There is a scenario where TH goes 5-0 and everybody else goes 2-3 in this group to form 5-way tie and its actually possible and you might say its even likely if M8 win their games(this is probably not happening but imagine) and all other favourties win their games.

I mean I have to write about it, they also say Americas is ass when C9 have one bad Haven attack half, so they kinda deserve the hate

Can you count any meaningful trophy your team won? Any? Come back after you won something

Keep coping with the off season tournament wins all you want. GTA 6 will be released before EMEA wins another VCT trophy at this rate

Thats your team that is about to be 3-0 in groups? Holy shit they are bad. It looks like haters are right, Western teams are absolutely cooked

Yeah I was thinking the same thing too because every other region has stage 2 placement as the 1st tiebreaker but Americas has H2H first. You can see it for yourself here: https://cdn.sanity.io/files/dsfx7636/news_live/1c0e2369b0248ab62cab39afa4f83d3f45c85a44.pdf

With MIBR and KRU's loss, maximum any team can achieve is 14 points and SEN have H2H over only team that can do that(MIBR). (Americas uses H2H first for points tiebreaker unlike other regions)
This basically means SEN are 1 win away from Champs 2025, whether it will be against C9 this week or against 2G&EG in upcoming weeks.

Yeah thats the scenario I am talking about. I think both Sen and G2 making Grand finals is about 40-50% and at least one of them making finals is about 80-90% with how other teams looking. So the tiebreaker discussion might come up for that reason

Even if SEN are already qualified by the end of the group stage, knowing which one is true still matters because other 5-6 teams have basically the same points so tiebreakers might still end up playing a big role.

Every region except Americas has the same tiebreaker rule in Championship points except Americas in liquidpedia: https://liquipedia.net/valorant/VCT/2025/Championship_Points/Americas

Every other region's 1st tiebreaker is placement in stage 2, but it is H2H in Americas. Is it listed wrong in liquipedia or is Americas just different?

This matters a lot because if its H2H first as listed at liquipedia, next weeks game vs C9 is Champs qualification game for SEN, they would have 14 points and max any other team can achieve is also 14 but its MIBR only and SEN has H2H advantage over MIBR.
If its otherwise SEN need 2 more wins.

1 win they are in 100%

So basically SEN need to get more than KRU(cuz worse H2H) and at least equal to MIBR(better H2H). SEN has 13, you can say both MIBR and KRU have 6.5 if you adjust to H2H record, maximum points a team can get from this point is 7.
6.5+7= 13.5 Sen just need one more win.

Split has so many bangers, I feel like you can count more than 10 candidates for the best Split ever played.
TH vs PRX, Madrid 2024 - Probably the most fun map to watch, 1st half esp. was a highlight reel
SEN vs GENG, Madrid 2024 - I think the highest level Split gameplay ever in a macro level, so many good called rounds from both teams
FNC vs Gambit, 2022 - Most thrilling map ever
EDG vs TL, Bangkok 2025
G2 vs T1, Bangkok - both bangers

Best Haven is probably LEV vs XSET in Copenhagen 2022 with probably most weird round in Valorant ever.

Even with artzin they played pretty much the same. Thats why their Icebox was good so that they didnt have to midround as much.

Their macro was always bad, they always defaulted 4-1 or 5 man, their individual form bailed out of many games but now their form is way off than usual. I think teams are reading them better as well for the fact they dont midround as much and they dont default correctly.

Out of any regions, I think Brazilian players are playing most selfishly and baity playstyle. I dont think I see any player from Brazil jump for teammate (maybe except artzin) or try to win 2v3, 3v4s they always try to save in 1 man disadvantage retakes.
Also they seem so slow in retakes compared to other teams, you see teams like C9, 100T and KRU instantly flooding as soon as they have 3-4 players ready but Brazilian teams take very long time to get out of spawn, it almost feels like they are waiting for other team to push and nobody is taking initiative.

How are you guys so surprised that there were so many blowouts in Americas this week? We literally had 2 best teams play against 2 worst teams, we also had regular season c9 playing gainst mid team, MIBR is on a slump, NRG vs LOUD was closer than the scoreline NRG were just winning every clutch. Only disappointing game was Kru vs 100T because I really thought that would be a banger game but KRU ended up on a bad map veto overall and 100T are honeymooning
Looking at the schedule tho, even next week there should be only 2 good games: C9 vs SEN and LEV vs NRG

Breach is fine on Haven and Sunset, any other map you can be mad

2 teams qualify from champs points

If MIBR lose today, next weeks match vs C9 would be Champs qualification game for SEN.

Right now Sen has 13, MIBR has 7 points. MIBR can collect only 8 points without directly qualifying, so if MIBR lose 1 match, SEN only need 1 win, if MIBR lose 2 matches, SEN automatically qualifies.

NRG did not win a single regular season game against NA teams since 2023. All their wins against NA teams were in kickoffs.

It looks like 4 champs teams from China this year are gonna be same as last year. I think BLG and FPX are making grand finals and TE and EDG are qualifying thru champs points. Only possible sneak in could be XLG but I dont think they are making it.

Surely this has to be org's problem not the US embassy's right? Why are they constantly having these issues while other South American teams have these issues once in a while? They had the same problem in kickoff and now in stage 2 as well when they had 3 months to fix these issues. I get it US embassys are not that good at handling situations and its more their fault than Furia org but I just dont understand how they dont try to prevent this stuff

It only took 12 rounds for KOI to realize ults in this game are REALLY GOOD, especially when there is 20s left at the clock.

I dont think he is that good tbh, did you see the round where he tried plant for mount without any space? I think rounds like that might happen a lot against better teams. Also FUT's macro today was so ba that he didnt show his midrounding skills, I dont think they are making top 4

If PRX and T1 lose their matches in upcoming days (lets be real both of their matches are like 80/20 or even more but imagine), EVERY team in wouldve won at least one match and wouldve lost at least 1 match in a span of 3 games. So in a nutshell, nobody is horrible and nobody is perfect. Meanwhile in the west, Furia and Apeks are competing for who is more horrible in VCT

Tyloo players has to have the funniest names in all of VCT. Just look at the roster:
Yoyo
Ninebody
Slowly
Scales
Sword9

This Haven defense is the prime example of "on paper" gameplan going so wrong. Their coach told them they need to aggro A and they need to flank on retakes because they are playing against Viper but they are doing it every single round and telegraphing what they are doing everytime. This kinda stuff just doesnt work against good igls like Munchkin

1) Meteor
2) Oxy
3) Texture
4) Cned
5) Zmijkk
6) Texture

Is it all just simple caffeine crash? They did choke like 3 series in stave 1 as well, they played well in map 1 to the point they won or lost in OT and just completely got destroyed in rest of the maps. Same thing happening again in stage 2, it has to be their pregame routine or smth

Gentle Mates have played in 6 OT maps and won only one of them since stage 1. Pure definiton of a choker team lmao

It looks so useless everytime I see. Idk why Navi is picking Corrode and playing jett at the same time, its not like Alexiik is jett one trick like some people, but his neon is also very good.

Who are the teams you think of when someone describes the team who plays to their opponents level? Those teams play close matches with best of the best and play scrappy games with bottom-table teams within the short time period.

I think this year those kind of teams are KC, M8, LOUD, KRU, RRQ, Talon, T1 and Wolves.

Are the tier2 players just bad or is it just 40 ping game?

Because I am seeing a lot of people gwtting killed by jiggling wide corners, jump-peeking like newzera, and most notably people getting caught by a lot of off-angles. Ate people just not aware and dont clear those off angles or is it just 40 ping? Because a lot of rookies are playing well on tier 1 stage, thats why tier 2 games seem so odd to me.
No hate to Envy or anything, but everytime I see cane holding an off angle he gets 3 everytime on people not even looking at him or not properly clearing him.

If you play it to retake B it can work very well, with yoru tps, neon slides, fade util and if you use omen you also have paranoia. Your suggesting comp Neon, Yoru, Viper, Omen and Fade is really strong at hitting sites and taking map control, I dont think comp would be the reason if a team loses because it is a powerful burst comp. Only improvement I could make to this comp really is Vyse instead of Viper because I didnt see Viper get used well on attack yet, her defensive stuff seems nice but vyse can hold sites on her own you know, its bit simpler and safer I think.

I dont think solo Viper con hold B alone or even with 2 people considering teams are playing at least 2-3 players on mid on defense side. Imagine attackers quick pop behind the attacking Viper wall on B with Neon, fade and omen util, I dont think you can stop the hit without senti util. I think only Vyse can hold B very well, any other agent is questionable.

Narrate is a scan initiators and scan players are fairly consistent fraggers. To be fair to Narrate, hsi fragging has been consistent he is going at least even in most of the games since Bangkok. My point is I suspect he is the one making a lot of 5 man hits.

Thats not what I meant, they can clearly play like a very good team but they are not composed in big matches. Thats it, it isnt one persons fault necessarily

Thats not the issue, I think calling and gameplay inconsistency of john and narrate is the main issue, because bang is playing agressively and comitting a lot of agressive tps and narrate also plays with his gun out more compared to players like eeiu and trent.
As far as I heard from the podcasts, Narrate is the second caller alongside john and altho narrate has been consistent ever since bangkok, john wasnt. Also their calling drastically decreseases in high pressure games, 1 day before they are calling triple fakes and calling masterclass against DRX and the day after they are just 5 man hitting against PRX. So in short, they need to be more confident and composed.

I think corrode theory is gonna be very similar to Split. Remember when everyone started taking fast mid on Split as attackers almost every round at the end of 2021, I think similar thing is gonna happen and people gonna realize defense is stacking 3-4 people on mid every round and they just play double duelist and hit sites as similar thing happened with Split in 2023. I think at champs we will only see double controller with Viper and Cyper/Vyse or double duelist + double smokes Corrode.

If you just make conclusions based on 1st week results, Meiy is the best player on the world and GE just beat stage 1 champions so they have to be the best team in Pacific. You cant make too early conclusions like that. NRG mightve been easiest matchup who knows

Were you asleep before this week? MIBR just got back after a vacation, KRU have never lost to 100T, C9 and EG exist, LOUD and LEV also dont look too bad either. Its too early to call any team secured other than Sen and G2

I think sometimes in the grand finals of VCT events, double ban advantage sometimes is so huge that team from lower bracket who are coming exhausted after long run dont even get to show how good they are. I think to even out the odds little bit Upper bracket team should still keep the double ban advantage but lower bracket team should be able to pick 1st and 3rd maps in a Bo5. 3rd picked map wouldnt be that favoured for lower bracket team anyway because of a double ban. Any thoughts?

NRG attackside calling against decent teams has to be studied, its impressive how bad they look in the games that actually matter

So every attackside of NRG under Ethan vs playoff level teams since 2024:

5-7 on Sunset vs SEN
8-4 on Ascent
1-11 on Split

8-3 on Breeze vs LOUD
10-2 on Sunset

2-10 on Sunset vs LEV
1-11 on Bind

2-10 on Ascent vs EG
6-6 on Lotus
5-7 on Sunset

7-5 on Split vs 100T
4-8 on Bind

3-9 on Bind vs 100T
2-10 on Sunset

Overall, Ethans teams have won 64/167 rounds with 38% round winrate on attackside. This is really bad considering how every good team usually has above 55% attackside winrate. If you take out the stats from the LOUD game because they were jetlagged, attackside winrate drops down to 32%.

Thats the most frustrating thing is that it is the problem they created for themselves, they just had to slot in narrate and bang 1 for 1 but they messed around for too long and now they are playing like a roster with 2 months of scrims instead of 10 months that shouldve been

I am asking mostly SEN fans, what are your expectations for this roster going into last stage of the year?
For me personally, when this roster was build I expected at least 1 out of 3 regional trophies (still possible), at least 2 top 4 finishes at internationals and possibly one grand final at most.
On paper they picked up the best prospects to replace Tenz and Sacy, and even tho this roster seems more consistent they didnt reach the peak of last years SEN's yet. It feels like everything is right but something is missing and they dont even know what it is. I think they are missjng the clutch factor or some might say X factor. They dont show up in big games, they lose a lot of man advantages, they dont clutch up as much or make big plays as last years roster. Just remember how many times johnqt won a clutch or Tenz got a crazy multikill in a swing round or Sacy playing perfect maps when the team needed him most.

From now on I think anything but stage 2 trophy and top 3 finish at champs would be a big disappointment for this roster

Its just a joke man, no need to file a lawsuit. It was just funny how he stated exactly 10 teams can beat each other

If RRQ 2-0s GENG today, GE will be in clear first in this group due to +1 map differential. What a timeline that would be lmao

Thats crazy racist from you saying Japanese teams cant hang in Pacific

But the viper comp is just simply better on Haven, every fan is gonna blame the comp if their execs gets shut down by viper teams and blame zikz for not adapting to the new meta.
One of Cryo and Asuna playing omen and zander playing viper might fix the issues but it needs to be proven.

I just think the same role issues are gonna rise again because of the Viper meta coming back again. So lets say they are playing lotus or haven and they are running the viper comp, which 3 are exactly playing viper, senti and omen? Is Cryo gonna play Omen? Or are they gonna play double duelist every map? If so, they have to outshoot almost every team and I dont think they can outshoot teams like SEN, G2, MIBR and KRU. Even NRG, LOUD, LEV, C9 and EG have pretty much the similar fitepower roster as 100T. So idk man, this plan seems cooked