teams that represent 1 country (and not a super power country like USA/KR) are ofc gonna get overhyped. Full Sense puts thailand on the map for valo in a HUGE way so ofc when they actually look good they're gonna get hyped. BBL the same. If GE had a single indian player you could be damn sure of the same thing. Honestly it's kind of a shame because they over-hype a team with genuine potential and then it turns to hate when they cant live up to the wild expectations

I also dont think it's wild for BBL to be the favs ngl both them and m8s have looked like the clear #1 and #2 in EMEA rn (whichever order) but BBL's opponents were literally FNC and Vitality and they 2-0d em both + their duelists are playing like stars which ppl love

Decent roster just imo new head coach. Berlin showed he can be a good IGL and even thrive with some really weird comps like triple smokes. New coach and keep the players just trust the process they got some shooters and a good IGL

Also maybe lets get some role consistency. Setrod playing smokes duelist ini depending on map imo too much. If hes cracked enough to be a 2nd duelist then let him do that +1 other - simplify the process and let him play

DFM do look sneakily good but imo GE look actually good so I'll take em. Whoever wins I hope makes a deep run and quals either way tho would be cool to see either

I think GE just look very solid in terms of macro and they got some shooters too. Good strats, good mechs, good clutch players (xavi8k is him) and hopefully good vibes. Also w coach. Only thing they need now is an indian player

Just wondering if it was known that he had hand surgery. To my knowledge after he left Apeks he had a hand surgery that he said he was putting off for a while - presumably because he would have to take a lot of time off. Since then he has played Ascension with Winthrop and as a last minute sub for Kru. In both he hasn't looked crazy but noticeably improved and more comfortable mechanically

See people non-stop hating and most of it based on his past so I just wanted to offer a cope for his redemption arc. Especially given this is a last minute sub on a non-roster playing vs Tier 1 practiced teams where of course kru are getting beaten pretty badly

Openly admitting this is cope dw but I hope he does well this year and creates a new narrative for himself

Ah okay I'm with you now. I think yoru overall needs a general nerf (probably to his TP - way less time or a limit on how far it can travel imo)

I love flash ini and I think the meta (pro or ranked) would be in a healthier place if they were better but I think the flash mechanic is a dangerous one to toy with. If you get blind regardless on a skye flash (even if reduced) it might end up being super oppressive and OP. especially given how flexible skye (and breach) flashes are - can put em high, low, long range, pop close range etc. It's a cool idea but to me it's like fixing a problem by creating a bigger one

Flashes are very strong already I don't see why this is necessary at all. In terms of pro play combo-ing util with a flash is unbelievably powerful and in an average ranked game most people cant consistently turn flashes unless it's super obvious and/or breach flash. Yoru just got nerfed and still S or high A tier dont need another buff. Skye/kayo flashes are great and phoenix flashes already undodgeable if done right

If we're discussing non-pro play, with respect, playing a flash agent requires skill and timing and if you always find your enemies are not flashed it's a you issue. breach a little less-so but still applies

Bit too lazy to participate myself ngl but cool idea and looks clean. bump for W effort hope others do the same

kezit is many things, including great, but disciplined is not one of them. quite a few solo keznit plays ytd

he was trolling but im pretty sure there is some rule or allowance made if a team really cant field 5 from their roster their coach can sub regardless? not sure on the specifics but i feel like ive seen it maybe tier 2 somewhere

if that's the main source you're wanting to use I would say probably not enough. consider how many people watch hours and hours of anime and come out of it speaking basically no japanese except for a few words and maybe a single basic sentence - and that's with subtitles to help

when the language you wanna learn is that far away from your native (mainly alphabet diff imo) it'll take a lot more effort sadly. but yeah as said by someone above as a later stage resource or an addition to other resources it'll def be a positive

atp i dont think he would be that different. he spent so long developing himself in this way he would need a while to adapt to just comfortably being a regular player. the main difference i can think of would just be getting timing'd a lot less as that does tend to happen to him a lot bc hes calling or looking at map mid-round instead of focusing on his own player. i think the mechs diff would not be huge but maybe some more lurk timings

it's true that his heavy IGL focus takes away from his ability to frag but he also has adapted himself this way after years so if u just take the IGLing away that doesnt rly mean hes gonna thrive in fragging

his raw aiming ability wasnt really that bad but it was more of an aiming technique thing that kinda became more exaggerated the more he got mocked for it. insta spraying and kinda shaky spraying too instead of actually taking his time to make sure it's a HS. i would probably compare the shooting mechs with a rifle to like ascendant most of the time but sometimes he did actually hit ns

ah i see i didnt know that ty, sad for zeta they looked good last 2 games

Why do the casters keep saying zeta are out? If t1 get 2-0d by DFM with enough round differential dont zeta make it in? i dont know the tiebreaker order but zeta have more map wins and they could potentially have a better round +/- so why are they 100% out?

imo

APAC:
t1 - scrim leak drama + sylvan stuff + also probably lost a few fans when they tried to go non-korean international and then scrapped it back to korean roster

HM: GE - Happy to cut all 5 and start over next season including removing all their indian players and showing 0 faith. not what people want from the only indian team in tier 1

EMEA:

Navi: let ange1 retire bro please we love him but it's time + absolutely unhinged sacking of coach d00mbros mid-season when the team was doing well and then after they cut him they lost like every match and didnt qual including losses to really weak teams (no tox)

HM: Apeks? idk for some reason everyone seems to hate them but i have no idea why. of course they are weak bro they came up from ascension and lost half the players that got them there including their star duelist.. They took the gamble on flor which i respect tbh but didnt work so double the hate i guess? idk just seems like people hate em

kaajak has better aim but zekken is the better player imo. dont see how you can really see it any other way. zekken isnt known for his insane raw aim, that doesnt mean he cant aim just that he has other skills that put him above most others

as much as i dislike the insane over-glazing he gets, tenz probably belongs here ngl. dominant in early valo and then found himself on a new role, adapted to it and became one of the best again on a completely different team in a different era

gotta be a nerf to the blind. TPs are what make omen fun and interesting, ult is already weak, smokes are not the problem (now that one ways are more reasonable). the blind is just an unturnable uninteractive and difficult to dodge thing to deal with and the more co-ordinated your team is the better it becomes

making it 350 would be a reasonable nerf on pistol but for me i would make the path thinner or shorter or make the blind last a shorter amount of time. or for a more complex nerf the duration you are blinded varies depending on how far you are away from the blind when it is thrown - if you are right next to omen you are blind for the full duration but if you are far it's less time

this would still make omen a good agent but just a bit less overpowered given that it is a largely uninteractive mechanic on the blind

bleed: honestly if we go by just player ability agreed. internal issues screwed them both between players and from the org

aspas: lev yes it was basically designed to be a SA + NA mix superteam just failed. but in what world is mibr a superteam? people really forgot what superteam is - it's not a team of 5 good players who play well right now it's a team FORMED from proven world class players from other teams coming together in a few team (bkn nets with kd + kyrie + harden)

tenz: honestly debatable given that tenz was good in 2 different eras with 2 different rosters on 2 different roles. i take derke >>> but tbh valid take

yay: he caused drama and got kinda toxic to his team on DSG and bleed all while underperforming hugely at an individual level. i like him and im happy hes feeling good rn with EG but he was a part of the problem for dsg and bleed. was he the biggest problem for either team? no but he was a problem. c9 too short time to tell + no insight

kaajak: bro barely played in tier 1 relax lmao. IGL diff plays huge role here

5 years damn bro a grinder. it sounds like you're overthinking tbh with mouse grip and sens and trying to get the best aimlabs routines. i dont mean this in a rude way but the confidence setback from this overthinking is gonna be a barrier for you imo you gotta be more kind to yourself and accept this is a learning phase not a performance phase. you will get back the aim level you had before, maybe better really because it's a new mouse with fresh grip

why did you change mouse if your old one felt perfect?

sounds like you're putting in a lot of effort here so im positive that you will adapt and feel great but if every time you miss you tell yourself "man on my old mouse i'd get that" then you're never gonna feel confident so it's a tricky one for sure

im gonna need you to put meteor on this list and right at the top

if you only just switched mouse to one that's much lighter it's natural that you'd feel this way. your sens isnt crazy so i dont think you need to go lower you need to give yourself time to adapt. though you could go lower as well either way you need to just practice and give yourself time. one step back two forward kinda thing

also idk your level but while you're adapting to the new mouse maybe try to focus on movement more and adjusting your aim with A + D instead of flicking and insta shooting. not that flicking is bad but practicing the calm re-adjustments and micro mouse movements will probably net you more kills and is a more important skill to adjust your hands to with the new mouse (imo)

my advice would be to treat this as a development/learning phase and just commit to learning good technique while adapting to the new mouse. your k/d might suffer a bit but long term you set yourself up for success. dont be too hard on yourself until you adjust to the new mouse you're basically playing with a handicap it's natural that you'd miss more

victor probably a decent shout. (respectfully) not very tall and has quite short arms and i think he does lift so likely he would have a good bench and isnt that heavy so relative to bodyweight maybe him

if you ignore the unfortunate context of the picture his arms look pretty big here

https://admin.esports.gg/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Chet-and-Victor-released-NRG-968x544.jpg

Sen wins: loud, eg, 100t (2 weak teams, 1 good team)
100t wins: loud, 2g, eg (3 weaker teams)
kru wins: sen, loud, 2g (2 weaker teams, 1 good team)
c9 wins: lev, furia, nrg (3 weaker teams)

how can you guys use this logic and reach the conclusion that kru are bad but the others are good? if you are deep watching the games and have real in-depth video analysis then fine please tell me but if you are looking at the wins and who is a "plumber" please tell me what kru did differently??

they are 3-1 so it seems more reasonable to say they had 1 bad day to me. you can say they had 1 good day, 1 bad and then got 2 weaker opponents sure but basically every team's wins are beating up on the worse teams + 1 good team

which is why it doesnt make sense to me to single out kru as C tier while 100t and sen (who kru beat) would get B tier

bro came in mid-season and won them champs now they want him gone. sad for my king but im sure some other good orgs will happily take him and value him

anyone know if he speaks english? any region would love him im sure

kru in C tier because of 1 loss is a bit wild, they looked great the other 3 matches including 2-0ing your B tier sen. tbh sen have also looked a lot better last few weeks

S: g2
A: mibr, kru, sen, 100t (in order)
B: C9, 2g (new 2g)
C: EG, NRG, Lev
D: Loud
F: uria

boaster's IGLing has also been top tier in Stage 1 so far while FNS's kinda hasnt. even if boaster wasnt fragging i wouldnt put them in the same conversation in 2025

EDG were also underdogs for some of their series in 2024 including vs Sen in the playoffs fwiw. pretty sure many people had them getting grouped too

my fun underdog CN bet will go to nova in 2025 sometimes all a team needs is confidence to make a deep run

64 in 3 maps is insane whatever the record is hes gonna take it if they go 5 maps 100%

I see pros just go into settings and turn their volume to 0 after they die sometimes. In ranked/streaming would be one thing but even in pro games you see it sometimes.

Anyone know why? Seems like it would only be a hinderance if you wanna help your team after you die in comms

rookie mistake mb

On the vlr match page between t1 and trace it says Sylvan is playing not carpe. is this just a visual bug/because carpe is the "sub" or do we actually have evidence that sylvan is healthy enough to play?

drx doubt comes from experience of people being excited for drx only for them to choke and get owned + they have 2 rookies that most people haven't heard of + people saying apac is a weak region overall + drx changing roster spots every few months but keeping the same coach

not saying i agree with this i got drx beating sen but this is the general reasoning behind why people dont believe in drx

i haven't watched any of the anime but i've read it twice. all i can say is that it was one of the most popular of any serialising manga/manwha/manhua around for good reason. it's not like demon slayer where the anime hard clears the manga (manwha) by having goated visuals it does look very good. no harm in reading a few chapters to see if you'll like it or not - if you prefer the anime then wait after that and you'll only have "spoiled" a small amount of anime content which you'll probably forget about anyway once season 2 airs

also as is literally always the case the anime leaves out a bunch of stuff from any manga/manwha etc so you'll be getting more overall solo leveling content if that helps. if you really don't want to risk any spoiling by reading 2-3 future chapters then you could even read the beginning chapters just to compare with the anime to make a decision

absolutely and they're always huge underdogs so it's nice to watch people be surprised (trace)

also their domestic streams are pretty fun just the little things like having crowd interaction with those sprays at halftime. granted i dont understand a single word but it's fun

when zellsis was on c9 they had the best domestic record of any NA team and 2nd overall behind only loud. since then they've only declined and that's even with the pickup of oxy who is insane

before he came to sen over pancada they were very very mid and after he came they won a masters (no hate on pancada great player)

some people just look at stats and cry but moving reduxx for zellsis 1 for 1`makes 0 sense even if zellsis is worse mechanically and will have a worse k/d he is 100% needed. not to mention team mentality/energy, role flexibility, proven chemistry and experience

not sure about the cute but you do you king

regarding the last part "perform at their highest each time" - they don't. not even close. most pros who play ranked are not trying anywhere near as hard as they do in scrims or matches it's just that the average tier 1 pro is way better than a random average radiant. he doesnt compete anymore but an example being sinatraa he just hard autopilots every game with music on in high radiant last i checked

someone as mechanically cracked as primmie can absolutely play an average game and still topfrag in radiant especially on duelist or clove.

also for primmie he might enjoy it more in ranked right now since talon are dealing with some struggles

derke has more international finals appearances and if he wins with vitality it will prove he can be duelist on the best team in the world on 2 different teams - aspas only won with loud

at that point it will at least be a conversation about who is the goat instead of just 100% aspas no?

why would tex be a bad description? he isnt as good a duelist as... aspas? it's ascension-winning duelist firepower on another role and he was insane the entire year. easily 2nd best after aspas

i feel like people are judging "superteam" based on results. when lev was formed it was called a superteam and it was a team of superstar-level players (or close to that level) who had thrived on other teams all coming together. that IS a superteam. if vitality fail to win anything this year they will still be called a superteam. it's not about whether you win it's about the individuals being brought to the team is it not?

idk if you follow the nba but the nets got kevin durant, james harden and kyrie all on 1 team and everyone said it was a superteam - they never won and they all left after a few years. it was still a superteam because it was formed by bringing together 3 superstar players from other teams

people call all the lock-in tournaments mickey mouse - i think the thought is that at the beginning of the year most teams arent really locked in and dont have the prac time in yet. it's a stupid argument though no lockin winning team has been weak

was it not?

literal goat duelist
very highly regarded fragging IGL
ascension winning duelist-turned-senti
another world champion
mazino (sorry bro)

at worst this is at least pretty damn close to a superteam they just didn't win. doesnt mean it wasnt a team of stars

yeah i don't think anything lines up with fnc just dropping him. they havent even hinted at wanting to change anyone else - even with the unfortunate leo situation they're doing everything they can to bring him back and keep the old team

yes

are we sure they hard dropped him and it wasnt a mutual parting/derke wanting out? he seems to be enjoying having more freedom in vitality (his words) and he ended up on a superteam

for anyone who isn't at semi-pro or aspiring analyst level i think it's more about "will the players try" for entertainment and i'd say very likely yes. will they save a few strats or play older comps than the one they won in scrims recently? probably. but they'll give us an enjoyable match and the casters will give finals-level hype

people called lev a superteam last year and they didn't win anything tho even with aspas

if he wins another event this year (and if aspas doesnt) he has a claim to goat imo. not saying he is but it's a real conversation atp

if you're looking for some cope:

typically the team that sits longer waiting for a match actually doesn't do as well or gets off to a rocky start in bo5s

recent examples being

• trace vs edg CN 2025 kickoff
• edg vs heretics grand final map 1 heretics owned them (edg waited longer from being winners side)
• lev g2 (americas stage 2 grand final- lev won map 1 and series from loser bracket after losing winners finals TO g2)
• drx geng (apac stage 2 grand final - geng won series but drx stomped them map 1 after going losers side)

so... most of the recent bo5s/grand finals. the only exception being emea grand finals but that had a mid vitality roster tbh (relative to top teams)

also g2 have a history of choking and sen are no stranger to comebacks