Yay and Saadhak are the only people in my eyes that are in the discussion, part of being the goat is longevity and they are the only players that have been elite over multiple meta's and have been great at every tourney they've been in(apart from one-2 saadhak ones from vikings and the only bad Loud tourney)

Top 4 teams are all good, NRG is def the best of the rest and Leviatan and Sen have the highest ceiling for me outside of that, but 100T looks like they can be consistent but just not break through IMO.

I'll also add that DRX is the most likely of the current top 4, at least IMO, to not be seen as a "super team" and make changes by the year end. IMO Rb and Zest are both not up to par of the other 17 players that played in playoffs this tournament(only one close is Ange1 because his ass fragging was back but he's still one of the most valuable players ITW).

Those 8 teams tho are for sure my picks for the best 8 this year, which would be 5 in Americas 2 in EU 1 in APAC, which may be some americas bias from me, I just don't think that TL will break into the top 8, and Talon was the only APAC team that looked moderately good.

I count IGLs in my rankings so in no order

Boaster
Saadhak
Aspas
Leo
Derke
Mako
Less
Chronicle
Shao
Yay is still there IMO because I don't think one single-elim tournament should take a guy from #1 to out of the top 10, I have similar thoughts about Sacy and Pancada but either way if you want to base it off almost solely this tourney and meta then Zyppan or Stax for IGLing would be in here.

Crashies still fits into scan initiator. Flash is 100%

1. Chronicle(probably too low of a sample size but he looks elite rn)
2. Stax
3. Zyppan(its 100% for his Kay/o so if u want to change it to cauanzin or kingg)

Loud could ban Haven if they aren't confident but ya no way they beat FNC on Fracture after their performance and comp against DRX

They should've gotten Nukkye, Sheydos, Trexx, Cloud or kept Scream instead of Soulcas and/or Jamppi. If you're going to replace 3/5 players and your head coach its gonna be a completely new team anyway, no real point in keeping around either of the guys (though I do think Jamppi is better) when you want to be competing with the two obvious powerhouse super teams. This team was always going to take a second to work out but I could have told you 3 months ago that they would've been better off with Nukkye or Trexx as a sova/raze flex(perfect for this current meta) or had one of Sheydos/Cloud become a pure initiator with Redgar on smokes.

I LOVE REVISIONIST HISTORY!!!

Opponent rating is usually found under teams names pre/post match, just ranks up your relative skill. The rating 2000 is for the elite tier teams, drx, loud, optic/nrg,fpx/navi, fnatic type of teams. This is to highlight he has misleading stats from when playing against weaker teams.

Even if he wasn't an IGL and commed like a regular player he'd still be seen as one of the best controllers in EU, the problem is that he needs to capitalize as an IGL rn.

It cuts off the 60 most played (12 team for lock in and that's approx 12 team of players) and also bonecold, who is at 469, is the last franchised player to have won a LAN round wise.(this cuts out guys like Kiles and SEN members but who cares about them). Even if u go down to 300(which adds in zeta players, nitr0 steel s0m to name a few) he's still bottom 10 rating.

Ya i noticed that too, and most of that comes from the players playing on different teams. Such a crazy roster. Also a funny one to see is that Aspas and Sacy were the only "elite" tier of players from the Loud team that won champs, Pancada and Less have really come into their own recently more than anything.

But who really cares if he's gonna be inconsistent on all of them but neon. Like I get that his agent pool is wide, that's helpful to a team, but at this point are you really helping yourself out by keeping a player who performs against teams they should beat but chokes all but one time against top tier competition? I've been calling for foxy9 jett/raze and buzz kj for a while and rn more than ever does that seem necessary.

https://www.vlr.gg/stats/?event_group_id=all&event_id=all&region=all&country=all&min_rounds=469&min_rating=2000&agent=all&map_id=all&timespan=all

Scroll all the way down and that'll paint a pretty good picture of why DRX can never get over that last hump, his company is IGLs, Russ, and XIA/TLN core who are good but not elite level players.

.86 rating, sub 185 acs, sub 70% kast, low assist numbers, - first kill/first death

This isn't to say he's the only one on DRX with problems against top tier competition, Mak0 and stax are the only true consistent ones, but Rb is a pretty stand out bad look.

cuz he's worse than most flex players in NA at this point

why is Sick here

KCORP should add Enzo and Kada/Memset/Logan instead of XMS and Newzera but they won't do that because Scream is stubborn and he basically owns that team.

Replace him with one of Enzo, Mistic or Musashi and you're chilling.

dawg is trying way too hard

Mako
Derke
Shao
Leo
Less

skuba zander supamen still exist and are better

VIT S?????

yay on any t2 team one jett would be so out of everyone's league it would look unfair. Obviously his team help will be worse, but he is one of the best jett's of all time, even if his chamber is his best agent. Put him on Jett and Sage or even breach(has experience before, fits his playstyle and would still frag) on every map and he would dominate and show why he's the best of the best.

He's been shaky, especially against EDG. I think he improved a lot between games which is a really good sign but overall this tourney its fair to say that they've looked the worst out of the 4 remaining teams in this bracket, but if Asuna is on his usual level they will be in a good spot.

100T look good despite Asuna and Derrek not playing to full potential, that should leave teams really worried.

Popogachi for Crow
CLZ for Tenn
move Dep to a flex role that he's much better at, CLZ on entry, Sugar and Laz co-igl.

I love the Zeta roster, and they are such a fun team to root for, but I have such little hopes for them to succeed internationally and I hope they figure that out before they get overtaken by the GenG and T1's of APAC. Laz and SugarZ3ro are legit stars, but crow has struggled in the IGL role since their miracle run (couldn't get out of japan in S2, couldn't get out of groups in champs, already struggling rn) and Tenn is extremely inconsistent. I like Dep when he can play more supportive but his Jett is also pretty mediocre. I hope that by the end of the year we see a fragger like CLZ get a chance on this roster, and for sure a player like popogachi or neth are franchised level players. I don't ever think a team should blow it up after one bad game, but it's not just one bad game, and this team has been stagnant for a while.

It's really unfair to regions like KR and BR where there is only one team and no others that could give them competition domesitcally, while NA and EU teams have a bunch of >1800 rating teams, which skews their ratings against elite teams. I can't accurately compare Buzz and Cryo's fragging stats because cryo's filtering will have NA teams in it while Buzz will only be at LAN, and if you filter down to domestic then Buzz is just stomping teams like WGS whereas cryo has to play optic. There's no win.

Also very good idea, it would be great to see which players struggle on certain sides and certain maps, there's obviously individual ways to locate this but the stats section should have all the features that the individual team and maps have.

I love doing research and looking at stats on this site, but some features are very behind/need updates. I'd love to propose some additional features for the stat section.

"Filter for LAN vs Online": This is something that should be principal on a site like this and the most important addition. It is basically impossible to see someones stats as a player over multiple LAN's because the opponent rating feature will leave out certain LAN teams or add online teams. I should be able to filter so that the only stats I see are from the 6 VCT LAN's we've had+ the franchising LAN's that are coming up.

Specific day range: The specific day range is in the stats section on teams maps, so why can't it be added to stats. Most of the time the 30-60-90 doesn't do justice for what you're looking for. If not a specific day range, then maybe add past 6 months, past year, etc.

Region updates: The regions don't really make sense, NA and EU are fine but Korea doesn't have a region but Japan does, while APAC is also it's own region. Brazil also isn't a region. It makes no sense.

Ability to choose multiple events/series: I should be able to filter players from only champions, or only certain LCQ's.

Restrictions: on a site like FUTBIN, you can filter out players based on mins or maxs of stats. Obviously we aren't talking about FIFA cards, but it would be nice to search for, for example, most FK's given you had less than .2 FDPR. This one would be more intuitive but would give fans a lot more to play around with. Could also work for searching highest rated kayo players at LAN excluding EMEA players, etc. There's tons of possibilities.

I know this is a lot of things and its not easy for a site like this to just up and fix a whole section during a very busy time of the year, but it would make the QOL when searching for stats so much better. VLR could be a lot more like Sports Reference with just a few tweaks, and sports reference is the most widely regarded and appreciated tool for most fans of stats based sports. Just some food for thought and would love some ideas from others.

Maybe try to have pati learn kayo and become more of a flex player? If he's this far removed from competitive it may be better to keep garnets on the role he's succeeding greatly on.

I'm not saying they should actually drop him, but that's 3 straight losses to Loud where he has drastically underperformed. He has many hero moments to him and a high ceiling, but his low is LOW sometimes. they won't replace him, nor should they, unless something crazy happens, but he's def the guy I'm most critical of on this NRG team.

I am a fan of Victor but he has been the weakest part of every elimination game they've been in. When he's on he's on and he was good against GIA but the most obvious difference in ability this game was between the ability of victor and less/cauan. s0m and tuyz were both playing cracked, the IGLs were coaching well, both awpers showed flashes of brilliance, and crashies, less, and cauan were great. Victor has gotta step it up IMO for NA league, as the rest of the team looks top tier.

But if I had to place money on anything it would be Marved with s0m moving to flex(he'd obviously have to improve his comfort on breach but apart from that he plays all flex agents). It could also just be whichever of Trent/jonahp, nismo, or v1c doesn't make franchising(by far the best flexs in t2 NA IMO, Sick would be there if he wasn't benched).

IIRC his KJ was really good in the deciding match but if you just look at the game you can see how little impact he had on fragging characters and how behind he was in fragging compared to Victor who was Optic's flex

if there's one thing u can give c9 over NRG it's mechanics LMFAO

yup that's exactly how that works lol

starxo is a weaker player than he used to be but he is probably still deserving
wolfen was the best vrl player last year, he deserved a chance
I like the rest of ur list, an unpopular I'll say is Tuyz but because he joined Loud he will probably succeed, but realistically based on his past performance he's not deserving IMO.
IDK if EG is cheating but C0m is good not great, same with than
jzz is also not very good but his new role could be complementary
keloqz, maybe mixwell
dep also kinda works for this

Dude is undeniably a good valorant player, but DRX has been gunning for a championship since 2021 and he's always been their worst player when it matters most. Like I'm being downvoted but pretty much everything I've said has been true. He shuts off at the end of tournies, whether its on entry, sova, or full flex. He has consistently made them a lower class team in firepower when competing against the top 6 teams in the world, and if you're trying to win champs this year, he is not ur best option. If they have to face a team like FNC, C9, Loud in the quarters that have crazy firepower 1-5, I'm not confident his lack of fragging in big moments will suddenly go away. I hope he proves me wrong because DRX are a likeable team and Stax and Mak0 are two of my fav players, but adding in foxy9 and putting buzz in the role that RB is in right now will be better in the longrun.

wow he was great against BBL!!!!! I really don't care how unpopular this opinion is but we're going through the same cycle with this guy. He is a high level player, no question, but he doesn't perform when it matters most. This happens every iteration of DRX, RB does very well against lower competition(open quals in the first stages, BBL an objectively lower level team) and people start calling him the best flex player in the game. Then when he plays against actually good competition he shits the bed and is by far the weakest link. He's consistently good when DRX is playing inferior teams but when they are challenged he is almost always the problem. Like look at his last 3 games at champs... or masters Copenhagen.... or master reijkavik...or last years champs. Starting to see a pattern? If championships and mvps were given to the first 2-3 games of a tourney DRX would be the champs with RB as the MVP, but until he performs consistently against higher competition he will stay as their weakest link.

D3ffo was pretty mediocre in every way possible outside of a good 3 game performance in the middle of 2021.

he's flexible to a degree. You're correct that since becoming a tier one pro he's played meaningful rounds on entry, smokes, skye sova sage and breach, but how many times have you seen him play these agents and actually wanted him on them? He can adapt to new agents quickly which is why I'd like him on sentinel agents, but he doesn't hit a high level on most agents. His duelists were all underwhelming(you saw their stage 2 and LCQ this past year) and he has only ever looked elite on sage and skye(with a few standout matches on astra and omen). I think at his peak he was a top 2 flex in EU, but that was when the meta allowed you to play sage and/or skye on every map. Since kayo and breach have become a staple for flex players, he has failed to really adapt to that role.

I mean he 100% should be on sentinels with sheydos on initiator but starxo is a lot less flexible so maybe not

He started in cs and played val for like 3 months that's a completely different scenario. He had already invested and gotten to a high level in CS(obviously not where he is now but u understand the sentiment)

If you can't compete at a medium high level in valorant ur not gonna be able to switch to CS and have crazy success

I mean at their peak they were top 8 ITW no? Fell to the eventual champs in Masters and had 3 of the brightest stars in EU at the time. I think it's reasonable to say if they added on of the best initiators in the world they'd be a top 2 emea team

They looked fine, a lot of things had to go perfectly for them to beat NRG and though it was an 0-2 it wasn't THAT far off. You gotta remember that Wolfen has never played in anything as big as an A Tier tourney online in EU, now he's gotta play on LAN against the best IGL of all time and awp against his regions best or second best awper next year. Kolda will get his igling back up and in there's still plenty to look forward to. Trexx looked like a star on sova, and IMO if they switch sheydos and starxo's roles after this tourney they'll be in a better spot, sheydos is too good at literally all 5 initiators to not have him playing them.

Prime Davidp was a top 5 IGL in EU but his prime lasted maybe 3 months. If we're talking about his peak 6 month performance he was not actually that good

Bro said TSM as if they have more than two good players lmfao

obviously he's a better fragger than Dephh but at his role specifically he's easily the weakest link. Dephh igled his team to top 2 in NA, sacy has been the most consistent player the past year, pancada was the MVP of champs, and Zekken was a top 2 entry in NA last year. Tenz hasn't been that level of good since midway through 2022. This is a pretty cold take.

This is the first time TenZ won't be the best player on his team. I'd even argue he's now the worst player on this team(which shows how good this team can be). Hopefully it works out but it'll be a big culture shift when he isn't expected to be the star of the team, which could bode very well for him honestly.Only expected to play Jett for duelists (no chamber or raze which he's struggled on) and can play a bit more passive on kayo or even skye on raze maps.

people won't like this but rb needs to be the one getting replaced and by this time next year the roster will likely be stax buzz mak0 foxy and a new initiator player(likely buying out Xeta or getting Lakia. TS is also really underrated but he'd be a sidegrade IMO.)