this is just not a mindset that most t2 pros will have, for the viability of their individual career in the long-run it makes more sense to join a tier 1 team regardless of your current team's chances at winning ascension. i think if you were to argue for him staying on KPI, it would be for the benefit of waiting till the end of the season to have a wider variety of offers from T1 instead of only the teams making changes in the middle of the season (more limited)

I agree with your assessment of Shao and SUYGETSU, as well as Zyppan to a degree, but i think ardiis hard caps this team unfortunately. even though he can play off-roles in comps where Zyppan gets to play raze, his flexibility is not much special outside of chamber and KAYO. i also do not think he is a world-class jett at this point in the game anymore

BLG wont be top 5 imo, they are changing IGL and other cores make a stronger case than theirs imo... JDG and FPX will be better right away and i think with time Trace, TEC, and Wolves will all be better

NA

1. LEV
2. LOUD
3. SEN
   EU
4. FNATIC
5. FUT
6. Vitality
   APAC
7. PRX
8. DRX
9. T1/RRQ (toss up)
   CN
10. EDG
11. JDG
12. FPX

BLEED, NRG, NaVi, BLG

doesnt even matter, sScary clears yay and will drag this team playing smokes

crashies i agree, but leaf was a top 2 americas player all yaer

in what way does he play "any agent to its max potential," he has literally only shown consistent high level performance on jett and chamber, his brimstone and astra maps are pretty big outliers in the context of EG's season... their fracture had virtually flawless macro and he had practically no individual responsibility in that comp. as for lotus, he was basically given full freedom to just hold angles and place stars for execs. obviously his aim is world class, but what has he demonstrated that makes you say he has the best game sense? especially compared to players who are hyper flexible and have mastered multiple agents (and agent classes) across multiple metas like Chronicle, or ultra consistent top-level performers like MaKo and f0rsaken. even if you wanted to pick an Americas player, id take aspas over him every day given his ability to play all duelists at a high level

Acend winning champs was mickey mouse because they were a team completely based on form and super inconsistent the whole year outside of champs. They also lost to VK and had to replay, and only barely beat Gambit in the GF. the playoff bracket was also really favorable for them, it was single elim and they got the best draw for playing Secret and TL before finals. considering they also pretty much imploded a few months after champs, i would definitely weigh their title pretty low compared to other LAN titles. to me, FNATIC winning LOCK/IN is pretty high up there

i think this roster is slightly underwhelming given the potential pickups that could have been made. i think Enzo is about as good as it gets for free agent IGLs, and ill admit i havent watched a ton of Keiko. but Mistic is a pretty known quantity in tier 1, especially in big tournaments. i really would have preferred getting Burzzy and taking a chance on young talent to develop. mistic is a good player, but im afraid his ceiling is a bit too low for what liquid deserves as an org and what Jamppi and nAts are capable of as players.

im very high on corey, but i think this is a good point. honestly this is completely dependent on which 3 of EG's current players would stay; assuming Boostio is gone to 100T, who would the other player leaving be? i think that would determine a lot about whether stellar and corey would be good pickups, because even though corey is very flexible and i think ethan's experience as a mid rounder would help ease stellar in very well, this team without Demon1, Jawgemo, or C0m would be very different imo. i think the most sense as things currently stand would be Demon1 as duelist, Corey as flex, Ethan as main initiator, stellar sentinel, Jawgemo smokes/raze