I mean there will be a full round robin across the two regular season stages, right? In stage 2 you play the 5 teams that you didn't play in stage 1. So every matchup is guaranteed to happen at least once.

I like Icebox purely because I like playing Viper but nobody wants to play double controller in ranked.

Might be a shit map, but as long as I can play Viper I'm happy

That is correct, unless A#2 wins play ins. In that case, B#1 would play against either A#1 or A#2

That makes no sense. Didn't they want to seed the groups by points? That would mean #2,#3,#4,#5 would be one group.

Edit: yeah this looks like it literally just lists the standing with only EDG moved to C.

He's been finished for like two years at this point

Most talented Bri'ish player

His ACS was 22 though. I think 9 ACS has to be a new low at this level

bonecold

Don't tell this guy what "pop" stands for

Bro made an account to comment on a two year old post 💀

What about Eintracht Frankfurt

No one rates TS, people just think Talon sucks

Yeah must be something like this, the visa thing doesn't make any sense now that I think of it

Right I forgot trexx played in the EMEA league already, lmao. KOI was just so forgettable

Derke? not good with Raze
Aspas? not good with Raze

I'm not saying Bleed is bad or T1 is the next coming of Christ, I'm just saying it wouldn't be an upset if T1 beat Bleed. It also wouldn't be a major upset if Bleed beat T1. It's a pretty open game imo. But whatever helps you sleep at night.

T1 beating Bleed would not be an upset.

Yeah honestly I have my doubts about the integrity of these seedings. Even entirely fraudulent associations like FIFA and UEFA publish the exact criteria by which seedings are done and draw groups publicly.

LOCK//IN semis were BO5s, and in all regional and international tournaments with double elimination so far, the lower bracket final was a BO5, too. I would have wished for these semifinals to be BO5s as well.

Wait I just realised, the schedule for the semifinals is one game at 2pm and the next at 5pj, which 100% confirms they'll be BO3s. That's a major L.

On the surface it mostly looks consistent across the regions (as in, there's 4 pools, with pool 2 only having two teams, and the rest 3, and then you have
Pool 1 - Pool 4
Pool 2 - Pool 3
as the opening matches in group A and B and group C contains the top seed plus one team each from pools 3 and 4.

However, some details are a bit odd, specifically Talon and KRÜ. With KRÜ it sort of makes sense at least, because although they won LCQ, they didn't win anything in the regular season, so having them in the 3rd pool is sort of understandable? Talon however did nothing in the regular season or in LCQ and still got seeded in the 3rd pool somehow. Also I just realised this seeding would also put SEN in pool 4 and 100T in pool 3, which doesn't make sense to me either. In both regular season and LCQ, SEN was above 100T (albeit not by much).

Now that I think about it, LOCK//IN probably played a role as well. Talon and 100T both had decent runs, while SEN went out in game 1, which would explain their weirdly high seedings.

So I do think this could very plausibly be the result of an objective seeding algorithm, but idk until they reveal how exactly they did the seeding, it'll always seem a bit fishy.

Another year, another free group for the Envy core

bruh the autoformatting screwed that up

"For administrative reasons"

I wonder what that means. Didn't get a visa in time?

Top 5 of all time

5.Demon1
4.y4y
3.SugarZ3ro
2.Brazil
1.zombs

Whatever helps you sleep at night

Sorry until you give me a peer reviewed study I won't accept your argument

Saying "the map they lost against TL doesn't count because it's not in the pool for 2024" but then using them beating PRX as an argument for why they're gonna be good even though PRX was playing with a roster that also is not gonna exist in 2024 is just silly

BBL 2-1 KOI

I didn't see you on the roster

Bro said "no proof" 💀

Haven is as much in the pool as Jinggg is on the PRX roster

Jesus Christ

bro was asleep during all of 2023

This is so true

Four pools.

Based on Champs performance, pool 1 is FNC, FUT, NAVI

Pool 2 only has two teams: TL and GX

Pool 3 is Vit (placed 6th in regular season), KOI and KC (who both got wins at LCQ)

Pool 4 is TH, BBL (went out of LCQ winless) and M8 (Asc)

Then each group has one team from each pool, randomly drawn, with group C missing a pool 2 team and having FNC in it guaranteed.
Note that this also determines the brackets, we always have pool 1 vs pool 4 and pool 2 vs pool 3.

EDIT: Looking at APAC, this is consistent as well, even with how they present the brackets (i.e. which team is in which position)

APAC has the teams listed in the following order:

Group A:

T1 (pool 1)
Bleed (pool 4)

Zeta (pool 2)
GE (pool 3)

Group B:

DRX (pool 1)
DFM (pool 4)

TS (pool 2)
Talon (pool 3)

Group C:

Gen.G (pool 3)
RRQ (pool 4)
PRX (#1 seed)

The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is why Talon isn't in pool 4. Maybe it's because they went 1-1 in LCQ while RRQ went 1-2? Still doesn't make sense to me, they placed behind them.

100% KAST on four players is crazy

Nah, Vitality will put up a fight for sure, it'll be something like 13-11, 13-8

Giants - got grouped at Champs
KC - didn't get grouped at Champs

I think the case is clear, KC clears

Given the format, they'll likely just play Vitality twice. Maybe in the rematch after Vit inevitably lose to FNC, there might be a chance. I think Vit will put up a fight against FNC, which would give M8 some extra footage to watch besides of course the extra time they have to prep for the rematch. I wouldn't count them out, but Vit are definitely the favourites on paper.

Ascent - Omen
Split - Omen
Haven - Omen
Bind - Omen (although he's kinda shit on Bind, I just hate Brimstone with a passion)
Icebox - Viper
Breeze - Viper
Fracture - Omen (see Bind)
Pearl - Astra
Lotus - Omen
Sunset - Omen

Honestly mibr kinda clean, and by far the cheapest one as well.
100T looks like you just got back from a day at the construction site.
NRG sick as hell.
SEN and Lev go kinda hard as well, rest is alright.

EMEA are all kinda ugly tbh, I like the KC one though, and FUT is at least cheap.

In APAC I really like the PRX and Talon designs and I fuck with TS and DFM as well. GE is either really bad or really good but I don't know which.

In China I find none of them outstandingly good or bad, I probably like TE, JDG and Tyloo the most.

Maybe in the next RBHG, sure

I don't know man, BBL definitely look better than last year, but they probably won't exactly start a dynasty

TBD masterclass incoming

Oxy definitely has potential to be one of the best in NA, but in order to be MVP, the team actually has to make playoffs

They have many trophies as you have interesting comments on vlr, hope this helps.

Mickey Mouse tournaments like Candidates lmao

Russ didn't play in the partnered league in EMEA though, he only played challengers, and as far as I'm aware that actually makes a big difference. I'm pretty sure once you play in one of the big leagues you have to choose.

I guess it's kinda similar to football, where dual citizens can switch national teams while they play in youth teams, but once they have one official match for the senior squad, they can't switch anymore.

Yeah people are only shitting on BabyJ because of his name. Couldn't think of anything else tbh