G2 2-0
“Did you see the way they played today”
— Leaf

I never stressed about them wdym?

Compared to G2 they’re both bad.

Edit: crazy that I caught 5 downvotes despite that Lotus showing. Neither team can call a good attack side.

Decent take! It’s a shame Pacific is unlikely to win a trophy this year though.

Their off-season was only a net upgrade and their first game was the most impressive of any matches that we’ve seen thus far. They’re min-maxing the small details that we usually see teams do toward Split 2 and Champions while everyone else is either rebuilding their rosters or trying to fix glaring holes in their roles or map pool.

This take has been reiterated by Sliggy and he even picked G2 when asked who he’d rate between them and VIT after the game against FUT today.

Their playstyle and protocols give them the highest floor while they have the firepower and macro to win trophies. It’s just a matter of whether they’ll peak higher than other teams when it matters most.

Yeah, you’re right that it caught 3. Mb, I replayed on the YouTube stream and it’s vertically formatted for some reason and missed the other two stuns. It still doesn’t make sense to save the Sova ult when it’s a buy round and you’ve already burned steel garden.

EXACTLY. 3v5 with bad money so do everything you can to win it. The stun only caught one person because it was passed the choke instead of in it. BBL had them boxed and didn’t take advantage of it. Stop coping.

This is pure cope. They double swung to fight street because they heard most of the footsteps there and enough time had passed that TH would have their rifles back.

When time is that low and you have stall util — not using it makes zero sense.

KK, Trexx, Leaf, Hyunmin

You’re in utter denial if you don’t think BBL can’t convert round 22 with 14 seconds on the clock with the first spike tap. They have a hunter’s fury and a grav well for stall and don’t even have to full rotate to site, just get in range.

Round 23 is even more egregious with all of Heretics stuck in street — BBL pops Steel Garden to stall but don’t use the hunter’s fury when there’s only 18 seconds left and they have info of the majority there. Profek even pops a stun when he could have used grav well for stall in tandem. Instead they double swing dry and get destroyed.

BBL choked this map hard.

Nah, Jampii had his ult to secure multiple rounds near the end given how low time was. They straight choked that.

Looks like straight slop out of EMEA’s top teams.

Bangkok: G2
Toronto: VIT
Paris: G2

You can’t pretend like using ChatGPT constitutes as more work.

Quality over Quantity is the most important standard in delivering constructive criticism much less a full fledged guide. It’s alright to have more research but you need to condense it down to the most important key points for players to be able to actually digest it.

Cauanzin has proven more consistent but I think Trent still hasn’t reached his ceiling. He’ll look a lot better this year with a faster paced G2.

So far, we’ve seen the emergence of double stall and disruption comps in the form of Vyse+Deadlock on Bind in China/KC and a lot of Tejo+Breach in Americas.

It seems like info sentinels are practically out of the meta and it’s likely Viper will find a place again given how well she counters re-clears.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see G2’s lotus comp on more maps (Yoru, Breach, Tejo, Omen, Viper) or some variant but I’m also curious if triple initiator would be viable as well.

What other comp archetypes do you think will further emerge once the Harbor buffs come in?

There are no S tier teams in EMEA rn. TH’s role swaps and map pool do not give me any confidence (though their illness during that M8 game could be to blame) — nor does the fact that VIT struggled so heavily against KC. We also need to see more from FUT.

Put them all top A for now. Only G2 and Trace look like trophy contenders right now.

I’m just not feeling it man. None of these teams have a chance of winning Bangkok. VIT’s macro needs work, KC lack firepower, and TH need to flesh out their map pool.

I would not be surprised if the GF is G2 vs. TE at this point.

Ay what’s wrong with their players? They’re some of the most dedicated, hard-working yet humble guys in the scene. Betting on your bros to get you back into T1 when you could have all gone your separate ways for money is pretty admirable too. At the same time, Jawgemo is also probably the most entertaining duelist you could watch while Leaf is insanely cerebral.

Unless you’re a diehard neT/Icy fan I don’t really get it.

I think in the current scene, a team with a “good enough” player will not win a trophy.

It’s proven with EG, SEN, GENG, and EDG that supportive initiators and flexes don’t have to necessarily be that mechanically dominant as long as their utility is consistently impactful. On the other hand, the entry, smokes, and anchors must be heavy hitters to minimize gaps across every aspect of map control. Fnatic is the only team to break this model.

Edit:

Standard formula for an International Winning Team
Duelist: Top 2
Initiator: Top 8 (Playoffs)
Flex: Top 6
Smokes: Top 2
Sentinel: Top 3
IGL: Best

The only teams I think have a strong chance of continual dominance are G2 and VIT (assuming Sayf’s IGL doesn’t wreck his form).

PRX have zero chance given G2 are attending every international.

3 of the top 5 duelists are American no?

Aspas, Derke, Zekken, Jawgemo, KK

They’re all cracked but I don’t have any faith in them on the international stage other than T3xture.

I would put G2 in their own tier but you do you. Everything else makes sense to me.

G2 Bundle :D

Jawgemo definitely has better movement and utility while Zekken has better risk assessment. I don’t think their aim is that different.

I would take Jawgemo though because he’s the definition of a selfless entry.

It’s definitely a clash between Jawgemo and Zekken but they’ve got different play styles. I personally think Jawgemo is more explosive though.

If C9 win then Americas is cooked and if G2 win then neT gets shit for no reason. Feelsbadman

Kickoff is volatile man. Nothing is guaranteed and unless your team is a proven powerhouse internationally, it’s quite probably that you could get upset.

Bro is what Scream wanted to be.

Because you’re chasing results and not progress. Set more reasonable goals and work them incrementally.

G2?

G2 out in 2 is diabolical

100T have something to prove and I think they’ve got a good chance to win given the time they’ve had to reinforce their map pool while SEN have had role issues.

He’s aggro when he’s defensively OPing. It just takes a lot to flush him out because he’ll do mix ups between first contact and second layer. Even then he’ll disrespect utility and push forward with shorties too.

He’s got a great Jett and Yoru. His raze is a bit unknown because Nismo would pick it up so we’ll have to see.

Raze, Yoru, Fade, Tejo, Astra.

I doubt most teams could pull it off with roles but I genuinely think it’d be the best comp. Maybe T1, G2, PRX, and FNC? Having both a world class Raze and Yoru from two different players on your team is rather rare.

The roles are confusing but it works out depending on comp. I don’t see them running a lot of Sentinel comps but instead relying on double smokes whether the secondary is Viper or Clove. This is especially true with Tejo’s release.

Tex: Raze or 5th slot flex (Clove, Vyze, Chamber, Iso)
Demon1: Jett or Primary Smokes on non-Jett maps
c0m: Recon or Viper
Natank: Flashes
KiNgg: Primary smokes or Viper

These players are flexible enough to move around when they want to change comps for certain maps.

What I really want is for them to go full time Demon1 Iso with Tex on entry. Play double duelist + double initiator and Astra every map. Outside of c0m these guys are all insane mechanic aimers and should play to that strength.

Not a duelist main but I dabble:

Ascent: Jett
Bind: Raze
Split: Raze/Yoru
Fracture: Raze
Sunset: Raze
Haven: Yoru
Lotus: Yoru
Abyss: Yoru
Pearl: Yoru
Breeze: Yoru
Icebox: Jett

Learn Yoru and Raze because the only Jett mandatory maps are out of rotation.

Keznit and Oxy over Mada for now.
Supamen should come 5th for smokes.

For sentinel it should be:

• Leaf
• Shyy
• N4rrate
• Yay
• Cortezia (probably top 3 by end of kickoff).

Fracture | Lotus | Haven | Bind | Pearl | Ascent | Sunset

KiNgg is better in a scrappy environment but Valyn is better if you want discipline and morale. I think most teams would pick Valyn if they needed an IGL and KiNgg for a fragging flex.

Trent being at C is weird given I’d have him over the majority of B players except Cryo and Demon1. He hasn’t been consistent recent but his fragging peaks should have him at least high B or low A. You mentioned that it’s based on current form but Cauanzin is S — maybe try to be more consistent?

G2 vs. NRG will be a treat to watch for sure. Historically they excel on opposite halves and we’ll probably see peak Valorant when it’s G2 (Defense) vs. NRG (Attack).

I personally think G2 has the edge because of endurance though — they’re known for insane comebacks while NRG has a history of tossing leads.

Everything else looks plausible though I’d move 100T and KRU up. You forgot Mibr and LEV btw.

Yeah, it’s possible I’m pulling from my memories of his KJ play but he’s just a different style of Sentinel player. Hoping that Yay and N4rrate take inspiration from that — I know Verno already is.

Derke was one of the most explosive Razes during the Chamber Meta and he carried forward into 2023. I’d argue he had some of the cleanest entries until we saw peak PRX and Jawgemo — I’d argue to say his style is closest to Zekken’s right now.

There’s basically two factions of Raze players — Movement Abuse and Space Denial.

The former

• Jawgemo | Jingg | Whzy

The Latter

• Zekken | Derke | T3xture

Cauanzin has shown hints of greatness and that Loud Comp from Kickoff/Madrid heavily relied on his performances in Breach.

I suppose he isn’t necessarily better than either JonahP or Ethan but I don’t think anyone has that dominant lead if we’re strictly talking agent mastery and not accolades. I just think he deserves recognition for running it on non-meta maps.

Meteor is just different. I know he hasn’t played as much Cypher compared to Benjy or Johnqt but he sprinkles in a lot of his duelists tendencies with mixups that you wouldn’t expect from a cypher. He’ll switch from hard anchoring to proactive fighting on offbeats, disrupting utility cycles and collecting multifrags. It’s very different from the traditional playstyle.

Rough Act. A2 rn but peaked Im2 and Im1 this act.

In terms of agent mastery I’d definitely change some of these. The switches don’t necessarily have as high accolades but they’ve shown extreme examples of how to push agents beyond their intended niche.

Yoru: Ethan (Hybrid Entry and Initiator)
Sova: c0m (Lurk Initiator)
Skye: JonahP (Bird Manipulation)
Breach: Cauanzin
Cypher: Meteor

NRG doubt is crazy. There’s zero chance they lose to Mibr based on offseason performances and I genuinely doubt the C9 upset.

Oxy | Rossy | Mitch | v1c | Xxif

That’s a champs qualifying roster right there