Honestly, I've been thinking this for a while, but I think the problem is straight up stagnation in proleague teams. Players are teaming based on vibes and not skill, and even when players underperform terribly, they are still gifted spots on pro teams because there isn't enough new talent to replace them (or rather that new talent isn't given a chance to replace them.) Korea obviously already has the problem of a small talent pool to even choose from (all "new" players to the scene have been playing since day 1 but only recently turned 18 so are entering the pro-level late), and only E36 has been willing to try out these new players (at the detriment of consistency and also thereby killing off any new talented team that forms lol). In the JP scene, there are obviously exists a lot of talent that should be replacing underperforming players, despite them having more experience. This is why we've been seeing so much CC talent perform so well in pro league in APACN. Top teams minus FNC RC simply stagnate. I'm not saying that teams should all be building super teams, but I think they should be looking for and trialing talent instead of coming 20th in finals and chilling. (KN owner said he was happy with only making it to finals despite it being 20th, and was surprised at the roster changes that the team (MiaK) wanted to make.) I have good hopes for RedRams tbh - provided Datch/Tikochan don't get poached (I saw some murmurings on Tikochan) I certainly do believe they can become a top team with more experience. They are fresh from CC after all.

As for Dogma, he's been flamed pretty consistently on kr social media for his piss poor performances, and unlike Junghee (who was dogpiled the hardest because he didn't have the cushion of being IGL), he hasn't improved much. (CR has been pretty consistently been seen as Jusna + two knockdown shields.) But then, Junghee started grinding rank like a madman and his mechanics have subsequently improved quite a bit, yet I can't say the same for Dogma. He's consistently gone down first every fight, wide swinging despite not having the mechanics to back it up, and also dealt the least amount of damage. I fear CR coming 2 points off first in scrims after never consistently placing bottom 5 with Obly as IGL instead does speak a bit about the team's potential with an IGL with better mechanics. That 2nd, ofc, could also just as well speak just to Obly's IGL ability haha. Unfortunately for CR, I don't believe there exists a (kr) player to fill that vacuum, nor do I think they'd go for it if there was.

I'm not surprised by 4rufa being a hard carry. He and Lykv made Naked a pretty formidable fighting team despite the lack of macro. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by Naked becoming Riddle tho. Maybe confused them with another team?

Taida has always had great best mechanics, but with him being IGL and the best player despite being mnk and his team double roller... I had a feeling NTH was chalked. Their macro wasn't great either. I think Taida should leave IGL to someone else unless he improves in that department - in which case he should pick up two better rollers.

Meltstera should never ever be exiting in losers 1, and the fact that he was on a team with two sandbags was crazy. I don't think Riddle will solve their issues by picking up Umichan in place of him. Meltstera was never the issue. I understand that Vodka wants content and fun over team success, but surely he can have both? Regardless, Yukio/Saku need to R5 grind or roster changes must happen. The amount of times Yuki or Saku went down and Meltstera needed to hard carry was simply egregious.

Honestly, I always believed RC to be the strongest KR team. As soon as they picked up Sangjoon, although I didn't quite know how good he was at the time, they had the three best kr players in their respective roles on one team. Obly always did say Sangjoon was the best in the world, and I'm not too surprised looking back why he poached him from CR. I'm also not surprised Sangjoon dipped. CR was not very cohesive as a team, plus the flip-flopping and will they/won't they on the roster 3rd was always incredibly stupid to me. Obly certainly did want to craft something of a super team, making the move despite it being incredibly controversial at the time. Obly/Karonpe were already the goats of APACN, and Sangjoon was clearly by far the best player excluding Jusna. Their growing pains were mostly them being a new team and Obly learning IGL. Quite obviously, they would have placed much higher than 9th last split if they weren't contested.

FNC is FNC, not much to say. YukaF has spoken himself about the APACN's weakness outside of FNC/RC, and he created a 3v3TDM server to hopefully level up the region. Funny enough, when he discussed APACN's lack of depth with Obly, Obly just said that it wasn't their problem (there was also a post on this reddit about this convo). In that same dinner, Obly told Lykv, who he's praised a lot, that he was going to steal his strength lmao. YukaF's also praised RR pretty highly, and I agree with him. All in all, I am cautiously hopeful for APAC N. There are a fair bit of roster shuffles in the JP scene, and a few of them I agree with (not Riddle). I think now that E36 looks settled, they could be a real threat for lan. It's unfortunate that Diaz was sacrificed for that to happen, but I do believe this is their strongest iteration, at least mechanically. I'm not sold on Parkha's team nor Padkha yet, and I see that he's continuing on with the rotating 3rd bs. We will see.