hard to believe we're in a place where a single win against AHQ for C9 and GAM for IMT means they likely make it out of groups (with a possibility of having to tiebreak).
Meanwhile, TSM has no single game that assures they at least get a tiebreaker and must win two to assure it... although beating MSF comes close to assuring a tie break.
Overall you have to feel good about where NA stands. Europe looks in a bad way. G2's first game against SSG will likely determine if they at least get a tie break.
MSF is in a good position, but of course they need to continue to perform at the level they did. Beating either TSM singly or beating WE+FW gives them lots of options to make it in. WE alone means a likely tie break.
By the second game of tonight we'll hopefully know that IMT has made it to the knockout stages (if they beat GAM in Game 1 and LZ beats Fnatic in Game 2). I can stay up that late!
Obviously whether you're first or second is a big deal as you likely get to dodge SSG and SKT in the quarters, but one step at a time.
Is it possible we will get through groups with Kalista being banned every game? Seems like someone will try to let it through in bo5 but groups seems possible
Sorry voided. Think I got you crossed up with kaleidoscope.
Edit. Oh wait, no. There's just a lot of overreaction in this thread to go around. Tsm looked awful but this was a snowballed game. They have a weakness that will be hard to cover, but they only need to do so against two beatable teams.
WE, Fnatic, C9, and FB made it out of play-ins. WE and Fnatic made it into knockouts. If C9 can manage to get out that puts the success rate from play-ins at 75%. The Number 1 teams from NA, EU, LPL and China will be out (C9 in almost certainly means EDG out).
One thing I have wondered at is how teams that win in the summer split (or even get in via championship points) are those that end up playing fewer competitive matches and farther apart. WE, Fnatic and C9 all won their gauntlets, won their play-in groups and then won their Bo5 play-in. Both G2 and TSM had an entire month between winning their league and their first game at worlds.
Sure, there's something to be said for teams knowing a team's strategy, but that would be most important if the play-in knockouts were followed by Bo5 matches. In Bo1 that's not necessarily the case.
I'm not saying you can't be critical. I'm saying that some tsm fans yoyo between extreme optimism where losses are almost unthinkable and extreme pessimism where everything and everyone is shit.
Almost no one is out of it. Quarterfinal correct = 5 points, Semis = 10 points, Finals = 20 points (pretty much impossible to win if you don't pick the eventual winner fwiw)
No big surprises there. IMT would surprise me if they didn't make it in too. Flyquest and Echo Fox also left to decide. DIG, NV, P1 out so we'll see at least three new teams/owners. One of which is one of those Golden State Warriors guys. Baylife battle.
I can't believe how much people are willing to pay for the Overwatch league. It does have a good structure that I imagine investors would find attractive, but the game itself faces serious headwind.
I just wonder if it's not a mistake to chase after something where the demand is artificially created. I think there's a good chance we'll get XFL-like post mortems in 10 years.
i never got the sense that LCS was primarily a spectator driven thing but rather viewers. Otherwise, why did Riot decide to do two venues (for dual streams) with one of them seating like... 80 people.
Interesting tournament. I'm not sure I see WE or c9 challenging Samsung, unfortunately, but I wouldn't necessarily expect Samsung to be as "on" as they were today. Still think it's heading for a Korea vs. Korea final.
I think it's likely that the financial strain of putting up money for both may have done it (yes, c9 and optic did too but it's not necessarily the case they have the same financials). But as I said earlier, I'm not sure Riot cares much at all about LCS live audiences. Not that they treat them badly and the "crowd" aspect is clearly valuable, but that's not where they're going to get their money from.
I'd argue they had to take galio. I don't think singed was enough to deal with galio+kog+janna. I don't know if lulu, cait or sej was less important, though I'm inclined to think cait was the one to put through.
Although in reality, just ban galio instead of xayah (overall) or rumble (if they were set on to setting up the caitlyn snowball).
perhaps most importantly, the shirtless manager from Unicorns is joining OpTic. We've been here before, but EU's entire infrastructure getting raided rather than just a player here and there. That's not remotely surprising given that NA teams are in a place where their value is astronomically higher than EUs because they rolled out franchising in NA before EU.
i'm excited to watch, actually. Best of 1s are way better for my schedule and to keep track of all the teams. I love the idea of not having to choose which stream. It comes with some international drawbacks, etc. but at least for the purpose of watching the domestic league, it'll be a good thing.
NA LCS going to be pretty weird to watch. So much change. Looks like TSM and CLG are the only ones that have likely confirmed their entire starting lineups. C9 still has to lock down Sneaky and Jensen. Liquid has to confirm Olleh and Impact are joining, but it seems fairly certain.
Midlane is going to have more EU players than NA ones: Febiven, PoE, Bjergsen (though technically he's a resident) and Jensen. I'm not sure Froggen has a place. Pobelter and Hai the only NA mids. Meanwhile Korea has Ryu, Fenix, Fly (on FlyQuest...), and Huhi (who will NOT be on the same team as Huni, unfortunately).
I think Sven will work out for C9. He was good in europe, and TSM has a pretty consistent record of making junglers look bad. I don't know anything about Licorice, but I'd kind of be surprised if he ends up as the starter. It looks like C9 bought out his contract for cheap due to a deal they had previously. They acquired Wiggily the same way and he's backing up Sven.
TL Olleh confirmed. On paper they may be the strongest team. Of course, on paper is the only place TL has ever looked good, but this team is more CLG/IMT than Liquid.
It makes a ton of sense that Olleh would end up on the team with Pobelter as well as Pob is arguably the only NA mid that can take you to worlds and everyone else has to spend a foreign spot on a mid, leaving only one other open (TSM also would have made sense given that Bjerg is technically NA for that purpose, but mithy part of the Zven package).
I went to the NA Finals. A bit sad it was a 3-0 sweep. I thought putting them together was an okay gamble, but I think the switch away from Blaber and Jensen maybe was premature. Not sure there was much to be done though. Liquid clearly the better team on the day.
teams? Team Liquid and 100 Thieves have qualified as first and second seeds, respectively (despite 100 Thieves loss to TSM in the semis). The gauntlet still has to be played with C9 only having to win their one match, TSM needing to win two, and Echo Fox/Clutch Gaming needing to win all 3 matches.
what's interesting is that this year there's less time to recover. NA has done well in the first week a number of times only to falter in the next week.
quickshot isn't bad. riv has been pretty off though. phreak has never been a favorite of mine. your specific complaints are incredibly petty, but you do you.
