both but more of the second

IN ONE CLIP NO RELOAD

level of competition in playoffs is so similar that i can literally see any outcome being possible purely based on the bracket reveal

he was the best in csgo as well, but in jp val there are a handful of promising young players that have the potential to be better imo

seriously styling on kru rn

did this guy watch "INSANE OMEN OUTPLAYS #93841" before getting on stage or something

why would you use what you see outside as fashion, the average person isn't fashionable kek

mr supernova you can cheer for teams outside of your region, life is not about blind patriotism

나 한국말 존나 못해 다 까먹었어

creep

if t1 loses this they should undergo a witness protection program because i would be too ashamed to ever show up in public for the rest of my life

they should just do a 2v2 showmatch between xand jonn and forsaken jinggg

china

i did a bit of map pool comparison already, i think it favors DRX pretty heavily because NIP have struggled with ascent and breeze in the past and have the same permaban as drx (bind). if nip are gonna win a map it's undoubtedly going to be icebox, i don't rate their chances very highly on any of the others

i get what you're saying. it just doesn't seem like such a big thing that would ever affect the game imo.

drx found out they're playing against nip today, nip knew they would play against drx yesterday (if they won)

ultimately they can both prep for each other starting today. difference is nip played so maybe they're tired? i guess? from playing 2 maps i doubt it though

valid point, but having today's vod should be useful to their adaptation imo. it's not like they have no idea what nip are going to do

not really, because nip/fnatic also the opportunity to watch DRX play on their rest day. in fact nip has more time technically to prepare if you include today. i guess you could say having a rest day between matches is unfair, but they're just playing 1 bo3. it's not some insanely stressful schedule. just imo

waiting for xerxia liquid and matches are already confirmed so why not

DRX 2-0 NIP
this one's gonna get some flack because everyone's hyped on the nip sauce rn. fnatic's shortcomings were because of their uncommon lack of coordination and disorder in their systems. DRX should be the opposite, and with this vod available i suspect they'll be prepared for whatever JAIL VALORANT has to throw at them. another issue is map pools, aside from bind which both teams avoid drx specializes in ascent and breeze, which nip have historically struggled with. the world i see where nip wins requires xand and jonn to pop off right from the beginning, stringing together an early chain like they did on map 1 today. should this rattle drx enough (unlikely) they can carry their momentum through the match
drx 70-30

optic 2-1 kru
let me just say first that i'm definitely biased here. but either way this is going to be the yay show vs the keznit show. both teams looked really sloppy on day 1, really depends on which team has more players show up to the game than not. i'm edging it to optic because of their map pool but i can easily see kru winning split. really unpredictable match and honestly if they keep this level of play, i doubt either of them will end up making it through the actual decider match
optic 60-40

fnatic 2-0 zeta
this is going to be a scrappy game if derke isn't playing and fnatic don't patch up their issues. on the bright side i'm confident that boaster + mini would use this loss to reassess where the holes in their coordination are and where they're lacking. zeta on the other hand are more just deflated because two of their key pieces, sugarz3ro and tennn, were completely absent in the DRX match. i don't blame them too much as they're both young and this is their first LAN event, but they really need to step up to the plate if they want to make this match competitive
fnc 80-20 zeta

disagree, agree, hate, whatever you want below

"showed how crucial derke absence was" yeah i think most teams losing their star player would be pretty crucial

you realize the team has to operate completely differently when half their team isn’t used to the general protocols and systems right

h1ber and fearoth hitting headshots has no bearing on how much the standins influenced fncs play

he’s microing two players that have no chemistry and little practice with the team, obviously his individual performance is gonna suffer

idk, sugarz3ro and tennn really fucking shit the bed against drx when they're two of the team's most essential members (which is understandable because its their first lan)

could be copium but i genuinely don't think zeta was even at 25% in the drx match

on the other hand we'll see how nip gets the ball rolling against fnatic. if they make it close i can see it lighting a fire under them and carrying that confidence over into the decider game

if i had to put odds on it i would say 70-30 nip but it's meaningless, all depends on which team actually shows up on the server

lots of talent but need to see how their chemistry/coordination pays off. lots of teams in korea that have been "5 talented individuals" ultimately not achieving anything

all the players involved are very skilled though

what he means

• micro skill floor is lower in valorant: objectively true, shooting and movement mechanics make certain aspects of the game more simplistic + prone to randomness
• "easier for any region to come up with some cringy comp": because of the lowered skill floor, the discrepancies in mechanical ability between teams are less emphasized than they are in csgo (which is why they have savant level talents like s1mple and we don't). this means that there's more value to focusing on the unique factors like creativity in agent selection and taking your enemy by surprise with prepared tactics than honing your own personal skill

was really dumb to say it the way he did though. guy is just salty that he lost lmao

team gets rolled by DRX and people start comparing them to game changers, tough crowd

i think they look coordinated and mechanically competitive enough to win the series in a close fashion after watching both teams play today

that is all

weird thing about fncxnip matchup is they have vaguely similar map pools

they both lean away from breeze/ascent/bind and prefer icebox/split so neither team is going to have a big advantage in that form

it's going to have to be a serious player diff if nip take a map

i watched the entire apac vct circuit this season and have been high on both them and prx but okay

FNC 2-0 NIP
nip's two duelists are very individually talented but neither compare to derke unfortunately, and when their play relies so heavily on the backs of the players mentioned it doesn't chalk up well to me. i can see one universe where the JAIL VALORANT is chaotic enough to disrupt fnatic's system but realistically we're talking like 90-10 odds here

XERXIA 2-1 TL
crws said that they lost to liquid in scrims but honestly I think xerxia have more than proven that they can hang with the best. will be an interesting game should liquid get their shit together and fix their coordination issues, can see it going either way but will edge it 60-40 xia

update: 0-2 in preds unluko can't win em all

this tournament is shaping up to be asia's chance to shine. between DRX, PRX, and XERXIA, there's a lot of sscary potential here

drx 2-0 anyone

written by someone who has only watched csgo and thinks they know about fps in general

zeta are 5 vandal enjoyers

drx are 5 phantom gigachads

really makes you think

you are a very angry little man

there is always a bigger fish my man

this team that you see getting ripped apart right now would similarly dominate your minor team

drx aren’t even showing their cards, literally using their 2020-21 stratbook and im pretty sure this isn’t their actual icebox agent select

it’s just morons punching down lol

talk about “banter” but when it’s only one way it’s just disrespect

classic vision strikers strategy

sugary food / sweets are nasty and if you stop eating them for a while you’ll notice how awful they are

frosting makes me want to vomit

yes, their team psychologist ARTHUR is simply "deconstructing the hype" and manipulating the pressure off of them. insane stuff

beginning of his current stream's vod

wait that means they're gonna win the whole thing

they're flipping the script of being good in scrims and bad in matches

you dont use scrim results to determine if your trials are good or nobody in the history of the world would get signed

its just for feeling out the chemistry and how they communicate etc

there was a clip on ethan's stream where you could clearly see asuna, bang +3 in a custom without him so take that for what you want

when you have a competitive scene you have to find balance between making sure the "best teams" get to compete while also promoting globalization and representation, because in the end esports is just marketing to sell the game itself

riot are doing a great job so far embracing both sides in my opinion, while some numbers could use some tweaking, i think they have a very good idea of what they want the scene to look like and are taking actionable steps to make sure it blooms properly

how is he this invested in crypto and doesn't have some form of cold storage, actually bizarre

shit talk, disagree, do whatever you want below

1 nukkye (g2)
2 derke (fnc)
3 trent (tgrd)
4 yay (optic)
5 saadhak (loud)
6 buzz (drx)
7 boaster (fnc)
8 pancada (loud)
9 aspas (loud)
10 rb (drx)
11 sayaplayer (tgrd)
12 victor (optic)
13 forsaken (prx)
14 valyn (tgrd)
15 hoody (g2)
16 mistic (fnc)
17 sacy (loud)
18 keznit (kru)
19 crashies (optic)
20 less (loud)

extra details:
5 EMEA players
5 NA players
6 LATAM/BR players
4 APAC/KR players
all members of loud are listed

is none other than diablo himself

https://twitter.com/_SushantJha/status/1512310046549426179/photo/1

pretty insane numbers

gl to DRX, i'm enthusiastic about moving RB back to duelist -- he always seemed uncomfortable and unable to play at 100 on the flex/support role

buzz was a demonic jett but he's just as strong on the sentinel, and now might just become the lynchpin of DRX's success. teams that have an adept and activated chamber player will really make the difference at masters

zest has a lot to prove as both an IGL and an individual player, but i'll hold my judgement until the matches are actually underway. optimistic though :)

gira aspas will drop 50 every map and win iceland without dropping a round

jugi will summon dark magician and set bigs life points to zero