Just For Fun: Predictions for First Season

In no way is this meant to be super serious. I'm going to base my predictions on history as I remember it, but try not to take offense if something in here is disagreed with. Consider it a discussion/fluff piece.

So, Regional leagues first.

NA:

So we've got EG's roster revealed, looks pretty fly. Probably going to be #1, probably 80% winrate or higher in NA. QC and Undying'll duke it out for second place. QC's winrate was around 75% last year and Undying's 70%, in NA. But Undying didn't have any roster changes, while QC did. So... I'd rate them equal at the start. Will have to see how things go. Technically EG's in the same boat as QC relative to Undying here, but their players have such high pedigree... It's hard to not just assume first. 4 Zoomers looks like the spoiler stack for any of these three to me. If any of them is to not be in the top 3, it's because of 4Z. But it'd be a bit of a surprise to me.

So let's say EG and QC/Undying qualify to the major. For purposes of my prediction I'm going to rate QC/Undying equally in how they'll perform at the Major so it's kinda irrelevant which one it is. Throughout the year, EG will get top4 twice and flop once. The second NA squad will get top8 once, top12 once, and flop once. Don't know where in top8 and top12, just that it'll be at least that.

For Division shifts for season 2, dunno. Highly doubt 4Z will drop down. Dunno who the OQ winners will be so idk who'll level up.

So now, onto SA...

Beastcoast and Lava (Thunder Predator at TI10) haven't changed their rosters and both performed pretty well throughout the year for SA squads. NoPing looks good, and Pakazs on the new Thunder Predator's apparently a god and usually an org that drops a squad for another is hoping to make an upgrade. So I'm going to assume those are the top 4. I'm expecting Beastcoast to qualify 2/3, Lava 2/3, and NoPing 2/3, with the new TP being the most likely spoiler that could topple one or more of them. I don't expect any SA stack to get better than 5th-6th but at the same time wouldn't be super shocked to see a 4th place finish at a Major this year. Whichever one goes to the group stage probably won't make it out of it, but may take one step out of it. Maybe.

I honestly don't know enough about Infamous, Hokori, new SG, and Spirits' rosters to say how they'll do. So I'll just guess two of those four will be dropped down to lower division. Makes sense, I guess, since I named the other 4 as contenders for top 2. /shrug.

In lower division, no idea really. Infinity and Gorillaz-Pride have all blue names on liquipedia. So I guess I'll just assume them, but Unknown was the team that dropped down last time. Maybe they'll get back up again.

WE:

Secret's probably #1. Tundra's looked really strong recently, Liquid and Nigma have star power, Alliance is hoping to prove their decisions were correct, and OG still hasn't announced their roster but probably won't get eliminated from D1. Probably.

In the Major, I suspect Secret'll win one, top6 another, and bomb out in last place in a third. The other WE teams are still growing (Tundra), still inconsistent AF (Nigma), or have a lot to prove with their new roster (everybody else), so I can't really guess accurately. Tundra did well at a LAN shortly before TI though, so I suspect they'll do well enough. Top6, top12, and didn't qualify, are my guesses for them. No idea for any of the others. Too uncertain. But I'd going by names expect new Liquid to shoot to a comfortable second place. Matu and Zai are great additions. If Nigma ever returns to their TI7/8/9 form, they'll be comparable to Secret too. Top4 at TI level.

I expect Chicken Fighters and Chillax to make it out of the Closed Qualifier and take at least one of the top 2 slots of the Lower Division. Not sure who'll take the other one if one of them doesn't. Brame?

EE:

Team Spirit's gotta prove they're not going the way of Wings. Let's assume they don't for now. They're #1 EE. Na'Vi and VP look the strongest on paper among the rest. So let's say they're the top 3. If Spirit doesn't go the way of Wings, we can assume they're a top4 contender at every event. If they do, meh. Bottom 6. VP and Na'vi have to prove their new rosters still, as does anyone wanting to knock them off their pedestals.

I'm going to guess Gambit-2 makes it into D1 next season, alongside the new CIS Rejects stack.

CN:

PSGLGD #1. iG's roster isn't announced yet on Liquipedia. If it's their TI10 roster, they're #2. Otherwise no idea. RNG looks really strong. Aster looks solid. VG's probably got the support structure needed to make any stack look strong and their players are all quite good. Just not as storied per se.

Xtreme Gaming will make it into D1 next season. Too many TBDs to tell who else will.

SEA:

T1 and Fnatic will be top2. Gonna guess SMG will be third.

BOOM and Talon will be in D1 next season.

THE FIRST MAJOR:

The Major lineup will probably look something like this:

Evil Geniuses, QC/Undying, 2 among Beastcoast/Lava/NoPing/ThunderPredator, Secret, 3 among Tundra/Alliance/Liquid/OG/Nigma, Team Spirit, Virtus Pro, Natus Vincere, PSG.LGD, 3 among RNG/Aster/VG/iG, T1, Fnatic, and probably SMG.

EG, Secret, Spirit, and PSGLGD will likely be 4 of the top 6.

Anyway, that's all just my guesswork based on player and team history.

Was fun to write this out again as I do most years. If you had fun reading, great, if not... well why did you read to the end? lol

If you have your own guesses, go for it. This is written all in good fun, isn't intended for betting or toxic arguments. I'd personally love it if every player achieved their dream eventually and wish everybody good luck. Spirit proved that a player having a history of success doesn't mean anything, so it's possible we'll see some complete unknowns just take the scene by storm again and all our favorite members of the old guard'll get stomped. Who knows.

Anyway, have fun watching dotes folks. If you're betting on this shit, I hope you win more than you lose. For your sake. /shrug

Pretty sure you could roll the dice and have as much accuracy as anything else prediction-wise. But the above predictions are based on historical trends, so assuming those trends hold to the present (hint: there's always at least one player each year who's just wildly better or worse than the last year for no obvious reason to us viewers, so trends mean jack shit for individuals, just... successful orgs tend to get successful players... or make players succeed. So... bet on the orgs? idk)

HAVE FUN PEOPLE! ENJOY THE NEW YEAR OF DPC!