If I shower in the morning, cold to wake up

In the evening warm to relax

Yessirskii
Suygetsu
AverageJonas
DisguisedToast
Yay

vs

Babysasuke
Babybay
BabyJ
A literal baby
Subroza

You know you can format links, right? Something like this

Type [text] (link) but without the space in between

They don't even have servers lmao. Even if Africa had insane talent they wouldn't be able to compete

C0m

EMEA is the best region in Valorant and here's why:

I like them

Education is definitely a way to success, but not the quickest lol

Maybe get Mixwell as a sub

Kolda is washed tbh. He's a cool guy, I like him, but he's not one of EMEA's best. Who knows if he'd even be on KOI if not for the fact that he's their token Spanish player (like Mixwell on TH)

Do we actually know if Riot warned them for tbagging? As far as I'm aware, it was only Forsaken saying it during the press conference. On the other hand, everyone is saying "why warn PRX but not EG". How do we know that EG wasn't warned? Aren't we all overreacting a bit?

Sorry, I mean holy shit Rito racist 😡😡😡 game's gone soft 😡😡😡 pussy soyboy cucks 😡😡😡

They were punished by the home crowd supporting PRX more than them

Both. Fnatic played the same comps and the same strats all year, and while it worked for the most part, Loud's prep was extremely good, they had excellent reads on how to counter Fnatic's defaults and their defensive setups.

Fnatic was a bit predictable and Loud took advantage of it really well. Plus Less and Cauanzin are in insane form.

You het a warning first, and if you do it again, you get penalised. Same rule for all teams. EG were also warned.

Last I checked, Brazil was in the USA: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil,_Indiana

My life is in shambles tbh. My wife just called me and told me she's leaving me for an Evil Genius.

North American Valorant is dominating and always has been. I mean let's look at the history.

Island 2021 was won by Sentinels TenZ (NA)

Berlin 2021 was won by Gambit esports (India)

Champions 2021 was won by Vivo Keyd (NA) and then taken away from them by Riot and given to Ascend to please the European audience (they are crybabies whereas us Americans have class and can accept losses in style)

Island 2022 was won by the greatest team of all time, Optical Gaming (NA), in the most dominant fashion of any tournament.

Copperhagen 2022 was won by FunPlus Phoenix (China)

Champions 2022 was won by Loud (NA)

LOCK//IN was a Mickey Mouse tournament and doesn't count

Tokyo 2023 was now proven to have been fraudulent. The two losses of Fnatic vs NA at Champions have shown that Fnatic can't win against NA fair and square. The grand final in Tokyo was rigged, and the actual winners are Evil Genius.

Champions 2023 has an all NA grand final (Loud vs Evil Genius)

So, out of 11 LANs so far, 9 were won by NA 🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷, 1 by China, and 1 by India. And EMEA clowns still think they stand a chance. As someone who was born in the greatest crunchy on earth (the United States of the US 🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾) I just have to be honest here and say that we are just so much better (I would like to be humble but unfortunately it's not possible).

it's okay bro, you'll get over the loss

That alarmbot might get them the whole tournament

Ritual sacrifice

I mean I'm really not trying to say Termir or Barbarr are bad coaches. I really enjoyed watching Guild play, and DRX obviously has a lot of cool stuff as well. Onur I'm still a bit sceptical about tbh. But Potter took a mid team, added one experienced player in Ethan, one completely unknown ranked demon (idk if she did the scouting or someone else did), and got them two top 3 performances at LANs.

In the history of Valorant, only three teams made two top 3's in a row (Gambit, Optic, Fnatic; I guess Loud as well if you count champs 2022 -> Lock//in). Surely that's a very impressive record? And they look extremely drilled, their ult economy is the best in the world alongside maybe Fnatic, their prep is extremely solid in every single game, they consistently win pistol rounds, and her timeouts are super effective as well. Those are all things that I think she deserves credit for as a coach. In this year, she has 100% outdone Termi and Barbarr.

Termi screwed up DRX's whole year by severely mismanaging the whole Foxy9 situation.

Barbarr had world champion starxo, masters berlin winner sheydos (who many people called the best player on gambit), and one of the biggest talents in all of EMEA in trexx on his team this year, and only managed to beat navi and heretics all year. On Guild he had Leo, trexx and Sayf and also only made one international tournament (losing to old navi and OGLU in LCQ...)

Not even gonna address Neilzinho lmao

Onur had a good run with KRÜ in 2021. It was a huge momentum- and keznit-based run though, not sure how much his coaching contributed to that. His stint with Leviatán was a huge disappointment though, and a lot of that came down to coaching/team structure. They had some of the best set plays and pistols in the world, but were way too rigid with them and didn't evolve. That's on the coach.

mCe and mini are probably the two best talent scouts in the world tbh. Those two and chet are definitely great coaches. But the rest has to be a joke.

They win so many rounds that look like they really shouldn't win them, it's absolutely insane.

Like I'm not delusional, I'm not calling them lucky or anything, but so many of those rounds look lucky on the surface that it can be really frustrating to watch. Fair play to them though

Out of the four teams I think all of them would be cool stories.

I think I'd prefer PRX just to give Jinggg a trophy before he does his military service.

But EG going from laughing stock of the Americas with ten fans to everyone on vlr always having been an EG fan (trust), with some random ranked player being their star duelist and Potter as their coach would be cool.

Fnatic winning three in a row would also be interesting because then every team will be super hungry next year because everyone wants to be the ones to take down Fnatic. At more than 3 titles in a row I'd get bored but 3 is still a tolerable amount tbh.

And lastly Loud with the abysmal Tokyo performance, being seeded into the "group of death" barely beating Na'Vi 37-35, to then beat Fnatic twice and make a lower bracket run would also be insanely cool.

But I can't help but root for PRX.

Fnatic has a solid fanbase in Japan, it's a no brainer to invite them

Zombs

Sanest vlr user

Why is everyone arguing about wages or comparing esports to physically demanding jobs? Chronicle is just asking for the schedule to be loosened a bit, how is this so controversial?

1) Obviously esports players get paid a lot of money and you could definitely argue that it's unfair or whatever. That's besides the point though.

2) Comparisons to physically demanding jobs are bit difficult, because physically demanding jobs and mentally demanding jobs affect people in very different ways. That being said, esports is generally horrible for long term physical health, notable eyes, neck, back and wrist are affected. While physically demanding jobs undoubtedly are more straining, well, physically, they can be a lot easier to recover from, because you actually still find mental energy to do things in your free time.

3) In terms of mental health, there's an elevated risk of burnout, depression, anxiety and more, and these schedules are contributing to that. Compared to office jobs which include somewhat comparable amounts of sitting in front of a computer, esports requires a lot more mental focus over longer periods of the day. During pracs, you have to constantly maintain a low reaction time, process information quickly, and react to information quickly. In most office jobs cognitive processes are much slower, making it a lot less tense and mentally straining

4) This whole, "they're getting paid so much, their jobs SHOULD make them suicidal" thing is so weird. Loosening the schedule a bit and distributing the same amount of games over a slightly longer period of time to give players breaks means they do the same amount of work, but their mental health suffers less. Why is that not something we agree on?

5) People in this thread are talking a lot about the length of the breaks. The thing is, breaks that are too long are actually super counterproductive. Short, regular breaks are a lot more effective at alleviating the effects of stress on the psyche. There's a reason why at the gym, you do short breaks between sets rather than doing everything at once and then taking a long break. On a bigger scale this still holds true, and literally just a one or two week longer break after Masters could already be effective.

Pretty much all the science (granted, esports is young and science is slow, so there isn't a plethora of research, but the little that exists) agrees with Chronicle. See for example https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00138/full for a review.

No they're just calling him weird for being so obsessed with Loud

literally any team but loud. i want to see them disband and die down outta the scene.

That's not a normal opinion, bro is actually having a mental breakdown over an esports team 💀

No one asked about your opinion either lil bro

name one job that requires you to be fully mentally focused for several hours a day

How tf am I spoiled I'm poor as shit 😭

Yeah and everyone can also ask wtf made you have you opinion

Literally nobody is saying they should root for loud bro

Nobody is saying they should be paid more or whatever, it's just about the work hours. Competitive gaming isn't just "playing fun little videogames all day", it's hard work. I've worked physically demanding jobs and it was the easiest shit in my life. After a few weeks at most you're fully in shape, and then it's just autopiloting. After getting home I could just chill and my brain was still functioning. On the other hand when I worked more mentally demanding jobs, after work I was dead, I couldn't do anything. Barely managed to make dinner for myself most days. And that's without the pressure of having zero job security and basically needing to grind in your free time just to be able to keep your job.

Are Valorant pros overpaid? 100%. But that doesn't mean that it's an easy job. Chronicle's point is literally just "loosening the schedule a bit would be better for players' mental health" how the fuck is that controversial??

you choose YOUR hours

That's just.... straight up a lie? You can choose hours to individually grind on top of your mandated work hours, but most of the time invested is as a team and that's very rigidly dictated by the org.

you choose how much of a grind you put in

That is, on top of the mandated grind that you don't have a say in. All the grinding you do unpaid in your free time, and it's still required because if you don't grind enough you get fired.

It is 100% more mentally demanding than most conventional jobs. I mean name one job that requires you to be fully mentally focused for several hours a day. Surgeon is the only example I can think of. Most physically demanding jobs or office jobs are pretty easy in that regard.

10× effort that a gamer does

I've worked a couple jobs and they were all so much easier lmao. As a professional gamer you have to focused during pretty much 100% of tour work hours. As an office worker you need maybe 1 hour of intense focus a day, max. Most is just autopiloting simple tasks. Same for physically demanding jobs, you get used to it pretty quickly and then it's just autopilot.

Obviously gaming casually in your free time is fun and easy but you're not doing it for the entire day, six days a week, with the expectation that if you don't perform, tou get fired.

Always easy to sit back on your ass and tell other people they're soft when you couldn't do half the shit they do.

The kick-off tournament is straight double elim with no round robin or group stage or anything. So there has to be some kind of seeding (like there was in LCQ). Now you could base seeding on last year's performance, but the Ascension teams weren't in last year's VCT, so how do you seed them? Straight at the bottom? Just seems a bit unfair since they haven't yet gotten a chance to prove themselves at tier 1 level. I feel like they should have just done a full league split immediately.

I can't believe EMEA orgs have failed so miserably in developing talent from Botswana. Huge failure on their part, finished region tbh

All good, keep up the good work o7

Yeah but the question is if they're still paying Demon1 league minimums now, because they most likely used to when he was on the reserve roster.

Nobody claimed that you said "greatly influence", as Zerphyr1 said TWICE you were RESPONDING to a guy who said Leo didn't greatly influence the decision acting like they claimed he didn't influence the decision at all. Basically

A: He didn't impact the decision that much
B: you're so stupid, he definitely impacted the decision a little bit

You didn't actually dispute the original point.

The irony in calling someone else dumb for something that they never actually said because you lack the reading comprehension...

Leo is 100% using Morse code anal beads

In literally any esport or traditional sport, tier 2 competition primarily exists as a pipeline to tier 1 competition.

If any team in a second league has a good player, they'll get poached by a top league team. Obviously every player's goal is to compete with the best.

The fact that Valorant has a promotion/guest slot system is already giving tier 2 a lot more value than any esports titles with a franchise league. Although I hope after 2027 when the 5 year contracts with the partnered teams run out, we will get an actual promotion/relegation system.

He literally just reads Twitter though. It's definitely good content but I'm like 95% certain that he does not have any contacts; most of what he says beyond literally just reading out tweets is just his own speculation.

Can you reveal what your source was for the C9 claim? Or at least give an estimate for how trustworthy this source is? Because that will be crazy if it's true.

Sacy
Pancada
Aspas
Zombs
BabyJ

Crazy how NIP had a team in EU, then BR, and now China

That would be bonkers

I guess the people who supported FPX last year should now cheer for the Chinese team instead of NAVI