ya but TL trophy = 1, NAVI trophy = 0

idk if reluctant admittance but navi were on their fucking downfall and loud definitely had internal struggles

not saying edg played bad tho they were indeed quite good

LMFAO
Actually clueless
I mean JP ranked is pretty low level too ngl, they just approach the game so passively. Honestly it looked like Dep and Laz were the only JP players who have the passion and drive to do well. During 2023 every time ZETA won a round or lost a round I could see Laz's emotions written on his face and honestly it made me so sad because the guy is actually being elohelled. Perhaps he should have looked to just join a mixed roster but I totally understand why he wanted to stay on ZETA as at the time they were Japan's best shot at doing well internationally.

Looking at Meiy though, I do see a salvageable future. He's aggressive and smart - definitely a step in the right direction and could be internationally recognised with the right environment.

Was Carlao's FURIA noticeably good at execs? They definitely weren't noted for it. Of all the coaches you could pick why are you picking that guy lol. Meanwhile Jadeite was breaking up and they were very good.

Honestly finding Carlao is crazy. Like you have to be actively looking for that guy to sign him, because he coached the middest team in Americas and doesn't know a lick of Japanese afaik. Like they actively sought out this guy. That or he offered to coach and they just decided he was worth it more than approaching other coaches from anywhere in the world considering they were okay with a foreign one.

Obviously idk wtf goes on in the ZETA administration but I'd love to know what was going through their heads when they were approached by or looked for this guy.

the only people who deserve criticism on zeta are the coaching staff. how do you have 6 fucking coaches (3 if we assume half are for academy) and get shitstomped on Icebox twice against 2 different teams and you float it (or straight up pick it) because you're more confident in it than your other maps? Like how bad must your perma be if you're okay with letting Icebox through even though you're ass on it? What are these guys being paid to do?

They got exposed early on in Kickoff and ended up having an even worse scoreline in Stage 2! That's like almost 5 months later! And Icebox has been in the pool for a while! Like it just baffles me.

Meiy I get because he was on CR. SyouTa could have been picked up by late 2022 as he had potential but I'm not sure if he really had loyalty to that FENNEL team at the time, but they decided to stick with crow LOL
Honestly ZETA's biggest mistake is sticking with Crow and TENNN who had just gone through eye surgery

Lots of good Korean players go to Japan because they get paid more

ZETA management just ruined possibly one of the best JP players in valorant history. If they snatched up SyouTa, Meiy, and GON early on they could've had a Dep, Laz, SyouTa, Meiy, GON roster with GON as IGL. That and a decent coach that's not fucking Carlao would probably have made a run at an international.

honestly my fault the way CN viewers were saying it was as if JDG weren't that bad of a team

insane though because these guys can shoot for sure, z1yan viva and stew especially but they have no clue what to do besides clicking

they just threw man advantages or map control like it was nothing lol

zero clue if they know even the basics lol

I didn't watch any JDG game besides this one and holy fuck these guys are ass wtf?
Like I love my boy stew and Viva was solid af but the decision making from this team is fucking abysmal how many rounds are they gonna throw? They're just shooting their way through their problems and there's like 0 idea being put into how they play

BLG on the other hand looked wayyy more drilled and appeared to have a good grasp on certain set plays and rotations/timings

Kind of disappointing, ngl.

20k a month = 12k after tax
144k per year of pure spending money
NRG has their own in house chef and I'm pretty sure provides housing like all major esport orgs.
Depending on whether player streams can also provide additional income
Winnings may not be much but they can be up to 5 figures-ish or 6 depending on prizepool dividends
Champs bundle sales also can be shared with players
Team Capsule sales can also be shared with players(? not sure on this one)
Gear is provided for players as well unless they want to spend money on personal items (mouse, mousepad, keyboard, etc.)

And once again this is all spending/savings money and none of it has to go to living expenses like food, water, electricity, etc.

I think they'd be able to do well for themselves if they're not partying all the time.

trust the fucking process please this is a 5 year project =) we aim to make it out of groups by 2029 =)

fun fact: ow devs said early on there would never be an invisible character in the game cuz they would be too OP

LOL

sure scrims don't have the same level of pressure as officials but teams play way more scrims than they play officials. pressure is not the only cause of burnout. by definition burnout is something chronic - it's exhaustion from being under stress for a long time. and while officials are way more stressful than scrims there is still energy being used in prac and energy being used when you're grinding for so long every day, and that 100% will take its toll on you. some people/teams are better equipped for the workload or have better access to mental health resources but either way it's a real phenomenon that shouldn't be minimised or looked down on. anyone who laughs at the "excuse" of burnout has never even touched the work environment or pressure that these hardworking pros are subject to and they just don't understand it. that or they're just different idk.

burnout exists. it's not like they brain off in scrims either lol. you do 10+ hours of straight work and it will definitely tire you out. maybe it's not as physically demanding as other forms of work but you've probably never spent a day on even a tier 3 team that actively tries to grind, so you're underestimating how exhausting it is.

i wrote a mini paper on player decline on esports for one of my uni classes and no lie age is not the reason why many pros retire early, it's burnout. just because there are less games in a season doesn't mean anything considering the season is condensed so while you have less games total you have more shit on your plate without enough time to properly decompress.

you should spend a day running 10 hours of scrims, maybe like 1-2 hours of offline, another 1-2 of vod review, and ranked until you go to bed and you'll see how doing that day in and day out can affect people.

back when i was on serious teams with people who made the sacrifice to carve their future in this game they spent half the time that teams like geng do, and i quickly realised how draining even that was. burnout is 100% real in esports and acting like teams shouldn't use burnout as an excuse just because they play less officials and/or because other teams prac as much as they do is grossly ignorant imo.

"it's literally their job?" is crazy. guess you're not allowed to explain the reason your physical/mental health is declining because you get paid to do it. you're acting like players shouldn't be treated as people just because they get paid. it's a profession like any other and basic work/life balance is important.

it's the mentality that you have that's the reason why mental health has been treated as a joke for so long. you just think it's not valid because they get paid or they don't seem to do much to you as an outsider looking in.

T1
TL
FNC
NAVI
G2
C9
TSM

Close but no cigar:
OG - I feel outside of Dota they're not as big
100T, GEN.G, LOUD, KC - Not as much history
Spirit, EDG, Virtus.pro - Not as internationally recognised and present in most games
GMB - No longer exists
FaZe Clan - outside of CS i don't think they've had many achievements? correct me if i'm wrong
OpTic, NRG - Only really big in NA imo
EG - Not enough clout
OG - Not big enough in most games besides Dota
LGD Gaming - only big in Dota
RNG - Only really big in LoL
NiP, SK, FPX, Dplus, Rogue - A little lacking in some of all criteria
Falcons - blatant sportswashing

SEN.G

ah fuck i wrote 2023 i meant 2024 but SEN.Geniuses probably 2023 or sth whatever xd

his jett and his performance was so mid this year this guys is too inconsistent.

straight disrespect because it's not true

geng plays like 10 scrims a day, that's 10 hours of straight gameplay not including vod review, offline server work, and ranked

drx used to play 13 scrims a day iirc when they were vision strikers

casually forget something solowinning rounds vs 100t on icebox and the rest of the team throwing after (something 4k into asuna 1v4)

like it or not something has been prx's best player at internationals. f0rsakeN on duelist is great don't get me wrong but something ain't the problem and he doesn't deserve this disrespect.

you aint sharin shit buddy geng is sharing with you LOL

at the arena rn and its different. stream doesnt do it justice everyone is cheering for every team and there are prx chants every so often

if they could shoot back how are they down 0-4 0-5 0-6 1-7 in the first place? and even if they start to warm up how does that explain geng losing consecutive buy rounds in a row and then closing the game out?

love the play by play keep doing what ur doing goat

something to check during my downtime

yeah, if they're able to maintain their momentum they'd 100% have the most dominant scorelines in history

yeah, it's like they get figured out based off the rounds won and lost, but in reality it's not the case and either it's just a scrappy round loss or gen.g throw an anti eco somehow.

Their early half bonus conversion rate is unbelievable. They've probably won more bonus rounds than lost them.
Being able to maintain an early snowball like that is really insane, and they definitely can continue the snowball - it's just that they often fumble enemy swing rounds. They have a huge econ advantage so it's nbd but it gives teams a way back into the game.

They didn't throw or fail to close out their insane early game snowballs

They've been up 6-0, 5-1, 7-1, so many times and the half usually ends like 6-6 or 7-5 or something. If they just kept their level of cleanliness they'd 100% have the most consistently dominant scorelines in VCT history.

heard geng was winning so i joined the stream and they lost 2 rounds in a row
back to studying i go LOL

it's not difficult to just copy the other regions' ascension format LOL

?????????? bro just blaming koreans for no reason

SPG are all players with experience. They played under Team OGS before besides Persia and margaret, who were tier 2 players. Persia played in India briefly

Dambi is my goat Dambi in my-

xccurate was nuts when he didn't have to offrole and igl in a new language. he and izu were superstars early in the season

common babysasuke W

Yuran
mta
redgar
s1mon
lenne

coach autumn lol

unless....? 🤐

xd...u can tell from watching the documentary videos. if u watch the one about Ban, well...
to clarify though, munchkin is known to give harsh feedback but it's just feedback. karon apparently cried early on because of munchkin's feedback, but now they're obviously very chill and munchkin treats karon like a brother.

well...some more toxic than others xd...

that previous T1 roster could have been great if they stuck together ngl but i'm glad we got Gen.G out of it tho

yeah bro the guy was the ultimate korean vibe merchant. he wasn't yelling and screaming, he was just always positive and cheerful. if u watch the t1 documentaries the guy is just a W person who kind of uplifted his teammates.

we need Xeta back bro
good vibes good calling good aim good clutches
fuck man.

Yeah they went 2-4 in the split as well LOL

wdym his entry gets clowned on but if u watch the games he did pretty well early on and then later the team basically made him run in and tank everything by himself. it was mismatch of playstyles and if drx is gonna change their style by being more aim focused then putting foxy back on entry isnt a bad idea considering buzz can flex any role in the game and flashback's senti is top tier.

beyn init
mako smokes
flashback senti
foxy entry
buzz flex

fixed ur role issues there

termi goes back to drilling in classic drx style execs, they enlist the help of potter if eg dont qualify to champs, they decide to go with a mako/beyn main caller + a prx esque system where everyone makes their calls on the fly

drx also use their academy team to use in internal scrims and win champs just like eg did

yeah but i wanted to be a hater for a bit