I never understood the hate for Southgate. He's the only Manager England have had in decades to get them to a final, and even look like a contender in the top4. He's done what the golden generation could never do.

The only critique I have for him the past few matches, is leaving Watkins on the bench for so long. It was pretty obvious the past few matches, that kane struggles heavily as he's heavily marked, and bro barely moves. He struggles to facilitate and play off Foden and Saka at times.

Kane is a great striker, but against that spain, he ain't the pick.

Plus midfield let through so many spanish players. Southgate runs 3 defenders, and the amount of times they got overran in their half before Midfields marking was slopping.

If fnatic lose chronicle, they wouldn't be as successful as they are. He's the best fill player in the world, by far. He's the reason everyone else on fnatic plays their comfort picks on their comfort maps.

Sen need Tenz because they have sacy and zellsis who are so inconsistent in their play,. that they need some form of consistency, and only Zekken and johnqt aren't enough.

I'd argue chronicle is the best overall player on the team behind Alfa.
Leo can only play initiator, and at that he's world class on two of them (sova fade), and top10 for the rest (gekko, breach) He also doesn't play kayo or skye, leaving chronicle to play them
Derke who has awful lows, but strong highs. Bro has had rough consistency issues the past year.
Alfa is the only player I'd 100% rate above chronicle. Flexes roles, and has great mechanical skill.

TenZ was the best player in the world during two events in 2021.After that bro had dogshit consistency issues for two years, until the most recent iteration of Sentinels.

Chron was just regarded and still is as the best flex in the world, since his days on Gambit. But you know, the two events where TenZ did good trumps 3 full years of consistency by chronicle.

They also had 3 players, a coach, an assistant coach, two analysts and still decided to not pick up a real igl until they failed to qual

idk.

s0m on omen maps, and raze on others. demon1 has experience as astra, and brim. Just train him on a cypher or literally any initiator and they're good on maps where vic played sentinel instead of raze (Sunset)

Demon1 was by far not the reason nrg didn't succeed this past split. Having no real dedicated igl with experience was the issue.

I respect Ethan trying to igl, but taking Ethan as igl instead of a dedicated primary igl with experience, and expecting good results after only 9 official matches. Just kinda dumb imo.

Fns only played breach because marved was their brim main.

Skye he played 4 times.

I'm saying you can't compare distinct roles from eachother. Igls can't be compared with non igls because of the nature of the role. Igls focus on 4 people's gameplay, where any other role focuses on their own. Initiators maybe focus on two.

Just like initiators can't be compared with duelists. They're playing two different games.

I'm not even saying c0m is to blame. The team lacks cohesion and is fully reliant on aspas hard carrying to insane levels. The team overall isn't great. Aspas is honestly the only world class player out of the 5. The others have their games, but lack the consistency.
I will say c0m has probably the best sova ults in the game. It just sucks that he's probably the worst mechanical initiator in NA T1. He's unreliable in his 1s, and I think that's the main issue, much like other players on other teams.

Right now he is a liability to their team just on his mechanical performances. Going double negative consistently is not great, and detrimental. Especially when your duelist is dropping insane k/d every series just to scrape by on wins.

I don't think c0m is the only reason they're losing games. There's fundamental issues on the team. It's just right now c0m is the easiest thing to change to get impact.

It sucks the guy is in a slump, and it's sad to see his consistency being like this.
Hopefully he picks it up in the coming games for Lev. Guys until is fantastic on sova, just wish his 1s were better.

It is about roles. You can't compare igls with stats against non igls.

It's like comparing c0m to aspas. Theyre both playing two different games.

Fns can't be compared to aspas, or c0m. They both have two different focuses on their playstyle, and game.

You insult me but don't realise that roles have the largest impact on their game. Boaster and fns wernt ever expected to drop insane numbers. C0m can't even go positive as an initiator.

His counterparts in his role all put up better until, all while being far more reliable in holding their own in gunfights. That's what I'm trying to say.

Also fns was a sentinel and viper main through his whole optic time, and envy time. He may have played init during yr1, but his whole successful year, he was kj/viper.

Like I feel bad for the hate he's getting, but he's honestly the most inconsistent vct winner in his role, in the last two years.

The only worse vct winners in his role I can think of is starxo.

Like c0m just looks like he's in a shit slump.
His sova ults seem to be the only thing that makes him stand out compared to other initiators mains

You mentioned two igls when comparing to an initiator

Why not compare him with other initiators who aren't igls? How did shao win an event?
How did chronicle win an event with gambit?
How did Leo win an event, how did crashies win an event.
At least compare his role with others.

The hate against c0m is weird, but trying to talk down a out redgar and boaster whore on two different roles than him, is just weird.

I think being aware of what you're doing, but then it's being aware of if it's the right thing that you're doing. Is the angle you're taking good, is your read on the other team on point, etc.

With aiming, it's literally just practice. It's primarily hand to eye co-ordination, so doing activities outside of gaming that train it, would help a lot. aim training would help with mouse control, but for that I'd honestly just say go in a workshop map on CS over aimlabs.

With tilting, you need to learn to not care about winning or losing in ranked. Just focus on your own individual performances, and honestly I'd suggest trying to find some team around your elo, and do scrims. The difference between scrims and ranked is night and day.
Before VCT was announced, I played scrims, in a few tiny tournaments like epiclan, etc. Was small events, but the difference in game environment was astronomical.
Plus wanting to go pro at any point and just spamming ranked. Unless you're a prodigy, just go through he gauntlet of t3/4 events.

also if you're not sure why you're whiffing, are you panicking in situations? to fix small movements or aim, you'll have an awful time. On siege, or early on in val to fix my bad habits, I just had the worst time in my life. To fix my pre-aiming, I just palyed unrated with a guardian only. Just play with guns that punish you if you make a mistake. You'll ease out your habits that was.
Spamming guardian is how I stopped crouching aswell, as it just feels ass with it.

When you play val, do you play to just have fun and autopilot, or do you play while being hyper aware of your own gameplay.

Few years back I was a t3 siege player, and knew quite a lot of people in t1/2. the main difference between us from their perspective, is they'd spam tf out of the game, but they'd be hyper aware of what they're doing, why they're doing that, and what the risks were.
I'd just play the game to play the game and have fun, and try to improve by playing.
They're also vod review their own gameplay, and when they make a mistake, they analyse it, when it happens.

Work ethics and environment are large influences in how a player progresses. In my experience at least.

I'd say it's more the environment you grow up in, over genetics.

Growing up around an older sibling who's heavily invested in a certain hobby. You're bound to be a bit more interested or knowledgable regarding the hobby.

That would only be if both teams got to semis or finals of an event.
group stage, drx dogs on g2. Any other stage, drx choke.

Sen did fuck all with Zellsis the year before, whats your point?

Sacy on gekko during madrid was not one of the main reasons they won.
Zekken having a life game every single game, was one of the main reasons.
Johnqt performing insanely well on sentinels and viper, is one of the main reasons.
Tenz being a good and consistent flex, was one of the main reasons.

Sacy being the 2nd lowest rated gekko the whole event, was not one of the main reasons. The guy is an insane sova and skye player, but his gekko during madrid looked awful. Wingman got the plants down, but the rest of his util just looked ass compared to other Gekko players at madrid.

It isn't just because it's young.
It's because CS is so similar and shares the exact same fundamentals. Adjusting to abilities just takes getting used to.
People forget that aim and core mechanics can easily get people into high imm/rad, and then once you're fully used to the game flow, going into comp isn't hard. Especially if we're talking about people who've been competing for years, at a high level.

It's why xaccurate spent a few months just grinding ranked. Joined a t1 team.

People forget KennyS played val for like 2 months and hit radiant. This is one of the most washed t1 players at the time. Xaccurate swapped, and is playing in tier1.
Valorant isn't some hyper complex game. It just takes some adjusting, and if you're playing 8hours a day. You'd adjust in a couple months. Especially if you're the top 0.001% in a similar title.

He probably would.
People overestimate how easy it is to adjust to valorant from CS, if you've spent 20k+ hours in one game.
A couple months of spamming the game to adjust, and he's easily be at tier 1 level.

People genuinly overestimating the complexity of valorant. We're not talking about a random gold nova swapping. We're talking about probably the most naturally gifted CS player of all time.

Saying they lost 13-4 to a team who didn't win a series at their previous event, insinuates that said team isn't good.

I'm not saying you meant that, I'm just saying that's how it comes off.

I agree with everything you said. Fnatic look stuck in last year, minus the co-ordination they had. they look a lot more sloppy, and chaotic with their pushes. Just small mistakes aswell, like planting for C long while no smokes on CT.
They just seem messy overall. Like they lost their foundation/structure ingame

They might not be feeling it, that's true. It's why I said the coach shouldn't shoulder all the blame of the team losing.
However you can't deny that the fnatic we've seen at kick off quals, and today are completely different to fnatic last year. That's not regarding their comps, map bans, etc. Their general teamwork looks messy and hectic.

Boaster saying masters teams were not great, was a yikes. Was just weird because he's usually humble.

Saying heretics not winning a series considering how close the games were, is a bit eh. Same can be said when Fnatic lost 3-0 against sen. On paper of the overall score it seems they got slammed, but every map could have gone either way.
With heretics, especially against sen. It could have gone either way. They're hardly a bad team to lose against.

.

Coach shouldn't shoulder all responsibility, but Fnatic as a team look night and day compared to when Mini was headcoach.

Like, they just look far more lost and messy compared to last year.

inb4 he destroys EDG

nah, not player changes.
Just shows the impact having mini as head coach was.

Also ironic they picked up a coach who's old team went to masters finals, while his new team couldn't qual.

Bro is forgetting that old CS heads were known for not changing their gear, or brands. It's why Zowie was still a top3 mouse brand in CS, as was Steelseries.
This was like this until the newer generation of pros, where swapping mice, mousepads, keyboards, became more normalised.

shrouds take on keeping brand with mouse and mousepad is kinda dumb though. Him saying dont change mousepads often and mice often is just an old CS mentality.

I'm more saying that you can't judge him based off one event, and act like he's back to his old self.
He had an amazing event, and won it deservingly. Nothing will take that away. He had a great showing, and performed great.

What we can say, is the people who compare him to his old self during 2021, saying "TenZ is back" based off one event, is recency bias. We dont know if he'll perform well in his next, meaning this is a one off, etc.

I hope it's not a one off, and I hope he performs well so the recency bias disappears because it's a bore to read every day when a new post is up.

Becuase it is recency bias wym?

Recency bias is placing a bias on the most recent event/moment of a topic, and judging it's importance far above the history. This is an exact moment of that.

TenZ had an standout event for the first time in 3 years. Forgetting his past 2 years because of one event, is recency bias. Plus necroing a year old posts is kinda odd.

It's why TenZ performance is seen as recency bias, where as Zekken's is not.
Zekken has been a top performer for since xset days.
TenZ had times in the past two years where he looked lost in his role, swapped role, looked average in the role and inconsistent. He finally found his form and showed moments of brilliance on the role. right now it's recency bias, after the next event it probably wont as he honestly looked great this past event.

Solid response from someone who's clinically on vlr

He needs to get a grip. It's 10pm on a Thursday and he's necroing 2year old threads because of recency bias.

Just saw this.

You can, talk to people who your country is at war with.
What you probably shouldn't do, is say Ukraine needs to be one with Russia again, to a Ukrainian person, shortly after a war started between the countries.

didn't he get dropped because he sent a ukranian girl messages on twitter like a week after a war broke out?

I might be wrong, but wasn't that the reason he was dropped?

If it was the one by the bleed analyst, then it's this one
https://x.com/_SushantJha/status/1709948922188509324?s=20

I do remember seeing the champ graph of his clutches, but couldn't find it.

think he had the highest of 2023

tbh people said the same with Lakia. He was a sub and they intend to have him play. Instead they keep him as a sub so no other team can pick him up.

I do agree with your post aswell. Termi trolled hard past year with his timeouts, and vetos. 2023 was by far not his best year, nor the team as a whole.

tbh I expected more than what we got.
They only lost to PRX and DRX in the league, then just went on to play so mid in masters and champs. Was hoping for more since they got Xeta and Saya, who were two good players in NA at the time. Especially Saya.

An org will look at cost + return.
They were broke and couldn't afford players in tier2 due to buyout contracts. If they had the funds, runi and jakee probably wouldn't have been on their radar, as there are better individule players in tier2. After yay was dropped, and c9 players were going back on their old roles. I initially thought they'd get someone like brawk, zander, or nisimo.

c9 were just fortunate that their risk of picking up two free agents, payed off and they went on a tear through the whole event.

Orgs should look at potential talent, and one day we'll get that when academy teams will become a thing. It's just with franchise, orgs can't take the risk of picking up an inexperienced or young player. C9 just didn't have a choice in their situation.

It makes perfect sense.

My whole pov, althought not the same.

For GC players, they excel in GC. These players struggle against t3 male teams. the gap between the top of tier2 and tier1 is small, as the players in both leagues were competing against each other for years, and could all honestly play in each league, despite a few superstar players.
In a couple years, I can see flo being in tier2. Right now she's still like what, 17. she's still learning. I feel people treat her like shes monesy, being a young phenom. She's a great player, but given a few more years to develop, she'll leave GC behind her hopefully, and compete in t2, and maybe t1. Right now though, she's the only one I can see with the potential to push through. I'd say Mary, but she retired unluckily. bob, sarah, and mel. there are better choices grinding in t3 atm, who arent good enough to play in t2, let alone t1.

I agree with skuba. I also think brawk would have been a great pickup if they had the money aswell. Hell, Zander would have been a phenomenal pickup over Jakee, aswell as Nismo. However they were broke and went with two players who nobody believes in, and who both performed pretty well considering they were thrown into the deep end, with huge amounts of pressure on them.

Bob could have been picked up, but there's no chance C9 post yay dropping was paying a buyout. Bob flo, and sarah are the 3 NA GC players who have mechanics to contest top of current t3. I can't seen them competing 1-1 against the current t2 teams for a spot as initiator and Duelist. The current t2 teams sova and duelist players are all cracked out of their minds.

top t3 teams, I can see Sarah or bob competing for a spot. Flo, I think the current teams aiming for ascension have Jett players who are just better than her right now.

I agree with that them being 1:1. I'd even argue that overall, GC is a better league, as I believe the general skill ceiling is higher in GC than collegiate leagues. This is mainly down to teams having players join, because they need to fill numbers.
The only thing with Jakee, was experience in what was tier2 at the time, with good performances. It's just his most recent great performances before the c9 pickup, was him on his college team.

During the good ol' days of Fish123 and Fnatic Proving Grounds.

I agree that the t3 pool isn't as bad as I might make it out to be. In the grand scheme of t1/2/3, it's "dogshit". compared to the world, it's still something 99% of players dream about.
individually, I dont think as of right now, GC teams have the individual talent of t1/2. In a few years after the scene develops, yes. Right now, no shot.

There are players that shine in t2/3. Hell, it's where Demon1 came from. Just no GC player shines right now. They shine in GC where people start to believe a player is far better than what they are, only to have the C9W situation happen.

With jakee and Runi, they were both demons in tier2 (pre ascension), at the time. Runi on SQ had good runs, and Jakee on nsic had some decent runs, however he shone during the colligate league. Both wernt completely unknown players, they just wernt big names in tier2/3 at the time.
however lets not kid ourselves like there weren't better player that could have been picked up. C9 just didn't have any money, and their risk picking up two players from what became tier3, payed off.
No paid analyst could have forseen what c9 were going to do. However after dropping yay and vanity because they didn't have the funds, their pick ups made far more sense given both were free agents.

You look at this as players due to how they look playing matches. If I'm a tier2 manger/coach and I'll look at individule players, and compare them with their counterparts.

Flourescent (probably the main and only real argument for a player talented enough
You have Neon, govenor, ALEKSANDAR, bdog. All 4 talented players with more experience against top teams, playing in tier3.

My point is that even with equal opportunity with trials, there are far better choices in terms of experience, career height, and success. Than the v1 players.

It's not a stretch to assume some GC players can perform better than the players around them. It is a stretch to say they'll perform better than the top of tier3 (with tier 2 being ascension). If it was one big pool, GC teams(V1), they would still be where they are now. When competing in tier3 events, they're rolled by teams who should be getting slammed.
A few GC players standout compared to the rest. That's for sure. Fluorescent, Sarah, mel, Mimi, Mary. All are phenomenal players. However there are tier 2/3 players who make them look average. tier2 being ascension, they'd toy with them in an official match. that's the sad truth about it.

5 boys vs 5 girls doesn't matter in my point. My point mentions a fully staffed team, losing to a random t3 team.

We have to compare 5 boys vs 5 girls because we can't compare 5 girls vs 5girls. We're talking about how V1/Gc teams can join mixed teams, so we have to use data that we've seen when they're competing with their competition.

tier1 should be out of this discussion overall as a thread. No teams around GC will be near t1 anytime soon.

If we look at tier 2 - ascension
tier 3 - knights monthly, etc.
V1 are an above average team in tier3. They're a fully staffed team, salaried, getting beat by teams with unsalaried players, with maybe an unpaid coach.
The raw skill isn't there for GC. The support and funding is there. The raw skill is what is developing. As that develops, the support staff will grow to be more competent, as the league starts to get taken more seriously.

Mixed rosters will happen in the future. Right now, I can hardly see it unless fluorescent, Mel and Sarah join a mid tier3 team. tier2 right now is out of the question. Top tier3 they'll be competing against players who are honestly better than them right now.

When I mention effys being competant, it's not as opposed to VCT coaches. They're by far a step and ahead of everyone. It's more he was hired to coach a GC team, and he's done a great job at that so far. The results in non Gc events is just a repeat of what happened in C9W. the team steamrolls teams in GC, just to be mediocre against t3 teams.

the main idea behind my point, is everyone arguing about v1 players deserving trials and spots in higher tier teams. Why though? They're struggling in t3 events, against non salaried teams, against players who probably wont ever hit tier1.
At this moment, with the GC scene being underdeveloped, it'll be years until we truely see a player from GC be t1 material. right now the closest we have is Fluorescent, and there's no shot she's getting on a t1 or t2 team anytime soon. There's far too many talented Jett mains in t3 atm.

With V1 having decent staff, they're also a decent team. If we compare support staff with vct, we should compare players aswell. The disparity between both is astronomical. IT's clear as that. However a decorated team, shouldn't be losing to Anima Squad Only.

My main inital point even with support staff, they're a above average team in the t3 scene. They're in a spot they deserve as of now. They're far from being a t2 team, and the top teams in t3 are far superior than them, be it with staff, and players. It's the sad truth. In a few years, we'll see players from GC shining in t2, and hopefully t1.

p.s. if my rambling didn't make sense, my bad. like 4 am here.

The fact she was denied because of her gender is fucked. I just hate how they never say the team who denied them. I'd love to see how a team defends having a garbage human on their team.

Lets also not look past the fact that Runi was on a tear in tier2(before ascension), and tier 3 when on SQ. Jake was hardly a bad player in his own when playing in t2/3. They wernt high profile players, but wernt dogshit. They were just "we cant afford buyout" pickups as c9 had to find players to place vanity and yay with.

Plus the most important reason they got picked up. C9 were broke and couldn't afford any buyouts from any team, so they had to find the most talented tier2/3 players they could, for as cheap as they can. Going from dropping two high profile players, to picking up 2 players nobody would have thought they'd pick up, says it was more money based than anything.

You're missing his point though.

V1 have support staff and experienced players with success behind their name. They're getting rolled by tier3 players nobody has ever heard of.
right now there's a clear disparity in raw skill between random t3 players, and one one of the most supported and developed GC team in the world.

Also you mention a few coaches who weren't proven until earlier this year.
Saying Effys is not a proven coach, isn't really fair on his behalf. He retired from playing, and coached a team into winning the GC split, without dropping a map. So not really fair on his behalf, as imo he's proven himself to be a competent coach. He's just didn't prove himself in tier1 or 2.

I agree with the GC being an underdeveloped aspect of the scene. It's made up of a fraction of a fraction of the playerbase due to decades of esports being male dominated. I dont disagree with that. However, as of right now. The GC players are by far not good enough for t2, let alone t1 teams.

Your analogy I'd agree with, if Alfajer wasn't the hard carry for surreal for so long, and known in EMEA before his pickup by fnatic, for how good of a player he was.

I'd also say your analogy would fit in years to come. I get the idea, but the GC scene is so underdeveloped compared to the generic T3/2 scene, so it's not the leadership that's lacking, it's also the lack of overall skill when compared to the counterparts in T3/2. We're in the really really early years of GC. It's why players like Flourescent can make it in t3/2(potentially), because they're still young, and will grow with the scene. Other players, will most likely never make it into a co-ed team. Be it the sexism, or just not good enough.

It's a shit situation right now for players trying to go co-ed. However it is the sad truth. Players right now in an underdeveloped scene, just aren't better prospects than others. That will change in the future though. We will see co-ed teams one day. Just right now, there's probably a handful of players in the world who can go co-ed and be successful.

The point everyone posting match results is trying to make, is the current GC players outside of probably fluorescent are a few others, are nothing special.

Also why does it matter if they're a 5 female team? They lost to better players in matches, so why would a team look at a losing team for players opposed to teams who won? Why would a t1 or t2 team look at V1, over a team like YFP or Turtle Troop to get players?

Despite V1 being a good team with talented players. There are better players in every role, in t2/3 NA. It's the sad truth. Fluorescent has the highest chances of going to a co-ed team, along with mel as experienced IGLs are always slim. However in the grand scheme of t1/2/3 of val, the v1 team is just another 5 players who are talented, but not the best.

he's by far the best awper to ever come from Asia in CS. He would be the best player to come out of Asian CS, but BnTeT exists.

Crazy how you say Saadhak flash/initiator then just relegate Leo to "import"