No it's top 4. Which is last 3 days

This would make sense if the eventual winners hadn't had successful runs in their respective regions/tournaments. Every team that has won has looked near or straight up the best in the respective regions (NA or EMEA) either by peak performance or consistency. At the international stage, different styles and metas will clash and WILL lead to upsets, especially if teams haven't played each other and fail to adapt soon enough to salvage a map. Good fundamentals will get you 7-10 rounds by itself. The rest will be up to your pop off players, site execs or unique strats. And the fact that these matches are close make it apparent that the apparent skill gap that fans think exist at the international level is but a thin veil. And even then, it's always been NA or EMEA winning.

Interesting

VS/DRX has always been sick in groups. not surprising at this point, but surprising then

Is that new? Because guard and optic met in the quarters in Masters 1 and Copenhagen has been a carbon copy in terms of format so far

That's.... not competition. The scene would eventually die if that were to be the case

What is the problem here? I think 300k+ is fine for a group stage match with relatively minor regions

This was funny.

Is this a clout list?

What happened to Leaf??

Orgs were coming and going before the announcement. Don't read too into it. They were doing bad

Faze doesn't have the firepower?????????? Maybe a lack of depth in some of their rounds, but firepower is precisely what they are right now: primarily an aim team

I'm still reeling from the 100T loss :(

W article though with the quickness!

every single pro player has had a round where they made a rookie mistake in the heat of the moment. The team's problem is the gameplan that makes them start almost every 2nd half in a deficit. And the outrageous antieco losses

it's really not :(

YOOOO those are also both of my fav teams!

FNC looking nice af though. I really like Derke and Boaster, so i might root for them I guess :(

but Asuna is a top tier raze. THey don't need bdog to do duelist really. They need an opper/jett/chamber/sage for non-raze maps like all the other top teams are doing it

my heart can't take this fucking team. I need a new flair

LOL

yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!! but it almost fucking happened since they were down 9-3 in each freaking map lol

It could be very sad, but it's possible 100T could go 0-2 in the playoffs and bomb out top 8 :(

If they aren't in form, they could lose to a Faze/LG match-up since NA is so stacked atm

Hmmm, yeah you're right. In NA, Sen is more decorated. Internationally, they're both currently even in international showings and winnings, but Optic went far deeper in Berlin (M3) than Sentinels. Optic has been more consistent in the international stage, but I guess the OP did say "most decorated team in NA" which I guess counts Sen's early dominance even though it was just domestic

Are they though? Optic has definitely surpassed them by now, surely

It's not surprising people are calling him a duelist in addition to his sentinel role because of the way engagements work in Val. If you're a star player and likely to win a primary duel, then Chamber can be played like a duelist if you put his rendezvous aggressively and use it to retreat after taking a fight. Ideally though, most players who aren't at an elite level would lose those fights if they decided to fight forward in enemy territory instead of using his util to hold down team-owned spaces as intended.

Essentially, it's player skill that makes him duelist-like by using his utility outside the bounds of what most people can achieve and being successful with it a higher percentage of the time. Still, even with aggressive play, his util is for after the engagement, not during/preparing for it. There's no util to prevent your head from getting clicked first, so his util is still sentinel-based

her leer and ability to heal/reposition after getting a pick. her utility is made for engagements

This is hilarious. because for this to even happen, more ridiculous things would have to happen like Luminosity winning Copenhagen and NA getting top 2 above all the brazil/Kr/EMEA teams. Those things among themselves are beyond noteworthy achievements, let alone Optic having to go to LCQ. What an entertaining universe it would be though if this happened

This is hilarious. 8/8

From what I have gleaned, looks like they're having financial issues, not issues with the upcoming partnership program 🤔 interesting

No, i haven't lol. It's hilarious

Did you just say Derke is not good with Raze? Lmfaoooo

Woahhhh, didn't expect that league partnership news down at the bottom. Pretty hype stuff.

I wonder for how long the inaugural leagues will be established? 2 years? 3? 5? And I definitely want to see teams get promoted from lower tournament circuits & make it to these big lans as challengers

They already have

It's impossible now right? They already lose the head to head against lg & eg.

Unless BOTH c9 and faze go 2-3 or worse somehow?

Then people would start complaining about the op and how oppressive it is. People just wanna ez hit sites and don't care about counterplay. It's a silly complaint because fixing it would just introduce complaints on the other side. There are already plenty of ways to get an op off an angle now, so having a strong op agent is not that hard to deal with if you have a competent team. Complaining about how ops or chamber makes the game slow is just saying people are too lazy to solve a solvable problem with utility.

Interesting. Any idea if Bang will join them for the next match?

wait, they're not at bootcamp rn? TSM played really well though, can't even cap

Incoming banger. FNC 2-1

Yeah.... I thought they were finally investing in a long-term structured team that would grow overtime. But looks like I was fooled. They most likely won't last if they're just going to stick to short-term strategies like roster changes after expected losses like losing to Optic, the reigning champs. The Dicey and BabyBay duo can only take you so far against top, well-coordinated teams.

Didn't jack, c9's ceo, say that it was Xeta and Autumn who wanted to go to T1? This is probably some kind of long-term plan to build a top team from the ground up in T1 with a (probably) mixed NA/Kr roster for the NA partnership league in 2023, especially if you account for what Joe, T1's CEO, said.

I too am hoping once the league partnerships start in 2023, many more slots for the big events will be expand to include promoted teams along with partnered teams. These mid-size lans are making it hard for the fans to gauge the real strength of the international scene and a team's place in it.

it's still a qualifier group stage match in a challengers lol

nah, they looked just fine. especially when he uses them to get out of danger

It's also their map pick (by exclusion), so you gotta expect them to have a reason why they're letting it be the decider, and yet they showed us absolutely nothing...

Watching the impact a competent full staff can have on a team is insane rn. holy moly

Is there a site function that would let us enlarge the image that's embedded in this article? I just wanna see it a bit better without changing my browser's zoom settings.

• Edit: Also, I love this updated format. Gives group matches more meaning

wait, this is forreal? how do I find out?

oooh lol, I thought you saw that I edited my own typo within a few seconds of me posting that LUL (and I still misstyped "elim" as elin)

Reyna is not meta

PRX is actually coordinated with a natural raze player to piggy back off the Jett play

ok that's pretty funny, I admit