MiniBoo is completely cracked, and btw when I say duelist/flex is because he has been practicing on flex and Woot on duelist. It just would make sense if they switch soon

100% agree with you, he is my main concern, that and the fact that I don't trust his capability to guide a young core. But it is pretty much their only choice

And he did switch to controller because that is his comfort role tho, he just couldn't play it with Avova on the team

Boo and MiniBoo are much cooler names, at least we gotta give me that

You don't know the players, it's normal, most people won't, but you'll be surprised, give em time

You're clueless if you think that, this is a massive W

About why Keiko has not traied out for absolutely no team yet. Mf has been on vacation since the off season started and has just come back, this has greatly reduced his chance at making franchising

Following info comes from Lembo's stream. But the club management's excitement about the roster is more than evident form the outside, for the first time they seem to be the ones that want the leak the most and keep teasing.

Anyway, as we know Boo and Benjy as 100% locked in. Other than that, we have MiniBoo's situation, it's looking like we will be having the Lukasevicius brothers together this year. He is pretty much a done deal. As of the other 2 remaining spots the information is pretty clear, Woot and Riens are the 2 names, both have intention of signing really, agreed on majority of terms but still negotiating couple of smaller clauses. This information also has a consequence, the stage of the negotiations with the 3 new players invites us to think Mixwell won't be part of the team moving forward, even tho we're can't be 100% sure, this 5 seem extremely likely

Boo smokes IGL
Benjy sentinel
Riens Initiator
Woot flex/duelist
MiniBoo flex/duelist

I can guarantee you, 100% of the 30 franchised teams would rather going 0-9 and winning LCQ rather than making playoffs and bombing out of LCQ.

Also, expectations matter. I encourage you to look for old threads right before the year started and see where people ranked KRU. There is not a single thread with KRU is higher than 8. So ending the year as a solid 4th seed of Americas is actually a massive success

No jodas... fuck
His birthday was this Saturday too...
RIP

By that logic TL had a great season because they won regular season? Regular season doesn't mean shit, what matter is how it ends not how it starts

There is definitely better Turkish sentinels

How is KRU top 4 Americas a disappointment, LEV maybe

Him and Aslan are going down to tier 2

I would 100% go for a mix of FF and S2G, I'd probably get rid of everyone but Quitoner and go full upcoming talents. Kind of like TH, that is the only way of building a team whose celling is as high as Masters Madrid, but do gotta say in both cases it has the negative part too, the floor is extremely low. High risk high reward move. And most importantly make sure you have another young player under your control in VCL since Riot allows partners now

Something like

QuitonerX Duelist
Paura/jeyj7y/Souchni IGL, whoever the coach considers better
Elite/yetujey sentinel
Jlerst smokes
And depending on the role of the IGL some other cracked rookie

Making Masters Madrid is gonna be nearly impossible for everyone, FNC most likely taking the first slot, so the other 10 teams literally all competing for 1 slot

Americas also broke xD

Apparently Vokashu is going to China, so I’m completely lost on who the other 3 are now

And MiniBoo likely to go to TH, as long as Mixwell retires

Koldamenta and zeek will most likely be on tier 2, Wolfen has a chance to stay but he might drop down too

Sorry for the late response my friend. Ik all of those 6 players and have also been following them for years. Actually big fan of MiniBoo so really remember rooting for Winteryrook when they were teamates in GMT. Same for SimonD4ark when he was Saiz's teammate.

Ik all 6 of those players, have been keeping up with sibeastwow (Check this thread https://www.vlr.gg/post/2211976/nasr-esports-vs-team-raad-challengers-league-mena-resilience-split-2-gf). And since I have watched most of the MENA league also with Winteryrook. I gotta say they both are really talented players but I do not think they are anywhere close to tier 1. And it is not because they haven't received opportunities, if Suygetsu, Shao etc got them and they didn't was for a reason, I do not believe it was a matter of luck.

Regarding Anq, stimx and Anoxia, haven't kept track of them for a while but what I can see is that they haven't been playing much or on anything relevant. Both were really good in their times but most of their success was quite a while ago.

And about Bisk, he is probably not fully tier 1, but I think he has maintained himself to a higher level than the players you have mentioned and is actually in an amazing shape. I can also pull some insane games and stats from him, from the past and the present
https://www.vlr.gg/63582/kpi-gaming-vs-funplus-phoenix-champions-tour-cis-stage-1-challengers-1-ubqf
https://www.vlr.gg/63585/natus-vincere-vs-kpi-gaming-champions-tour-cis-stage-1-challengers-1-ubf
https://www.vlr.gg/event/stats/1424/challengers-league-spain-rising-split-1
https://www.vlr.gg/event/stats/1568/challengers-league-spain-rising-split-2

Also, I would like to have your opinion on this, since I can tell you know what you're talking about
https://www.vlr.gg/269873/roster-full-russian-tier-2

So KOI if we had money

Ange1 anyday

W yay

Aspas is the Brazilian Derke

Does it have to be the same 5 players? Because it seems like they are already split

I don’t think any of those is tier 1 level
I think Bisk I’d the closest it gets

Lembo dijo hoy que Klaus salía y que mta estaba probando

omw xD

Fair, the actual point I really wanna make is to try and eliminate a little bit that perception that America's average level is higher than EMEA's average level. Because that really is up to every team individually and varies a lot. And looking at it from a fact perspective is just not true

EG > LOUD > FNC > FUT > NAVI > GIA > NRG > TL > KRU
based on their placements and using the placements of the team that eliminated them to untie

Yk what's funny to me? America's fans think Americas is better because we are a 1 team region. Meanwhile to me this event has kinda proven how our seeds number 4 and 5 Giants and NAVI are clearly better than Americas 4 and 5 KRU and LEV.

So now, that argument they have been using all year saying that FNC > Americas > EMEA works against them.
I have heard "The level of a region is not defined by its beast team" all year long. So what happens now that EG and LOUD are above but all the rest of the region is far behind?

xD

Not much, this is all I know https://www.vlr.gg/270073/c9-info

We'll see

No, def tier 1, we just don't know which. Or at least let's just not assume it's NRG, there is place for a doubt

Matter of fact tier 2 orgs probably paying more than a minimum salary

I wouldn't be so sure about that

Lucas Rojo, who coached in NA so knows people, matter of fact coached runi
And Lembo actual reporter who textually said, 2 different sources are confirming me Lucas information and also added #6

Nope, info on 2 separate streams from 3 different sources

That has been rumored for a while, I hope it happens but I wouldn't bet on it

Well the skin sales are only if you're good enough but yes, fair

I mean they probably were getting paid more than 50k, but they could have offered less since no other tier 1 org wanted those players. Demon1 was on a minimum for sure tho. And yes they have made a shit tone of money now and will prob get more bag for next year

https://www.vlr.gg/post/2821552/vitality-reduced-to-two-with-molsi-benching

I mean look at EG, they built their roster like a month after everyone else and look at them now

Yup, Disguised was talking about it, he seems to be right

Black means no info yet, no that they are staying, #8

Red means 100% out, Orange means doubts, Blue means 100% staying, Green is for signings. He has 1 spreadsheet for EMEA with list of KOI and TH tryouts too. It's sort of Flyn's spreadsheet but unlike Flyn if Lembo doesn't have good info he just leaves it blank

Yes that is what that means. He also saw that James report saying johnhqt and tex were practicing with crashies so they were going to NRG. According to him those are tryouts for another team, not NRG

#6 might help explain a bit which happened in march of this year
KOI's issued are also of a different sort, but yes. Don't look it as "Riot chose the wrong orgs, look at it as "If the most financial stable orgs struggle like this imagine, how the other orgs would"

If the players want too much money they will prob be out like in C9, not sure about names or what will happen exactly

Better than last year for sure, but tbh they need to get rid of Turko and Souchni and get upcoming players to have a higher celling, higher risk but higher reward