Gg

Wild when NRG literally hasn’t lost at champs yet…

Good prep by DRX gave them a lot of early rounds. After the game plan fizzled out MiBR is a lot better on sunset.

The community being so reactionary means it’s always 1>>>>2>>>3>>>>4 in terms of region rankings. But if I was to rate their power levels I’d honestly say almost identical for EMEA, Americas, and Pacific with China a good bit behind as a region. The time, map pool, and meta changes that happen between every single international event makes it seem so easy to say NA>EU or vice versa when it seems to have a lot more to do with read on the meta/map pool than there being much of a gap between regions. If there were 10 international events a year I’d say EMEA, Americas, and Pacific would each win 3 with China winning 1.

If it’s this constant is it an EDG choke or NRG stopped throwing?

So much ANTI-AMERICAN propaganda in Valorant. People cry when you say NA! Guess what—NA is still a region, just like KR. We love Americas, but I LOVE NA teams. Brazil, LATAM, NA—I know the difference. But NA is #1!!! Sad!

Keep that same energy if a Korean fan says Korean teams are doing well. Cuz that’s hateful towards APAC or japan somehow right?

No shot you think that’s more clever what lmfao

Sentinels

Still think lev qual? I think 100t or c9 are more likely atp. TH, RRQ, and FNC can win also. I also don’t think the NRG take is crazy. Looking at the roster they have the pieces. If they can peak at the right time they could totally do it.

Wdym for nismo? Kyu is an igl. Mitch is a weak link fragging wise. Nismo is an upgrade over xeppa, satellite is a big upgrade over net, and kyu is an upgrade over Mitch.

Oxy
V1c
Kyu
Satellite
Nismo

Next year hopefully 🙏

Doesn’t have to do with handsomeness. Just the facial expressions. It seems like with how expressive he is, it feels more personal and annoying than most pros that seem like they’re messing around. Idk maybe just me.

Punchable face

Only thing that comes to mind when I see net stand up is kickoff 2024 where he stood up right before g2 got knocked out and then got dropped for icy of all people lol

So are you saying mibr should get rid of aspas for dgzin….?

Does riot have an arena or stage to play on in South America? Would be cool to have a stage in LA and a stage in Latam or Brazil.

Smart

Tbf that’s how it was pre franchising. If anything they condensed pacific and Americas and kept EMEA the same. This would be fixing what they fucked up when franchising started.

1. Mexican
2. Indian
3. Italian
4. Japanese

It’s actually cool to see a non-VCT tournament with such high level teams actually trying to win. Val fans feel what it’s like to have consistent tournaments like CS fans. Feels wrong that we get more international matchups 3 weeks after Toronto. But I’ll take it lmao

That makes zero sense. Was apac a 0 team region until Shanghai? GenG at Madrid didn’t count. Paper Rex at champs 23’, paper Rex at Copenhagen. DRX as well. Doesn’t count unless you’ve won the event lmfao.

I like the idea I saw the other day, have the 1 seeds play tdm against each other for the order of picking opponents

So you’re assuming prx or wolves are the only teams with a chance to win? Or just that fnc or g2 have to go home 4th? Because g2 or fnc can absolutely (and imo will) make the lower bracket run and win it all. I think that’s the most likely scenario actually.

Ngl G2 mental is unmatched. It feels like they have like x10 3-9+ deficits that they’ve comeback in, in the last year.

NA fans be like:

G2 got ran over by the train like everyone else. Paper Rex is a nightmare matchup for their first game on stage. For anyone to act like g2 was suddenly weak doesn’t know ball. Any of G2, GenG, sen, and fnatic could go on a run and win it all.

Thank you for posting this

What happens when a Chinese team doesn’t rely on chaos and stupid plays to catch teams off guard:

Even at masters in NA

IMO they’re already in the conversation. Not many coaches/IGLs reach 2 grand finals in a row. Let alone win one of them. That and solo’s return after nuturn. The entirety of his time in Val put him up there already imo. And munchkin is definitely building a legacy already.

The only confidence I get from Swiss is it gave them stage experience and confidence. And the fact that they went 2-0 even when playing not even close to their ceiling. IMO their ceiling is as high as G2 and GenG.

A huge advantage that used to be a big talking point back when EDG first represented China at internationals was their proximity to teams in Korea and apac like prx and DRX at the time. And the amount of elite teams in that close proximity has to be, by far, the highest concentration of top teams in the world. The fact that teams like RRQ, GenG, and PRX get to scrim teams like EDG and BLG on the regular is a massive advantage. They are getting constant high quality scrims against top level tier 1 talent where they don’t really have to hide any of their good stuff. They really get tested on a level much more consistently than you can expect from EMEA or Americas scrims. This advantage of getting constant elite scrim partners is very understated and IMO plays a big part in the development of CN and PAC depth. Also getting practice against such chaotic and diverse styles gives an advantage of experience against many more play styles than you could ever get to practice against in NA for example. GenG is sweating their ass off in scrims against EDG and XLG 7 times a week meanwhile Sen is practicing against cubert 7 times a week and winning on individual skill 9/10 times.

Solution: NA/EMEA teams need to have more boot camps in other regions. Specifically in Asia, it really looks like the PRX effect is taking place region vs region-wide. It seems like every game between east and west so far (to include Sen’s wins) looks the super chaotic style overwhelms western teams. Outside of the very top teams in NA and EMEA, their playstyle is usually too vanilla to catch pacific and CN teams off guard. So, the only solution is for the west to get as much time playing pacific and Chinese teams outside of internationals as possible. Otherwise, I think the whimsical style of pacific and China beating NA/EU is going to be a consistent thing.

Mibr got shat on at ewc qualifiers for NA immediately after getting 3rd. They didn’t even qualify as the 4th seed. What happened to Americas is the playoffs. Sen sending G2 to the lower bracket doomed all other teams in the lower bracket. IMO if you could redo the playoffs in current meta NRG would have been 3rd seed for sure. Maybe 100t. But definitely not mibr

What is this take? G2 were a top team in the world before tejo. With icy as the duelist. Now because they look insane with tejo and jaws (everyone expected it). They’ll suddenly be super nerfed without tejo? Who’s to say g2 isn’t going to be leading the meta again? Everyone had access to tejo. Sorry G2 are too good at playing smart.

EMEA has been very weak outside of FNC since the end of 2022. They’ve just consistently had a very strong #1 team (FNC in 2023 and TH in 2024). Their non-1 seed has never done much, pretty sure they’ve never had 2 teams in the top 4.

Everyone had G2, GENG, And TH in the top 3 and g2 was typically not 3rd. That can be considered favorites. Multiple teams can be favorites. G2 were favorites.

And I just disagree. I think G2 will be just fine. When they’ve had to, they have done a great job speeding up, and playing into the chaos, specifically since jawgemo joined. My take is they play the slow, methodical style because they believe in valyn’s ability to outmidround their opponent and it’s a higher percentage way of playing. Which we all know their forte is maximizing the numbers. So in my opinion, their style of slow and methodical is not dependence it’s just what they think is the most reliable way to win. And if the current meta favors fast gameplay I am sure they’d be happy to do it. I just fully disagree with the take that G2 is nerfed by the changes. If anything it’s an advantage for g2 because of how good they are at reading the meta and creating new ideas that nobody else does.

“Like g2”, G2 was a favorite for champs with ICY in the old meta. Tejo/breach was used because it was optimal, not as a crutch. G2 was top 4-ish itw with icy. +jawgemo should be expected to make them arguably the best.

Paper Rex benkai

Sen warmed up by farming China + G2 is on another level to every team we’ve seen so far. Not sen’s fault China is free.

Realistically Sen either 2-0 or 2-1 with 2 dominant maps. BLG will barely win or barely lose their map pick and they won’t get double digits on the 2nd map and if they win their pick they also won’t get double digits on map 3.

Duelist - Zekken
Initiator - Trent
Igl/controller - valyn
Flex - n4rrate
Senti - leaf

Honestly, I just need a western win. Regional parity for the win. I won’t be able to cope anymore if apac/china win 4 in a row. Sen/g2/mibr/fnc/th are who I’m rooting for.

I’m sure it doesn’t help that probably 90%+ of EUs FPS talent worships counterstrike instead. And it’s fair to say EU is giga nerfed. Literally every Toronto team is already shafted because of the map pool change and tejo nerf. And emea has less than half the prep time (when accounting for travel, ewc etc). And TL doesn’t have their IGL/best player. Imagine Sen trying to do something at Toronto with tenz(much better player than penny) filling in for johnqt, they’d probably get grouped too. Losing your IGL and star player is like having 2 fill-ins ngl. Lowkey sad that BLG let TL win a map.

They didn’t shoot back map 1 at all. Map 2 they were very much in it despite paper Rex clearly having tons of new stuff (2 weeks+ difference in prep time). Theoretically the further along the tournament goes, the more it’ll even the playing field as everyone shows what they’ve worked on and as emea gets a more equal amount of time on the current meta. People meme about emea being shit (which btw fuck emea, I love NA). But it’s unfair when liquid literally has an NA tier 2 duelist filling in for their best player and IGL. And team heretics, only cope is the prep time tbh. But still very valid.

I have a feeling TH is doing an optic cosplay and will be very good the rest of the tournament.

TL sucks on icebox + middling tier 2 duelist filling in for their best player/igl. Honestly kinda embarrassing that a 2nd seed let them get 10 rounds given all of the odds stacked against TL.

Sliggy said keiko and kamo are helping preround and pati is midrounding

I think 1 of 2 things will happen:

1. The “weak” teams from the east that got through “stronger” teams to get here aka blg, wolves, xlg and rrq are actually the next gen of cracked zoomers and they’ll be insane (which is probably gonna be the case for at least one). Or

2. They got lucky against the “stronger” teams and they’ll have embarrassing showings because they lack the discipline and experience and kinda screwed their region by qualifying over known quantities like EDG, DRX etc.

This goes for every eastern team other than GenG imo. Every other team is a new face or a super hot and cold prx.

That’s what sucks is whoever wins will definitely deserve it and it will be a harder tournament than most masters events. But people will downplay it all because of the circumstances. I get it but kinda sucks for the players because they have no choice but to do their best. And even if they’re proud and worked as hard as they would for a masters everyone is gonna downplay it due to the people organizing the EWC.