Interesting that Wardell isn't there. Might just need an update as they only have 4 players. No need to worry yet TSM fans.

From what I heard, turning it off and on fixes it.

Been really happy with the changes so far. Actually have to be smart with your abilities and not just throw them out for no reason. While I don't thing KAY/O is broken. He might needs to some adjustments, too early to say though. Changes to Breach are fantastic. Judge is still good up close which is should be but it way worse at range. Overall no complaints really. With such a big patch some tweaks should be expected.

For people wondering, KAY/O wont be able to be used in the upcoming challengers until he is at least 2 weeks old, potentially longer if Riot decides.

I admittedly don’t watch enough Europe matches, and watching to change that this challengers.

Looking at your predictions. I am surprised how many users don’t have Team Liquid making it. Would somebody be willing to explain your reasoning if you don’t think TL makes it. Wanting to learn more about about regions outside NA, so excuse my dumb questions.

I like TSM, if we could have a SEN, C9B, TSM fight for #1, maybe even add in a 100T, EnVy or FaZe. And that’s just entertainment right there. I do think they’ve improved getting rid of Cutler. I think we could see some big shakeups to come in NA.

While I obviously have the teams I cheerful. The more competition there is at the top of NA no matter the team, the better IMO. There really is no downside as a fan as we just get a more competitive scene.

Agreed, you have the advantage of movement, use it against them. Flashes, smokes, just utility in general is your friend.

One mistake I often see is, the teams sees they’re going against Odins, and just draw a blank of what to do as it’s not something you go against often. Don’t rush, use all the time you can. Hopefully your team isn’t tilted and is willing to work together. A well coordinated team will beat 5 Odin spammers every time. It’s just that getting your team on the same page, hopefully not titled is the issue.

But yeah, my advice would be play slow, use utility to try and get a pick. Once you get a man up. Make sure your team is spread out, but is ready to trade. Usually if a team is using all Odin’s they’re gonna be very slow on rotates and movement in general as they’re just spamming a main entrance into site, use this to your advantage. Do not just rush in hoping to out duel the enemy, and never dry peak. A lot of the tips for going against Awp’s can be used for going against Odin’s. As the basics of utility, never dry peaking and movement are the key.

If you find this happening a lot to you. I think Omen is a great agent to counter this. As you got smokes and a flash where if you have bad teammates you at least can smoke and flash for yourself. If you have a good buddy playing with you. An Astra paired with a good teammate is one of the best combos in the game.

Plus one of her biggest strengths before this patch and one of the reasons her pick rate was so high, was that she basically printed money for the team cause her kit was one of the cheapest in the game, and she could just use knives when the team was forcing. Nerfing her economy was a smart choice.

Yeah sadly it's more of a competitive online game issue and not just a Valorant or CS issue.

My experiences online have been getting better. Could be a bunch of reasons why. I think as long as you're friendly in most cases people will be friendly back, and those that aren't can just be ignored or muted. I've meet some great people in Valorant that I continue to play with, so the good is there with the bad.

Think 100T can make it to Berlin in their current state, they have the talent. Though I think it will be harder for teams to make it to Berlin than Iceland, even with the extra spot. C9B looks like a team that could challenge SEN at the top of NA if things go as planned. FaZe will be looking for redemption after getting upset by a hot T1. V1 will be looking to prove their Iceland run wasn't a fluke or one off event. TSM is looking to become a threat again at the top of NA. T1 played really well last challengers, taking out FaZe, taking SEN to 3 close maps. Then you have teams that are not to be taken lightly in GENG, EnVy, Luminosity and Immortals. You have the teams looking to make a name for themselves in NRG, Rise, XSET, AndBox, etc that can definitely play spoiler to a top team.

And at the end of the day you have Sentinels themselves.

My teams going to Berlin are:

1st - SEN
2nd - C9B
3rd - 100T

I honestly think it could be C9B in the first spot over SEN. But it's hard to bet against SEN when they have looked so good, I just think there are teams in NA that can take the fight to them and might surprise people. Personally I am not of the opinion NA is SEN at the top, then like 3 steps down are the next teams. But time will tell I guess right.

I would love nothing more than a team like TSM, T1, FaZe, EnVy, to either take that next step, or get back to where they were at the top of NA in the case of TSM. I truthfully don't even think SEN is a lock to go to Berlin (though I obliviously think chances are good, just not a lock). After we saw that a team like V1 can prove people wrong and go on a run people didn't expect. I think NA could be a region of surprises.

Yeah, believe they said it’s coming. Don’t think they gave a timeline though.

Sova, Jett, KillJoy, Viper. All broken characters I guess.
LOL sure, if you want to ignore the word coordinated that's fine by me, continue throwing out things don't back up your view point. Sadly statistics don't care about opinion. Good luck in your discussion when you take things so personal, enjoy upvoting your own posts lol.

Breach and Skye's flashes are getting adjusted/toned down according to the State of The Agents post. 7 agents in the game can flash, that's including KAY/O, Omen, Reyna which honestly for me Omen and Reyna's flash are not really a flash in the traditional sense, but will include it.

My only really issue with the Flash's in the game are how Breach and Skye can throw out three in quick concession. And if that gets changed like how Riot talked about. Then I don't have any issues with Flash's.

Flash's are a huge part of tactical FPS games, they're gonna exist and be a big part of the game. So outside of of Skye and Breach, the flash meme is kind of blown out of proportion IMO. Hopefully they can figure out a good balance with Skye and Breach though.

She had a 43% pickrate. If one team is using it more, that is factored into the 43%. Go and read the state of agents again, they did absolutely talk about her team aspect. Quote from the State of the Agents, what do you think coordinated play means?

Astra

The galaxy brain Agent provides a specific playstyle to the game, but we’re looking to take some steps to add more counterplay to some of her play patterns that are too oppressive in coordinated play.

LOL and are you really upvoting your own comment and downvoting anyone that disagrees with you? Come on dude. lol

There is info for how long it takes to revive him. The info about a revive mechanic added to the have been out since like April 27 if I remember. I was wrong on the number though. It is two seconds. so I will concede that point. But the info has been out.

https://www.dexerto.com/valorant/valorant-leak-reveals-new-downed-mechanic-could-be-for-new-game-mode-1562055/

Why you so upset? You are talking about if a character is broken or not. I gave reason why the agent might not be broken. Relax

She hasn't broken the game, she had a pick rate of 43% in Iceland. If you want to know what a broken agent looks like, go look at Lion in Rainbow 6 on launch. If she was broken, you wouldn't have teams like Fnatic bringing out Brimstone instead. She is good, needs some adjustments. But definitely isn't broken. Plus Astra is only OP when she has a partner in crime, she is honestly not that great in solo q cause you need a teammate to work with you to get the most out of her. Which is what Riot is trying to adjust in the first place according to the State of the Agents update.

His revive honestly isn't great. It was leaked months ago that when he is revived he only gets 50hp. He can't move around when down, so he can't crawl to a safe place to revive. If he dies out in the open, he isn't getting revived. It's a 7 point ult. It takes like 5 seconds to revive him, a lot of time to be out in the open to revive someone to 50hp.

Every agent added to the game gets called OP on launch. A week goes by and the community learns how to combat him, and it's fine. And at the end of the day, if he is OP, he will get nerfed. Just look at Sage as an example, or how Astra is getting a nerf.

Riot doesn't want another case of Yoru. Where he is released, then never used in comp cause he is bad. And honestly, I think Breach's flash is better. This 8v5 scenario is dumb. Blowing 3 of the best ults for one round is the opposite of being efficient.

I don't know about Tier 1, but a high Tier 2 fighting to get into tier 1. WeDid, Jammyz, Bang, Huynh, Thief. Some of these are already rumoured to have teams or at least trying out for a team.

Looking forward to what agents say to him before rounds.

Too early to say after only one event, and I doubt anything will happen this year. But IMO the teams outside of Vikings will need to prove themselves if they want to argue they deserve 2 or more slots. That really goes for all regions, not just Brazil. Regions right now are fighting for their representation in events in the future.

Though if the game is popular enough in a bunch of regions. In years to come Masters and Champion events might start off with a group stage where like 24 teams show up. 24 teams are split into 4 groups of 6, there is a round Robin event in each group, top 4 teams of each group (16 teams total) advance on to the double elimination bracket and sorted based on seeding.

I think if the game does continue to be popular in NA, EU, KR, JP, CIS, Turkey, LATAM, SEA, OCE, maybe even China. A format where a group stage at the beginning of the event might be needed. As only 16 teams with so many regions is playing it really tight.

I’ve been playing rough the last week or so too. Part of that is because of health stuff I haven’t been able to play as much, other parts is me just playing stupid or straight up just missing shots.

Would love if TSM can be a solid Top 5 contender. I think if TSM and T1 can start playing like the talent suggests they could, NA could be incredibly deep where all of the Top 10 teams can win an event without much surprise or bracket luck. Would be great as a viewer if SEN, 100T, FaZe, V1, C9B, Envy, GenG, Immortals, TSM, T1 could all take maps off each other. With teams like XSET, AndBox, Luminosity, Rise, etc battling to get inside the Top 10. Think the future for NA is looking really good in the long run. The list I gave isn’t meant to be perfect, just to give an idea that there’s a lot of teams right now that could get on a run, find that 1 missing piece and become a big threat in NA.

The gun he is using is either a new bulldog skin (Almost thought it was a Bulldog singularity skin for a second), or a new gun all together. Wonder if either A) new Agents can get a gun in their contracts that aren’t limited to just sidearms or B) it’s a skin in the free Battlepass coming out. Or the paid Battlepass.

Also he is wearing dog tags that are very similar to Brimstone. Wonder if the AI in the bot is related to Brimstone in anyway. Like a lost comrade on the battlefield. Think that’s what I am potentially most excited for. What is his personality like.

Edit: Looking at the picture with the flash/stun grenade. His one arm looks like is has a similar thing Brimstone has, just not hologram. Could just be the angle. But I am getting major Brimstone vibes. It says he Agent 17 in the lore. But I was almost gonna think he’s like an antagonist to Brimstone. His dog tags could also be related to that one Momento Mori (meaning “Remember you have to die” character card. Just spite balling ideas. Always excited for new agents.

Riot already said Breach and Skye’s flashes are getting a rework that should be out between 3.0 and 3.2. Where they want them to rely less on their flashes and more on their other utility.

I don’t find them too bright considering like Yoru’s, Reyna, and Omens are coloured a darker colour. In fact they actually did lower the brightness of Phoenix and Breach’s flash like many months ago. Though I’m not one of the people who get upset getting flashed. Flashes are a staple of tactical FPS games, they’re gonna exist. My only issue is how Breach and Skye can throw three back to back to back. Which sounds like it’s getting fixed anyways. Once that gets fixed, I personally don’t have any complaints in that subject.

Edit: Hopefully with the new agent, we can do cool line ups and setups like in CS with flash bangs. Don’t know if it’s been confirmed it’s a flash, could be a stun grenade too just judging from the picture. Unless the leaker themselves has confirmed it’s a flash and not something that just looks like it could be one. Thinks stuns are a little under utilized in the game.

SMH, people throwing, creating ult accounts at a lower level, then they’ll complain about match making when it’s people like them that are the problem. I hope you never complain about going against a team that is way better than you. As it’s exactly the stuff you do that wrecks ranked for a lot of people. If you want to play with your friend, go play unrated. Help your friends get better.

Oh definitely. There’s gonna be lots of nerfs and buffs by the time we get to Berlin. They’ll probably use what patch is out a few weeks out from Berlin. The patches at the begging of the episode 3 will be more aggressive in terms of patching character buffs and nerfs, the closer we get the Berlin, the less aggressive they will be. Just cause Riot won’t want to change a bunch of things close to their biggest Major yet. Unless it’s something that is completely game breaking.

It wouldn’t surprised me if Jett’s utility costs more and/or her Ult goes to 7 Orbs in the 3.0 patch. To go along with that $4700 change. Jett basically prints money for her team because of how cheap her kit is, and being able to use her ult as a gun when you’re forcing.

I think one way to get her 80% pick rate in Iceland down (which will only go up with Breeze being in the map pool) without actually nerfing her abilities is just stop her money printing tendencies. Like Jett has an incredible kit for a duelist, while also being cheap to load out. And she’s fun to play, so I think going after the money for balance is better than nerfing her kit. Who’s know though. There’s a lot of the 3.0 patch we don’t know about, and it sounds like it will be one of if not the biggest update the game has had in terms of changes.

If the Jett economy does change. At least the $4700 Op allows a person in OT to buy one or two pieces of utility. But they still have to run a glass canon with no armour. I forget which pro it was, but he was wanting a small price decrease to the Op.

Episode 3 sounds like it’s going to shake everything up. I doubt the meta we have now is the meta in Episode 3. They’re already announced some type of nerf to Astra so when she is with a Kill Joy or another agent she isn’t so smothering and OP. Rumoured reworks to the economy system with many guns. Reworks to Breach and Skye’s flashes while buffing their other abilities outside of flashes. And then just a new agent on top of all that most likely there will be a ton of nerfs and buffs to the agent cast as well.

For all we know a Yoru, New Agent, Breach, Reyna, Omen/Brimstone becomes meta.

I agree to a point. If a tier 1 team signs him right after the suspension ends (this is assuming SEN let him go which I think is likely if all he has done is sit on the bench and do nothing for the team) I would be surprised.

But I think a Tier 2 team would sign him at the drop of a hat. He is too talented for him to just disappear. He was arguably the best player in NA. Give it time and a team will take a chance with him. If Chris Brown can still have a massive fan base and be successful after almost beating someone to death, multiple arrests and assault charges. Sinatraa can too. The world forgets quickly, and if he is never found actually guilty, he might be an asshole and a shit person but if he can bring results a team will take him.

Edit: And truthfully IMO, if he is found not guilty, goes to whatever those treatment things that Riot says he will have to complete anyways to come back, after the six month suspension I am ok with him coming back. He served his suspension time, got his name thrown through the mud, went to treatment, and will have this over his head for the rest of his life. Now if he is guilty, I don’t want him back in Valorant again.

Would love to see it

He literally didn’t say once in that video whether he thinks EU is better or NA is better. He explained many teams tendencies in each region and how to combat it. The only thing he said that could even be perceived like that is he said EU plays Skye better than NA. But also said NA plays Astra better than EU.

He even said it’s hard to know how good EU even is because the only team they played outside of scrims was Fnatic.

It’s honestly too early to know which region is better. Basing results on a single LAN tournament is just silly.

While I think the hate against Hiko is a bit unjustified. Sinatraa inserted into 100T would be deadly. If 100T were willing to take on Sinatraa after the suspension, this is a move that would make 100T a massive threat. Would make for a entertaining storyline, 100T with Sinatraa against Sentinels with TenZ. The two teams already have a bit of beef, this would make the rivalry even bigger.

A lot of people don’t like Steel. So combined that with playing a non duelist/fragging character and IGLing. They see his stats and think he’s terrible. Even though he’s one of the best IGL’s in the NA scene currently. I love ShahZam, but not every IGL can be like him. He plays a Jett a lot of the time. So if he is not popping off and getting picks ShahZam would be hurting his team simply by the agent he uses. Thankfully ShahZam can frag out.

Little worried about Brax and why no outside T1 early seemed to hold him for long and with little time to get into a rhythm. He goes to TSM, almost immediately gets benched for Bang. It’s becoming a bit alarming. Want to see him do well.

Wasn’t Nitro like consistently one of their best players?

Edit: Looking at stats, it’s like as soon as they added Ethan. Nitro went from their best player to near the bottom for the team in every game. Wonder what they can do to fix that without just getting rid of Nitro. As it showed before Ethan he was doing great. Could just be a time thing. Hopefully these issues are sorted when they try and make it to Berlin.

misfits

I definitely think they have a chance to make it to Berlin and do well without any changes. After Berlin if the team showed bad in Challengers than yeah maybe make some changes before Last Chance qualifiers. They had already made a lot of changes trying to make it to Iceland. I want to see what the roster can do now that they’ve been together for months.

Surprises me how much people love the OG Prime set. Don’t think it’s bad, but of the sets that have original reloads, finishers, and animations, it’s on the lower side for me. I do really like the Prime 2.0. Getting rid of the purple rubber on the grip makes it looks much cleaner, but obviously that’s not a vandal skin.

My favourite changes on how I’m feeling. Currently am rocking the Origin, but like the Foreskin lineup too. Reaver is always a solid pick. But it’s everywhere.

T1 or TSM talent is there. T1 had a solid run last Challengers played upset to FaZe and then almost beat SEN. Both teams have had weird rumours of stuff behind the scenes. Obviously hindsight is 20:20, but if they get these fixed and come in hot, think they can shock a lot of people. Or at least upset a couple teams early.

Lol. Honestly not aware of anything in Rise. Just looked for a small mostly Canadian team. Anything I should know?

Edit: LOL ok I see the threads now. I’ll take the L

Good, set and example and hope that it doesn’t blow up. We all know it exists. It’s exists in basically every esports there is. All we can do is hope people see that Riot doesn’t care if you were some unranked team in Asia or a big name looking to win it all in Champions.

Oh didnt hear about this.

Wouldn't be surprised if they bring Jammyz back as he has some experience on the Kill Joy. They worked with him before so the team knows him.

It's just weird IMO, before losing to V1 (which the same can be said to a lot of teams in the same position) and T1. The consensus was they were pretty much locked into #2 or #3 with the streak they were on beating basically everyone but SEN. They lose a very close match against T1 and people have them dropping to barely in the Top 10 is just silly to me. It's not like T1 are scrubs, a day or two after T1 beat FaZe they almost beat SEN (winning 1 map, then losing 13-10 twice).

Just think if people have FaZe barely inside the Top 10. They're gonna surprise a lot of people.

May I ask why you are so hard on Faze? In the last two months they have only lost to SEN V1, and a very close match against T1? They beat Envy, T1, 100T, NRG, XSET, Luminosity, and GEN G in the same time period.

Don’t think it would be that big of an issue in Valorant as the enemies have a coloured outline around them, so there shouldn’t be an issue where enemies are hard to see because of the skin they’re wearing. Basically all esport games do it nowadays. While I think it would have to be something Riot plays it safe with.

But yeah, some gloves I think would be a good happy medium.

While the chances are small, if they get a spot that would be great for the scene. The more competitive it is between regions the better. I would love it if it doesn’t just come down to EU and NA all the time. It’s why I was so happy about Iceland. While there was definitely ranks between regions. The gap was closer than I was expecting with Asian regions. And with the population, in 2 or so years time. We could have Asian teams legit fight for the championship and it not seem like an upset. Just look at the views on Twitch, there are multiple streams in Japanese Valorant that have like 10K views sometimes more. The scene in Japan has taken a liking to the game. So it should result in new talent coming out of the region eventually.

Bet it just took some time getting the results to VLR since the game wasn't streamed anywhere. And that the game was over like almost an hour ago. Happy to see Soniqs get the W though,

Expected result. But as someone who wants to see RNG do well, these are the must wins games if you want any chance of moving into the tier 1 list of teams. So I am happy.

Nah, your hdd won’t effect your FPS in game.

What is your monitor resolution?

280-300. But that’s at 4K. I’m changing around my monitor setup where I will be dropping to a 1440p monitor with 165hz refresh rate instead of 144hz on my 4K set. And while it’s not a huge bump in refresh rate, in game FPS goes to around 500. Then use the 4K monitor for story games and game you want to look pretty.