I knew there was a Korean I forgot but I don't really follow their scene outside of internationals.

Honestly I wasn't even thinking of Zekken and Jingg. I feel like Jingg wasn't really peaking and in the convo until 2023 PRX. Zekken wasn't qualifying to most events back then either. Also, Zekken isn't on the same level whatsoever as peak Aspas, Derke or Jingg.

Actually can't think of a 3rd now that I'm trying.

Did people unironically say this and believe it? His team might be ass the majority of the time but Aspas is one of like 3 Duelists from pre-franchise who is still good.

They were definitely slipping in the rankings. I haven't been called a slur by a Serbian in a hot minute.

It's a Balkan flag, this is a return to form.

Pure facts. Its what makes Fnatic's back to back trophies so impressive.

Probably more possible than normal seeing as DRG go back to Ascension if they lose.

Anybody else noticing how neither of these teams can manage a defence lead apart from the first half of map 1?

Can't tell if it's overwhelming site hits force retakes at the highest level or if both teams are just shit on defence.

Yeah whoever wins it's a good storyline. Although it would be funny that APAC and CH get their first titles in the same year.

How dare you take our lord Donks name in vain like that.

Neon now feels like what Jett used to be

2 stomps in a row isn't really interesting matches. I want scrappy and close maps, not back to back blowouts.

They were better than who they beat to get there.

I'm in fucking tears, Danking is a legend for that.

Riens this year is like Leo from last year, insanely good player and the best of the year.

In what eSport do people use European Union as a region?

I'll wait.

The region is called Americas. Brazil is definitely not NA.

Considering how poorly NA fans treat Brazilian teams you should probably stop trying to claim them whenever convenient.

Pretty sure it's saying 4.3 million rather than 43 million at the moment. Interface is odd without being able to read Mandarin.

Didn't realise Brazil is NA.

It's honestly why I found Fnatic last year crazy, they were consistently winning but whenever you watched there was still so much randomness that they were edging into their favour.

It was impressive to me in the same way someone consistently winning games of Uno would be, the game inherently has randomness but you can edge the odds into your favour with smart play, but you can never be certain.

I feel like anyone who knows the developers knows Valve could absolutely take over the shooter scene with more influence but Valve have always ignored CS in favour of Dota.

I personally reckon Valorant will end up very Asia heavy as EU remains heavily involved in CS and NA will find a new hyped up game similar to how Apex damaged Overwatch. Not sure on the SA scene but they're pretty huge in CS still with a healthy community in Val.

I would be extremely surprised if it was higher than 5% considering I've played CS for over 7 years now and have never even spoken to someone with a case farming account. They're likely an insular community but I can't imagine them being that large of the player base if it's rare to ever come across one of them outside of that part of the community.

Additionally, the 3rd party stats account for things such as community servers only and suchlike. Neither takes into account smurfs unfortunately.

It's honestly hard to tell. CS has retained stable growth over many years even though it's primarily EU. Although EU has the most widespread computer ownership per capita compared to other regions. It may continue to grow, I can't see Valve flopping it personally.

Val isn't dying but I think the hype has died down so it's getting less new players and it doesn't seem to retain players as well as CS. I know the EMEA playerbase has definitely shrunk over time but I can't speak for the worldwide distribution.

Odds are they will both co-exist, but Valorant is not the CS killer many thought it would be.

CS is only competitive in EU because other regions gave up. It's still by every metric a bigger game and esport than Val.

Also I'd say it's more competitive than Val considering no teams in Val can manage consistency anywhere close to LoL, CS or even Overwatch teams. The game is still very swingy and random in results compared to other eSports imo.

TBF it's not easy info to get. Valve leaves all their information open on player counts but counts only active players daily, so 3rd parties have had to calculate the monthly unique players. Riot only releases their figures vaguely and for PR so it's all done through 3rd party that only tracks monthly unique players.

28 million monthly players in October 2023, 19 million monthly players in the last 30 days. Bare in mind summer holidays I'd expect a slight bump.

In comparison I know September 2023 CS2 hit 31.5 million monthly players and in July 2024 was just over 26 million monthly players.

Obviously there are trends of games decreasing in playerbase from September to August then getting an increase around end of Summer.

Valorants drop off seems more stark however.

28 million monthly players in October 2023, 19 million monthly players in the last 30 days. Bare in mind summer holidays I'd expect a slight bump.

In comparison I know September 2023 CS2 hit 31.5 million monthly players and in July was just over 26 million monthly players.

Obviously there are trends of games decreasing in playerbase from September to August then getting an increase around end of Summer.

Valorants drop off seems more stark however.

Strongly disagree. If you flame someone in server most of the time they'll perform worse if they're on your team.

If you big people up they will normally improve within the space of the match.

Pretty accurate. Val playerbase has apparently experienced shrinkage in the last 8 months. CS playerbase has always grown consistently.

Imagine not enjoying both of the teams mentioned

Pimp best analyst? That's it hold my beer, I need to scream out the window.

Potentially, but I need to see it tried. The guy is mechanically gifted and I need to know for certain before I ignore it.

Boo, Aspas, Leo, Riens, Benjyfishy is probably my current dream team.

Alfa would have Benjy's slot if he just had more consistency and less of the standing curse at the moment.

I want to experiment with Leo potentially being a secondary Duelist.

The only excuse that seems real tbh is unproven. There is always a chance of a player struggling with an audience when they're used to just being in a room with their team and coach. But 1 or 2 experienced players should be enough to curb that, you don't need to have 5 veterans, you can have 3 youngsters and 2 vets which balances out nicely and can feed off of each others morale.

Basically unproven players are more susceptible to have a weak mentality on stage because you don't know if they can handle it, older players you already know if they can or can't depending on their historic performance.

Sounds like an ez 50kg gaining meal to put it back on.

I watched it live, the 2-1 had Derke underperforming like crazy which was a rarity in 2023. In the finals all of Fnatic was doing what is expected.

If you can't keep a diverse map pool you should be punished in a finals.

There is no way EG should have beaten Fnatic outside of potentially champs in 2023, EG got hope in that 1-2 because a consistent Duelist disappeared for a series.

Hard cold facts.

Hadn't even though of that. Ooft.

Love kingg and Aspas tbh

I don't think KCorp is actually that big. They're only involved in a few games, I think they are big but spend sparingly.

If it helps the only other big budget EU teams are Fnatic, Liquid, Vitality and NaVi. That being said I think Fnatic is the only team to keep a strong Valorant budget, the other team definitely invest much smaller amounts thin in their other eSports teams.

Dont worry, after this weekend the eSports dies again for 6 months.

Heretic's is one of the biggest EU eSports orgs. It's why they were barely relevant and still got franchising.

They'd definitely be able to keep the team barring ridiculous buyouts that their management might be stupid enough to take.

Man gives up after a pistol round

3-0 heretics tbh.

Abyss really favours 5 man attacks rather than lurking and rotating. Feels like it'd be more Heretic's wheelhouse than Lev's.

Derke started earlier but I wouldn't call him more consistent. 2022 Fnatic has a huge issue with Derke throwing rounds by being over aggressive.

As a Fnatic fan I have to disagree. Heretics play how Fnatic used to when they were dominating, Fnatic don't seem to have the same style anymore of patience with occasional rush rounds added in.

Let's be honest, nobody can with a straight face say Aspas isn't the best Pro valorant player we've had yet. We still don't have any other duelists that have been as consistent, peak TenZ, cNed or Ardiis were close but all have fallen off somewhat at points. Aspas has just been a monster for so long.

Thats only really the case in Valorant because of the small EMEA playerbase compared to CS imo.

In comparison in CS there are a lot of Danish, Swedish, French and Balkan only teams that I've yet to see an equivalent to in Valorant.

Valorant has always been unpredictable as hell. Fnatics 2023 is probably the only time this eSports has resembled consistency. Outside of that dominant teams have regularly dropped matches to almost non-existent teams who fade away after the one match.