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Had to stick to the script ya know.

They beat TO who had a new tank line. Even with the old tank line TO were middling at best (and beat Paris 4-0).

So I don't think that's an indicator of Paris being good, but this match might help determine if they're at least average or slightly below.

The musical chairs strat working it's magic for Seoul.

They could really get shit done if they figure out how to keep this up against the other 16 teams.

I'm just waiting on a Mangachu announcement so TO can have his as a mascot. Jokes aside, would LOVE to see Gods get some play time, but I guess we'll see.

And either move the team to EU or go around the region locking. Jokes aside, this should be interesting.

Edit: The joke was in reference to Gladiators Legion's roster for those that didn't get it.

Like Scrub said, they've addressed it. We can't sit here and say they've fully ignored the issue, they've just done an abysmal job of significantly moving the needle on how dominant the comp and it's variations are. GOATS might just be the comp that break the camel's back on Blizz refusing to make drastic changes to the game. They want to nerf the comp itself without making individual heroes forfeit outside of it...and without deleting Brig.

You bet! Amazing how they managed to lose Havana when I thought it was no longer possible for them to do so.

He's a troll, nothing to see here tbh.

Shrug.

The only way I can respond to your comment is to shrug.

My point is that you can't throw wild claims out there then get upset that people don't agree with you or call you out for bull shitting, and that goes for both sides of the argument.

I've never claimed to know everything and I say, pretty often enough imo, that I do not know. Now, if that's reason for you to direct personal attacks my way then so be it, but I'll say it again, ignorance isn't a valid excuse.

Ah yes, the fabled Reddit approach. Ignorance isn't a license to spread outright misinformation because one thinks their opinion is worth more than another.

I somewhat understand the general sentiment but then again I also fail to understand your point with some of the specific things you mention.

• Viewership numbers are something I can't speak to, because I don't know what the league considers "a disappointment"

• I'm not sure I understand your issue with the world cup, you sound like you just dislike this type of event in Esports in general, so complaining about it specifically in regards to OWL doesn't make sense if that's the case. As for the glory of winning...well that's pretty subjective, and I think it brings the game to audiences that OWL may not have.

• I agree that Contenders is in a bad place right now. Blizz needs to take action, which tbh I think could be as "simple" as either massively relaxing or removing the sponsorship restriction so that teams can at least get a chance to sustain themselves or maybe even profit if the opportunity is there.

I don't know man, most of this thread in general is just people overreacting and spitting meaningless "facts" either way.

Ignoring most of the garbage being said on either side for a moment, this video talks a bit about him leaving and the impact (or the lack there of) it'll have on the league given what his role seemed to be:

Panda Stats with Defiant Analyst Barroi - Tactical Crouch Podcast Ep. 35

Gonna have to give you an upfrag for that one.

Lots of team that i'm not confident in placing so a good chunk of them I had to go with my biases and gut feelings. Looking forward to seeing how things might change if the meta evolves past being GOATS dominant.

Alright, so I put teams in tiers, and then ordered by current overall record, cause I'm not going more granular than that but this is what I got:

S Tier
VAN
SFS

A Tier
NYXL

B Tier
LON
GLA

C Tier
DAL
PHI
HZS
SEO
SHD

D Tier
ATL
TOR
BOS
CDH

E Tier
PAR
GZC
LAV

F Tier
HOU
WSH
FLA

Incomprehensible, incoherent babble.

Not to sound like a broken record about the Outlaws, because I agree they suck and I agree they should change, but they ability to make those changes is obviously unknown right now. So we should, at the very least, acknowledge that they may not be able to, without taking away fro, the fact that they are absolutely dog shit.

The PR answer was that he wasn't being benched due to attitude but because Marve1 was just a better tank for this meta. Take it with a grain of salt, but, I do think they've looked better as a team, in this meta, with this current lineup.

What they plan to do with them in the future remains to be seen.

They did it! The 0-7 dream is complete!

One thing to consider is if flame even has the ability to make changes. Has the movement freeze been lifted? Do we know how much space he's given? Might want to have answers to those questions before asking for someone's head.

This goes for the Contenders spot as well, the OK needs to be given for all the changes listed, because if we can think about those really simple changes, why wouldn't they already have?

Stage 2, week 2, #10-#1 is up.

Shrug, players move on.

Stage 2, week 2 #20-11 is up.

And the streak continues.

Facts require you to have all the information available to make an educated and informed argument. That just now...wasn't it.

But keep telling yourself that it was mate.

One of the issues I have with this idea is that teams aren't actively using the max number of players on their roster at the moment. Increasing it may not offer much improvement if there's no current need for it.

At least we got to see some more DPS!

Current and previous (now Vancouver Titans) Runaway teams are a combined 33-1 dating back to the start of OW Contenders Korea Season 2 and currently sitting at a 26-0 record since winning that season.

With their last defeat coming to the hands of KDP (2-3) in the group stage they're on a combined 30 game win streak since then. That would date their last defeat back to July 22nd, 2018, and if you want to go even further back, to Overwatch Contenders Korea Season 1 their total record becomes 38-3.

Runner may have started this legacy but holy shit has Flowervin done hella lifting to keep it together and see it thrive.

Just like it was for NYXL.

Make it happen lads. I deserve it.

I'm actually OK with reseeding when the previous qualifier was so short with different teams having largely varying degrees of strength of schedule.

If initial seeding was based off of more games then reseeding wouldnt make as much sense, imo.

Remove one of the SHD games and they dont make it in. Give them GZC's schedule and they dont make it in either.

Their schedule was probably a bit below average, I wouldn't necessarily say easy, but I wouldn't call it hard.

Edit: I demand to be down voted more for this. I was thinking about DAL instead of BOS. I deserve no less than a -50 for this comment. I thank you in advance for cooperating.

It looks liek he tried to catch Michelle in the grav but missed. May not have been a fat finger but instead an extremely risky play that failed.

Strength of schedule working it's thing.

They just extended the time slots, as explained in this article.

Reducing Analyst time takes away from the content they want to include, and breaks are good for the players. I don't know if the could do without ads. From what I understand it's a non insignificant source of revenue in general.

Matches are taking longer than they expected. The 1.5 hr time slot (compared to 2 hrs last year) is clearly not enough. That being said, feel free to tally up all breaks, adds and analysis during a match and see if it's adds up to more than a 30 min time frame. Adds that run on your twitch while they're live (i.e. usually when you initially tune in) don't count.

I'm not saying they couldn't make their segments shorter. I'm saying the games themselves (the meta probably being a big contributor here) take longer vs their ad-on content being responsible.

Ads, breaks and long talks from analysts and what are you rewarded with, goats vs goats 99% of the time? I mean give people ads if the content is worth it but don't tell me all the downtime the OWL has is worth it when it's infested with goats.

At this point you're complaining about pretty much all of the production content...and the meta. I can somewhat get behind you thinking there are too many breaks/ad spots but now you're just complaining to complain since you haven't brought any additional value to this thread.

If literally all of the content is at odds with your preferences then just don't watch it. Your problem is no longer relevant to specific aspects of the viewer experience.

But the adds weren't the major reason for matches going over the time slots though. Running 30 second adds does add up in the end, but it's not significant enough to explain just how over time they were.

This is putting 1+1 and getting 4.

Like it or not, ad space is a major revenue generator, and that's unlikely to change for the foreseeable future.

I don't know why this thread turned into complaining about adds on a streaming service.

Worst tl;dr in NA, fined, banned and bopped.

Other than Fusion Uni right?

Possibly, but they have options to improve the team. And it's possible they get better with more experience along with much needed coaching.

Oh hey, Ark gets to play.

Get Sleepy maybe? He sure as hell aint gonna see much play time behind Viol2t.

I assume he means that PAR is likely more comfortable using English than WSH. Not inaccurate considering EU vs KR's overall use of the language.

Out of all of those I'd say "Leaks and rumors" is probably the least likely to happen. I figure it requires even more time investment than prompt reporting and I actually feel like twitter is a more digestible medium for short, quick leak reveals and what not.

I think they could also easily be served by regular threads if someone wants to post it and start the conversation.

Good feedback, love seeing the ideas flow.

Consolidated each week's rankings for ease of comprehension and added Stage 1 Week 5 rankings.

I agree that TO's looked good, much better than I expected, and this is coming from a TO fanboi, but because of their SoS (based on other team's results)I'd still probably put them in 5th or 6th place for now. To me, a win against SFS, ATL, PHI or LAG (DAL or LON could also add consistency) would really go a long way in cementing their spot in the group of teams just below VAN and NYXL.

I do grand them the benefit of the doubt for their lost to ATL since it was w/o Neko and he's proven to be a huge factor for them along side Ivy. I'm optimistic that they might be able to be a top 5 team but I have to see a bit more from them.

That being said, I do think they'll defy my expectation.