+1 for both (bec i would have said the same haha)

BOBA is counted as SEA's 3rd seed coming into the GC Pacific LAN as they had to forfeit the decider map in the SEA lower final after a player (Kohaibi) suffered wrist issues

the younger ones (the few ones that retire early), they often return to school, especially if they did pause education to grab the opportunity to play

the older ones, usually still pursue other opportunities in the esports scene like coaching/analyst staff managerial/player management roles, broadcast production, or anything likely behind-the-scenes/camera that they likely know or related to the degree they have likely had already

EDIT: fixed spelling error

honestly i think, you wouldn't need a lot of changes for the current lineup.

1. you've got 2 additional fraggers to be with invy and jremy. for the previous iterations of the ts roster, it always felt like you need to have both invy and jremy to be online for them to win. they had to carry the rest. after 2ge and wile0reoo's addition, the team's shooting felt better, that even if jremy is a lil shaky (case in point: split map 3 vs geng where he kept missing the op and his satchels), there's at least another to back you up, not only with utility, but with fragging.

2. they now have a wider agent pool and can rotate roles as necessary. my biggest problem with the old rosters was that they obviously were not comfy playing around the relatively new agents. the current one can now play with a gekko in the comp (icebox vs t1). oreoo being another flex gives them a lil freedom to move vash to a sentinel, who has been a little subpar on flash initiators. this switch has produced somehow good results, at least if you look at their win rate on split, which isnt a map they prioritize picking. (no do not count lotus)

3. as much as i still am not a fan of vash, i have to give him credit for the times he is fragging while IGL-ing. and if former coaches such as warbirds vouches for vash's calling and shooting, then i can live with him staying. i'd rather someone with the experience stays as the IGL than transitioning to someone who never touched the role, and eventually performs worse that they usually do.

4. vibes merchant? if you've seen their comms vids, oreo was their hypeman after losing to bleed 1 map despite being so dominant in the first half of that map. vash, jremy, and invy were visibly gloomy, but oreo (and 2GE) were there, tryign to tell them, it's okay, we can win. last night, even after the tln loss, oreoo went on stream, joking around in ranked with 2ge (they did lose a ranked game 11-13 again tho haha)

5. the only change prolly, is that they add a mix of a asst coach/mental coach/analyst to be with dummy. their playbook for attacking hasn't been well polished that it loses them a lot of rounds even if they were able to bank on a huge lead on defending. (man, i still wonder how warbirds + dummy combo would have gotten us in stage 2)

i think they have good chemistry now, and they'd have better synergy the more they stick around together. they do need to learn how to play around their 6-man roster tho, especially if ndg would stick around for next season too.

from what i've seen and read, chiitan is a mascot who does funny videos for the memes, then pushes most of them as ads so the crypto scam ads get buried through it

Honestly, cannot decide after DRX's most recent game (v RRQ, where they had a massive lead map 1 but lost), so for now I'd say 50:50.

If it were before the RRQ match and I didn't know what MaKo said abt taking the IGL role, I would have easily said DRX haha.

Edit: Added last sentence.

I think the result for DRX v Talon would be determined if DRX had managed to settle the roles in this iteration of the roster, and MaKo somehow gets to IGL more comfortably. (I know what MaKo has recently said about taking the IGL role after stax departure). I think it'll be interesting to watch how they've done a reset in the off-days of Pacific before heading into that match, especially MaKo.

TS and GenG would also be interesting.
The new additions for TS have been showing what they're capable of, which has been a good help and match to invy and jremy's firepower. They also have a week to prepare for their final match for group stage, so if dummy could cook up some antistrats for GenG, then TS has a chance. Though, given they still have tendencies to have a hard time closing out an early lead, I'd still pick GenG to win.

honest question: is it hard for gc to move to a similar "region system" in the same way ascension league/partnership league goes? pacific gc already started the transition given they took on JP and KR gc leagues (leaving CN their own). they have assigned slots per sub region (3 SEA, 1 KR, 1JP, 1OCE, 1SA, im forgetting one lol sorry) for a LAN regional finals.

mix of both. ts matches are to their advantages as the relatively stronger teams (t1 with stax, gen g) are last on their list. new additions are a good boost to their firepower esp wild0reoo, but given the way they were giving away so many rounds after a huge gap (10-2 vs bleed, 11-1 vs ge), won't say they're good good.

ge meanwhile, you have benkai pulling out the drone on a 1v1 which happened on both maps for this match too

him pulling out the drone in sunset mid vs jremy with a stinger even more had me screaming... like, what was the reason, what was he thinking!!!

correct me if i am wrong but i think the group alpha/omega rankings don't matter this stage? like it's the overall ranking in the league (stage 1 + stage 2 standings) that would be the one considered, instead?

although I do think they are in a pretty solid position to qual for playoffs atp. winning at least 1 match in the next 2 (T1, Gen) would solidify that, winning both would allow them better seeding

i find his aim and positioning better, ngl. he also doesn't look so panicky in clutch rounds as what he showed in the GE match today.

he's transitioned into a flex player in his previous team so I think it was easy for him to move to the roles he's filling (I suppose it depends on the map). although I feel like NDG's utility on sunset is a little better, but pretty sure wild0reoo's gonna cook a bit more tripwire setups moving forward in the matches

apac: enerii shirazi kamiyu alexy (yes they are my fave team lol)
emea: mary, roxi, vania, mimi
br: joojina daiki
na: mel, alexis, sonder

Wild0reoo is a good pick, imo. Flex player and I think he wouldn't have so much trouble weaving in given he's been invy's former teammate already. One problem TS had has always been heir adaptability to the meta. Yes, they did have good picks with invy and jremy before, but they didn't easily adapt to the double controller meta. Wild0reoo has a good array of agents from his stats last year and this year, so I think they'd manage to do well now in maps that need a double controller, or in the more recent agents that haven't used (i.e. Harbor)

dummy has stated that he has been working with the team since the zeta match. the announcement was just made today

i think group o can have 4 teams if only 2 teams in group a satisfy the minimum 2 win rule

EDIT: added the rule from vct pacific socials post

funnily enough, she didn't tweet a thing. her ig story was just a "lost 0-3, wasn't able to shoot back..."

but she did like a couple of tweets that might give a bit more context 👀

nabbsky already announced their retirement last year after then rrq kaguya lost to smg on elite

reirachu on twitch was a community caster/watchoarty host too

streams on the main twitch acc of FSL (TO, i think) would be when playoffs begin. so we'll likely see these 2 teams clash again :D

for everyone's reference:

• babytz: former full sense/x10 sapphire; part of the apac rep for gc champs '22
• kohaibi: former smg; part of apac rep for gc champs '23
• alluka and ayumiii: former ae celeste/rrq kaguya; 2nd place gc apac elite for '22 and '23
• casper: former ogx

this is also a stacked team ft. familiar faces in the scene, would honestly not gonna be surprised if they happen to face xipto (current team of the rest of former team smg) only by the end of swiss stage, and put a good show with them D

the familiar gc sea/apac faces 13-0'd their round 1 enemies, looks like we'll see them in playoffs

they haven't lost a series for the whole of 2023, starting from apac open 1. they have dropped 4 maps only, all against full sense sapphire (last year's apac reps) during open 2's upper and grand finals and swiss stage of open 3

the game vs eg was their 35th win in a row

this might just be the banger match of the tournament

last year's champs with a now different roster from 2022 vs apac's undefeated (35-0 for the 2023 roster) team

actually so insane for them to decimate eg with an accidental comp and their main duelist being the only non duelist in that

as per Razzie's header on X/Twitter, they signed him as their brand ambassador. probably just an impression thing to mention he is their 5th knowing many are waiting for that announcement haha

whole of rrq dc-ed pre-round going into round 16; called a tech pause and eventually a forfeit bec of the issue