For me, the phantom is better in more chaotic situations while the vandal is better when the round gets "slower" because you get more value from their distinct characteristics ( phantom- extra bullets + more forgiving/ vandal 1 top potential) in those situations. So when I play Jett i usually play phantom and when I play Sova I usually play with Vandal.

Indeed, and also her ultimate is very good to entry or retake a site

Indeed, he was in a shitty situation, still managed to play well, but I, personally, thought that by now he would be a much better player than what was shown. In the beginning, I and many people I've seen on the internet thought that Brax would be like in the S tier of players, with Tenz, Scream, Sick etc. However, nowadays I wouldn't say he is like a superstar player like I thought it would be. From what he has shown until now, I believe he can be a good player from a top team world-wise.

About the original comment that Brax didn't have a chance to prove himself, my point is that he still played many matches in various important tournaments, but still didn't perform as well as Tenz, from example. To set an example from a team/player that didn't have a chance to prove themselves is Vorax because they couldn't play both First Strike and Masters 1 due to external factors. Brax played all tournaments and didn't have incredible stats, even though the team was not in the best conditions.

Let us see what the future holds for him, I really wanted to see him succeed. Perhaps I've put to much faith on him

I disagree lightly with you because he was playing in a Tier 1 Org for a long time and he didn't come up to the expectation, though he was playing at a good level, he wasn't as good as everyone expected. I always felt that he was playing more like CS than Val. if you compare him to Steel, while Steel specialized with one playstyle( sentinel one) and learned the differences of VAL from CS, Brax is average with a bigger pool of agents and never truly mastered any agent/playstyle on the game.

Riot thinks that every agent needs to be the best of the roster at something. Sage, for example, is viewed by them as their primary staller, no agent can stall as well as her. However, when KJ didn't have any radius on her turret and robot, she was as good as a cypher at holding places on the map without even being there, which is Cypher primary role. Therefore, they put the radius on the turret and robot to avoid her be as effective as Cypher in this situation.

I personally liked the change because it gives more variety to the game. I remember in the early LOL seasons, that some champions used to fulfil the same role as others. This created a problem because some of the champions were never used in pro play. After all, other champions would play the same role but were simply stronger. It seems to me that the current Riot approach to Valorant agent-wise is to avoid that happening again.

I think will be in the same way as wild rift, so there won't be cross-platform.

My only problem with Belky is if he will manage to cope well with the pressure, since he's don't have plenty of experience in the VAL BR scene

Do you know when does this camp starts?

I've seen somewhere that Vorax players had large buyout and GL didn't wanted to pay

yeah, but sharks managed to take a map pretty convincingly from NU. While CR managed to only get close to beat V1 on one of their maps. Considering that Nuturn beat V1, I don't see any reason why you would put CR in front of Sharks

Sharks at least played pretty well on Haven against Nuturn, I don't remember if CR actually had a chance of wining of their matches

I feel like to have a somewhat accurate world rank we need to or have like 5/6 international tournaments on the same format as Iceland or 3/4 with a more forgiving format like Swiss format or big group stage

I feel like this is normal because on sage he plays more slowly than with a Phoenix, so he has the time to position his crosshair properly.

We have half of the South American population so we usually play on different servers. Also, we have some differences in culture and language. In order to make an analogy, It's similar to USA x MEX

also, Prozin played with Sacy on Red Canids, this could help

yes, before this tournament he played a couple of matches with Skye and sage and in the last year, he was a sova player. He played in a decent level almost half of valorant agent roster

I do agree with you, but I think that they deserved a chance to prove us wrong. It's too harsh to decide the future of one region based on 2 series on the first international

Honestly, I feel like Berlin slots are fair, only, perhaps, giving 3 slots to japan+ SEA instead of 4 and giving this extra spot to EMEA. If they continue to do this for the next masters and after champions reevaluate considering the results it would be nice. The only big change I would like to see is to remove region slots to champions and simply the top 16 teams from masters should qualify, though I get that the pandemic guide Riot decision in 2021, but 2022 they could change it

Honestly, about GTN I think that he needs to leave the team because he simply doesn't have the skill to play in international play. For the entirety of the new VKS, he underperformed as a duelist. About FRZ, I think that he can still be a top player because in the challengers finals he was nuts, but in Iceland, he didn't deliver. His biggest strength is how versatile he is, but in this tournament they limited him with only jett and phoenix

I felt that both teams didn't manage to cope with the pressure very well. If they manage to solve their LAN problems I think that Liquid will win. However, if the choke again, VKS will take the game

s

Indeed, on Icebox Fnatic lost the pistol for 0.02 seconds, after that Sentinels managed to convert the second round. What would it happen if they got this pistol? We don't know, but it could have been a different outcome in the series.

I would say Scream because, for me, the kills that he gets are, in general, are more impactful than Tenz and he can play well in different agents and roles, while Tenz is more limited. However, I believe that within 1/2 years Tenz could become a better player than him, due to his growth potential.

there's that and also the players simply got better. Their utility utilization, for example, is at another level if compared to 2020, so agents or playstyles that can benefit from that is much better this year

I felt that KRU lacks tier 1 experience because for me that they are a good team, but it seems like they have never played a match against a team like Fnatic. They weren't simply bad. They were lost

it's a 600k tournament. Why the real didn't they took like 50k from the prize pool to buy good computers ??

Indeed, but I honestly believe that in Berlin the Brazilian teams will be much stronger because after the challengers finals + Iceland pros will realize which is the best way to play valorant. In Brazil, I felt that the teams were trying to work out an old game style. However, now is clear which is the best path, so Brazilian pros will focus on that. One evidence that contributes to this idea is the number of teams that changed their lineups.

About shark match, I feel like they simply changed their approach in the last two maps and that was their downfall. On haven, they were denying and gathering information pretty well which lead them to almost always hit the bombsites with the fewer amount of players and, also, their execs and their aim was on point. Even when nuturn tried to make their strong set plays, sharks would just play calmly and with great teamwork found a way out. However, on Bind and, especially, Ascent they returned to play in the same more puggy playstyle as is characteristic of the Brazilian Region. They started to play much faster and predictable. They stopped to take away info of Nuturn which lead them to read them very easily. They seemed to have felt the pressure. Besides that, Nuturn comp was very good against quick and aggressive play. I think that if they had maintained the same approach as in Haven they would have won on the third map

I agree that Mwzera relies more on his aim/mechanic than Sacy, but, for me, what impresses me the most about Mwzera is how quick-witted he is. From the players I've watched so far, I haven't found anyone who understands the in-game situation as fast as him and, consequentially, makes the best decisions consistently. He's not only a headshot machine;

wouldn't it better to set agent ratings ???

I feel like when the mid is used by the attackers the map becomes very T sided. However, if it doesnt happen, the map is more CT sided

I 100% agree with you. I feel like Berlin will be the first tournament where we can more confidentially rank all the regions because Iceland will show us the ways in which the game can be played. In Germany, we will watch how each region will be playing when knowing the more effective playstyles.

I feel like there's a good chance that Tenz chokes or at least underperform on LAN because he's so perfectionist with his setup that playing in a strange environment could be a hard task for him

For me, the biggest problem is that Turkey + EU + CIS is considered only one Region. They should have given 2 spots for EU, 1 for CIS and 1 for Turkey. The current format is a disrespect to all EMEA, especially Turkey that has been pumping up an incredible and big community and won't have any sort of representation in Iceland. While other much smaller regions will have a direct representative.

This is what happens in NA or maybe EU. Any other region players receive a much lower salary. In Brazil, a superstar like Mwzera or Sacy probably makes, at maximum 3/4k dollars, if their ORG is kind of "overpaying" them. If VKS manages to win, the prize pool would probably be the yearly cost of VKS Valorant, considering all salaries, internet, rent and etc

I 100% agree with you. Honestly, the format that you have made is the best that I can think of. Nice idea concerning the place of Brazilian teams.

about the toxicity i feel that its similar on both games

1. Valorant has a lower skill floor than CS
2. Valorant has better marketing than CS
3. Riot is currently structuring the Valorant Esports ecosystem to be a very regional base, so most people can have a team they identified with. Unlike CS GO, that is, nowadays, very eurocentric
4. I get the feeling that the new generations tend to like more a carton/simple graphics. Back when I was a kid, people decided to play a game often based on realism, but nowadays it seems that the new "meta" is simpler graphics
5. Riot games is becoming a game developer that owns multiple games across various gaming genres. So can happen the same thing as with Blizzard, where some SC2 and WOW fans tried out Overwatch, just because is from the same developer
6. Riot has a good track record with LOL, on how to support a game post-launch
7. Valve is doing horrendous work on supporting CSGO. In my view, CSGO could be the biggest game and e-sport in the world. However, Valve's approach to the game is very lacklustre, where there´s barely any updates or other support. I've just checked and the game spent 2 years with any change on the map pool( Vertigo to Ancient)

1

I do agree that CSGO players will continue to play their games, but what about the new generation? Do you feel that the new tactic fps players will tend to play CSGO or Valorant? I would say that the newcomers will play more valorant than CSGO, so if Riot continues to update, in the medium/long term Valorant will surpass CS because the growth of players will be bigger in VAL than CS. Bear in mind that this depends on Valve and Riot not changing drastically their approach to the game

I think it is defended sided for now, because attack also has plenty of options, but due to the fact that Breeze is brand new, players have not yet learned to attack properly. Also, from what I've experienced from my time on CSGO+ Valorant, players always learn to defend first then attack with a new map. When Icebox was released, plenty of people thought in the same way, but nowadays the map is more attack sided.

The biggest problem with Ranked for me is that the player's arent on the same page. I mean that while one player wants to play more competitive and serious, the other wants to play more casually. This leads to frustration, mainly on the more competitive side, because if one player is not very focused on winning, while, on the other hand, the rest of the team is, he spoils the fun of the majority.

When I used to play CS on Brazilian servers, they managed to deal with this problem in a much better way than Valorant. They basically divided the community into 3, where the most casual players used to play on regular MM, the ones who wanted to play a better game but didn't aim to become a pro, used to play on GC, and the ones who were trying to become a pro or wanted a higher level matches used to play on Face it. This made less likely that someone who wants to become a pro, for example, is placed with the casual base.

I don't know what exactly is the best path for Valorant, but if they managed to separate the player-base just like it happened on CS, I would enjoy the game much more. Perhaps they could try creating in-game tournaments, where you could queue with your friends.

I think that he's going to Pain because they will have to make a drastic change in Challengers 3, but let's see how it goes.

These matches were very chaotic, so it's harder to hit HS. While in EU they play a more slow style, so the HS percentage is higher.

I didn't know that you would lose points if you change players. So Riot is doing the same system as Valve on CS majors ??

You show a good point. Now I do agree with -jhow if GL manages to find a proper substitute

Also if Furia menages to go to Iceland, there's also NZR, who won the First Strike with Sadhaak

if it's true that is kind of sad. At least we will have good EMEA challengers finals matches

true, their community is huge and is doing a fine job

A Tactical coach would be nice, because if I'm not mistaken, Katraka once said that the tactical part is not his strongest. About -Jhow, I don't know since is hard to know how he contributes to the comms and other aspects of the game. The fact that they don't have fixed roles might be hurting him, time will tell.