EDG didnt sneak into another international, the rest of china has worse teamplay and macro ideas than EDG besides XLG
BLG have better fundamentals but dont know what the meta is, or where to contest, or when or where to aggress

They are just good enough to gatekeep other Chinese teams from international events, but lack the consistency, progress, or strategic innovation that would elevate the region as a whole.

So do the rest of china, EDG's strategic innovation is only behind XLG in china, im sorry to say but china this and last year just have no clue what the meta is or what to do. EDG going to internationals is the best thing for china because they are top 2 in the region strats wise and always have been.
"oh but BLG" BLG have good fundamentals, they have 0 clue what they are doing in this meta, running breach thinking its 2022. BLG may play fundamentally decent (still worse than a team from any other region - half the time [most whzy] overpeeks life freaks, heavy fight over nonesense areas like abyss mid) but they werent gonna do anything and are just a worse team than EDG.

EDG only has 2 events where both the team and the field were top-tier: Champs 2024 and Masters Bangkok.

if you are counting only top 3 as toptier, this is a bad point. EDG have made 10 Events, Rest of CN have made 19 Events, with this you would expect CN to have double the "top tier" performance BUT the only "top tier" event was wolves LINSANITY/ZETA run. EDG are consistently out preforming the rest of CN internationally. so this argument of "only 2 events" is dumb

The win was a mix of a perfect storm (meta, easy path) combined with individual players (Chichoo/KK) peaking at the exact right time.

"Easy path" and group D was considered the second hardest group behind group B. "Easy Path" and EDG's kryptonite PRX is in their bracket. "Easy Path" and a top preformer expectant (g2) is in the group

Chichoo and KK did not peak in champs. S1Mon is the only player who peaked at champs

• Nobody (Champs 2023) [as an IGL he did peak in champs]
• Zmjjkk (Tokyo)
• Chichoo (Bangkok)
• Smoggy (Peaked in groupstage, fell off hard in playoffs - so technically yes he peaked but he wasnt why they won the event)

were ahead of every other team because of their style working in their favor.

While yes this is true, you dont just win because your style fits the meta, otherwise Liquid would have won Santiago already. you still need to have toptier macro. Simply put, EDG had the best Macro and Meta read in the event. People keep treating it as if EDG went nuclear and were still the same selves. THIS IS TERRIBLE TAKE. EDG had some insane anti (Why they completely fucked LEV and TH btw) consistently reading teams, they ran incredible fakes where they could pull 3-4 players with a single guy, nobody was on something because his reads were good 80% of the time. S1Mon was throwing perfect support utility.

like I genuinely dont understand how someone can watch that event and say "er yeah EDG had good form but their macro was so so"

Bangkok chichoo went insane

yeah I agree, EDG didnt make top 3, chichoo did

While Spring fragged out, they also showed strong fundamental util usage, team play, and IGLing.

WRONG, Wolves went on a linsanity run where every player played way better than they did in china. Every player besides lysoar peaked at that event, which is reflected in the fact they were never able to make even domestic playoffs again

XLG: Earned their No. 1 seed for Toronto through util usage and initiator play (Rarga/Happywei) being on the exact same page. This type of coordination allows players to "go wild" within a system, rather than relying on pure aim.

Yes but they also have been to 3 events and won 2 maps IN TOTAL. they arent doing anything for china

Gatekeeping Experience: By consistently being "just good enough" to qualify, they block other teams (like Wolves or XLG) from getting the international experience needed to improve.

Wolves cant even make playoffs bro, they arent gonna qualify anyways, they are such frauds bro
FPX and BLG consistently make events over china's history and done nothing
XLG consistently make events over this last period and done nothing

but because them being aim-differs and not actually having to learn to innovate or think about the game at a higher level leads to complacency in the region, and keeps the rest of them down. A rising tide lifts all boats, but when the tide is being held down by EDG, the boats will inevitably stay at the same level

This is the whole problem in china, No one has good strats besides XLG (who have midtier strats and bad fundamentals past 30 seconds in the round), no one is helping anyone improve. not an edg problem, its an everyone problem. No one from china is going to consistently preform, this is a deluisonal take. EDG and XLG are by far the best candidates for that and both of them are top of china and both of them suck ass internationally.

EDG needs to evolve past relying on Chichoo and KK's aim.

yes

EDG need to drop Autumn

yes, but getting an APAC coach is the right idea

I lied I do care enough

Theres many points I disagree with but I dont think I care enough to argue about them 1-1

I like EDG en all

but bro does everything on his team to still lose 11-26

intiator
controller
sentinel
duelist

hardest to frag to easiest

left us too soon

fundamentally not how playing duelist and calling works.
legit the only way it works is if you only run fast rounds, make pre barrier strats and then insta die and start igling after that

u cant igl on duelist effectively

im still worrying about them qualifying xd
idk why everyone thinks we have it in the bag alr with that being said

LFG Liquid

PRX at 4 is criminal

a team might feel robbed because the drawing didnt follow the rules that was intially stated and call the drawing a rig

https://www.vlr.gg/630739/redraw-problem/#1

WELP whatever LFG LIQUID we win either way

yeah it couldve been worse

LFG Liquid!! LETS GO TO PLAYOFFS

NRG TL is so much cooler tho

noooooooo :(

at least it isnt prx ig

nope

all 4 matches are different

4/9 or 44% of no domestic game
4/9 or 44% of a domestic game
1/9 or 11% of two domestic games

yikes you right

need additional pylons

sighhhh

its 1/9 i did the math

(4 2)/2! = 6/2= 3

multiply that for the 2 groups

3x2=9

its 1/9 odds

did u actually? im way too lazy to check

within this hour supposodly

yep

FPX vs XSET turret moment
ACEND vs Vivo key stars Cypher Cam moment

hope it doesnt affect it too badly

only reason would be is to keep it fair as it wasnt the format the teams and viewers were told. i think its not necessary but oh well

ur right but the odds are not that high for that

I wouldve preferred that too icl but oh well :/

Now no matter what happens, if someones team loses, they will blame the redraw and not the actual game result, and then if the eventual winner is from the swiss stage then the event will be called mickey mouse

salty their team didnt make it lol

did u read what i said bro

the draws were wrong
if the draws were correct it would be

(1st draw vs 3rd draw)
(2nd draw vs 4th draw)

instead it was

(1st draw vs 2nd draw)
(3rd draw vs 4th draw)

so the match ups wouldve be

PRX vs NRG
M8's vs TL

EDG vs XLG
G2 vs T1

thats why they are redrawing

they arent even guaranteed to play each other

yeah but what im saying is leo wouldnt say redraw, leo would say continue with the results of the current draw but just switch the positions of the teams IF he wanted to rig it for china

yeah i swapped TL and NRG

this bit is kinda dumb. if the draws were correct, it wouldve been XLG vs EDG.

Leo wouldnt bother with a redraw if he wanted to rig it for china

if it was like 3 seconds after sure

if the draws were correct it would be

(1st draw vs 3rd draw)
(2nd draw vs 4th draw)

instead it was

(1st draw vs 2nd draw)
(3rd draw vs 4th draw)

so the match ups wouldve be

PRX vs TL
M8's vs NRG

EDG vs XLG
G2 vs T1

I mean i saw the problem with the intial draw but changing it after the fact is dumb as fuck

LOL WHO WOULDVE THOUGHT

I LOVE LIQUID, EVERBODY HAD SUCH INSANE IMPACT

neon waylay or neon yoru

IDK BUT THIS IS SO GREAT TO WATCH

no said china was gonna dominate. literally everyone was saying how weaked china looked compared to every other region

this is actually true. good coaches is what china lacks

you flipped chichoo and kk

they need a good coach over anything. Micro has always been fine

AUNTIEEEE ITS SO OVER

huge difference between getting to a 3v5 compared to throwing a 3v5