Could be, never played or watched Dota myself personally. Similar skills required, though

Either LoL or Overwatch IMO

LoL because of how delicate a teamfight can be in a pro match, and little things like cs can influence the match at that level. A lot of cooldown managing as well, since you have to know your own cooldowns, your team's cooldowns, and the entire enemy team's cooldowns

OW because you need to be extremely good at aiming (unless you play tank -- then you have to be extremely good at not dying more than aiming) while also knowing cooldowns like in LoL

EG. Fuck that org, but the players didn't deserve what happened to them.

The best surprise would be DRX winning Champs after their weakest ever season

Any Chinese team reaching upper finals would be more than welcome too

I feel like 2023 should've taught us to never leave out those that barely qualified, or those that look weak at the start. EG almost didn't qualify and then won the whole thing, This year SEN was almost written off entirely because of one bad series against the favorites, and Trace was probably in everyone's pickems as getting eliminated in groups. No team at Champs is objectively weak

I argue it's more because we've already seen what DRX does -- at their peak they look unstoppable, but then they get mentally boomed and crash out before they reach top 3/4. So, everyone expects them to do the same here.

Funnily enough, I feel like this lack of pressure of not being the obvious favorites (GenG were, and now TH/G2/FNC) + having home support will really help them actually break that curse. But, they have to win first. One game at a time

frailty is maybe top 5 albums oat for me it's so good. the album cover going insanely hard helps it too

the new song flash in the pan is also fantastic

for BMTH i thought NeX GEn's cover went super hard

The pyrokinesis ones are super cool, i never knew of him so it's my first time seeing those covers

i usually dislike album covers that are just photos but Die Lit's photo is something DIFFERENT

I'm kinda bored for my last half hour at work and got curious

I've been going through a phase where I look for albums that have amazing covers. They don't have to be good albums, just that the cover goes hard af and they just look great

What are y'alls favorite covers/which ones do you think go hardest?

Some notable covers from me that aren't uber popular/well known (yet):

• Nothing But Thieves -- Broken Machine (Deluxe)
• Thornhill -- The Dark Pool
• Jane Remover -- Frailty
• FINNEAS -- Blood Harmony
• Kehlani -- CRASH
• brakence -- hypnagogia

Thanks for the reminder. I should probably do this soon. Was hesitant for a while because I didn't want to void the warranty (even by accident) but now that that's passed I should open it up and deep clean

for certain sports it's for air resistance. pro gymnasts (for example) will always wear tight clothing because air resistance can ruin their consistency (especially in events like trampoline)

for many other sports it's also for comfort or cultural reasons. female beach volleyball players can be seen wearing regular bikinis, long sleeve shirts/pants, or something in between

how does this affect lebron's legacy

it's still complete brainrot content, plus at least when i was young i never looked at a yt poop and said ha ha this is good parody

all i'm saying is that now i look at old youtube poops and cringe at the fact i used to love watching them. gen alpha will eventually grow up and realize that too (assuming their brains don't actually wither away)

my ideal scenario is if they did away with Masters and replaced them with third-party tournaments (like IEM, Blast, etc from CS) where part of the rewards are circuit points for Champions

i like Champions being a Riot-based end-all-be-all tournament each year

unfortunately that's never gonna happen

i'm solidly gen z. i watched a couple of "episodes" because i used to love watching Source Filmmaker content (especially the Saxxy Award TF2 films) and always appreciate good animation. (it's not that good)

it is complete nonsense and don't get how anyone can watch it on repeat. i was at a bar/restaurant last week and there was a kid (maybe like. 5? 6?) at the table in front of mine and was literally watching skibidi toilet on his ipad. kid did not say a SINGLE word that entire time they were there.

i argue skibidi toilet today is the gen alpha equivalent of youtube poops for us

people think valo looks bad? unless they're cs/cod kids that want their "realism," that makes very little sense

at least pearl is finally coming back, that's been confirmed. i think most people forgot that it was even reworked before it got taken out

They're definitely getting paid/doing their friend Shroud a favor by shilling the game for him. Normal behavior

Will it kill Valorant? Probably not -- it's a completely different game with an admittedly awesome gimmick

Streamers can also try out new games without it implying that they're abandoning their former game btw. A lot of Overwatch streamers spent a while playing Marvel Rivals (the supposed new Overwatch Killer)

hmm, guess it depends on what you get banned for/how long?

i've seen plenty of people have 4 stars, disappear for a while, and come back with zero stars on the same account

stars are only removed when you get banned

DRX-LEV, LEV-EDG, DRX-EDG are the dream

imma be real with you chief i don't think i've played an unrated or a swiftplay since before fracture was removed. mb

still a whole year without a map is criminal. meanwhile i'm playing lotus and ascent every night

Fracture was removed from the unrated and ranked map pools in patch 7.04. This was 354 days ago

Just a friendly reminder while you queue into your 20th Ascent game this episode. Valorant simply does not have enough maps to be taking some of them out for 1+ years like this

it's one thing to dislike a team, it's another thing to make that your personality

reminds me of MxM in NA Challengers and Apeks in EMEA Challengers last year

MxM had an incredible split 2 and almost qualified to Ascension undefeated in the split, then lost 0-2 to M80 and 0-3 to TGRD back-to-back and crashed out

Apeks had only lost one match in the entirety of EMEA Challengers and Ascension, then lost 0-3 to Gentle Mates in the final

the mental boom from even losing one map whenever you are favorites or on a win streak is real

smaller venues and no real crowd mic (at least... i think)

put a Masters in the same venue as IEM Dallas and it'll be hype i guarantee it

This is bold. I kinda like it

Mine is incredibly hopium https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/9c74ed55

there's an esports world cup?

the chicago crimerate has gone down a lot over the years. a lot of websites rn don't even list it in the top 20 most dangerous US cities anymore

rn it's just like any other city -- just gotta know where you are and avoid the bad areas where you can

i agree, but there's so few events happening each year anyway that viewers (and i imagine many players too) would complain about even more waiting between events

there should be something going on during these downtimes to justify even more waiting. doesn't even have to be pro matches, could be like creator tournaments sponsored by Riot and streamed in the official VCT channels. or pro matches with gimmicks like agent bans

or of course riot can fix the schedule (very hard i know)

people were so confident GenG were going to beat SEN again that now anything SEN does will be considered a fluke

i wonder how many people lost money thinking they had it in the bag

lowkey my ideal scenario:
Masters Singapore
Masters Chicago/Detroit/Toronto
Champions Lisbon/Amsterdam/London

All would be fire choices. i'm 99% sure there will be a Masters in NA after having zero international events this year. Would also make sense to have another champs at EU and just make it a rotating cycle (NA->APAC->EU, plus China somewhere idk)

it's a matter of taking care of the laptop and getting some solid peripherals to keep it going, really.

the thermals in these laptops aren't the best and constantly gaming at 90-100 degrees C will cause either the CPU or GPU (or even both) to slowly start failing, which does suck.

i have a 4 year-old laptop that still runs stuff super well, maybe as good as when i got it. i genuinely think i made the right choice by investing in a cooling pad too so the thermals don't shit themselves. i also got a keyboard so i'm not wearing the laptop keyboard out

If you want a solid gaming laptop that can play almost anything i can vouch for a zephyrus m15. can't speak on autocad (#4) but it can definitely run stuff like solidworks/fusion360 on a light load. it'll probably scream and say your gpu isn't compatible but it should work for everything except like. simulation rendering. be sure to check though.

the battery life isn't great but it can last you an entire school day if you just use it for notes. for games it runs valorant at around 200fps on low settings and some minor BIOS tweaking over the years (i think). overwatch has around the same frames. gta runs at around 60, fortnite 100-ish, etc. it couldn't run elden ring though, so i'm saving to buy a real pc for the really heavy games

that being said if you want a gaming laptop 100% also invest in a cooling pad so your laptop isn't cooking while gaming. the thermals in these laptops aren't great but a cooling pad really helps with the life of the laptop. an external keyboard also helps a lot. i've had my pad for 3 years and it's basically fallen apart but it still works. only thing i don't like is the weight. this laptop is a bulky one for sure especially if you carry the charger around too.

my laptop turned 4 this year and it still runs like a charm. got it new for $1300 (the 240hz one costs like double... but I have it hooked up to a 240hz monitor and it runs great).

i'm willing to argue karon could top demon1 if GenG win champs. Top 2 in Madrid, Shanghai winners and APAC League winners is some MASSIVE success already. As good as Demon1 and that EG team was at Champions, remember that they almost didn't qualify

(not saying they were a fluke, just that they weren't as dominant as GenG is this year)

It'll always be hard to top going from unknown --> Champs winner in a year, that status will never change. But in terms of raw success... there's definitely an argument there IMO

i agree with you but fixing maps is a whole other problem too. that was what the original thread i linked was about. it's just that in general, nerfing a gun is a much easier approach than fixing a map from a dev viewpoint (especially since the devs are allergic to touching ascent i guess)

did gen g's coach knife a 100T player during a league match? didn't think so

hadn't even considered the price. will add that as a suggestion in the op. i don't necessarily agree with a fire rate decrease since i'd still want the gun to be a direct upgrade to an ares which already kinda sucks

yeah the last one is a bit of a reach honestly. i also agree the reload time is already long enough, but the best way to reduce spam is to either increase that or reduce ammo as i mentioned (both would be too much)

I was writing a reply to this thread when I realized that when it comes to spam culture in valorant, the odin is one of the biggest culprits.

then it got me thinking... when the phantom and vandal got their ammo nerfs, why didn't the odin? the odin, in the right map and hands, can be the spammiest, most annoying gun to play against. sova+odin+defense on ascent can be incredibly oppressive, for example.

how would/should the odin be changed so it's still a useful gun while reducing spamming? here are some potential ideas off the top of my head:

• reduce the ammo 100 --> 75 (total ammo 200 --> 150. just fewer bullets to spam overall)
• increase the reload time 5s --> 6s (or even longer. just to make it easier to punish using every odin bullet in the mag)
• change penetration values based on wall type (would probably affect other guns too, just a blanket penetration nerf for most guns)
• drastically increase first-shot inaccuracy and/or recoil (basically make it ramp up in accuracy like the old laserbeam negev in csgo. easier to punish if you have good aim with vandal/phantom)
• (edit, inspired by cloudberry) increase price 3200 --> 3600-3800

crazy to think how 2 of the 3 Champions-winning teams imploded after winning. Acend and EG both broke apart entirely straight after winning with other teams picking up what was left. LOUD kept its core at least

changing the map designs straight up is complicated. like for ascent, an "easy" solution is to not make the b main walls wallbangable anymore, but that creates another set of problems (for example, attackers get free b main control almost every time unless the defenders try to push in every round or use util to stall hard)

some changes that don't need to change the maps themselves, but still reduce spam, that i generally like are:

• dead teammates can no longer see planted spike on attack minimap (can't just ping it for free). or at least, the spike is hidden on the minimap based on their living teammates' POV -- if they can't see the spike because they're hiding behind a smoke, their dead teammates can't see it on the minimap
• buff sage so she's used some more, since her wall is basically anti-spam when placed well and allowed to reinforce (but this would REALLY depend on how they buff sage because we obviously don't want to break her)
• nerf ares and odin ammo just to give them the same treatment the vandal and phantom got. and/or give the odin an even longer reload time to punish odin spam even harder

I'm still so shocked that Riot haven't simply added all the maps back in. Like the main excuse to create a map rotation was because there were "too many maps," but it's so much worse playing the same 3 maps so often. It really doesn't feel like we see a proper map variety.

This episode alone I average one game on Abyss or one game on Sunset per day. I play like 3 games/day.

Overwatch tried this and the vitriol they got from the fans made them revert that. We should've done that

so that's why i couldn't find those threads. good on the mods, but they took way too long

there are three kinds of neon in that elo (i know because i was there in the past)

1) the one-tricks that WILL run the lobby and ruin your day
2) the ones playing neon for fun/variety, don't know any tech but can still perform well
3) the ones that think they are temet and straight up int

that thread where a guy was crying because vlr wasn't english-only

"the grind doesn't sleep" - idk lebron or somethin

i warm up for valorant ranked by playing only lucio in overwatch

does it help? not one bit

messi's barcelona once lost in the champions league to rubin kazan, yet they still call messi the goat