It's unfortunately just how this aspect of esport teams work, especially in games with lots of strategy like valorant. There is no doubt in my mind that Pancada is still a world class player, however it just so happens that Zellsis is popping the fuck off atm, so why as a coach would you not play him. I look at this the same way that EG started playing Demon1. Everyone complains because they were taking off a really good player in BCJ for a substitute. Now granted, not many people knew who Demon1 was at the time, but people were so quick to make judgements before they saw the potential of the change. BCJ, although now playing in tier 2, is still considered a very good player, not much has changed. Imagine Potter listened to the fan feedback and took Demon1 off and put him back on the bench after 2 games. I doubt they would have made Tokyo and I doubt they would've become world champions.

Although I'm not sure any of this matters, because from what I've heard in rumours, Pancada is still going to be starting during the regular season. Everyone needs to remember that Zellsis said HIMSELF when he was signed that he joined Sentinels as a 6th man so that he could still occasionally fulfil his competitive urge, but he would be able to have a focus on streaming/content creation. Most likely, they are using this off-season to give him the playtime he needs/wants.

I don't think this is the case at all. There are way more transfer success stories than transfer fail stories. But everyone just likes to focus on the fail stories cause "y0y funny haha"

best staged content ever

Probability I give that these events will happen:

Yay will make a major comeback (6/10) - Who knows, just depends on how well he gels with his team, his aggressive playstyle should do well in pacific however.
DRX will no longer be the second best team in APAC (7/10) - Definitely probable to happen, but they still have most of their core and both foxy9 and flashback are decent players in their own right. I don't think its necessarily them not going to be the 2nd best team, but there is a lot more competition in the top of the ladder now in pacific, which could push DRX down to 3rd, maybe 4th.
PRX/FNC will dominate their regions (8/10) - Both teams have shown dominance in pre season tourneys, but both teams have also shown flaws and mishaps as well in those same tourneys.
NAVI will be above the rest of emea but cant challenge FNC (4/10) - NAVI will be good, but to say they will be the 2nd best in EMEA confirmed is wild, especially when you have teams like FUT, Vitality and even possibly Liquid. Remeber, NAVI only changed ONE player, and yes they did rebuild the masters winning FPX roster, but I am seeing alot of copium from navi fans as of late.
TL/Loud will place mid-bottom (5/10) - Both teams I can definately see near the middle of the table, but middle-bottom i think is a bit too far. Team Liquid have some upset potential in their roster and could still be very competitive. Loud, although looking weaker compared to last year, I've learnt to trust Saadhak's igl'ing.
Sen will keep form untill half way through the year (3/10) - Form is always hard to predict, you can never predict the mental of anyone. However Sentinels, with massively positive and fun players like Zellsis and Zekken, I see it hard for this team to lose motivation at least.
Lev will win Shanghai (2/10) - Could see it happening, too far out to tell though, need to see more LEV.
EDG wins champs (1/10) - Also too far out to tell, but if they keep burning themselves out and never give themselves a break, this can see very slim.

If you really need one now and have the money, go for the 14 instead of 15. save around 400ish bucks when the two arent that different imo

Sentinels vs NRG - NA Heroes vs NA Villains
T1 vs PRX - Susanto Brother Rivalry
Vitality vs KC - French Derby

Any other cool/fun matchups that we are gonna see next year?

These skins are made to help fund the VCT and all the teams. I forgot the revenue split, but i know its at least 50/50

Red Bull Home Ground in Tokyo didn't even have a prizepool, and what did 100T place in that?

https://twitter.com/Sentinels/status/1702382232466497796

Look at that damn wink. He knew he wasn't gonna settle for being a sub

Not even that much of a sentinels fan, but seeing this team lift a trophy, especially Tenz after so long, has put a smile on my face

period

If i was SEN, I'd pick rather zellsis or pancada to sell to another team (most likely pancada at this rate) and replace him with a promising t2 player who they can train up. They'd get bank from selling a player like pancada, and they will then have the 6th player as a promising prospect which they can profit off in the future rather by selling or playing. Meanwhile Pancada can be the star player of another team and Sentinels don't have to fear overcooking with their roster by constantly swapping out a 6th man for someone else on the team.

well i mean, they really shouldn't be playing him at all. they should be practicing with the roster they will play with in 2024. as much as i love jinggg and the fact he is really good, he shouldnt be playing. they need to play davai, something, forsaken, mindfreak and monyet, afterall jingg wont be playing next year

SEN wins > Zekken or Sacy
PRX wins > D4v41 or s0mething

If PRX lose: "Monyet sucks, why did they pick him up he sucks so much"
If SEN lose: "Why tf did they put Zellsis in for Pancada, dude is washed, Pancada better"

I don't believe in either of these, but one will start here after the game ends, regardless of the result

I dont blame them though honestly. I think after the past two years in esports where teams have been going bankrupt left right and centre, riot is probably aiming for teams that are sustainable economically. Wolves might not be as well known in the esports scene, but they definitely have the money

Edit: ok apparently they are big in china, im stupid

If I was EDG, i would pull out of any remaining off season tournaments and just let the team rest. If they dont stop playing before VCT China starts, the burnout is going to REALLY effect their performance. Being burnt out and tired during the OFF SEASON, especially as we are getting closer to the start of the 2024 season, is really concerning.

NA T2 defiantely has the most talent out of any T2 scene in valorant. But you have to consider they are probably the most overfunded region in valorant lol. Some NA T2 teams get payed more than VCT EMEA and Pacific teams

1st place in AVL is almost equivalent to two 1st places in the Chinese Evolution Series, prize money wise

There is definite clear burn out., however there is also the downside of just other teams having ALOT of recent vods and information to go off of. Making the grand finals of all 3 chinese acts has given other teams an insane amount of information to go off of, meanwhile most of the other teams there haven't done much since champs. The only exception is Sentinels but its generally hard to prepare against a team with a 7 man roster lul.

cool. anyways

I will take this bullet gladly. Was mostly low on them because I just had no clue what they were doing with the roster. Would still like to see a bit more from them though before I completely admit I was wrong, but there is promise here

Lemme fix this for you

9. GE

10. Team Secret

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11. DFM

I hope Scarz can run it back in Challengers 2024 and earn ascension.

You should never take pre-season results as gospel...

but damn they look fucking rough

There is a magical word I like to use called...

PREFERENCE

Explain to me how it was a fluke without just talking about the 3 - 11 comeback

I hate how people discredit masters trophies so much compared to champions. Sure Champions is till more important, but at least in 2023, the teams in both Masters Tokyo and Champs LA were almost identical, the only teams I can think of being different were the Chinese teams.

I think the Chinese VCT will be quite similar to the EMEA VCT. A very dominant force in EDG (Just like Fnatic) that tends to define the region, but a bunch of other teams like RA, Trace, FPX (FUT, Liquid, Navi) who have shown potential in pulling off major upsets and put themselves up for contention with the region's powerhouse. However winning a championship? I can only really say that confidently for EDG purely based of experience and time they had compared to other teams. I say we will still probably be waiting at least a year or two before we see any other Chinese teams contend for Champions or Masters winners.

How many rounds did you win at Champs?

gNed

1st. 2023 Fnatic
2nd. 2023 Evil Geniuses
3rd. 2021 Gambit
4th. 2022 LOUD
5th. 2022 Optic
5th. 2021 Sentinels
6th. 2022 FPX
7th. 2021 Acend

T1 beating liquid and edg???????? delusional

I really hope that next year when VCT China starts, people learn there is more to China than EDG and BLG

Yeah more thinking about it and I do see it as unlikely. But IMO all it takes is one team to try it and other teams will follow, there just needs to be an icebreaker.

I do think for the time being they are going to keep the two rosters separate, GC players playing GC, and Challenger players playing Challengers. However I would not be surprised if they use this as an opportunity to maybe slot some GC players in their Challengers roster, more likely than not though it will be later in the season. I would LOVE to see players like flor in Challengers and/or VCT.

Flair

wow SEN is so good they won with kaplan!!!!

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/975933475368603719/1174552657508175993/F_BmksrWgAAeV4x.png?ex=65680267&is=65558d67&hm=3d9eac69d3439ab12e9f45f383f71c6c8196078bf2c503928ff7f6a4b03ddbac is this your champion igl?

this match will have more australian viewers than chinese viewers

valorant fans try not to overreact based off very little information challenge (VERY HARD)

A. its a low stakes showmatch, they probably aren't trying that hard
B. he's playing well, he just hasn't won a gulag yet (watching as of round 16 fracture)
C. gaps liquid

I'm happy SR are getting them, they will be in good hands

Don't get me wrong, 2022 was definitely still a better year for them. But saying that they were "nowhere near" as good in 2023 is massively exaggerating

That group really wanted to defeat those 'Group of Despair' allegations and they did. minus TL again lol

Nowhere near? They went from 3rd in champs 2022 to 5-6th in 2023. Tokyo was only rough for them cause they didn't know wtf they were doing with their roster. Honestly, getting destroyed in Tokyo was actually probably a good thing, it showed them that 6 people rosters dont work and that they need to go into Champs with a set 5, which they did and they look alot better. They almost beat the best team in the world at Champs as well, just choked at the end against Fnatic.

I agree with your opinion on T1. They are picking up great players with good potential, but their plan just looks weird and confusing. I will always stand by the fact that 6 people rosters are a bad idea.

BLEED could have a year quite similar to what happened to PRX this season. They will most likely had a rocky start, they definately won't qualify for Madrid. But I could really easily see this team gel and work together well and they show a decent bit of potential. Although unlikely, I wouldn't count them out for Shanghai and they could be good in the LCQ.

Going from Jingg to anyone else was always going to be a downgrade. But given their situation and who was available, Monyet was a great and possibly their best choice and after some synergy building and playing together, they will most likely be back to top form and ready to compete against the best globally

I have nothing to say for RRQ i need to look into them a bit more

i always forget about tyloo but yeah they have a decent shot at making it

If we are going off of most likely rosters going into next year

Pacific < EMEA < Americas (need to see more of China in the VCT before I make a judgement on them)

Teams in both Pacific and EMEA are cooking with their rosters at the moment, there is a lot of competition growing the middle of the table in both regions. Meanwhile in America, maybe aside from LEV, nothing really excites me. I would have put more faith in G2 but they have slightly disappointed in their friendlies so far (not ridiculously but imo they should have been the team to win the Sen Invitational on paper), hopefully though they can find their groove quickly because I want them to do well.

i was kinda expecting them to at least keep nivera, but they must have better plans in mind