Chronicle isnt the goat (hear me out)

#1

Ivoryy

Whenever you look at the "greatest of all time" or "top ten players of all time" lists, you will always see chronicle at the top, and for some reason that dosent sit right with me. Chronicle is an amazing player, you throw him on any roster and you can count on him performing well, he is Mr. Reliable, a top 10 - if not 5 - player of all time... but not number 1. I feel as if he is the easy name to call to - a cop out almost - because he's the winningest player of all time, but winningest =/= the greatest at this stage in the games lifespan.

i dont feel like hes ever had to play on a bad roster and make a name for them
i dont think that he has taken any one meta or any one agent and innovated the way that they are played

i think he has the ability to take over a map very easily (but so do so many other players)
i think he is a good player, who has been placed on good teams, and managed to get good results (which i understand is not something that happens often in games, and for that reason hes a top player)

out of all the esports i know, going down the list of the GOATS in each respective field i see:
Imperial hal (apex)
n0tail (dota2)
s1mple (cs)
faker(lol)

I dont feel like chronicles name fits on that list in this current moment in time, i think in the future it could fit there, but for me its hard to say.
do yall think we will ever get a unilateral GOAT in Val, and which player, new or old, do you think will take up that mantle?

i dont have a top 10 list myself so there isnt any bias.
also by what metric to measure the greatest of all (at this stage of the game) i dont know

#2

kfan4238173

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there isnt any player who dominated valorant like the names u mentioned, chronicle is just the closest to them even if he isnt dominant like they were

#3

vorro1x

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val has only been out since 2020 and no one else has dominated and won as much as chronicle so he’s the goat for now

but yeah val has no clear and stand out goat the same way other esports do

#4

SENfns

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accolades

#5

Aminbg02

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i aint reading allat but chron is the goat

#6

vibemerchant_25

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I think the luck to join and stay in good teams is a big part of the goat convo that people don't consider a lot. We've never seen faker play for any other org as well and realistically he's never had a dogshit team. I'm not sure about the other guys but a lot of becoming the best is blind luck that you didn't work for. Even in actual sports the best of the best are usually just genetic anomalies that are just built different. I don't think it's fair to discount him based on that. It also makes it more insane when someone out performs chronicle who has an incredible team and incredible talent.

#7

glittering_yard

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And he never won the biggest trophy in the game, all the other names you mentioned have that in common

A player winning the biggest trophy of the esport is always a minimum requirement in these schizo greatness debates

#8

tjabo

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clueless

for a game like valorant (constantly changing) he's the only one who's been consistent enough to keep winning. "he has been placed on good teams" yeah and he was always a top 2 player on each of those teams, and he seems to be the kind of player who can make almost any team work. there isn't a single player who could have replaced chronicle in 2025 and still made FNATIC get to two grand finals this year. change my mind.

#9

SENfns

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less could've played for fnatic and it would've worked
all chronicle did this year was play senti

#10

vibemerchant_25

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"could've" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that take. We have no way of knowing how chemistry or teamwork or even form would've been on that team. They could've been the best or they could've been shitters scraping the bottom of the league for stray points.

#11

SENfns

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less is a good guy im sure he fits in most teams

#13

BeastieBoys

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He was the worst player on 2023 Fnatic, and it isn't really close. Leo won so many games, Alfa won so many games, Derke won so many games. Of the like 27 matches that Fnatic had, Chron was the best in 3 of those (one of them being the masters upper bracket). However, none of that really matters. When you have arguably the top IGL, Coaching Staff, and Duelist in EMEA, alongside the best two players in the world with Leo and Alfa, individual performance is negligible. Rarely does a team with that level of talent really need to rely on pop-offs, which is a huge selling point in value discussions (Yay, Aspas, etc). That 2023 Fnatic team only loses when someone is underperforming horrifically. When a team is so built on mitigating mistakes (which has been stated by Mini as their main ideology with calling / midrounds) then all the team needs to do is perform. Boaster went double negative twice all of 2023 (I believe it was a series at -10 and a series at -11). Chron went double negative 4 times, the three worst of those occuring in each of their losses. -15 and -22 against Loud at champs, and -27 against Liquid (4 maps). Within most teams, an underperformance can be written off easily. 2023 Fnatic was not most teams. They were, and still are, the golden standard for dominance and superteams. This team operated at the highest level, and each individual held themselves to the highest level. They played to mitigate errors and variance. Chronicle was the only individual (on a team with the aim goat Boaster) who underperformed to such a high degree and sunk their entire gameplan.

Chron is a great player, and Fnatic has relied heavily on him in 2025. But I cannot call him the goat for the simple fact that he was the least valuable player on his team for 2 trophy runs.

I'm not disputing his greatness, I'm disputing him being the greatest.

#15

Ivoryy

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that last scentance basically

#12

Gdgdfdgtttt

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i always see the argument that "oh hes on a super team its unfair mickey mouse trophies!!!"
the reason the team is so good is because hes on it...

#14

Ivoryy

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on a team that has the best igl in the history of the game, a damn good player in alfa, and a solid performer in crashies, i find it hard to believe that fnatics track record lies of the shoulders of chronicle alone

#16

serot

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At their peak FNC had leo the supposed "perfect player", the best IGL in region, one of the best sentinels oat in alfajer, and prime derke.

Now they have the same IGL but more experienced and with better aim, a seasoned NA vet, alfa in his second prime, and super rookie kaajak.

You could be the most middle of the pack player of all time and with that team you would easily qualify for internationals in chronicle's position.

Chronicle has been on two teams and both of them basically only win. If you are winning every single game its hard to have shitty stats or look like a bad player.