G2 and Team Liquid have just announced the Best in the West, an exhibition match between their Valorant teams with a simple theme: to crown the best roster in Europe.
G2's hegemony isn't questioned by anyone — 100% winrate in competition, it has the merit to be clear — but Liquid's positioning is making people cringe on Twitter.
Liquid isn't really second contender for the title of King of Europe. In the last two months, the team finished 3rd at the BLAST Twitch Invitational, 3rd also at the LVL Clash 2 and failed to leave the groups at the Allied Esports Odyssey.
Liquid's claims could be justifiable if no other squad had their regularity; unfortunately for the Dutch organization, this is the case. A European team has been on the second step of the podium twice in the last three Ignition Series stages, and has outperformed Liquid in every competition in which they have both competed.
That team is FunPlus Phoenix, and since the announcement of the showmatch, its players have been expressing their dissatisfaction on Twitter.
In particular, FPX Shao scoffed at the announcement and received support from G2 Mixwell — an indicator that even among the teams participating in the Showmatch, they don't necessarily approve the decision.
FunPlus was assembled with elements from Party Parrot and Fabriken, and a few months ago these were the only two organizations capable of taking points from G2. When their best elements were assembled under the FPX banner, everyone saw them as the G2 killers. This prophecy hasn't (yet) come true but for G2, FPX is clearly the most dangerous opponent in Europe.
Twice already, Carlos's samurais have almost fallen under FPX's thump, sometimes coming within a hair's breadth of breaking their impressive winning streak. In the minds of everyone, G2's challengers are FunPlus. In the minds of everyone except the communication teams of Liquid and G2, obviously...
The Best of The West tournament is held on Sunday, September 27.
Original content by Augustin "Review" Heliot.
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