And a week before that everyone in Brazil was talking how NIP were gonna crush KRU.
I think this just proves you guys are a fickle bunch.

If kru upsets loud Brazil will probably just cease to exist.

Loud should 2-0 though

Xerxia 2-1 hopium

This is a hell of a first draw for both teams. I think Loud wins it, but I also think it's closer than most expect.

https://twitter.com/ValorantEsports/status/1542956290774913024

Group A
Optic Gaming vs. Guild Esports
LOUD vs. KRU Esports

Group B
FunPlus Phoenix vs. Xerxia
DRX vs. Northeption

man I love fwogs

Loud didn't choke, they just had to beat Optic twice, and that doesn't happen. FNS probably had your whole playbook memorized by game 2

Yes I am sure Valorant Japan decided to spend money on a massive venue, the set up, AND the fans, because that's a great way to make money.

Need to see Alfajer on LAN first, but the man is one of the best new player of the year.

You acting like they didn't just play in front of a crowd of 18k.

TL has not been good this season. Don't really know the answer to fixing it, but if it wasn't for FPX's problems, their season would be a complete disaster.

At least sentinels won something before their fans ran their mouth. Fnatic hadn't even won emea until this stage. It's fine to be excited for your team, but not act like fnatic has won it before they even stepped on the stage.

This. I want NA to win since that's my region, but I also don't want dominance to make the esport predictable and boring.
I hope a "minor" region wins it soon, and cements valorant as one of the most competitive esports in the world, and I think it's pretty close to that since any team can win it right now if they get hot at the right time.

Only way they fail to make it out of groups is a bad draw.

FNS was going off on twitter how people was saying he was washed before they even lost a game in NA. You don't think he's gonna try to use the heat they're getting now to motivate everyone?

FNS gonna have a field day with all this bulletin board material.

I don't know, but money talks.

Onur gonna get picked up by an NA or EMEA team if his track record keeps up.

Nah Keznit gonna hard carry Kru to at least make this competitive. No secret he's not a big Brazil fan lol. NIP's win condition is stop Keznit, so will be either a 3-1 or 3-2 series either way.

Kru's coach in Champs. LOUD's coach pre-Iceland. Leviatan's coach now. Every team he touches turns to gold.

There are some differences.

1. Kru is not out of it. Plays a pretty big part of it imo.
2. Leviatan has been nipping at Kru's heels since last stage, obviously Kru put those concerns to rest early on with 2 wins vs. Levi, but it was definitely possible that Levi could overtake Kru this stage, especially with Onur as coach. Latam is also a 4 team region now with Fusion and E-Xolos not being to far off of either Kru or Levi.
3. Shyy came in from Levi's academy team (I think) and has been lights out for them.
4. Zeta is the most recent cinderella and there are a lot of people refusing to give and props to Kru because of 0-2ing in Iceland.

I think this is the best description I've heard.

Watch parties draw away most of NA's audience.

That is correct. They've been the best NA team at the last three masters, but failed to win the NA Finals

Kru 3-1

They were dominant up until this game. I just think it's hard to beat the same teams consistently. This is the third time they played Lev this stage.

Lenny time

I like split in Pro play. Most other maps consist of the same comps, there is no set meta on Split though.

Not sure, Kru only dropped 2 maps going into this game, and won twice in dominant fashion against Lev. Lev just wants it more rn.

I think it's split. Kru more popular, but closer than most expect

Also covid is definitely not helping

Yes

Chamber is broken because of his economy more than his tp imo.
Free OP every 3-5 rounds. 800 credit Guardian to use during eco and pistol rounds, oh and it is faster than switching to a pistol, so it compliments any normal buy nicely as well. (you also don't lose those bullets when you die)
He's basically Jett's eco on steroids.

I used to run a competition of 400ish players, so I like doing shit like this. It also only took like 5 minutes.

Japan definitely deserves to host a Masters.

I am, this shit is hype af. Why can't NA and EMEA have this shit too. Hell even LATAM is doing a live audience.

Hopefully sentinels boot camp goes well, because if they bomb out of the tourney it could've been so much better with ghost

CS is established. Valorant can't make up their mind how they want their system to work.

Something like that. Hopefully franchising fixes a lot of the weird format that valorant uses

Yeah, I think that's to avoid tiebreakers. But it really sucks for teams like The Guard or Version1.

Version1 probably makes it to LCQ with the system they used this stage, and they dominated their group far more than XSET did. The constant changing of formats that happens is infuriating as a fan.

You talking about the points given out from Stage 1 vs. Stage 2?

All of the points in NA in S2 are higher than S1. I'm not sure why though.

Assuming tiebreakers are the same as last season (most recent points scored), LCQ will be
Guard/XSET vs. Sentinels
Faze vs. EG
NRG vs. 100T
Luminosity vs. C9

With NA's representatives finally set, LCQ is almost set in stone coming down to whether The Guard or XSET gets the second champions slot.

**Place. Team Points (Gained in Stage 2)

1. Optic Gaming 750 (x)*
2. The Guard 220 (+20)
   ------Champions Cutoff----
3. XSET 45 (x)*
4. Faze 75 (+65)
5. NRG 70 (+55)
6. Luminosity 70 (+35)
7. Cloud9 70 (+20)
8. 100 Thieves 60 (+45)
9. Evil Geniuses 55 (+45)
10. Sentinels 45 (+15)
    ----Last Chance Qualifier Cut-off----
11. Ghost Gaming 35 (+35)
12. Version1 35 (0)
13. Pittsburg Knights 30 (0)
14. TSM 15 (+15)
    *Will receive points from masters

Masters Copenhagen Points Distribution
1st - 1000
2nd - 750
3rd - 500
4th - 400
5th/6th - 300
7th/8th - 250
9th/10th - 200
11th/12th - 150

For XSET to make it over The Guard, they can either beat Optic tomorrow (guaranteed top 8 Masters), or win one game at Masters (would put them at 245 minimum).

Optic is a team of pro players, Sentinels is a team of streamers. Optic makes it to 4 international LAN events in a row breaking Sentinels record of 3.

They learned it from EU fans

Asuna and Dicey basically tading blows. Babybay getting handled by 100T though.

Has Optic really been that dominant in NA though? Like Optic is consistently good, but they have yet to win an NA event. This is the first challengers where Optic has been the favorites.

I try to follow and root for teams in every region, but the fans are extremely annoying.

Excuses.