#here's how fnatic can still win

[dabihaul666]

ive waited to long to nap now. we're in it for the long haul.

[thetoxicgamer]

Worlds 2023 First-Timers and Rookies to Watch

The most crucial portion of the season is still to come, therefore it's probable that every competitive League of Legends fan has their alarms and notifications set. We are beyond thrilled that the 2023 World Championship will start on October 10 (a day sooner if you include the Worlds Qualification Series). Every year, the competition is renowned for providing us captivating narratives. Favourites may outperform or falter early, while dark horses may pull one or two aces out of their sleeves and make a strong showing. Renowned experts can demonstrate their abilities, while newcomers can make history on the grandest stage. When it comes to new pros, Worlds is known for allowing some of them to shine bright like a diamond each year. If they’re brave enough and can withstand pressure, they’ll write history, and all of the spotlights will be on them. If not, they will have to work for their chance at redemption the following year. Worlds 2023 is no different. This edition is filled with first-timers and rookies worth your attention, and if you don’t know where to look, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. Here are five players you need to watch this year. Fnatic’s Noah Everyone who has followed LEC this year knows how much of a disaster Fnatic were in the first half of the year. Failing to make the Winter Groups and Spring Playoffs must’ve been hurtful, but it turned out to be a perfect wake-up call as well. Before Summer, the team brought in Trymbi and LEC rookie Noah, and the latter shook up Europe.  The Korean AD carry finished the 2023 LEC Summer Season with a stellar KDA of 22.2, the highest among all players in that stage. It’s a humongous lead over the rest of the competition. Second-placed Trymbi had 6.8 KDA, while third-placed Hans Sama and Mikyx finished with 6.5 scores. Noah hasn’t been flawless. In fact, he has fallen off a bit under pressure in the following stages of the European competition, and at Worlds, he’ll face challenges like never before. Still, with his vast champion pool (eight different champs since his LEC debut) and proper guidance from veterans like Trymbi and Humanoid, Noah has the potential to pop off. Once he does, he’s surely bringing some fireworks. Gen.G’s Peyz Before the 2023 season started, one of the loudest roster changes in the East was Gen.G’s swap of Ruler for Peyz. Worlds 2022 semifinalists and 2022 LCK Summer champions opted for a rookie rather than spend some money on a well-known individual. That itself comes with pressure. However, saying Peyz has handled the pressure well is almost an understatement.  In their championship run at the 2023 LCK Summer Playoffs, Peyz has been the fourth-best player in terms of KDA (second-best ADC) with a score of 7.2. In the 2023 LCK Summer Split, he scored not one, not two, but three pentakills. His stellar performances earned him the LCK Rookie of the Year award, LCK Finals MVP of Spring 2023, and places in second and third All-Pro Teams in Summer and Spring, respectively. In a true Gen.G fashion, Peyz has been winning trophies left and right, and he might add the cherry on top at Worlds 2023–if he maintains his jaw-dropping performance level. LNG Esports’ Hang Out of all the four main regions, LPL is often the most surprising due to its unique format and the fact that not many people from Western audiences follow it. For comparison, the 2023 LCK Summer Split peaked at 1,528,729 million viewers, while the 2023 LPL Summer Split did so at 288,463, but there is no data from Chinese streaming platforms, according to Esports Charts. Either way, LPL’s representatives always make a dragon’s entrance at Worlds, and if we had to bet on the biggest rookie to watch from that region, that would be Hang.  Hang joined LNG Esports after an unsuccessful stint with FPX last year. Under LNG’s banner, though, he began showing his true colors.  In the summer, Hang has been often put on aggressive, engage supports, like Nautilus, Rakan, Leona, and Rell. In LNG’s games, it’s often Hang who finds a lost enemy and engages toward them. During the team’s victory against Bilibili Gaming at the 2023 LPL Regional Finals, Hang often started fights, earning himself 34 assists in the meantime. If Hang maintains his confident approach, he might remind everyone why Chinese teams have been known for their aggressive playstyles–and why they have been so successful. G2 Esports’ Yike With three domestic trophies, G2 Esports are once again Europe’s front-runners. Their success is mostly a team effort, but you can’t forget about the impact of their rookie, Yike. When you look at G2’s stats during their championship runs this year, they are topping each position in terms of KDA, so there’s no point highlighting Yike’s solid individual results. But when you take a glimpse at G2’s playstyle, you’ll quickly realize how diverse, well-communicated, and aggressive they are. In this well-oiled machine, Yike is the main engine. The French jungler almost always finds himself right where he needs to be. Now, he’s arrived at Worlds. History shows teams who rely on strong early game and polished macro can often be easily read by opponents. But Yike and G2 have already been baptized at Mid-Season Invitational 2023, earning international stage experience, and they have a clean slate (and I have tons of Copium).  Team Liquid’s APA Last but not least, we have three teams coming to South Korea all the way through the Pacific Ocean. All three of them may cause a lot of trouble, but the one we find particularly interesting is Team Liquid. Similarly to Fnatic, Liquid turned their season around, and a key aspect of this change in tides was APA. The 21-year-old mid laner replaced Haeri on July 5, when Liquid were 5-4 in the 2023 LCS Summer Split. Since then, they have never dropped below fourth place and completed a lower-bracket run to book their spots at Worlds 2023.  APA was certainly a breath of fresh air for Liquid and became the main contributor to their victories. In the regular season, he boasted four Player of the Game awards in five victories despite missing out on half of the season. When APA is playing well, Liquid are doing so as well. All North American fans should put their faith in the 21-year-old, for he might be our savior on the Worlds stage.  Read the full article

[virtuoso-lol]

2020 LEC Pre-Split Team Power Rankings

It’s that time of year when everyone following professional LoL has to aimlessly make an attempt at predicting the strength of teams they’ve never seen play before. Although I am entirely self aware of this, I continue to try irregardless. I’m sure there’s something to be said about pursuing futile objectives at 2 in the morning, but I can’t concern myself with such matters. Time is of the essence! Below are my League of Legends European Championship, or LEC, team power rankings.

#1: G2 ESPORTS

It doesn’t take a genius to make this prediction. G2 is the most dominant team to ever play in Europe, making it to finals essentially uncontested last worlds, and absolutely smashing all of the competition until they had to face their Chinese overlords. No roster changes were made over the off-season, but the one wildcard for this team is the Perkz and Caps role swap. Judging by the success of the Perkz roleswap last year, I don’t see the roleswap hurting the team too much, and even in the worst case scenario, I don’t think there’s a world where they don’t come top 3.

#2: FNATIC

In my opinion, Fnatic is the only team that has a chance of contesting G2 for the European title. The only roster change they made in the off-season was replacing Broxah with Selfmade, which I honestly consider an upgrade. Both players are exceptional, but Fnatic seemed to have stagnated with the roster they ran last year, despite Nemesis getting comfortable throughout the year. There was allegedly some internal issues between the team, and I think changing the jungler is the best way to change the team’s pace. There are few junglers that could fill the shoes of Broxah, but I think Selfmade is more than capable. Only time will tell whether or not the change will garner Fnatic another championship.

#3: ROGUE

This is where we start to get into the more controversial opinions. Despite this, I feel very confident in my picks for top 4. Rogue shocked fans across the world last year after they gave their rookies starting positions and surged to a startling 3rd place finish in the summer split, where they even defeated Splyce, who would eventually go on to represent Europe at the world championship as 3rd seed. Rogue is filled with young talent eager to prove themselves, and I think that this is their year to do just that. The main detrimental factor of Rogue last year was their ADC, Woolite, who they seemed to win in spite of, rather than as a result of. This year, though, with the acquisition of European staple ADC Hans Sama, their roster is stacked and I expect great things from them.

#4: ORIGEN

Origen absolutely has the potential to come top 3, but there are too many question marks for me to grant them that spot on this list. Origen looked absolutely lost at the end of the 2019 summer split, and made roster changes accordingly. Acquiring Upset and Xerxe is arguably the best 2 pickups they could have made. However, I’m left with two big questions revolving around this team; firstly, it’s impossible to tell for sure how their support, Destiny, will fare against European competition. Origen followed the trend of importing OCE talent that several orgs seem to have been on this off-season, and it could pay off big, or bring the whole team down. Additionally, it’s difficult to tell whether or not we will get 2019 summer split Nukeduck or LEC finalist Nukeduck. His play was a perfect epitomization of how lost Origen was at the end of last year, and if Origen wants to compete for a worlds spot, he’s going to have to step back up to his peak level of performance that we’ve seen from him in the past.

#5: EXCEL ESPORTS

Excel reaped the benefits of the Splyce and Origen boom. Picking up Patrik and Tore (formerly Norskeren) gave this team a serious upgrade in the bot lane, which had essentially been an empty void for the entirety of the org’s existence. Both of these players are top level competitors in the region. On top of this, the return of Mickey brings a solid player back to the mid lane, another role in which Excel struggled to fill in the past. Despite his apparent interpersonal issues (none of which are confirmed to be true), Mickey is a player that has proven he can compete with the best and I think he has what it takes to bring Excel to the playoffs. Expect has also been a pretty consistent rock in the top lane for Excel, so his return is no surprise, and more than welcome. The one issue I have with this team is keeping Caedrel in the jungle position - perhaps they tried and failed to acquire a new jungler, but I worry that Caedrel will simply get outjungled by the stacked jungle competition in the LEC and will prevent the rest of their team from realizing greater success. I wasn’t impressed with what he brought to the table last year, but maybe he will surprise us this year now that he has a real bot lane to play around.

#6: FC SCHALKE 04

I’m not entirely confident in my placement of Schalke here, and I think any one of the teams below them can and likely will surpass them, but Schalke has the benefit of being a team made up of familiar faces. Odoamne and Abbedagge both performed quite well last year, which is why I give them an edge over the other teams. Additionally, if Forgiven is still in form, his pickup will be huge for them, but it is a high risk for a pretty low chance of reward. Dreams is a player that I have found to be mediocre and unimpressive, but perhaps being paired with Forgiven will allow him to shine more. My biggest issue with the team is, similarly to Excel, the jungle position. Gilius has shown fairly high highs and significantly low lows. If we get peak Vitality Gilius, then I feel more confident in granting Schalke playoffs positioning, but if he flops, then I don’t expect the team to come higher than 7th. Schalke is a coinflip team that mostly depends on the performance of Forgiven.

#7: MAD LIONS

As we get lower on the list, you’ll notice these teams will be increasingly filled with rookies, which makes it more and more difficult to predict where they will place. I personally put Mad Lions over the other rookie-filled teams because of two reasons. One, I think Humanoid is the best individual player on any of these rookie rosters, and his presence in the mid lane should be able to lift the ceiling for his teammates. Additionally, Carzzy is one of the few rookies that I know enough about to consider promising. His performance in the academy scene gives me confidence that he can compete with the best ADs in the region, and I think he will quickly become a staple in the league. Ultimately, the loss of Splyce created a lot of opportunity for other European teams to snatch up their talent, and I don’t think the sole return of Humanoid is enough to even approach the level of success the Splyce squad had - but I think in comparison to the other rookie squads, it has a higher ceiling for success.

#8: SK GAMING

SK has a lot of promising rookie talent on its roster, but I’m less impressed with its returning players. SK retained its AD and Top laner of Crownshot and Sacre, which I think both performed sufficiently but failed to really break through into the top tier of competition. Sacre has had praises sung about him by pros and fans alike, which I think gives him an edge over the lower half of the LEC competition. Additionally, losing Selfmade hurts SK a lot, although acquiring former G2 and Schalke jungler Trick band-aids this hole somewhat, I don’t think Trick has as high of a ceiling as Selfmade did. On the other hand, I’ve seen and heard a lot of good things about SK’s returning mid laner, Jenax. If he’s as good as the rumors suggest, perhaps he will be able to help carry SK to a lower seeded playoffs position. He looked solid last split, but insider opinion suggests he can perform at even higher levels, which I would be eager to see. I haven’t heard much hype about their rookie support LIMIT, but his high placement in EU masters gives me hope that he will be able to compete against other European bot lanes, especially being paired with Crownshot, who I think has a lot of potential. As with all rookie squads, as we saw with Rogue last year, this team has the ability to contend for a playoffs position, but they lack the confident veterans that many other teams have.

#9: TEAM VITALITY

Similarly to MAD, Vitality has the benefit of retaining Cabochard from last year, which gives them a rock in the top lane who is almost guaranteed to perform. However, I don’t think that top lane is as influential as mid lane, so MAD gets the upper hand there. Additionally, keeping Jactroll is a penultimate failure and I think is a main factor holding Vitality back from a playoffs position. Somewhere along the line he lost his way that allowed Vitality to go to worlds as second seed two years ago, but his play last year was absolutely atrocious, and he had some of the worst stats for a support in the league. I don’t know enough about Vitality’s rookies to make confident statements on them. Although I’ve heard good things about their rookie ADC Comp, I don’t have as much faith in these rookies as much as I do other teams, and I think failing to get an upgrade or rookie support hurts this roster big time.

#10: MISFITS GAMING

Misfits as an organization has been on a downward velocity ever since their series against SKT in the 2017 world championship. This team gave European fans a glimmer of their chance against the Korean giants that teams like G2 and Fnatic would soon realize. However, since then, a series of unfortunate roster acquisitions wrecked this team. In 2019, they built what should have been a superteam, and likely cost them a lot of money, and it was an absolute trainwreck. Despite being filled with historically great players, the team just didn’t mesh, and failed to achieve anything. In light of this, Misfits is taking an alternate approach and fielding a few rookies. However, their decision to retain Febiven and pick up Bvoy perplexes me. Febiven was one of the worst looking players on the failed 2019 squad, but perhaps with a change of environment we can see him succeed as much as he did on Fnatic and Clutch. Bvoy, on the other hand, has struggled a lot since leaving Young Miracles in China and hasn’t found success since. Maybe Misfits still sees potential in him, but from an outsider perspective this is a head scratcher. Additionally, the pickup of Razork and Denyk from Giants in the mid and support positions respectively is a bit of a coinflip. On one hand, they have past synergy, but on another, they weren’t even the best team in Spain’s amateur scene, so it could fail horribly. I do think that promoting Dan Dan from Misfits Premier to the starting roster is a good and safe move, but it’s not enough for me to see this team placing any higher than 9th unless several teams completely collapse.

–

Well, that just about wraps up what I have to say about these teams before the season starts. Feel free to send me pms or asks with any questions or statements about these rankings! I’m more than open to criticism, conversation, or clarification. Keep an eye out for my LCS power rankings tomorrow, and expect more content on LCS and LEC players, champions, meta, strategies, and more as the season starts up!

[grabthelantern]

Top 5 Thursday: Best Worlds Plays 2018

By Helmight

Worlds 2018 is over, but certainly not forgotten. On top of NA getting their first-ever semifinals appearance, Europe reaching the finals for the first time in six years, and the LPL winning their first-ever World Championship title, we got handed a buffet tray of highlight-reel plays and hype moments. Today’s Top 5 counts down the best of the best plays at this years Worlds.

#5: TheShy Ends G2′s World

This fight started off great for G2. Though they missed out on the dragon steal, they were still able to secure an early kill onto Ning and chunk out Baolan. With their team grouped up, it looked as though G2 would be able to wipe the rest of Invictus Gaming for a convincing teamfight win.

TheShy had other ideas. As the sole frontliner for the team, he popped World Ender and absolutely dunked on G2 Esports with a massive four-man Darkin Blade hit, allowing Invictus to clean up the fight easily.

#4: iBoy’s Clutch Flash

Every so often, you forget just how good the pros are. They spend most games doing the same things you do on the regular, and at times you can start wondering why they’re getting paid to do it and you’re not.

And then iBoy does something like this and you remember why. He was by his own base, supposedly completely safe, and had maybe a quarter-second to react to Uniboy’s Paddlestar. I’d be willing to bet that 99% of League players get killed by that, no problem - but iBoy isn’t in that 99%.

#3: Broxah’s Great Escape

Broxah could have died happy with this play. Sure, trading kills is never ideal, but at least Fnatic would have secured first blood against 100 Thieves. Instead, Broxah decides he’d much rather live - and miraculously finds a way out of the situation with double-digit HP.

Of course, you can’t entirely put the credit on Broxah. Hylissang’s excellent roam timing let him get a shield between Broxah and Aphromoo’s Bard, and the Guardian proc helped his jungler survive the last tick of Ignite. Both players came together to give Fnatic a clean first blood and an immediate leg-up against 100 Thieves, in one of the hypest ways imaginable.

#2: To Infinity and Beyond

Let me paint you a quick picture - you’re an underdog team from a wildcard region, down six thousand gold against powerhouse Edward Gaming. In that situation, no one would fault you for playing safe until EDG ripped the game wide open and no one would be surprised if you lost.

Infinity Esports, however, had other ideas. Forget playing safe - they took the fight to Edward Gaming instead, and despite a botched initiation managed to pick up a clean ace against their Chinese opponents to secure the win. It doesn’t get much better than that.

#1: Licorice’s Clutch Baron Steal

After taking a bad fight and losing everyone but their solo laners, Cloud9 were up against a wall. The Afreeca Freecs had started up Baron, and without a jungler it didn’t look like C9 would be able to do anything to contest. Still, Licorice and Jensen went for the play anyways - and managed to pull out a miracle.

Jensen’s AoE damage in the Baron pit managed to put Afreeca on the back foot, but Licorice is the real hero here. Killing off Spirit means that the Baron is up for grabs, but he still has to contend with four champion’s worth of damage. Not a problem - he’ll steal that objective with a single autoattack. Margins for error don’t get much smaller than that, but Licorice managed to make it happen and qualify Cloud9 for their first-ever semifinals appearance.

Let me know your favorite Worlds plays in the comments, and be sure to like and reblog this post if you enjoyed it!

[seraphineprobuilds]

Five of the Best Champion Picks, Plays, and Stats from Week 8 of This LEC Summer Season

After a Mad superweek, the Summer Season is now over. Here are the top choices, stats, and plays from Week 8.

Following eight months of intense activity, the League of Legends European Championship 2020 Summer Season has come to a close. This year was among the most exciting regular seasons in LEC history, together with upsets galore, fresh challengers for the throne, along with an unbelievable last-minute playoff series from among the league's underdog teams. That is correct, FC Schalke 04 came from a 1-10 record to qualify for the Summer Playoffs with seven consecutive wins.

G2 Esports, meanwhile, have been on the cusp of not qualifying for playoffs following a disappointing start to the year, but redeemed themselves at the last couple weeks to cement a third place finish. MAD Lions and Rogue were tied to the majority of the year, but at the last two weeks, Rogue managed to greatest MAD Lions and assert the initial seed, which qualifies them for this season's World Championship. Excel Esports almost forced it to the playoffs, but fell at the final hurdle, which intended Fnatic maintained one of the end playoffs spots rather.

With the LEC gearing up for playoff, here would be the very best stats, plays, and selections from the last week of playwith. 86: Caps' kills after the regular season Win or lose, Caps is a monster.

While G2 Esports weren't looking great at the beginning of the season, Rasmus "Caps" Winther was always performing, even when the team lost. Caps is consistently one of the best players on the Rift, and he's clocked up 86 kills throughout the Regular Season, tying with Rogue's Emil "Larssen" Larsson for the most this season. It's easy to shine as a player if you're always winning like G2 were in spring or in 2019. It becomes a lot harder to look good if you're not. Yet, Caps is the player that, even when behind, keeps making plays.

Caps hit the highest Creep Score per minute at 11.7 in his game against SK Gaming this week -- that's the highest all weekend, out of every player in the league. In that same game, he also dished out 32.5 percent of all the damage that G2 Esports unleashed onSK Gaming. It's no secret that G2 Esports will do everything they can to get Caps ahead, because if Caps gets an early gold lead, he carries. Abbedagge's Corki: 12/1/6 vs MAD Lions Fakerdagge carries Schalke 04 into the playoffs.

While all eyes were on Erberk "Gilius" Demir this weekend, the man that made FC Schalke 04's miracle run happen was Felix "Abbedagge" Braun. Against Team Vitality, he played one of the best Zoe games of the season, but that wasn't even his best performance. With Schalke 04 up 2-0, MAD Lions were waiting for them at the playoffs gates. This was the moment when the entire team had to step up: the last win against Europe's top-performing team was necessary to get that miraculous sixth seed.

Abbedagge started strong, picking up an early solo-kill against Marek "Humanoid" Brázda's LeBlanc. With some early magic resistance, the lane suddenly became a lot easier for Schalke 04's midlaner -- which allowed him to roam. In the above clip, this is when he started to shine. Abbedagge used his Corki Package offensively and kept racking up kills. After picking up a Quadra Kill, Schalke rallied around the dragon for a final team fight to win the game. With some good positioning, Abbedagge picked off Humanoid again, which allowed the rest of the team to secure the dragon, win the fight, and win the game.

With Abbedagge back in form, Schalke 04's dreams of making it to Worlds could become a reality in the next few weeks -- and after sitting in last all season. Hans sama's Aphelios: 12/2/3 vs MAD Lions Hans Sama comes in clutch to secure Rogue's first seed.

Aphelios was hit with the nerf bat quite significantly over the last couple of patches. The moments where he solo-kills entire teams seem to be a thing of the past now. But, with four bot lane bans, Rogue still seemed fine to pick up the hyper carry for Steven "Hans sama" Liv. As it turns out, Aphelios is still able to carry fights if he gets a couple of kills under his belt.

Winning this game would mean that MAD Lions would lock in their Worlds ticket as the first seed of the regular season. Even when they were five thousand gold behind, they were still trying their hardest to win. Ultimately, it came down to the final team fight above, where Rogue were able to split MAD Lions' focus between the dragon and their Nexus. When most audiences had their eyes fixed on the Nexus, Hans sama had been playing out his heart to make certain that MAD Lions could not return to their own base to shield. Having a Triple Kill, the Rogue bot laner ensured Rogue's success. 66 percentage: Trick's Sett Win Rate Trick reveals he's among the Greatest Setts from the LEC.

Kim"Trick" Gang-yun was the very first man to select Sett into the jungle at the LEC. After picking up wins at the first week of the Summer Season, clubs needed to begin banning Sett since they did not understand how to deal with him effectively. Together with the new winner under his belt, Trick began to enhance and play proved to be a not so distant target for SK Gaming.

The largest change in regards to Trick's playstyle is he is more active about the map. A winner like Sett provides him more service to pull off ancient ganks with Hexflash and be tanky later on in the match. SK Gaming's strategy revolves round Juš"Crownshot" Marušič carrying them via late-game team battling. With the majority of the gold moving to Crownshot (27.9% ), Trick is simply left with the ordinary gold talk of 15.9 percent. However, with Trick's excellent counter ganks and vision management, he's nevertheless a driving factor supporting SK Gaming's success. Selfmade's Kha'Zix: 7/0/8 vs Excel Esports Selfmade provides a Kha'Zix masterclass.

Fnatic needed to pick up a win this week to turn it in the playoffs. If they did not, it'd be the very first time in the history of this organisation they wouldn't seed themselves. With the stakes higher than ever before, they began off the week with a reduction against Schalke 04. Winning against Excel Esports has been the very first step in procuring their playoffs position by head-to-head rules. With their backs against the walls, Oskar"Selfmade" Boderek stepped up and transported Fnatic into the fourth seed.

Kha'Zix is among the only real assassin junglers from the meta at the moment. The issue with assassins is they must get ahead to have an effect in the future in the sport. With a few fantastic pathing, Selfmade procured First Blood from the bot lane that began the snowball. The early guide assisted him invade and that he immediately gained a degree lead within the enemy jungler, which made the distinction in procuring objectives in later struggles across the dragon and Baron. Because of this, Fnatic secured their place in the match, while Excel missed out.

[viego-build]

How to build on the Top Lane Like an LEC Pro

The top lane comes with a gruelling 1v1 where only the most powerful comes out on the top. Though many want to check their mettle playing with this function, it's a harsh and hard one to make sure. 1 single mistake could break or make the lane, and also continuous jungler disturbance makes these small errors all the more easy to create.

Between G2 Esports' Martin "Wunder" Hansen, Fnatic's Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau, Rogue's Andrei "Odoamne" Pascu, and many others, the LEC has an abundance of top lane talent, and watching them on the stage can teach us some invaluable lessons and show us the best Aatrox build. 

Aatrox Build as a LEC pro

The top lane is a surprisingly diverse role, with champion picks ranging all the way from Karma build to Aatrox build being viable, so long as you wish to play them. In general, however, you can categorise the top laners into one of two types: tanks and carries.

Tanks are the more reliable sort of toplaner. Whether you fall behind, win hard, or just go even, you'll always be an asset to your team as long as you can scale and bulk up. The top three picks at Worlds across all regions were of the tanky sort -- Ornn, Renekton build, and Volibear. In the late game, tanks are usually in charge of initiating team fights, soaking up damage and peeling for their mid and botlaners.

Carries like Aatrox build or Camille build may be less common in professional play, but they are arguably considered more fun by the average player. Rather than sit and wait until late game, top lane carries will win lane at any cost and snowball their way into the mid game. Their late game role is to either wreak havoc in team fights, often by taking out prime targets on the enemy team, or to split-push lanes.

Early Game

The top lane early game may just be the least forgiving of all the lanes. Any small error, such as wasting a Summoner Spell, missing a cannon minion, or forgetting to ward, can be exploited by a good player. This one mistake will inevitably snowball into a lost lane if you don't get any help. In order to win lane, you have to understand your champion's win conditions, the matchup you're playing, and the enemy Aatrox playstyle.

Manipulating the Wave

Aside from warding, another thing that will protect you from ganks is proper minion wave control. Think of top lane as consisting of three zones. The safe zone is near your turret -- here you can farm without fear of ganks, in most cases. In the middle of the lane -- the part that connects to the river -- you are in more danger, but still relatively safe. Being in this zone or near your turret means that your jungler has a relatively easy way to gank for you.

The deadliest spot is near the enemy turret. Here the enemy jungler has many ways to get to you, and you have a long way to trek if you need to escape. Moreover, it'd be nigh impossible for your jungler to successfully pull off a gank, unless they are willing to tower dive with you.

The most important terms that relate to minion wave control are freezing, shoving and slow-pushing.

Freezing involves attempting to "suspend" the minion wave in a particular location. Usually you will want to freeze the wave near your turret, which is both the safest zone for you to be in and the most dangerous one for your enemy. Freezing by your turret means your enemy is vulnerable to ganks, as they will be forced to walk into your safe zone if they don't want to miss out on priceless gold and experience.

Freezing can be difficult to accomplish, but it's highly rewarding. You freeze the wave by last-hitting minions, matching the damage that the enemy does to your minions, but making sure you always have one minion less than the enemy. If you ever have more minions than the enemy, the lane will instead push towards the enemy turret ever so slowly.

Shoving means killing the enemy minion wave as quickly as possible, therefore "pushing" your minions towards the enemy turret. Shoving is useful after the enemy toplaner has died or recalled. Your minions will die to the enemy turret before they can return, and that means that they will lose out on gold and experience. You should also shove the wave before you yourself recall, so as to avoid coming back to the lane with the enemy minions at your turret.

Shoving the wave is very simple. You simply need to attack the minions as quickly as possible, utilising both basic attacks and abilities.

Slow-pushing refers to two things. By default, you should always be slow-pushing, which means only last-hitting the minions, rather than attacking them at random. If you're always pushing, you will always be in the enemy safe zone, and therefore unsafe.

The second variety of slow-pushing is also called crashing, and it involves building up a large minion wave by killing all of the enemy minions besides melee minions. Since melee minions are tanky, they will occupy your wave for a long time. Eventually, another of your minion waves will join the first wave, and so on until you end up with a huge minion wave. This big wave will then"crash" on the enemy turret, forcing the enemy crew to respond. This can be a very helpful method for the late match, because it will either result in some favourable 4v5 team struggle, or it is going to wind up getting you that turret outright.

Aatrox build in mid and late game

Outside of Teleport plays along with a potential skirmish near top lane, so you won't be joining your staff until mid game starts. At that stage, you may have won, lost, or gone during the laning stage. If you won, you need to find it easy to keep to jumpstart your guide in staff fights.

Your part in the group struggles is greatly champion-dependent. As Aatrox build, then you are going to want to attempt and engage the conflicts or peel to your own team, whereas a transport ought to find key targets and attempt to kill them. Carries can also forgo team battling completely and split-push instead.

If you misplaced the laning stage, you might find it rather hard to rejoin the match, however there are ways to deal with. In the event that you were playing with a tank, then you may discover that you're still able to stay helpful to your group in staff fights by leading with usefulness. If you can not make yourself useful, simply try to catch up in farm and also prevent dying until you're doing.

If you are playing a winner who is a fantastic split-pusher, then you can look at doing this rather than engaging in each team struggle. Split-pushing involves moving into a side lane and draining waves to create pressure. By always pushing into the turret, you compel the enemy group to respond in some manner.

Normally they'll be made to send a participant your way to cope with you personally, but if you are a powerful dueller such as Jax, and you are ahead, they may want to send two or even longer to manage you. Though this sounds like it is bad news for you, this means your staff will get a significant advantage if they opt to team combat, push another lane, or even catch an objective.

Whether you need to split-push or group battle is dependent upon the particular match, the winners being played, along with the overall direction the sport has gone. By way of instance, when playing champions with amazing tide clear such as Aatrox build or Ryze, it is going to be significantly more challenging to stress a side lane.

Another problem in League of Legends might be that your staff can't acquire a 4v4 if they are quite behind. In case you skipping out to a staff struggle means your staff will automatically shed, as you are very ahead or they are really behind, then it is far better to steer clear of split-pushing and stick with the staff.

Particular winners are far better at split-pushing compared to others. A powerful, portable dueller with quick wave clear is your ideal option. This sort of winner can take care of the 1v1, push fast, and escape if need be.

With these suggestions, you ought to be equipped to have the very best lane than previously. We'll see you around the Summoner's Rift.

[golden-trials-blog]

Beyond the Lane: Nisqy Knowledge

This is a short summary of Splyce’s Video titled above.

You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlbXKX6O9aA

He started playing competitively because of Narrow, a Belgian jungler.

Once he felt he was good enough, he spoke to his parents. He feels that, because of the support of his brothers, his parents supported him as well.

Even his teachers were quite surprised at the prospect of earning money from games!

He’s aware people would usually say “Why not just study?” but he knows that he’s not crazy or anything for taking this path.

According to Kobbe, Nisqy is a “joyful guy, who’s cheering everyone up and has a very funny and outgoing personality. He’s a very nice guy and gets along with everyone.”

KaSing referred to Nisqy as “A little bundle of joy”, which I think is fucking adorable, and “he brings a very positive vibe for the team.”

Xerxe reported that “[Nisqy’s] just really funny and just... if I do an invade or die in an invade or he just doesn’t tell me something, after the game we just call each other bad and laugh at each other. After that we have a serious talk on how to actually improve.”

Odoamne, of course, also had something to say. He feels that Nisqy is “Pretty much like a child, I don’t know if he’s the youngest of us but he kind of acts like it. He just... he yells a lot. He’s really loud, for some reason.

The support staff don’t know as much as the players, but they are aware of his personality from previous coaches such as the Fnatic Academy coach, but one staff memeber is aware that he can do things that just make everyone laugh.

...KaSing said that he looks like Fiddlesticks. Odoamne agreed.

He just wants kebab, guys ;-;

According to KaSing, again, he is the House’s Number One Kebab Eater.

At first he wasn’t sure, but in the end he felt that Splyce truly was his best offer. He felt it was the best roster that he could get.

Peter Dun interviewed many midlaners for the Splyce roster, but within ten minutes of talking to Nisqy, it was very clear that this was someone he wanted to have on board.

Xerxe commented on Nisqy’s improvements in CS, Lane Advantage, skill and more, and how through the weeks he’s become better and better.

KaSing was worried too, remarking that Nisqy was choking, but knew that it would only get better and still will.

Odoamne also feels that Nisqy has progressed a lot from Week 1 until now, and he’s stated to stand out.

Kobbe reported that Nisqy is a good player and it will soon show.

Peter Dun feels that Nisqy helps to bring the team back into the game.

Nisqy doesn’t take wins, losses or mistakes personally. He’s here to have fun and enjoy the game.

[hicksderhune]

TOP CSGO PLAYER OF 2019

One of my preferred things to talk about in CS:GO is who are the best players. While CS:GO has better details to make near decisions between players, that doesn't get to the entire story. Groups have various strategies and systems and players have various jobs in that. So as to make this rundown at that point, I set out specific criteria that I applied reliably over the entirety of the players. The criteria I included was: consistency, effect, job, and rivalry.

Consistency is a player's level normal degree of play over the timeframe. Effect is more diligently to characterize as in-game pioneers and bolster players have an effect that we can't find in the server. On account of this rundown, sway alludes to in-game activities: space-creation, turns, and gravity. Gravity is the measure of a player captivates a game. Job alludes to what a player does in their group and is expected of them. A few players need to play at a more significant level for their group to capacity and they are appraised higher subsequently. Rivalry alludes to the degree of groups/LANs a player visited. On the off chance that two players have comparable degrees of effect and consistency, however one played against the top groups more, they will be appraised higher.

At long last, I set the parameters of the rundown to just incorporate LAN play. LANs were additionally positioned relying upon configuration and significance. The Major, for example, is definitely more significant than the bo1 BLAST occasions or the Summit. The rankings do a three-month range so for this release it runs from October to December. For LANs that run from the month's end to the start of the new month, I include them into the month where they end.

10 Keith "NAF" Markovic [New]

LANs:

9-twelfth DreamHack Malmo

fifth - BLAST Copenhagen

second - ECS 8

5-sixth - ESL Proleague Season 10 Finals

second - BLAST Finals

NAF shows up on my best 10 rankings list. He was on the air pocket last time yet truly set his place in my best 10 with his exhibitions at ECS Season 8 and at BLAST Finals. He's been an incredible auxiliary star for Team Liquid and is by all accounts their most predictable player against Astralis specifically.

NAF is a hard player to nail down since he's flexible enough to assume almost every job except appears to tend towards the more latent side of things. Then again, when he's forceful, he bets everything. Among the five Liquid players, I think he has the best executioner nature for when to make trump card plays that can tilt the course of the match.

9. Ozgur "woxic" Eker [New]

StarLadderStarLadder

LANs:

5-sixth DH Malmo

9-twelfth StarSeries I-League Season 8

first - CS:GO Asia Championships (CAC)

first - EPL 10 Finals

second - EPICENTER 2019

Mouz had an enormous long distance race go through December as they went from competition to competition verifying their spot as a main 5 group on the planet. One reason for their prosperity is their hotshot AWPer woxicWoxic has not only carried over his aggressive AWPing style from his hyper-carry HellRaisers days, but he’s also learning how to be a stable system player and has started to introduce more of a Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz style AWPing into his game.

The primary reason woxic cracked my top 10 was his duel performances at EPL 10 and CAC. At ESL Proleague Season 10 he was one of the stars that Mouz needed to win the tournament and was their biggest star in the Astralis series. At CAC he was the MVP of the tournament.

8. Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson [-1] DreamHackDreamHack LANs:

1st - DreamHack Malmo 2nd - SLi 8 Top 4 - ECS 8 2nd - EPL 10 Not much has changed for KRIMZ since the last ranking as Fnatic went on to add two big LAN results to their growing resume with good results at both ECS Season 8 and EPL 10. While those were good results for Fnatic, they didn’t move the needle much for KRIMZ on my list. KRIMZ is still a stalwart superstar for Fnatic, but the ascension of his teammate and the overall landscape has seen KRIMZ slip down a place from last month.

7. Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski [-1] DreamHackDreamHack LANs:

9-12th DH Malmo 5th - BLAST Copenhagen 2nd - ECS Season 8 5-6th - EPL 10 2nd - BLAST FInals In this month’s iteration, EliGE is the highest ranking NA player on my list. Like Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte and Cvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, he suffered from ESL New York and StarLadder Berlin Major no longer being removed from the pool. All three players had spectacular performances at those two LANs. Since then Brehze hit a massive slump. CeRq is still good, but his performances in December weren’t enough for me to rank him over NAF this go around.

Unlike the EG stars, EliGE’s consistency continues to shine through. While I wouldn’t mark December as a particularly strong run for EliGE (compared to where he was in mid-2019), his level isn’t far off from that. Among all of the NA players, EliGE seems to have the best floor and has the least volatile fluctuations in form because of that. So while he dropped down a rank, EliGE is still one of the best in the world and will likely be a constant fixture in these rankings.

6. Emil “Magisk” Reif [New] ESLESL LANs:

3-4th DreamHack Malmo 4th -BLAST Copenhagen 1st - IEM Beijing 1st - ECS 8 Top 4 - EPL 10 1st - BLAST Finals Magisk makes his first appearance in my top 10 rankings and he breaks in at 6th. Magisk has been an unsung hero throughout Astralis’ run in 2019. Even when they were in their slump in mid-2019, Magisk continued to be a solid anchor for the team. Since resurrecting at the Berlin Major, Magisk has also elevated his level as a lurker and CT-side anchor. He’s probably the best pit player in the world with his incredible spray control and micro-positioning.

Astralis’ flurry of results through December was what clinched Magisk’s spot here. While he was never the MVP of any of Astralis big runs (Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander took Beijing, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussem took BLAST, dev1ce took BLAST), Magisk was the second or third best player in all of their runs. While I often give the nod to primary stars of their teams over secondary stars of other teams, Magisk played at a more consistent level than EliGE, so I gave the nod to Magisk.

5. Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin [+5] ESLESL LANs:

1st - DreamHack Malmo 2nd - SLi 8 Top 4 - ECS 8 2nd - EPL 10 In last month’s ranking, I had Brollan as the 10th best player. This month, he broke into my top 5. There were two reasons for this. There were a few reasons for this. Both CeRq and Brehze fell out of the list, which naturally shifted him up. The bigger reason is his elevation in performance. At ESL Proleague Season 10, he was the superstar player for Fnatic’s run to the finals. Brollan now feels like the primary superstar of Fnatic.

That along with the format and competition of EPL 10 is why I edged Brollan over Magisk. Magisk is more consistent than Brollan, but Brollan’s ability to be the primary star of his team and consistently play at such a high level through the entire run of EPL 10 was enough for me to edge Brollan over Magisk, if just slightly.

4. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev [+1] DreamHackDreamHack LANs:

Top 4 - DreamHack Malmo 13-16th - SLi 8 3rd - BLAST Copenhagen Top 4 - EPL 10 Top 6 - EPICENTER Na`Vi finally attending more events has given s1mple the platform to prove why he is still one of the best players in the CS:GO world. Unfortunately for s1mple, Na`Vi is a flawed team so they aren’t making deep tournament finishes. This hurt s1mple a bit, but if you look at s1mple’s body of work, he’s continued being a superstar player (albeit with a rifle). He isn’t as impactful as he was in his primary-AWP days, but he is still a force to be reckoned with. If Na`Vi can fix their problems, I think s1mple will break into the top 3. Even in a diminished role, he is still a superlative player that the eye test tells you should be the best in the world.

3 - Robin “ropz” Kool [New] ESLESL Ropz says he believes the Odense victory has lifted the pressure off mousesports' shoulders. LANs:

5-6th DH Malmo 9-12th StarSeries i-League Season 8 1st - CS:GO Asia Championships (CAC) 1st - EPL 10 Finals 1st - CS Summit 5 2nd - EPICENTER 2019 Mouz breaking into the top 5 is also indicative of one of their players breaking into the top 5. Among their trio of young stars, Ropz has been a revelation. At the end of Mouz, ropz was in static decline. His game had stopped evolving and other teams and players had figured him out. In the Finn “karrigan” Andersden system, he has evolved.

From tournament to tournament, we’ve seen Ropz pull away from his passive style and start to mix in new aggressive plays and setups. This alongside his game sense and mechanics has made him an absolute monster. In Mouz’s run, he was the MVP of EPL 10, their best player at EPICENTER, MVP of Summit 5 (albeit a much smaller LAN), and second-best player at CAC. The only knock against him is that we’ve only seen ropz play at the highest levels in the month of December. It just happened that December was packed with LANs, and his performance was so incredible that he jumped straight into my top 3. We will have to see if he can continue this form coming into the new year.

2 - Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz [-]

LANs:

3-4th DreamHack Malmo 4th -BLAST Copenhagen 1st - IEM Beijing 1st - ECS 8 Top 4 - EPL 10 1st - BLAST Finals Dev1ce remains eternally consistent. While the MVP at StarLadder Berlin Major no longer counted, he just went to ECS 8 to pick up another one. He continues to be the most consistent player in history and it’s no surprise that he is the centerpiece behind Astralis' success in the last few years.

1 - Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut [-] StarladderStarladder LANs:

2nd - DreamHack Malmo Top 8 - SLi 8 Top 4 - IEM Beijing 1st - EPICENTER ZywOo remains the best player in the world. He’s added another MVP to his cabinet. What’s surprising about ZywOo is that Vitality hasn’t attended many of the LANs in the December sprint, but it didn’t matter. That might be the only mark against him, but if you look at the content of his games, he exceeds every marker. No one is as consistent, plays at such a high level, or is required to deliver at such a prominent level as ZywOo does in CS:GO. So while he may not have the raw game amount, he more than makes up for it in every other category. ZywOo is the best player in the world.

[thetoxicgamer]

The best teams to watch in the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs

The Copper Box Arena in London will host the Apex Legends Global Series for a second time in 2023. There are 40 international teams competing on the LAN stage, but not all of them have been equally dominant or reliable during Split Two. Multiple storylines that have evolved over the 2023 ALGS will converge in London, with each team and their players experiencing drastically different paths on the road to Playoffs. There are returning champions looking to defend their crown, longstanding orgs looking for a return to form, and a wave of new blood eager to claim the trophy at their international debut. With so many teams coming from all different areas, it can be a bit difficult to know exactly who to follow and cheer for, or what teams to look out for when they square up with your favorite squad. To help viewers understand the chaos, we have created a tier list for all 40 teams attending the event, alongside a list of some of the hottest teams to watch at the upcoming Playoffs weekend. All teams start the LAN on equal ground, regardless of regional placement, but some teams enter the tournament with more momentum than others, and can heavily affect how well they perform during all four days of competition. Here are some of the hottest teams to watch at the ALGS Split Two Playoffs. All ALGS Split 2 Playoffs teams, ranked The following list isn’t ordered within tiers, as we think each team in a tier will perform at a similar level to each other heading into the Split Two Playoffs. All teams are starting on equal ground in the groups stage and have the same chance to take the biggest share of the $1 million dollar prize pool, but not each team is heading to LAN with the same history or international experience. S tier - XSET - Alliance - Fnatic - TSM - Moist Esports The teams in S tier are at the top of their regions, with consistent domestic success during the regular season, and proven results at past international LAN tournaments. Each team enters the Split Two Playoffs as the hard favorites to win it all, having already proved it in their respective regions by the overall leaderboards, individual stats, and unique picks that showcase the highest level of competitive Apex. A tier - DarkZero Esports - Fire Beavers - Pioneers - Ganbare otousan - NORTHEPTION - REALIZE - Vexxed Gaming - FaZe Clan - FURIA Esports - OpTic Gaming The teams in A-tier are expected to be top contenders for all rounds of the tournament, and are expected to make the finals without any difficulties. They may not have the same star potential as the S tier teams in their regions, but are able to close out games just the same, and are nearly as likely to win the entire tournament. Each team here is able to flexibly play hard zone or edge strategies, seamlessly transitioning between hunting for kills or bunkering down for placement if necessary, and are able to use any early-game advantages to snowball entire lobbies and ride the momentum for the entire match day. A tier teams all have their own respective strengths, and know how to capitalize on them, making them strong contenders at all stages of the event. B tier - Noctem Esports - DreamFire - ONIC Esports - Element 6 - 100 Thieves - Complexity Gaming - Oxygen Esports - NRG - Acend - Aurora Gaming - JLINGZ Esports - NAKED - Entropiq - LG Chivas The stretch of B tier encompasses the majority of teams, with many different reasons for their placement. Some teams are lacking in one critical aspect of their gameplay, and domestically suffer for it. Others have slumped for most or part of Split Two, with inconsistent season and regional final results healing into LAN. Each of the teams here have the potential to still make it to the finals, but one good or bad match can significantly impact the starting momentum and overall performance for any team placed here. C tier - Riddle - MDY White - BLVKHVND - PULVEREX - GoNext Esports - Crazy Raccoon - SAF Esports The teams grouped in C tier and below have a notably bigger distance between them and their counterparts, usually outclassed by the top of the table, and can notably struggle when put in higher-pressure situations. Half of the teams in C tier have previously attended LAN, but exited in the groups stage with disappointing results, despite good regular season performances. Teams in C tier have low expectations, but everything to prove if they want to make history on an international scale. D tier - FC Destroy - ATHXHVY - GLYTCH Energy - LeaveNoWitness The teams in D tier barely make the cutoff in their regions, having to fight for their spot in the last days of the regular season and standing out in the regional finals. They have the lowest expectations to perform and are not expected to make it to the grand finals, either from clear weaknesses that have been exploited domestically, or a lack of LAN experience that can heavily impact team mentality and decision-making when fighting against the different play styles from the best international competition. Best teams to watch at the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs XSET XSET leads North America as the region’s number one seed, maintaining their strong form last seen in the Split One Playoffs, where they ended in fourth place behind regional rivals NRG and TSM. Split Two has proven XSET as the most consistent team in the league, improving and hold onto the number one position for the majority of the season, even widening the gap with the biggest league points difference between first and second place across all international leagues at 19 points between them and DarkZero Esports. https://twitter.com/PlayApexEsports/status/1655420099870728192 What makes XSET scary is their ability to adapt and their versatility across all maps. Brandon “oh Nocturnal” Singer and Nicholas “sSikezz” Odom sit at third and fourth for NA’s kill leaderboards on keyboard and controller respectively. When it comes to point averages, XSET maintains a solid 50-50 split between Storm Point and Worlds Edge, and the closest average of 52-48 between placement and kill points. No team has shown the same amount of consistency in Split Two as XSET, and fans can safely bet on them to continue their previous LAN dominance. TSM The kings of NA took a hard fall after winning the Split One Playoffs. Their first match back on domestic soil disappointed everyone, as they started in 18th place with only two playoff points, and stayed outside of the Playoffs bubble for the first half of the regular season. However, the boys in black were able to find their form once more, winning one of the last match days and scoring well enough in the Regional Finals to secure their spot as NA’s sixth seed. No matter how down in the standings TSM may be, you can never count them out from claiming it all. Only DarkZero (formerly Reignite) have been able to defend an international title, but with TSM’s late-season rise and rumors of great scrim performance, all eyes will be on them to see if TSM can start the newest LAN dynasty. https://twitter.com/PlayApexEsports/status/1652460542982750211 Fire Beavers Fire Beavers have consistently been one of EMEA’s most exciting teams to watch, and all on mouse and keyboard. Previously, they earned a spot in the Split One Playoffs from their fourth place regular season finish and winning the Regional Finals, but were unable to attend the event due to visa issues. Fire Beavers returned once again with another fourth place regular season finish in Split Two, and a desire to prove their dominance on an international scale. The key player to look out for is Lev “taskmast33r” Grigoriev, who has topped the international damage leaderboards since Split One. However, the entire team stays united in their signature aggressive calls, taking the fifth, sixth, and seventh spots on the EMEA kill leaderboards. https://twitter.com/Fire_Beavers/status/1674474997870370817 Ganbare outousan Ganbare outousan is an orgless roster, consisting of just three players and their coach, who broke into the top 10 of the APAC-N Pro League in their first split, before amazing the international crowd with a grand finals appearance and a 12th place finish. Since then, GO has continued to rise domestically, only ever dropping out of the top 10 in one match day, and directly competing with FNC and NTH, the established giants of the scene. A second place finish in the regional finals helped to secure their spot as APAC-N’s third seed in the Split Two Playoffs, and if their momentum continues, you can expect GO to be one of the top contenders for the London crown. https://twitter.com/PlayApexEsports/status/1622215374946148352 Noctem Esports Previously known as F/A Players during the South America Split Two, Noctem Esports is filled with a star studded roster of experienced players who all have been to multiple LAN tournaments, including IGL Leandro “N3LAS” Francisco and coach Vinícius “Caffezin” Coffoni, who famously made the grand finals while representing Elevate, the only SA team left at the 2022 Split Two Playoffs. Fast forward to 2023, and Noctem domestically dominated, staying in first place for most of the split by winning half of their match days and finishing the regional finals in second place. Noctem’s consistency shows in the leaderboards, as they hold one of the biggest point differences across all leagues between first and second place at 16 league points. Noctem shines as SA’s crown jewel heading into the Split Two Playoffs, and one of the brightest contenders to the London LAN environment. https://twitter.com/Noctem_Esports/status/1669405614865260545 DreamFire has always been competing with some of the biggest disadvantages at each LAN they’ve been to. Visa issues have consistently caused the squad to be missing multiple members, only able to field Chen “Roieee” Po-han at the 2022 Championship and at the recent London Split One Playoffs, both times working with two substitute players. Despite these issues, Roie lead DF to the grand finals of the Split One Playoffs with some of the highest kill lobbies, and has helped transform DF’s structure in Split Two. The entire team has come alive in the last weeks of APAC-S, securing first place on the final match day and a second place finish in the regional finals, locking in their spot as the region’s fourth seed. https://twitter.com/UserFlyn/status/1545180736449290247 Now entering an international competition for the first time with their entire roster, DF firmly stands as one of the biggest dark horses at the Split Two Playoffs, having already proven their ability to contend with the toughest Apex squads despite outside circumstances, and have grown even stronger after pushing past these setbacks. Crazy Raccoon is one of the biggest organizations to participate in APAC-N since 2020, with the team having some of the highest highs and lowest lows in domestic and international tournaments. In Split One, CR had to play with stand-in Kim “Whisper” Juh-yeon after starter Kang “Mainy” Heyon-jun stepped down from competitive play. They started match day one with a first place finish, leading the entire league and maintaining their dominance throughout the season, culminating with their regional finals win, and a third seed spot at the Playoffs. However, CR’s first ever LAN ended in disaster, with an early exit from the groups stage in 35th place, the second worst APAC-N team to attend the event. One week before Split Two started, Mainy would announce his decision to return to competitive Apex, and his move to CR’s active roster after six months of inactivity. Despite struggling with reintegration and growing pains, CR managed to show APAC-N once again why they were domestically at the top of the table, and once again secured a spot at the next LAN event as the sixth seed. Returning to London, spectators can watch CR to see if they can give a performance worthy of APAC-N’s largest fanbase, or if history will repeat itself with another disappointing finish in the bottom half. Read the full article

[txtdol]

02. losing my edge (week 4)

Time compression in league fandom is a funny thing, especially to a new fan.  In 2010, YellOwStaR, as part of Against All Authority, played in the Season 1 equivalent of worlds, the season championship. In 2010 I graduated college. That doesn't seem that long ago. Telling me that YellOwStaR has been playing since Season One makes him seem ancient, a grandfather to even Madlife and Score, who had played in the granddaddy of LCK tournaments, the OGN invitational. Telling that to a new fan -- "YellOwStaR has been playing before Korean pro league of legends existed" -- is mind-blowing.

Because that was only 6 years ago, and YellOwStaR's progaming career is, for the moment, over. He's 24 and retired. I'm older, and my career feels like it's still just beginning.

Hai is also 24, but he's retired, come back, moved to the bench, and then joined a challenger team that has since been promoted and bought out. He's been kicked out of his team and invited back; he's replaced his substitute and trained his substitute; he's switched lane assignments twice. I've worked for almost as long as he has, and feel like I've only accomplished a quarter of what he has.

He was parked in the driveway of C9's old gaming house in Northern California with his whole life packed into the little egg of a car. He was about to drive away, but the reality of what he was leaving behind finally caught up to him. For two years, he'd lived with his team. They'd become his family — the first real semblance of such a thing in over a decade. They were the people he trusted most, and together, they had pioneered a path into professional gaming. And he was their leader.

But the calls for his retirement buried those memories in the past. The perception of him being a weak player crept into the team and chipped at him from behind. Every time he made a mistake in practice or in a game, the little holes grew. He tripped over them again and again until he fell in. And at 22 years old, he retired his dream and wondered what was next.

- Kien Lam, "The Hai Road”

Where was I at 22? Certainly not standing on a precipice, peering down into the pit of obscurity, wondering if this was the end of the road for a dream I spent so much of myself pursuing. Even now, way past 22, I see my future as a series of paths that could branch out to ever broader worlds, hidden by the fog of war that is simple, human uncertainty. Maybe these paths are no longer as multitudinous as it used to be; maybe they are not multiplying the way they had when I was 18, but the paths that I am on are even better lit by the wards other people who have traveled ahead of me have placed. So if even I think there are unknowns I should pursue, if even I think that the path I am on has not yet ended, will split into more, if thinner and less well-traveled, footpaths, why should Hai’s path have ended at 22? Why should we have thought that one peak was enough, or that he needed to have peaked at all?

In America, at least, how we read any great athlete’s ending still seems influenced by Michael Jordan’s merciless stage-managing of his own second retirement. . . . Hit the last shot, seize the title, never lose, never show weakness, end on a big banging chord that the audience remembers forever; then you’re a champion for all time, in the same way Cheers never closes. That this is, actually, such an impossibly grotesque and dehumanizing approach that not even Michael Jordan could resist coming back to screw it up should possibly tell us something. But there it is, an ideal that every generational-apex-type star has to contend with on some level.

- Brian Phillips, “The Sun Never Sets: On Roger Federer, Endings, and Wimbledon”

Self-confidence is a double-edged sword: it means you're not afraid of failure, but it also means failure shakes your sense of self. I think of it like the reverse imposter syndrome: instead of play-acting the successful person, always afraid that you'll be caught out faking, you can't recognize the person who is actually losing. An in-game dysmorphia. "Is that defeat really me? Why does no one believe me when I say I can still win?"

But then he gets off a boat, comes home to a struggling team. He feels his competitiveness kick in, almost a chemical thing, and he starts working out, and he wonders: Could he play at 50? What would he do against LeBron?

What if?

"It's consumed me so much," he says. "I'm my own worst enemy. I drove myself so much that I'm still living with some of those drives. I'm living with that. I don't know how to get rid of it. I don't know if I could. And here I am, still connected to the game."

He thinks about the things Phil Jackson taught him. Jackson always understood him and wasn't afraid to poke around inside Jordan. Once during his ritual of handing out books for his players to read, he gave Jordan a book about gambling. It's a Zen koan Jordan needs now, in this new challenge: To find himself, he must lose himself. Whenever he obsesses about returning to play, he tries to sleep, knowing that when he wakes up, things will be better. He knows he won't get to 218. He knows he won't ever play pro basketball again. He knows he's got to quiet these drives, to find a way to live the life he worked so hard to create, to be still.

- Wright Thompson, "Michael Jordan has Not Left The Building”

Maybe that's why the greats keep coming back. They can't recognize the person who isn't playing the game as them. In retiring and hoping they can "find themselves," the self they find is a stranger who shares their body. As Kien Lam wrote, “There was supposed to be relief in retirement. And yet he cried.” Not content to rest on what they've accomplished, always sure they could accomplish more, they put on the clothes of the game or team that felt most like them.  

While on the Wizards, Michael Jordan was just average. They never made it to playoffs. Yellowstar on TSM frustrated everyone, including himself; on 2016 Fnatic, he was joyless. Federer is still winning, but as Brian Phillips points out, it's no longer effortless, invincible, second to religious certainty. Even with all these narratives, though, it's still the nature of the fan to hope for the impossible and the impeccable -- that their hero remains unbeatable from beginning to end, never having to suffer the indignity of loss. We don't want to see someone struggling to find themselves; even here, we prefer the Faker of 2013, tearing through an unbeatable run to Worlds, and not the Faker of 2014, struggling against Samsung White. We want to see them fully formed, like Venus arriving in the arms of Nike -- well, this metaphor is getting away from me.

Fans have an idealized narrative that sports heroes are supposed to follow. The seasoned veteran works excruciatingly long hours to achieve an end, he climbs the ranks and makes a name for himself. When he’s reached his peak, when he’s won it all, he retires gracefully because he can rest well on his laurels.

That ending can also be that of a coward who is afraid to want to achieve more. YellOwStaR was no coward. He didn't quit at his peak; he kept doing what he loved until he became weary of the game. His final year in the LCS was a disappointment, likely not just for his fans but for the widely celebrated support player himself. But no pro should know his limit until he reaches it and the drive to push it vanishes. That sort of heroism is what kept us searching for YellOwStaR's face when the camera panned away from the Nexus to show us the emotions of the players and the crowd.

- Kelsey Moser, "YellOwStaR's final year”

C9 is playing FlyQuest tomorrow. It's possible by the time you read this, you'll already know the results. Did Hai win? Did he body Jensen? Did he show that OG C9 is still the best C9, that greatness, even in league, can be intrinsic, and not just a function of taking advantage of the meta or drafting into OP champs?

Or was FlyQuest just a fluke? Did C9 stomp over them? Has their ceiling been reached? Was it too much to expect that our past can be equal to the present, that the young won't always bury the old?

I want Hai to succeed, not because I respect him as a player, or because I think that storyline is the most interesting for the casual viewer like me, even though those things are both true. I want him to succeed for purely personal, petty reasons: I like Hai, I see in Hai something of me, and I want him to carry that small part of my investment to a victory over the current best team in NA LCS, to spring split playoffs -- hell, even to worlds. I want a mouthy, hyper-competitive, scrawny-as-fuck Asian-American man to be an inspiration. I want to prove that League of Legends is not just a young person’s game. I want to make Kien Lam happy.

If YellOwStaR had retired at the end of 2015, I would always wonder what he could have achieved in 2016. Romantic notions are one thing, but the reality of watching him confront difficulty this year, of accepting that he had struggled and failed to replicate results, was almost more fulfilling. I will always remember that in his final year of professional play, YellOwStaR wanted to keep playing and challenged himself until he came to a realization he felt too exhausted to continue. . . . YellOwStaR simply dared to dream. It would do us well to remember that, sometimes, to fail is also heroic. (KM)

I can’t speak for you, but me? I’ll take Federer’s version. Before we even get to the question of whether being no. 2 for a long time and winning minor tournaments enhances or damages the résumé of someone who was once no. 1 and winning majors, what I find most admirable in Federer’s late career is simply the vision of freedom it implies. The idea that you can make your own way. That you don’t have to give up what you love simply because you’re told to. That what hurts you might also fulfill you, or even make you happy, because life is not simple. (BP)

But reading about Yellowstar and Federer, I'm comforted by the feeling that failure is not always failure. More than "loss is improve," failure is a door to other opportunities. It frees us from the prison of thinking we gave up too soon. It closes the path behind us, so that we can't keep turning back. And it forces us to find what is next, be it the analyst's desk, the coach's chair backstage, or, in Hai's case, right back to where he started.

This is why I feel for people who've been fringe LCS players for a long time. I wonder what kinds of things they've given up to just chase the dream. What are they eating? What's their living situation? And in the long run, maybe it's worth it. (KL)

Here's to standing at that precipice, seeing the darkness, and vaulting face-forward into that pitch-black unknowing anyway. Here's to failing as a way of discovering yourself, not in the way defeat helps young players to grow, but in the way losing helps us make piece with our limitations, even our eventual mortality. Here's to playing for yourself, because you don't owe anyone anything, not a good game, not a graceful game, not even a mediocre one. Here's to Yellowstar who put his own demons to rest. And here's to Hai, who chased his dream to the end and back again, who stands before us on Sunday not the idealized sports hero but my ideal sports hero. Good luck, buddy. 

[izmirdewebtasarim9]

EU LCS Season 6 Summer Preview

eSports

EU LCS Season 6 Summer Preview

With the MSI (Mid-Season Invitational) coming to a close and no EU team reaching the knockout stages, this has had a great impact on the seeds going into worlds. The first place team of the summer split will automatically qualify for Worlds as the first seed from the EU, which will now be in pot 2 thanks to G2 at MSI.

If the results from the spring split are anything to go off we should be looking a fierce competition between G2, Fnatic, Origen and H2k.

The main LCS competitions based on geographic regions are as follows:

EU LCS (East and West Europe)

NA LCS (North America)

Champions Korea (South Korea)

LPL China

LM Taiwan

In this case we’ll be looking at the teams for the upcoming EU LCS Summer split. If Europe isn’t your thing then you can check out our preview for the NA LCS right here.

EU LCS Summer Preview

Before we consider the teams for the EU LCS It’s important to remember this key rule changes to how the LCS will be played. The games are now going to be a best of two format, which means each team will play each other 4 times across the split in two BO2 matches. This will result in either one team winning or a draw between the two teams. You can read more about this change here.

Elements

  The team Elements was recently purchased by German football team FC Schalke 04, read their statement on the acquisition here. The lineup for Elements has drastically changed compared to their 2015 team, especially with their big players Froggen and Rekkles leaving. Sprattel has also returned after being swapped out in the 4th week last year for the substitute support Nyph. Although the roster for their spring LCS team was stated to be one of the worst in the league, they started out the first 3 weeks strong with a 3-3 record.

Top – Steve (France)

Jungle – Gilius (Germany)

Mid – Eika (France)

ADC – MrRalleZ (Denmark)

Support – sprattel (Sweden)

Fnatic

  With the recent announcement of YellOwStaR rejoining the team and the addition of ADC Rekkles, who is considered one of the best ADCs in Europe. Fnatic are currently looking very strong after finishing 3rd place in the EU LCS spring split. Fans are hoping Fnatic can replicate their winning streak from last year’s LCS Summer split, where they achieved an incredible 18-0 record.

Top – Gamsu (South Korea)

Jungle – Spirit (South Korea)

Mid – Febiven (France)

ADC – Rekkles (Sweden)

Support – YellOwStaR (Frances)

G2 Esports

    After qualifying for the 2016 EU LCS Spring split last year, the team finished first claiming the $50,000 prize and making them one of the strongest teams in EU. The highly debated G2 has just recently competed in the MSI tournament with a poor performance finishing in a disappointing 5th place. All eyes will be on G2 at the upcoming summer LCS, where hopefully G2 can show their true skill and regain their fans support.

Top – Kikis (Poland)

Jungle – Trick (South Korea)

Mid – PerkZ (Croatia)

ADC – Emperor (South Korea)

Support – Hybrid (Netherlands)

GIANTS! Gaming

  After finishing in 6th place at last years summer LCS, GIANTS also came a disappointing 10th place in this year’s spring split. To try and improve their performance GIANTS have added Maxlore and NighT to their roster to give them an extra edge in the upcoming competition.

Top – SmittyJ (Germany)

Jungle – Maxlore (UK)

Mid – NighT (South Korea)

ADC – S0NSTAR (South Korea)

Support – Hustlin (Sweden)

H2k-Gaming

  With last years success of finishing in 3rd place for both the 2015 summer and spring splits H2k are looking like strong competitors this year. Recently they came in 2nd place in the 2016 spring split and finished 4th in the spring playoffs claiming a 10k prize. With the recent arrival of their new ADC Freeze, H2k will be looking to stomp the competition in the upcoming summer LCS.

Top – Odoamne (Romania)

Jungle – Jankos (Poland)

Mid – Ryu (South Korea)

ADC – Freeze (Czech Republic)

Support – VandeR (Poland)

Origen

  After losing the first place in the LCS spring playoffs to G2, Origen are looking to replicate their success of reaching the finals and take the first place. With xPeke still on the substitute list as the mid laner, maybe they will decide to bring him back to the main team. Whatever the decision Origen will be a strong team to look out for at the LCS summer splits.

Top – sOAZ (France)

Jungle – Amazing (Germany)

Mid – PowerOfEvil (Germany)

ADC – Zven (Denmark)

Support – Mithy (Spain)

Team Roccat

  With the recent arrival of Parang and Raise, Team Roccat will be looking to improve on their abysmal performance of 9th place in the LCS spring split. Even at last years 2015 summer split the team finished in 5th place, which was an improvement of 8th place in the spring split a few months earlier. Hopefully these new changes will bring some new light to the team and they will be able to put their past behind them.

Top – Parang (South Korea)

Jungle – Airwaks (Switzerland)

Mid – Betsy (Sweden)

ADC – Steelback (France)

Support – Raise (South Korea)

Splyce

  Splyce are one of the newest teams in the EU LCS and were only formed at the end of last year. This roster is looking forward to its first summer LCS split in Europe. With their disappointing start to their professional career finishing 8th in the LCS spring split, Splyce will be looking to show fans they have what it takes to reach the top 3. The new addition of their support Mikyx at the end of the spring split should hopefully increase their chances.

Top – Wunderwear (Denmark)

Jungle – Trashy (Denmark)

Mid – Sencux (Denmark)

ADC – Kobbe (Denmark)

Support – Mikyx (Slovenia)

Vitality

  Vitality are another new team in the LCS that has only recently finished playing their first spring split and are looking to achieve big things in their first summer EU LCS split. The team finished 3rd in the LCS spring split which was a great achievement considering the team was only founded at the end of 2015. With no team reshuffles from the original line up lets hope they’ve been practising enough to show fans they can be the number 1 seed in Europe.

Top – Cabochard (France)

Jungle – Shook (Netherlands)

Mid – Nukeduck (Norway)

ADC – Hjärnan (Sweden)

Support – KaSing (United Kingdom)

Unicorns of Love

  Currently the future is unknown for Unicorns of Love as there are currently THREE unfilled spaces in the team with the most recent member Fox leaving on 16th May. Unless they can find almost a whole new team in a few weeks it seems Unicorns of Love might have trouble when playing 2v5. Report Mid, Jungle and ADC AFK anyone?

 Top – Vizicsacsi (Hungary)

Jungle – Currently unfilled

Mid – Currently unfilled

ADC – Currently unfilled

Support – Hylissang (Bulgaria)

Rumoured Rosters for EU LCS Summer

There are some rumours going around about the complete rosters but please keep in mind that any of the bold players are not confirmed.

Fnatic: Gamsu / Spirit / Febiven / Rekkles / YellOwStaR

G2 Esports: Kikis / Trick / Perkz / Zven / Mithy

Giants!: SmiityJ / Maxlore / NighT / S0NSTAR / Hustlinn

H2k: Odoamne / Jankos / Ryu / Freeze / Vander

Origen: sOAZ / Amazing / PowerOfEvil / xPeke / HolyPhoenix / Unfilled

ROCCAT: Parang / Airwaks / Betsy / Steeelback / Raise

Schalke 04 (Elements): Steve / Gilius / Fox / MrRallez / sprattel

Splyce: Wunderwear / Trashy / Sencux / Kobbe / mikyx

Unicorns of Love: Vizicsacsi / Move / Exileh / Vertias / Hylissang

Team Vitality: Cabochard / Mightybear (Korean) / Nukeduck / Hjarnan / kaSing

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2015 Mid Season Invitational (MSI) Round-up

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2015 Mid Season Invitational (MSI) Round-up

You can view the best matches from the 2015 Mid Season Invitational further down this page.

With a break in between the regular Spring and Summer LCS splits, the competitive League of Legends scene has turned its eyes to the Mid Season Invitational (also known as “MSI”). At the Mid Season Invitation, the winning spring split teams from each region come together for a mini mid-season tournament. Unlike the LCS splits there’s no spot at Worlds up for grabs here but money and pride are still available to win, so every victory counts. The tournament follows a simple format consisting of a single group stage, semi-finals and a final. The teams that qualified are as follows:

TSM – NA LCS Spring Split Winners

Fnatic – EU LCS Spring Split Winners

Edward Gaming – LPL (China) Winners

AHQ – GPL (Taiwan) Winners

Besiktas – Wildcard Winners

SK Telecom T1 – KR (Korea) Regional Playoff Winners

With SK Telecom T1 the clear favourites before a match had even been played it was going to be tough for any other teams. However, like any League of Legends tournament the 2015 Mid Season Invitational certainly threw up some surprises! Let’s take a stage by stage look at how the tournament unfolded.

2015 Mid Season Invitational Group Stage

Matches to watch

TSM vs Fnatic

TSM vs Fnatic, NA vs EU – this is possibly the biggest rivalry around in competitive League of Legends at the current time. With the NA scene looking reasonably strong and the EU scene particularly weak, many people expected this to be a walkover for TSM. However that didn’t happen – Fnatic steamrolled through TSM to claim victory in the first game of the 2015 Mid Season Invitational and give EU bragging rights over NA, at least until the 2015 LoL World Championships. You can watch the TSM vs Fnatic game below (click here to skip the picks and bans)

SK Telecom T1 vs Fnatic

SK Telecom T1 may have missed out on Worlds last year but they are still considered one of the strongest teams in the world. In fact, SK Telecom T1 are so strong that they have never lost to a European or North American team. Could Fnatic be the team to end this streak? As it turns out the answer is no – but they certainly pushed them all the way in what was a close and exciting game. You can watch SK Telecom T1 vs Fnatic below (click here to skip the picks and bans)

Final Group Stage Table

The group stage table ended as follows (click image for a larger size), with SK Telecom T1, Edward Gaming, AHQ and Fnatic all qualifying for the Semi-Finals:

2015 Mid Season Invitational Semi-Final

Match to watch

SK Telecom T1 vs Fnatic

SK Telecom T1 managed to beat Fnatic in the group stages, but could Fnatic pull it back over a best of 5 series? SK Telecom T1 had never lost to a European or North American team before, but Fnatic managed to pull the tie equal at 2-2 at one point! However it proved to be in vain has SK Telecom T1 managed to win game 5 and go on to the final. You can watch the incredible SK Telecom T1 vs Fnatic best of 5 below ( click here to watch the decisive game 5 only)

In the other match, Edward Gaming beat AHQ eSports club to progress to the 2015 Mid Season Invitational final.

2015 Mid Season Invitational Final

Korean heavyweights SK Telecom T1 vs China’s number one Edward Gaming – this had all the makings of a future League of Legends classic. The match provided much entertainment, going all the way to game 5, for Edward Gaming to eventually win 3-2 overall. This was the first ever time that SK Telecom T1 had lost a best of 5 at an international tournament, so Edward Gaming have every right to be delighted in their win. You can view the final decisive game (game 5) here (click here to skip the picks and bans)

Mid Season Invitational Show Match – Casters vs Pros

Riot are specialists at putting on show events and matches, and the 2015 Mid Seasonal Invitational was no exception. The show match involved casters from various regions playing against pros from previously eliminated teams. The match was based on a “Noxus vs Demacia” theme, with each team only allowed champions from that region. The teams were as follows

Casters (Demacia):

Cloudtemplar

Kobe

Misaya

Phreak

XiaoXiao

Pros (Noxus):

Energy (Besiktas)

Febiven (Fnatic)

Thaldrin (Besiktas)

Huni (Fnatic)

WildTurtle (TSM)

This match had it all – plays, outplays, comedy, great casting…. It’s an absolute must watch! You can view the MSI Casters vs Pros Show Match below

Can Edward Gaming match their MSI form and challenge at the 2015 LoL World Championships? Or will SK Telecom T1 regain their Season 3 crown? Let us know in the comments below!

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OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z vs Oppo Enco M31

The Bullets Wireless Z are OnePlus’ pair of neckband-style Bluetooth wireless earbuds that were launched alongside the OnePlus 8 series. They are a cheaper version of the company’s Bullets Wireless 2, with reduced material quality and driver count but in exchange offered a tremendously improved battery life. When I reviewed them a couple of months ago, I called them the best product in their price category.

Then last month I reviewed the Oppo Enco M31, and things changed a bit. The M31 have the same form factor as the Bullets Wireless Z but didn’t quite promise the same battery life. What they offered instead was an absolutely stellar audio experience, which for the price was literally unheard of from Bluetooth headsets.

So with these two headsets being roughly similarly priced, the question was which one should you go for. Are the Bullets Wireless Z still the best in class or does the audio quality of the Enco M31 allow them to push ahead? Let’s find out.

Design

As mentioned before, both the Bullets Wireless Z and the Enco M31 have the same essential form-factor. Both feature a magnetic clasp that holds the two speakers together when hanging by your neck and also switches them off. The Oppo are the lighter of the two by 6g, which is noticeable.

The Bullets Wireless Z have a more substantial design. Everything about them feels chunkier, with thicker stalks, stiffer cables, and larger speaker units. The Enco M31 have a more dainty feel, in comparison, with thinner, hollower feeling stalks and reedier cables. The speaker units are tiny compared to the Bullets Wireless Z.

The result of this is that the Bullets Wireless Z feel more premium of the two. While the Enco M31 are far from feeling cheap or poorly-built, they don’t feel as polished and well-put-together as the Bullets Wireless Z. Much of the Bullets Wireless Z body comes from the more expensive Bullets Wireless 2 so they have a lot of the premium fit and finish that you’d expect from a more expensive pair of headphones.

Both pairs of earphones claim ingress protection for water. While OnePlus offers an IP55 rating, Oppo has an IPX5 rating, which is on par as far as water is concerned.

One of the things I wasn’t a fan of on the Enco M31 is the placement of the controls. The controls are placed on the inside of the left stalk, rather than on the cable like on the Bullets Wireless Z. This makes them awkward to access and also makes it difficult to tell the left side from the right at a glance while putting them on. The controls on the Bullets Wireless Z are just better overall.

The only annoyance on the Bullets Wireless Z is that the LED on the side is too bright. If you enjoy listening in the dark, the flashing LED makes you feel like an aircraft flying through the night with its strobe lights flashing on the wings. It’s bright enough to bother you and anyone sleeping next to you. The Enco M31 has a much more subtle LED that isn’t even on outside of pairing and charging modes.

Comfort

Both the Bullets Wireless Z and the Enco M31 are comfortable pairs of earphones. The M31 are lighter but the Bullets Wireless Z don’t feel heavy, either.

The Bullets Wireless Z have better quality ear tips. They have a plush feel to them and create a fantastic seal. The Enco M31 tips feel more ordinary in comparison but are comfortable nonetheless and also seal well.

Software and Features

Neither of these earphones have a custom app. However, they both offer some additional functionality when paired with their respective brand of smartphones.

OnePlus custom settings

The Bullets Wireless Z, for example, will show a pop up on a nearby OnePlus smartphone when in pairing mode. OnePlus also has a dedicated audio preset custom-designed for these earphones. The Enco M31 will also show the pairing pop up on select Oppo phones. This makes pairing easy as long as you have the supported phone, as neither of these have NFC.

Another thing they don’t have is multi-device pairing. While both support Bluetooth 5.0, they can be paired to only one device at a time. Both have a mechanism to quickly switch between the current and last paired device. On the Bullets Wireless Z, you double click the pairing button. On the Enco M31, you press and hold the volume +/- buttons for three seconds.

The Bullets Wireless Z also offer a low-latency mode, which claims to reduce latency down to 110ms. This mode only works with select OnePlus phones with the Fnatic Mode enabled.

Both employ 9.2mm drivers with the Oppo having a titanium-plated composite diaphragm. The Bullets Wireless Z support SBC and AAC codecs while the Enco M31 also adds LDAC on top of that list. The Enco M31 also has a Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification.

The Enco M31 also include a Bass Mode, which can be activated by double-pressing the multi-function button. This amplifies the low-frequency response for a more bass-heavy sound. The mode cannot be engaged permanently and resets back to Balanced Mode when you switch off the headset.

Performance

The Oppo Enco M31 are the better sounding pair of earphones out of the two. They have a balanced, detailed sound with tight, punchy bass response, clean, distinct mid-range, and sparkling highs. The lack of emphasis or suppression of any particular region of the frequency response means the Enco M31 work well across all genres of music and even other types of content such as movies, podcasts, and games.

Once you get used to this type of sound signature, it’s difficult to go back to the more pedestrian, bass or treble-heavy sound of other budget earphones. Your earphones are no longer influencing the sound of your content so you can hear it as it was meant to be heard without any coloration.

Some people might be tempted to claim this as a victory for the LDAC codec but the Enco M31 sound great regardless of what codec you use. Even when paired with an iPhone, the M31 still sound great, which is a testament to how the audio is tuned rather than any particular codec.

The Bullets Wireless Z clearly play second fiddle as far as the audio quality is concerned. Having said that, they don’t sound bad, either. The Bullets Wireless Z have a more bass and treble-heavy sound, which is tuned more for mainstream tastes than accuracy. This is remedied a bit by the custom EQ profile on OnePlus phones, which brings down the low and high end to be more in line with the mids and also widens the soundstage a bit for a more natural sound. But you don’t get this EQ on non-OnePlus phones.

Oddly enough, the choice of codec being used on the Bullets Wireless Z does play a role in how it sounds, and its even mode odd when you realize that they sound better with SBC than the default AAC codec. Switching back and forth between AAC and SBC from the Android Bluetooth menu, the SBC option sounded more mid-forward and also louder overall. This is obviously down to how the audio processor on the Bullets Wireless Z processes the two codecs but normally you shouldn’t be hearing any difference in the sound signature between the different codecs, which is exactly what’s happening here. If you have a non-OnePlus Android phone, I’d recommend disabling the AAC codec from the Bluetooth menu.

Overall, though, this is an easy victory for the Enco M31 because they have the most accurate sound. Not everyone wants accurate sound but that’s not how you test audio gear. All audio tuning should be done on the device, not the speakers, which should be as neutral as possible. Having your speakers decide how your audio sounds is like painting your camera lens to get a color filter.

Audio quality aside, the Bullets Wireless Z do pull ahead of the Enco M31 in other aspects. Both have similar latency and the Fnatic Mode on the Bullets Wireless Z didn’t seem to make much of a difference at all. But it’s the microphone performance where the Enco M31 fall flat, with a pretty cheap and sorry excuse for a mic being used that often fails to get your voice across to your callers. The Bullets Wireless Z don’t exactly have a professional podcast setup going on but sound better overall with clearer audio transmission during voice calls.

Battery Life

If you compare the on-paper numbers for battery life, you know the Bullets Wireless Z are going to win this round hands-down. OnePlus claims 20-hours of use on a full charge, with a 10-minute charge giving 10-hours of usage. That’s pretty impressive for a neckband-style of earphones, particularly the second figure for a 10-minute charge, which is probably industry-leading.

Oppo, meanwhile, claims 12 hours with SBC and 8 hours with LDAC. Also, a 10-minute charge will only provide 3-hours of playback for LDAC.

If you read the individual reviews, you already know the numbers. The Bullets Wireless Z ran for the full 20-hours on a full charge and an impressive 13-hours on a 10-minute charge.

Meanwhile, M31 lasted for 7.5-hours with LDAC on a full charge and 11-hours with AAC (I didn’t test SBC).

The numbers paint the entire story here. The Bullets Wireless Z are just better in terms of battery life. As someone who has used both, I cannot express how frustrated I am with the Enco M31 battery. To be fair, I use them more often — daily even — because of how good they sound. But that means I am also charging them one day apart while the Bullets Wireless Z would go for 4-5 days easily.

Both charge completely in just under an hour, so that’s not an issue, but it’s still frustrating to pause what you were listening to or watching because your speakers ran out of electricity. Of course, neither work while charging.

Conclusion

First of all, I would like to mention that it is crazy how affordable both these pairs of earphones are for the kind of performance they offer. While other companies are still robbing customers blind for the convenience of not having to plug their headphones in, OnePlus and Oppo have managed to come up with quality products that don’t break the bank.

However, some concessions had to be made to achieve this price point, and nowhere is this more evident than on the Oppo Enco M31. While a truly stunning sounding pair of earphones, the M31 are dragged down by disappointing battery life and a low-quality microphone. The battery life, in particular, is disheartening because of how inviting they sound, which makes you want to listen to them more often, only to be told repeatedly that the battery is empty.

The Bullets Wireless Z has no such issue. While not exactly powered perpetually by a secret nuclear reactor, the roughly 3x battery life they enjoy over the Enco M31 means they may as well be. It gives you the confidence of wearing them over long journeys (as and when those become an option again) because you know a single charge will get you across the world. And the 10+ hour usage on a 10-minute charge is just icing on the cake.

Moreover, the Bullets Wireless Z are also just better made. They look and feel more premium, have more sensible controls, and don’t have a mic that makes you sound like you’re calling from an underwater cave. The audio quality is not as technically impressive as on the Oppo, but most buyers in this price range may actually prefer the bass-heavy sound of the Bullets Wireless Z.

So for most people, the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z are just the more sensible choice. But if you’re the sort of person who values audio quality over everything else, the Oppo Enco M31 won’t disappoint.

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NEO: "BOOTCAMP AFTER COLOGNE WAS PROBABLY THE MOST SERIOUS WE'VE EVER HAD"

After Virtus. pro closed out day Cheap CSGO Skins  two at PGL Major Krakow with a 16-11 win on Cache against fnatic, we quizzed Filip "NEO" Kubski about the team's confidence following poor results, their change in leadership and matches in Poland so far.

With wins over Vega Squadron (16-2 on Nuke) and fnatic (16-11 on Cache), Virtus. pro are now sitting in the 2-0 pool, one win away from qualifying for playoffs at the Major.

After the Swedish match-up, we got a hold of Filip "NEO" Kubskito find out how their struggles affected their confidence going into the Major, what changed since Cologne, as well as howVirtus. pro's matches went:

Given your recent results and the poor period that you've had this year, what was the mindset and also the confidence you had starting the Major?

The confidence was pretty shaky for us because of the results. But like TaZ said at some point, there were lots of mental games on our side, so it still feels like we came stronger here than in Cologne. Krakow is the goal for all of us and also we've all been focusing mostly upon that tournament. So it's all good.

What has changed since Cologne, then? I imagine you haven't had much time to fix things in-game...

Well, actually, after we lost in Cologne, we stayed there because of the football game for like five days. And that was probably the most serious bootcamp that we've ever had with this lineup. Everyone was so motivated to give 100%, so that gave us a lot, and obviously Snax being the in-game leader now, he's gaining experience from every game. I guess Cologne offered him a tough lesson and we're learning.

Who did the decision come from to change leaders, was it a person who didn't feel up to it anymore?

I think it was my decision at some point, I decided to step down from that spot. I was leading for most of the time and after doing that for a while, it gets a little bit overwhelming, so I just needed a break from that. Snax stepped in, he's doing an awesome job, he's that great player, he can be a sniper, entry, be the star player, and then in-game ui leader, so that's all great.

Having Vega Squadron as your first match-up, do you think it helped an individual warm up, get your self-confidence up at the beginning?

From one perspective, yeah, but on the other side, we've practiced them a lot along with they've shown some great CS in the past. It's not like they're a bad team, it seems like they're just not experienced probably, you can see their unstable performance here at the Major. Maybe their expectations were too high, or they wanted it too much, I'm not sure what happened to them, but they are a great team and they can play really well, so it's not like we felt it was an easy game for us. We just provided our 100% in the first game and now the second, and we'll do that with every game from now on.

http://www.csgo4skin.com

[mrjoshuabishop-blog]

NA LCS: Examining the IMT-CLG trade and seven other takeaways from Week 4

At the halfway point in the summer split, only one thing is for sure: Immortals and Counter Logic Gaming's jungler swap continues to be a win-win for both teams. Although the game of the week turned out to be a 2-0 that saw Immortals emerge over as the team to beat, the impact that Jake "Xmithie" Puchero and Joshua "Dardoch" Hartnett have had on their new teams continues to deliver impressive results.

CLG finally have a young, aggressive playmaker to build around for the future with rising stars Trevor "Stixxay" Hayes and Jae-hyun "Huhi" Choi. But the most impressive aspect of CLG's success hasn't been Dardoch. Thanks to the veteran leadership from Zaqueri "Aphromoo" Black and the re-emergence of Darshan Upadhyaya, CLG could potentially return to the form that saw them surpass expectations at the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational. Unlike Immortals in spring, CLG has not won or lost based on Dardoch's playmaking ability.

However, the adjustments from Xmithie to Dardoch are still being made as CLG's questionable decision-making at times has turned steady 2-0 performances into unnecessary three game nail-biters. Dardoch isn't the team-oriented jungler that Xmithie was but this move was made with here and now and the future in mind. Dardoch finally has a team with veteran leadership and no language barrier and an organization focused on the World Championship. His time on Team Liquid should prove that nothing should ever be a guarantee, yet there is no reason to suggest that this shouldn't work out for Dardoch.

Immortals, on the other hand, have kept their momentum from the second half of the spring split and have built on it. Xmithie's team-oriented playstyle has been the perfect compliment to all three lanes who should now confidently consider themselves among the best in North America. Ho-Jong "Flame" Lee has returned to form as a dominant force in the top lane. Eugene "Pobelter" Park has shaken off his spring slump and looks to make noise through the rest of the split. Cody Sun and Joo-sung “Olleh” Kim continue to build on their growing synergy. Xmithie is content with letting the strength of his lanes speak for themselves and the veteran leadership Xmithie gives this team has been a boon for Immortals. Perhaps Dardoch's comments about the organization have sparked a fire with his former team.

But if there's one thing that both CLG and Immortals share, it's the fact that their only guaranteed trip to the World Championship is to win the summer split. That's easier said than done.

Here are seven other takeaways from the past week in the competitive NA LCS:

1. Although summer split continues to the the most pivotal split in the current LCS system, let's not forget about the importance of winning in spring. With Peter "Doublelift" Yillang back in the bot lane, TSM has steadily picked up where they left off last summer. With convincing victories over FlyQuest and Echo Fox, TSM looked to be in cruise control this week. The team has still yet to match this kind of success on the Worlds stage, but there's no question that this is one of the most consistent organizations in North America. Immortals may be the team to beat here and now, but in order for any team in the LCS to win the summer split, they must go through TSM. TSM should be a lock to make it to the World Championships so long as they secure another playoff berth. But we know that Doublelift and star player Soren "Bjergsen" Bjerg won't stand for TSM going to worlds as anything other than NA's top seed. Their play this past week reflects how dangerous TSM can be when they're motivated to prove a point.

2. Cloud9 plays better with Eon-yeong "Impact" Jung in the top lane. We should still see Ji-won "Ray" Jeon take a few games away for stage experience, which should be expected with arguably the best roster in NA, but at this point Impact has proven to be the more reliable play. For all the flack Nicolaj Jensen has given himself and received for his inability to deliver in the clutch, it still amazes me that Cloud9 trusted Ray in a pivotal game 5 for all the marbles in the spring final. Just as TSM is motivated to be the top seed in NA, Jensen is motivated to do everything in his power to not be the reason his team falls short of the finish line again. With a 33/3/17 statline that comes out to a staggering 16.7 KDA, Jensen undoubtedly had the best week of all NA LCS players. If Jensen can replicate these numbers against two heavyweight contenders in Team Solo Mid and Counter Logic Gaming next week, there will be no question about the frontrunner for summer split MVP.

3. A few days ago, I wrote this article suggesting that Phoenix1 was correct to cut bait with Rami "Inori" Charagh, who saw some stage time this week with Team Liquid. Mike Yeung continues to prove his worth with the organization and should continue to start. He was a key component in Phoenix1's first victory of the season against Echo Fox. The bigger question now is whether or not he can continue performing at this level a month from now. Inori's Liquid debut, on the other hand was uneventful. He replaced Yeu-jin “Reignover” Kim for one game against the dominant Cloud9 in a losing effort and was promptly kept on the bench for Liquid's close 2-1 win against his former team. 

I also wrote that Team Liquid should be looking to improve at every position. Unsurprisingly, we saw two major changes to Liquid's starting roster. Andrew "Slooshi" Pham and Kevin "KonKwon" Koo Hyuk started all five games in the mid lane and support respectively to some promising results. Liquid put up more of a fight than expected in a 2-0 loss to Cloud9, and then promptly turned around to deliver two convincing victories in a three-game series with Phoenix1. Both of these teams look like long shots to make playoffs, but there's still some time to go before we can scratch anyone out of the playoff picture.

4. Just when you think Echo Fox is finally starting to put all of the pieces together, the team has a bad week at the worst time. Echo Fox has gone 1-5 after a hot start to the season. Perhaps part of this can be put on Matthew "Akaadian" Higginbotham as outlined by owner Rick Fox, one of the past great NBA players, in this incredible feature by Riot. Akaadian appears to be slamming into the famed "rookie wall" as expected, but Akaadian is also learning to adjust his style and become a more team-oriented jungler. Even a superstar like William "Meteos" Hartmann went through growing pains after a dominant start to his career. The process affects many players differently, but it's clear that Akaadian has the support of the organization. They trust him to be able to figure it out. Even through the struggles over the past three weeks, Echo Fox fans should have no reason to give up on their team. Yuri "Keith" Jew is finally starting to show signs of life while Henrik "Froggen" Hansen has been showing off the power that earned him a reputation as one of the best mid laners in the world. Next week should be a prime opportunity to Echo Fox to gain their confidence back with two winnable matchups against Team Liquid and FlyQuest.

5. Even after a disappointing 0-2 finish this week, Team Dignitas should still be a trendy pick for fans looking for teams other than NA's big three - TSM, C9, and CLG - to support for summer. A lot of things have gone right for Dignitas since the second half of spring split. David "Cop" Roberson and Brandon "Saintvicious" DiMarco have done a tremendous job making this roster a competitor. Credit Cop and Saintvicious for making necessary changes to their starting support and jungle as the driving force behind the growth. Alex "Xpecial" Chu will always be remembered as one of the most consistent supports in NA LCS history, but it was time for Dignitas to bring in some young blood. Terry "Big" Chuong has shown improvement from his time in Echo Fox while Byeong-Hoon "Shrimp" Lee has a chance to lock down the starting job after some promising performances, but there is a major concern moving forward. Lee Sin is Shrimp's best champion - he's currently undefeated in six games with the blind monk - but if you take Lee Sin off the board against Shrimp, he carries an abysmal 3-8 record. Shrimp must improve the consistency in his champion pool moving forward in order to keep starting over Sang-hyun "Chaser" Lee.

Also: The jury is out whether or not Johnny "Altec" Ru is an upgrade over Benjamin "LOD" deMunck at AD carry, but his first impression with the team was not a good one. He posted a 4/7/10 statline in his Dignitas debut - a paltry 2.0 KDA. In his defense, he has only been with the team for a week and was facing Cloud9, one of the best bottom lanes in NA. Next week's starting lineups will show us how much confidence Dignitas has in Altec as they look to regain their momentum against the floundering veteran FlyQuest and an improved Team Envy. Speaking of which...

6. Give credit to Team Envy where it's due. Something had to change after finishing dead last in spring and barely avoiding relegation thanks to the stellar play of All-Pro Tae-yoo "Lira" Nam. The jury's still out on whether or not Wu-Yeong "Seraph" Shin will be the answer in top lane moving forward, but the correct start was made by replacing Geon-woo "Ninja" Noh in the mid lane. Picking up ex-Fnatic Academy mid laner Yasin "Nisqy" Dincer to pair with Jun-Sik "Pirean" Choi may turn out to be a great move given the promising starts from Nisqy and Pirean this summer. While Nisqy remains the better start due to his versatility, Pirean has shown he is a reliable option with this version of Team Envy. The changes to mid lane have brought Envy to a 4-4 record. If the season ended today, Team Envy would be in the playoffs. But now with return matches on the horizon and their starting mid laner finally back in NA, it's time for Envy to step their game up if they plan on making it back to the playoffs. Team Envy faces off against a frisky Phoenix1 squad that is better than their record indicates on Friday and will close their week in a must-win matchup against Dignitas on Sunday.

7. Team Liquid's fall from grace draws the attention of many LCS spectators while FlyQuest's steep decline has flown under the radar. You could argue that three of FlyQuest's veterans were once considered the best players in the region and are now past their prime, but the better argument to make here is the complete disappearance of what made FlyQuest successful in spring. Hai Lam will be remembered as the greatest shotcaller in NA history and his savvy leadership fueled this team's rise to the top. But the league has adjusted to FlyQuest's strategies and FlyQuest, in turn, has failed to adapt. It's not time to completely throw these players out and start from scratch - An "Balls" Le has made a case to extend his playing career by another year with his consistently solid performances, Jason "WildTurtle" Tran could still help a competitive team make a push for playoffs, and Hai's aggressive shotcalling can still work with the right blend of talent (i.e. Cloud9 in 2015) - but FlyQuest needs young talent with promising mechanics to go with Galen "Moon" Holgate. Take Longzhu Gaming in Korea, a team that has gone from barely avoiding relegation to playoff contender thanks to the infusion of incredibly talented players at top, jungle, and mid to go with their experienced bot lane.

Could FlyQuest still be trusted to turn it around with this same roster? Anything is possible with Hai, but it's going to take a superhuman effort to save this squad at 1-7. A change in pace at support and quality substitutes at top and AD carry could help, but until something changes, FlyQuest currently sits as the worst team in the NA LCS.

[thetoxicgamer]

How Fnatic Can Still Make 2023 Lec Winter Split Group Stage

With just one round-robin standing between them and the league's "group stage," where only the top eight teams from each split advance, professional League of Legends teams can be eliminated from contention quicker than ever. Three teams are still trying to get into the back of the advancement table as we enter the final day of the Winter Split round robin. Fnatic, one of Europe’s most storied League teams, stands on the brink of being knocked out of group stage contention, which would mark the first time the organization has missed the playoffs of a split. Since 2013, Fnatic have made the playoffs of every LEC/EU LCS split, and should they lose today, they’d break a 10-year-long streak. https://twitter.com/FNATIC/status/1622338606307201026 Fnatic have taken their sweet time getting on the right foot this season, as they hold a record of 2-6 through the first eight games of the single round robin. With one game left to play, it’s win-or-go-home for the orange and black. Here’s how Fnatic can still make it to the Winter Split group stage. How Fnatic can qualify for LEC Winter Split group stage Heading into the final day of the Winter Split’s first stage, Fnatic still remain in control of their own destiny, and the second and third games on the LEC schedule today will be all that matters for Fnatic. The second game on today’s schedule—KOI vs. Astralis—is incredibly important for playoff seeding, as it will be guaranteed to gobble up one of the two remaining group stage slots. Those two teams sit with records of 3-5 coming into the final day of the Winter Split’s first stage, and the winner of that game will lock in a spot in the group stage, no questions asked. The third game today—Fnatic vs. SK Gaming—must obviously result in a Fnatic win for Fnatic to remain in the race. If Fnatic do win against SK, they’ll play a tiebreaker against the loser of KOI vs. Astralis. If they lose, they’ll go home empty-handed and the other team from the KOI/Astralis pairing will lock in the final seed. According to the LEC rulebook (rule 8.15.10), a tiebreaker game must be played for eighth place in the opening round robin of a split, regardless of who owns the head-to-head between the two teams. Fnatic won against KOI in week one but lost to Astralis yesterday. Today’s LEC action will begin at 11am CT with Team Heretics and Team BDS playing another match with playoff implications. Read the full article