This is going to have every NA team at an international LAN after 2020 (not counting the fake regional Masters or Lockin where everyone was invited)
DISCLAIMER: REGIONAL PERFORMANCE WILL NOT BE COUNTED HERE
-
Optic 2022/NV 2021 - Obviously the first choice, 3 international Grand final appearances, 1 International LAN win, 3rd place as well
-
EG 2023 - I think this one is fairly obvious as well, 2 international Grand final appearances, 1 Champs win, even though their time was short it absolutely deserves to be up here
-
Sen 2024 - International Masters win, Top 4 at Champs (situation with G2/100T in Shanghai where you could argue they were the 3rd best team in the event as well), not really debatable
-
Sen 2021 - Putting them here because of the win, even though plumber era and allat they still hold the record of being the only team to ever win a LAN without dropping a single map, and they did fairly decent at the other LANs even though they fell off.
----------------------------------------------------------------- 2/3 International LAN teams -------------------------------------------------------
- NRG 2023 is a team that, if you said were the best NA team to never win an international LAN, people would look at you funny, but honestly it's probably true. They were the only team on this list that made every International of their year that didn't win one, and they performed not horribly. At LOCK//IN, they were legitimately a force to be terrified of, and that series agaisnt LOUD (who probably should have won LOCK//IN) was insane to watch, which is why I don't really consider a 5th-8th finish what their team really was, and think of it more as a 4th place type team, which they did end up proving at Tokyo. They did end up getting 4th place at Tokyo, even though they were playing badly, and if it weren't for that COVE incident, who knows what could have happened. Obviously champs was a stain on their team, but the difference in 9th-12th place with basically 2 4th places vs an 8th place with a 3rd place shows a better team across the year, and a better team overall than G2 2024
6.5. G2 2024 is a team that is in a weird position where people used to say were underrated because of their boring style, but then so many people started saying the same point that they became overrated by the time champs 2024 rolled around, and people expected them to roll fnatic and lev, but they ended up floundering in the playoffs bracket. Their 3rd place run was impressive as hell, and they did beat EDG, but the reason I'm putting them at 6.5 instead of 6 is because 1. I'm biased, and 2. Their win against EDG wasn't really the EDG that won Champs. My personal belief is that EDG became the EDG that rolled everyone in between Map 1 and Map 2 against Sentinels, and before then they were just on cruise control.
6.5. XSET 2022 (REP THE SET) is a team that made it to 2 internationals, and although they didn't do great in both internationals, their strength of schedule is a little bit ridiculous. At copenhagen, they had to play OPTIC first round, who eventually made it to 3rd place and won the last international LAN, and then lost to a LEV who they probably shouldn't have lost to. However, at Champs, the only teams that they lost to were FPX, the previous Masters winners (in that iconic Overtime turret bug game that was ridiculously close), and OPTIC, who grand finalisted that event and obviously won Iceland. 3/4 of their International losses were to teams who LITERALLY WON AN INTERNATIONAL TITLE THAT YEAR. They also beat FPX earlier in that same tournament in the Group stage. Bias be damned they were an incredible team.
----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 International LAN teams -------------------------------------------------------
-
100T 2021 is a team that most people are going to be surprised to see above 2024, but I'll explain it in this line and the next. Both 100Ts made 1 international, and in their international, 100T 2021 played GAMBIT (The best team of 2021), beat them, then played Acend (The winners of Champs of that year), beat them, and only lost to Envy, their NA counterparts. (Honestly, if this international was a double elim bracket, I could have seen them go into the grand finals if the bracket worked out such that they didn't have to play NV). So based on Strength of schedule, I'm gonna have to give this one to 100T 2021.
-
100T 2024 is a team that I rate pretty highly, but when it comes down to it, they only made 1 international LAN the whole year, and completely fell apart against G2 and KRU, both of whom didn't even crack 5/6th place in the actual tourney. The reason I'm rating them lower than their 2021 counterpart is entirely because of WHO 100T 2021 played in their run vs who 100T 2024 played. 100T 2024 beat down a PRX that we know now to be a sad version of themselves, and a FUT that at best is the 3rd best team in EMEA.
-
V1 2021 is a team that probably deserves to be on the list at about here, as I believe that they proved more than C9 did, as in their 1 international LAN, they only lost to 3rd/2nd place teams FNATIC and NUTURN, and ended with a solid 5/6th place finish in a double elimination bracket
-
C9 in 2021 is the team that I think belongs here, as although they did take out VS/DRX before moving on to the Champs 2021 bracket stage, they were 2-0'd immediately and got an 5/8th place finish, ending their miracle run with Leaf trying to 1v9.
-
100T 2022 edition, as sad as I am to put them here, is the only team I can reasonably put in this spot, as although they did put up a great fight against eventual 3rd place performers DRX, they got grouped and also did not have a single international appearance before champs.
-
The Guard 2022 has to be the worst NA team at an international, as they ended up bombing out of the entire event without a single win, and although they did lose to Optic in one of their games, the choke performance that they put on was C9 esque, and that lands them at the bottom of the list here.
TLDR: rep the set + give opinions because my NRG loving side was probably biased here
Discord