there really isn't of all time, more like a best of eras... I mean I could name a dozen rappers who could be all time:

when i was a kid it would be like
pac
biggie
nas
jayz

my teens?
kanye
eminem
andre 3k

now only dudes who IMO can fall in that are cole and kungfu kenny

i love asuna and i love fns and there's no way fns keeps asuna on his roster, fns requires his players be disciplined and asuba is the opposite, he thrives and is at his best in chaos...

i think fns would keep cryo and then just build around that tbh. Prolly prefer either young raw talents players like he did with yay, but that have discipline. I think yay/crashies/marved are soooo disciplined when that core played together

the question here is.... can a team win with fns given the skill gap feels like its just getting larger and larger with these elite teams. PRX literally dropped their igl, boostio is insane, etc

Objectively speaking, cyro is the guy you build around, and everyone else can have an argument for keeping or letting walk. Cryo got a big contract, he's their star player, he's their best player, etc. Also, although he doesn't show the duelist fluidity that players like aspas/buzz/derke/etc have shown, he played a TON of sova before he switched to duelist and i do think playing secondary controller like omen is very possible aswell like we saw from a demon 1, koalanoob etc.

After that, you can literally make an argument for keeping or dropping anyone. I personally feel derrek and stellar are gone, with sauna and bang being a packaged deal sort of like food and crashies. Asuna literally has gone out of his way to say he would leave if bang got cut.

Most importantly though, what they need is coaching. Sean made this team when it had will on it just an absolute unit. Look at potter with EG. Early guard was another amazing example. Coaching is SOOO underrated. Would love if they got some old cs head to come in and spice things up. Wouldnt be opposed to Nitr0 coming in, but he might want to strickly just compete. Time will tell.

i was obviously reffering to valorant not cs when bringing up those players impact in comparison to nitr0. Pretty sure half the guys i mentioned either never played cs professionally in the tier 1, and thats a fact for most valo players. Many of them are kinda rejects

Nitro was really good, he wasn't ever the star fragger that an aspas, yay, or derke were, and no he wasn't the elite "play your role" guy like a nats/less/suygetsu, but there are only soo many of those players in the world.

When he was on liquid the teams he were on was as good as anyone, and they got a handful to 1st place finishes.

He had something going on with his kid health-wise(hospital-type shit) so he said no to an event that Riot was doing, and he said after that riot basically cut communication. He then reached out to them the following event saying he would basically cast for free, he would do any event(even lower production stuff like challengers) and they still basically ghosted him. That's when he pivoted and moved to 100t with his casting partner ddk. He then realized the IMMENSE amount of work and time it took, and he hated being away from his family. He was actually on site for camps with the players so for like 6 to 8 weeks he was gone for his kids. (This was all said on his stream, I'm obviously paraphrasing what he stated)

That's why he quit 100t, and I don't see him going back. I think just because of how amazing his brain works(IGLED in cs for over a decade) and how articulate he is, plus the community saying they loved him, they ended up bringing him back. But even then, he started off as a content creator first with 100t, the SR, THEN went into just a desk analyst, and finally back into casting this past weekend.

He said on his stream that something happened with his kid, so he said no to one of the events they were hosting, and after that he was never looked at as a caster again. DDK never got paired with anyone else after that so they both went to 100t

To learn basic english in 1 year sure, but to be articulate and understandable when chaos is at its absolute peak in a year? tough ask

he left because he didnt want to rebuild or IGL, sean gares even came out and said he was the main building piece they wanted and he originally bought in but then saw the opportunity with NRG a better fit since they were trying to go for a run and win while 100t were going to bring in tier 2 talent (at the time bang/derrek/stellar/will and even trails like zander and cryo were all tier 2 guys)

trent has been seen trailing with c9, so i doubt any team is a lock for anything, including the guard guys

left voluntarily and even when he joined as a coach he only did it because he got blackballed from casting, it was never something he really saw as a first choice even though he was soooooo amazing at it

Full transparency, love CNED. I can actually find 2/3 players on almost every team that I just love watching. So, this doesn't come from a place of negativity or malice, but I think watching a guy have an expression like on stage is just SOOO great for the fans to see. These guys put in SOOO much work, and get a ton a crap and slander day in and day out, whether they win or lose. Love seeing these guys have that much passion when it comes to winning.

sliggy or sgares for analytical type streams.

Im not disagreeing with you but there were plenty of maps i saw where alfy was the entry raze player or neon player for them

Fnatic were able to make that work with alfy, would be god sent if cryo could too

whos playing sova?

NOTHING and i mean NOTHING beats this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-qL5g93K4A

Depth almost has a steel issue i feel, steel is on the extreme though and i love the guy but if the first 7 seconds of the round do go as planned its chaos, at least with a young team. It worked on 100t because everyone besides asuna was a cs OG

I ask this question with the intention of having a genuine conversation and not just people randomly typing "FNS clears" or "he's trash"

What are people's thoughts on Vanity not as a player but as an IGL? I feel like with the recent Ascension results, everyone's eyes are on JQ and Flyuh as the 2 guys that really stood out and showed they could lead a team of both proven and unproven players, and put them in a position to succeed. Obviously coaching and having "secondary IGLS" who can also have input during the game like depth/ayrin did on XSET, or Zander/JQ on m80 also have an effect on how mid-rounding plays out, but how do we all feel about Valyn?

I think when he was on c9 and the team had a clear vision of roles they had a ton of success, and personally even though c9 got better when they dropped Diablo and him, the team was still clunky as hell. I mean in their last series 2 of their players played a different agent on each map, and in times completely different roles.

Also, I think it's tough to really lay the hammer on him when it comes to the SR squad, he joined mid-tourney, and building chemistry that abruptly is difficult.

Again this is all my opinion but what are y'all thoughts on him? I think the dude is really talented, and at least from what we saw before in 2021/22, he was widely regarded as a great IGL. Its easy to have recency bias and judge, but one thing we also have to look at is the MASSIVE lack of talented and more importantly seasoned(veteran) IGLs. Depth was a huge flop, stellar isn't looking well stellar, marved could get a shot but i think everyone can agree that he needs tons more experience to really see if that role fits him.

Thoughts?

to the people who took the time to read and reply, thank you

I thought this would be fun since I'm at work and bored, what were everyone's usernames(gamer tags) they have used over the years and their meanings, or reasons for the name?

For me, they were:

Killswitch - just sounded cool I was like 8 lol
SoundStream - My brother had some subwoofers in his car, the brand was this name, and the logo was dope. Had nothing to do with streaming, but for the last 10 years people assuming I am a streamer haha

Ima say counter strike source. Open source code too so many amazing communities. Custom maps, custom mods, custom skins, it felt boundless at the time. CSS had wcs/war3 servers that basically made it the 1st valorant, remember tmu community had like over 200 classes. had build wars which made it the first fortnight, zombie modes that even fused with the wcs/war3 mods, surf servers with RPG extensions installed.

Source was also exclusively browser based gaming, so if you found a server you liked you could return to it, for days, weeks, or years. I made genuine friendships with some of these people i played with years ago, and still talk to them to this day. Thats the worst thing about gaming today, you literally play with random people ever single day. Back in CSS's prime? if you got on every day at 5pm with people from that server community, you played with them on the daily. So much fun when you play with people you know vs rando's

The goat himself all yall ARE WRONG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpH-nJdqFWg

dude i became a 100t fan because of CS OG's like hiko and nitr0, and months later when they got sean i just knew that the decade of IGL experience in cs was going to be felt, but idk if the nitr0 experiment is a good idea. love the guy but i think jq is a better option

why would trent leave the guard since they made franchising?

idk if its writing on the wall that jq and eeiu are going to 100t, although hope they do

I read your article, I think coaching is a huge issue, but dropping Derrek and Stellar make wayyyy too much sense.

C9 dropped yay because of role issues, he just wasn't flexible enough to fit in with what the team was trying to do. Same applies here.

I think picking up jq and Eeiu makes a ton of sense, and then IF the head coach wants to go and grab someone like Nismo/zander and drop either asuna/bang, then all good but i leave that to the coach to make that decision. Either that or you go and grab Flyuhh, another solid option but I personally think johnnqt.

IMO asuna is an insane player when you let him reck havoc on a entry like role like raze/kayo etc. Nismo is insane as well but i think asuna's ability to thrive in chaos is amazing. It just needs structure which is with the OG Sean Gares provided. Bang? I think when you specify a gameplan and you say post plant your role is this, or on the entry your job is to hold this and anchor hard, he just plays so skillfully(remember those bind brimmy or omen ascent days with the old roster?)

Im kind of salty they never went and got trent, the fact that guy never got picked up is still baffling. All in all sucks but it is what it is. On a personal selfish note, i would love nitro back for no other reason that him/hiko was the reason i became a 100t fan, I'm an OG cs player and those guys are my guys man. But whatever helps the team win I'm all for.

I use the razer viper ultimate and love it

done like the feel of the g pro personally

what does itw mean?

with his pops and moms in the crowed too, holy fuck

DJ is on basically what is a 2 year deal with about 10 mil in dead cap. The GM is a genius, we have over 100mil in cap space next year, didn't overpay for saquon, and have signed really smart. Even today went and picked up Ashawn Robinson. Even when we pay big Dex AND andrew thomas we're still going to have cap space to make moves.

hazed stepped down cuz he realized he has other interests like art

Glad you went with my advise, you will find the 3060ti will fair extremely well in other games aswell like frontier that is open world or apex with all the crazy shit going on

i would recommend finding a way to sneak in a 3060ti into your budget, and would get a 5600x ryzen chip instead. performance in gaming is similar for both chips, and the 3060ti is a way better get that a standard 3060(use a dif chip)

for GPUs, EVGA is FAR AND AWAY the recommendation, when 3090's started exploding they by far had the best response, and customer service, and their warranty is known for being top-notch. Asus is another quality brand, and the founders editions are actually really decent if you get once at MSRP.(value for your $)

for motherboards, an decent b550 board that meets your requirements for nvme drives, USB a/c, etc is fine. look up someone like gamers nexus or jayz2cents and check out their opinion on boards, really want "narrow to 1", more like choose 2/3 different onces, and buy the cheapest option.

For PSU, use the linus tech tips PSU grading chart, and just get something with a good rating. Depending on if you are going to upgrade in the future or not, you might want to get something bigger than what you actually need to future proof as psu's can last 5-7 years no problem if you get something good. I would recommend getting something around 650 for the current build your making

rawkass

sens is all dependent on wrist vs arm aiming for sure. I run 1200dpi at .405 sens in game, and everyone says thats crazy high but thats honestly me forcing myself to be as low as i can with the ability to still flick when needed

Thoughts on xenohunter knife skin? I just made a pevious post on skins, I just noticed this thing is in my night market.

[I played counter strike source for 15 years and it kinda reminds me of the base knife in cs, which is why I'm a bit hesitant]

I agree and I agree. Yeah Ina wait for something I truly want that I'm not second guessing. And I haven't really spent any money on skins, the ones ones I have are the 2 I mentioned, and I bought 1 battlepass once. I'm extremely carefuly with what skins I get and I been playing for 2 years now.

You make a really valid point though I'm just wanting the skin cuz I don't have anything

Ohh wow thanks for the tip Ina skip!

Not a fan of the magepunk stuff? I really like them tbh there's a sheriff in my store I'm thinking of getting right now haha but i want to prioritise a good phantom, knife, and ghost skin first

i have the xenohunter in my night market, i must be the only person that doesn't like it. reminds me of the CSS knifes way too much

yeah im seeing a ton of reallyy dope knife skins, maybe i should just keep waiting till one comes up

I try and pride myself on not buying any skins in valo unless its something I think is absolutely great and I'm going to use and not switch (magepunk awp / reaver vandal)

Should I cop the prosperity knife? Im kinda on the fence, looks pretty darn cool, and I like that it's a dual-wield style(only one) and it changes colors depending if you are in the dark or sun.

Thoughts?

p.s. not in my night market(which is booty), currently its priced at 3500 points.

Crashies has done it on the big stage, and is probably one of the most consistent players I've ever seen.

Trent is amazing, and could be as good as crashies, but i wanna see it on the big stage. its similar to sports, young dude whos a really good players but hasn't won playoff games

keep it going bro, i got a herniated disk and a bad meniscus but i still try and hit the gym 3/4 times a week. seems like you go every day or almost every day good shit

What does BM mean? 28 years old idk this youngster talk. Saw people saying Vanity was "BM" when he waived at PRX

Weird since he was their main awper for so long right?

so neptune was the 5th?

Who was the player they dropped for rossy?

took a team to the finals and almost won a championship, think you overlooking that a bit

Ahh you are correct! Still though, the roster would be what?

Also, didn't faze actually release dicey? I think i saw a tweet about that