Disclaimers: I am a Nouns fan, K1 is a better carry than Yamsun, Nouns earned their placement at TI, I know I am objectively wrong based on TI results and I don’t know the whole story of Husky getting kicked (maybe he was feeling too much pressure, maybe Yamsun was, etc). Also (see title) this is about how I think Husky was unnecessarily kicked not that I don’t like the current Nouns iteration.

Despite getting top 8 and placing the highest out of any of the NA teams, I still think Nouns shouldn’t have kicked Husky and brought in K1. I think this was unfair to Husky who helped them get to the point where they were the strong favorite for NA quals. I believe they would have done just as well with their original stack and they got a very beneficial situation at TI (which they performed very well in) to get top 8.

Nouns went 7-9 at TI. Notable teams with similar/better records were VP (8-9, 7th/8th), Tundra (7-5, 13th-16th), Entity (6-8, 9th-12th), and Talon (7-9, 9th-12th). The only reason they made it to the upper bracket after a lackluster group stage (3-5) was a fantastic series against Tundra which (pending an Azure Ray 3-0 sweep of Spirit in the finals) is the biggest upset of the tournament.

After that, they proceeded to get stomped 2-0 by Azure Ray in 2 not close games. Nouns was never in the lead at any point in either of those games. Then Nouns gets a fortunate matchup against a regional rival in TSM. Regional games are always contentious (see VP beating 9Pandas and coming just as close as Liquid to beating Spirit) and Nouns gets a 2-0 in over 2 hours of game time. Then Nouns gets beat by GG so badly I didn’t even watch game 1 of VP-BB because I was so disappointed and upset. Game 2 of TSM-Nouns was longer than the entire Nouns-GG series.

As a Nouns fan, I felt like they were starting to hit their stride after Bali. No they didn’t do fantastically but that was their first showing on the international stage and they more than held their own. I remember when Quinn was on the We Say Things podcast and cited Gunnar as an example of a player who with a little more international experience could be great and I was so excited to see Nouns at TI. I am excited for their future and hope they stick together and improve. I just think it sucks that Husky didn’t get to come with after all was said and done.