Dude I ain't gonna cap, niesow was probably cheating. Starting to distance himself from competition and a well-paying salary on the best team in europe, maybe the world (at the time), just because of a family issue? Also, nearly right before the first LAN events? Just pretty shady.

yuppers

Quality thread mate :)

Losing to alliance isn't really a choke tbf. Alliance is a good team. Even beat Heretics

D

D

A

M

...literally all of them? I mean aceu isn't like a goat.

I'm not trying to be a dick here, but it's piqued or peaked, not picked.

Yo wait Victor on Skye about to go HARD

sheesh prediction tho

Ok just so you don't condescend me again, what's your rank lol? Better be radiant for the way you type. Also, I agree with you, Relyks needs to be dropped, same with mitch, they are a drag on the team. However, you also said he is a baiter, which isn't true. He's lurking and when he's not, he's playing with the team. He's not baiting at all, he's doing what he's supposed to do in that sense. He is just kind of shit.

Won't C9 have one of the highest seeds because of CH1?

Seeding can make the difference between making it or not. It matters more than you think. Plus, these teams are itching to compete, they don't just want to play stupid. They may play more experimental, but doesn't that make it even more interesting to watch? Just my take on it.

I feel like Android is such a good player but just can't get anything done. Dunno why. I agree.

Debatable

No, BBG is

No :)

SEN depends on TenZ, LG sucks
GENG, C9, NRG, FaZe are my picks to make it, maybe IMT
Noble, Rise, T1 dark horses

My Takes on the upcoming Challengers:
I lowkey think LG are pretty bad. I know they couldn't prepare for Noble like Noble could prepare for them, but Noble didn't have a ton of prep time like the other upsets (SEN, FaZe, GENG). I think LG have fallen off, aproto looks like of rusty and isn't as clean as when they were beating SEN a while back. thief isn't as good either. I remember seeing the thief clip on icebox against SEN and thinking "this dude is actually insane" and I guess that was his peak because LG keep putting up worse stats. I also think FaZe is going through some things right now and they just don't look as good as they did in Masters and CH3. They are kind of going through an identity crisis, and I'm not sure if they can fix it. Also, SEN getting into S2CH2 is almost completely dependent on if they actually have TenZ, which I don't know if they will. Considering all of this, I'd say the most likely contenders for CH3 in order are as follows:

1. Gen. G (Easy call for first, they barely lost to C9B who kind of anti-stratted them and just overall looked better on the day of)
2. Cloud 9 Blue (Looked really good against teams like IMT, V1, 100T, and GENG, and their ceiling is massive with their current lineup)
3. NRG (Barely missed out of going to S2CH1 because of XSET, who made it into CHFinals. Also will improve with new roster and tex, not higher because they might get hit by losing out on Chet, their coach.)
4. FaZe (Might be higher, but identity crisis hitting them hard with Zach and others role swapping, but they're still FaZe, and only just lost to V1)

Top 5. IMT (I feel like, in a strange way, they almost look better with rossy instead of nature, and stani on the jett. More firepower, less brains. Don't know what's going to happen with the roster if NaturE comes back. I feel like they are teetering on the edge of getting into S2CH2 either way. Will depend on how easy their bracket is)
?. Sentinels (With TenZ, they're first. Without TenZ, idk, maybe not even on the list)

Others close:
Soniqs: Say what you want about them losing to RNG and SEN, this team is still good. They have the firepower, but I don't know if they have the strategy to match it yet. A little more adapting and they'll be top 10 for sure.
TSM: Literally don't even know anymore. Don't even know who's going to be starting. Total coinflip/wildcard at this point.
T1: autimatic and curry just don't seem to have that much impact. Skadoodle and DaZeD need to improve or they will be dropped. This roster is a mess, even though there is a lot of talent. Management issues I guess. That said, they still have a ton of potential and I think they could be a dark horse to make it.
LG: aproto and thief. Where are they? If they are found before they stray too far into the woods this team might survive.

Upset picks:
Andbox: Still a good team, even if they had an easy path to S2CH1 and still lost.
Noble: Can be a sly pick, zekken is a beast
Rise: Tons of firepower, but can they become consistent?
RNG: Seems just consistently average. Not sure how high their peak is.

Honorable Mentions:
beastcoast and BBG

Let me know if you agree/disagree and what your takes are!

NA: 100T
EU: Team Liquid, G2
TR: Futbolist
BR: Gamelanders
KR: VS
LATAM: Lazer

Sentinels, FPX, VKS, BBL

This match is actually going to matter a lot more than people might think because seeding is very important. For example, would you rather go against a full strength GENG or a full strength SEN (presuming they still have TenZ). You really want good seeding either way.

I don't know if you're not watching the games or what's going on, but his role on this team is clearly to lurk. Just look how many times he's on the other side of the map at the beginning of the round. And when he's not, he's always playing with the team and going in with everyone else. Relyks' issue is that he is kind of just bad, not because he is baiting.

dig dig dig dig

LOL you're so clueless it's funny I don't even want to tell you why

I think this is probably going to be V1 vs XSET just because of how poiz has been playing. V1 rely quite a bit on aim and I think they look really strong, even though C9 do as well.

I guess you're the 12 year old haha, I didn't even get to say why you're wrong yet Mr. "trash analysis". You said 100T ban bind, one of their best maps. NV's split is amazing, maybe not as good as their bind, but still great. 100T banned it against C9B, they will ban it against NV. Also, 100T were literally showing all of their one-way walls and comms so I don't know if they were really saving strats. Plus, to win that impressively and "save strats" is an accomplishment on its own imo. I agree with Haven being NV-favored. I think statistically NV look better just because they win Haven and Bind more than 100T does, but I still believe in my team to win Bind.

I love how you had to make a pre-defense lol

100T win :)

Stylistically, these two teams match up pretty nicely. Ascent and Bind are both strong maps for both teams, I'd say 100T look a little better on Ascent, while NV look a little better on Bind. Both teams have also shown proficiency on Haven, but right now, NV look the best on it, even defeating XSET handily on it. Icebox 100% goes to 100T, NV look awful on it while it's one of 100T's best maps. NV is also easily better on split. Assuming Icebox and Split both get banned, I'd say 100T 2-1, with 100T winning Bind and Ascent and NV winning Haven.

Sheeeeeesh

Holaaaayyyyy

Dm enigma

Whoever the EMEA representatives are to masters are definitely going to be the favorites

So the final against guild was essentially seeding, being in the final gave them access to the Challengers Final event, which will be completed after the TR, CIS, and EU second challengers, which top 2 get to masters.

Yeah

Riot is a broke indie company no way they can afford that kappa

raka what site are you using to bet

Well it’s just for seeding...

Honestly looking like a 100T vs XSET to me right now but I will still stand by my original prediction

If poiz shows up, C9 2-0. Otherwise, I think it’s a V1 2-1

Yeah I agree, good reads are hard to do and sometimes it's luck which site you go to. Also, SEN was really bad, but it almost seemed as if they were not trying or saving strats like they've been historically memed to do. I don't actually think they were, but it looked sort of disorganized, and it's kind of on the IGL to sort of rally the troops and keep everyone's head in the game, but it looked like Shaz was off. Lack of effort really, too. If they had treated this game like it was masters finals, and gave 100%, the game definitely would've been closer. In this case, it's almost as if Shaz just said "yeah I don't really have a game plan for this team so let's just do our basic default", and then they lose a bunch of gunfights, and just mental boom and play afraid like it's solo queue.

Oh ok, yeah that roster would be op

I mean yeah, cuz of the shit seeding you know who your opponent is 3 weeks ahead cuz you know your seeding doesn't change, it's #16, and you know SEN is gonna win masters so like all they gotta do is just study how to beat SEN with TenZ. Also, another big part is that SEN couldn't study BBG back because of lack of vods. Both ways, preparation diff.

I mean they had to play XSET, who is clearly top 3 in the masters tourney. NRG isn't reaaaally that bad rn

just create a new post and say "LIKE THIS POST" then you will get the most downvoted. Or NSG dude makes a new thread and then we can do that

Ok, that map was pretty rough for V1 and anyone who isn't named "Zellsis" or "Will", but Bind isn't their strongest suit anyways. They'll come back. I still believe.

They won because they knew who their ro16 opponent was like 3 weeks before the match happened, because of seeding. They definitely anti-stratted, even though in all honesty there wasn't a lot of stratting from SEN. This is because SEN's only info on BBG is the games they recently played against them (no vods of BBG), so they were left with only breadcrumbs. But yeah, SEN's aim was awful, and the current iteration of their team relies pretty heavily on aim duels.