They’d be a dark horse for sure, lots of talent. PatMen redemption arc also hits different.

Agreed. Bang had all the same problems on SEN that he had on 100T. Poor lurk timings, weak mental, not showing up in the late game

TSM on top?

Apples to oranges. NA CS was peak 2018-2019 and then died when Val came out because there was basically no orgs for sponsorship anymore. The entire CS2 ecosystem is basically built into Europe. Every team that wants to be in Tier 1 has to live and compete in Europe (Mongolz, Liquid, M80, FURIA, et cetera). All that being said, there’s way more tournaments, and most on the VRS circuit have pretty competitive open qualifiers, and a huge amount of grassroots online leagues with LAN Finals. Most of that is financed by betting orgs, but still, a much more vast competitive scene.

Val is a different game, I really hope they develope something better than even the most recent changes. The ecosystem is more akin to a biology experiment than the forest that is counter-strike.

Shoutout Bonkar

Should have had to bring him back as HC, he should have stayed. Still happy with the roster changes they made though.

Weird comp, no? I feel like the score would be 10-10 if grub was on brim rn

Also gecko solo initiator is bum

The competitive year is too short to even really judge teams internationally.

Look at HLTV (CS2). We have 3 or 4 tournaments a year for Val, they’ve had that much in the last 3 months for CS.

I don’t really think Val should be going at the same pace as CS, as burnout is a much bigger problem, but we can see by how few reps teams are able to get in before roster changes happen. At least they have 2-3 tournaments in counter-strike. In Val it’s a few weeks of weekly BO3s and if you don’t perform, you’re cut.

But who will IGL?

Minny is a 10/10 player imo, but based on their lack of ability to close out games, that’s got to get put on him and Goked.

Still want to see him on this roster or elsewhere in VCT without calling

NRG not winning pistols works in favor of your argument

Might not have even gone to OT if they’d won 1/2 or both

Free agency = ‘kicked’

They can still re-sign him if they’d like, just depends if other orgs want to sign him more

It’s mostly because of where they are. Too costly to do a lot of things in LA.

Bullshit. He’ll retire for all of 6 months and realize he went pro at age 16, and will have to figure out how he’s gonna make money for the rest of his life. He’ll play til he’s actually not good enough anymore.

Wasn’t he just a stand-in for them att? If he hadn’t gotten to play for them as a sub, he probably wouldn’t have gotten the offer to join TL

Depends which Xeppaa / v1c we get today

They’ve honestly looked just as good with babybay these past few matches. G2 2-1

Tf?

Easily more consistent than T1 and DRX tbh, idk why they signed Lakia in place of ash though tbh

Nah, team secret is worse, pacific as a whole is just better than anericas

I think he’s just referring to the 9-3 curse meme, not Gentle M8s.

I feel like he’s more underrated than overrated.

He’s easily their 2nd best player after leaf.

If people said the same about jawgemo, I’d be more inclined to agree.

Downvoted for truth.

A surprising amount of Korean players were in cs before Val came out.

Stax was probably the best CS player that came to Val from the KR scene, and then f0rsaken was super young but really hyped up because he was nuts + xccurate’s brother

Apply for a position at riot before they steal this million dollar idea

I feel like it’s so easy to fall off as a duelist.

Like, demon1? Washed. Yay? Mostly washed.

It’s simply Aspas’ time.

Derke is the goat if you’re looking at individual consistency + accolades.

I think the constant shuffling of a 5th player where the other 4 are in perfect roles will bite them in the ass. They just need to make a decision and stick with it. Other teams that have kept the same rosters throughout the season have improved for the most part.

Seriously though.

Still, it’s promising that they can get to those scorelines. I think they’ll become better at closing out games with time.

It sucks because they’ll probably end up making changes again after champs, and they’ll probably put a worse team together.

I remember watching this with one of my buddies after grinding cyberpunk.

Honestly brings the whole night city mindset to reality. The characters from the show feels like how it should’ve been to play.

It’s as much as Ethan as it is on s0m not being a good sentinel, and other players helping him w/ the coms.

I definitely like Loud more here though. They’ve got as much firepower, if not more.

Still killed 3, just had no one to fight w/ him.

Adverso is dogshit tho holyyyyyyy

Nitr0 tried IGLing on Jett when him and hiko were still on 100T

Tex, Verno, but in all likelihood they promote out of cubert

Shoulda done the 100T and picked up someone from T2 instead of….a caster

IMO he’s just not the same player this current duelist meta. The best duelists can fry on neon, yoru, Jett, and raze.

KOI C0M

Spike kinda seems like a one trick pony on the neon.

Hope I’m proved wrong. Sato is the truth though.

Idk why any teams insist on taking a chance on him atp.

Pre-nerf chamber > pre-nerf Jett

Shahzam was playing pro CS for 5-7 years before entering Val, and he accumulated a decent viewership on twitch.

However ppl feel about him, can’t blame him for retiring. He’s had a longer career in esports than most, not much of it at the top, to give this perspective some credit.

Does b00 bait or does he overpeek?

Make up your mind.

Brawk is a great player, but I wanna have what NRG management were smoking when they thought ‘FNS>Verno’

We’re talking about now, not a year ago.

Demon1 and Yay at their peaks ALSO had great solo duelist games. We’re talking about MIBR with aspas at his current level.

It’s almost like ur on a forum with a bunch of <20yo’s who haven’t left their family homes, countries, or interacted with people from other places outside of the internet.

Some ‘racist’ things people say have truth within them. Immanuel Kant would say it’s best to try to find the maxim of what it is you’re looking at. The maxim that can be drawn from your point, is that people are quite capable of ignorance, making rash assumptions about surface-level details.

End of the day, you can just turn the screen off, go out and talk to people, and you’ll realize it’s quite a mixed bag.

Pretty sure he wanted him to leave, not kicked.

Jingg on raze then? Sure the agent got nerfed but he’s still basically a one trick pony as far as duelists are concerned

Can’t have it both ways.

This is why MIBR’s best maps were w/ double duelist comps

100% correct

People probably said the same about EDG this time last year tho

And chamber on ascent from alfajer, waylay on ascent from SEN

Best fax I’ve read this week

I’m really happy to see Crashies playing his best Valorant in years. I wouldn’t be upset if they won.

That aside, them or wolves would be the dark horse, most impressive winners considering their lack of experience & the team not really being together all that long. I want G2 to win, but they’re always a contender.

-alecks

Still haven’t learned the basic ascent comp that people have played for 2+ years

I don’t think FNS is a good I’ll anymore.

Very little from his time on NRG from the past year and a bit has been underwhelming, and fairly 1d for such a celebrated igl

Like with boaster I at least get it. He makes the best use out of each player, but fns on the other hand, I don’t think the same could be said