I do think there’s different skills that each require which makes a player who can do both rare. Almost all the top raze players don’t play jett. The only two that you could say have as good a raze as jett and are also best in the world candidates are Aspas and Derke.

When Fnc built their 2023 roster you can quite easily argue they were best in role for Europe and all top 5 in world. They then proved it at multiple lans and won 2/3 of the calendar.

Nrg will be good but they ain’t built like prime Fnc. Loud, Lev and hell maybe even Sen will match up. The lack of an experienced and creative IGL is going to fuck them. When the going gets tough, Boaster, FNS and Saadhak save their teams with their calling.

He has a point though, TenZ is just worse than Pancada as a smokes player and Zellsis is a much better flex player who provides valuable intangibles. Sideshow is just saying if you want the best roster on paper Pancada should play and Tenz should be benched.

But Jinggg was one of the best players ever to play in VCT, give the guy a chance it’s way too early to tell.

Derke has a career 85% DM winrate and is better at raze than Mwzera

Yes, they probably do but then 100t and NRG likely have much higher and more diversified revenue. The issue is Sen are spending big and bleeding money at an exponential rate for their revenue generation. Almost all orgs lose money yes, but other said orgs dont lose at such a insane margin. The possibilites are simply 1) Sen grows as an org and becomes somewhat sustainable, 2) they continue to keep it on life support at this state, 3) the org cuts down massively, 4) its abandoned and dies.

The recency bias against Derke is unreal. He’s been a top raze since Champions 2021. He won Tokyo by only playing raze as a primary duelist. I find the “detach the player from the agent” so stupid, the same argument people make for c0m being better at Sova than leo, beyond braindead. Derke is an objectively better player, has the best nades and produces the most impact when he plays raze over the likes of Zekken and Jawgemo who have been tier 1 players for less time than Derke has been playing in grand finals.

This idea that because Sacy and Pancada aren’t native English speakers that they can’t possibly win in a non Brazilian team is nonsensical.

Emea basically only consists of mixed teams. There’s no excuse given to fnatic, navi or liquid for this despite the mix being more varied than just two languages. If you look at fnatic when alfajer joined and he spoke very broken english, they made it work.

It’s actually more likely that Sen as an organisation is cursed with voodoo magic than language barriers as to why they consistently suck ass.

People act like age makes such a massive difference to a players mechanics, it’s because the older they get the less time they play and thats why they fall behind. Besides most of the oldest players are IGLs who didn’t have great mechanics to begin with. ScreaM has many years left he if puts the work in to win.

But look at the teams ScreaM has had compared to TenZ. He deadlifted all the iterations of Liquid except for when they just added Nivera for Champions 2022. TenZ joined the best team in North America and instantly won then did nothing since and has been a good to average duelist just in North America.

As pointed out by Sideshow in his video, TenZ has not performed well when playing the duelist role and his entrying has been horrible. The easiest comparison to be made here is 2022 Forsaken who most def lost his edge and as such reinvented his game by picking up a true flex role which he now excells at. Paper Rex went from an incredibly readable and one dimensional team that got grouped at champs and first rounded at Lock/IN to the second best team in the world by getting a firepower upgrade in Something and empowering Forsaken from the flex position. Sen already has great firepower but It doesn’t make any sense for TenZ to play duelist when Zekken is on this team and is just better than him at the role. If Forsaken can do it why not TenZ. If Sen somehow miss this then they are beyond hope.

Gambit would’ve won then stop this revisionist history lmao.

Ange1 does feed but is still an actually great IGL.

Missing the point, mostly talking about fnatic not Loud. Valorant isn’t a results based they won this game against them so therefore they would win this. PRX haven’t even played fnatic yet at this tourney so the point stands.

Loud is the cryptonite for this Fnatic squad, they have now beaten each other in high pressure games and both have won tournaments with very experienced players who play up to the big games.
PRX and EG have young players who don’t always play up to pressure and have both been stomped by fnatic previously. If fnatic win the loud game and look good doing it, PRX and moreso EG will give them too much respect and will play scared.
Best analogy for this is like how cartoons used to depict characters running off cliffs and staying suspended, they only fall when they look down and realise they aren’t on the cliff anymore.
I’m not as sure about Loud but they could do the same thing.

Imagine the current bracket with:
Fnc as Fpx (team poised to make a lb run)
Loud as Fnc (wins first match but loses to a white hot PRX)
Prx as Prx (duh)
Fut as Guild ( scrappy emea underdogs)
DRX as DRX (duh)
EG as Optic (Na team looking to make a run)
EDG as lev
Billi billi as xset

Play this bracket out and I reach the exact results for Copenhagen.
Calling fnc lower bracket win beating EG in the lower finals and PRX in the grands.

Do remind me, how is Americas doing since Loud is going to get shit on and EG will lose to EDG

Are we watching the same games? This is the most competitive era of valorant ever. There’s regional parity and all of the teams attending are relatively established. You don’t get some multiple minor minor region team like F4Q or old secret getting pounded like at the very first lans M1 and M2.

Majors is a CS term describing Valve hosted events of significance, hence Blast Premier and other third party torunaments are not considered majors.
All the main circuit tournments are and have been run fully by riot starting with first strike so this term makes no sense because I think most people would agree that first strike and masters 1 were signficant and run by riot but are not 'majors'.
Aka the term doesnt make sense because then you get into the 'was lock/in a major' bullshit when in reality it was essentially just a masters with a different format, taking up the normal masters slot, having the same prizepool and teams treated it as such.
Champs > masters = lockin > regional riot events like masters 1 and splits >third party tournaments such as redbull homeground.

ditch the term for the love of god its just useless in this game.

Pretty good overall, I have the same up to liquid NRG but im not sure who wins that game up till the lower finals

Right so I guess because champions 2021 and Master 2 were single elim we should just ignore those aswell.

Just admit you devalue it because a team you don’t like won the tournament.

He’s an 100t fan, figures.

Remember the Lock/In alpha bracket?
All that just for no NA team to get past top 8.
Hold out on your celebrations till Fnatic and liquid play.

Hydrogen Bomb vs Crying Baby

It’s just phrasing, in most sports the fans refer to the club they support as ‘we’ in discussion.

Duelists:
Jett: Aspas
Raze: Derke
Reyna: Jinggg
Neon: Victor
Phoenix: Scream
Yoru: Forsaken

Initiator:
Sova: Leo
Fade: Shao
Sky: Leaf
Kay-o: Buzz
Breach: Chronicle
Gekko: ? (Too little sample size)

Controller:
Brimstone: s0m
Omen: Mako
Harbor: Tuyz (giving it to loud because they invented the comp)
Viper: NaTs
Astra: Marved

Sentinels:
Cypher: Suygetsu
Kill-Joy: Alfajer
Sage: Chronicle
Chamber: Yay

I defended this team as sixth in the world on my global power rankings and a lot of you disagreed. You were right, these guys are absolute frauds.
100t is still overrated though.

Agreed, I would have liked to put them in 4-5th after lock in but they need to win some more games for me to justify the ranking

What is this absolute cope lmao

I did say that they returned to top form, not that they have stopped trolling with comps. Either way I think when they actually try they will be crushing teams even harder than they are now.

Well I do reckon the could move around a slot or two but it primarily comes from lock in and a dominant win against NRG who come on now are clearly a top team, besides I have them at sixth people are reacting like it’s 3rd or something.

Even then Fnatic, Loud and Navi have all won an event looking very good. Considering form that’s reason enough to place them higher. I’m not saying there’s a massive gap but if it’s a semi final or a final then I’m giving the edge to Navi

I suppose your a DRX fan though so believe what you want I guess

It’s arguable not delusional, the fnatic 3:0 was three 13:11s which is very close. Especially when fnatic could have 3:0 Loud in the finals. I have more faith in Navi to win like in Copenhagen (when the beat DRX btw).DRX consistently stumbles at lan in the most crucial moments. Again it’s just my opinion and swapping them is fair.

Two time for Fnatic would be sick

I suppose that’s fair but I rank them higher because they have been much more consistent over a longer period of time then Sen or 100t. This Sen roster could get much better but I need to see more, 100T wins some big games sure but they lose games they should absolutely be winning like sen with Tenz.

Just because you don’t like the South American teams doesn’t mean they aren’t good. Leviathan have been great for a long time as far back as Copenhagen. Just look at Lock in for further proof.

All my own opinion but I have tried to provide some reasoning , take this with a big grain of salt the bottom teams are very difficult to rank.

1) Fnatic (self explanatory really)
2) Loud (a bit shaky but still undefeated in a tough region)
3) Navi ( They started the season trolling with comps again but have returned to top form once more)
4) DRX (I know DRX are yet to lose, but pacific IS a weaker region and I’m more confident in Navi to win the big games)
Tier gap ( all of these 4 can probably play each other close but beyond this there is a significant difference)
5) Cloud 9 ( I would have loved to give this to NRG but C9 are in white hot form and look genuinely very good)
6) leviathan (Despite some rocky games, these guys are on of the favourites to make Tokyo and when their on they look incredible)
7) Liquid ( maybe a bit early to call but liquids improvement has been very impressive )
8) Furia (very on or off it seems, at times they look incredible but have stumbled once Khalil cooled off)
9) Giants (Consistently good team with a lot of depth and some great fraggers in Nukkye and Cloud swapped with liquid after last game)
10) NRG (Obviously lower than this team will probably end up, I have faith in them to bounce back but their last performances limit their placing)
11) Sen (Sen have looked much better with Marved playing but I’m not as convinced yet, if they continue to do well however this one will probably need to go up)
12) GenG ( potentially underrating pacific here but the only real gauge is how well they do against DRX and GenG managed to take a map)
13) 100T ( very overhyped in the off season in my opinion, red bull set unrealistic expectations for a young team. They could absolutely rise however if Cryo’s form picks up)
14) Paper Rex ( They walk the thin line between genius and utter insanity, their playstyle just isn’t going to work against the top 10 anymore but they have some great fraggers)
15) FUT (quite impressed with FUT, they have managed to take some wins but have lost against the top EMEA)
16) MIBR ( probably too low but I believe that this is an upset team)
17) vitality (very hot or cold depending on Twisten and Molsi’s form, if they keep playing like they have recently they won’t make Tokyo)
18) T1( interchangeable with secret tbh)
19 Secret ( good lock in performance , look good for playoffs in pacific)
20 ) Zeta ( would be amazing to see a Zeta resurgence and qualification to Tokyo, they at least look on target for playoffs)
21) BBL ( their win rate in EMEA doesn’t really tell the whole story, their games have been close and their ascent is really top tier)
22) Karmine Corp (maybe would have been dead last two weeks ago with Scream Igling and Newzera on the team, but KC have improved significantly with Zeish stepping as IGL releasing Scream back to top form)
23) KOI (what is wrong with this team, they have some great talents in sheydos and trexx but they can’t even beat Karmine)
24) EG ( some people will say this is EG slander, to that I say first 13:0 :) )
25) RRQ ( gave us all hopium in their victory and then went back to trolling)
26) KRU (some close games but they are 0 and 5)
27) Heretics (just good enough to beat the absolutely lowest teams)
28) Global Esports (I really want them to do well but this amalgamation of players is going to require a lot of time and Ayrin is yet to impress me, one of the weakest pacific teams)
29) Talon (WTF are they doing , triple duelist comps???, someone please call ESIC major match fixing going on there)
30) Detonation FocusMe ( do I really have to elaborate?)

Absolutely criminal under rating of alfajer he is def one of the best sentinels and can also play duelist if you need him. He’s also only 17 so I’m sure he will only get better. With Boaster I suppose FNS is arguably better and can also speak English but it’s kind of nit picking.

Bro is still salty about lock in ….