Both

Also oxg and maybe mxs have a better shot than hero base in current form

Kpi and mouz are looking sick

Where in challengers?

Apac looks so bad rn

Id say 100T but they already have too many confidence struggles

Where should he go? Who needs a high comms senti+viper midrounder?

He's literally the "A" part from EMEA... but he has lived and played in NA long enough, he's NA no matter what he says. His whole career developed in NA

Script is a meme bro, relax. Patterns are everywhere if you look hard enough

Hear me out. Start out as a team with some ranked rookie (aspas and karon) mixed with vets with varying degrees of success on past rosters, but all looked good individually at one point or another. Assembled the same year... gets to the finals through the upper bracket of the first major and chokes to a more solid NA team.

GenG are winning champs. It's in the script

"Steal"... reading is hard, I know

I know... I think you missed the implication. All good

At first I thought round 2 matchups were based on map/round count, but then I saw the 0-1 matchups...

All imma say is OF COURSE sen has to play both emea teams right off rip smh

Ya time to steal back rb

Watched the whole game and some of their kickoff run...
It's been shown time and time again that when teams have a player that's going VERY negative like this, an upgrade in firepower is often what takes teams over the top. If he's going -9 or even like -15 over a series, that's one thing and you can make up for that with intangibles, but when it's like this, they're gonna be capped when they play teams who also shoot hard and are playing comps that aren't shit

-26 and they still win. Drop that number to single digits and they win the event

They have to be the favorite to come out of apac ascension, no?

Yeah I'm def talking about the future. See how far the hot streak takes them. But my theory here is that they won't get far if lakia is -7 every single map

You need to look at the stats again + munchkin is the igl, not lakia

Zest in for lakia.
They just won... but with lakia going -10 every single series. Unless he's bringing some insane comms or something, this is a straight upgrade and might make them consistently at the top. Not saying this was a fluke, but drx will definitely improve and prx was arguably not giving their best in the final

I'm begging you guys to just use a simple histogram to show where in the pickems distribution you are. Not too difficult to implement, and is a lot better to visualize where you stand

Lmao

Anypne notice how the results from kickoff are EXACTLY the same as league play from last year?

Top three in league made it out of groups. The next three, zeta, secret, geng, all made it to the play in. Bottom 4 are eliminated plus bleed.

Some things never change, apparently

He was making some braindead ass plays today tho on the first two maps lol

You were NOT watching those games lol. Most of the time he was solo lurking on chamber for picks. That's not being set up brotha

Why do edater couples talk in teamchat?

Any guesses?

No one asked. And I don't care.

Americas:
Pancada out of bench jail to lev for mazino (who struggled on controller roll last year).
Mazino and nzr go to kru for klaus and mta. KRU would actually be quite competitive with that roster.

EMEA:
KOI pick up scream and nivera. They are two players short of a roster, and the brother are the highest skilled players available. It makes too much sense,
Koldamenta calls in a very cs/defaulty way, so scream might actually buy in... plus scream is still a great player as long as he isn't calling, which he wouldn't be.

APAC:
GenG blow it up, keep texture, and pick up k1ng, zest, rb, xeta. Will it ever happen? Hell no, but it'd be fun. 3 Korean teams at the top, right under PRX

he doesn't know

And one final addendum to address your strawman... I recognize way more than big streamers. I recognize about half the players still in contention in opens... of which almost none are big streamers. That includes most of the SaD roster you're so high on. Think of some actual counter arguments next time pls

They might be decent. We will see. SaD and YFP look good, but it's only 2 teams

Also the last point is such a strawman. I rate skill by watching the games. I don't see the same level of skill because many of those who are ESTABLISHED to be that skill are not playing. There are certainly going to be talented players up and coming and will fill some of that void... but in terms of teamplay, the level is lower than last year. I never said they won't improve, I said I don't see the level yet. That may change, but I dont see any of these teams contending with the returning challengers teams. I've agreed with piints you've made that I am on board with... you haven't done anything close to that. Just making strawmen and calling my points "disrespectful" as if that's a counterargument. You haven't even addressed the main crux of my points. This will be my last reply because you are wasting my time.

quality of practice matters... the rate of improvement needs to be drastically bigger... The same argument you are making now would apply to pug teams last year, and almost none of the less established pug teams actually got to that level.

We will see how it will play out

Turtle troop have swapped two players since that game + that game did not matter. I don't doubt that they will improve. Everyone will improve... it's about baseline + rate of improvement * time. The rate of improvement will have to be drastic.

And comparing to mad lions is not disrespectful. They had talented players. Drone is one of my favorite players. Bjor Ange Zexrow were all performing well at various points... They just didnt have enough. DSG had fucking yay.... and you're saying it's disrespectful to compare a completely unproven tier 3 team to them? That's asinine. Impossible to take your opinion seriously smh

They are allowed to stream in opens i think... there were pov streams earlier in the tourney.

...IDK about the rest. FaZe and TSM players are not invited... but qualified because of placement last year. IDK about ORE... seems like some of those players are playing opens now, like fiziq, jonaaa6, lear.

Other big names arent necessarily big streamers, but guys like dicey or exalt who have a ton of raw talent but keep getting bounced for various reasons.

mostly the ex faze and tsm guys especially... apparently they keep the spots.... but also streamers who were former pros like roza or other cs guys like stew or what not...

Huge if true... would explain the absense of those players in opens.... thanks

On SaD.... DOUBT. Out of M80, OXG, and MxS, who are you putting them over? They're one of the top teams in opens, probably, but I don't think one result against turtle troop with a different roster than they'll have now is very telling.

I believe YFP anf SaD are probably on par with ML or DSG... but they got shit on last year... even less hopeful about the others.

We will see how big of a step it will be when the main draw rolls around.

I agree that quality of play is what matters... can't say I've seen much quality so far. Very scrappy. Maybe you are right about this guy tho idk. If he quals we will see how he does against better competition

I'm pretty sure tsm and faze, as well as ore announced their withdrawal from challengers

So many big names missing from challengers this year... feels like a huge step down from what we had last year. Whoever makes it through quals is just getting shit on my the 3 signed teams from last year.... and probably turtle troop as well, honestly

Boostio has played all roles except maybe initiator... when he calls his fragging definitely suffers tho. Real ones rmbr when he was destroying tier 2 teams calling on jett and chamber

It's a merger.... two orgs are now one. One org, no issue

When klaus came back in he hadn't played in a long while. That's probably a big reason for his poor performance initially. Overall, a good long term swap when keznit came back for xand

Lev really wishing they hadnt benched keznit at the beginning of the year innit

Benkai

They aren't that weird... very typical tiebreakers. U r just not smart

Actually saved lev tho

Most likely scenario:
EG and lev lose, 100t win

Lev and furia go over eg and sen bc sen and furia entered the tiebreak, making it go to map count

Here's what I think will happen... (not saying it's good)

Sacy and pancada will dip to mibr
They will find an excuse to keep dephh
They'll bring in bcj and yay

So they'll have the old xset core plus yay and marved

Just bring steel back in for nerve and let him call. Problem solved they need a real IGL and nerve isn't even a firepower upgrade