i think fnc had a little bit of burnout (going all the way in ewc, toronto), fnc should be better when they finally get some rest (aka after they got knocked out early). Their aim was looking really tired/slow in the recent matches, so I think that should be better for champs
gx??? idk and th looked terrible in toronto (but are probably going to pull out an iconic 2nd place)

https://www.vlr.gg/event/pickem/2283/valorant-champions-2025
I gave the revenge bonus in any rematch that occurs (aka 1)

first pred in? Interesting map veto to predict. TH perma-ban corrode, while G2 don't have a perma-ban, but most frequently ban either sunset or corrode (though they have looked stronger with leaf on sunset, would be curious to see leaf on corrode). G2 was very good on abyss before the tejo meta (never played tejo, put trent on sova), but TH have gotten dog-walked the three times they played it that I could find this year (13-4 by m8, 13-1 by vit, 13-4 by tl). I think we'll have an interesting situation where neither team wants to pick corrode or ban it.
g2 ban haven (could be corrode?), th ban abyss (because of aforementiond results)
th pick sunset, g2 win 13-11
g2 pick lotus, g2 win 13-8
other bans are g2 ban bind, th ban the leftover of haven/corrode/sunset
ascent remains

prx, xlg out of group a
blg (maybe rrq?), fnc out of group b
tl, edg out of group c
g2, th out of group d (but th is going to lose to g2 so we can have g2 3rd and th 2nd lmao)

that's the freest group

yeah well g2 got 2nd, 4th, but in 2023 edg was getting like way worse

we all know th losing to 1st and 3rd

i think it's mostly just being down 2-0 in the series

PUT BABYBAY IN JOSH U KNOW WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT
if babybay ain't on chamber next map i ain't a fan anymore

nah i see it plenty in emea (liquid loves it), ig it is rare in apac and china

well tbf jaw messed up the timing

one possible reason is they are not prepping for icebox because it's going out for abyss

bind is NOT attack sided wdym look at any region (ok in ranked everything is ttack sided) in prop lay

u do know that bind is incredibly defense sided, and nrg is defense sided too right?
previous game was 10-2 on defense for g2 against nrg on bind

they banned corrode...

damn it i was so close even with sides chosen but nope had to get ascent/bind siwtched and icebox/lotus switched

i mean this team is all over the plase too tho
chron on viper/sentinel, nats also on viper/sentinel, alfajer on secondary duelist/sentinel??? that's never going to work there's no dedicated initiator player.

Aspas (duelist)
Chron (viper/senti)
Leo (ini)
Forsaken (flex)
Valyn (smokes)

sen cuz they talk too much smack (not that they ever put anything behind it)

Well tbf they played n4rrate on duelist like twice and they lost both maps (I mean tbf it was against g2 both times). N4rrate himself didn't look bad (he did get diffed by trent in iso ult a couple too many times tho), but the team play around the double duelist comp was NOT cooking. Zekken can only play duelist, so he kind of either has to really just grind out double duelist before champs, or focus on solo duelist with zekken

i mean made every international only because amer was not looking competitive at all earlier in the season.
without those earlier results, they don't make champs so idk

i mean g2 hasn't loooked challenged at all in stage 2, we'll see at champs (like leaf is back in after what a week of practice and being in the hopsital for months? and they stomped sen)

keep hoping
brawk dropped an absolute stinker vs g2, he is gonna suck tomorrow

he played like absolute sht vs g2 though last week so

after verno keeps dropping his fns-level igl numbers???

sen looked WAY worse than last week, earlier in stage 2 - i think it's just a mental block after playing g2, their mental just gets destroyed each time they lose to g2 (and it happens super often). I think they're still better than nrg on a good day for both teams (nrg having a good day today, sen having a bad day)

i don't think they're top 5 across all regions - tl, prx, g2, blg, drg, on good days sen (and by that i mean not against 1) g2 or 2) the day after g2), maybe even FNC (hit a bit of playoff slump but could bounce back).
They were some pretty big tejo merchants, and honestly in my opinion they dsereved to lose today against talon (and talon probably had some of the same problems as you were listing before for rrq, ur just ignoring talon completely and disrespectingt hem), talon threw hard with little stage experience and nerves.

sentinels looked boomed after their loss against g2 (mental block prob), like brawk/everyone else isn't really looking that good, sen are just not hitting their shots and their calling is just very sub-par

G2 3-1 NRG ONLY because of map ban advantage (nrg's corrode is looking MUCH better than when they played us)
G2 ban Corrode, Lotus (does not matter which order)
G2 pick Ascent, NRG pick Defense, G2 win 13-8
NRG pick Icebox, G2 pick Attack, NRG win 13-10
G2 pick Bind, NRG pick Defense, G2 win 13-8
NRG pick Haven, G2 pick Defense, G2 win 15-13
Decider Sunset, G2 pick defense (if it does go here, then g2 win 13-9)
LEAFS BACK BABY
originally before today i was oging to say g2 ban corrode, icebox but nrg's lotus looked great and their corrode was basically flawless, but their icebox wasn't so good against sen's (which is bad), so g2 may be fine with icebox
so therefore i'm just gonna say ban corrode lotus.
I might be really stupid or I might be cooking.

trent is way better than brawk so far this year, i ain't letting one playoffs tournament change my mind (trent plz lock in for champs)

minor switch:
uranGOAT
(gap gap gap)
trent
brawk
(gap)
n4rrate
(gap)
eeiu
verno

... cameran is this u again

nice try sen fan, leaf knows that g2 is better than sen

holy shit skuba went 2-12 then is going 10-1 on attack LMAO

g2 has made champs (in fact they were the first team to make champs back in toronto)??? i'm assuming this is another team you're talking about (geng?)

sen looked pretty sad today, guess they just have mental block against g2

yeah gotta respect that
c9 just got demolished and it was boring af. i respect oxy for not taking it and like just being depressed/a bad sport but instead deciding to make it fun with a knife fight.

as a matter of fact, u SHOULD be running and gunning if u are eco-ing with stingers. the opponent has precise, accurate guns that are good at range, u should strafe and run and gun with stinger in order to counter it

just so u know, u can run and gun with 6 weapons: shorty, frenzy judge, stinger, classic, and spectre. It's relatively accurate on the bucky

like if u want to be happy then no
but if u really want to then sure

probably a mental block cuz i mean this is just sad
like this is a defense sided map and a defense sided composition from g2 like how is it 8-3

best emea player RIGHT NOW

hes basically saying sen look so good vs every other team but they just don't even look competitive vs g2 (play way worse than against other teams)

i mean leaf is BACK back
that 1v3 clutch was amazing, he's popping off rn. I think they'll bring back baybay in for at least one map in the gf (if not all the maps) to give him the trophy, but it's important to note that he is serving as a coach rn (he's in the booth with joshrt), so he still wins the trophy regardless, plus it counts since he was a sub for the first part (remember copenhagen?)

plus, after such a long break, they need to give leaf some playing practice, since he hasn't played for so long

americas: aspas (i'm assuming oat, if rn then trent)
emea - chron (nats is a close 2nd, but if rn, then kaajak)
pacific - meteor (t3xture close second, buzz can't be here after the sylvan situation)
cn- kangkang (but rn it's whzy)

team 1 aspas is a chad
also most of them are like more fit relatively than the players on team

that was ONE ali play, and he was cooking the rest of the match, probably just a brain fart/misclick when he typed the wrong key maybe. I would just bounce orb off yellow but idk

the rules are weird for china evo, but basically any team that went to champs cannot employ anyone on their main roster (so no one on blg can play), so they just pull up people from like their academy.
Also it like means nothing so no one really tries there (just watch it you'll see)

g2 ain't winning against sen if we still have babybay UNLESS babybay gets to play chamber on all the maps
also leaf PLEASE COME BACK and get some practice before champs

wait ur so right lmao navi??? they're ukrainian LMAO

sen over g2??? nah u clearly never saw g2 with leaf
also why no th? th qualifying over navi surely