I see people online constantly calling Optic's run a fluke. Why though?
They placed top 3 across 4 international lans and were easily the best NA team. The most consistent team in the world, yet they did not deserve to win masters?
I would disagree
People can find ways to put asterisks on literally anything, just because something unfortunate happened to where ONE team couldn’t be their that doesn’t take anything away from the win. I could legitimately put asterisk on every LAN tournament winner but why take away from how great a team played for no reason?
yeah but that one team stomp all of the teams in EU and were undoubtedly the favorites coming into the tournament. OpTic played great don't get me wrong but up until that tournament EU was the best region in the world, and on their reykjavik run they didn't face a single EU team, and on the next masters tournament they're defeated twice by an EU team, only on Champions where they finally beat an EU team in Team Liquid.
again these are things you are knit picking specifically to go against Optic
I could do the same with every other tournament winner. Regardless of the scenario or situation nothing takes away from a team winning a tournament and more importantly in Valorant their is no clear “favorites” look at Fnatic who struggled forever but were always “favorites” it just isn’t a spectrum you can use in such a unpredictable game. Your just spitting things out that mean basically nothing cause like i’ve said if I wanted I could go through every tournament and make claims just like yours for each team that took the trophy home. (And even if FPX were the “best EMEA” team Optic had a better year and placed above them at Champs)
alright let's see
Masters Reykjavik 2021: Sentinels absolutely stomps every team, no asterisks there (unless you want to use the "against milkmen and plumbers" argument)
Masters Berlin 2021:Gambit stomp the group stage and beat a KR team, an EU team, and an NA team to win the finals, pretty solid. no asterisks there
Champions 2021: Acend beat NV on the group stage, beat TL in the semis and pull a comeback from 11-12 on the third map in the verge of series point against Gambit in the finals, the playoffs was a bit easy because there's two upsets in the groups and a flukey series win against gambit, there's an asterisks to be made there
Masters Reykjavik 2022: OpTIc got upsetted by xerxia on the groups but still manages to qualify for playoffs, win against onliner The Guard on the quarters, beat DRX on the semis which is fair, and then lose to LOUD in the upper finals before going back to the grand final after beating a fluke ZETA run, and then proceed to beat LOUD on the grand finals, this is without facing a single EU team and with FNC playing with subs and FPX not present in the tournament
Masters Copenhagen 2022: FPX lose against FNC in the playoffs because suygetsu is not there yet, and then proceed to go on a lower bracket run, beating every single top team from the major regions and then win the whole thing. no asterisks there
Champions 2022: LOUD lost against OpTic in the groups, but then proceed to go on a flawless run on their way to the grand final only losing a single map to OpTic on the grand finals. no asterisks there
LOCK//IN 2023: Fnatic beat every single team without dropping a map on the grand finals, and then pull a miracle comeback from 11-3 down on the fifth map vs LOUD, definitely not an asterisks there
you see what I mean? I'm not saying that OpTic is a bad team but out of all international tournaments so far they had the biggest asterisks, sure if you want to be pedantic about it you can make it for every single international tournament winners factoring shit like what food do they eat that they, or one player had a flu or something, but really?
Optic Run is the Most impressive run in 2022 imo, these guys were about to get 1st rounded but ended up winning the tourney, Any arguable fluke runs imo are Either Sentinels (They FELL OFF HARD) or Gambit (These guys didn’t even qual for a masters in 2022) or Acend (THEY FELL OFF THE HARDEST + CHAMPS 2021 didn’t have a lower bracket)