6 thoughts going into Rio de Janeiro

Riot·May 9, 2017·0 votes·8,425 views

Here's this week's 10 thoughts from @MeanMisterKien!

MSI resumes on Wednesday, May 10 at 11 am PT as Europe's G2 Esports takes on the reigning champs -- Korea's SK Telecom T1. Every year fans from each region trash talk and boast ahead of major international tournaments. Can anyone dethrone Korea? NA? More like N/A. EU? More like EUlogy. And so on and so forth. The time has finally come for our first look at which region has evolved the most since the 2016 World Championship.

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16 Comments

ReaxetionMay 9, 20172 votes

I never am happy to have to place my hope in TSM, but hey, I'm an NA fanboy. Lets go TSM!

TrollFan01May 9, 20172 votes

PLOT TWIST! Both Kkoma and Steak's mothers have the same name!

EngineeredUrMumMay 9, 20172 votes

IMO TSM is coming into this pretty underrated. First two games vs GAB they were making mistakes they never made in LCS so I felt like they underpreformed/understimated as TSM often does.

Also, the hype for FW is mostly baseless. We really have not had anything to judge their skill off of since worlds last year, where they were considered on the same level as TSM. I think TSM has a very good shot at taking the #2 spot.

korean dogMay 9, 20172 votes

TSM do not have a good shot at #2 spot. It would be a MASSIVE upset if they did. You can't just be making excuses for their under performance in NA the quality is not as high as internationally and a mistake like they made against GAM would get punished much more heavily from teams of other major regions. Added on to the fact that this TSM team looks extremely flawed even in NA finals and that TSM usually underperforms in major international tournaments does not make them a good shot at taking the top 2 spot. Just getting to the bracket stage should be their goal.

Miror BMay 10, 20171 votes

Upvoted it because the idea of calling a 23% chance a "good shot" is somewhat funny. Two losses and not having a lead for the majority of 4 games against a wild-card team isn't exactly a good thing to come in with (if they had done what flash wolves did, then maybe my view on them would change). Barring the LPL team (who was arguably the 3rd-best team in what is without question the dearthiest "major region"), I'm under the impression that SKT is the only guaranteed-placing team going into this event. Flash Wolves (albeit clean in their supermassive series) are coming from a region which historically has had two and a half "good teams" (j-team popping into relevancy every now and then), G2 has done ridiculously bad internationally making it hard to get behind them at an event like this, and Gigabyte marines are a wildcard team which could scarily cause a few upsets due to how many of the teams at this event react to aggression (hint: not well).

SmileyOwnsYouMay 10, 20171 votes

Just because GAM is a "wildcard" team, it doesn't mean they suck. Who knows, maybe they are extremely good and just lost to TSM because experience outbeat them. Look at last years world's. A "wildcard" team was in the top 8, so who's too say that GAM isn't just as good or even better?

Miror BMay 10, 20171 votes

You're kinda ignoring the other facts though, namely the difference in resources between the two teams. One thing that has been notable about TSM has been their dedication to trying to have the "best" of everything, like the best coaching staff and the best roster and the best practice tools, to the point in which they apparently spend about $1.5m per year on all of that. With GAM, a team who is coming from a region in which the winner of each split doesn't actually make any $, can you expect them to have the same luxuries? Comparing them to Albus Nox more or less furthers my point, as let's not forget that the team suffered three losses (two to rox and a flukey one to g2), which should've been more as they had zero scrim time/far less resources than their Rox/CLG/G2 counterparts.

SmileyOwnsYouMay 23, 20171 votes

Sorry, I barely saw this reply. I don't think I missed the other facts, some would say that due to the reasons you stated above and given TSM's performance, that TSM just straight out sucks. Where I was saying (agreeing with your facts above) that GAM, despite the lack of resources, that they're just better than everyone anticipated. But I get what you're saying. This year's MSI was super close so I am excited for worlds. (Super close except for SKT :B)

ChikorotixMay 9, 20172 votes

SKT > FW > W/E = G2 > GAM = TSM

SmileyOwnsYouMay 10, 20173 votes

Lol idk, I would say that GAM and TSM are above G2 :b

EleshakaiMay 11, 20171 votes

Not gonna lie, EU looked pretty pathetic this season. NA didn't look great either, but EU looked abysmal - watching EU this year was worse than watching NA last spring. We'll see how they stack up, but I'll be surprised if EU or NA do much this year... but I do expect TSM to be better than G2, even if I think we're looking at 4 teams fighting to not be last...

BlackHairedGirlMay 9, 20172 votes

Yep, long live the kings.

woodvsmurphMay 10, 20172 votes

After how strongly GAM beat SUP, I think we can safely say tsm had a much tougher opponent to make it to group stages. Sadly, this does not excuse tsm's weak performance. They have a shot to make it somewhere in this tournament, but they need to get it together. Much as most people are blaming Svenskern, I actually beg to differ. He hasn't been much worse than any of the rest of the team despite what people say, and hating on one guy or trying to place all the blame on him isn't going to help anyone. They all need to look to themselves and ask "how can I do better (for my teammates)?". GAM could pull off some nice upsets. I think they are actually similar in style to many Chinese teams and UOL. Flashwolves could really make it far - if they can overcome THEIR weakness - any team not from Korea. They have the ability to take it to brawl like the LPL's best but with a macro and calculated decision-making/shotcalling like that of LCK. WE - nobody expects a ton from China based on their region's recent performances at international events. I think these guys stand a solid shot of changing that. G2 - feel free to prove me wrong, but once again, I think people are overrating Europe. If they make quarterfinals, it's off the back of unusually poor play by their opponents rather than off their skill. SKT just state the team name... it speaks for itself.

SpeedWobbleMay 10, 20171 votes

My first thought... When does the NA summer split start? 'Murica!

SmilesDAbombMay 12, 20171 votes

Hehe xd

LifespikerMay 12, 20171 votes

This tournament has the same problem that the NBA finals have right now: literally nothing actually matters because we all know the final outcome. It all comes down to figuring out which team gets to get slaughtered by SKT in the finals, and that's not really all that fun in my opinion. Superstars are great for a while, but then they start to stranglehold the sport and I don't think that's healthy. Unfortunately there's no fix for this short of waiting it out.