I have done nothing but play Getting Killed by Geese on loop for 3 months

Just turn the knob down on the sliding accuracy to practically zero and that solves a huge chunk of it. That, or increase the amount of time it takes for Neon to equip a weapon after activating the slide.

The sprint mechanic isn't the problem at all, it's the slide+sliding accuracy specifically. The fact Neon can just slide and shoot with near-perfect accuracy (this is not just a shotgun problem as people claim btw) is just toxic and unfun.

I argue it's as much of a crutch as old Jett dash or Chamber TP were. A good Neon player will use the slide to secure a guaranteed kill with almost zero possible counterplay unless you actively plan around that ability and that ability only.

Neon's always been annoying to play against (that's what fast characters in a slow-paced game do), but the slide accuracy's the only thing that genuinely tilts me

Yes

The shooting accuracy while sliding is fundamentally unhealthy for the game

The moment that gets nerfed, a huge chunk of all Neon mains are going down an entire rank tier at minimum

I'd rather get diffed by people with crazy movement in my deathmatches than by people that shift walk and sit in corners and have their volume turned up to the max so they can pre-fire you

I'm hoping the devs reworked the map a little more, considering it did improve with that first rework. It's still an Odin slop-fest but real ones know just how much worse it was back then...

But the moment I see a [duelist]/Omen/Kayo/Sova/KJ comp like every other Ascent game I've played in since 2022 I'll accept defeat again

I'm not really a fan of what Rivals does though... it's just more visual clutter. Also the newest animated banner is just an easy way of showing who has no life outside of the game (or they cheated their way the XP progression through lobby exploits). Also, Lord icons don't mean jack. I've seen more Lord Spider-Man players that are dogshit at the game than good.

Valorant should just consider adding more stuff to the Agent progression. More free unlockable cards, titles, spray, etc with XP/kingdom credits. Currently, you're really not getting much relative to what other games get. In Valorant, you get what, 2 cards, three sprays, two titles, a buddy, and a cheap gun reskin. There should be more if you want people to really show their progression.

What I think would really sell me would be a better gun at the end. It doesn't have to be fancy (otherwise they'd just sell it as a bundle...) but something that isn't just a recolor. Jett's sheriff, for example, should have animated clouds. I think that'd be so sick. Or at least, add a new, unique agent gun at the end of it all. Like, Jett can get her sheriff, but if you play for long enough, you can also get a Jett-themed OP. Astra can have her ghost, but also a phantom. Something like that

AMER: LOUD (i need to support Darker... first Colombian in tier1 since DaveeyS, RIP)
EMEA: KC (i just think they're neat)
APAC: DRX (i still believe)
CN: DRG (who are we??)

T2: whichever one has the Colombian core (it changes every year... it was FUSION before, then Six Karma, now LAZER)

After the start Wolves had, this would be absolute cinema

Snivy

The Serperior aura is awesome, and while the Snivy line wasn't that good in gen 5, gen 6 onwards with Leaf Storm+Contrary makes Serperior so much fun to battle with

Honorable mention to Chikorita because that line still sucks but I still love it so I always pick it

There's still a market for in-person tutors, especially since a lot of people recognize that overuse of AI tools can hurt learning. It's easier to land tutoring jobs for kids that are younger than you are (you say you're 16 -- you'd be looking at tutoring 10-13 year olds most likely).

I'd still suggest you look and see if someone wants a tutor, they usually pay quite well (at least, in my experience). If available, petsitting or babysitting can also land you some easy money, but it's usually much less than tutoring.

I've been pulling up the first salsa playlist I see on Spotify and that's been working

"we" lol

also this is just another prime example where big names != team quality

Three of my favorites:

"ALL HAIL KING BUZZ" as DRX completes the 9-3 curse against FPX, Champs 2022

Demon1's two perfect headshots with Jett knives against Fnatic, Masters Tokyo 2023

KK pulling out the op IRL against T1, Masters Tokyo 2023

a lot of players just watch some guide on "how to play [sentinel of choice] on [map]" and they just follow that guide like it's gospel.

unironically, i've always said that stuff like that actively makes you worse because it's too predictable and becomes so easy to counter. it's kind of similar to lineups. ever run into a viper or brim that does nothing but bait their team because they insist on their lineups?

when i play cypher i try to have some crazy nonsense trip that no one expects. usually, someone clears the "meta" setup and ends up running knife or util out into the other trip for free.

aspas? not good with raze

As much as I agree no one is going to use it lol, they'll just use whichever number is the lowest. That's why so many people love using K/D as their metric even for IGLs.

i work full time, i just browse vlr if i'm bored or work is slow (like today)

• neon player
• smurf
• currently in silver but peaked ascendant 2 this act
• still manages to go negative on his main agent in silver-plat elo -- https://tracker.gg/valorant/match/c4436b00-72e0-486b-906a-8856a402bdf8

i've seen enough -- this guy has no life

all the TH fans will just flock back to fnatic unfortunately

respect the wolves flair though

Haven't been keeping up with the forum. How are the TH fans coping? This was the "best" team of 2024?

sphynx cats are very underrated! sure they're not as appealing to look at, but they're incredibly social and affectionate

source: cat cafe in my city has a resident sphynx

why must we compare???

both albums are awesome. hypochondriac is one of my favorites OAT, and revengeseekerz is top 2 album this entire year so far

i tend to accidentally leave songs on repeat so my top 5 songs of the month are very skewed, but these were definitely my favorites recently:

• GODSTAINED - Quadeca
• Psychoboost - Jane Remover
• Cancionera - Natalia Lafourcade
• Cornflower Blue - Flower Face
• Magnolia - Deafheaven

psychoboost is SOTY 2025

stop using numbers to justify ability/impact challenge (impossible)

using k/d or acs to discuss a smokes/IGL player is crazy work

W post

SEN 2-1 100T

3 guarantees in life

i'm just betting it'll be here

damn, this was a perfect rundown, thanks for the link

altaria

best mega and it doesn't come close, and its base form is very cute and iconic

i've been touching grass and hadn't logged into this website in a while. anyone wanna explain what on earth happened with s1mon? and lukxo?

remember when teams were allowed to have creativity in their artwork for their bundles? good times

My whole problem with Waylay is that it forces Breach

could've stopped it right there. a character that requires another character to exist in order to be good is inherently bad game design

Hey OP. I hope you haven't been reading these replies. 95% of people on VLR are either 13 years old, stupid, or silver. I know the internet (and also real life) is rough to be open about your identity, but this website is filled with children willing to dehumanize you because they live sad lives and they think that makes them worth something. You are 100x braver than they'll ever be just for making this post.

I hope you are able to find a community where you can watch valorant matches and not experience any hate. I know this probably sounds like a broken record, but I've found Sliggy's watchparties to be pretty good at moderating to make sure you feel included. If you want a place to watchparty, that'd be my first recommendation. As someone that isn't trans but is a minority in other ways, I understand what you're feeling and know you're not alone in that sense.

You are valid and you matter -- don't let the idiots get to your head.

if ascent was never a good map for them, why would they pick it?

ez pa fuego

it's not about what you eat, but who you eat it with

The single smartest statement said on vlr.gg

Anyways steak is a fire choice. I can demolish a ribeye any day

Genuinely curious, is kpopification really a new thing for y'all? I heard the word before for stuff other than valorant lmao

looks fire

It does, but when you compare that to two LAN wins for FNC then G2 has little to work with still. It also begs the question of how much weight a pre-franchise LAN placement/win should have. (I think they count equally, but Val esports before franchising was also the wild west)

If a team misses out it means they weren't good enough, simple as that. The best part about a season with multiple international tournaments is we get to see who adapts and improves vs who gets stuck along the way.

"Best team rarely wins" makes no sense either -- if they win then they were likely the best team that tournament. They might not be the best team THE ENTIRE SEASON (fluke/cinderella runs do exist), but for at least this first part then they are definitely a top team.

The only thing I agree with you on is that 8 teams for a Masters is too small. It should be 12 or 16, with maybe an LCQ.

As it stands, and if we're only talking about the "big" esports, Fnatic. They're the only team off the top of my head that has had success in all three "big money" esports (CS, Val, and LoL).

FNC had that dominant era in CS. In Val, they had a really dominant year (2023) as well as having qualified for every tournament until recently. And in LoL, an esport obviously dominated by Asian teams, they've at least qualified to every Worlds except for 2 (2012 and 2016). They even won the first Worlds and got runner-up in 2018.

I think the next closest is G2, which is only really held back because of the lack of Valorant accolades. By most accounts they're a relatively new team, since the org was originally stuck in t2 before acquiring the old Guard core when TGRD won ascension.

A lot of other orgs have also had a lot of success in other esports that I don't really watch or care for, so it really depends on which esports you're basing your comparisons off of. If you want to include Fortnite (random example), suddenly SEN has a lot of accolades because of Bugha.

edit because I misread and thought FNC only got runner-up in a Worlds when they actually won the first one

Surprised language hasn't also been mentioned. A full KR roster means the team can speak just Korean and not worry about anything else. Unless whoever they're importing already knows Korean, importing someone means either switching comms languages or having the import take a bunch of Korean classes. Either way there'll be a barrier and a learning curve until everyone's comfortable, which might be too long to be of value.

This is correct. The moment I realized I no longer cared for my rank or RR and just wanted to play with my friends and 5 stack was when I started having a lot more fun in Valorant. I might've quit the game entirely if I was genuinely trying to grind to a higher rank.

When I was learning English as a kid in the American South I had no accent, because American TV didn't usually use heavy accents. I was also in a city, and American cities (apart from like, NYC and LA, I guess) don't have a discernable accent. The early Youtube age also had a lot of American Youtubers with basic, easy-to-understand accents.

It was much later when I moved away from the city to the suburbs with my parents that a Southern drawl began to sneak into my speaking style, lol. Sometimes it takes over when I'm road raging.

edit since i realized i never mentioned this: i immigrated to the US with my parents when i was around 5. i only knew Spanish at that time.

it's been a "work in progress" since like 2022 lmao, no one takes the rankings seriously.

The ranking system in this website also leans heavily towards games played and if you win a lot of games, regardless (usually) of the "level" of that game, the team climbs in ranking. It also heavily skews how much the team climbs based on their opponent's own ranking. So theoretically, G2 beating FNC in RBHG or some other off-season tournament gets them as many points as G2 beating FNC in Champs.

Because of that, it's easy for t2 teams, most of which already have a higher rank, to farm each other and skyrocket up the rankings. RANKERS is a big example since they're undefeated (for now), and Apeks in 2023-2024 while they were still in EMEA t2 were always like top 3 in the website rankings

Oops, I misread the table for the Challengers page. Thought for some reason that the entire bottom half went into "relegation," lol

If it's anything like last year, those bottom 3 teams will go through a promotion/relegation bracket with teams that aren't in Stage 1 (probably some of the teams that didn't get in through Closed Qualifier, I guess). Otherwise, if they really are getting chopped this early, that's just unlucky

Relegation seems a little quick, though...

I know that's what it says on VLR but previous years at least had a "promotion/relegation" bracket. Is that no longer a thing?

It makes little sense to axe half the teams in Challengers after one stage

2nd weirdest, imo

1st is 100T axing ec1s and inspire after a whole two (2) matches, including a 13-0 loss against The Guard.

It's been three years and I'm still puzzled by that. Any rational team would've kept them around at least a few more matches.

I agree, but I'm just showing that orgs can be real stupid with some of their decisions. My guess is if they're axing someone this early, something is terribly, deeply, irrepairably wrong with the team chemistry that nothing can fix it without axing SOMEONE.

Except, I guess, for whatever happened with ec1s and inspire. They only played two matches for 100T before getting axed -- no preseason or anything like that. That was three years ago now and I'm still puzzled by that.