Valyn
NZR
Zekken
Leaf
Mazino
(Ethan)

Kaplan

yep

hey they still want to win

I got time :)

Rumors has been flying that Sacy is leaving Sentinels, if that does happen, no matter who they bring in, the pressure will be on TenZ to pick up the burden that Sacy leaves.

It comes down to two different things.

First, leadership. Sacy played an integral role to the leadership structure to Sentinels, providing the balance against Zellisis and playing to keep people calm always. With Sacy out, it's crazy but TenZ will be seen as a veteran on the team. I wonder if he would be able to pick up the slack left by Sacy, as Tena will have to step into that calm, leadership role for Sentinels. This is a complete first for Tenz, and I cannot make a decision on whether he will flourish in the role or will it take a huge impact on his in-game performance.

The second I see is potential wise. Based on solely mechanics, in-game role, and other factors, to me, only Tenz has space to grow exponential (outside of whoever the new pick up is. He's still has things to improve on as a smoker, which really is crazy to think, but I think he still has untapped skills to unleash. However, I don't know if he can balance developing but also filling in the role for above.

TenZ will be critical in this upcoming season for Sentinel, so I'm really interested in how he performs this year.

cash in again ?

screwface slipped my mind. i actually love the fit for him on this team. he would be a flex player then, so we would have to move someone to the smokes role. this is a scenario where i would be more comfortable moving demon1 to smokes because screwface would entry with victor. I guess we move crashies to sentinel? his cypher is not the best, which technically would make him expendable. I would be open to replacing him with a player like net or a rising sentinel talent in Verno OR even someone like dapr, who I think could make a comeback

good thoughts

I don't think Shahz wants to compete anymore, he's making too much off of content creation. I also was never a big fan of his iniatiator gameplay, it didn't look natural to me.

putting demon1 on smokes is iffy for me as well. his astra is ok cause we've seen him play it, but his omen and brim are far from ideal. let's say we move demon1 to his smokes role, we would have to bring in an aggressive sentinel player or victor would be the only one entrying every round. sentinel looks like a more natural position for him.

takes pressure off of ethan + one can focus on midrounding while other focuses on preround strats

so marved just got benched, was it the right decision or not, only time will tell

for me, this gives heavy vibes of 2023 sentinels when they benched pancada. world class smokes being benched because of a fit issue.

I made a post early on how I believe that Ethan is not the right fit to be IGL on this team, but this can be an issue solved!!

For this fix, I will assume that the LOUD people are outside of the budget for NRG because that's no fun.

Current team would be Victor, Demon1, Crashies, Ethan

To round it out and assuming no more changes to the team, I would add a player like GMD/Paincakes

Both come in with high levels of experience when it comes to the game, both have experience IGLing, both seem to exudes levels of confidence and bravado like Zellisis does, both would bring that NRG needs to help even out the coolness of the rest of the team.

Set up GMD/Paincakes for smokes, move Victor to full duelist, Crashies plays the info initiator, Ethan plays flash initiator, and put Demon1 on full time sentinel.

Demon1 is a very good player with great aim, but he's losing value as a duelist because his playstyle just doesn't fit the needed duelist model anymore. His sensitivity is too low to clear angles fast enough and he doesn't seem to have the natural entry ability that zekken/victor has. Moving him to sentinel will save his career. It's what I also believe BLEED should've done with yay. Unlike yay, Demon1 to me seems like the smarter player with his lurk timings when he did it, and I can envision him becoming a player like Less where he lurks with good aim and good awareness, making him a lot more valuable.

This team does lose some value in not having a true awper, but I think Victor's AWP is passable at least?? Honestly don't remember when he has awped before so could be wrong.

let me know how you would fix NRG!!!!

can we please put c0m on sentinel idk how much longer I can watch him lurk on an info agent while aspas dives into site blind

2 for 2 :DDD

crashies is more expendable, but imo crashies shouldve been the igl from the beginning

bump :)

:(

hellooooo back with more takes

today we talk about NRG

I believe that NRG would be better off with a different IGL from the team rather than Ethan

1) Ethan does not seem very comfortable as the IGL. Taking the SEN series as an example, we see that Ethan struggled heavily on Sunset and Split, two maps where SEN is very deep in starts, while doing very well on Ascent, a map where SEN isn't as deep on. It's clear that going deep in Ethan's igling bag takes a toll on his performance, especially when up against deep tactics. Ethan is too good of a player to let something else hinder his game, I would say for NRG to win they need Ethan to always be at top performance. Additionally, when back on EG, Ethan was nowhere near the main caller role and, to me, probably more as the third option maximum. Boostio was the main caller and both COM and Jawgemo seemed to be more proactive with callouts, thus, being that IGL is not fully natural for him.

2) Ethan doesn't have the same rapport with Chet as other members. Ethan has just joined the team and haven't has as much experience running Chet's system as other members on the team, who have been together for years. This kind of chemistry is necessary to a degree just because those two people are the ones who work together the most and really need to be synced in to understand each other. More experience together = a better run system. See both Boaster and mini for Fnatic and JohnQT and Kaplan for SEN as examples. I will say it's not as big a factor as others, but for a win-now team, I think going from one system to IGLing another completely different system without having a dropoff in team performance is a very big stretch.

3) Ethan's skill isn't getting showcased as much as the IGL. See point 1 with his decreasing stats in more difficult games; I think that Ethan, as a world-class initiator/support player, is being wasted on the initiator. NRG has two world-class initiators in crashies and Ethan, but as a support role I think Ethan edges him out. NRG is losing a lot of value by having Ethan IGL. To me, Ethan has been more of Sacy/Chronicle type player, quiet but very supportive in every move. Knows how to make the instinctive right play without needing to communicate. That's not exactly what an IGL is though.

4) (don't take this point too seriously) Ethan doesn't have that IGL swagger. Look at the top IGL's now. Saadhak, Boostio, king, JohnQT, Boaster, etc, they have have some time of swagger and confidence that I want my IGL to have. Ethan acts too proper when compared to those top IGLS.

Now, who would replace him.

For me, its crashies/victor

Crashies because he is the other support/initiator on the team, his gameplay can take a little fall because they would have Ethan to fill in. He has a longer understanding of Chet's system to run it more smoothly. I also remember the play against SEN where he ran away with bomb when Zellsis was in garage on Split and FNS said that Crashies made the "too correct" play. I want my IGL always to make the too correct call. Has that swagger too.

Victor has take more of a backseat now with Demon1 taking the entry role so he might be a good option to IGL. Good understanding of Chet's system and was a very smart entry back in Optic days by always setting up Yay for success

If those two say no or have already said no, then Marved. Had decent success with Sentinels.

Of course, maybe I'm completely wrong and all Ethan needs is time and experience

let me know what you think :)

this is my personal take, can agree or disagree :)

to me it looked like this KC run from EMEA was like lightning in a bottle and the team doesn't look sustainable.

The shift of three duelists to two becoming flex roles have worked now because they seem to play their new roles in a more crude/simple way than someone who mains the role. You can say experience will play a major factor into the development of their roles, but as they learn more about the intricacies of their respective roles, I think their play will decrease from 1) worrying too much about what the right play is and 2) becoming more readable because they are trying to make the right play

marteen sort of reminds me of 2021 tenz on Jett, and tenz struggled with controlling aggression early on, so it's a toss-up on whether or not marteen will adjust as a main carry or shoot down the path of someone like asuna

I also don't completely trust MAGNUM as an IGL, but that might be more of a personal bias. He did look like he was outcalled at times (SEN), and his midrounding looked a bit suspicious at times. Add the fact that he's not the most fragging of IGLs, and it provides reason for concern.

The team swept through EMEA and even beat FNATIC. I don't think FNATIC loses twice, and TH has looked better this tournament (from aim to strategy, and it looks like they have more room to improve). So this leaves KC fighting with the rest of EMEA for the third Shanghai spot.

It all comes down to ENGH and his ability to bring the team together.

let me know your thoughts !!!

yea i think the lack of exp is one of the major reasons for why TH lost today, looked pretty bad in the second half of their games. TH can be a pretty dangerous team this year but I want to see how they react to when their neon strats get anti-ed and also how woot(never seen him play) fits in

i don't think he's 100% wrong as an NA fan

I think EMEA is a three-team region for FNC/TH/KC, but I can see teams sliding in (someone like FUT will make it once)

TL - I don't trust the core of Enzo/Mistic and I personally don't believe in Keiko as a main duelist

NAVI to me looks like they are running outdated comps, so I'm going to assume they play very similar to last year (could be wrong I don't watch EMEA)

I don't have a good grasp of the other teams in EMEA but even without those that's a good 4-5 team rotation

For NA, obv LEV and NRG will be better, but as a SEN fan idk how long they can keep this form up, if something like Omen gets nerfed hard idk how they will adapt

So NA is like a 3-4 team region as well, IMO pretty equal to EMEA

mmm i think saadhak is pretty set on qck being his duelist

does tuyz play duelist ??

100t pancada

right, thats why i think 100t might lowk be a good fit because he wouldn't need to talk w asuna and boostio, similar to how sacy is rn letting zellsis do most of the talking. he's also a direct upgrade to bang and i think it would make them more competitive.

do you think loud would drop tuyz for pancada

i just hate the fit for furia

where do you think pancada would fit in best + where do you think he would realistically go

IMO realistically its mibr because of the coach connection, but I think 100t could be an interesting option to replace bang, comms wouldn't be an issue because of asuna + boostio lol

i hate the furia fit just cause of how mwzera-centric they are and how all resources go to him, would be a waste of pancada's skill

eg would be a pipedream but i would love to see how potter would use him

looking for other opinions on this