every other region is so god damn top-heavy

EMEA: other than fnatic every other team looked either mid(Fut) or hard throwing(TL and Navi) and they beat most of the other EMEA teams HARD so imagine 4 mid ass team playing

China: They don't have enough depth. Other than EDG who went far, ASE lost to FUT and DRX who were both extremally mid and that was supposed to be the 2nd seed(though bilibili and FPX went back and beat ASE so theres that)

Pacific: PRX had a sub so I'll excuse them, but T1 and DRX looked like a step above most of the other pacific teams and they still looked mid af(T1 getting rolled by NRG first half of pearl and EDG, DRX losing to a troll gekko main content creator sub).

Americas: Loud got 2nd place cursed, C9 went neck and neck with NRG and could've qual had Crashies not gone god mode, and EG looking like they can be the next champions. Not to mention Sentinels having a revival near the end against kru and furia with barely any prac. Having NRG, EG, C9, Loud, and Sentinels in finals would be god send

Tldr: I love EDG and PRX but pls Americas win this, i cant watch more mid ass teams ruining Champions(only EDG, EG and Fnatic looked decent, everyone else is garbage)

dude if you think kj is good on split then ur actually gold.

Not gonna disagree with the smokes part, redgar was doing the most silver smokes possible to throw the entire game

The comp wasn't the entire problem(like they had issues dealing with cypher), it was just how poorly liquid(esp Redgar(and a bit of jamppi)'s weird ass decision making) played that lost them.

Honestly I think edg fixed a lot of their mistakes from the tl match. The best example is acknowledging the weakness Cypherand double duelist had and playing around jt in loud. I'm still not confident about liquid going into the eg match because of how much edg improved between 1 match and how much loud trolled with their comp

The Edg playing against Navi was not the same edg playing against loud.

Every game edg has been improving, especially after a close game/loss.

I didn't watch the t1 v edg game

Against Navi they edged out a win due to raw aim alone, they saw this weakness and improved their strategy and coordination and midrounding. They then used this to stomp T1

Against Liquid they lost because of not understanding the strengths and weaknesses of their comp(tl exposing their Cypher setups and them not aggressive enough on lotus with double duelist). Although they went more aggressive near the end of the 2nd half of lotus, it wasn't enough. Because of this, against loud they played much more aggressive against loud on defense, and took b main control far more often(since liquid kept on pushing and exploiting that Cypher is shit there). I'll admit loud played shit as well by not understanding their lotus comp and playing a shit fracture comp but yeah, Navi and old edg wouldn't get more than 15 rounds over the series against this new edg.

Tldr: in addition to their insane firepower, edg improves after every game that isn't a stomp, and although they are dark horses rn, I can see them winning Champs with their improvement speed(assuming that they don't do a zeta). Navi fans shouldn't be OK losing closely to edg because that was a shit edg they played against.

The best thing was their adjustments after each game. In their Navi game they were relying too much on individual plays and although they edged out a win they went into the t1 game playing much more coordinated with more protocols. T1 was such a stomp that they had nothing to improve upon anymore, hence them playing the same and losing to TL. In the TL game TL exposed Cypher's weakness and exploited EDG's passiveness on lotus defense(the only reason edg could even make a comeback near the end was bc they learnt to play more aggressive and had chichoo won that clutch edg was going to win lotus) and edg learnt from it, hence they beat Loud by taking B main control more often on lotus and playing much more aggressive.

Tldr, the strength of edg isn't just them having good aim, but also great adaptation willingness to learn after each single defeat/close game(looking at you DRX)

I think they need to just keep a consistent 5(either completely rebuild foxy9 or have zest majorly stepup) and get a better coach then termi cuz he is fucking up by 1:overworking drx 2:not innovating at all 3:doing a 6man roster when it's been proven that the players don't want it and it doesn't work at all

Take out pearl(shit spam fest map)

Though they have to rework mid and a, make a Harder to attack, and mid easier to take.

There is a risk of a spam fest in a site(since site is impossible to hold and its easy to play in a main and spam) but as long as there isn't a feature like backside on pearl b the retake should be able to ignore site and rush a main instead

He choose the bag cuz bleed paid a lot more than what talon could offer(kinda like Yay going c9 and sacy/pancada going sen)

Not trying to defend him though, his team never got past groups eventhough he was performing kinda good

Edg 加油
https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/4f7d4246

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/4f7d4246
Edg加油
Also nrg loud rematch for the nth time

Tl is like xset, their time is in Champs, not now
Edg mid round is a lot better and makes an optic m1 run
Prx wins the first one against bad drx, earns enough time to get sth here, and goes on a tear
Fnc gets cocky and trolls
Also for prx vs edg in ubf it ends with a pearl 13-11 last map for prx and in the finals it ends with a pearl 17-19 in favor of edg

Then again, look at c9 jakee/runi and eg demon1

fuck off

Bluds judging by instalocking💀💀

By that argument reyna is one of the best agent in the game💀💀💀

Please shut your silver ass up and actually watch some pro games first

They are 2 different agent with completely different play style. The same point can be made that Omen's ult is complete dogshit and that omen's tp is exteremly selfish compared to harbor's 2 waves that are exteremly strong at taking space, esp pearl and Icebox. For sage they're not even in the same agent class and the only real similarity is the wall and the cove. Sage excels at stalling while harbor Excels at taking space.

My opinion:ball shouldn't stay

Harbor got like 2 smoke abilities already, and the point is for the cove to not be used like a smoke. For example, giants against th trolled bc they don't understand harbor and used it like another smoke, causing them to get shit plants and losing them a lot of rounds.

In addition, it is a nerf in some instance like planting spike where teams intentionally break cove for better vision and a longer smoke time nerfs it.

Neglecting the fact that harbor is in a balanced state rn, even if you are to buff it, most likely it would be an increase in shield ho

You clearly don't watch pro games if you think that's the case

Harbor has a shit win rate precisely bc it requires a viper and good coordination to be good, sth ranked will never have

Harbor can also be shit in pro play simply because either teams don't understand harbor viper or they have players like zeek who have 0 idea how to do even half decent walls

Giants for example have 0 fucking idea how to play harbor on pearl. They rarely went b and planted in the shittiest place and used cove like a smoke(which is supposed to be used like a sage wall).

And stalling? Dude are you fucking kidding me, Omen flash doesn't stall well, and it is one of the best stall util on maps like Icebox where you just stack harbor+viper walls for infinite delay.

TMV has a really good video on why harbor viper has 35% win rate.

Plus every controller has some gimmick, and not ever controller needs stalling util(like sage as a sentinel doesn't have a trip but still is picked)

And your argument makes no sense either: you say he has no offense. Even if that is correct(which it def isn't with a strong ult and 2 walls), you proceeded to say that it's shit at defense(which you think is "offensive ability" for some reason.

Harbor is perfectly balanced, and any buffs will litearly break him as an agent.

For example:
Sentinels: The foundation of valorant
Gambit: Lurking+Viper/Cypher tech
Acend: 2 Acend comps(bind/split)
Optic: Chamber+Optic comp(Fracture)
FPX: the FPX buy
LOUD: Loud comp(Traditional Ascent)
Fnatic: Fnatic buy(If loud won it it would be Harbor+Viper)

Chamber Trip range:40m to 60m(middle ground between kj and cypher)
Bullet cost:150->100(no one uses it even when chamber is op bc too expensive)
TP range:13m->16m(I tested it, on some maps like lotus it is a game changing buff, on other maps like fracture it is like nothing happened at all)

I'll give an example: Ascent
Strategically: Champions 2022 Loud vs Optic grand final
Entertainment: Champions 2022 DRX vs FPX upper quarter finals

Over C9

Then we'd get

100T:
Bang asuna derrek stellar yay mCe and mikesHD

Sen:
Tenz dapr shazam sacy pancada immi and kaplan

G2:
Old xset roster

Nrg:
Current roster

EG:
Vanity leaf Ethan boostio xeppaa potter

I can tell you did your research, however there's a few points you need to know

1)your losing a lot of team chemistry. Talon has been playing together for such a long time that their chemistry is just very good. If this split doesn't go well they will probably switch like 1-2 players max
2) a lot of these players are unproven(other than PTC where he attended like 1 champions 1 year ago which does not inspire confidence), and although they do perform well in t2, they might crash and fall in t1(though recent examples like runi, jakee, demon1, and foxy9 does prove it wrong, not to mention where 100T dropped their entire roster and rebuilt it)
3) From what I can tell, talon has no fucking idea what they are doing. They are getting diffed strat wise before firepower. The coaching staff addition does help, but I dislike going that far to removing 80% of the roster before they shake up their strategy first.

8/8

On the current map pool

Wait until Bind. I'm calling an over 50% win rate for gekko on bind

I'll take the free money

is alergic to good igl or sth. How tf they constantly get mid igls?

What's your budget?
By the looks of things its around $800-1000

Take a look at this list:
PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor | $156.00 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler | ID-COOLING SE-214-XT 68.2 CFM CPU Cooler | $19.98 @ Amazon
Motherboard | ASRock B550M PG RIPTIDE Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | $99.99 @ Newegg
Memory | TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory | $40.99 @ Amazon
Storage | Silicon Power A60 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive | $44.49 @ Newegg Sellers
Video Card | MSI MECH 2X OC Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card | $259.99 @ Newegg
Case | Montech X3 Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case | $72.80 @ Amazon
Power Supply | Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 ARGB 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $91.99 @ Newegg
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $806.23
| Mail-in rebates | -$20.00
| Total | $786.23
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-03-21 00:19 EDT-0400 |

If you have more budget, upgrade gpu to 6750xt($100 more) or 6800($200 more). It is ridiculous how many people are still on the Nvidia train eventhough they have some of the worst value offerings in gaming(RT and workload is still their territory but I don't think that will be your priority).

Also, there's no real difference in 5600x, and 5700x in gaming performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTaaU12mElM
And even though 5600x is the same performance to 5600, the mobo doesn't support 5600 out of the box, and you need bios flashback to do that(which is only in a $130 mobo). Since the price increase is lower from 5600 to 5600x(+$16), go for 5600x

dew it

let the inner demons out

Try fnatic streak 65 lp
That kb is goated if u like low profile

VLR staff give mini head coach please

Not if these get upseted first

I honestly blame babyj, he is super inflexible and forces cypher on every map. Ec1s forsaw the chamber meta(and asuna wasn't that good on jett anyways) and chamber having 0 synergy with Jett on Ascent, gave Ec1s that idea. Unfortunately they played like they had a duelist(which chamber wasn't) and lost because of it.

Ec1s got benched from liquid bc he can't aim, but the moment he got benched team liquid's strats fell apart(other than the entire team go kill). It's the firepower that carried liquid to tournaments and why they were great at Breeze and icebox(2 most aim heavy maps) but not anything else.

The new 100t is better, but I think Ec1s def deserved a chance with asuna and jcstani.

Has to be boaster, just look at his ot op kills against lev, clearly the best oper itw and clears yay easily. Fnatic are making a mistake putting him on smokes when clearly he should be on jett/chamber!11!!

#FreeBoaster

/s

Bro 50% the price then its a good deal

Why

in a 100,000$ tournament? Liquid has 2 subs so I can understand, but idk abt 100T

In comparison to liquid's famously bad bind, the old core has a 44% winrate on that map(new core not enough data)

It speakes volumes of how garbage 100T has been on Ascent

the current core of 100T has above 56% winrate on all maps. EXCEPT FOR ASCENT'S 38% WINRATE.

Why arent they banning it?

Idk why leaf was playing kj and zellsis playing kayo. I reality it should've been swapped or C9 going with DRX triple initiator comp. In the interview with C9 vanity says leaf is a w player, so why is he on kj? Plus zellsis played kj before(albeit 2 years ago).

In general, people was absolutely right about roles being fucked on C9 and the first map proves it. Hope later games they can figure out their roles.

100t lost because they were always shit at ascent(9-3 loss against faze 0 rounds on attack, let alone 13-0 against tgrd). Plus th played very well with the viper and 100t had no idea how to play against th viper's dominating mid presence.

100t can bounce back, and don't discredit th's impressive Ascent. Also why tf Mike decided to pick Ascent over pearl lul

Isnt that liquid?

I mean it's litearly in their logo

TL, C9, or 100T
TL has the most flexibility(everyone on their team can play 2+ roles)
C9 has the most firepower(leaf+yay goated, zellsis insane, vanity best aimer for an igl)
And 100T has the most chemistry(can't believe I'm saying this after 13-0 loss to tgrd and months of rostermainia that followed)
We'll see if flexibility, firepower, or team chemistry will win but I'm hoping it's TL

No worries, quality>quantity. Take your time mods for more amazing articles! I'm just curious lul.

Vitality was running it lul

in pro teams:
attack: push mid con on ecos, walk down b long on anti-eco, split a on gun rounds
defense: retake b(esp if astra wall exists), usually running 4v5 since chamber gets a pick and gets out. Hold mid and don't push out since mid tiny.

Team comp: Astra Sage Kayo Fade Killjoy/chamber(pre nerf)
Sage is insane for B takes and retakes and all pro teams should use her

Harbor: MindFreak

https://www.vlr.gg/112607/m3-champions-vs-team-liquid-champions-tour-emea-last-chance-qualifier-gf/?game=90934&tab=overview
tbf he did perform before but not as good as other astras(good astra are all from APAC other than marved which is vietnamese?)

he ran it on ascent before but looks very shaky on it

All three of the roster update threads are dead for 40+ days despite there being several major roster changes.

Why are these still pinned if no one updates them?

Yeah but cryo's 2 best agents Jett and chamber is unplayable on these two maps(esp post nerf). Unless he flex to raze(which he should be able to had Bind not been removed) or sage(OK op agent) then roles are a problem for 100T(will was their raze player)

Most dogshit map. In pro play it's just 5 group up(or one lurk mid) go site. Same viper+chamber+sage setup every game. In ranked b doesn't exist esp without a sage and it's even more aim only than Breeze. Mid is unusable unless both teams are brain dead. Ik why bind(unplayable without viper) and breeze(mid is barely used) is removed but in my eyes Icebox is more deserving than breeze.