2-0 Vikings. I know nothing of X10 though. They might turn out to be this tournaments dark horse for all I know. But have heard solid things about Vikings. Would be nice to see a team from a less represented region do well though.

2-0 Liquid. Want V1 to win, but let’s be real. They have a stand in and going against a very hot Liquid team. Would like to be wrong though.

I will say, if my NA teams can’t win it, Fnatic is my team. Boaster has won me over.

Now that I have actually seen Crazy Racoons play against a known team. I probably would change my lowers bracket match of CR vs X10, with CR now coming on top. X10 was the team I honestly knew nothing about, but wasn’t hearing good things from CR at the time.

Also I tried me best not to let me homer bias effect my judgement. I want NA to do well, but want to be realistic for my pickems.

So far 3/3. Tomorrow is the harder day though, IMO.

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/3d899d6a

lol definitely one of them now.

You get a warning nowadays for a first offence. So it's something that happened multiple times. Like I am sorry about your issues, but your issues effect 9 other people. If it's a known problem it's on you.

Also if you have a large ban from leaving ranked games. You can work it down by playing unrated without leaving. The offence system IMO is in a good spot. It gives you are warning on a first offence as accidents do happen. Whether plans changed, internet outage, etc. But punishes those, severely at times if they are chronic offenders. And then gives them the option to work at lowering the suspension by playing unrated without leaving games.

People leaving games takes all the fun out of a game. So I have zero issue with Riot swinging that temp ban hammer around for people that don't care about others enjoyment. Don't care if it's a minor mode like Spike. If you're rage quitting out of spike rush you need to evaluate yourself. Or at least don't complain about the time if you did the crime.

Agreed. The JP scene is actually huge. A solid result, or even above expectations of a 9th-10th place will do good for the scene.

Like obviously it means nothing at the end of the day until actually LAN results. But until then it's fun to joke around about scrims and random ranked matches. And lets be real, losing a 4v5 even with a coach, is not a good look. And if it was SEN that lost the 4v5, you better believe they'd be getting this treatment and then some.

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/3d899d6a

Umm... That's already 19 more than it can do currently... It maxes out at 130 and gets lower from there. Unless you want a buff that is.

Do you have a link to where they said they'll nerf Raze and Jett? Raze already got a slight nerf now that you can listen to where she will satchel to.

And if they plan to nerf the judge, which seems to be coming just from the community feedback which they've listen to in the past. That's gonna hurt Raze and Jett more than any other agents as they were the best with the gun.

I think Riot has got to be careful with nerfing Duelits. Teams are already trying to go to 1 duellist meta's And if they can do the same thing with a support character as they can with a duelist, or even close to. They will pick the support character every time. I forget the team as I was watching it half alseep. But they were already experimenting with a 0 duelist comp in an actual pro match.

I feel like if they would have nerfed the bot they would have done it some time in the past year. Like it might happen, but it would be something that is random as it's not like anything has changed.

The bot doesn't bother me much. Only thing I could see happen if it they make it like KJ and Cypher gadgets, once Raze dies the bot become inactive. Which is abit sad, cause watching someone alone die to the bot when they've killed the last enemy Raze then going to defuse is funny as hell .

KRU and V1

That absolutely was a nerf, during the beta when her smokes were a little shorter than they were now, people didn't even think she was going to be Meta. Now I think time has changed, and putting her current 3.5s smoke down to 3 seconds (like in the beta) would be a way to give her a small nerf. Another would be to ever so slightly make it so if she whiffs a OP shot, she needs to wait like a tenth longer before she can dash out of trouble.

I do not think she is far off where she needs to be. She is good, but far far from broken. If she needs a nerf, it should be the smallest of small nerfs, IMO

She has been touched though? I can agrue another small nerf might be needed just to make the pick rates more balanced. But she really isn't an issue IMO. At least for me. Think there are bigger fish. Teams have been constantly trying to get rid of Duelist agents and replace them with some kind of utility agent. Edit: And I am the farthest person from a Jett main, she might be my lowest picked agent in the game, definitely the lowest duelist.

I remember seeing a twitter post that talked about it from a dev. I don't know if it's a complete reset. But it sounded at least close to one.

They could always join someone elses stream. No clue who they are friends with. But these are just the hosts.

You don't have to watch him, He's obviously not for you. And he wasn't picked for people like you to watch. But to act like there is no one for you to watch to get the pro streamer vibe is dishonest. You have Myth, you have Shroud, you will most likely have Dicey on Poki's stream, you have the Plat Chat guys on Youtube, and Average Jonas. All these might not be your pick, but one at least should. This is an esports less than a year old, Riot trying to grow the esports with people who might not normally watch, and get as many people to have a stream to their liking.

I love that odds are just because of how rank spread works , most of the people complaining about Poki, are probably a lower rank than her at Diamond.

Yeah, sounds like he's joining Poki. Or at least the odds are high.

viewers bring in sponsors, sponsors bring in money, money brings in talent.

It will happen in the new episode.

Def agree. It will be the result that probably decides SEN's future as well if they do completely buy out TenZ, or they look back at Sinatraa or another 5th. It is a team game, so if ShaZam keeps sending him in to entry and it's not working it will be interesting if TenZ can find another role.

If it comes to pressure I think Tenz should be much improved. The dudes popularity has blown up, and a person would imagine the pressure of all eyes on you would prepare yourself for the pressure of a LAN. Dude is young too, he was like 18 and younger in his CSGO days. He's 20 now, lots of growth happens in these years.

It is something he will need to prove though. But he "should" be better prepared for it.

I think the champions format is good, at least for now until we get a true picture of the regions once LANs become normal.

3NA (including last chance), 3EUMA (Including last chance), 2BR, 2SEA, 1KR, 1JP, 1LATM, 1Asia Last chance, 1SA Last chance, 1 Masters 3 winner. It can be argued NA and especially EUMA with the size deserve another spot. But thankfully the region who wins Maters 3 gets another slot. So EU or NA get that addition slot if they win Masters 3. Also allows the rare chance for a JP or KR team to win, and bring in another team that may not get the playerbase.

It's fucking massive. We have to remember while it's growing fast, the big money is still in CSGO.

What I would like to see if a similar system to MSI. MSI has a minimum price pool of $250k, then a portion of skins and stuff which usually results is pool near the $1mill mark at the end of the day. And we have to compare it to LoL, Valorant isn't a big as LoL, so to be even in the same ball park as League for a normal Major is massive. I would honestly be happy with it staying at $600K for a bit. I don't think people are realization how much that actually is for a game as new as Valorant. Before the pool was a announced, people were guessing like $250K for the pool in Masters 2. 1st place alone is almost that alone.

Will be interesting. I would imagine the recent popularity would help him deal with the pressure of being one of the favourites to win. And his play style should translate over to LAN well. But yeah his past experience isn't good. It's hard for me to compare CS Tenz to Valorant Tenz. A lot has happened since then.

I understand the your reasoning. Riot is in a no win situation here. Personally I think they have done the correct decisions. But whatever decision they take there's compromises. Do you ban a possible innocent person for a crime they may not have committed (And he is innocent right now. Whether people think he is guilty or not it doesn't matter. He's hasn't been found guilty legally. Riot has to look after themselves too. If Sinnatra is innocent, it leaves it wide open for Riot to be involved in a counter suit when he goes after his ex for basically ruining his career.)

If he is guilty, you look bad for the reasons you outlined. Riot has showed IMO they are taking this serious with the immediate suspension when this went live, and the 6 month ban for not cooperating.

The ban is because he didn't cooperate with the investigation, not to do with allegations. Whether he is innocent or guilty has nothing to do with this suspension. If he is guilty, chances are he will be suspended for much longer. If he is innocent, he can begin playing professionally September 10.

Sick said on his Twitter that you have to beat the best teams anyways to win in reference to the bracket. So it sounds like he's not bothered.

That's really my only complaint. I wish the draw was done on a quick live stream of something. Yeah, it's possible to rig a live stream (There's always doubts). But I think it would have just been fun as well to watch the process.

As for the format, while not ideal. It's what's you get with 10 teams and the time needed to have the tournament. Thankfully all matches are Bo3, that is a major plus. I'd rather have this format than have any Bo1's. And if the choice was this format, or have Bo1's at the beginning, give me this format every time.

Not Brazilian, but it's fine IMO with the circumstances. This isn't going to be the format going forward as we are going to 16 teams. It's a one time thing. It's a learning experience for everyone. Have fun, enjoy yourself no matter the results. We are getting an international LAN after 18+ months of a pandemic! This is a time for celebration, not to be negative about a format that while isn't the greatest, is the best we can expect with 10 teams and having a week to do it without massive player exhaustion. Would it be nice to have the event longer than a week? Absolutely, but with the pandemic still on, we don't get those pleasures. And we can't really compare to MSI, one of LoL's biggest events after not having one last year.

If this was the format going forward I would understand being a little upset. But for Master 3 we get 16 teams. Making a format like this uneeded.

Great price pool for only 10 teams. People were throwing out like $250K for the pool. $600,000 for the first event is huge.

Bracket is what it is. Thankfully moving forward with 16 teams it will be better in the future. Be happy people, this is the first true international LAN after/during a massive pandemic, we don't need to do what gamers are best at and take the fun out of a great event. This is a time to truly be happy.

Gotchu, you don't know. But banking on it being right to get you clout. Gotchu.

They will go where the money is tbh.

honest question, how can you almost confirm?

Def agree with the agents you listed.

I think KJ is in an interesting place for the map. Because of the size her ult obviously takes a hit and it less effective. But I think her turret can be used well as a info machine.

I'm only a gold player, so I definitely am not the best when it comes to which agents are best used when etc. So far in my short play time, I have had best luck with Viper (cutting the large site in half is massive, even if her wall did zero decay it would still be huge), Astra (large map and an agent that can smoke any part of it in a second), Omen (same reason as Astra, but to a slightly less extent IMO), then you have the duelists like Jett and Raze for their speed.

Now hear me out. It would not surprise me if Yoru becomes a meta pick. His movement on the map is simply unmatched IMO. And the larger the map, the better I think his kit works. Add in if he gets some love after Iceland with some buffs, and it would not surprise me if he becomes the main duelist pick for Breeze.

edit: want to say I haven't used Skye like at all on the map, so can't give much input on her. But can see in theory why she would be a good pick.

Think Sage is underrated for the map. And IMO I don't think Sova is bad for any map. Might not be top tier, but not below average. His recon is always useful.

It's been in comp since the 2.09. So yesterday

What's your opinion on the decay only being to armour? So Viper isn't OP in pistol rounds. But in guns rounds there is a risk to push her through utility.

They said this patch was meant to be minor and they dont want to shake things up too much before Iceland. And they also don't want to make Viper unusable in her current role before patch.

Patch does what it's set out to do. The patch people need to wait for for things like Yoru buffs and possible Astra nerfs is after Iceland. That's when the big stuff will go down.

I need to get better at retaking A on haven. Part of me wishes it had a Breeze drop down chute to get down into sewers from near B site instead of having to rotate so far around to wrap around to sewers or long a. This might be an issue of my character pool not having a true flash outside of Reyna's flash that can be destroyed easy enough on a post plant. Working on picking up some new agents like Omen and Skye.

This seems to be a me problem though, as I see others retake the site many times without issue.

I like B site haven for both sides, I find it easy to get on site and plant, and defenders can also retake the site easy enough, at least in my experience.

Can't comment on Breeze much as its so early. But if you want to take B site, you need mid control.

I don't really dislike sites, I just have sites I need to get better at retaking if I want any chance of getting above Plat. A site I suck at attacking, is B site Bind.

I bounce around between Cyan and Yellow with a black outline. Because of a health condition, my eyes change daily in terms of focus and just all around blurriness. So the outline helps thats, I also run a larger cross-hair than average. Being 8 length on average days, 7 length on good days, and 9 on bad.

Tenz tweeted about joking around that he's going to have to explain why there is 40 mice in a backpack after the initial posts of some kind of bad news from the SENS bois. So I think it has nothing to do with TenZ.

A fear of mine is someone on the team is getting tested for COVID. Which could throw a wrench in things depending on if he was in contact with a bunch of people in the team if he's positive.

Now just to make some conversation. Say someone on the team is dropped (Just for Iceland obviously) because of a COVID scare. Who do you think SEN should pick up in such short notice to bring to Iceland?

Sentinels have some Fortnite players on contract already. That could be an option. You have Cutler on the TSM bench.....

Adapt and overcome, if teams or players cant handle a new agent every 2-3 months, its not the game for them. A fast evolving meta is entertaining and lowers the chances of a meta lasting forever and getting stale.
Astra will almost certainly be getting a nerf once masters 2 is over, they just don't want to change the meta so close to the biggest tournament of the game. Personally for me it would be getting rid of her vulnerability on the sucks, make them a touch easier to get out of, and lower her from 5 stars a round to 4. if we keep the stars the same, raise the cooldown periods of her utility.

Hope they do a show match. Hyped for pro play on breeze, so I hoping 4 weeks would be enough time. But with the travel I can understand that it's simply not enough time to learn a new map. For all we know Riot might want to do some small changes to the map now that it's been released for public testing.

Happy Riot is willing to listen to the pros. Will make the first tournaments after Iceland exciting with the addition of Breeze, and agent nerfs and buffs and an ever changing meta.

Honest question cause I don't know, could we add a slot (even multiple) somehow with making things screwy for the masters?

shock dart

Well I mean of course. My point is what is she saying no to, we don't know.

Think it should be a great rivalry for NA scene. If someone actually hates the either team they're taking this a bit too serious lol, it's a game relax. But if this could become something like NA's Fnatic vs NiP in CSGO, where there is a massive rivalry from both teams, should be fun for both sides. Hope the life time series between the two team can be competitive.