Why NA sucks right now...

Before the beginning of international Valorant esports at Reykjavik, TenZ said something that has stuck with me for awhile:

"I think that NA will finally beat EU for once...When I watch EU, they like try to do really set [coordinated] stuff, but if you look at like a player like cNed, for example, who plays Jett, he just kind of shits on everyone, cause your able to just disrupt everything." -TenZ, before Iceland

I think NA's reliance on Jett is what made them dominate internationally at first, but ultimately has been its downfall in the end.

In Iceland, Sentinels rolled everyone, including EMEA, and their team composition was obviously built around TenZ on the Jett. The two teams who made it the finals, Fnatic and Sentinels, both had Jetts (TenZ and Derke) that went crazy in Iceland.
Fnatic vs. Version1
Fnatic vs KRU
Fnatic vs NUTURN
Sentinels vs Fnatic
Sentinels vs Team Vikings
Sentinels vs Fnatic (Finals)

All these matches have something in common: They're 2-0's and the Jett player is top of their team, +10 or more on KD. Jett defined the meta heavily then, which is really not new to anyone, and TenZ did it best, no argument. I think what's happening now is EMEA has learned how to not only play Jett better, but also how to play against enemy Jetts.

Almost all NA Masters teams have star players that pretty much only play Jett. TenZ on Sentinels, Yay on Envy, and Leaf on C9. These teams have all been stomped by EMEA this tournament (Champions Berlin) and the same thing happened, for the most part, in Masters 3 Berlin. EMEA came out on top with Gambit beating Envy handedly in the Finals, but I think something that's super interesting about Masters 3 is that 100T was undefeated against EMEA teams, beating out Acend and Gambit, who are arguably the top 2(or 3, if KRU beats Gambit) teams in the world.

100T is an anomaly in NA because they don't really don't have a permanent Jett player. Asuna is much more comfortable on Reyna, and frankly he didn't perform super well on Jett. Nitr0 ended up taking the Jett role, but he's by no means a flashy, insane Jett player. He plays much more traditionally and like an AWPer would in CS. I think since 100T couldn't rely on a star Jett player, they had to develop a more complex and diverse strategy that matched well against EMEA teams. This is also why, though, that they've lost to NA teams both in Masters 3 (Envy) and the LCQ (Rise).

I think NA's reliance on Jett is really why they've been slow adapting to the meta and why they have taken L after L in Masters 3. Going forward, I think NA needs to take notes from the old 100T roster (Sadge) and find a new way to compete with EMEA other than having a Jett player take space every execute and pop off for every game. EMEA has learned how to shut down Jetts and teams who play around their Jett predominately, so if NA wants to come back swinging in 2022, they need to find a new way of going about utilizing Jett.

what the fuck. I certainly didn't expect an essay.

Edit: just read it. I agree with the points you made here. I think it comes down mainly to innovation, as most NA teams are one-dimensional while most EMEA has been trying new stuff not only agent comp-wise. The exception I see to this is c9, as they are clearly not scared to innovate. But other teams just play kinda the same things everyone else has been doing and everyone already knows how to deal with this stuff.

Hi.

too long + its not that serious + na valorant will be ok + great work tho :)

watch the game instead of wasting time on this

Pretty good points honestly

I ain't reading all that. I'm happy for u tho or sorry that happened.

I think NA focuses and dedicates more to streaming than being a pro. At least that’s what it feels like sometimes.

ratio + no way you have that much free type

I feel like im having a deja vu with this thread

Don't listen to the other weirdos saying "not reading it"

I liked the analysis and I agree with you.

I didn't read the whole text but I got the main idea and you are certainly right, the fact that every NA team build theirselves around a Jett it's what has made GAMBIT (for example) be an outstanding team, not only because they could counter it because they are built different (literally) that's why their "star player" ended up being Nats (in Iceland)
But it seems like this isn't only Na problem, because we see something similar on Fnatic
And in fact EU hasn't found the perfect "formula" to counter this, the only teams that I think have a decent formula to this are Gambit and KRÜ.
Acend relies on Cned (who mains Jett) but it somehow worked
but KRÜ relies on Keznis who's a really flexible player and Gambit is a really balanced team
We'll see how they are going to advance

I feel like EU and teams are better at setting up their star Jetts for kills too. On top of the star Jetts being cracked and going wild, they have thought out strategies behind all of that.

So EU, NA, 100T are rocks, papers, and scissors?

Agreed "EMEA has learned how to not only play Jett better, but also how to play against enemy Jetts" , nice thread 👍