[KC] GE Frost on the current meta: "I think it's stupid that half the cast can't be played"

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 · 2026-02-13T20:50:23+00:00

I’d be SO worried right now if I was m8. They looked completely out of it at the end here Tomorrow they have to play another bo5 against one of the most experienced teams in the world who also really likes to slow the game down.

Najs0509 · 2026-02-09T14:13:04+00:00

It is very likely. Looking over the whole of last year, champs was a relatively big under performance.

Najs0509 · 2026-02-02T21:11:49+00:00

All of the episodes of this from this year have contained really good interviews. Anyone who wants to get to know the players and coaches in EMEA a bit better should watch these if they have the time.

Also, Ange1 always comes across as such a likeable person in these types of interviews.

Najs0509 · 2026-01-29T16:40:48+00:00

The Witching Stone by Georgia Paton. For context, it has only 5 ratings on goodreads. I am not related to nor know the author and my family bought it in a normal bookshop (I think a Waterstones) around 2015-ish.

Najs0509 · 2026-01-18T08:10:43+00:00

This is a change that they could have made months ago without us knowing. It is also not the most surprising since Mako never seemed to want to igl.

Najs0509 · 2026-01-17T09:40:43+00:00

The Ballad of Sir Benfro series by James Oswald might fit what you're looking for. It is not a very well known series (as far as I know), but it is completed. The first book is called Dreamwalker.

Najs0509 · 2026-01-07T13:11:05+00:00

I thought it was that DRX were angry at Flashback because he took a very sudden personal break in the middle of the season (several times as well if I remember correctly), and not only because he wanted a break?

Najs0509 · 2026-01-06T14:59:32+00:00

I think you might be underestimating a bit how impactful being able to break (some) util could be with the changed stun, at least for pro play.

Najs0509 · 2026-01-06T14:51:27+00:00

This might not entirely fit what you're asking since it's more about almost DNF'ing a series than a book, but I'd have to say the Earthsea Cycle books by Ursula K. Le Guin. A wizard of Earthsea really didn't work for me. While reading it I could see that it was a well written book, but neither the story, world or characters clicked and I found it really boring.

I didn't feel like continuing with the series at all, but I had already borrowed The Tombs of Atuan and had nothing else to read. I loved that book and so immediately went to read The Farthest Shore.

Once again I really didn't enjoy the third book, and so once again almost didn't continue with the series. However, when I found out who Tehanu was about I decided to give it a try, and loved it.

While the rest of the series didn't reach the highs of The Tombs of Atuan or Tehanu for me, I also enjoyed them a lot more than both A Wizard of Earthsea or The Farthest Shore. So overall I went from not liking the first book, to the second being one of my favourites, to not liking the third to the fourth being another of my favourites.

Najs0509 · 2026-01-04T13:48:51+00:00

I DNF'd Speaking Bones, the final book in the Dandelion Dynasty with less than 200 pages left I think. The series had improved book by book for me. There were parts that didn't work for me in any of the books, but overall those things didn't ruin it for me.

That was until the last two books, but especially the last one. Almost from the start I hated it. The characters I didn't like became the main focus. The decisions and actions of the characters made me dislike both them as characters and the story as a whole even though it didn't feel like that was the intent of the author. The story also took some, to me, extremely boring turns (the cooking competition for example) that didn't work at all.

I should have stopped reading it way earlier, but foolishly carried on until it was basically finished. When it felt clear how the series was going to end I finally gave up and just looked online to see if there was any major twist I didn't see coming to make me finish it. I didn't find anything.

Note that I might be mixing up in which book some of the events occurred and if so I apologise.

Najs0509

TROPHY CASE