dont' look at YFP, look at TL.
https://x.com/TanmayyMhatre/status/1932757780534014185
Penny is officialyl signed, that's why they were allowed to put him on against MIBR even though nAts was back and he was supposedly a sub for nAts.

The problem IS the creativity... Double senti IS creativity, because you have to come up with attack strats, where to split/setup (since there's at least 2 sites + mid for each map, can't cover everything, etc.)
double duelist absolutely kills EVERYTHING. Forcing two duelists a game will basically create a new permanent fixed meta, and no team can choose to run like a no duelist comp or a no senti comp (like on icebox, split respectively).
You are basically just saying htat you're a duelist here and hate playing sentinels because you don't know how to play around sentinel utility. Just learn how to deal with sentinel utility, or maybe stop rushing in so fast, and maybe you'll have a fun time playing the game.

I think G2 is a good example for them. G2 has a permanent lurker (leaf, jonahp too when on viper), and g2 love retake (just like sen), and their fundamentals are really strong. Yes, it's boring valorant, but a win is a win.

THE TRAIN ISN'T STOPPING
PRX take it in two, despite Wolves having the obvious ban advantage (wolves don't have a "perma" ban, they do ban haven frequently, but not permanently, while prx just instaban haven, more reasons like this). The whole map veto is honestly a mess.
PRX ban Haven (if PRX go 2nd, I could see wolves banning haven, but probably not), Wolves ban Pearl
PRX pick Lotus, win 13-9
Wolves pick Ascent, PRX win 13-11
Rest of the bans go like this: PRX ban Icebox, Wolves ban Sunset, Split is decider (literally could be any of those 3)

APAC (by far and away)
rest are very close together
I'm thinking EMEA 2nd (hear me out) because TL almost took down PRX (who are in the upper finals), nearly beat BLG despite being down their igl and best player, bla bla bla. TH just looked like they had a bad tournament, probably will be better next time (though tbf they did play both winners final members LOL)
Americas 3rd, G2 is picking up steam and despite being a one team region they're better than China which is basically another one team region.
China last, because PRX about to expose wolves, and also the rest of the chinese teams suck (I understand that XLG was without YOU, but it's not like YOU can play anytime soon he was banned)

Hate on me all you want but you know that its true.

Agreed. Revealing your prep AND not preparing for other local teams in stage 2? Terrible move. I think close to the only team that will actually try is G2, because they have nothing to lose in stage 2. They're already guaranteed a champs spot, and from what I've seen so far this tournament, they'll probably be the only team to guarantee a champs spot (maybe FNC can with a tournament victory, but I don't think so) through points, because wow, they are dominating every single other team in champs points. 19??? That's criminal business right there. Only 2 short of the maximum possible (if they won that final vs t1).
I mean, money is money, but champs is far more important.

FNC picking Ascent makes a lot of sense, Sen's comp is absolute trash. Sen also looked bad on Haven, makes sense they banned it (why would FNC ban it they looked good on it), then banning Lotus makes sense since FNC looked bad on Lotus (but VERY good on icebox with their sage comp).

G2 bans Sunset, FNC bans Pearl
G2 picks Lotus, G2 win 13-9
FNC pick Ascent, FNC win 13-10
G2 ban Haven, FNC ban Icebox
Split remains, G2 win 13-11
BANGER SERIES
also this map ban is REALLY up in the air, past the first two perma-bans and picks (G2 will pick lotus, and i think fnc will pick ascent)
I can easil ysee any of Split, Haven, and Icebox being the decider, both are pretty strong maps for both teams. I don't think G2 will ban Icebox, and I don't think FNC will ban Split, but otherwise, it's all up in the air.

holy shit I got the map bans/winners right (in the wrong order), total number of rounds won for each side correct (35 for fnatic, 29 for SEN), and the right scoreline.
AND i got g2 vs geng nearly perfect earlier today too.

GenG is looking mentally BOOMED right now. It's nothing like the team we saw beating PRX. seangares come check this out? LOL

I was almost right, GenG chose to ban Split not Icebox.
I think G2 take this if it goes to 3, GenG have to close it out on Lotus.

this is nearly exactly what i predded above, but I think G2 feels more confident on Lotus than on Icebox because their icebox was against XLG (not exactly the cream of the crop) and also studied by Geng when they played FNC (the sage).
I agree though, GenG haven and G2 Lotus/Icebox

FNC ban Pearl, SEN ban Split
FNC pick Icebox, FNC win 13-6
SEN pick Sunset, SEN win 13-9
FNC ban Haven, SEN ban Lotus
Ascent Remains, FNC win 13-10
GG Bye sen city

FNC 2-1 SEN
so far this event, Sen is 3-0 on China, 0-1 on eveyr other region
G2 is 1-0 on China, 0-1 on every other region
MIBR is 0-0 on China, 0-2 on every other region
So americas is 4-0 on China, 0-4 everything else. Basically, FNC have this in the bag. Bye bye sen city.

G2-1 GenG, GenG getting knocked out in 2 straight matches just like they were back in Seoul 2024.
Map Bans:
GEN ban Pearl, G2 ban Sunset
Gen pick Haven, Gen win 13-10
G2 pick Lotus, G2 win 13-9
GEN ban Icebox, G2 ban Ascent
Split remains, G2 win 13-7 because GenG's tejo is NOT the pick.

ur english is so broken i have no idea what you mean
but that being said, chinese teams are 0-4 against americas teams this event. 0 and FOUR. CN cannot farm americas, so stop talking with that biased chinese flag (yes ik I'm biased too).

g2-0 wolves.
to everyone saying g2 vs sen, it's g2 vs loser of geng vs wolves. Let's be honest, wolves are losing to Geng.
Easy g2-0 wolves, americas farms chinese teams (4-0 so far this event)
Wolves Ban Haven, G2 ban Sunset
Wolves pick Split, G2 win 13-10
G2 picks Icebox (it could switch to wolves ban icebox, g2 picks haven), G2 win 13-5
The rest of the map ban would go:
Wolves ban Pearl, G2 bans Ascent, Decider is Lotus, which g2 would win (not that it'll go there)

PRX, GenG I feel like is pretty obvious.
I expect a VERY clean 2-0 GenG against wolves, a messy 2-1 for PRX against Sen. That being said, i think prx's playstyle is basically made to counter sen's, so maybe a clean 2-0 for prx, but probably it'll be messy.

XLG have gotten 13 round so far. MIBR is statistically the worst at 19 rounds this tournament. I'm counting it down (they got 12 vs sen, 1 so far vs g2)

agreed. XLG is looking WHIFFY asf right now. I'm pretty sure my diamond lobbies are aiming better than this.

just give it to third seed LOL

I disagree. For G2, I feel like it's just not the same without tejo. While trent is still an amazing player (he was by far the highest rated at 1.28), the style of gameplay is just not the same, no matter what agent or comp g2 chooses. With tejo, the post plant is just THAT much different, as well as clearing angles, and it was pretty obvious how much g2 was struggling without tejo. For XLG, they obviously had to bring in Midi, who was... struggling, dare I say (it was even worse than aspas). I will say RRQ lost because of their 2024 comps, that's the only one (they weren't tejo spammers).
Then for FNC vs GenG, well GenG was just the better team, but fnatic actually almost one, and it's not like their team comp was 2024. vyse and deadlock are not oppressive at all, in fact vyse is pretty much a two map agent (lotus, pearl only), while deadlock is here and there.

not heretics lol.
but since heretics are gone, yeah (prx runs a close 2nd to us though)

2/2 day 1
2/2 day 2
1/2 day 3 (I convinced myself that sen woudl win, but my pickems for group stage winners said blg not sen so I just kept with that copium)
1/2 day 4 (same story here, th looked terrible, but I went with my pickems)
1/2 day 5 (again, my pickems screwed me over lol had to go with blg, though they looked mentally boomed after the end against sen)

7/10 so far, I really should've swallowed my pride and not trusted my group stage advancers. But my goat pacific caster Achilios on 10/10??? Imma go check his playoff bracket lol.

https://valorantesports.com/en-US/
look right to me.

u got 2 right fire better than me lol

The draw is random
That being said, I think the order of being picked will be 1st: WOL/BLG (whoever wins the draw will pick them), 2nd: SEN 3rd: PRX 4th: GenG, but if TL beat PRX (would shock me), then Wol/BLG 1st, TL 2nd, SEN 3rd, Geng last.
I also agree the draw is rigged though, probably for SEN, so they're going to give XLG second pick to give SEN XLG (without YOU, so debuffed). Also probably rigged for G2 (pro-Americas probably) - so G2 - WOL/BLG, SEN - XLG, FNC - PRX (or TL), RRQ vs GenG for yet ANOTHER all-pacific clash (DRX - T1 was only single-region at bangkok, so far GenG vs PRX here too)

I agree with post #9, GenG stomped MIBR, which I thought was impressive, until MIBR put up... whatever I just saw today. It was not pretty, so I don't think that counts. Then, their game against Paper Rex doesn't really count because, well, Paper Rex certainly has a unique playstyle, as in running it down with the W key - I haven't seem them tested against more "conventional" ideas/comps/teams. Plus, worst case scenario a team just bans icebox since that was the dominant map, GenG barely beat PRX on Ascent.

yes, normally.
Except riot screwed up the times now. The matches are at 12 am/3 am china time. Yeah, they're not getting any views either way. If Riot set the games later so chinese people could watch, I guarantee there would be some rigging for chinese teams.

I predicted
GenG
BLG
TH
PRX
I really meant to click SEN not BLG lol. But oh well I forgot to change it, then I screwed over my pickems because I just committed to BLG over sen so now I'm 5/6 on preds and at max 3/4 on group stage qualifiers.

Also I went TH, TL winning tomorrow... should I change to MIBR over TL? Mibr looked like absolute garbage in their match against GenG, but honestly so did PRX, though a little less so.
It was actually really depressing watching mibr yesterday. They literally couldn't start anything, they basically just sat there and got beaten up.

I picked th, prx, geng, blg. I might be the one throwing (though I did get 100% of my preds right 1st round)
I meant to click sen but accidentally clicked blg oops.

BLG 2-1, and because I'm so confident, I'm even going to try the map veto (don't laugh at me when I'm super off)
BLG ban Haven (or Split), SEN ban Sunset
BLG pick Icebox, SEN pick Attack, BLG win 13-10 after being down first half
SEN pick Lotus, BLG picks Defense, SEN win 13-8
BLG ban Split (or Haven, could switch the two), SEN ban Ascent
Pearl Remains, BLG pick attack (or SEN pick attack based on who wins the coin flip), BLG win 14-12
BANGER SERIES
I'll be surprised if I even get the MAP VETO right, much less the scoreline lol. But one can hope.

Bad Prediction, GenG 2-1 PRX
PRX ban Haven, GenG ban Pearl
PRX pick Split, GenG picks Attack, PRX win 13-8
GenG pick Sunset, PRX picks Defense, GenG win 13-10
PRX ban Lotus, GenG ban Ascent
Icebox Remains, whoever wins the coin toss picks Attack (or does Geng automatically start?), GenG win 14-12
ABSOLUTE CINEMA (and I'm probably wrong)

BLG 2-1, and because I'm so confident, I'm even going to try the map veto (don't laugh at me when I'm super off)
BLG ban Haven (or Split), SEN ban Sunset
BLG pick Icebox, SEN pick Attack, BLG win 13-10 after being down first half
SEN pick Lotus, BLG picks Defense, SEN win 13-8
BLG ban Split (or Haven, could switch the two), SEN ban Ascent
Pearl Remains, BLG pick attack (or SEN pick attack based on who wins the coin flip), BLG win 14-12
BANGER SERIES
I'll be surprised if I even get the MAP VETO right, much less the scoreline lol. But one can hope.

i think it's a toss up. BLG looked weak against a weakened TL, and SEN looked weak against the widely agreed worst team in the event (who are much worse than BLG).

agreed. 7-1 scoreline is INCREDIBLY rare lol. 2-1 is very common, not 7-1.

Am I cooked? I'm at 100% so far (PRX, BLG, SEN, GenG), but I just realized that I accidentally clicked BLG and not SEN as my group stage qualifiers (BLG, TH, PRX, GenG) 💀 because I'm a sen hater. What are y'all's thoughts on BLG vs SEN tomorrow? BLG looked atrocious vs TL with a SUB who's playing their THIRD duelist and had ONE day of practice. Hopefully they can clutch it up for my pickems. Also PRX vs GenG is going to be a BANGER, I went with GenG.

It has not been enjoyable to watch the whole time. Watching TH vs PRX was super fun (loved the aggressive play style), same with BLG vs TL (and I also loved the new comps, thanks tejo for going away), as well as GenG vs MIBR. But... I really did not enjoy watching SEN vs Wolves. Same old boring play, just swapped tejo with another initiator with drone and did relatively the same gameplay.

you think only latinos call it football LOL that shows what's wrong with how you're thinking.
As an american myself, I call it football, just like nearly all of Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

pulling out the worst comps you've ever seen. Please stop playing harbor on lotus and frankly every map besides icebox.

FNC is NOT fun to watch. I'm 99% sure that if you took the average time to plant for all teams going to masters toronto, FNC would be the highest team by a MILE. They always take it down to the wire and wait and fake and just take forever.
Watching PRX? Fun. Watching FNC? Boring. Though tbh, I kinda loved watching TL earlier today, their comps were... out of the box, to say the least (FPX comp on icebox in the big 25??? PHOENIX on haven too???)

bottom 3 were looking fire, then i saw they had prx lower than them.

team liquid, EMEA #3, without an igl and with their 3rd duelist player and only 1 day of practice with him, losing 1-2 with 3 close maps? yeah china's not cooking. I expect wolves to get demolished tomorrow, and I'm the biggest sen hater.

u was right i'm sorry for doubting you. WOW th got absolutely slaughtered.

It's not Lysoar's international debut??? He played Champs 2024, Madrid, Shanghai, Champs 2023 with FPX

he likely won't be there for the first match, rest of them are still up in the air.

sounds fire, i'mma just wait for it to come out lol (I do NOT have a flawless record)
I heard that the new agents are coming out after toronto and before champs, do you know the timeline for both of them? (since you showed two agents)

new agent??? where was this announced

this feels like a normal chinese team promoter...
you really think WOLVES is better than sen???

nah random g2 is fine (trent is looking on fire recently), but i really don't understand zekken - that's just sen fans on copium, his stats have not been that good ("just" 1.13), while someone like trent is at 1.29 past 30 days.
Even considering stage 1, trent was #1 in americas at 1.24, zekken down at 1.15. Kaajak is also up at 1.24 (everyone else in emea far below), and Rarga is at 1.25 (slowly my goat is at an astonishing 1.37 but he ain't going cuz his team is trash), no one in pacific is that high.