Both imo clearly deserving a chance in OWL, but somehow doubt it. :(

Gotta hope at least they are treating their players well at the moment, as this is another rough year (actually worse than the first) and history tends to repeat itself...

Well when also the young talents quit...

https://twitter.com/_ecLipseOW/status/1135644808767320064

That "for now" leaves one hoping, but still... a pity. :(

Also that sleep at 4:50 in his video...saw it live was amazing.

Again agree with you, we are partially looking at it from different perspectives, but yes agree.

As of quality of young players, I really like Dridro, as much as I for example like Eclipse, the latter thou bounched back even from Contenders NA (still believe he's a nut Zen/Ana), and the first... well now they built a team around him, with house and everything, let's see what comes out of him (and SMS more in general).

https://youtu.be/2U3j7EZHat0

On that note, watching DragonEddy stream at 3 am (damn insomnia of mine) on NA servers getting into top 10 (for EU) makes me even more sad...

Well that's weird considering prior to OWL they were actually winning tournaments, which was the whole reasoning of their org not spending any cent on new players.

"Why spend for even a 7th player when we can ride these guys who've already been playing together for some weeks and then eventually replace them for cheap?"

This is of course only my very personal speculation, facts are they were a 6 men only roster to begin S1, and those 6 men were considered one of the top 2-3 teams in EU/NA.

I still believe Zuppeh is a good player, as well as everyone else, the point is in a meta that wasn't GOATS their DPS should have popped off, and they didn't.

Logix was starting to, TviQ never did and between the 2 he was the one everyone was counting on as an EU flex DPS god.

Well I believe we are going in that direction thou (not just Florida) the scene in general.

Koreans are on an average better and their non-OWL scene is still a scene to the point they flood the only other real scene still in play, NA.

Check how many young players you see in Contenders EU or actual NA players in Contenders NA? Aren't we always seeing the same faces?

Am I against it? Nah not as a principle, if a player is better than another he/she deserves to play (and that's the case for most Koreans), the point imo is, the moment for whatever reason Koreans find another esport they prefer, OW is dead.

“Right now, there’s a feeling that a lot of the senior management just don’t understand esports,” another source close to the situation said, “but there is no room for negotiating with these people. They are convinced their vision, which is more in line with televised sports, is the right way to go and it has just made people miserable.”

Nahh c'mon man, just 'cause:
You killed 2017's competitive scenes to create hype for your league.
You decided to structure your league like the NBA (no relegation, no promotion, just buy to play).
You decided you had to absolutely sell your produ..erm league to the TV networks.
You still prevent every medium/big sized non OWL affiliated org to run its tournaments.

Now imagine a world in which, the bottom 3 teams at the end of a season were relegated to Contenders and the top 3 Contenders' ones were promoted to OWL (after cross-regional playoffs).

A world in which you could watch high level competitive matches every single weekend of the year (e.g. ESL 1 Birmingham not even a Dota 2 Major, had more viewers than the latest OWL matches) and on different timezones, sometimes even at the same time (outrageous!!).

I could also add, the fact the game is pay to play + lootboxes (atm is still at 20 Euros) doesn't lead to a constant growth of your esport, but that's a VERY personal point of view.

To be honest? I still believe he was one of the weak links in Florida's 1st season, way waaay to inconsistent for the role he had.

Imo (big big imo) Him and Zebbosai were the 2 real weak links in S1, CWoosh (that was better as a Genji player rather than a tank) and Zuppeh were decent, Logix and Mannetten were (and still are) OWL material.

Does OWL material mean top 1-3? Very likely not, but surely not bottom tier (like the current iteration of Florida)

Oh bright future ahead for Poko, Boombox, Neptuno, Eqo...

Jokes asides it actually makes sense, if you stuff your academy team with strong KO players and keep winning doesn't make too much sense to stay in NA (or EU for that matter)

😡
"We've lost to Korea now we've beaten NA" LUL

Besides the salted sea that's this thread unless he states the actual reasons he decided to change company all we can do is speculation, and imo all the ones proposed are viable.

The money argument: Epic is injecting tons of cash into gaming, it makes sense for them to pay an experienced commissioner, it's a win-win, you get someone with experience while removing him from a competitor.

The "rat fleeing the sinking ship": OWL isn't popping off (not fast enough) as probably he would have expected, meanwhile Fortnite even without anything comparable to an actual league keeps getting tons of viewers.

There's also the very simple option... he was looking for a "change of scenery", change is one of the main motivators for human beings, new challanges are something that many succesful persons look for.

I personally (here comes my dose of salt) still believe they mishandled the launch of OWL, basically strangling their esport scene in the 2nd year of life of OW, they were lucky (?) Korea arrrived a bit late to the party and the duo OGN/Apex kicked in right when the western scene was dying.

From there it was an uphill struggle (again except for the KO scene) and it still is, the vision for OWL is grandious, but like everything grandious involves a lot of risks, risks not every investor might be willing to take.

GL to whoever will take his place, as for Nanzer... he doesn't need my good lucks.

Watched the presentation VOD, Eddy's going to be on the bench/streaming.

They presented the team 2 by 2, he was left last, alone, and basically said it, "there are some news..." so yes guess he's going to be streaming under SMS.

If you ask me if it's worth.. well SMS provides a LOT to its players/staff/streamers, the issue thou is that there aren't many Italian big streamers and Eddy isn't one of them.

A pity not having him and Midna playing actively anymore, the tank duo was amazing during the last World Cup. :(

SALTY Edit (I know I know): now to wish SMS will do better than what WHO did when they dropped Midna (twice in 15 days) for Chubz.

I don't know if I'm excited or not...

on a side great new signings, some better than others but all Contenders level.

On the other the way they built this roster and the order they put the players in the roster... looks like one of the best DVA of EU Contenders is going to end on the bench, which would be a shame.

Both deserved a shot at OWL imo, gratz to them!
Now just wondering how would it pan out considering they are joining mid-season and in a full KO roster...

LUL

Wanted to write something else, but eh the LUL summarizes what I think of an org that dumps 2 entire rosters, one of which also good for its level.

An org that keeps lying (hopefully they won't this time around) to its players and its fans, and that literally abuses the shitty setup of the Path to Poverty...

This is such bul...

Easy for them and Mayhem to skip a season, in this case a season where they were relegated in OD to come back directly invited in Contenders 2020...

Way to keep the scene alive uh?

Bad org is bad... period.

An org that doesn't provide any kind of decent support for their roster during S1.
Buys a new shiny house, presents it to the fans in a video with the old roster in it, the same day they announce dropping said roster.
Swears every single member of the old roster had a chance to take part to the trials for S2, except it wasn't the case.
Lies to its fans swearing they will not go full Korean, then retains a "toxic" Korean Coach, just to drop him WAY to close to S2, replace him with a non Korean one and after 1 stage goes full Korean.

I could go on... sorry an org (not just for esports) is only as good as it treats its employees (here players), and there weren't many doubt on how they treated them, I doubt the current ones are getting much more support, nationality has nothing to do with this.

GG Shock!

Curious to see how Vancouver recovers from this, losing after so many wins is always tricky.

Mano is destroying Bumper on Rei, but Vancouver simply looks like the better team.

Eh galassies of difference in skill, so still interesting to watch, but damn yesterday's EU Contenders Trials were more fun, and this comes from someone who never complained too much about goats, but damn... :/

Well you can't go wrong picking up these 2, tbh I'd see Hqrdest well also on the OWL Paris roster.
I'm an old man and love both Soon and Shadowburn, but their Zaryas are imo weaker than Hqrdest's.

Agree the trade is good, the issue is that for as much as I like FCTFCTN I really dont think he's an OWL level main tank and they have no other main tank.

Dallas losing but aKm is playing amazingly on Zarya today.

Well at least until Anubis. :D

3AM OW...sigh :(

So the only fights Seoul wins (and wins them very well) are with the DPS so they decide is better to go full 3-3?

At this point I'd try to dust off the bench Fissure for this match, a bit more aggression maybe could do?

Btw guess all that drama at the end of S1 was worth a nice spot on a Korean bench.

Let's go Atlanta!!

1st map won, damn they really know how to get under NYXL's skin apparently. :)

I get your point, and sure should be coaches deciding then who to play, as well as selecting 1/2 of the players, but...

Leaving it ALSO up to the fans, for an event that is mainly for the fans, and in a league that (like every other sport/esport league) exists only becaue there's people that wants to watch it, is the correct way to proceed.

Fans should never be the ones picking regular season rosters, but this ain't the regular season, is a showmatch.

Holy that 3rd round of Oasis, let's hope this match keeps delivering like that! :)

Is not just about nepotism or Flame not being good at his joba, is more like that there were issues about Optic Gaming getting sold so the couldn't really pickup anyone new.

Haven't honestly followed much, but yes that's probably the main practical reason, and mind you I'm really not a fan of Flame, but I doubt he's the core issue right now.

Some players are bordering illegal at Contenders level (e.g. Gods, Sharyk and Logix)

Tbh he spent some months in Italy, when Samsung Monring Stars had 2 teams in Open Division, he was in the team that didn't qualify for Trials EU (as reported by Scrubasaurus), despite having him and Claris as part of the team.

The funny part is that Samsung just celebrated how one of their players got promoted in OWL, despite him not having played for them for the past 10ish months? lol

The crowd PogChamp

EDIT: and both Dallas and Uber are living up to it, this is what I was hoping OWL was going to be, is getting there!

Damn nice match.
Guxue is a beast btw

You are right, still I see no reason why they had to change the previous format, which was working.

Change for the sole sake of change is most often than not a bad decision, I mean they open the cup to every team, but only for players over 18 and only the top 10 will get reimboursments.

Like I said you are probably right they didn't want to end up spending too much money (even thou we are speaking of Activision/Blizzard), but then why changing in the first place?

Is like saying "my party is open to everyone!!! As long as you have a beard and you are rich"

Hqrdest left too:
https://twitter.com/HqrdestzoR/status/1121144627422220288

Also, Paris should really ponder if picking him, if they plan to go on playing Zarya, the guy is nuts on the hero.

It is I believe, in the fact that if you are of age you just need your visa, not also the ones for your parents that should accompany you.

That said it's probably more lik for what you guys think, make it easier for OWL teams to pickup someone who really sticks out, without needing to invest (and risk) in the future...

The part about full reimboursments only for the top 10 seeded teams is honestly bad.

If anything it should go the other way around, considering that most if not all top 10 nations are "wealthy" ones while some (if not most) of the others aren't, that's if you really want to make it a world event, but maybe it's just grumpy me...

For the rest, excited to see again the world cup, let's hope Italy gets in and makes us proud. :)

Ouch the burns, the BURNS!
Gotta love Scrubasaurus' style. :)

One of those few NA players that I knew even before OW "went global", hard working dude always in the scene, for years.

GL to him!

The guy is nuts, a bit sad but it's understandable it didn't really work out in NA.

Any EU team should at really consider him.

LUL what's happening? :)

Oh well let's go Atlanta!

Clutch teams usually win, GG Gigantti!
Was a nice match :)

Holy... Greyy is back!

Those vintage C9 and EUnited shirts thou! :D

What happened with Asking? Isn't he on Boston's academy team?

Oof Second Wind just got left with what? 3 Players?

If you plan on working in a country you better pickup its language, it just also happens to be not the hardest western language to learn (all our languages are hard for Asian people) and the most commonly used around the world.

Well not a huge fan of Huk, but gotta admit, there are teams that decide to go the "easy" way and still fail and then there's Boston that keeps bringingthe unexpected players to the league and win with them, great job!

Wait but weren't the players the issue in S1? Now is that they have to run a full KO team?

When an organization isn't good it trickles down to the players also to new ones, best of luck to them hopefully they can pull it off.