jamppi doesnt mean anything

Yeah felt like it was such obvious signing.

It is good for marketing, but bad for competitiveness. France just doesn't produce enough top level pros. They could have gone for like Scream, Nivera, Shin, Enzo, Takas and that could have had potential, but outside of those there aren't crazy amount of talent at the moment. Maybe there will be a chance in the future but I doubt it. Its like in CSGO how national teams used to dominate, but most of them have turned into international teams in recent years. Its just hard to get enough talent from one country alone.

Positively surprised by them. I liked Nivera's Omen a lot. Scream wasn't fragging as hard, but his calling was decent at times. Shin came from weaker tier 2 team and actually did decent. Newzera wasn't super impressive, but again I didn't expect anything from these 2. And I was dissapointed of xms. Like I still think they will be in bottom 4 of EMEA, but I kind of liked how they looked, especially compared to my expectations. But I do think that going full French was a mistake.

Expected tbh. Only teams with any sort of potential or vision moving into future in my head were KOI and Giants who both had to face NRG. Both KCorp and BBL were big underdogs vs LOUD and DRX. And Heretics was the only one with real possibility to make it further, but again Heretics vs EG was really 50/50 game and Heretics lost.

I mean we haven't see the on paper top 3 EMEA teams yet.
And even outside of that I was just thinking that top EMEA talent is really packed right now like just think about it. Arguably top 5 EMEA teams last year were FPX, Fnatic, TL, M3C and Guild and where they are now:

FPX: Suygetsu(NaVi), Shao(NaVi), ANGE1(NaVi), Zyppan(NaVi) -> Ardiis imported to NA
FNC: Derke(FNC), Boaster(FNC), Alfajer(FNC) -> Mistic and Enzo to tier 2
TL: Jamppi(TL), Soulcas(TL), Dimasick (TL 6th man) -> Scream and Nivera left for weaker team with Scream IGLing, no hope
M3C: nAts(TL), Redgar(TL), Chronicle(FNC), Sheydos(KOI) -> D3ffo/Jady no longer in
GLD: Leo(FNC), Sayf(TL), Trexx(KOI), Koldamenta(KOI) -> Russ to tier 2

so pretty much arguably last year's 5 best EMEA teams are now split into like 3 teams aka Fnatic, Liquid and NaVi. While some went to KOI, but KOI also has starxo who didn't look too good last year and Wolfen who came from tier 2. And ofc there are other players like nukkye, hoody, Cloud, Molsi, Twisten etc who looked good, but again are on teams that have a lot to prove before they can be considered top.

on my on paper EMEA team expectation ranking:
Alpha - 9th, 8th, 7th, 4-6th, 4-6th
Omega: 1-2nd, 1-2nd, 3rd, 4-6th, 10th

but this is just my pre season prediction

His OPing is insane just unfortunate he isn't playing agents like Jett. Apparently he has too low sens to play duelist effectively.

With "7 teams" he likely meant those 2 teams. And considering especially The Guard's time together they are a challenge at this point in time and would put a fight if not even win vs EG.

That's kind of unfair tho when both KOI and GIA got eliminated by NRG who are potentially NA's best or at least top 3. Its really possible that KOI and/or Giants could beat EG and/or TheGuard/M80 if you are talking about those two.

Its not really about that. I think that mist EMEA teams just have a lot of questions and problems that need to be fixed with time. There's tier 2 players jumping into tier 1 like Fit1nho and Wolfen. There's a lot of role conflicts and players with new roles(same with teams like C9, but overall more clearer). Potential comm issues/language barriers/cultural differences etc. And then you ofc have like 4 teams that just have really little potential aka TH, KC, BBL and FUT.

it is a cope, but also something that is true and likely won't be as big of an issue with NA teams(SEN could have this)

Expected tbf. One season of regional and they will be much stronger(if they make it).

I don't know what they are doing. Forcing same things over and over again.

NRG won so many clutch rounds and couple throws from Giants like Fit1nho and Cloud not waiting to regain hp and just peak

Ofc not. Games like Valorant will not die in long time just like games like CSGO, LoL, Dota 2 etc.

No problem both NRG and LOUD hard opponents and favorites on paper

For me Omega is definitely more interesting because of Fnatic, Liquid, NaVi and Vitality. Alpha is boring for me outside of KOI and Giants.

And even if they win vs NRG they will have to face the best IGL in the world Scream

Split would be interesting for sure

I actually think that Giants' Haven has looked good here and in G-Loot and its likely their best map atm. IMO KOI vs NRG map pool aka Icebox and Haven would be good for Giants.

Giants wasn't really tested, so they didn't have to show much while NRG had to show little more and showed that their Icebox is kind of weak. I think Giants definitely have a chance, but it might be too early for that. Also Fit1nho has to perform better.

Maybe he is just the 6th man? Most teams have coaches as their 6th so they look like if they only had 5 players there.

That is why you have to combine the 2 for ultimate team. This is why Fnatic and Liquid will win everything in 2023.

Nah the real secret is to have one Finn on the team, Fnatic: Derke, Liquid: Jamppi, Giants: hoody, Vitality: Bonecold all arguably top 6 teams in EMEA and players' teams have done well in events.

Good to see. He had slow start this season, but has been killing it ever since.

First day is going to be banging. Are thse BO3 btw?

IMO Giants are stronger or at least same than KOI and have had more time together

no, never even tried

Wolfen vs ____

didnt bet

Rather have small arena with packed crowd than big arena with small crowd. Really hope it gets better as the tournament progresses. Always just feel kinda bad for the teams.

You lack the ability of reading? EG isn't same as NRG, and TH isn't same as KOI.

At least on KOI it makes sense with Koldamenta as IGL, and Fit1nho is fine and has potential. Mixwell feels like clout pick, but maybe he brings in something else as well.

I have 2 wrong, NRG vs KOI and PRX vs C9(originally had C9 rip)

Actually kinda reminds me of their LEC roster.

True as well and it suck. Scream is one of the best players in terms of mechanics and Nivera is good enough to be on top team, but now both of them are in team with no seeable future.

KCorp could be ok with Enzo, but even still its all down to how well Enzo can IGL and its hard to rate it based on Apeks' games alone. XMS was doing really well in French VRL, but he was playing Chamber for most part. Also they are super limited if they want to stay French speaking and its going to be hard to change language if/when it happens.

Yep the bottom teams kinda trolled with their rosters. BBL got eliminated first in LCQ and they still stick with most of the same roster only adding like Sounchi and Brave. FUT's biggest achivement so far is winning Ascension and again decided to stick with same roster. KCorp wanted to be full French speaking, so again they were forced to sign some weaker tier 2 talent (Shin was good tho) and kept ScreaM IGLing. And Heretics for most part signed players who had weak 2022.

1-3: Fnatic, NaVi, Liquid (hard to rank even tho TL likely 3rd)
4-6: Giants, KOI, Vitality (hard to rank)
7: Heretics
8: KCorp
9: BBL
10: FUT

If you look at the rosters and their perfomances so far, legit ranked them the same before the season.

Heretics is like #7 best team in EMEA so chill for moment

Boo one of the best actual IGL fraggers IMO

keloqz peak is super high but sadly inconsistent. Hopefully that won't be issue on Heretics.

I have EG winning, but I do believe TH's peak is higher at least currently. Just depends on their individual form today.

Omega 100% for me. Fnatic, Liquid, NaVi and Vitality. Alpha only has(had) KOI and Giants and that's kind of it. No expectations for other KCorp, BBL or Heretics.

KOI easily. Wolfen, Sheydos, Koldamenta and Starxo are all decently tall and decent size.

Heretics players have been way too inconsistent in the past, so its really 50/50

Fnatic or NaVi - my quick take

Fnatic - Insane roster. Really stacked on every role, especially having Derke and Leo on this meta is so good for them. Has IGL that is native English speaker making calling way easier. Concerns: choking, Boaster's calling on high stake games.

NaVi - Really good roster. This meta will suit them really well with Jett, traditional sentinel and initiator dominant one. Also one of the best anti-strat teams out there even though it won't help much here. Also has shown the ability to switch up comps and styles a lot. Concerns: can cNed flex if needed, and how he overall fits to this team like resource taking, comms in and out of game etc.

Liquid - Good roster as well. They finally got a proper IGL and nAts is one of the best sentinels even though we likely won't see much of Cypher. A lot of flexibility. Concerns: Redgar's IGLing overall(wasn't biggest fan of M3C calls) and him having to do that in English. Possible role conflicts between Jamppi and Sayf. Like who plays Raze if needed etc. Also maybe bit inconsistent on higher stake games in players like Jamppi and Soulcas.

Zeek and Avova are inconsistent as well. Inconsistency is big problem among Heretics players, but have to hope they will become more consistent on this team.

He was staying in different country(Serbia or Turkey I assume), so he likely flies alone.

Yeah they are constantly taking up fights. Like when most other teams get a kill they fall back to play for man advantage, but when PRX player gets a kill they will instantly re-peak and completely lose good positions. I guess its their thing that partly made them good, but it has started to really cost them. We already kind of saw this in Champions.