8 hours from now on stage 1 playoffs in Americas starts and honestly these first two games will tell a lot about how the playoffs will playout.
First of all, group omega teams seem stronger and they have shown more consistent and better valorant so far and we have to see how they play against Group Alpha teams to really see how good they are.
1) MIBR vs 100T
MIBR are huge favourites coming in because they play better valorant than 100T in general, 100T playstyle is heavily dependent on teamfights and individuals popping off whereas MIBR resembles old macro based 2022-2023 LOUD, with a star duelist like Aspas, aggro lurker who is eager to take fights like Less/Cortezia and good aggro igl with Artzin/Saadhak.
If 100T want an upset they must 1st ban one of Pearl and Icebox and lift their Lotus perma ban because they dont get more than 7 rounds on Pearl and Icebox in my opinion, meanwhile MIBR dont love Lotus that much so they most likely wont 1st pick it. Ideal map veto for 100T and more competetive match:

100T ban Pearl
MIBR ban Fracture
100T pick Haven
MIBR pick Icebox
100T ban Lotus
MIBR ban Ascent
Split remains.

Honestly, I favour MIBR in all 3 maps and Split and Haven might be the best chance for 100T. 65/35 for MIBR.

2. SEN vs C9
   This match will totally be decided by C9's ego and individuals stepping up. If zekken and n4rrate are the best two players on server today, C9 stand no chance even in Sen's worst maps like Icebox becauae of their brawly style. If C9 really want to win, they should focus on their opponents weakness, not their strength because if they pick Haven, Lotus or Pearl thinking they are just the better team on "common ground" maps, they might get 2-0d very quickly and stand up to choker allegations once again. They must pick one of Ascent or Icebox and force Sen to ban the other, also try to get Pearl or Lotus 3rd map.

Sen ban Fracture
C9 ban Split
Sen pick Pearl
C9 pick Ascent
Sen ban Icebox
C9 ban Haven
Lotus remains

From map pool wise, it should be 50/50 or slightly favoured for C9 but I dont trust C9 to pick Ascent and 2nd ban Haven, they might get too excited about their Haven after G2 game and leave it as the 3rd map which will give SEN a better chance. So 55/45 for SEN.

TH players are obviuosly clip farming in this video and you guys are just falling for the most obvious rage bait

People only remember early to mid 2023 when they talk about Leo but forget another great iniator players exist. Before Leo reached his peak, Sacy, Crashies and Shao were the players everybody talked about and learned from. After 2023 we have seen other initiators peak arguably even higher than Leo, Riens was playing out of his mind all of 2024, S1mon's breach singlehandedly turned EDG that was getting 26-5 ed at Internationals to winning champs, Trent and Jonah are teaching everybody how to play breach tejo in the current meta etc. Its crazy how people forget great players who played before and after 2023, somehow they forget about every great initiator when they talk about Leo.

I think its just stylistic problem for now. He was allowed whatever he wanted to do and he had eggsterr and cane running in before him so he just cleaned up afterwards. He is trying to find his role on a new team, just give him some time, he is just 16.

How are they still playing on 30 ping bro? You can clearly see BBL players are abusing this 30 ping and swinging everything look at how Magnum is playing just to know how joke of a game is going on. Peekers advantage is still existent on Lan servers with less than 5 ping and they are playing with 30 ping in an official match and there is still an hour tech pause? Also there is no German team in EMEA and only Click in M8 if I am not mistaken is the only German player in entire VCT. Its time to move on to better city with better studios man.

One thing thats really good for C9 is that they played all 7 maps and they look competetive in all of them. I think they should pretend G2 game never happened and prioritize Icebox and Ascent to get better on. Because almost every team in playoffs apart from G2 doesnt have a good Ascent and I dont think G2 are as good in Icebox as the scoreboard shows.
If they wanna beat G2 and SEN and go to Toronto they must get better on Ascent and Icebox and force their opponents ban those maps and pick one of Icebox or Ascent against SEN. If they came away from G2 game and pick Haven or Pearl against SEN and Sen picks Split, they might get 2-0 ed very quickly because I dont think their Haven is world-beater level, they just happened to hit G2's weak site everytime and won a lot of rounds due to ults&clutches.
Although I am a Sen fan I want to see Oxy in an international tournament and for that to happen they need to drop their ego a bit and work on their opponents weak maps.

Thats what confuses me most about Asuna, if you watch his streams he plays like normal valorant pro and uses the vandal and aims like a normal pro. He is usually top fragging in ranked servers with current pros and tier 2 players but when it comes to matches he aims wildly with a phantom and always sprays.

Sen since johnqt was added has always had a map pool like that, they are so good at some maps to the point almost every team copy their comps and strats like Pearl and Split, but they are bad at simple and no macro maps like Ascent and Icebox. They have always been like that and I dont know why suddenly it became a talking point.

Who is the 2nd initiator on raze maps on this team and who is the breach player on other maps? Will Cryo full-time play yoru jett and Asuna flex? Can Asuna play breach?

Am I crazy to speculate #1 seeds from Americas and China will struggle in Toronto this year? Because there is a 6 week break between Americas and China Granfinals and playoffs of Toronto and teams might start cold after being off the stage for so long. Remember the fact that for last couple of tournaments, teams that are not pre-torunament favourites but the teams that improved throughout the tournament won the entire thing.
For instance, PRX and FNC were pre-favourite tournaments in Shanghai, GENG won the whole thing and top 3 teams were all swiss stage teams in that tournament, same with EDG in champs and T1 at Bangkok; they are all the teams that improved over the tournament and reached their peak at grandfinals. Do you think same thing will happen again or G2 and EDG(most likely #1 seeds) will still finish top 3 at Masters?

Lotus is a bit of copium and bias for sure but I have trust in johnqt to improve their attackside calling. They were getting 8-4, 9-3 attack halves last year even if they lost pistol sometimes so they should be able to do it in theory.

I also feel like thats coming because Lotus will be in the pool against both C9 and G2 probably and so far they dont look good enough to beat G2, but if they can they will go on a run for sure

Playoffs are approaching in Americas this week and most people are predicting Group Omega teams to qaulify for playoffs with the competetion being easier in Group Alpha. I feel like Sen are sneakily improving and peaking at the right time, although their group were easier they were the only team who won convincingly against everyone in their group apart from KRU.
Their comms look a lot more calm compared to kickoff but the most imposrtant thing is they have a similar map pool as old SEN last year. They have 4 good maps: Split, Haven, Pearl and Lotus. Old Sen also had only 4 good maps if you remember they were Split, Sunset, Lotus and Haven. This is much better compared to their kickoff map pool where they winning off of hero plays in a lot of close maps and they looked good on maps based on form but now they actually look like they have good protocols on their good maps. If they can improve their Lotus in this week and can win against G2 they can win Americas for sure but right now they look like #2/3 team alongside MIBR.

I feel like Brazilian teams get ecoed the most in Americas especially in 2nd rounds. I think sometimes they are either too agressive as a team and get swormed or take individual risks when they dont need to especially on defense. It does feel like they play for stats sometimes, saving in 3v4s, getting too agressive against ecoes, saving even in bonus rounds when you have to damage your opponents economy etc.

Lets hold off on players who dont perform internationals for now, otherwise we only glaze title winning players and other players get overshadowed.

I didnt watch too much of Bang when he was on 100T but I always thought of him as a viper/astra player who is really good in clutches but not that agressive controller like Mako or Tenz. But so far this year in Sen, Bang has been fairly agressive anchor and agressive 2nd entry alongside zekken and narrate, was he always like this and I didnt notice or is it just his new playstyle on a new team?
For example, in stage 1 he has the 2nd most first kills after zekken: zekken- 45, bang- 23, narrate - 21

My god this game is gonna be interesting, what a time to have The battle of the mid. Loser of this game is gonna get flamed so hard by the community you cant even imagine what is gonna happen in mid-season break. Loser of this game will be the only NA squad that doesnt make playoffs and oh man the roster changes are gonna be coming for both of these teams. Just cant wait

I dont think they get points for playoff wins they only get extra points for 1-4 th places

I feel like for their playstyle to work at least 4 out of 5 of their players need to be online and be shooting or Cryo to drop 30 for them to be competetive against playoff teams. Because they are not just able to outshoot other teams like they did against teams like EG and 2G. They are swinging into spawn with 4 players when Boostio and Zander are having a rough game and Eeiu although good aimer is not that agressive usually. I feel like if I were to rank them just purely on firepower in Americas they are top 5-6 at best and I dont think they can beat other teams in playoffs with their current form.

No it doesnt, but it does matter for LOUD for their pride and confidence going forward because they have a squad that should contest for internationals. If they dont win tomorrow, their mood for whole 2 months of prac will be low, also that means no Brazilian team thats not named MIBR has won a match against teams from other regions this split.

How do you guys sat through this kind of depressing games like this for 4 years? I feel like I need to check with a doctor after being a 100T fan for 1 map.

Zekken is better overall player and more flexible in general but jawg is a better dive duelist, his raze, neon and waylay movement is just otherworldly. I feel like you never see jawg's full tap aim montage clips they are almost always movement outplay, spraydown or some crazy play no one ever goes for but zekken has so many pure aim clips. Both of them have similar yoru but jawg has some crazy plays as well that zekken doesnt go for.

1st seed on the line, eco reset round, 4v3, bomb planted on the best spot and out of all the rounds you choke this round C9? I am kinda happy C9 looked this good but disappointed they didnt close this out at the same.

We'll see at the playoffs I guess. 100T vs C9 should be a fun match, almost like APAC game in Americas cuz both teams just run it down

I mean C9 kinda melted after I wrote this, G2 had a good defense but their attack wasnt 8-4 worthy good

Yeah maybe this gameplay is looking bad for me after watching TH play a really clean game against NAVI, casters mustve watched Furia vod before casting this match then xd

I know but the gameplay doesnt reflect the scoreline correctly either. Its 8-2 on the gunrounds for G2 but G2 got like 4 spam first kills, some post plant clutches and some messup rounds by C9. It was not perfect valorant as casters are describing, we saw much better gameplay by G2

How are they glazing g2 this hard with 6-4 scoreline and half of their kills are spam kills? Bruh, I know C9 isnt playing good either but cmon

If its a 3-way tie its gonna be H2H first then map diff then round diff as usual but in this group if 3 way tie occurs everyone wouldve beated each other so map diff is gonna be immediate tiebreaker

*Lazt scenario I forgot to add C9 win 2-1, MIBR win 2-0, In this case:
MIBR 1st seed, 2nd seed comes down to round diff

Today, there are 2 games in VCT Americas to decide seedings for playoffs. Even the number 2 and number 3 seeds kinda matters because you might wanna avoid Sen in the first game of playoffs as they are more likely to finish 2nd in other group.
Group standings so far:

1. G2 4-0. +6 map diff

2. MIBR 3-1. +4

3. C9 3-1. +4
   So all the possibilities
   1) G2 win
   No matter what heppens in other games, G2 1st seed, MIBR 2nd, C9 3rd seed in all scenarios. (Dont forget MIBR have a H2H over C9)

4. C9 win 2-0; MIBR win 2-0
   G2 3rd seed, 1st seed comes down to round diff between C9 and MIBR, so far C9 leads up until this match(+30 compared to +21)

5. C9 wins 2-0, MIBR win 2-1
   C9 1st seed, 2nd seed is down to round diff

6. C9 wins 2-1, MIBR win 2-1
   Everything comes down to round diff but its most likely C9 who gets the 1st seed.

So, every team needs to win today even G2 if they want to get the 1st seed. Also MIBR must win 2-0 with a huge round differential if they want to get the 1st seed.

Am I the only one who felt like their reaction time was slower than Ascendant/diamond player today? Every round every BBL player is having enough time to adjust their aim to two opponents before they are killed and M8 cant dodge sova ult to save their life for once and how is profek having enough time to fire 2 outlaw bullets and take cover on a buy round as a omen, like whats going on? Did they forget to sleep last night?

I only think of zombs when someone says racist against other regions. Which other player are you talking about then? Keznit?

I feel like Zellsis performing in big games is more due to opponent team being nervous more than anything. His aim looks little bit better than usual but his opponents whiff everytime he wide swings. Maybe thats also the quality of a big player idk

Who do you guys think are the players suited for "Big game player" title in Valorant? They are players who perform just like other players maybe sometimes bit below average during the regular season but pop off in high pressure games like playoffs, important matches, grand finals and international tournaments. These are the top five I think that fits description best right now:
Meteor
Zmijkk
Less
Jawgemo
Chronicle

At the recent youtube video posted by tdawgg (https://youtu.be/Or_8mRNdeEI?si=qlIToqSd5dqet44u watch the "Recap" part only if you want the minimal context), he talks about NRG's mistakes against MIBR and gives his speculations about why they kicked Verno while claimining to have some inside info.

From what I understood from that video is that there was a problem of accountability and people being responsible for mistakes during vod reviews and scrims and that caused the divide between FNS with 2 other players and Bonkar and Verno. Eventually it came to the point that org was forced to choose between FNS with 2 other players (probably ethan and som) and Bonkar and Verno and they decided to stick with FNS.

(Speculation)
So it seems like Verno was quiet during vod reviews whole time and when they lost at kickoff with the performance from FNS, he blamed FNS for the losses and didnt take responsibility on the losses and that caused the divide idk.

Whatever happened behind the scenes it will never come out openly anytime soon, this is all just speculation but NRG fcked themselves with mid-season roster move and coach change now they have to play catch up for the rest of the year.

I agree with you that last years SEN were never "I will outaim you" team, they always won matches with better macro, thats why they were bad at maps with no macro like Abyss, Breeze and Icebox. I think this new version of the team playing more pack heavy is because of the meta being execute heavy. Zellsis is playing in the pack on maps he plays vyse but we saw him lurk a lot when he was on cypher on Haven, viper on split etc. Just give them bit nore time to get better at other maps, cuz I agree with you that they are playing some maps bit too fast especially Lotus attackside.

I think all of it just comes down to the fact that john is a better aimer, more agressive lurker and better contacting player than Zellsis is. I think both of them are good at inititator but john is just better sentinel than zellsis. Thats why you are seeing this version of SEN as a more pack heavy style rather than 1-3-1, 4-1s they used to do with older team.
But they are doing this for a reason, they tried N4RRATE on sentinel first, then N4RRATE on flex and John on scan+tejo, now in stage 1 N4RRATE is playing more scan+tejo and John is flexing. They've certainly tried john on senti and N4RRATE and Zellsis at initiator combo in scrims but it looks like this is the best version they think the team can be. I think you should just trust Kaplan and johnqt at handling the role situations better since they've shown they can pull off a role change of a player in team with TenZ, also we dont know the scrim results and what else goes on the team inside.

Sen will most likely get the 2nd seed if they beat 2G no matter what happens in other games. I think the most like opponent for SEN is C9 if they get 2nd seed. They actually might prefer the 3rd seed because if they go through as 2nd seed and win their 1st match at playoffs, they would have to play G2 and with how shaky Sen's Lotus looks I dont think they can win that game even if they can win one of Split/Pearl

EG vs KRU game might look just another match with a heavy favourite but it might turn out to be the most impostant match in this group for Stage 1.

Firstly, If EG win today they will secure playoffs because LOUD cant get 2 wins, 2G can secure 2-3 score but EG have a head to head tiebreak over 2G.
Secondly, LOUD and 2G are praying for KRU to win otherwise both of them cant get to playoffs.

EG vs KRU game is really important for SEN as well in a case that if KRU win this game there is no possible way for SEN to get the 1st seed. You might say there is gonna be 3-way tie between 100T, KRU and Sen if 100T beats KRU but in that case, there is no possible way for SEN to get a better map diff than 100T

Most weird fact about this game is that 100T need KRU to win because they want to create the 3-way tie for them to have a chance at first seed because they will most likely have the best map differential if they 2-0 KRU last week, otherwise they will tie with Sen and Sen has a H2H tiebreak over 100T.

Also as a neutral fan we want KRU to win because the watching the do or die match between EG vs LOUD for playoffs is gonna be fun.

So overall, all of Brazil, 100T and neutral fans are gonna be cheering for KRU, but only Sen fans are rooting for EG. Have fun watching the games

Why is Zellsis playing with a confidence like he is aspas or smth? He is always running in without any awareness and I think he makes a lot of "run it down" calls Sen are doing in their attack sides. He needs to play with more awareness and bit more respect

Poor NRG have to play prime version of their opponents in their group huh? Furia on Lotus, Regular season C9, Unbeatable G2, Best Brazilian team MIBR and next week Prime LEV. Man, god doesnt want FNS to go to Toronto it seems like

COM singlehandedly lost them 3 huge swing rounds on defense half alone. LEV for sure wouldve won this map if com was just a little bit amarter with his decision making

You gotta factor in reaction time and aiming style as well. Many people in NA have a fast reaction time and burst a lot like Zekken, N4rrate, Oxy, som and so many other ex cs players have bursty aim but they cover it up with quick reset and fast reaction time. In EU you see more of tappy aim especially with Turkish players thats why they have generally higher hsp, you can see that with brazilian players as well. Higher hsp doesnt mean better aimer, quick bursty player might hit their 2nd burst before tappy players adjusts his aim.

Ange1 really found young version of himself huh? Ruxic is always making plays that either win the round or lose the round as a solo smokes which is exactly how Ange1 played smokes. I feel like there is 2 mini-teams within NAVI, Koala, Shao and Hiro are always makjng percentage plays and meanwhile ANGE1 and Ruxic taking every risk possible regardless of their role

Its not gonna happen this year tho, Sen's problem is not talent, its just chemistry. Why would they change their core leader player for another young player who is not experienced to suffer from same problems once again? They should just get better as the year goes on with the current team, bang, narrate and zekken are good enough star fraggers, johnqt and zellsis can hold their own, they dont need another change

They were just running 100T comp from Kickoff at the beginning then they changed their comp to Sen's comp on Split after seeing 100T's comp weaknesses combined with nightz being uncomfortable.

Its crazy how much people underrate Bang as a fragger. I think he is up there in Americas with som, valyn and pancada in terms of controllers who has good aim in general. Some sen fans were upset Sen picked up Bang over zander in off season, so far this season and the 2 matches they played against each other you saw the reason why.

I think the main reason why they switched roles is nightz was uncomfortable on sage on split thats why they put him on Yoru. Also reduxx and skuba are more flexible than 16 year old nightz, they just want to be a better team with more comfort roles on their players, I dont think role swaps on Cubert affects main Sen roster.
Also if there is gonna be any change on Sen roster its not gonna be in near future, its gonna be after Champs 2025 ends because this team was built to improve as the year goes on and peak at champs. I dont think Zellsis is ever getting dropped this year as soon as he keeps his current performance because he is such a valuable leader and flexible player.

It is crazy how hindsighty and biased they are when it comes to Americas especially. Loud vs Sen and MIBR vs NRG should never be guarantees, we have seen MIBR struggle to solve simple problems and get bailed out by clutches and individual takeovers, also Sen are really inconsistent. Also I feel like Loud are team that plays up to opponents level, whether its rock bottom like 2G, or the best team in the group like KRU, so Loud could beat any team

These rage posts are crazy man. Look at her performance vs TH and then her popping off against much weaker NAVI and all of us sudden she is the best aimer the world has ever seen? Also she has an awp ace with 2-3 really good shots and we declare it the best ace of all time? Lets be realistic guys, if you saw those clips or those performances from good players on bad teams(like Meiy, Dep, Vookashu etc) you wouldnt hype them up this much, just look at her as a normal player.