Ah yes because BLG or XLG or DRG would've surely gone on to beat G2 and T1 and win the entire tournament right? Also Trace have been at two major tournaments and made it through the group/swiss stage once. 50% success rate ain't too bad imo.

Not guaranteed, new groups are drawn for stage 2 and you're not guaranteed to play every team in your league across the two stages.

nah it's their academy team I think: https://www.vlr.gg/team/17094/furia-academy

Historically EMEA has still been pretty good in Valorant though.

EMEA: 5 titles (Gambit, Acend, FPX, Fnatic (x2))
Americas: 5 titles (Sen (x2), Optic, Loud, EG)
Pacific: 2 titles (GenG, T1)
China: 1 title (EDG)

It's not that EMEA is bad, just that the regions are at the most balanced they have been in a while and the EMEA teams have just fallen short at some finals/play offs stages. I mean this last event we had all 4 regions represented in the top 4 and with Vitality and EDG beating T1 and G2 respecitvely earlier on in the tournament (before losing to them in the playoffs) I would say these 4 teams are all very close in skill to eachother.

Is there a cap on the amount of players a team can have? If there's not there's only one way froward from here: 35 player roster, 5 different players for each map.

He has to get carried by DRX rejects

I think they were very good at their peak but they didn't have a better 2023 than Fnatic. You're conveniently leaving out that they were pretty mediocre for like the first 3-4 months and only barely even made it to Tokyo in the first place.

They weren't extremely close to beating Fnatic at Tokyo, that was one of the most dominant tournament performances by any team in Valorant history. Comparatively EG did actually lose a match against Paper Rex on their run to becoming champions and came close to losing against LOUD (3-2 victory including needing overtime on Ascent). Those two tournament runs are not comparable.

Fnatic only lost to 2 teams that entire season, Team Liquid (once, after beating them twice before that series) and LOUD (twice at champs, after beating them before in the LOCK//IN Final). They also only lost 13 maps all season: 6 against LOUD, 3 against Liquid, 1 against BBL, 1 against FUT, 1 against DRX and 1 against EG). Just as a comparison: EG lost 14 maps already before they got to the play offs for the Americas League, and ended the season losing 33 maps total and 11 series total.

The only thing EG has over Fnatic in 2023 is that they had a better record against LOUD (still not a winning record being 2-2 overall though) and the fact that they won Champs which is the biggest tournament (though again, I would say LOCK//IN + Masters is more impressive than just Champs).

I like EG, the run was a true fairytale moment, I loved their playstyle and they proved that they were one of the best teams in the world in 2023 by having two incredible performances back to back at the two biggest tournaments. I also think that the continued succes for most of the EG 2023 players (Boostio improved 100T a lot, Jawgemo was still frying on a heavily weakened EG, C0M made a deep run at Champs again) proves how much individual talent that squad had. However, saying Fnatic was better is not disrespect towards EG, it's just facts.

Verno is rumoured to go to MIBR in place of nzr

Consistently towards the bottom of the scoreboard unfortunately. Tbf he's got amazing util usage and seems like a proper vibes guy so idk if cutting him would be the right move.

I would love to see Sen Skuba (I don't think Bang is bad btw I just love Skuba ❤️)

Question: is DRX - G2 and T1 - TL a possible draw or is it guaranteed to be a team that won then lost vs a team that lost then won?

Damn, almost got the map picks. The scores not so much but tbf who would've predicted this lol.

2.33 rating absolutely wild

I love that for us <3

Idk, his best map by far was the one they lost and the rest of Vitality looked pretty decent on the other 2 maps. Derke played an insane series but in the end it wasn't a massive carry by just him.

Karmine Corp should be decent I reckon, maybe stronger than BBL.

Vitality > Liquid
Team Heretics > FUT
Apeks > KOI
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gentle Mates > Giantx
Karmine Corp > Navi

BBL vs. Fnatic is tough to say, I think BBL looked better in kick off and have Chiwa coming in but Fnatic changed coaches so could be better as well. If Leo comes back at any point (big if) it's an easy Fnatic diff though.

Overall I would say Alpha is the stronger group but not by miles.

They are one Leo return away from being goated again

I think navi is going to be better than giants

I'm surprised you say that seeing how there wasn't much of a gap between EDG and Trace during kick off imo. That being said I rate the first 3 (G2, EDG and VIT) as S-tier teams whilst I think the rest are A-tier teams (it was tough to rank those 5 ngl)

I don't rate them lowly I just rate every team pretty high and I feel like TL will lose their form/momentum a bit and go out 0-2 (they could do much better though)

1) G2
2) EDG
3) VIT
4) DRX
5) TE
6) SEN
7) T1
8) TL

NS 22-20 RRQ was this year as well so they couldn't beat pacific either. Still a banger game though

Don't worry guys the Heretics players just got sick again for second map only reason they lost (trust)

Guess the Vitality players' mothers never learned them that you shouldn't play with your food XD

NA Furia on NA Furia violence :(

-something, +benkai is the bigbrain move here

PRX Primmie

Honestly BBL had more of a chance than Fut did.

Please for the love of god put Batu in duelist jail and just play double duelist every map, idc if it doesn't work out but Batu is NOT an initiator.

Probably not because Molsi doesn't have nearly the same amount of fans as Flor does. Popular players will always get both more praise when they pop off and more scrutiny when they're struggling I reckon.

The gods believe in Asuna though, giving him some divine rng bs against sentinels

Bro was the best Turkish sentinel player last year

Vitality and Fut looked great. TH got owned in their first map against M8 but after that looked dominant again and won 2-1. Fnatic look very shaky though alfajer, chronicle and kaajak have been making up for it with individual performances. BBL look like the dark horse team so far, they beat Giants and Fnatic whilst playing with a sub.

Damn good for turtle troops, they finally got signed

Holy mudfest

I would say Fnatic is also up there for EMEA, they made it to 10/12 internationals all time though this year is looking a little rough so far.

Didn't realise Skuba was on Cubert that's actually hype

I feel like Supa has just been a story of untapped potential for the longest time now but he's decent just think Skuba would be better

I see the vision tbh, could maybe bring Poised in as well as a duo though I do think Nature has done a good job IGLing so wouldnt be the first player I would change.

Crashies is not worse than oderus

minus derrek
minus supamen
plus brawk
plus skuba

I think these changes would turn EG from a (bottom) midfield team into a serious threat.

KC my beloved :'(

I would too after pulling off a 32 round win streak

Miniboo going from a 0.20 rating to a 2.05 rating in the next map, holy whiplash

Nats hasn't been good since 2021

'//,

I like your thinking.

The day Indonesia stops choking it's over for the rest of the world.

Bdog is just him

And Fnatic if Leo comes back.