I know that right now that public opinion is that Fnatic, Loud, NaVi, DRX , NRG and LEV are the tier S teams, so my question is what teams (outside those six) will improve the most and qualify for Tokyo?
EMEA: TL, KOI, Giants, Vitality
Americas: Furia, 100T, SEN
Pacific: GenG, GE, PRX, ZETA
TL: Expected to be a superteam, ofc came out after only having Redgar a week and flopped hard, they will 100% look better in regional EMEA league
KOI: showed flashes and almost beat NRG, has a really good core of players on paper, give them time to cook and potentially a better lock in bracket and they could've made top 8-16
Giants: similarly to KOI their roster showed alot of flashes but had an easy first game against bottomfeeder DFM and I expect them to atleast go toe to toe with some of the good teams in EMEA
Vitality: Looked really good off the get go of the tourney vs GE and kept up close with LEV, honestly I think they're the best EMEA team outside the on paper best 3, Wouldn't say they'll need to improve much but they'll probably be the favorite for the 4th EU slot
Furia: looks much improved with the addition of Mwzera and they did well against T1 and even the eventual winners of lockin in Fnatic, they've always been a close 2nd to loud in brazil but I think in the americas they'll be in the 4-6 range
100T: Similarly to TL they had huge expectations after the offseason and I dunno what happened to them but they did NOT look in form at all during their 3 games, I expect them to work out these issues pre americas league and should do well regionally
SEN: Similarly to Furia and 100T, they had to play FNC right off the get go and its obvious that their roster needs some more time to mesh well, they had only a week together during the Tarik invitational and its why they didn't exactly perform to expectations, any 3 of these american squads I feel like could steal a spot from LEV, NRG, or LOUD
GenG: Like alot of teams in this tournament they had to go against one of the best in LOUD off the get go and despite a 2-0 they looked really good against LOUD and have alot of firepower on paper with some of the best korean players outside of DRX on their team, I think the pacific outside of DRX and maybe Talon is wide open for that 3rd slot
GE: Give them time to cook, work out the role transitions for pretty much the entire team and work in LF and Wronski and I expect this project could pull off because being a team that initially was expected to be a bottom 5 by most they impressed me vs Vitality
PRX: Arguably a top 3 pacific team historically, they just had a really rough start against Cloud9 and sure people may say their playstyle has become predictable but they've shown they can innovate and they've dominated apac historically, they will 100% be a contender for a pacific tokyo slot if they continue their trend of innovating.
ZETA: Imma be real unless they change their roster I think they might struggle unless magically Tennn and Crow step up domestically. But its hard not to root for this team and they're definitely a team that can take it to the likes of the aforementioned PRX and are better than atleast 4 of the pacific league teams.