Ah yes. That one map of sunset with Jawg playing with the worst iteration of EG in its history. The same map where Jawg went 7-6 in their h2h.

The only agent Aspas is better at is Jett — and while he might be the more consistent fragger across his history — Jawgemo is the better entry on literally every other agent. The better Yoru, Raze, Neon, and Waylay.

And it was true then too. T1 rapidly improved since the Pacific GF during Bangkok and were undoubtably underdogs. They were definitely the better team that day but by margins so slim they’re basically statistically insignificant. I’d still bet on G2 if you ran that GF back 10 times.

Yeah but G2 are probably the favorites against literally everyone else. This is the closest we’ve seen to 2023 FNC dominance since Tokyo.

T1: None
T2: VIT • FNC • FUT
T3: M8 • TL • TH
T4: KC • GX • BBL
T5: NAVI • KOI • APK

Duelist | Jemkin
Initiator | Trexx
Flex | Chronicle
Smokes | Shao
Sentinel | Nats

G2 • MIBR • KRU

T1 • DRX • RRQ

VIT • FUT • TH

EDG • BLG • WOL

It’s all about hype and whether or not a player under or over delivers on it. El Diablo became y0y because he couldn’t keep up with the “best player from 2022” hype and it’s happening to Demon1 rn too. Aspas has consistent individual performance but some people (Bren + Mimi) have rightly called out his tendencies to take minimal risk at the expense of his teams after 2023.

Only a number of players have escaped this by redeeming themselves after hitting lows. To name some: Jawgemo, Nats , Stax, and Tenz.

That would be a massive pick up for EG though. They’ve built a roster of hungry players with something to prove and Flor fits perfectly there and would be a straight firepower upgrade over Icy.

You say that like they didn’t have multiple chances to close out the Bangkok GF. Anderzz is a win-more pick up so long as the players maintain form in high pressure situations.

Sliggy has strict rules so that players who want to VOD review with his streams aren’t dealing with a slew of toxicity.

TMV does meta analysis videos every now and then. His last one was prior to Bangkok though so there’s no Waylay. It’s a two-part video:

Part 1

Part 2

Valoplant to workshop comps on each map. If you just need a spreadsheet, use google sheets so your teammates can see it too.

Americas is a G2-2G sandwich based on a normal distribution

G2
MIBR • KRU
SEN • LOUD • C9
NRG • LEV • 100T
EG • FUR
2G

Edit: not sure if 2G are good now or if LOUD shit the bed

I suspect 2027 will be a whole new referendum like the start of franchising was in 2023. Whether the grouping is 6-6 or 8-4, there’s likely going to be new orgs jumping into the scene hoping to secure a partnered slot and I wouldn’t be surprised if Riot tried to expand the market by considering unrepresented regions and giving them a slot: DACH, MENA, Aus, etc.

I do think some orgs are just staple locks though because they represent the most popular brands for their region.

AMER) G2 • SEN • LOUD • KRU
EMEA) VIT • FNC • TL • FUT
PAC) T1 • PRX • RRQ • ZETA

Just pick up xavi8k and put Patmen on starter. Drop Jingg and Something and all your roles work out until you can rebuild in 2027 when you can grab Juicy, Kushy, and Grumble as free agents.

I also choose this guy’s mother

PRX should:

1. Drop both Something and Jingg
2. Pick up xavi8k and make Patmen a starter
3. Aim for these roles:

Forsaken | Duelist
xavi8k | Initiator
Patmen | Flex
Mindfreak | Smokes
D4v41 | Sentinel/Viper

It would be awesome if they could also plan for 2027 with a rebuild once Grumble is done with NS and Juicy and Kushy become free agents. I’d love to see:

Juicy | Duelist
Kushy | Initiator
Forsaken | Flex
Mindfreak | Smokes
Grumble | Sentinel

Jingg should go back to T2.

Outer Wilds
Elden Ring
Hollow Knight

Between Furia and EG it seems.

2025 G2

Hard to say given I’d choose them for different reasons.

Aspas is undoubtably a fragging machine but he takes minimal individual risk with a smaller agent pool but unmatched duel conversions. Jawgemo is the opposite and his impact usually shows in terms of hyper-aggro space creation and agent flexibility.

I’d rank those two in 1st and 2nd right now and the rest in a similar category — without a truly unique value proposition over their peers.

1. Aspas
2. Jawgemo
3. KK | Derke | Zekken | T3xture | BuzZ | Keznit

9th and 10th probably go to Mada and Hyunmin as the top of the next generation of duelists.

Oh they’re definitely more flexible than PRX. I just have more faith that G2 and EDG will maintain dominance in their respective regions than T1 will in Pacific. Tbh, I’m still unconvinced by that Bangkok GF and think G2 would be favored 7/10 times if you ran it back — I’m definitely biased but there’s some truth to it.

They’re too scrappy.

In my opinion, Bangkok was their peak performance while their floor tends to be far shakier with the majority of their matches being 2-1’s. The further the season and meta develops, the more teams will catch up with cleaner protocols and macro. Double duelist will undoubtably fall to the wayside as more utility protocols develop to suffocate burst-heavy teams — it’s the same paradigm PRX faced going into 2024.

I hope I’m wrong and T1 maintains their form but I’m skeptical.

T1 is gonna end up like Acend in the history books.

Derke
Izu
Riens
Valyn
Chichoo
JoshRT

I genuinely think Toronto is a lock for G2. You don’t get that close to a trophy and not become the hungriest team in the league — especially when you’re known for being grinders.

Dark Horses would be Nongshim and Loud.

Hope to see y’all back again in Toronto.

Wait 5 minutes

G2 don’t lose this.

Except the core decided to stay together through T2 instead of accepting franchised offers and Jawgemo has made it clear he thinks they’re the best team he could play with.

The players clearly care about long term consistency over short term monetary benefits.

As long as they make champs (or place higher than 2G if they both qualify), then they’re in the league again. The worse ascension team will have to defend their spot in Ascension if they make top 8 in league — if they do worse then they’re auto-relegated.

If G2 win Bangkok, they start the season with 8 champs points and would have to absolutely toss every game for the next two splits to miss champs.

Except he could also play Raze. I honestly think with how much the TGRD core developed, Tex could look like a Keznit-level player if he had stayed on duelist.

Hard to say where to rank him nowadays but he had the highest FK/FD at Ascension by a mile and regularly matched Oxy, Koalanoob, and N4rrate in regional matchups in T2. He had clean entries and pretty much opened up rounds for Trent to farm and close out maps — good pathing and duel isolation.

Are T1 actually good or did they just beat teams that G2 mentally boomed for them?

If T1 pick Lotus first then this could legitimately end in a 3-0. The Raze, Iso, Sova is just weaker than the Yoru, Tejo, Breach comp.

Support the team you like. Doesn’t matter if they win or not. I’ve been repping G2 since they ascended because I followed them in 2022 — they always had potential but it was tough seeing them bomb out and then miss franchising. Even 2024 was pretty rough since they managed to lose both regional trophies and there was constant talk about who the problem was.

Stick it out and I’m sure your favorite team will accomplish something eventually. Hell, MIBR picked up Aspas and DFM crushed PRX and it’s only the start of 2025.

More likely that G2 wins both Bangkok and Toronto than 100T making it to a GF this year.

I don’t think G2 loses with double map veto.
They remove Fracture and Haven/opponent’s best map and are favored on Abyss, Lotus, Pearl, and Split — with their Bind now fixed. They also get a day of prep while the challenger has to worry about getting eliminated in 15 hours.

The only way it goes awry is if they’re not in form since it seems they’re not the chokers everyone claims.

G2 are heavy favorites on
Abyss | Lotus | Pearl

And a light favorite on:
Split

Don’t let that close scoreline from Map 1 of the first G2/EDG match fool you. It’s not even close if G2 get a single pistol on Pearl. They’re just so much better on rifle rounds on almost every map they’ve played.

Toss up:
Bind

Likely bans: Fracture | Haven

This version of G2 would probably take every trophy last year ngl

Eh, most of us are TGRD fans who changed our flairs for 2024 after G2 picked up the core.

For times like these. Gonna watch these VODs with so much glee HEHEHEHEHEHE

You get a similar effect with Tejo + Breach except it frees up a slot for Vyse.

JonahP is a better support player than Kicks and is more flexible. Everything else looks good to me.

Valyn plays smokes???

G2 are likely favored for the rematch since it’s physically impossible to get a worse pistol record than what they got last series and they’re one of the best anti-stratting teams.

I expect them to double ban Fracture and Haven and be favored on Abyss, Lotus, and Pearl. They’ve changed comps on Bind (they prac’d both early on apparently) and it should be closer while EDG takes Split.

W comeback. G2 starting 0-3 down on both halves and still shredding the rifle rounds with their ult cycles to pull it into OT.

Nobody, Valyn, and Munchkin are the only consistent top tier fragging IGLs in both metrics.

Players like Nats, Mako, KiNgg, and Sayf have more to prove on the IGLing department while historic IGLs like Boostio, Johnqt, Boo, Saadhak and Stax tend to be individually inconsistent.

Yep. You don’t change your comps on three different maps (as far as we’ve seen) Split, Fracture, and Pearl without extra prep time.