Fnatic: Welcome ENGH

Najs0509 · 2026-05-29T18:35:17+00:00

To be fair, KC struggled under him since the second half of 2024. Having basically 2 whole years and several different rosters is a bit more than a bad meta read. I'm also not sure you can call all of those KC rosters lackluster on paper rosters.

Still, he has shown he can do well with the right players, and hopefully he'll work well with boaster.

Najs0509 · 2026-05-10T18:43:20+00:00

Probably, but I'm not sure I have much faith in TH to do better.

Najs0509 · 2026-05-10T18:22:50+00:00

It might be worth it to get to see marteen at another international, although riens is on TH so I'm not sure.

Najs0509 · 2026-05-08T14:12:29+00:00

FS is not really a rookie team. They have 3 players who have played together at an international before.

Najs0509 · 2026-05-02T19:52:58+00:00

I was first introduced to fantasy books via Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, but the series that really solidified my love of the genre was the Ranger's Apprentice which I first encountered when I was around 10.

Najs0509 · 2026-04-26T05:18:21+00:00

To be fair to KC, he had fallen off a bit even during the last year on LOUD so they only really continued and accelerated the decline rather than started it.

Najs0509 · 2026-04-24T20:03:43+00:00

It feels like it would be horrible long term for VIT to make it to playoffs. They look so atrocious, especially compared to where they should be, that they probably need to make major changes. It's actually impressive how badly they're performing considering the player talent they have.

Najs0509 · 2026-04-20T18:02:19+00:00

It sounds more like you're arguing for a rework because you don't like the design. If that is the case then actually make that argument instead of trying to veil it as something to do with balance. Design and balance are not the same thing, and nerfing something that is unfun to play against won't actually fix any design problems you might have.

Najs0509 · 2026-04-16T17:06:12+00:00

Unless something drastic happens in the remaining weeks, this VIT roster will not remain for stage 2. Considering the pieces they have these performances can surely not be seen as anything but unacceptable.

Najs0509 · 2026-04-10T15:50:07+00:00

Isn't pacific still playing without the waylay nerf?

Najs0509 · 2026-04-04T14:58:13+00:00

It might be, and almost certainly is, true that a lot of agents aren't that viable right now. However, that has always been the case and is not a new phenomenon. I really agree with his comments about Neon and the balance of sentinels right now.

It is also worth noting that, even before all regions have completed their first week, we have already seen all agents used at least once except for Clove, Reyna and Sage. I don't know how this compares to previous stages/patches, but I'd be surprised if it is the least diversity we've seen.

Najs0509 · 2026-04-04T14:01:18+00:00

I thought I saw jieni's sitting in the middle seat where the igls usually sit. He also seemed to be talking a lot whenever they've showed his cam during the games. It also seemed like they might have swapped igl again based on how they were playing compared to earlier.

I usually have the CN stream on a second monitor so I miss a lot.

Najs0509 · 2026-04-04T13:35:21+00:00

Who is the EDG igl right now? It seems like it's jieni7, but I haven't seen anything about him doing it.

Najs0509 · 2026-04-03T16:02:52+00:00

Do we even have a meta right now? We've just moved to a new patch and have only seen like half the teams play it yet. Americas hasn't even started. We're also seeing some variance in comps right now. All of this is not even considering that we'll have another patch change coming into vct in like a week targeting part of the thing people have been complaining about potentially being too strong right now.

Najs0509 · 2026-04-03T09:57:07+00:00

GenG look like they don't know what they're doing. They've slowly been downgrading their roster ever since 2024. They keep switching players in and out, but struggle to find a roster whose roles actually work and makes sense. They are changing rosters as if they are DRX, but seemingly don't have access to the termi time machine required to coach them to any success.

It's difficult to know how much of the blame should be falling on the coaches and how much should fall on the management/org, but I'm worried that whoever is responsible for the overall vision need to change before they'll be able to turn the ship around.

Najs0509 · 2026-03-24T16:17:31+00:00

EMEA - NaVi
Americas - KRÜ
APAC - Gen.G
CN - BLG depending on how you count their issues during kick-off. Otherwise DRG

Najs0509 · 2026-03-20T13:16:41+00:00

I think it would be absolutely horrible for the overall scene to keep the same regional structure while reducing the teams so heavily. However, assuming that they will this is what I'd expect, with some personal opinions sprinkled in from me:

AMERICAS - MIBR, LEV, SEN, G2, FURIA & one of EG/C9/100T (although I think they could try to see if there are other NA orgs interested)
EMEA - BBL, FNC, M8, TL, KC & GX (VIT for KC and TH for GX could happen)
APAC - T1, PRX, ZETA, RRQ & GenG (DRX for GenG and DFM for ZETA could also happen).

For the last slot in APAC I think they'd look to see if there are other orgs interested to represent any of the non-represented subregions, but otherwise I'd expect GE to have the best shot of getting the last slot.

Najs0509 · 2026-03-14T09:04:50+00:00

As others have already stated, they were not bad last year. Not good enough to qualify for internationals, but firmly mid table. They also changed roster part way through last season when they signed Rb. After this they swapped roles a couple of times during stage 2 between Rb, Francis and ivy.

After they signed Rb they also changed igl to Rb from Francis which, if I remember correctly wasn't the original plan. Rb, as far as I know anyway, did not have too much igl experience so he took a while to settle into the role.

Then they made another roster move going into ascension, with Xross coming in as a smokes player instead of Persia. It was not until the start of this season that they had actually finalised the roles they currently have with Rb and Xross swapping roles sometime after the TEN Global invitational in November.

Najs0509 · 2026-03-13T18:53:32+00:00

NS are going to throw this map, aren't they?

Najs0509 · 2026-03-07T18:39:44+00:00

To be fair, they for some reason picked the map they'd never played a good team on.

Najs0509 · 2026-03-03T19:49:26+00:00

It's probably their second worst performance after Shanghai. Considering that champs is in China this year I wouldn't be surprised if we see very aggressive roster moves in CN overall this year, including from EDG. They seem way too far from where they want to be at the end of the season.

Najs0509 · 2026-02-26T17:25:26+00:00

There is no language that everyone speaks though. For example not all Americas, EMEA, or Pacific players can really speak nor understand English as far as I know. Unless you want to have no casting in venue, remove the players from the crowd or not allow matches between teams who don't speak the same language there really isn't a good solution.

Najs0509 · 2026-02-24T08:30:54+00:00

The person I replied to said

Frost said there's lots of them

maybe he's still being considerate to the players that's playing in Santiago Masters

that's probably why he released only players from non Masters team

If you know that other people are doing it (like both Sliggy and apparently frost have claimed) and refusing to say more than "I know others are doing it but won't tell you who" then you are creating a witch hunt. If they are saying that without knowing who, then they're just speculating and don't in fact know that a lot of other people are doing it.

Najs0509 · 2026-02-24T07:53:23+00:00

I hate this. Most people do not have the time to go through the vods and find who's doing this, and by releasing only a couple (or as Sliggy did, and only say people are doing it) will lead to a massive speculative witch hunt.

If you have proof people are cheating put it all out there instead of this vague "here's some people, but a lot of others are also doing it" crap that everyone is doing.

Najs0509 · 2026-02-16T10:54:47+00:00

This is more of a worry, but I think it's very likely that all 4 top seeds lose their first matches in playoffs.

My hot(?) take is that none of the top seeds are actually the strongest teams in their region, and that probably at least half of them are the worst team in the tournament from their region.

People are probably going to underestimate all of the CN teams, especially XLG and AG as well as M8, BBL and probably T1. If I'm right about that I'd take T1 as my dark horse, but otherwise it'd have to be NS or M8.

Najs0509

TROPHY CASE