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With result of the most recent tournament, I am ready to make a call for Manila.
First, it will be even between the different regions' teams. Different from the results of Shanghai, most of the Chinese teams will make it to the top group. So will the Koreans. However, they will still have a difficult time with the best European teams in the tournament, who are still the region to take down. It will be close games between all but a few teams, so top teams going out early will happen, and the groups are going to see a lot of lelz, but because the tournament is so long, being able to change will be the most important and only the smart teams will be able to do it.
Second, among the European and American teams, American teams are almost certainly going to be the worst of the two. I do not see a sudden rise in American skill come Manila; they will be around the middle of teams. Russia may see one or two of their teams do well, but they won't win. For Southeast Asia, Koreans will end way above Fnatic, as they have in previous big tournaments, and might even win, though that'll be up to whether they have new strategies and heroes to bring in.
For China, people will look to Xiao8's team and Newbee but I don't think they have the best pick and strategy, so unless their new teams do well, China won't win, and in my opinion, VGR is in fact their hope, but their results will be completely on their middle player's ability to play well in his first international tournament, and you can't say he will. For the West, it's never easy to see which team will suddenly step up, but I think the two best teams going in are obvious to those who have seen the recent tournament.
It will be one of the best tournaments. Unlike Shanghai, the best Western teams are not way ahead of other regions' teams in skill, though they still do have the advantage in strategy, since the best Western teams have more heroes they can play than teams in other regions. The player changes started by Secret is the reason why the West is no longer obviously the best - it brought an end to a year when PPD's team and Puppey's team were the best teams in the West. Now both teams are not at their best going into the tournament. People will blame Arteezy, but the fault is equally Puppey's and EternalEnvy's. Still, because the West has so many top teams, it's still not too bad..
In terms of heroes, I feel as though there is still a lot that is going to change. Teams still aren't using a lot of the heroes that I feel need to be used. Each tournament has its own strategy and Manila will be no different. Knowing how to pick and play against each strategy will be the most important skill.
Manila will decide the invites going into the international this year, and so will be one of the most important tournaments of the year. But I won't be around for most of the tournament, so I'll put my ideas here early and come back later to see how I did.
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Russian Federation40190 Posts
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Or it's just an objective call, and proves that I was objective in the past, too.
Lelz.
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Russian Federation40190 Posts
On May 16 2016 05:43 Azarkon wrote:
Or it's just an objective call, and proves that I was objective in the past, too.
Lelz.
Listen, we don't want to hear your objectiveness, you can keep that for analyst panel at tournaments.
We want to hear bold prediction on what Western team will win and that Chinese team won't even get top 8.
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On May 16 2016 05:47 lolfail9001 wrote:Show nested quote +On May 16 2016 05:43 Azarkon wrote:
Or it's just an objective call, and proves that I was objective in the past, too.
Lelz. Listen, we don't want to hear your objectiveness, you can keep that for analyst panel at tournaments. We want to hear bold prediction on what Western team will win and that Chinese team won't even get top 8.
This
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On May 16 2016 05:20 Azarkon wrote:
Manila will decide the invites going into the international this year, and so will be one of the most important tournaments of the year..
i didnt know this. thanks mr. prophet
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VG.R is going to be the favored Chinese team. Wings had the 1-tournament fluke look to them. Newbee is about to get wrecked by the balance patch before Manila. (Though that should make them a top 5/6 contender, rather than a Title contender.)
But this is also going to be a tournament with rapid meta progression, again. Any time we get all of the top-teams together for more than a week, things develop rapidly. So it's all about the teams that can adjust their picks to fit their core strategies.
Should be a LOT better than Shanghai. That's for certain.
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28104 Posts
What heroes do you want to see?
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On May 16 2016 06:54 Taf the Ghost wrote:
VG.R is going to be the favored Chinese team. Wings had the 1-tournament fluke look to them. Newbee is about to get wrecked by the balance patch before Manila. (Though that should make them a top 5/6 contender, rather than a Title contender.)
But this is also going to be a tournament with rapid meta progression, again. Any time we get all of the top-teams together for more than a week, things develop rapidly. So it's all about the teams that can adjust their picks to fit their core strategies.
Should be a LOT better than Shanghai. That's for certain.
Why do you think we get a balance patch before Manila? At most a 6.87d, if even that. Or do you mean that once people catch up to the various 6.87 they get wrecked?
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On May 16 2016 05:20 Azarkon wrote:
First, it will be even between the different regions' teams. Different from the results of Shanghai, most of the Chinese teams will make it to the top group.
who are you? and what the hell did you do to azarkon?
somebody call the police!
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On May 16 2016 15:32 Yurie wrote:Show nested quote +On May 16 2016 06:54 Taf the Ghost wrote:
VG.R is going to be the favored Chinese team. Wings had the 1-tournament fluke look to them. Newbee is about to get wrecked by the balance patch before Manila. (Though that should make them a top 5/6 contender, rather than a Title contender.)
But this is also going to be a tournament with rapid meta progression, again. Any time we get all of the top-teams together for more than a week, things develop rapidly. So it's all about the teams that can adjust their picks to fit their core strategies.
Should be a LOT better than Shanghai. That's for certain. Why do you think we get a balance patch before Manila? At most a 6.87d, if even that. Or do you mean that once people catch up to the various 6.87 they get wrecked?
Sunray is going to get nerfed. Beastmaster probably does as well. Sunray (in combination with other supports) is what really opened up Newbee's drafting and where they produced an advantage. They're still going to be solid (they're not getting dumpstered), but the way Kaka could produce strength in the opening of their drafts is going to get taken away. This will allow teams to keep a perma-ban on Lion against them, since that's the hero that actually opens up most of what they want to do. (The leverage value is also pretty nuts.)
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I predict piercing damage gets better from 150% dmg to neutrals
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Done with my travel, and as I said before, I will see how I did...
First, it will be even between the different regions' teams. Different from the results of Shanghai, most of the Chinese teams will make it to the top group. So will the Koreans. However, they will still have a difficult time with the best European teams in the tournament, who are still the region to take down. It will be close games between all but a few teams, so top teams going out early will happen, and the groups are going to see a lot of lelz, but because the tournament is so long, being able to change will be the most important and only the smart teams will be able to do it.
This call was right.
Second, among the European and American teams, American teams are almost certainly going to be the worst of the two. I do not see a sudden rise in American skill come Manila; they will be around the middle of teams. Russia may see one or two of their teams do well, but they won't win. For Southeast Asia, Koreans will end way above Fnatic, as they have in previous big tournaments, and might even win, though that'll be up to whether they have new strategies and heroes to bring in.
Europeans > Americans did happen, but Eastern European teams did not do as well as I thought they would before going out, and while MVP did last longer than Fnatic, they didn't place way above. Fnatic doing about as well as MVP was the surprise for me.
For China, people will look to Xiao8's team and Newbee but I don't think they have the best pick and strategy, so unless their new teams do well, China won't win, and in my opinion, VGR is in fact their hope, but their results will be completely on their middle player's ability to play well in his first international tournament, and you can't say he will. For the West, it's never easy to see which team will suddenly step up, but I think the two best teams going in are obvious to those who have seen the recent tournament.
As I said, Newbee and Xiao8's team won't win, so unless the new Chinese teams could bring it - and they didn't - there won't be a China win. The old Chinese teams are too easy to prepare for because they always play the same way.
It will be one of the best tournaments. Unlike Shanghai, the best Western teams are not way ahead of other regions' teams in skill, though they still do have the advantage in strategy, since the best Western teams have more heroes they can play than teams in other regions. The player changes started by Secret is the reason why the West is no longer obviously the best - it brought an end to a year when PPD's team and Puppey's team were the best teams in the West. Now both teams are not at their best going into the tournament. People will blame Arteezy, but the fault is equally Puppey's and EternalEnvy's. Still, because the West has so many top teams, it's still not too bad..
This was, I think, obvious - the big difference between this year and the last was the fall of these two teams, and the rise of two different Western teams to take their place.
All in all, I'd say it was a solid Azarkon tournament.
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pretty good predictions.
you should do more when TI6 is getting close.
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EPT
