This is a point Demo homed in on during his time on the desk, that the new NAL was competitive but that didn’t mean the region was strong. There’s a strong desire for many to deny his argument due to the usual NA/EU banter but he does have a point. Taking a step back from the excitement of a fully competitive NAL, many of these teams aren’t in position to be relevant internationally and that’s OK. In fact, it’d be weird if that weren’t the case.
While the NA shuffle is often joked about, this past roster shuffle was probably the biggest in the history of the region. Teams like Mirage, Beastcoast, and Parabellum are completely new teams. Most every other team made at least one roster change save the Soniqs and Oxygen. Every team in NA is in a rebuilding phase, and getting back to a top level will take time.
It gets underestimated but changing even a single player is a big deal. At bare minimum that’s 20% of the team changing and with that brings a huge shift in anything and everything from role balance to play style to comms to vibes. Changing two players means almost half the team is different. Roster changes inherently change a lot about a team. If that weren’t the case G2 wouldn’t have gone from barely being notable in Majors to World Champions from bringing on Benjamaster.
The more a player brings or the larger hole a player leaves, the more time it will inherently take for the roster to adapt to the new circumstances and get to their new average level of play. If a player is coming in with the intent to shot call or become a leadership figure, that adds even more to the laundry list of things changing. Even if the roster move is beneficial, there is a transition period.
This means that even teams that remain mostly the same won’t be at their best for a certain amount of time. That period of time varies per team due to factors but the necessity of time to adjust is undeniable. Given how short and chaotic the transfer window was combined with how fast the Stage has been, it’s not unreasonable for these NAL teams to still be in the adjustment period. Beastcoast came into Week 1 with 3 days of practice as this five man lineup. To say we’ve seen their best after the past two weeks is absurd.
For the completely new teams, they have even more work to do. Figuring out how the team wants to play, creating strats on the 9 maps based on that decision, putting players in the best positions possible -something that can only be learned through scrims sometimes, adjusting strats when needed, building chemistry with what are often completely new teammates. Frankly, the fact that a team like Parabellum have been as good as they are is an impressive feat. That Beastcoast is winning matches against teams like sQ or favorites like SSG is especially underrated. With so many new or rebuilding teams able to make matches close, if not upset, this stage of the NAL is the most competitive ever.
What this all means is that the NAL is competitive, but not necessarily a strong region at the moment. It’s competitive because the average level of play has gone done, even the top teams aren’t showing their best yet. With all the teams going through the adjustment process, this first Stage is more a preview. There’s a saying of 8 steps forward 7 steps back, the idea being that progress is not linear and sometimes you have to go back a little to go forwards a lot. So yes, NA isn’t a top team right now despite how competitive the league has been. Lets see how long that lasts.