One-time unbans for “account abuse verification” are very common. This is because there is no way to verify the authenticity of a claim that determine who actually hacked your computer. Okinawa's original computer's motherboard MAC address is still banned, indicating that the cheating was real. There have been numerous instances where cheaters have hacked into their own computers and submitted logs. I've seen this one too many times. PUBG scene had a whole industry that specialized in doing this for banned cheaters. There must have been thousands of accounts that were unbanned. And every single one of them eventually received a second permanent ban.

https://x.com/zetadivision/status/1810252491155742727

There have been a few other times besides this.

Zeta Academy players I saw were bit mid. They played a few public scrims(streamed) against DRX Academy, losing easily by scores like 13-7 on every map, every time. Even Honeybunny, supposedly the most talented of them all, didn't impress much.

China deserves 1 slot

Lakia

Refusing to fist bump after the game shows this guy's bloated ego and dirty personality.

gogo

It's funny that he himself never said a word or even gave an interview (because he didn't speak Eng well).

No They always drop it.

Although some team's triggered fanatics will rush in, many Koreans are confident in advent of korean domination. but I thought they wouldn't really be able to get any trophies in the first generation, it came much sooner than I thought.

The World's Greatest Team PRX fanatics were rolling around on the floor while the two free slot teams played in the APAC Grand finals.

The biggest reason why esports is a bubble is because viewership itself cannot create value. Unlike traditional sports, there is no offline market and it is difficult to sell broadcasting rights at high prices, so viewership has only value as a link to game skin profits. Viewership is important, but it has no value in itself. Honestly, this is even more true in regions like SEA. Each SEA viewer cannot create the same value as NA, Europe, or East Asia. Then, it would be better to sell the broadcasting rights at a fixed price.
It's funny that SOOP only has about 10 streamers and 50 viewers, but even so, they have the right to invest in expansion. If you ask Twitch to buy the broadcasting rights, they won't buy them.

Esports is a top-down game. If you have superstars and their followers, one of followers will become a new superstar. Everyone develops using the superteam as an example. Eventually, trophies will mean volume.

hmm.. Not 'any maps'. SPG never plays Icebox. Their Icebox ban rate is literally 100%. Whatever they may have prepared, it is unlikely to be as strong as other maps due to the lack of Margaret's Cypher.
RID is quite strong in Icebox, as they showed in the finals.

On the other hand, Japanese teams avoid Abyss. Koreans don't.

My think:
The main shooter of this team is Persia, The best player of this season. but the most unique one is Margaret. His 'weird' lurking timing and habits are so unique, there is no other Sentinel like him in the world.
He always arrives one step faster than his opponents expect. This can be very fatal for teams that are relatively slow in decision-making and tend to burn time (Especially Japanese teams)
The 2 Sentinels comp based on Ivy's Deadlock skills is also very unique. He is the only player who makes Deadlock's ult useful.

This team's ideas are so unique that their opponents almost always feel unfamiliar. It brings the same advantages as PRX: If you're new to SPG, you can't deal with them.
Everyone is criticizing the short Ascension format, which is actually dangerous enough that much is decided by pure luck, but it could be an opportunity for SPG.

This team's weaknesses are equal to its strengths. Their strangeness is a strength, but because the players are so young, they are not flexible enough to respond effectively when Plan A gets blocked.

Their Bind Deadlock comp was unbeatable in the regular season, to the point where Bleed was used on sight, but they lost 2 out of 2 times in the playoffs. Bind, which was unconditionally selected in the regular season, was not selected first in the playoffs. After losing to DK, the only change SPG made was to change Omen to Astra and They lost even more.

SPGs tend to rely on anomalies. On some maps they can't handle Basic comp. Margaret played only one agent(Cypher) all season. They ban Icebox all the time Because it is not a map that uses Cypher.
Because their mechanics are so excellent, it's not a team that can win just by deceiving the opponent, But it is what it is.
All their strengths and weaknesses are one.

A strange team.

For SPG&Others, Some rumors that might help :

Official Korean commentator says SPG are doing 'very well' against Tier 1 teams

In CRWS' apac grand final stream, stax picked NAOS/Oasis and CRWS picked Riddle as the winning team predictions.

Talon coach Frost said they lost heavily in mechanics to a Japanese Tier 2 team.

NS is rumored to have crushed Riddle in scrims (and they haven't beaten spg once all season).

SPG and NS both won scrims against Bleed.

In Bind's last match against T1, Bleed used a deadlock comp that only SPG uses.

Bleed's coach is confident SPG will win Ascension.

Go spg

D R X

Bind Deadlock comp was unbeatable in the regular season, but lost to DK in the playoffs. They picked Bind in every game, but not in the playoffs. There is a real weakness and opposing teams have found it.

Some rumors that might help :

Official Korean commentator says SPG are doing 'very well' against APAC Tier 1 teams

In CRWS' apac grand final stream, stax picked NAOS/Oasis and CRWS picked Riddle as the winning team predictions.

Talon coach Frost said they lost heavily in mechanics to a Japanese Tier 2 team.

NS is rumored to have crushed Riddle in scrims (and they haven't beaten spg once all season).

SPG and NS both won scrims against Bleed.

In last match against T1, Bleed suddenly used a deadlock comp at Bind that only SPG uses.

Bleed's coach is confident SPG will win Ascension.

Actually, I think predictions are meaningless. The format is so short that a lot will be decided by pure luck.

Time is a better benefit for SPG among Ascension teams. Because They can play a lot of scrims with teams participating in champs. And RID could see similar gains. Comparatively, SEA teams will have fewer opportunities to do so.

His skills... I didn't use a translator for that sentence and you let me know I've become a killer lol. I'll just use the translator.

He's the same age as Munchkin, and he hasn't completed his military service, so he only has a year or two to go.

Sadly Persia is so old, I hope he explodes for a year or two and finishes beautifully.

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

And this has left T1 in a very bad financial position.

It's even more expensive for NA, TenZ's C9->Sentinels transfer fee was seven-figure dollars. In 2021, an unknown APAC team offered cNed $1,000,000 and he turned it down. Asuna was paid 30K per month in 2021. In 2022, Loud players were paid around $25K per month. The founder of Global Esports said the ransom for Tier 1 NA players has jumped to 40K/month. Bleed is rumored to have paid Yay over $500,000, And it's fucked up.

Esports is an industry in a bubble. The real numbers are usually bigger than the rumors. It just can't last.

In case of league, star players are unconditionally paid $1M+, but it threatens the financial health of the LCK. For Valo, wages still seems to be relatively low.

Old Tier 1 player like Sayaplayer has no reason to go to Tier 2 unless he just wants to extend their careers. And he can speak bit Japanese for a long time.

That's because he's an old gamer from the OW era. However, over 100K is very common. Maybe every korean Tier 1 player other than the minimum salary will be paid more than $100,000. Riot rules state that the minimum annual salary for Tier 1 is USD 50,000/KRW 67,000,000. for JPY 7,438,000 per year.

There are rumors that he was paid more than $400,000 per year.

Rumor has it he was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars at T1, and it's impossible for any Tier 2 team to match even half of his salary, except Bleed. And Bleed is already not a Tier 2 team.

SPG plz plz

I don't think their condition is bad. The problem is, because of the must-Haven ban, PRX have to play Ascent in every Bo3. Of course, there will be some comps and strats they have hidden. But nothing will be more efficient than the basic comp.

There are rumors that he received over $400,000 from T1. No single Tier 2 club in the whole world can pay even half that(except Bleed... and they are not T2 team now). He'll want a Tier 1 team, and if he can't find one, he'll just go to military service.

What is a 'proper' win? Victory is victory. SCARZ almost achieved its goal, although it failed at one last step.. For the reasons you said, imports are the two birds with one stone, not only winning but also reducing the power of the KR T2.

nah. If Korean tier 1 teams don't win for a long time, they'll just find another game. Before being reorganized into the Pacific League, Tier 1 VCK had no viewers.

Isn't it importing to win? T2 is also there to win to become T1, not to train players. That's why Riot didn't even let the Tier 1 Academy team participate. If you want to stop imports, remove each team's will to win. Otherwise, you can modify the vcj import rules.

Koreans just aren't interested in Tier 2. Why would they seek out Tier 2 when they can bask in the glory of Tier 1? They're even more cold-minded than Riot itself, who ruthlessly abandoned Tier 2 because they're only interested in highest level competition. The same goes for wages. Koreans understand the fleeting nature of E-sports hype better than anyone else in the world, and in fact, Tier 2 players are paid accordingly.

If we're lucky, we'll be able to create an Astralis of Valorant someday, but permanent domination like league would be impossible.

Cuz there was only one Grand Final.

no. It literally means don't hurry. They said they gave it that name because the players were very young.