G2 sending this team to the tournament is absolutely vile

Ah forgot about timezones, mb

Who cares about 2024, stop living in the past

skill issue

Washed org

EG > C9

"Failure to comply with critical reporting requirements" makes it sound like it could be something like shady gambling sponsorships/investments that they did not properly disclose to Riot.

Yeah I can read, big daddy

Last year they were invited though. This might be (idk if true) the first time they actively qualified for an event

Least defender sided Ascent match

Yeah they had the chance to either release the duelist, or the IGL, and apparently chose the IGL.

We saw how that went for JDG.

You're going 1/4, unlucky

He was on Neon on Sunset and it already started to decline tbf

Did you have to choose 60 as a threshold because otherwise you couldn't have passed it yourself?

When a team plays differently on two different days against two different opponents, has to be matchfixing

Unlucky for Magnum, seems like they were willing to run it back, but of course you can't pass up on someone like Saadhak.

I would have been curious to see if he could have improved at midrounding.

Hey in EMEA it was the same story and this time Apeks did actually end up winning.

I would be titled as fuck too if my teammate violated the rules of the game, costing us a win. It's also not that hard to just simply not use illegal tech though. Most other teams managed.

How does this affect TSM's legacy though

Yeah, he had a problem with Sacy's style of leadership. Less said he had a lot of anxiety in 2022 and partly attributed it to the way Sacy talked to him. He called it "toxic", I assume it was about Sacy being very blunt/harsh with calling out mistakes.

There's no bad blood between them on a personal level though and I have never heard of Less having problems with anyone else in the team.

Two world champions and the keloqz of Americas

Salaried??? Isn't this a random 5 stack in an open qualifier? This does not look like an org

I just think as an org right now I would overall value crashies lower than eeiu or Verno. Of course he has a lot of experience, which can be very valuable for certain teams, and he has shown insane peaks during his time with Optic, and there is some hope that he could return to that form.

But honestly, with how every single Optic player has looked in VCT in the partnership era, I'm not sure just how much hope that could be. Maybe it was just a case of worked great as a team, but the individuals just are not world class outside of that system.

Crashies hasn't shown world class performances in two years. There were some flashes, but that's just not good enough, especially since the one thing you typically expect from experienced veterans is consistency.

Eeiu has had one year in tier 1 and at least in my opinion has been a top 5 initiator in his region. Both he and Verno have clear upwards trajectories, and just don't have that baggage of two mediocre years in the current VCT system.

Of course crashies, across his career, has been the better player, but many players looked like the best in the world once and are now mediocre at best (cned, zeek, yay, marved, all of navi, etc). With how this year has been going, I'm taking promising tier 2 talent any day of the week.

I'm not saying crashies is bad, but calling eeiu a t2 player while he was performing well on a team placing 4th at a masters event is insane.

Also sorry but saying 100T's run was a fluke because they lost one match to KRÜ and simultaneously arguing that NRG was actually good and it was "a combination of things" is wild.

Eeiu was better than crashies this year. You're free to believe crashies still has more potential for next year. But eeiu was the 5th highest rated player in Americas stage 2, while crashies barely beat out Xeppaa by 0.01 rating points.

Calling eeiu a t2 player while praising crashies after watching this year of valorant is so far beyond delusional it's not even funny.

Scary to think that CGN might somehow win ascension and we might see Benny one trick Phoenix in VCT. May God have mercy on us all.

In what world is eeiu a T2 player? He actually made a LAN this year, unlike crashies.

It's easy to shake off a 13-2, 13-6 loss. There's zero stress involved. Stress is a factor in cognitive performance.

Are you seriously trying to say that when you're stressed you play the exact same way as when you're relaxed?

Just look at football teams that play in the Champions League during the week, beat the best teams in Europe, to then get shit on by some bottom table team the weekend after. Super common.

Like, nobody's saying the win is not deserved or anything, of course TU played better than Mouz in this game, nobody's denying that. But acting like circumstances have zero effect on game results is just dumb. Otherwise there would never be any upsets. Pressure, stress, mental, it's all part of the game, and if you can't handle it, you don't deserve to win; but acting like it doesn't exist is just weird.

EMEA is finished if EMEA tier 2 team loses against EMEA tier 2 team. If on the other hand EMEA tier 2 team wins against EMEA tier 2 team, there's hope for EMEA.

Huh? Of course teams' form fluctuates based on certain circumstances. Kinda dumb to pretend that playing a very long and stressful game won't have an impact on the players. Happens everywhere in physical sports, in chess, in esports.

Unfortunately, he's a child who can't think of his own insults. Give it a few weeks for the community to come up with new insults for him and he'll adapt. Can't expect little buddy to actually think for himself.

Calling others low IQ while losing money in esports betting is crazy

It's unbelievable how many clutches he is in and how rarely he wins them. He is clearly an extremely skilled player, but man he needs a change of attitude.

Death, taxes, and DRX placing 5th-6th

What's mwzera's FKPR at Champions?

I don't even think he was trying to be cocky or anything, probably just stretching his legs or something, but they lost 15 rounds in a row after he first stood up 💀

So happy for you moatz! What a monumental achievement! What are you gonna do next in life?

Arguably FPX and TH were also the scariest teams from CN and EMEA respectively, at least judging by international performance this year

Who's gonna stop us now??

I will.

The classic +vanity -vanity +vanity -vanity

Still a better Champs record than 100T

The last time FNC faced KRÜ, this happened:

https://www.vlr.gg/51293/fnatic-vs-kr-esports-valorant-champions-qf

Nah, the Trace matches against Vit and Lev were both decently close, though the last maps in both cases much less so.

BLG completely outclassed NRG on four maps in a row, in a time when China was much weaker than they are now, and with ardiis saying he guarantees that NRG is winning.

At least he's making it out of groups

How is it copium to say they lost because they made mistakes? It's not like they were completely hopeless.

Saying the words "forced positivity" and "vlr" in the same sentence is crazy

?

MiniBoo had some very important kills in the last few rounds of Lotus. Not the greatest series from him, but I'm hoping that gives him some confidence for the next few matches.

I mean if we compare regions, we should take the entire regions into account, no? Obviously EG was the best team at the end of last year, and obviously the Champs title matters to the teams more than anything. But what's the point of comparing regions if the only thing you're actually doing is comparing the top handful of teams?

DACH not fraudulent after all?

Patch 9.08. If they stick to their schedule of one patch every 2 weeks, that should be in 12 weeks