No <3

Fnatic loses 1 match and the brains of half the people on this site short circuited

I mean I think it makes sense. For as much as EG tries to push their villain narrative FNC did it a lot more effectively just by pubstomping everyone for the better half of the year. People like diversity in their games and once Fnatic has lost being matched against them doesn't feel like a death sentence anymore. Now when your team gets matched against FNC you can actually support your team with the knowledge that they can win.

Bro they all look like they're fresh out of school man.

To be fair Loud is a champions winning team.

Bilibili is some chinese high school's esports club.

They're going for the lower bracket run so they bait the other teams into picking Pearl.

Then they win because they can't antistrat you on a map you've never played.

It's so obvious.

/s

Brazilian fan W. I think Boaster and FNC needs a loss to keep them humble and get them to work on new stuff. Getting 2 trophies out of 1 playbook is probably good enough mileage and now it's time for something new.

See you guys in the finals :)

PUT BOASTER ON JETT MINI

Every other team glaring at Loud rn

"YALL COULDNT EVEN GIVE THEM A MAP TO KEEP THEM HAPPY?"

The issue with playing a map so much is that you're giving everyone 10 years of tapes to study and by God did Saadhak make the most of it.

I'm worried now that they've cooked up absolutely nothing new on that map by how hard they got antistratted. Sign of complacency from FNC tbh.

Boaster is too much of a perfectionist. From the voice comm vods I've watched I already know the team was at each other by the second half of Ascent. Sometimes when Derke wants to send it just let him do that

Loud just made this tournament single elim lmao

I think Fnatic was tilting there. The biggest issue with winning so much is that you lose the mental resilience needed to bounce back from when you're down.

This is a very hot take and I don't know if the world is ready for this but

teams can have bad days.

THE EGG CURSE IS REAL!

That Omen tech was so hype as well.

She's so good for these pun one liners. Not a lot of other casters come up with them on the fly so well.

Didn't Bren and Sideshow call that game?

Personally
1) Buzz's 1v3 clutch vs ASE on Pearl, Masters Tokyo "Are you not entertained?" from Bren
2) Demon1 vs FNC on split in Upper Finals, Masters Tokyo "El Diablo is dead, there is a new king of Hell." from Pansy
3) Dep 3k vs TS on Lotus, APAC LCQ finals "I am become Dep, the destroyer of worlds" from Achilios.

Honourable mentions:
"YEW FOOKIN MELONS" from Sideshow.
"Chronicle, he's a monster, he's a deity"/ "I'm about to have my Sideshow splattered egg moment" from Ender.

Ardiis is the perfect example as to how badly you can grief your team as Sage if you don't know what you're doing.

I'd say Brimmy is better.

NRG probably had like 95% or some shit against BLG before their first game.

Even Boaster, who is another IGL who has copped a lot of flack for not being a fragger, has stepped up a lot in terms of firepower. A proper IGL in the current competitive valorant environment really can't get away with bot fragging every game anymore.

Copenhagen was already a pretty close game if Mistic and Enz0 didnt completely beef that postplant on Ascent. This is gonna be a banger.

Bren rant moment ahahha

I'm curious as to why FNC, PRX and EG stand out this much from the rest of the crowd. While a part of it is attributable to mechanical and calling skills, I wonder if role stability actually has a much bigger part to play as well.

Because if you look at TL, NRG and NaVi, they're all teams that theoretically should be insane, but have all flopped. Something I've noticed is that they have a propensity to put people on random off roles to round out comps, like Sayf on Breach, Cned/Ardiis on Sage etc, when in reality they're not that flexible (and in the case of Ardiis him not hitting his shots, but that's beside the point)

On the other hand, FNC, PRX and EG all have one mega flexible player that can round out comps. FNC has chronicle, PRX has Forsaken and half of EG can play an off role very effectively.

Interested to hear what other people think of this.

Listen, as a Fnatic fan who sat through 2 years of chokes and throws, I'm not unclenching my ass until I see them win the last round.

No hate on either teams, this is just a defence mechanism.

Absolute gigabanger. I support FNC but this matchup is gonna make me sweat a lot. LOUD looks like they're on the up and up and this is probably gonna be a massive challenge for both teams. Fnatic also definitely will be showing something new here so I'm super looking forward to that too.

2-1 FNC win with at least 1 overtime.

Wanna see me beat NRG?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVrjh-1CTtQ&ab_channel=KZCrow

NRG got 13 rounds against Fnatic at Tokyo so you're right.

South NA. Alg. /s

1 is a few more than what he could count.

Pansy's always so entertaining. She knows the game and gives good analysis but still reacts like a fan when something hype or funny happens. Goated caster.

YO THIS IS JUST EXTENDED BM RIGHT?

RIGHT??

If they don't qualify to playoffs then they can make sure they avoid Fnatic.

FNS masterclass really.

This shit wholesome

First they beat Fnatic on Bind and now this. Maybe Turkish Bind is the new Turkish Ascent

Why does he play this on every map?

OK Im not caught up on valorant drama. Ty

The issue is between Aspas and Less right? If Less leaves maybe aspas will stay?

I think it's more of a testament of how Leo is a straight up cheat code but I think Crashies does his job well and is probably just going through a slump.

Ahahah same brain

Crashies is the NA equivalent of Leo. Not flashy at all but gets the job done and clutches out if he has to. Definitely an S tier player. Ethan for a similar reason asw since his utility is pretty good.

I think Boaster deserves to be included. He's gotten so good at fragging and IGLing over the past year, and it's just unforunate that his glowup coincided with FNC getting a superteam. I've watched FNC since 2021 and it's evident how much he's improved in terms of gunplay.

Im huffing giga hopium but I would love the storyline of BLG beating a tournament favourite twice in a row to make it into playoffs. It gets boring watching people tap heads all the time. I want to see more whzy flying in with a shotgun and shitting on set plays.

I don't think Cned is the problem. Ange1 just cooks some absolute monkey shit sometimes.

As much as I hate blaming the IGL for not fragging I think ange1 needs to go. An IGL that can't really shoot back, no matter how good he is, is gonna hamstring the team by making them play 4v5. NaVi players can all frag but I dont think they can carry an extra person.

Very nice take.
I'd say PRX is better than DRX until we see conclusive proof that DRX is returned to form.
Agree with EG and LOUD. I'm hesitant to call NRG good after that BLG game and almost losing map 1 against Zeta.
FNC agree. EMEA is such a weird case because they've got the material for another good team but both Liquid and NaVi have glaring problems and they both looked lost this tournament.

I think role issues is a big limiting factor for a lot of teams right now to stop them from reaching their potential. Fnatic is just lucky in that they have chronicle who can and will fill any role. I think Forsaken plays a similar role in PRX and that's probably a big part of their success this year as well.

NaVi lost tokyo to a bunch of kids who weren't allowed more than 1 hour a week on videogames until 3 month ago...

That's not exactly the best

Oh this aged like Ice cream

You forgot the time machine

What do you mean Brazil is a southern province of NA sotheir achievements are clearly NA's.

/s

Bruh don't be acting like 90% of the shittalkers on the site aren't faking their flairs and flags trying to start shit.