singapore strats : Run at those fuckers like Gigachads and clap em with your superior aim.

EU strats : RUN AWAY AND HIDE

Victor? Covid nerf.
Gigachad f0rsaken? Covid buff.

Neon dif

All of PRX are gigachads running and shiting on guild. How do guild counter this?

Run the fuck away and hide.

So what your saying is suygetsu gets a 50% stat reduction in his first game.

1. Playoffs are much better set up for yall storylines
   2, The most explosive team, PRX, and the best team in the world, Fnatic, haven't played yet
2. FPX, a top 3 contender, is missing (debatably) their best player, in Suygetsu.
3. Competition really starts in Playoff and everyone, especially teams like DRX and OpTic, will kick their play up to an even higher level.

Playoffs STARTS with the two best EMEA teams as well as Paper Rex, a crazy fun to watch team, vs Guild. Then it's DRX versus the new kings of Latam and then the regular NA rematch. The playoffs will be so much better without teams like G2 and Liquid to fumble away all their skill.

also, Suygetsu isn't going to be here for his first game. If the stats are based on averages, it'll be fine, but off hard stats? Immediate disadvantage.

I'm not familiar with the format. Were you given a certain sum and then had to use it to get 8 players at varying prices? Not just a snake style draft.

To be fair North America and Japan (and maybe brazil) bring in more viewers than EMEA does. Good teams, but they get less viewers.

idk how this draft works, but having your second best player not even in Copenhagen ATM kinda sucks for ya

1. Marved
2. Suygetsu
3. Sayf

Buzz might pop off? rest are just a bunch of solid piece players.

Jingg drops 30 on Reyna.
f0rsaken has a decent day and drops a below average 23 kills.
Guild lose both maps without getting a total of 13 rounds.

All I gotta say is Guild almost lost a game long 5v4 against optic. Good fucking thing they face F0rsaken while he's got covid. Maybe it'll be another competitive 5v4 unless Jingg does Jingg things.

I want Iguodala.

Should still be the 16 team format.

PRX HARD 3-0'ed Xerxia.
13-8 Icebox
13-4 Fracture
13-5 Breeze

Best part? Icebox and Breeze were Xerxia's picks. Paper Rex only got one of their map picks and still did this.

From what I've heard, Istanbul is a much easier location to get a Visa than Copenhagen is, specifically for Russian individuals.(I'm not European, idk they laws). So if FPX get to Champs, they're good on that front, as far as I know.

I'm fueled with 20 tons of Hopuim man. We saw Xerxia. Imagine Xerxia but getting twice the rounds and that's what you can expect from PRX.

So, Suygetsu got his FUCKING VISA BOYS. This catapults FPX over DRX and PRX in my opinion. If FPX get passed Nth without Suygetsu, he might be able to get to Copenhagen for playoffs. 100% a top 3 team in the tournament.

If he can't get to Copenhagen for game 1 of playoffs, FPX has to hope they don't get Fnatic or PRX. Both of them stomp, and I mean stomp, this current FPX roster without Suygetsu.

Update : fuck

Counterpoint : Aspas double blastpack

OpTic needed 5 to win split.

They aren't getting passed 4.

I agree

Loud haven't lost split stage 2. Aspas is bouta drop 30. Ez Loud 13-4

This is a great day. Get this guy outta here

Nobody is talking about Leviathan. I'm so excited to see them since kru is looking great.

Fnatic doesn't count because them on fracture is too unfair.

+best icebox team in the world BY FAR

Korea...?
Should give China a spot.

They copied the comp, but can't copy the quality.

2. Loud. Trust me. No team has dominated their region like Loud. This is a true super team, and can very well beat anybody, even Fnatic. They are number 2 because, well, they and Fnatic have something to prove. Both cores have been to masters before, and each squad has gotten second. They have a lot of motivation to win.

3. OpTic. Won last masters. LANimals. They can beat the two above, but why are they three? All they have pushing them is staying the best, and we all know, staying the best is way harder than becoming it. That is the sole reason they are 3, they just lack an extra UMPH to win it all, back to back.

Direct quotes.

Loud has more drive than Optic. I had them above Optic in all my power ranking. THE GAME SHOWED THAT LOUD HAD MORE DRIVE. THEY HAVE MORE THAN OPTIC DOES. I was questioned. I was correct.

Babybay playing Ranked tonight ig.

W streamer

They show up today. Ez win. 5v4.

100% no way they throw a 5v4 against Lay asleep in bed XD it's past FNS bedtime.

So Derke is playing Ranked tonight?

OpTic gonna lose, it's a 4v5 for them with Lay asleep in bed.