He competes in the Japanese challengers league though, and is getting picked up by PRX

He competes in APAC, so I'm counting him as APAC

1. Something
2. Patiphan
3. Jinggg
4. f0rsaken

Why the fuck are these guys so mechanically good. Every time I see their clips, it looks like they're surpassing any limits to individual ability. They're actually the equivelant of two regular pro players peeking.

I used to think SR were the only tactical team in NA until The Guard came around and everyone started playing more intelligently.

Right now they feel like they're stuck in 2022.

No new comps, no new strategies, they've just tried to perfect a strategy from a bygone era and failed to adapt with the rest of NA.

Their players are decent, but they need a better IGL and/or coaching staff.

If she got signed the roster then I'd be convinced that Soniqs pays their players the least out of any tier 2 org, cheapest players available.

The only team that surpasses prime Optic in NA rn is NRG.

I don't think you're doing the roster justice.

It's got 4 of the most mechanically gifted players, two recent world champions, 3 of the best players in the world at their roles, and a kiddo that farmed against prime FPX (with limitless potential as long as the fame doesn't get to his head).

Look, I'm not the biggest dephh believer. In fact, I think his calling is not as strong as other IGLs in NA.

However, I think it's stupid to believe making Sacy IGL would improve SEN's performance at all.

Sacy is not IGL material, he and pAncada were clueless throughout their first appearance on split, while dephh was the only one making strats. He's a good midrounder, don't get me wrong, and he could definitely study up on set plays and enemy team strategies and learn to become an IGL at some point--but as he is right now he would not be able to take up that mantle for a while.

In my opinion, there is nobody currently available in NA that would be a worthwhile replacement for dephh as it is. That is not to say he's the best IGL Sentinels could have, just the best of the rest.

-FNS is not going to leave NRG anytime soon
-I'm iffy on stellar and 100T in general, their discipline has looked rusty every since sean gares left.
-vanity calls too much on feeling to be an S-tier IGL in 2023.

Personally, I believe Valyn and Steel are both vastly better than dephh as IGLs, but:

-Valyn primarily plays smokes, and I'm not even going to bother explaining why adding yet another smokes player to the roster with pancada in it is a bad idea, and while he can flex, I don't think he'd be as comfortable on other roles quickly enough to give repeat his star individual performances thus far.

-While Steel is an S-tier IGL, he has huge issues with team chemistry, and his style of leading is so specific and uncooperative with anyone else's vision that, either the roster has to be up to him, or everyone has to adapt to his style of play--which might create issues for players with opinionated ideas of how to play like Sacy, and create friction between him and Sykko.

Dephh isn't even that bad, he's just mid by international standards. He's top 4 IGLs NA, putting side the huge gap between 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place.
So long as he studies a lot more with the meta that's been developing (and will develop now that Gekko's out), then his calling will be adequate enough to set up his star roster to success, maybe not to NRG levels, but success nonetheless.

I predict Sentinels to be top 3 in the Americas league after a year or so.

idk I only made like 12 posts and I got almost 4

I see no reason for putting Jinggg on Jett in your Pearl and Icebox comps. f0rsaken is the awper, and a main awper is almost a must in those maps (Refer to EDG, FUT, LOUD, and TSM). You're right, Jinggg is perfect as an entry fragger, but jett just isn't that good as a solo entry agent--he'd be better on raze. I still think PRX's double duelist, hyper-aggressive comps can work, they just need more discipline in a lot of their team plays.

I kill time by browsing VLR while at work

Thats misleading, when all 32 lockin teams run 1 duelist comps, then that's 128 support players vs 32 duelists, no shit that the 128 hand selected best support players will perform well at this event.

This doesn't even prove anything either. My point is that there's too many duelists, the duelists that we see at lockin are only the ones that got picked up, there's way more tier 1 duelists incapable of finding their way onto a tier 1 team than support players.

For everyone here, The King's Avatar is an amazing chinese series. I read it, but apparently there's a Netflix version.

Bro, I said there's a shortage not that they don't exist. Name every S tier duelist you know and out it side by side of the list you just wrote out.

The pro scene has wayyy too many Duelists

Adequate amount of hard initiator players (Sova, fade, not including Kayo/breach)

Abundance of initiator flex players (Kayo/breach), probably because it's the easiest role for duelist mains to familiarize themselves with.

Not enough good IGLs.

Not enough independent smokes players. (IGLs usually fill this role if nobody else can).

The Chamber meta irreversibly created a shortage of Tier 1 Sentinel/viper/harbor players.

zmjjkk is too good as an awper, I don't think yay would be a good fit role wise on EDG.

I can see what you're saying about FPX though.

Valyn is the perfect replacement to vanity in every conceivable way.

-He has better aim
-has proven himself to be a better IGL with a greater work ethic to improve. Kid's young and during the peak of The Guard nobody was scrimming more than them except for OpTic (and that says volumes). Not to mention back then they were all still mechanically weaker than C9 save for Trent and Sayaplayer, highlighting the impact of Valyn's calling.
-He fills the exact same role as vanity: smokes.
-Has a successful history with mCe in the past.

If the Guard players are really going to be split up, then there is no reason Valyn shouldn't be at the top of the list of players C9 wants.

On maps where raze entry is more important, Jinggg will probably take duelist spot, while the main jett/awper switches to Kayo.

SEN does the same with with TenZ and Zekken.

Bro's British, half his responses are calling others twats, only comments on posts talking about SEN and/or dephh, and used to only comment on posts about XSET a year ago.

Get off VLR, go scrim NRG.

Make each of his abilities correspond to a % of his health, so if you destroy wingman for example he loses 60 HP

Thats unfair to say. They struggled in the chamber meta, and d3ffo was not the awper they needed.

Even FNS mentioned at one point between Copenhagen and Istanbul that Optic still scrimmed M3C whenever they could and that that team was still insanely good despite not qualifying at LCQ.

I think they would dominate during this meta if they were still together.

1 jett 1 entry and 3 initiators?

Jack commented on reddit that C9 doesn't actually have financial problems, but implied that they would in the long run if he kept paying yay's salary, which would explain him paying the buyout.

Wait, are Sacy and Pancada brothers? They have the same last name or am I being stupid.

Its going to make you want to play yoru

To be fair, you could make an argument that since it was early valorant, everyone was relatively more dogshit back then because of the lack of quality players (I mean, hell, m1xwell was considered a top player back then) and that it was therefore more feasible to have a world record KDA than nowadays.

For me personally, there is one thing that defines a great IGL:

If you're spectating their team and they're down 9-3, at the back of your mind you still think "Winnable"

They are capable of keeping their team disciplined no matter the stakes, and the fact that they show an extreme affinity for bringing back rounds, an indicator of their ability to effectively counter-strat their opponents.

There's a reason everyone reading this is thinking of the same 5 people.

Also another reason why I think Steel is slept on as an IGL

i was limit testing xd

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/821943986452693025/1085011176494207036/image.png

xd

If any NA fans remember when Asuna was the main Jett of 100T, you'll remember that team's most glaring issue: the lack of a dedicated awper.

Asuna is a world class rifler, but he isn't as adept with the Operator as his peers, and he was always more suited for movement duelists (like raze) and entrying/creating space, rather than lurking and playing for first bloods.

Ironically enough, the opposite issue is now plaguing 100 Thieves regarding their new, world-renowned awper, Cryo.

Cryo is on the opposite end of the spectrum as Asuna. Rather than a hard entry, he's always been more suited to holding angles and punishing the enemy team, pushing up on defense for picks. However, Mikes has recently been putting him on Raze (despite Asuna being the better choice for that), and his performance on her is, to say the least, subpar.

With that being said, I think having these issues of inflexibility are what prevent most duelists from international performance; it forces their teams to adapt and allocate certain agents to other players to compensate for your lack of an agent pool. Don't get me wrong, Cryo's awping skills are world class, and Asuna's entry skills are as well, but what both are missing is an affinity for each other's specialty.

It's for this reason that the weak link for so many teams is their primary duelist. A few examples include:
DRX - Buzz has the Asuna problem, his awping just isn't up to the same level as his competition.
NRG - Ardiis is an amazing awper, but now that Chamber is out of the meta, FNS can't rely on Victor to fill in the entry role as frequently. In this case, however, I'm hopeful that ardiis with his larger agent pool can become able to play agents like raze at a high level
Giants - Nukkye is good, but he isn't up to the task when his team needs to play slowly and hold angles
PRX - Double duelist is not looking viable for this year, and I doubt PRX can still afford to keep f0rsaken and Jinggg on duelist, taking away a slot for another initiator, or the newly revived sentinel role.

Thus, I have a prediction: despite who may be on top now, the teams that will be on top by the end of the year (and assuming no enormous change in meta), will be those teams that have the one-in-a-million superstar duelists we all already recognize. They are the perfect duelists, known for their frag montages, their insane aim, their lack of fear, and their world-class awping abilities. These players can do it all: they can play raze, they can play neon, they can play jett and they perform well on all of them.

Examples of perfect duelists:
-Aspas
-dgzin
-cNed
-TenZ
-Meteor
-qw1

Wait does the extra region slot stay throughout the year or just for Masters Tokyo

I was worried Victor and Crashies wouldn't get picked up.

Never in a milllion years would I have expected a scenario to pan out the way it has, where Yay and Marved are free agents.

FNS stays winning tho

bro Chronicle came from competitive swimming that's how he's so good.

It's like /s doesn't mean anything anymore

1712 lichess.org
1360 peak chess.com

nAts and suygetsu role conflict

there's a clear difference between playing smokes + viper/harbor vs playing double smokes. Notice how most viper players also main kj or cypher, and rarely play any of the other smokes characters.

As I was doing research for a list I was making, I kind of noticed that a lot of the Jetts in apac, besides some exceptions like f0rsaken and zmjjkk, act more like entry duelists than as awpers.

Teams don't really invest as much on operators as, say, NA or EU teams do, on operators.

Especially Buzz and other top tier jetts always seem more comfortable when rifling.

putting Pancada and Marved on the same team is a waste of two perfectly good smokes players. If you're not gonna have marved on smokes then don't bother imo

While I agree that it takes a lot more than smokes to be S tier, you make it sound like any plat player could've taken zombs' place during Sentinels' glory days. I think his gamesense and experience playing smokes within the competitive scene for this long makes him at least bottom A tier. After all, there aren't really that many dedicated smokes mains in NA rn, and I'd infinitely take zombs on a roster than forcing yet another duelist to play omen.

Actually, I can agree to that.

Thank you, forgot about him.

With ec1s, he had a bad 2022; watch the barbers vs Navi.

As for koalanoob, im basing it off of personal experience. Trust me, he's vastly overlooked just because he's not in franchising.

I probably should've previewed it before I posted lmao

EMEA: Birthplace of IGLs

Awpers:

S-tier:
Derke
ardiis
cNed
qw1

A-tier:
Jamppi

Flex/Entry duelist:

S-tier:
Chronicle
Zyppan
nukkye

Initiators:

S-tier
Leo
Shao
Trexx

Controllers

S-tier:
nAts
suygetsu

A-tier:
-ec1s

Sentinels:

S-tier
nAts
Suygetsu
Alfajer

IGLs:

S-tier:
ANGE1
Boaster
Redgar
koldamenta

A-tier:
Bonecold
mrFallin
ScreaM

NA: Home of the Operator

Awpers:

S-tier
Yay
Cryo
TenZ
koalanoob

A-tier:
diceyxz
tex
Corey

Flex/Entry Duelist

S-tier:
Xeppaaa
Victor
Asuna

A-tier:
zekken
SicK
JonahP

Initiators

S-tier:
Crashies
Derrek
trent

Controllers:

S-tier:
Marved
bang

A-tier:
supamen
valyn
zander
zombs

Sentinels

S-tier:
FNS

A-tier:
neT
dapr
stellar

BabyJ-tier:
BabyJ

IGLs

S-tier:
FNS
valyn

A-tier:
stellar
dephh
hazed
Zander
ShahZam

.
SA: Aim Gods

Awpers

S-tier:
Aspas
dgzin
Tacolilla

A-tier:
NagZ

Flex/Entry Duelists:

S-tier:
Aspas
keznitdeuS
Heat
xand

A-tier Flex/Entry Duelist:
Saadhak? are you going to keep playing raze?

Initiators:

S-tier
mwzera
sacy

Controllers

S-tier:
pAncada
Mazino
Melser

Sentinels:

S-tier:
Less
Shyy

A-tier:
qck

IGLs:

S-tier:
Saadhak
kiNgg
Whoever is IGLing Furia

APAC/CN: World's Best Controllers

Awpers

S-tier:
f0rsaken
ZmjjKK

A tier:
t3xture

Flex/Entry Duelists:

S-tier:
Jinggg
Rb
Buzz
Patiphan

A-tier Flex/Entry Duelists:
Sayaplayer
Meteor

Initiators:

S-tier:
stax
ZestKR

A-tier:
d4v41

Controllers:

S-tier:
MaKo
mindfreak
sScary
Haodong

A-tier:
SugarZ3ro

Sentinels

S-tier:
Laz
Sushiboys
CHICHOO

IGLs

S-tier:
stax
ZestKR
Benkai

A-tier:
Crws

Sources: just my opinions.
I probably forgot some people please remind me.
For obvious reasons, there seems to be a severe lack of S-tier Sentinel players across all regions right now.

I don't think it's fair to compare Bang and Boaster. Even though both play controllers, they don't necessary play the same role.

I like to differentiate between independent smokes players like Marved and Banged vs IGL smokes players like Boaster and Valyn. Between the two camps, one is more actively the designated lurker and meant to be the clutch player, while the other typically plays more solidly and is meant to place smokes within the midround once they get a read (Independent smokes players can also do this, but since the IGL usually mid-rounds, them being the smoke character streamlines the process vs wasting time and distracting an independent smokes player to request a specific smoke.

I don't know what's gotten into all the IGLs this tournament, fragging out as much as they are, but in general I think bang's impact is different than Boaster's impact.

The thought process was basically:

Cryo on XSET had performance comparable to Yay.

The 4 person 100T core managed to win against Fnatic at Champions.

Replacing Will with Cryo would give them the firepower they needed to win it all.

Bang became the 2nd best smokes player in NA within the span of 2 months somehow.

wtf is this lol, the + sign is a red herring. You take the number on the left, add 1 then multiply it by the number on the right. 102 is the answer

Stage 1: The Honeymoon Phase.

The kid makes a name for themselves by pulling off insane numbers in ranked, pumping out clip after clip of insane clutches--usually on Jett, Raze, or previously Chamber.

Eventually, an org decides to pick them up, and they seem like the crown jewel that their team needed all along, seemingly hard carrying every game they play in (Examples: Cryo, Tenz, Aspas, Derke, d3ffo, ardiis, qw1, Zmjkk, cned).

Stage 2: The Slump.

As the team grows, they're bound to have an off-day eventually. Thus, team results become more varied, and the team's coach begins to criticize the duelist in question's decisonmaking; they start drilling them so as to stop taking so many risks/duels, and to be more team orientated.
Duelist listens, and begins playing more according to protocol, falling in line with the coach's wishes. They're not yet used to a structured team environment and for the duration of this period, they begin to play more safe than they're used to, often more than they should.

As a result, they get diffed in stats (but not always impact) by newer, hot shot duelists who are still fresh off the high of joining a team and take every duel they can get. (Examples: Cryo, Derke, ardiis, d3ffo, sayaplayer, cned)

Stage 3: The Renaissance.

Time passes, and if they haven't gotten dropped by trigger happy org owners already, they become more attuned to teamplay, and become able to analyze situations well enough to know the right time to take duels, and where to have impact as the main fragger of their team. Their superior aim wins gets them high frags, and tournament viewers are reminded of what made them so goated in the first place. They aren't actively playing for kills like they used to, so they never reach their peak, but they become staples among the world's greatest players, and have infinitely more impact than they used to back then. (Examples: Derke, ardiis, cned)

I agree.