Thinking KD alone makes a good duelist is missing half the reason the team had the top 3 performers going into most internationals out of NA.

I cba explaining this concept to you but you are VASTLY missing the point as to how stats translate on any level.

yes, i cant find it but just search up Japan VCL viewer numbers. Even dep the other day was streaming to like 40-50k casually on twitch. The community there is CRAZY committed to the game

hard to say, right now the region is an anomaly in being the only sustainable country for t2 play and its CRAZY massive, is easier for players in home life with little to no travel, and with how "short" careers typically are it makes sense most dont want to risk and leave it for another region where it can change drastically.

Have to see how it plays out next year with more road shows and travel, but given salaries ive heard in JP, if i was there id take the money the same way while i could. IF players are good enough the chances will come regardless in the future if they want it.

can you blame them when t2 streamers and VCL in jp has like 40k plus watching? i cant LOL

They can play in t2 and make = salary while not having to leave japan. Its relatively hard for JP teams to convince t2 players to leave their situations to go to korea

There is a very big difference between TGRD getting in through Ascension vs adding a player in an established system with high expectations where everyone is operating on "this is the final year we have" before massive changes next year. Thats not to say i dont think seven is good or didnt deserve a shot, but theres a lot of assumptions being made about rosters moves/why. The moves made werent as cookie cutter as public perception believes it to be. And it also downplays Babybays performance, and leafs, in terms of what they have shown.

Wish i could say more, but its not my place to really discuss roster moves.

They openly talked about D1 vs babybay (anderzz stream/others) that demon1 performed well, it was just that Babybay was as better overall fit. and his performance has been consistent to prove that.

Not my place to speak about team decisions into this year as i went through trials with G2, but when people bring up rookies/returning talent there's a lot misunderstood about being inserted into a top team with top level expectations. Thats not to say seven couldnt have handled it, but just worth noting when people go "why not x over y", etc. The decisions arent easy and often factor these points in mind.

this is not remotely true at all and also not at all why hes not on a VCT team atm

yeah we thought going in they would, but they just kept it standard ABABAB process. Think at bare minimum letting them pick which side they wanted for each map is probably valid if no double ban? But they also coulda just thought being auto-seeded into GF as the #1 seed was enough advantage as is out of groups

Initially had some family-related travel set before i knew about event dates, but unfortunately had a family emergency pop up sunday which would have stunted travel regardless. Ill be with the guys once we all get to Korea after the new year

Wasnt a TS related issue is all ill prob comment on. But the bigger focus is more the gen point i made that leaks/reports that dont have firm verbal or signed agreement is vastly different then ones that do. There was a world because of that, where yes we dont sign invy and it inherently could have hurt him

Just to broadly speak, The issue with this is it adds pressure and provides leverage to respective parties (agencies or orgs) to control options. You see this in trad sports ALL the time where agents or front offices leak moves to see how the field reacts, since it provides them leverage. You need to understand that first before understanding how this can cause issues.

Its one thing if a party already reached a verbal/signed and reports come out, theres no real "damage" there. its completely different when no terms or verbal was agreed to yet, which is what happened here when it was initially reported/leaked. It wasnt about "keeping it secret". Teams knew. Its the reaction when negotiations loose leverage which can have an adverse effect on both the player and/or org in terms of getting where they might want to be.

That also doesnt mention about letting orgs handle their send offs properly without having to pilot PR with moves (fnc dealt with that eariler this year)

this is why non-IGL controllers have a hard time breaking into VCT historically

its actually the easiest role to do it on, hence the role having the most popular success rate regarding IGLs

Statistically speaking in terms of performance
Controller > info ini = Senti > flash ini > duelist

The TLDR for it is, you dont want your IGL being on a role that is relatively micro intensive. That doesnt mean its not successful (NRG Ethan), but often those players are specialists in the roles they are performing on (that isnt Controller/Info Ini) to make it easier overall for the team.

You can see this trend across teams where the IGL has shifted off of Flashes and how the success rate of those teams have changed.

npnp and thank you o7

yeah, im fully confident he'll bounce back.

and thank you, your words are too kind. Its much appreciated

Sorta mixed things -> some teams had interest in potentially picking up stews contract between stages, so we were trialing other import options. (cant name the other players, but its same pool as the ~10 players i listed above). Some of those players we lost out on that were higher priority on our list, and after Evolution/Trial period with riya, we felt it didnt fit and that Kklin/Link with stew put us in a better position to win in stage 2.

VCTCN -> I'd consider it if offered, there was a world i was supposed to help EDG at champs paris and the timing on things just didnt work out. Its seems most teams are prioritizing CN staff first before looking at international help, assuming it would start to ramp up since ascension is now done. I enjoyed my time out there and had no complaints for shanghai. The arena is prob the biggest thing ill miss from my time there.

yeah, we cooked a LOT of shit this past year, and some things we couldnt show fully due to roster changes forcing us to swap ideas we did have out.

he knows the game, he knows high level strategy. Id back him up any day of the week with the best of the best internationally

yeah i think everyone just kinda hit the same lul point. BB prob played the hardest job next to z1yan, just being the support recon dirty job no one wants. He stepped up a lot in hidden ways, just game is hard haha.

Ego was great, in terms of comparison sake id put him in the same realm as Mini, JoshRT, etc in terms of high level understanding of the game. Think just given roster moves before i got there he had to put on a lot of diff hats as a solo coach and try to make adjustments where he could. He alluded to needing to take a mental break, which is why rumors floating of Muggle talking to the team sorta popped up, hes been on the non stop grind since valorant started picking up in CN.

he should find another coaching position when he wants to come back with no issues.

Two part thing -
1) A LOT of focus for most teams in CN/APAC is the issue of "winning" scrims, so teams actually do sweat more often then not as there isnt really the same base structure that exists either with international coaches or Emea/NA staff. This is where the ironic issue people talked about where Teams get baited into thinking their comp is better then what it is, lot of it stems from that. My job was to kinda pull back that curtain and add some structure

2) The point i was making was more that in this enviornment these guys were performing and if there was a world i could show that (kklin/link mainly) i would and just defend them as talented players. I dont usually go out of my way to speak strongly about something unless i really feel thats the case, and i think its easy to read player talent/commitment in that regard. I think its easier sometimes to look at KDA or stage and miss the widspread system aspect on things

IE: it was these core 5 that convinced APAC that Yoru/Waylay was good and what led to popular apac teams to start to implement that comp on other maps when most were on Yoru/Neon. We were one of 2 teams that started in the region on it, the 2nd team moved away from it, and we were FARMING. DFM took our pistol 1:1 along with the comp in their first corrode official vs Talon.

but yeah, Link/KKlin would be in the prac room 1 hour early, as an 18 year old, and would be almost the last ones out. No complaints if provided alternate ideas, would test and give 110% effort in. I mean Z1yan aside would be a player i would import to any region with ease if i had the slot available. Most APAC staffers would vouch for how good he is, and his personality is the protoype leader/player you would look for. The guys had talent, just not the veteran depth they needed to keep everything together compared to teams like EDG/TEC/BLG/TE

Yeah he had a slow start, but ended up growing to be really strong and have high potential for the role.

RE: kklin -> i see your point, but theres actually two perspectives to this, the opposite being that he isnt on a team with high stakes/pressure it actually frees him to make more individual plays. which is something we pushed for him to try and do.

but yeah did try to add veteran presence, and honestly it wasnt even a money-based buyout thing, just teams simply would not move talent after offering them to be moved during stage 1. Either they pulled back their initial offerings or simply asked for too much interms of player for player transfer.

Lotus - yeah team deff still had some issues, but it was more the grand scheme of how the map was played. Things we did that i provided to other t1 teams or t2 competitive teams after our time was done (micro mistakes aside). Cant fix everything haha.

But yeah, its hard sometimes forsure and sometimes players can feel "locked down" by things out of their control. One of the biggest things i had discussions with him on was to help the mental/confidence side of things and just help him get that edge back. Because when hes on everyone as a whole improves with him. And i know he really appreciated that feedback in that regard and hope he does well into next year

Without giving too much info, there were PLENTY of things the team tried to do to get Stew more help. I'll talk about this a bit since theres a lot of mis-inforrmation that gets leaked out or the typical "save stew" points i see. Just to defend some players and talent of that team.

I got out there after Wolves match in Stage 1 -> A lot of it was rebuilding Mental and Confidence given rapid team changes. Ego is a great head coach and had a great understanding of macro, i'd put him up there with the likes of popular international coaches people vouch for. It was just to help add some additional systems.

After Stage 1 -> we had a list of ~10 players, including the likes of Slowly, to try and bolster up the roster for Stage 2. Majority of those options fell flat and resulted in assessing Link and Kklin from the academy team to promote up. These academy players btw play in a league seperate from standard t2 in CN (sometimes can book scrims vs decent apac/cn opponents) and that league also forces them to have every map in rotation. These guys were playing breeze/fracture/split and other maps when being called up.

Link and KKlin (both 18) were absolutely DESTROYING in scrims. Link had a 1.4-1.5KD vs T1 teams in apac, and KKlin pushed around a 1.2-1.3. We ended up sticking with KKlin because in the short term he had more base experience at sentinel which is the gap we needed filled. It would have taken more time to get Link off the ground in that role then Kklin. Dont let the stats decieve you in officials on where that kids talent is.

Z1yan is the most slept on player in all of China. His stats plummeted because he was forced in a position to play super flex on the team. He had a 1.6KD on Chamber and like a +30FK/FD on sunset vs VERY POPULAR APAC teams. He is a shooter. Jkuro transitioned to IGL for the first time as well, and adapted quickly where i didnt have to hard script gameplans like we had to do in Stage 1. And a lot of people vouched visably about how much better the team looked between stages. We had the best Lotus in all of VCT in stage 2, and were competitively close with teams we had no reason to be close with who out-experienced this roster in terms of on-stage/LAN experience.

There were murmors of who/what they may sign this offseason, but i just wanna relay the team has done what they could to enable stew and make sure he was successful, and to not shame the players on that team who worked really hard as well to improve during a time with so many questions vs one of the toughest stage-2 groups in VCT

She was always very good, and one of, the most technical agents in the game which is why she hasnt seen more play, and has the best NMWR parity with viper in existing metas. and the best NMWR matchup historically vs 2 initiator comps.

The reason we have seen "more" omen, is paranoia has always felt better to players to use and convert on because it just was more intuitive to paranoia then it was to set up an astra stun/dissipate to self act apon. The reason Astra is in S tier in so many tier lists is because in the world we are in where utility is reduced across the board, agents that inherently have more at base are usually better. Along with as you said, being able to dissipate/global placement/contact where CD's are mostly irrelevant becomes VERY good at handling problems teams will face on attack side.

Even in a world astra got hit with these changes on her own, her base playstyle did not change. Its no different then when viper's gas management added more complexities to it. There's a lot of missed perception with Omen, where his paranoia being both faster/shorter distance actually removes a lot of the key use he used to have on most maps. Retakes on C lotus for example are significantly worse with Omen now due to this paranoia change.

Teams will prob still play omen. The perception is always ease of use = best, but that isnt always the case when assessing competitive power. Its this same thought process that kept Yoru benched on teams in all of 2024, even though he vastly outperformed jett on every map, teams stuck with "ease of use" over adjusting.

Cannot say, prob as detailed as ill go with the moves that were planned

For reasons that's not really the business of the general public to know. I dont mean that to come off harshly. If he wants to discuss why he can, just we had a conversation and assessed between Him, KKlin, and Link, and Felt KKlin was the best at that time going forward.

We had a list of roughly 10 players after Stage 1 that were "available" and relatively highly sought after players in CN or Other Regions

4-5 of them died because of just change in decisions from their original teams or they got picked up by other orgs
3 or so died because the offers they were looking for in return were too costly (player wise, not value wise, like 2 for 1 Trades)
Last one died because of a T2 organization highballing the players "buyout" and claiming they were being matched, which wasnt the case, so we had to drop out of getting them

We really looked at everything we could, end result we had choice between Link and KKlin. Link was amazing in scrims and put up crazy performances, he just needs more time developing. To mold him into Sentinel just required a lot more direction as he was a native flash/support player. KKlin filled the sentinel gap we needed on the short term as he had viper/basic senti experience, in hopes we could mold him up to perform at the basic level on vyse and other agents. He has a bright future too if he keeps at it, nerves mostly kept him behind as the T2/Acad scene in china is not the same that it is in other regions

Yeah GCD for some reason has him listed as not an import, unsure if its a oddity on his visa/living in Shanghai or not. Never really sought out why it was.

Stew is an import, We couldnt bring in anyone from APAC while stew is on the roster

It is very hard to scout CN tier 2 properly. Thats why most of the talent is imported from APAC right now. Maybe some things shift after CN ascension but its hard to get a real read.

As for if this is JDG or not even i do not know

Guys it was definitely a deadlock come on now

Scales
Yosemite
Z1yan
Lucas

Mited and Feniz are VERY good. VERY good.

watch Steels "how to igl" vids from his CSGO days on YT. Its very solid information to this day on basics

We are out now so not an overtly big deal to discuss this, but we targeted ascent because we were confident we could handle Tyloo's Initial comp on the map, regardless if they swapped out of it or not.

Tyloo had a week on us to prep -> we had a two day window after EDG -> so we went in with the assumption tyloo was heavily prepared for our Lotus. We should have won on ascent and unfortunately struggled in situations we normally wouldnt have.

Acad teams cant play in the respective ascension tourney for each region. Its the trade off for the 2-way player system/no relegation environment.

o7 just need to go on a run

Heard MCE has a teleporter to go back to NA

have you seen what trent's #'s are this year? you think that's all rocket kills? lol. i normally don't respond to these takes, but you need to go back in the VODs and recheck that point

Well, its important to remember its a partnership, not a franchise slot, not to get semantic but the difference here is important

teams were always on a basis of "here's our initial 2-3 year agreement, should things change your position in the league can change to". It protects riot and both orgs that go "under" or have worse performance from essentially bankrupting the league. There was already talks this past offseason of re-assessing the format as a whole or how many teams are partnered as i assume riot has realized some of it just isnt sustainable anyways.

I think pacific situation is deff the most unique we have seen so far, boom seeming found their identity and have locked in, which shows the weaker part of this system. At the same time this could also provide more riot info when orgs are reassessed as well. Just a lot of unknowns to that regard especially to how things will change after this year.

IF an Ascension team makes champs - They extend their stay for 1 year

IF an Ascension team finishes top 8 in their league for split 2 - They go to the ascension tourney to essentially gatekeep their spot

If an Ascension team bot 4's in their league for split 2 - they auto relegate down to VCL

If both ascension teams make champs - the one that progresses the furthest stays while the other goes to ascension to gatekeep
If both ascension teams bot 4 their league in split 2 - two new teams get promoted to VCT

Likely a lot of this landscape changes though once teams get re-assessed and the league potentially changes as a whole after those contracts end in 1-2 years

MCE Finishing degree at maryville - if he comes back prob wont be till after

deff not if you got away with that 100 page report on how icebox is cold

i did read it, How bout you focus on that premier team you wanted a 3 hour call with before coming to conclusions about someone that has actual work examples of making new comps and SEVERAL coaches vouching for it

How are you going to say that anderzz is providing fluff when you provided a 150 page chatGPT document talking about how icebox is cold and has ice for a scouting report.

the projection is real with you dawg

https://discord.gg/eUJxhhAG - NA Community Discord with a lot of support -> should see the respective channels for VCT Tickets - or just dm huntice for Toronto-based perms. Full clarity no guarantee's people would have extra's, but a good place to gauge if they would. Make sure to keep things at retail - price to avoid heavy scalping, especially with families looking for tickets

Likely no, maybe for some of the group stage days if you are lucky, but with Toronto being such a popular valorant city its likely they get swept up pretty quickly. There's a NA community discord i can link you, incase someone snags tickets they are looking to sell (kept at retail/not upcharged) if thats something your interested in as a safety net. Just no guarantee people would sell there either

best of luck.

Being ghosted is awful, but Its worth noting with any job, you aren't ever "warranted" a response. Its usually a bonus if a potential employer ever informs you why you didn't make it through to the next wave of interviews. I applied to this role as well, made it to top 20, was told I didn't make it to the final round. I wasn't provided a reason, but I took that as a notice to further improve my work.

While you have the right to feel frustrated, bashing/downplaying the work of the two who DID get the position does not do you any favors. Nor does blasting the existing staff on other posts of VLR. This will do more negatives to your reputation and brand then it does good.

If you truly feel your work is good, keep your head down and stick to it. The results will speak for themselves.

hes just built diff man you wouldnt understand

Literally one of the best IGLs of all time on the most creative character i really dont think anyone is better

S/O goat gares

Thoughts?