It is certainly surprising. But on the other hand, team games and 1v1 games works completely differently. I have no doubt that the GL team or Viper(in a 1v1) would have made to at least the quarters.
If you listen to the civ selections, nobody else chimes in, leaving everything to Viper. If feels like they don’t have a good dynamic yet, or the others aren’t as interested.
Oh for sure. Having a strong overall team comp of civs that compliment each other well in respect to the opponents and map at hand, and actually either backing each other up every fight, or split pushing and hitting eco while feigning a defensive hold matter more than individual player knowledge and mechanics in a team game.
Funnily enough Anotand and Bee just beat Beasty and Marinelord 2-1 then lost to vortix and lucifron 3-0 in the aoe4 2v2 tourney going on atm (rising empires league - division 1). Yet in 1v1 most people would tier them something like Beasty=mlord>vortix=lucifron>bee>Anotand. And that’s just in 2v2, where it’s a lot easier to cover for your ally or punish multiple opponents over poor or unnecessary engagements or army movement around the map.
Apologies if the title is a bit clickbaity or putting a bit too much expectation on a single player of the 4v4 team with 8 players on the team card, especially considering MbL is nearly as decorated, and Kellar is also an extremely notable player.