Bang played for GX in the last two mapz of that match, missing smokes, wasting paranoias, whiffing every shot. So that balances out a bit

SEN at least won a map against EMEA's 2nd seed but G2 got 0-2d by a team who won 0 maps in EMEA playoffs. Actual diff xd

If thats the case I guess demon1 doesnt have any bad karma against G2. Still demon1 eliminating G2 would be a fun timeline anyway

I dont think he did, he announced he was LFT at the end of stage 1. Pretty sure demon1 even trialed for G2 but they just chose babybay over him

Give me the timeline demon1 gets his revenge against G2 for choosing a caster Babybay over him and roasting him publicly. Oh god that would be hell of a timeline to live in

They played against the best team and the only consistent team since tejo got nerfed. You need to see yhem play against other teams to judge them fairly

Also if TH look rough today DRG might win that game easily and EDG are favourites already with how TL looked. If you trust in BLG, 3 teams might go to playoffs in this champs alone

I know they lost all 3 matches but all 3 teams look actually pretty good. Its not like before where only EDG show up and other CN teams get farmed but now every team from China is competetive. I think BLG has to win tomorrow to defend this statement but still all the teams are impressive. If this is only 2nd year, next partnership cycle is gonna be dominated by China

Oner cant play well to save his life in summer splits but dominates jungle in every worlds. Its so weird

That was supposed to MEMEAs best team? LMAOO. Imagien yesterday SEN didnt choke and actually closed out advantage rounds against GX. We might be 2 team region but you are 0 team region xdd. That was 6th best team from Pacific btw. Not even Talon or GENG

Its crazy how changing a player can affect a team's map pool that much. Sen's Split and Sunset were one of the best in the world last year because of Tenz and now they are mid/bad maps. Tenz played weak sites really well, especially A ramp on split and A elbow on Sunet. Now that agressive weak side is gone from Sen's playbook, teams like GX are just walking into sites everytime without using any util and SEN are failing to retake almost every postplant.
(Dont get me wrong Sacy also had a big impact but I think his impact was more general, keeping the team together, clutch calls on attacksides and so many clutch rounds but Sen's defense was dependent on Tenz)

They can help 2 teammates on site instead of them just getting overwhelmed. That round they definitely shouldve flooded, also idk how narrate managed to hit noone with his sova ult thag round

Its x factor play because you have to have the confidence to take the 1v1 against the lurker to push up on defence. Thats why players like Alfajer, leaf and even Patmen are so valued because they push up on defense even on agents like viper, killjoy

You gotta understand his point of view as well, they practiced against really good teams who finished top4 at internationals last year, LOUD at Madrid, G2 and 100T at Shanghai, LEV in Champs. So they knew what to fix and how to fix. This year only team they struggled against was G2 and they dont scrim G2 much because both teams are scared of giving away their stuff. So this team had so much to fix but they dont know their problems until they go to internationals. Today they learnt one of their problems again, bang's omen paranoias are so bad.

The round john and zekken were holding C and it went to 5v3, narrate and bang had to flood there, instead they just waited behind smokes. Also they need to go much faster on their bonus round with some confidence. Not a single round they attempted to retake from behind on a 3 site map. If this is not playing scared, then what is?

They have good players but they just dont have the chemistry and their retakes protocols are way off. Losing 5-6 man advantages only gives that conclusion imo.
I think there is gonna be at least a roster change if they dont make playoffs, Rob demands results cuz players pretty much everything they want to perform

Nah its completely wrong assesment. Current SEN dont make any plays, they play way too scared, can you remember any SEN player doing a X-factor play on the defense half of Haven? They are all just rotating thru spawn and giving every site for free. In 2024 SEN, Tenz would fight agressively even when he is weak site sometimes so other teams had to use util to exec everytime. Right now just look at the util left on GX everytime they exec onto the site. Its ridicilous

Honestly GX played well but I expected much more from SEN, much much more. SEN's calling has improved compared to NRG&G2 games but something seems off, idk what. Even their haven defense was good, they had like 5-6 rounds where they had man advantages but they just lost. If anyone is to blame its gotta be bang, his omen flashes are really missing the mark, especially on Sunset attack and whole of Haven.

I didnt want to compare but Tenz's omen flashes were always really good, just remember how many clips he hit in Masters Madrid alone from A link on Sunset from using his omen flashes. Thats kinda the reason why they are not reatking well enough, also they need to flank more on their defense

They also lost to breach cmon now. I think their calling is bit too obvious and bang needs to cleanup his post-plant omen flash usage. Its not that horrible

GX making playoffs isnt that big of an upset. Even as a SEN fan I would give them 40% chance for making playoffs, its not that impossible like others

There is always 1-2 teams that make playoffs that nobody expects. It was KRU in 2021, Leviatan in 2022, BLG in 2023, Trace in 2024. Who will it be this time?

Teams that I will be surprised if they make it out of groups:
XLG, MIBR, DRX and DRG

I would love to see DRG go to playoffs and G2 to not even make it out of groups. That would be the best timeline to live in as a SEN fan ngl

Idk how people suddenly think TL are at a level that they cant be beaten by other decent teams. EDG have the highest peak in this group so them finishing 1st isnt that far from reality.

Last year, every champs group had some sort of upset. To remind you:
Group A) DRX qualifying as 1st seed
B) GENG going out and SEN qualifying
C) TE qualifying
D) EDG qualifying over PRX

Preds for this years upsets for each group:

1) Sen qualify as 1st seed (obvious bias)
2) MIBR win a game
3) TL dont get out of groups and EDG are 1st seed
4) DRG win a game

Maybe sen should sign demon1, still think there is a player in there, with LEV dropping everyone except Sato, I hope to see demon1 comw back on SE N

or maybe like a eg 2.0, bro was insane in 2023

Nah you cant be angry at the time zone, EU events always have thw best timezone cuz peoplw live in Asia too

Americas:
Furia: For obvious reasons
I wanted to say EG as well but they are lowkey making a lot of content this year.

APAC:
GE: literally Pacific's KOI. They didnt achieve anything, didnt make playoffs in the last 4 stages, drop their whole roster every year.
I dont think DFM will get cut because you can literally see they are trying to improve.

This for sure puts a fire on some other orgs' back. There are so many orgs who dont make any content, delibirately build low budget rosters, make roster changes left and right and drop their whole roster after every split and etc.

Imagine KOI had a year like DFM this year and made stage 2 playoffs as 4th seed and all their players looked ok and they needed 1-2 changes, whole community would be against RIOT and bring up concerns about KOI players' job being suddenly gone. But thats not the case and KOI dropped everybody just like every other year and now nobody could bring up those concerns because they dont have anybody signed

Its just a warning, better make content now and Preview, Costream and create analyzing champs games before its too late

So you are saying Furia might also get dropped and they might bring back 2G?

I think this group stage is the most unpredictable to predict. Apart from PRX, I could see any team not make playoffs this champs.
I think the reason why its so unpredictable this year is we have so many teams who have very high peaks in a relatively bad form like SEN, FNC, TH, EDG, DRX and maybe T1 as well. But some teams are just peaking just before champs like GX, DRG, BLG and NRG.

Really? I thought they just added demon1 to the roster

Is Group D group of death now? DRG's pure firepower looks scary now, they have like 3 S tier aimers now with demon1, SpiritZ and Vookashu. Whoever 2 out of flexin, nicc and akeman isnt that bad either. I just cant wait for champs, this group is gonna be sick

Are you listening to yourself? Why would he glaze zekken if he wants to join SEN? Wouldnt he take the zekkens spot? And to assure you kaplan aint running double duelist every map and add keznit.

It might be a good sign as well, that waylay mechanic look way too good to be not scrimmed before with. They might run it on other maps like Corrode, Haven for instance, which might be nice

Does this mean T1 are just copying RRQ and putting Buzz yoru and Meteor Waylay?

I mean just look at this matchup history as well, its not that much different either:
https://www.vlr.gg/459522/sentinels-vs-100-thieves-champions-tour-2025-americas-stage-1-w1

I think just dropping net and picking up some cracked duelist from tier 2 and turning him into sentinel is the move for C9. They already have other star players, really good midround voice, experienced players like xeppa and mitch. They just that 3rd star player, I think picking up players like satelite, timotino, alym and turning them into senti might be the move

Doesnt that cause weird rating disparity between the regions then? Cuz lets say Pacific has the highest regional score and that regional score is gonna be calculated into every regional games as well. As a result even the bottom teams ratings will inflate and that eventually causes overall regional score to inflate. Isnt that weird?

I think it should ve only internationals and I think they did that as well but idk what else they considered.

I mean Liquid going out is a bit of stretch I agree, but its not impossible. This champs I think everyone apart from PRX can get grouped because every group has like 3 good teams. So you never know

On Average I do agree EMEA is bit stronger than Americas, we have like 5 very bad teams, but EMEA has like 2-3. But at the top, at internationals there isnt that much of a difference at all. Thats why I am confused.

I think only FNC are getting out of groups from EMEA. So hear me out:

Group A:
PRX are thru, its between GX and SEN, Sen is just better (obvious bias but you have to agree)

Group C: DRX have never lost the opening match in internationals, so they are getting out of the group somehow.
Aaaanddd EDG at the big events and arenas just wake up and they get the 2nd spot.

Group D: T1 and G2 are just at better form than TH. Unlucky brother

Isnt thag the expectation? I think one of EDG or BLG are going thru

So you are saying MIBR having the worst international performance ever is the reason why they ranked EMEA as #2? Aint no way. If they are accounting the round differential for the ratings, these ratings are just meaningless then.

TL are getting grouped.

Regions' overall power ranking was calculated by International performance, as it was noted in the website.

How the hell did they calculate in a way that EMEA is that much ahead of Americas? Are we in the same universe?

In the website they noted that both 2024 and 2025 was considered for regional rankings. In 2024, 2 teams finished in top 4 from Americas in every event and Americas won one event. In 2025, both regions pretty much had the same performance, one team went to Grand finals, one other team made it to playoffs, some teams got grouped.

So exactly when did EMEA outperform Americas? Cuz if you are saying the most recent event, Toronto was pretty much the same if you say SEN + G2 performance = TL + FNC. Before all of you say anything, no they didnt mention EWC at any point

Who is investing in Academy for years? Whats wrong with you guys being so obsessed with being represented? TH and GX are spanish orgs and they dont have a single spanish player and yet nobody complains. Orgs should pickup good players no matter the region or ethnicity and give everyone equal trials. Okeanos getting dropped just because he wasnt born in LATAM teams is as stupid as nzr getting kicked just because com was a champion. Everyone should have a fajr chance for their spot

I dont think their Acadamy players are as good as their hype and winrate. They are just farming the worst region in tier 2 Americas. Just look at what happened to dante in tier 1

I think the academy players are getting way too overhyped because they are farming the worst region in Americas. LATAM won only 1 series in Ascencion Playoffs against NA and Brazil in the last 2 years. Even dante and virtyy who were farming LATAM tier 2 had mid to below average performances in stage 2.