derke owns aspas unfortunately

2nd place curse has been like solidly true so far tbf

will not send choke9 to champs unfortunately

NA - 0% of teams attending tokyo won it
EMEA - 25% of teams attending tokyo won it

I think top 12 even

starxo dont deserve to be done dirty :d

I told my friend that KOI are gonna have do a KRU and go to champs

I am now fairly confident bro (i) wasn't just guessin

yes the current 4th best team in Americas is better than the current 8th best team in EMEA

thank you for the pro analysis

the only 'population' that arguably matters is how many people actually play on the servers, which NA and EU are within 200k of each other on.

I guess you could argue x amount of people from ME/Africa play on other servers or whatever but frankly the infrastructure just isn't there for those players to get into T1

basically kind of a cop-out argument but all g

russian team owns bleed just watch

blue period tbh

it like... resonates? with me more than any other manga

it's like... objectively not the best or close to it, it's jus personal

russia is a diverse country

uhh I dont think there's a standalone store for either region but the Fnatic site does ship to Japan if that helps at all

yeah as much as the discourse on this website has obviously turned to eu vs na, EG put on a fucking show this tournament, respect to them.

hopefully 2nd place curse dont hit TOO hard.

since it started..? lmfao

I don't remember 2 NA teams ever being a major grand final but all good g

Wahhhh wahhhh must check internet man post history wahhh wahhhhh

aint no way you think 4-5 pacific teams are better than NAVI lmao
Edward are about to 2-0 T1 too

realistically rn, if I have to be especially generous to the Americas to not sound biased, the 'good' teams are TL, FNATIC, DRX, PRX, EG, NRG, LOUD, C9

yeah... make the leagues have different number of teams just based on vibes

it was obvious that EMEA talent would be spread out- and frankly some of the orgs just have the most incompetent recruitment (Heretics, Karmine Corp, MAYBE Koi but frankly that looked like a good roster on paper)

that being said each league having a different number of teams would just be a pain in the ass, Karmine Corp simply existing in EMEA league literally doesn't affect the other leagues in ANY way lol

yeah i do understand no relegation from a sustainability standpoint, i just hate it regardless, in all honesty

still wish we had relegation, though.

can karmine corp, KRU, detonation (as much as I love them) either git gud or go T2 please god

pacific is also ass
Americas > pacific = emea tbh in terms of overall quality

the Pacific has just as many dogshit teams as EMEA does
and yeah fair enough Americas is probably the highest average quality league- combining NA talent into 5 teams and also just absorbing LATAM and BR will do that to you

bros team doesn't even exist anymore 🤯

yeah but I feel like it's kind of a 3 or 0?

Champions is a 16 team tourney- which means 4 guaranteed from each major region, 3 from CN and 1 for the winner of Tokyo
With that being said, where do you think one of the CN slots should go to?

hell yea

disagree, TSM aren't even a good NA T2 team

KRU definitely look like they need some pretty drastic changes frankly, though I don't know at all whether there are many insane players within T2 LATAM, who do you guys think could potentially be a good pick up for the roster?

dude i get that so far China hasn't done enough to deserve 3 slots but realistically where else would that slot go?

I mean sure I wouldn't mind like a playoff between LCQ runner ups but that's just not gonna happen

and frankly giving one of the leagues another slot just because would be :/

it doesn't matter if he puts up bad stats when they don't even drop a map

if he isn't called upon it doesn't matter lol

i can simply read the future fr

0 in top 4 btw

I only think they'll be the #1 regional league if they manage to break more into the MENA market, if some talent comes from there that'd be huge, maybe if the CIS scene grows aswell

Yeah it will be pretty tough to remain competitive for EU lol, they're definitely in the roughest position going into franchising

all depends on the roster mania and if there's more VRL players who can transition like alfa did

The last major going into franchising is finally won by a non-EU/NA team (even if the fans of both regions here are still making it about them KEKW) and i can't even begin to explain how excited that makes me for the future

with talent now about to be more tightly packed in 10 teams per region, every region is gonna be looking hella competitive with the precedent LOUD and DRX (finally) have set

Hell teams like LEV and EDG have also shown insane potential

NA and EU need some huge roster mania to stay competitive long-term for sure

WELL FUCKING PLAYED LOUD

edward who games

From 2026 2 teams are promoted annually I believe?

it's weird that they put it in small print but yknow

personally, i think slots are perfect if you -1 SA LCQ slot and + 1 slot for the winner of the previous international

im super happy the anime led me to the manga lmao

LETS GOOOO A LAN I CAN ACTUALLY GO TO

meh from a purely competitive standpoint maybe thats fair

but from ritos perspective they have to consider potential viewership, marketing potential and representation for the playerbase

that's pretty fair

i mean i can't say i really mind this happening i just think 3 SA slots + 1 masters 2 slot would make for a more entertaining tourney, probably won't really prevent a potential winner coming either way

i mean i agree yay probably adds more to his team then leo does (though i think leo is more unreplaceable)

but what the team as a whole has achieved is a pretty poor argument when comparing individuals
one had to play with russ one didn't

(i love russ but let's be honest he's the weakest link in that guild roster)

in the chamber meta yeah true
yay is probably the best chamber

in the jett meta it was pretty debatable tbh

yeah with how NTH comms work meteor/Zeta would struggle to adapt

if that wasn't an issue meteor would be an insane pick up but yknow

Everyone seems to be disagreeing with this but I kinda don't get that

Yes, BR and LATAM are 2 different regions, and this is with very good reason as Brazil is in fact different from the rest of Latin America in a variety of ways, no disagreement, hence both of them do definitely deserve 1 guaranteed spot

But why are TWO LCQ spots for the region combined? East Asia for example only gets 1, and as far as I'm aware (If anyone has actual semi-up-to-date stats for this let me know please, would appreciate it) the player bases in JP and KR are surprisingly comparable, while I have no clue for CN.
I would also argue that KR and JP have been a lot more successful internationally

Latam + BR combined encompass around 560 million people, which is like 35-40% higher than NA (I am counting Mexico as part of Latam) so from that perspective, I can't say i understand them sharing 4 slots either, EMEA, for example, encompasses well over 1 billion.

Now based off everything I've said you might think i have an actual point for some other region getting it but no, I just think whoever wins masters 2 should get a slot at champions separately, like last year

And I've been saying this since before Copenhagen started, so no that's not an opinion I have purely because FPX won

if anyone wants to offer a different argument feel free