I meant tournament not team. gotta be heretics no?
2021 we had NV, 100T, Liquid, FNATIC as the best teams who didnt win
2022 PRX, DRX, XSET!!!!!!! (joke) as the best teams who didnt end up winning
2023 LOUD, PRX again, as the best teams who didnt win
2024 Heretics, and basically no one else
from these I'd say 2023 LOUD is the best team who didn't win an international in the same year, otherwise I'd say it's heretics for highest peak while not winning. If we are talking about all time, then easily PRX
FPX?
If you're talking about EMEA FPX, no, since they've won an IL during 2022 Masters 2 Copenhagen.
If you're talking about CN FPX, just no.
TH is valid (but questionable depending on if we can see their performance continue in '25), G2 is questionable, considering that:
2025 AMER - Good start domestically so far, can't wait to see G2 dominate in Masters Bangkok
2024 Champs Seoul - Good starts during groups, absolutely bombed out of KO stage going 0-4 on maps
2024 Masters Shanghai - Only actual good placement for G2, went on a round to secure 3rd place, but shaky end, going 0-5 on two losses against a Bo3 against GEN in UF and Bo5 against TH in LF respectively.
2024 Masters Madrid - Did not qual
2023 Year - Won Ascension, props to them, but this wasn't at the t1 caliber. still, a nice performance from a team that was supposed to be in franchising.
2022 Masters Reykjavik - Bombed out with b2b losses against OPTC + PRX, 1 for 5 on maps.
overall, while it might hurt to say that G2 isn't a candidate to never win an IL, it only makes sense that they're missing a few cents to make the dollar count.