Zombs lol. Come to Brazil.

Definitely.

Best player in the world.

Current OpTic roster. Second probably is current Ghost Gaming.

OpTic

They have only made grand-finals once, in the very first masters event.

Definitely seems like a top 15 or potentially even top 10 player in NA right now.

My favorite EU team for what it's worth.

Then what is the justification for not including Yay who was a top 2 player in both Masters 3 last year and Masters 1 this year?

It's pretty clearly implied here by Zombs:
https://youtu.be/AurrkzvXqZE?t=182

At least I like them, they are the only team I actively and strongly root for.

OpTic have been top 3 in NA for pretty much 1.5 years now. They have been elite for far longer than The Guard have even been a team.

Why are Sentinels there instead of 100T/Faze/etc?

7 - Sentinels vs Guild
6 - Fnatic vs Luminosity
5 - Acend vs NRG
4 - M3C vs XSET
3 - Team Liquid vs The Guard
2 - G2 vs C9
1 - FPX vs Optic

I could see FPX vs Optic, G2 vs C9, TL vs Guard, and NRG vs Acend going either way right now.

Competition was way tougher in tournaments after the first Iceland major.

Since then:

Yay: 2nd place, out in groups, 1st place
TenZ: out in QF, out in groups, didn't qualify

There's really no comparison.

I flip flop between 3 and 4 all the time. Both are peak TV for me, nothing comes close.

My personal top 5:

Game of Thrones 1-6 (Best: 3)
True Detective 1 (1 obviously)
The Wire 1-4 (Best: 1)
Succession 1-3 (Best: 2)
Arrested Development 1-2 (Best: 1)

Neon's decision making looked pretty average through most of the two qualifiers. I think Snirot performed better.

Akrew were much better then than they are now. Now they are probably worse than even Complexity.

He just has an incredibly young fanbase

Yeah lol. Just because the team you like is friends is with another team, doesn't mean you have to like that other team too

Top 2

Yay
Chronicle
f0rsaken/John0lsen
Mako
Saadhak (IGL)

Everyone had him as a top 3 and at worst top 5 player in NA prior to the controversy. He was definitely not 'mid'.

I am not sure what the profit margin of esports merchandize is, but another poster had a very good reply to me outlining several benefits.

Very good reply, I didn't think of the sponsor angle!

That only matters if the org can monetize it.

Twitter is one of the most used sites in the world with engagement numbers that most apps and platforms can't even dream of, yet its financials are terrible.

From what I have heard, it is rare for an org to get a cut of a pro player's earnings from streaming. If they do, then that's great. If they don't, however, how exactly is TenZ's brand being monetized in a way that helps make up for the amount they paid for him + his salary which presumably is bound to be massive?

Overestimated them lol, happy that they lost though I'm not a fan. Though once again, they have an easy loser's bracket compared to the other side with V1, Ghost, etc. Let's see if they find another way to hopefully choke.

India just had a LAN with a crowd.

I mean Akrew may have been able to counter-strat them, but Sentinels had all the opportunity in the world to do the same. The fact that Akrew potentially did it better says something

would love to see Moist join Val

I think Top 40 in NA most likely.

Here are 30 or so teams that I am not sure they are better than:

OpTic, C9, Guard, XSET, V1, NRG, Faze, Ghost, 100T, TSM, Gen G, LG, Sentinels, Knights, Complexity, Evil Geniuses, Akrew, Girl Kissers, Lenny Time, SoaR, DarkZero, ZMMB, TSM Academy, BBG Academy, Moon Raccoons, NYFU, Virtuoso, Soniqs, T1, Team Basilisk, Knights Academy, Nights Academy, C9A, Teal Seam

Think they are one of the teams in contention for top 30, and most likely at least top 40.

Sentinels probably have the easiest path to the Upper Finals out of all the teams apart from maybe Knights. I think they should reach it pretty easily.

They are airing out grievances in public. No one is saying they will come to blows but there is clearly some frustration and animosity.

It was pretty clear from the watch parties that were going on over last weekend that Zombs was frustrated with Sentinels and was subtly reveling in their failure, and it is has carried over into this week with both Shahzam and Zombs saying stuff about each other in public.

Interesting that Zombs said he was bringing coaching staff and helping with VOD review while Shahzam was busy streaming ranked the entire time lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl1F3HSO4YE

There were a few other instances too that I couldn't find videos of, but yeah looks like things are a little rocky (Rawky?) in the Sentinels camp

EDIT: another clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6o6f3paIdE

I like your list a lot, but I think Leaf and Sheydos are huge omissions.

Personal top 25 (unordered):

EMEA:
Sheydos
Chronicle
Nats
Scream
Nukkye
Shao
Leo
Ardiis
cNed

Asia:
F0rsaken
Jingg
Sscary
Buzz
Mako
Sugarz3ro

Americas:
Yay
Marved
Leaf
Cryocells
TenZ
Sayaplayer
Aspas
Sacy
Heat

Honorable mentions: Jamppi, Sayf, Hoody, Trent, Saadhak

MK Leo

Yay and Chronicle

I really want Fokus to do well in EMEA.

RGX Classic
Magepunk Ghost
Prime Spectre
Elderflame Judge
Oni Phantom
Forsaken Vandal
Spline Op
Glitchpop Odin
Sovereign Sword

She got nerfed overall. Enemies not getting damaged by wall and the sprint bar draining faster are huge nerfs.

Ahh ok I see!

I have watched Gambit vs Fnatic live as well as the VOD a second time, it was phenomenal. I love the Gambit team in general, and myself believe that they are a top 3 team in the world despite not qualifying for the tournament. I also acknowledge that there were certainly external factors at play hampering their performance in the playoffs of this stage. However, I don't think one can give Gambit a full pass for that without also acknowledging Victor's condition in Champions and how that potentially affected OpTic's play. At the end of the day, we are simply left with the results of these two phenomenal teams to work with, and I don't think they strictly favor Gambit when looking solely at international events. I think an argument can be made for either team.

I can agree with that, but I was making my list strictly based on international tournaments.

I think that is highly debatable.

I agree that I think 2nd @ Champs + 1st at M3 is better than 2nd at M3 + 1st @ 2022 M1 , but OpTic has qualified for 1 more international event which makes up for that IMO.

Gambit and OpTic definitely are the top dogs going by overall results over the international tournaments.

Over the course of all 4 events:

1. Gambit/OpTic
2. Gambit/OpTic
3. Acend
4. Sentinels

After that it's hard to say and really doesn't matter. Has to be one of Fnatic/Liquid most likely, perhaps even KRU.

Yeah, both are around the same level.

They have reached a finals and have won another, tying Gambit as the team to have had the most success in international competitions. I just don't see how you can call these guys inconsistent after they have consistently been one of the best teams in the world for the last 8 months.

Top 3 IMO are OpTic, M3C, FPX.

After that it's hard to say, probably LOUD 4th.

How do you know far and away the best teams? G2 beat 2 of the teams you are including in that group, and they had a lackluster performance.

Yeah obviously. Won Masters 1 2022, finalists for Masters 3 2022. Only Gambit has an equivalent track record worldwide, and OpTic have been to more international majors than them.