Individually yeah but I don't think many have ever played with each other and Shao isn't a proven IGL

I've said this multiple times, but NA only seems to claim LOUD when they won. Odds are people will cheer Fnatic then pretend they supported their fellow "Americas" team afterwards.

I take it you haven't been watching the LOUD matches then. They started off absolutely awful, like Tokyo performance, last few matches they've looked like 2022 LOUD. EDG played pretty similarly all tournament.

That is groups 2023 to groups 2022.

I think a lot of it personally is the insane team popularity fall off since franchising. America's and EMEA had half their teams split up or not get picked up because of it

Like this year it seems as though everyone in Americas supports either LOUD, EG, NRG or KRU. In EMEA it's basically Fnatic, Liquid and NaVi.

Last year you had people supporting Guild, SEN, G2, SMB, C9, FaZe, TSM, Acend, Heretics. Not that many of the teams were good but at least one yet were still competing. I have yet to see a single fan of Karmine Corp.

PRX beating LOUD and 2-0 EDG is a bigger accomplishment than DRX and 2-1 EDG. DRX are on the same level as KRU. A decent team for upsets and the occasional Cinderella story but rarely take out actual top teams.

Just took a Google and I don't know about Tokyo but apparently the group stage of champs this year was a 25% drop compared to 2022 champs. Don't think any playoffs stats are out at all.

Absolutely delusional. Stats are pointless if the sample opponents are weak. PRX consistently bodying solid teams while EG played 1 decent team and dropped a map when PRX played that same team 2-0.

It's fine to root for a team but don't be daft thinking they're the top team when they have yet to prove it.

Didn't Val viewership drop off a cliff this year anyway?

Highly unlikely a new record will be set if that's the case.

Basically all of them tbh. PRX has shown they can take down LOUD while LOUD are on form.

Probs China 2nd then. Didn't realise mindfreak and forsaken were Indonesian. The flags are so damn small on VLR phone to always spot the moon on it.

Haven't been tested meaning haven't played any teams that should give them any trouble. EDG is the only opponent that should be giving a decent team trouble out of their recent opponents.

And honestly EDG showed decent performances but nothing crazy unless individuals popped off.

Brazil wins and it's no contest tbh. Singapore probably comes 2nd with China in 3rd.

Every good NA team has always had Canadians or another nationality as an integral player.

I'd say definitely top 3. But then again I think it's been clear Boaster can get good performances with different rosters too.

Top 3 for me is probs Boaster, Saadhak, FNS atm. If LOUD win this tournament though Saadhak is probs first.

FNS has always had the same core when performing well, I'd say Saadhak and Boaster have done better with more team iterations.

ANGE1 is an honourable mention imo. I can never tell if he's a genius and simply outbraining himself or if he's simply dumb enough that his ideas aren't expected and often work.

Tbf it's not even about how they play it for me. Haven, Icebox, Lotus, Bind and Fracture are the only maps that take advantage of Valorants unique mechanics and map design. Ascent, Pearl, Breeze, Split all feel very similar to maps on any tactical shooter.

Bind and Haven have the most variation when played though. I feel like every team does similar things on Lotus, Icebox and Fracture because of the way the choke points in the map are.

Boaster is goat IGL just for personality. This guy was the only reason I preferred Fnatic to Liquid originally.

Pearl is a shit map though.

I feel like half the maps suck ATM but Pearl is definitely the worst.

Bind and Haven genuinely the only maps I like.

Lotus is one of LOUDs preferred maps now though and PRX gets all the ban options. I simply don't see a way Fnatic, EG or LOUD could overcome the map advantage.

Only way I see PRX not winning this tournament is if they somehow flop against EG in the upper bracket bo3.

People said the same in Tokyo and they got 3-0'd.

They've only really had 1 solid test this tournament in the form of EDG. DRX is hard to gauge the performance of considering they 13-1d Fnatic then proceeded to flop 2 maps including 1 they could have definitely closed out.

He used to pop off a lot with early Liquid when they used him as a primary or secondary duelist. These days he's stuck in a flex role where he's trying to support others rather than being supported himself.

Mechanically he's decent, when he's confident he's an actual menace. But he doesn't seem to be in positions where he can be confident these days

I can't really see PRX losing this tournament now. Loud are on crazy form and Fnatic could potentially hit their ceiling again but I don't think either would be enough to overcome map veto.

EG I just can't see having the experience in BO5s and PRX are just insane right now.

Fully expecting a PRX 2:1 in upper bracket finals, Loud or Fnatic coinflip depending on day performance, then EG struggling in a bo5 compared to a bo3 like Tokyo then PRX hammering the victor in the grand finals.

I actually remember the GMB loss to 100T and iirc people were just underwhelmed and disappointed. People expected an all russian team to do better. I don't recall it being a common topic of GMB aren't EU though. At most a few people going on about it.

People were disappointed with every EU team other than Fnatic that tournament.

Personally I chalk it up to poor geography education. Us Brits are bad enough for it but NA make us look good.

I agree with you tbh. I don't know why but I feel like Fnatic have a stylistic clash with LOUD that works against them whereas against PRX I reckon it'd work for them.

PRX beats pretty much every team but I feel like Fnatic are the only team that play slow enough with enough individuals to potentially catch them out. Most teams with a lot of individuals play faster which plays into PRX too much.

Bro it's not even Pacific fans. Pacific are normally chill. It's generally just NA fake flagging for most of it.

If you still have it you might as well use it at this point.

They already did?

If anyone is going to it would be LOUD. But if Fnatic are playing like the last 2 maps it could go either way.

Less has just been on such insane form I think he could carry his team to a win against anyone at the moment.

What do you reckon the issue is for them though?

Tbf it wasn't looking great for DRX when they won 3 out of 10 rifle rounds.

Loud is the only team I'm scared of Fnatic playing. Loud just seem to have a natural counter to them. PRX would be dicey but I believe.

I genuinely don't remember seeing a single person saying that unless you're talking about when there was discussion of why CIS has a separate qualifier to the rest of EU.

Claiming Russia isn't EU would be as dumb as saying all of Eastern Europe isn't EU.

Did you fail Geography? CIS is a political group, EU is a geographic group.

Russia is in both. CIS is basically just ex-soviet nations minus those that didn't want ties with Russia like Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Hungary.

You say that like teams weren't trying their hardest to win or some teams didn't attend.

It effectively replaced one of the standard 2 masters events. Just because it didn't go the way you wanted doesn't invalidate the tournament.

I wouldn't even give them that seeing as they always scream Russia isn't EU even though Russia is a European nation.

This is how I know you're a fakeflagger. Russians literally call themselves EU. An Uzbek would know that.

Turkey is less EU than Russia and for some reason people never contest that.

Also explain to me where CIS carried Acend? Ukraine isn't CIS FYI.

It's probably 50/50. Although the fan in me thinks Fnatic are finally warmed up and DRX tend to crumble under pressure.

As someone outside of it, it truly comes across as NA dickriding because they took the piss out of Brazil up until LOUD won champs then was in AMERICAS franchising then they started trying to claim it.

At least with EU and CIS we have literally always claimed CIS is EU. It only ever gets split up for servers sometimes because of ping.

Am I the only person who remembers how vocal NA was about screaming Bronzil all the way through 2021?

Optic won 1 trophy when an entire region was handicapped then just got top 4s. Fnatic won 2 trophies with 1 of them being an insane comeback.

Fnatic will be surpassed at some point but they've definitely outperformed any teams achievements prior.

EG has been a team for both of the tournaments Fnatic won what do you mean? EG literally lost the finals to Fnatic for the last one.

Tbf even as a huge fan of Derke I do think he is a bit overrated. Don't get me wrong, he's a steady workhorse who isn't going to do bad. I think it's easy to rate him way too low as well though because his team is generally going to do well behind him so he's not taking over the whole game in the same way Keznit or KangKang do for their teams.

When did babysasuke finally get humiliated enough to switch his FaZe flair to EG. What an absolute wetwipe.

I have 0 faith in DRX to keep this performance going. Sorry but they've gotten my hopes up way too many times.

I don't think they've even looked better than LOUD. I reckon if Fnatic can't turn around and win this series it'll be a 2 horse race between LOUD and PRX.

Valorant genuinely has a curse for any team that wins a tournament to collapse for the next one. I don't know what happened for Fnatic to even get 2 trophies.

Most of EMEA is probably asleep. This tournament has been hell for us timing wise.

If Fnatic did win all 3 international LANs in 1 year I'm pretty sure Valorant viewsership would collapse.

Nobody actually wants to see an uncontested scene.

It's midnight or later for all of EMEA.

Even if Fnatic go out right now they've still been the most dominant team in Valorant so far. Only team to have back to back trophies.

This tournament seems like either LOUD gets their back to back champs win or PRX wins first APAC tournament. I can't see DRX or EG outperforming those 2 teams this tournament.

I can't tell if you're clairvoyant or the luckiest guy on earth with that prediction.