I don't think you realize how small the gap between tier 1 and tier 2 is. In the off-season, when we had teams from both tiers facing off, a heck of a lot of games were down to the wire, especially when you looked at teams like Oxygen, MxS, and Rare Atom, for example. A lot of world champions have actually gone on to play in tier 2 leagues. At the end of the day, what league you're in just comes down to the org you play for.

Karmine Corp has problems, but they're not the players themselves. It's mostly in the macro. They've got ENGH as a coach and a month of time to prep, they should be back in form by Split 2.

This is a tad overreactionary, don't you think? Everyone has bad games. Kicking a young talent out of an entire region after just one is a ludicrous suggestion.

South North America?

Currently looking for a website (or anything, really) that'll let me see the most commonly picked team comps for each map in pro play. Not sure if such a thing exists, but I do faintly remember accessing something similar a while back, so there's a good chance there's something out there. If anyone has anything, please lmk✌️

There are two main reasons Cloud 9 lost that series:

1. G2 played well
2. OXY didn't drop 20 on either map

I main Harbor. Why? Because someone has to.

Does Less even speak English?

I think you're being too reactionary. You have to remember, he is C9's IGL, so it makes sense that he doesn't do the absolute best that he can stats-wise. Look at Boaster, for example. He may not get his every round (he went 6/22 in FNATIC's first map against Liquid today), but you can't deny that he isn't calling incredible midround calls, strats and anti-strats alike. Therefore you can't deny that he doesn't do his part to help the team function. And I think it's the same way for vanity on C9. Sure, he doesn't tap someone every time he peeks an angle, but if he was more focused on his gunfights than his IGLing, C9 wouldn't've gone 5-1 this split, I'll say that much.

If the map change comes into effect on the 11th of June, like you're assuming, then we can look to the Premier schedule for some hints. The 11th of June would be 4 weeks into the rotation, which means the week 5, 6, and 7 maps (Breeze, Split, and Icebox respectively) are NOT getting rotated out. That leaves only Bind, Lotus, Ascent, and Sunset as the candidates. Sunset is the newest map and Lotus got changes just four months ago, so it's most likely Ascent and Bind getting taken out of the rotation.

As for what's being put in, it's 100% going to be the new map + one other map. If we look at the maps currently out of rotation, the ones that've been out the longest are Pearl and Fracture, so we're most likely getting one of the two back alongside the new map.

TL;DR it's most likely Ascent + Bind OUT, new map + Fracture/Pearl IN.

A custom 3v2 with a few friends, February of last year. Crazy how far I've come.
https://imgur.com/a/Uag2KSK

They were bottom of the group. Then they 2-0'd TEC. That put them at 2-4, tied with Bilibili and Wolves. They ended up qualifying on round differential.

I wouldn't base my predictions off of betting site numbers. That's just me, though.

Never doubt the power of nAts go lurk.

I get told I have the mind of a radiant and the mechs of an iron. Currently working on the latter 😅

Thank you btw

If you'll let me give my input on Harbor:

1. tuyz
2. Mazino
3. f0rsakeN
4. JitBoyS
5. xccurate

I fully agree with tuyz at #1, he's undoubtedly the best Harbor in the world right now. I'd actually put Mazino at #2—I don't know if you forgot about him or just left him off, but he's been playing Harbor amazingly for Leviatán and he's been a decent factor in the strength of their Icebox. Then I'd just move f0rsakeN to above JitBoyS, just because he has a lot of experience with him, which he's shown this split (e.g. his cove placement in Paper Rex's Bind games).

Great work on this post, by the way! Pretty solid takes all around.

I recommend trying out KAY/O. He was a lot easier for most other initiators for me to pick up, and he's amazing at setting up your team. You have a lot of consistent, guaranteed value with him regardless of how you perform, simply because of how his kit works. And the way he's played feels to me similar to Fade's in how aggressive you should and shouldn't be and what fights you can take.

He's also in a really good spot in the meta right now. He's always been amazing on Ascent and Breeze, but I'm seeing quite a few pro teams use him on several map's, so he's seeing decent play on pretty much every single map in rotation with the exception of Split and maybe Lotus (though we could be losing at least one of those maps within the next month).

I do suggest you keep your options open, though. Fade is still a great pick on both maps KAY/O isn't seeing much play in, so definitely keep her in your agent pool. Learning Cypher also isn't a bad idea, especially if you need to fill sentinel. Diversifying your agent pool and having a few picks for each map instead of just one isn't a bad idea, the way I see it. That's coming from a low elo flex player, though, so feel free to take that with a grain of salt.