they're france's last hope to make paris, so what are we working with here?
they just missed the meta. They were anti tejo and pro harbor. It turned out tejo was busted and harbor wasnt good.
Tejo nerf is step 1 thats gonna help them. Step 2 is finding a player who can play vyse well. Elite is being replaced. They need to find a good option. Step 3 is praying for harbor buff or abandoning the idea and trying to use the time off to figure out the tejo less meta.
Suygetu and Marteen are top tier players in EMEA right now. Thats not the issue. Meta read was the biggest issue.
Theres still room for optimism in stage 2
Some of the big steps to take are working on team coordination and giving the players more flexibility to adjust mid-round. Everything this team is trying to do is well thought-out and practiced but if anything gets in the way of it they almost seem to lose their purpose. ENGH's a beast with the metagame, but they've proven that even with the best of theories, you need to be able to apply them to their fullest. That's what needs to be built into this team. They've shown glimmers of these on-the-fly adjustments in some of their games, but it's a lot more prevalent in each of these players' past teams, especially in the case of LOUD with Saadhak.
To expand on that last point, the biggest question heading into the team this year was whether ENGH's solidity was able to mesh with Saadhak's fluidity. And it definitely has... but only against teams that haven't been able to counter it effectively, which is unfortunately the majority of teams in EMEA. The current balance feels a bit wishywashy, if that makes sense. Almost as if the team itself doesn't really know how it needs to play. They either need to lean into Saadhak and play as a risky, more adaptive team, or they need to go the ENGH route and play rigid, drilled VALORANT, similar to how G2 has been playing. Doing a bit of both isn't really something any team can currently do. Karmine Corp need to prioritize one over the other.
This roster has the talent to make it big. They're just a few steps away from getting where they need to be, and those happen to be the most important steps any team may need to make: finding their identity, and being more adaptable. If they jump those hurdles then I truly believe they can make a deep run at Champions.
I ask cause I haven't been watching them as much but this makes a lot of sense. And it looks like Elite is fragging a lot worse than he was at kickoff which is strange?
I swear this is why G2's influence is gonna be bad for valorant. It's not sustainable to "solve" all your rounds ahead of time with valoplant diagrams when it's the best against the best. Maybe KC is the one team that needs more "go shoot" game plans idk
Part of it is also that they're getting antsy and dry peeking, taking solo fights, etc.
Elite hasn't been having a good split and people are saying it's because he's uncomfortable on Vyse but honestly, if you just let this guy shoot them, he will do well. This team is definitely more confined than it should be and he's the player it's taking the biggest toll on.