Derke not good with Raze? Tokyo showed something else.

Would have been the best for both sides, tbh.

Actually true. She is simply the best coach.

G2 wins this. JonahP does some Italian special cooking and it's done. ;)

*Edit: I should stop jinxing all teams I like.

By statistics Leo was the best player of 2023, followed by Alfajer. Demon1 was the best player of the Champions tournament.

For 2024 there is obviously a chance that Demon1 will get it for the whole year, but there is also a chance that Leo does it again or Alfajer will be #1 this time - or maybe it will be Less. Who cares man? In 2-3 years we will talk about totally different names.

I would say Fnatic is the best team by talent. They have 5 insane players, which belong to the best in the world on their positions - and Leo is currently probably the best player in the world together with Demon1. Their biggest negative point is the "work ethic". mini stated that out after Champions. If Fnatic would have played against LOUD like they practiced it, they could have won it like they won against EG twice a few weeks earlier in Tokyo. But the team didn't work as hard, they didn't practice as much anymore and they simply didn't grind as much as they needed it. Please watch Boostios EG interview regarding this topic.

Fnatic simply didn't give all they had to win Champions - but they did exactly that in Tokyo and Brazil.

A team that won two majors in a row is not "overrated". People who say Fnatic is overrated don't understand how difficult it is to win two majors like LOCKIN and Tokyo Masters in a row, to beat a crazy team like LOUD on their homeground, to beat PRX in Tokyo with that high numbers and to beat EG including a hungry Demon1 5-1 in maps. That's no luck. There is no "overrated" here. Also NRG is not overrated as some people said after the 12-14 on one map against C9. It doesn't even make sense.

Look at the CS scene. There are different teams winning S-Tier events almost every time. Vitality, MOUZ, G2, FaZe, Spirit, Heroic, then against Vitality and so on.

The more the skill level and also the skill ceiling are rising, the more every match will be decided by nuances. What could have been decided within 10 seconds in 2022 is now only 2 seconds in 2024. Every match on the highest level gets more difficult. That's how E-Sports should be. There should be no one super team that always wins everything. E-Sports should have rivalries, grand-finals should be thrilling and neither Fnatic nor NRG, PRX or LOUD should win every major.

I really like the LOUD dudes, but aspas and tex are my boys! I will always root for them in Americas.

*Edit: LOUD deserved the win. GGWP. Less was insane.

Demon1 is an nuclear aircraft CARRIER. Great series of Victor, too.

Demon1, Leo and aspas. Those 3 dudes always deliver no matter what. Alfajer coming there, too.

Also what makes Demon1 so insanely crazy is that he is not only one of the best Jetts in the world, he also plays Brimstone and Astra on the highest level possible. His ability to adapt is insane. He is not the "pure" duelist, he is basically a Flex player but casually doing the Duelist as one of the 2-3 best ever in this game. That dude is just different.

He was the best player of C9 in the last matches.

Leo on Lotus such a icecold Gigachad. Still best player in the world and after all these legendary years he just became 20 years young. And Alfajer truly is the best rifler of this game. How casually he simply outfrags everyone... xD

But yeah, trexx in and Destrian out. Sayf together with trexx will be awesome for VIT.

NAVI looking sharp, but not OP.

Liquid are simply not the same anymore. The roster of Sayf, nAts, Jamppi, soulcas and Redgar should just have been replacing Redgar with Mistic or Cloud... that would have been perfect!

Cloud back to NAVI instead of ANGE1 would be great... he is like the only very constant player at Giants. He def. needs to leave Giants. nukkye could also IGL for another team.

Fit1nho, Redgar and hoody are really the incarnation of inconsistency. Once you have a Fit1nho that destroys KangKang and a crazy good EDG team and then he gets again and again bashed in EMEA Kickoff... kinda weird.

1 round played... TECH PAUSE!

My first good guess after a while xD

EDIT

BBL 2-1 NAVI

Shao and SUYGETSU play well, but ANGE1 trolling as always, ardiis needs to play Initiator while everybody knows he's by far the best on Jett (we saw it again at NRG) and yeah... new year, old mistakes, old boring strats. Won't work against a fresh team with hungry former Tier 2 talents from Turkey. QutionerX is a beast anyways, Elite is one of the best Sentinel talents and yeah... that team will be awesome in the future.

FUT 26-9 is my call!

I hope they let trexx play instead of Destrian. TakaS and logaN will be dangerous, though.

2-1 VIT

Sacy masterpiece. Sentinels played so good!

But you can say what you want... Boostio actually boosted 100T. They look so much better than last season.

KC i.g. is basically a mix out of the finest talents and experienced players that were available to sign at that moment.

But Giants (or "GIANTX") is like packed experience as well - and players like Cloud, hoody or Fit1nho def. can frag, too. I still remember how they gave a great EDG team an insanely tough first series at Champions -> this match.

Overall I'd say
KC 2-1 GX

LOL xD

Nope. tex is indeed German-American, but he never played in EU. He is a former NRG player and I think he started at the old FS tourneys...

Kinda sad to see tex like that. Anyone who watched The Guard winning Ascension in 2023, knows how much impact he had with Jett and Raze. I guess it's like a total new thing for him to play with Cypher, Killjoy, Gekko etc. - using the utilities, playing more passive and all this stuff. When he had like pure rifle contact situations he did often pretty well, but when it was about roaming, anchoring or util usage, there is a lot of room for improvement.

I think when you play for such a team with all this names you always have to think about "when I don't perform, they will find someone else". He surely has some time to adapt to the agents / the roles, but it probably won't be forever.

I'm sure he will figure it out... what he did for TGRD was impressive.

He's American / German.

Both are great players. Boostio is currently def. one of the best IGLs in the world... maybe the best and C0M is an insanely smart Initiator. I think at both players you can see how well they are able to read the game and their opponents. Boostio once explained how EG trained under Potter in 2023 and that explains it. All hard work.

Best Jett in the world, posts the best doggo memes, best ranked duo with Alfajer, most humble pro in Valorant.

GOAT!

Watching aspas play is pure joy.

GG LOUD... that was a tactical masterpiece.

Nice, Champions 2025 is going to be a twice as long tourney.

It's just insane that they didn't fix their infrastructure problems in the Pacific facilities. Ridiculous how long the Tech pauses have been only on today during one single match...

Let's go. :)
Can't wait to see yay play now again. One of the greatest players this game has seen.

o7

Will be remembered as a Valorant OG.

Yeah. I think in the end the smart calls and moves of experienced and "always cool" players won MOUZ the match. They never backed down or went greedy, even after several match points against them.

I'm excited for map 2.

I was in 8th/9th grade (ca. 2006) when I watched those matches in CS with my mates (we always made LAN-Parties then too).

When Germany brings back mTw, the 3 OG teams from Germany are complete. SK is btw. the oldest E-Sports org in the world.

He made so many important kills with the contact Op. He's faster than everyone... no one of MOUZ won a direct 1:1 with him. That's why he plays like he plays.

SK sadly were a bit too hungry for unnecessary peeks / frags on defence in OT.

FKS plays like they are not there. I mean they sounded kinda frustrated in the last interviews, but this is so far away from what they are able to do.

You can see things are becoming weird when al0rante doesn't hit his shots with a Ghost - esp. on Icebox.

I hope they can sort their stuff out and get their confidence back.

RIZON super strong today, great match of them.

What happened?

A classic. :)

Click 63-36 with 23 Entries... that was INSANE.

al0rante still king of Icebox.

Poor sheydos.

YFP is such a great team.

And Riot wants mixed teams... how is that going to work when the Game Changer World Champions are losing to male College teams and other teams in Challenger Qualifiers?

What is with Vici?

Ehm... wow. What a BIG choke.

Congrats to DE.

The East United finals not long ago:
https://www.vlr.gg/283110/diamant-esports-vs-acend-valorant-east-united-season-2-stage-3-finals-playoffs-ubsf

That's quite the opposite of that performance.

Bro, he is a troll anyways... just look at his profile. Who tf comes to news like that and talks about regional sh*t.

Group A is a joke for NRG and Group B is the group of death.

bonkar is pushing Oxygen to VCT now... but it would be nice if he'd come back to coach Sayf one day.

Wasn't meant offensive, just as an addition to the conversation. I think Alfa is the best Sentinel in the world, followed by Less and then there is a big gap.

When it's about EMEA Sentinels by origin, I'd say something like this:

01) Alfajer
02) SUYGETSU
03) nAts
04) vo0kashu
05) al0rante
06) Vici
07) Chiwa
08) Elite
09) Fizzy
10) nukkye (basically a Flex player, but still a great Killjoy)

I think nAts is still INSANE with Cypher and Viper (and yes, Viper is a Controller - but by the mechanics basically a Sentinel).

That's more than 1 year ago. chiwa is great, but I'd not
say he is crazier than SUYGETSU or nAts.