Rare Atom vs Dragon Ranger Gaming, a matchup I think was always bound to happen, with a proven team like RA against a rising team that may be trying to prove itself. I'll lay out the given facts: Rare Atom is the favorites to win this series. Not many people know about DRG, but I do. I know about the team with the godly sentinel player in vo0kashu, and I know about the clutch skills of maizi and the composed duelist that is TvirusLuke. I saw their demolition job against TEC, and it almost brought a tear to my eye just how well they shut them down. However, RA is not TEC. stew is not Abo, MarT1n is not B1ack. RA is on a completely different level from TEC, and I think that may very well prove to be the nail in the coffin. I'm not saying that DRG will not put up a fight, but I think considering all factors, RA should be the ones to win this series, be it a hard fought 2-1, or a staggering 2-0.

RA 2-1 win, trust in DRG's will to fight.

It's a new tournament for TE, and it's another opportunity for Flex1n to realize his team's dream of become just like big daddy EDG (that's cringe I'm sorry). While watching the FPX-RNG game, one thing I took away was that FPX is indeed a top Chinese team. The way they retook sites and the overall dominance they showed was not due to RNG's misplays in any way. In fact, I'd say that FPX has a very good chance at beating TE this very match. I understand, TE really blew my expectations out of the water by beating EDG 2-0 and dominating them on Lotus. However, after getting thrashed 3-0 and watching FPX play Lotus (which they are great at), I think there's a very good chance that we get to see a banger tomorrow.

2-1 FPX win.

I don't follow NAVI but in my opinion cNed is the better player overall.

Sure, but he's the most solid duelist in CN after Zmjjkk

Duelist: whzy (BLG)
Initiator: AAAAY (FPX)
Sentinel: shark (KBG) or yosemite (BLG)
Controller: Xiaonuo (RNG) or Flex1n (TE)
Flex: BerLIN (FPX)

They can, just not this match. Imo RNG should be favorites against any team in the first lower bracket match.

On youtube, definitely... But I think on Huya or bilibili or whatever the chinese streaming sites are there will be more...

Ah I see what you're talking about now...
Yeah it kind of does. The three CN tournaments have all had different bracket formats lol.

No need to thank me, it's simply a hobby of mine :)

What's the issue here?

What strong parties is Americas composed of? Leviatan?
I think EMEA is not a one team religion. Sure, many of the teams did not achieve greatness in the international tournaments, but I think it would be very ill-decided and naive to make such a preposterous claim that EMEA is a one team religion, especially going into the 2024 season. Personally, I believe that many teams will start to show up as great teams and that EMEA will actually be a multi team religion this year.
I've been closely following the antics of the Chinese religion, and I can tell you that there are more than just three good parties. In fact, I'd say there are at least six factions in the religion that could challenge for an activity of high holiness such as the revered "Masters" tournaments. Of course, it is without a doubt that the Edward party remains the most influencial as well as the most powerful.
I do not follow the teachings of APAC so I cannot make any insightful comments on it.

But this doesn't have anything to do with yay?

haha good one 😂

Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane

6'0

Intrinsically biased but it's alright...

Fair.

No need to thank me, I just thought you made some good choices ;0

Hmmmmm. Okay. How about this: If you were out with your lads on a nice holiday evening, what would something all of your mates agree to do?

Favorite non online activity to do in your freetime? (ex. reading a novel, tending to tomato plants, knitting, etc)

Agreed. nAts is a great player.

Big names only...

Solid pick'em!

That's very debatable.

Team Liquid🥺

Ah I see

Got it. Thanks!

All my friends have TheShy wiping the floor with Faker but idk I'm not big on LCK or LPL

You never know! I think DRX has a very experienced core and they're going to make a breakthrough one day or another :D

Definitely. DRX looked really good against C9 and EDG with a sub during that one tourney and I think if they figure out their first team roster + roles and all that they for sure can mount a convincing challenge against teams like (mainly) PRX. Heck they might even make a top 4 run in an international LAN.

Oki thank you very much!

Honestly, nothing too hot or too cold 10<t<27C

Fair response. I've never been to India before. Do you recommend travelling there? If so, where?

I agree with most of them, here are some of my insights/opinions:
For EMEA: I agree with all of your statements.
For Americas: C9 looked alright for a bit, but they might bottle it all so we shall see how well they do in the actual league.
For Pacific, I think DRX and PRX are definitely going to remain top dogs, but what are your thoughts on RRQ? I think they're pretty underrated.

And China has EDG, with teams like TE, BLG, RA, and FPX to challenge them. (ik the final partnered team list isn't out yet but these teams are pretty likely considering their performance recently).

Do you like travelling? If so, which country did you enjoy the most based off these aspects?

1. Infrastructure (Architecture/City design, etc)
2. Food (Edible things, etc)
3. Development (Technology, etc)
4. Environment (Trees and green things, etc)
5. Overall feeling (Made you feel "Man I really enjoyed that", etc)

That's very fair. I'd even go to say that those four teams have remained among the top 6 CN teams with the additions of Rare Atom and Trace Esports.

You actually did pretty well considering how you apparently know nothing about the CN scene.
Only a few things to consider.

1. DRG > TEC (TEC is quite a weak team compared to some of these other teams.)
2. BLG isn't at their strongest right now but it isn't too far fetched to say that they'll make it to grand finals.
3. ASE is quite good right now.
4. LGD isn't as good as TE
   But aside from those, I think you're pretty much set. You've made a lot of safe/reasonable choices and they may come to fruition in the future.

Oops looks like I misunderstood. All good, I'm sure RNG will prepare more against FPX than they did against DYG.

Hmmm thanks for the info!

I think FPX's mental is better than RNG's. Maybe it's just me but I think the first map in the DYG series was only won due to homework and antistratting. The second two maps were won merely because RNG is a better team than DYG.

Thank you for the comment. I believe that while you've made several bold picks, they all seem to be backed by logical thinking and I think it's worth taking the risk because it could very well happen. I'm very excited for this stage of the event, and I agree that this will be entertaining to watch. I can see where your skepticism originates for the RNG - TES match, and I think that it could definitely go either way. I'll see how the two teams play first and then I'll make my real prediction when the time comes.

I'm not going to say that you're overvaluing DRG and TES, because I too think that they are rising teams with a lot of potential. However, I think that your only pickem that really unsettles me has your DRG - RA match in the uppers lol. The upset could happen, but there's no reason for it lmao.

We'll see how it all unfolds in errrrr 6 days! Cheers!

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/bec7b32e
Feel free to give me suggestions!

I believe this is a very fun matchup and will be highly entertaining to watch. Of the four opening matches, this series pits two high echelon Chinese teams against one another and I can see FPX having the advantage against RNG. This belief of mine mainly stems from the fact that first of all, FPX is much more solid as a team and relies much less on individual skill than RNG does. Secondly, FPX is simply more experienced, with all members of their roster having played internationally and Autumn too, who was imo one of Oceania's most promising players. But don't get me wrong: RNG has great players too, such as SWERL, Xiaonuo and Minimise.
Although both sides are strong, I think that FPX's mentality gives them a substantial boost and I hope RNG is able to cope on the second map if they lose the first.
2-1 FPX win (given that RNG copes with first map loss, if not 2-0 FPX win).

I feel like this series is one of the more evenly-matched games of the four. Both TES and 17G have looked to be quite decently sound teams, with the abiliity to clean out maps pretty well. 17G played amazingly against KBG and ODG, only falling short to DRG after winning 13-9 on Split. TES on the other hand, dominated TEC on all their maps but Bind, which we might see 17G pick if given the chance. 17G have a really solid Bind game but considering the fact that TES is first seed, they might just straight out ban it immediately.
I'm expecting a close match, but I think 2-1 TES win is reasonable.

While I still don't have a complete grasp on how LGD plays, I think I can be confident to say that BLG has a very high chance at winning this series. LGD's recent match against AG was pretty dominant from start to end, but there are many factors that could suggest that they could play differently against BLG. While their first maps against NWG and RNG were not won too comfortably, BLG's second maps with the two respective teams proved that they were just miles ahead of their opponents, and if we see the same sort of form against LGD, we might very well see a clean 2-0 sweep from BLG.
2-0 BLG win.

In a series between vo0kashu's DRG and abo's IMAY/INV hybrid team, I think that DRG is going to come out on top as victors and move on to face Rare Atom. While both teams qualified just fine, I think that DRG are the favourites to win here, and I'm pretty content with how well they're improving. After that brilliant comeback against 17G, I think that if DRG gets in the groove, they could probably dominate TEC on both maps. However, I'm not going to downplay TEC and point out that they've had some nice set plays on maps such as Split.
DRG 2-0 win. vo0kashu drops 40 minimum.

Ooooh, that piques my interest. Please do share if you do indeed find it. Thank you!

I agree with you, but I did hear a lot of people talk about weird odds (which could just be a coincidence). Anyways, yeah I noticed a bunch of strange mistakes from LGD but that could just be attributed to a lack of preparation or underestimation/overconfidence. Regardless, it was a weird match lol.

I didn't understand at first but now I do. Okobotro🗿

Okobotro 🗿