Fox survives Friday. But any one win by each of Dignitas, C9 and NV (all three) or any loss by Fox and the 6 playoff teams are set.
One more win by Immortals guarantees them no worse than third. Two more wins by Immortals guarantees them no worse than second.
Miror B1 votesAlthough they're "officially" eliminated, I'm probably still going to watch them due to how entertaining they should be (or more accurately, that I'm the kind of person who finds vehicle crashes fascinating). Assuming they start mickey and matt, they could theoretically have a team in which 3 of their 5 players can either start the game 6-0 and hard carry or go 0-6 and make you think they are just now figuring out what a mouse does.
Also another fun fact: flyquest faces TL and P1 next saturday/sunday respectively which could very easily shape the promotion tournament picture, as P1 is 2 games back of FQ right now while TL is a half game back of FQ for 8th.
BigBellBrute1 votesAlthough they're "officially" eliminated, I'm probably still going to watch them due to how entertaining they should be (or more accurately, that I'm the kind of person who finds vehicle crashes fascinating). Assuming they start mickey and matt, they could theoretically have a team in which 3 of their 5 players can either start the game 6-0 and hard carry or go 0-6 and make you think they are just now figuring out what a mouse does.
Also another fun fact: flyquest faces TL and P1 next saturday/sunday respectively which could very easily shape the promotion tournament picture, as P1 is 2 games back of FQ right now while TL is a half game back of FQ for 8th.
Well if you like train wrecks, Liquid is the team for you and Dardoch is the player to watch. Dardoch's problem is he never saw a fight he didn't like, both on and off the rift it seems. The guy is inting his career. We finally found someone more toxic than Piglet. :)
Miror B2 votesYet even with all of these problems, teams seem fascinated with him. Unlike other "bad seeds", he doesn't take up an import slot in a region where quality homegrown jungle talent is hard to find. It's one of the reasons why I would not be surprised to see multiple teams take interest in him after this season, as much like that gas station sandwich there are plenty of cons yet a few pros that make it intriguing.
Oh, and I'll elaborate a bit. I'm not so much a "fan" of crashes as much as I just enjoy studying them. With every action humanity brings there are always a lot of little details that not only bring it to fruition but also affect the aftermath. These details pique my curiosity, as while many will know the "what" I'll usually know the "how" and the "why".
III BAKURYU III 1 votes" gas station sandwich" lol, always love reading your comments for your mind about the game and for your humor. Could be an investigator with your "crash" mentality and such.
As far as TL goes, honestly, I'm a little sad that they're "eliminated" not only for Playoffs but also Worlds, coming into the season with yes, the same ol' squad that failed a split earlier you just wouldn't think they would be just as bad as before if not worse considering the players, coaches etc have been together for a long enough time to get things on the right (path to not crash) as you might say. Not being apart of Worlds ever in the League scene, and now being looked as a mediocre org within League is a shame in my opinion. I don't know anything about TL's involvement with other games/cs go/counter strike etc so they may be prospering from the other scenes.
Kick Piglet - 3 years/ 6 or so splits has been a more up and down career since joining NA than Tony Romo. Piglet may be the best ADC in NA but it's not showing the results and TL/Piglet both have gotten worse over the years.
Prospect - Lourlo/Matt - Keep them, but if they don't improve through out subbing in/out roster for say next year kick them. Lourlo when he first joined he sucked, through the splits he's gotten "better" but at a snails pace tho. Matt kinda the same, a little 2 steps forward- 3 steps back every so often but overall he's decent; if you're looking at the other talents around NA at the moment that is.
Keep - Reignover - While he's not the same since Huni left his side, he's still a top 10 player in NA in my mind, like you've stated before he's more of a go in if 1-2 other players engage first and COMMIT instead of running away, similar to say Huni. Lourlo isn't like that, GG isn't like that but Huni was 24/7. Smart, has shown the ability to carry from time to time.
? Keep IDK - Goldenglue - At this point I honestly don't care, I've never been a "fan" of GG so my thoughts on him are meh, he's decent but he's not a carry type of player and never will be, and if you're not a carry - then, you're being "carried" and more times than not, he's getting carried but those "carries" are in loses so it's hurting his resume even more at this stage of his career. He's smart I'll give him that tho.
Miror B1 votesI only really pay attention to TL's involvement in first person shooters (mostly the games I play outside of this), but as far as those they were ridiculously good and had/still have pieces of one of the best NA rosters of 2016. They were essentially like spring 2016 CLG, only that they actually won a few events and were considered favorites in a lot of matchups until their players started dropping for personal reasons.
Out of the remaining TL members, are any of them barring Lourlo (who despite me thinking he's suffering from the "Freeze effect" where average players get bloated stats due to there being few truly attrocious 2017 spring OG-like teams) going to get another chance on LCS teams? Reignover has shown to be incredibly weak in the face of stiffer competition, their mids have been bottom-tier for the past 2 years now (or more accurately, fenix has been the only one who has shown any sort of aggression in lane/willingness to take risks), Piglet while decently skilled takes up an import slot and could be put into the freeze-ish role (in which LCS teams choose slightly weaker homegrown talent and use the slot on something like jg/mid), while Matt is literally kiwikid 2.0 right now with how much he dies and the lack of positive impact he has in games.
Lourlo might be under this freeze effect, but I'm still willing to hedge my bets that a team like NV will take him to replace seraph with P1 also being another potential landing spot should they want to blow up their roster. As for the rest of them, I say ditch'm and send'm to challenger rosters, as after watching NACS I can comfortably say that you could theoretically build a better current roster out of players there than what TL currently has (Solo/Import JG/Selfie/Rikara/Painless-Remi-Xpecial-Bunny being the safest bet).
III BAKURYU III 1 votesIndeed, always viewed Lourlo as that A-typical solo Q player that goes 3-0-0 in game but loses. Matt to me was Kiwikid 2.0 early on in his career with his dying 24/7 and having 0 impact in game, the same can somewhat be said about Lourlo as I stated they're improving but it's wish wash with them.
With realistic views on TL with roster changes; not a fan of Solo honestly, I think he brings an aggressive playstyle which is good, but his attitude is like Dardoch's very selfish like, and can be a distraction to the team in the long-run. Selfie is a wildcard as I don't really watch CS as I compare it to say College football vs NFL in which I'm more prone watching the NFL. The last time I'v actually sat down and watched a Selfie game and took notes etc was like 4 years ago. However, with that said he was dominate in lane and was very Froggen like with how much production he brought in lane with his CS/per game etc.
Remi not a fan, I like her Thresh as that's what she's known for but that's really about it, and same can be said about Bunny, but with Bunny he has a positive aura about him that can cheer up teammates when/if they get in slumps.
Any roster change for TL would be an improvement at this point and while this year is pretty much a wrap, if TL stays in the League scene they gotta get their heads out of their X and actually make real changes to the roster and the (big-wigs) that run the show needs to actually "run the show" instead of having the inmates do it for them as it's been for the last 2 years for TL.
MrHaZeYo1 votesI like Seraph more then Lourlo. Seraph is a all around better player imo and he also doesn't take up a import slot. He's prolly the 3rd best non import Top lane, behind Hauntz and Darshawn. Had Darshawn not had his resurgence I wouldn't have a problem saying Seraph is 2nd.
NV's problem is their Mid lane, the rest of the team is actually pretty solid, not spectacular, but solid, they feel like the new age TL/CRS.
Miror B1 votesNaw, if we're looking at them right now then their biggest problem without question is seraph. He can't teamfight at all, has a very limited pool (forcing him onto things that only have splitpush potential), and never has an "okay" game (he either goes 4-0 and looks like an average laner, or goes 0-8-0 making plays that make you question the power of korean imports). Botlane their fine, jg they have the best in NA right now, and the midlane is servicable unless they want to go grab selfie. Although lourlo would be seen as a small improvement to many, it could mean the difference between 4th place nv and 6th.
GeminiRune1 votesAdding to it. Last night's results also benefit FLY's potential to get into the Gauntlet. As long as they stay ahead of the two teams below (effectively relegating P1) and either NV or IMT fall out of playoffs in Quarters, FLY gets in on the first round.
ModWulf Helhammer1 votesI'm pretty sure relagations aren't happening this split due to franchising, which is why you have teams like EF experimenting so much with a 10 man roster and having their CS team just be a bunch of retired streamers that really weren't planing on winning much
GeminiRune1 votesI would surely assume there will be a promotion tournament as Circuit Points still matter for P1. It's been said on broadcast even that P1 would need at least 8th to keep their points. As for FOX experimenting on stage; that looks more like a circumstance of being unable to reach playoffs given their form compared to the rest of the league. While any team would like to keep their spot, it's not necessarily a dumb idea to be ahead of the game once the new season comes around especially given that FOX will likely invest for that spot regardless.
The DFX mention is entirely unrelated to the core FOX lineup and their choices of roster swaps on stage over the past couple of weeks.
ModWulf Helhammer1 votesThe worlds gauntlet, yes, but you said relegations. And the reason why they were unlikely to make playoffs is because they kept roster swapping, not the other way around
As for DFX, I brought them up as it is widely thought that EF did what they did for that team as they were just trying to raise exposure for what will become the academy/training team for EF in the future
GeminiRune1 votesLast night's results also benefit FLY's potential to get into the Gauntlet. As long as they stay ahead of the two teams below (effectively relegating P1)
FLY is currently in 8th, which they would keep their 30 points. Getting Relegated voids your points. Which means P1, should they stay in 9th or 10th would make their 50 points mean nothing. That's what I was referring to in the first place to add to BigBell's post, relegation or not.
As for FOX, nobody can make any kind of claim as to why this or that was done. Experimenting from being outmatched is my own guess of opinion, not a confirmed fact. Their A-team wasn't able to secure the series wins anyway as of late given their self-scrim regimen so why not aim to keep their spot while getting their entire roster accustomed to the stage. The way you put it makes it sound like roster swapping is a lose-lose unless you're a contestable team.
DFX was a publicity stunt at best since they had a spot in the CS Summer Split to play around with. If DFX was some kind of exposure for academy or training benefits, then that fell flat on its face; we all know how dedicated that team was to practicing and even playing in the Challenger Series. It's as you said, they were just a pack of uninspired streamers not intending on winning much. If that's what the Academy system should follow after based on FOX's intent for that roster, then the Academy system would be completely moot wouldn't it?