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.

Playing:
I'm a flex, but literally any initiator besides breach are all tied for me (skye/tejo/kayo/sova/fade/gekko)
Watching:
Viper, Astra, Omen

If we're talking perfect bracket, I don't think it should be 8 choose 4, it should be each swiss stage match right (implying you get all 4 correct obviously)
Then there's 10 games, so 1/2^10, giving a 1/2^24 chance, or 1 in 16,777,216
That being said, you may get all the swiss stage matches right because you do the predictions after matches are set, but you get the qualifiers wrong - so then I guess 1 in 1,174,405,120

now THAT is an obscure one LOL. but yes, he's good

I don't think watching Pro play is that good. They're playing pros, their util is more for pro play with combos with teammates. Now I'm not saying you can't combo with teammates, but the fact is most people won't if you aren't pro, and you aren't playing pros either.

So I'd say just know your lineups? I know fade/sova lineups on pearl

Chess.com:
2328 blitz (peak 2349)
2310 bullet (peak 2339)
2110 rapid (peak 2110)
1874 FIDE (peak 1874)
1944 USCF (peak 1944)
I don't play otb anymore
I'm gonna throw in my daily rating for the trolls lol
2032 daily (peak 2032) (yes I sweat daily chess)

Liches I'm 2500 blitz, bullet

Better List:

1. G2
2. FNC
3. TH (could switch with FNC)
4. Gen. G
5. RRQ
6. BLG
7. PRX
8. XLG (no more YOU)
9. TL
10. SEN
11. MIBR
12. Wolves
    And I'm an NA fan. I'm just not delusional (g2 may move down given that post-tejo meta is not yet revealed, I'll wait till I see the meta till I judge them)

ik, he also played raze on split way back in ascension gf (wow that was a long time ago).
I would love to see G2 pull out a double duelist comp, and split is honestly the best place to do it, since there's typically no sentinels and it's fairly common + jawg plays yoru there.

You can put him on any role, so going into Toronto, none of us are worried or less confident since Tejo is gone.

Trent on duelist??? That would be fire since I'm completely tired of him playing tejo spam.

biggest th copium i've ever seen. They weren't using tejo, which means it's their real comps for toronto - no hiding (since tejo is underground now). Kaajak absoltuely rolled over TH - the rest of his team didn't even do that good (- in k/d) but kaajak was +40 and u really just can't beat that. Absolutely hard-diffed TH. They are not hiding anything.
And you can't even argue that it's a victory because of tejo abuse because crashies was going negative/dying early on the tejo.

sen freest match ever (as a sen hater/g2 fan)

ethan

i'm with you, 1. Riens, and then I'm cooked (if riens is even there, which i think yes, but you could debate).
2 must be trent. No other good teams in emea have a good sova player (TL doesn't, FNC doesn't), no teams in pacific (MAYBE kushy, but that's really reaching, and also just Jemkin is the goat in pacific), china is a hot mess but still none (really rarga/whzy are carrying the region)

agree with senfns (fns should join sen too lol) - trent is a top 3 sova itw. He was #1, statwise, on sova at kickoff, in americas, if not in the world (I think he was worldwide #1 sova too - you'd have to check, but he was definitely #1 statwise on sova at kickoff in americas).
Calling sunset a bad map for g2 is crazy considering it hasn't been in the pool for a LONG time. Agents have been balanced (there have been a LOT of changes to many agents), new ones released (ex. vyse), and the map itself has CHANGED, if you don't remember they changed b site a lot last october after vct champions 2024 and before kickoff 2025 (aka, not played on) - they added that hole that you can plant in, which wasn't htere before, and got rid of the box in b main. In other words, big changes!
Fracture was not a good map for them, but they don't really have a perma-ban, so fi they cook something up on the new sunset with new agents, then I wouldn't be surprised if they ban something else, like ascent, if they get counter-stratted, or maybe icebox/pearl (for the ptsd), etc.

s0m's cove incident, gotta agree with that
sScary's 1v5 maybe on haven ascension gf to close the map?

i think people don't realize how big of a difference it can make. Often times, teams may not be able to get rifles+full armor+full util in the 3rd round, especially if they invested a bit into the 2nd round/spent a lot of util. 800 credits, 2 rounds in a row, can make a big difference. 100 credits more, for 3 rounds (including the bonus), is 300 creds, which is often the difference between full armor and light armor, which could mean the difference between an outlaw body shot one shot or not.

u right, aint no one holding on to their ult unless they have a setplay (such as rolling thunder+tejo ult) which don't happen in ranked lol (but it's definitely much worse in pro play)
yeah skye dog is dead (and also skye is dead). Still, sova drone is a better source of your money now (maybe not skye dog since it barely sees anything and is basically useless)

def not, he's a decent sova player and also tejo is BAD now

Loud stop spamming bro

Okay y'all clearly aren't initiator or tejo mains.

400 credits for a drone? Skye dog and Sova drone are now FAR better than that waste of credits. 100 creds makes a big difference, considering that you pretty much have to use it every round (unless you're on an eco).
The stun is actually "buffed" (200 creds), except it's by far the least used part of Tejo's kit, and it's obviously worse than a breach stun (even post nerf), and it's pretty hard to hit.
The ult is 9 points now. That seems like not a big change, but it means a lot less ults and likely a psychological push to hold onto your ult for longer, and more ult orb farming, making it more risky.
The missiles are also basically impossible to work with now. You can't missile out random corners or chokes now that you only have 2 missiles the whole round. So no more start of round missling, which actually helped way more than most people think (a lot of people who don't play tejo think you can only use it for post plant). Kicking people out of off angles and clearing corners/chokes is incredibly useful, saves a lot of time and less risk.
Some people think it will be better for post plant, because you can use it twice disconnected. While that may be true, you also gotta be much closer (10 m, which can make a big difference between hiding behind a corner and in the open), and this puts a lot more risk and makes post plant much harder. In addition, they cost money (150 creds), which many people do not want to spend.

In other words, he's dead. If you main tejo mostly like me, you'll know what I mean.