7 Kr teams in playoff and 1 spots for other regions' best team to fight
People didn't expect BR/LATAM T2 to catch up this fast
BR T2 went from one of the worst to one of the best this year, M80 thought it was a free win sadlyhh
NA is still good, but the thing with Tier 2 is a lot of players are much better than they can show, that's why it's important for everyone to get a chance, because some players may be even better in tier 1
DWG was terrible last year. Like that was not what a good Korean team was. I mean overall last year Korea tier 2 was really bad, becuase all the good players actually were in VCT Pacific. It essentially took around a year for everything to settle down and much much better teams were formed this year.
Dplus was so awful. When they played well they could have been so much better considering they were the only team BLEED lost to last Ascension and it was a 2-0 at that.
All the good players were NOT in Pacific, I can assure you that. Specifically Ivy, Dambi, Margaret, and Francis had just played in Tier 2 that year. UdoTan was in T2 as well as Stew, BeYN, Yoman, Banger, Jinboong, etc.
Heard of free1ng? The guy who tore up CN ascension? He's been in the scene since 2020. He played against Vision Strikers.
People just don't follow the region, and that's okay. Just don't make up false narratives. The player quality was fine. The problem was that Dplus had a bit of a chokehold because they've been in the scene for a while and have experienced staff and players. Gwangju Shadow IMO were the best team in Korean Tier 2.
Funny how you mention the players that have been good this year and not last year. Which was essentially what I said, talent was scattered and at that time wasn't as good. It took time to develop. 2023 most of these player's performance were mediocre at best. The only notable players were stew and yoman, whom I clearly remember. Look, Riens has been playing in Turkish VCL since 2022 with
alfajer, so why didn't he get a chance in 2023 but became so good in 2024? Because he became a better player. Turkey was shit in last years Ascension, but came 2nd this year. KR is going through a similar thing. Its the same case for these players that will be picked up in 2025.
Also the Dplus win against BLEED is nothing special, they lost maps to orangutan lmfao. SCARZ, BLEED and Bonkers were better. DPLUS was mediocre at best, not the best KR had to offer. They ruined my pickems and I watched it live as my expectations were completely shattered.
Dambi, Ivy, and Francis looked pretty good even if TOGS wasn't doing as hot. Same with Banger and UdoTan. You probably didn't know this because you never checked but it's actually crazy how nobody picked up UdoTan sooner because his stats were insane last year. Guy had like 160/170 ADR on the agents he played. But ig you'd needed to have watched the games first to really tell.
KR tier 2 has always been full of talent, just bad management and coaching/organisation. The raw potential of the individuals there has not changed over the years.
The Dplus win against BLEED was nothing special
BLEED's only loss the entire tournament was a clean 2-0 to Dplus wdym lmfao? Dplus clearly had the potential to win just as much as they had the potential to bomb out in groups. The point is that Dplus were just an inconsistent ass team prone to huge error, but when they aren't they could go toe-to-toe with the best.
I did watch some TOGS game because I found their name kinda funny, but yeah I did not really pay that much attention of the entirety of KR league and kinda just assumed their top seed would be insane, but clearly there were problems. I followed a bunch of j0p0n0se league and yeah TenTen and izu were destroying that league. I'll follow the KR league next year from APAC because they are cooking really well, and they are highly desirable players for the APAC league in non-KR teams as well.