bruhahaha [#21]
You gotta get rid of a lot of the core if you're serious about winning and going top 8. There's a lot of IGLs with better firepower and solid t2 duelist choices in and out of NA. Other than crashies the fundamentals on the optic core has been in decline, ardiis gotta go but so does significant parts of the core here, you can't rely on just one person for firepower.
I agree to an extent about fns's lack of fragging, but I believe that sentiment extend beyond fns alone. Igls, though notorious for not being able to kill because of their role, are starting to be required to frag a little more than they are. Boaster, as much as this website likes to shit on him, is mechanically on par at the very least with other players and can win duels a lot more consistently than other igls. Boostio is another example of an igl who can frag. However, dissolving the entire core of optic on the premise of their performance this year is deffo not the way to go. Crashies is still rated as a top 5 initiator in the world, victor (albeit fairly inconsistent) is one of the world's best flex players and his occasional pop off games, and fns (at least at tokyo) has shown that he can frag out to a decent degree. s0m is their best player so he's staying, so that really just leaves ardiis, whose inability to frag like other t1 duelists has really lowered his stocks. Though it can be argued that there are better replacements for the optic core in t2 valo. optic chemistry is still unparalleled and, at the end of the day, that's still a hugely important factor in the game (looking at you SEN).