Since at this stage anything is possible, it is fun to speculate and try to predict the outcome. So make your own or move on sir.

S+ tier (contenders) - Fnatic, OPTIC Gaming, FunPlus Phoenix, LOUD
S tier (near contender level)- DRX, Paper Rex, XSET, Guild
S- tier (upset potential) - Xerxia, Northeption, NIP/KRU, Leviatan

Agressive initiation and ability to turn into an entry on the fly KAYO and Skye offer suits him more, he can easily and efficiently flex to Fade if need arises tho

English

Montenegrin/Croat/Serbian/Bosnian (all the same pretty much)

Facts

He is one of those people whose grind you have to respect, but thinks too highly of himself and does dumb things thinking it's for the right cause.
This whole Wardell situation is a prime example of it.
Shame, he could be one of the finest esports journalists if he didn't include himself in these petty dramas.

OP:

I'm not goin to discredit their effort

Also OP:
*Proceeds to discredit them

Nah...
These ten players can just pop off at any given moment, hell even Boaster when he is on the smokes duty.

yay and Derke are just yay and Derke, 2 of the best in the game rn.
FNS and Boaster are both god-tier IGLs, precise with calls and mid-game strategy adaptations.
Crashies, as valuable as he is with his utility, Enzo is unmatched with value he finds out of utility. But need a clutch to secure the round? Call Crashies.
Victor and Alfajer are just absolute chads of Valorant who can entry on any agent and have a nutty aim.
Marved and Mystic are both unselfish players who just seem find hero plays when required.

In conclusion, Fnatic = OPTIC and I cannot wait to see them just go at each others throats.

Riot can nerf the Chamber, but they cannot nerf yay lol

Probably still gonna stick to the Chamber role, because his kit is just too valuable for players like yay not to utilize it
Plus, Victor is a nuts entry player.

Acend are only hitting shots at this point

what is this take bro?

Thats just disrespectful towards those players... they can nerf the Chamber, but they cannot nerf them.
100T is on a come up and you don't need to disrespect their competition to feel better about your favorite team.

They just are not S tier team yet. But they will be soon if they keep up with the grind.

Interesting question. Riot did a good job of balancing and spreading out agents to have their own place in a map pool (except Chamber, that man is too op)... Here is my take

Anchor / Flank / 1st contact - Chamber
Duelist / Entry / 1st contact - Raze
Initiator / Info Gatherer / Secondary Entry - Skye
Anchor / Lurk - Viper
Main Smoker - Astra

Chamber is obviously the most efficient and easiest agent to find value with currently.

Raze gets the job done on all maps except Breeze, where different utility combos must be utilized.
Viper is an S tier agent and untouchable on Breeze and Icebox (also Bind, but you may win it without her), but definitely cannot be a primary smoker on maps where she is not as efficient. On maps like Haven and Ascent, she would serve as a site anchor, while the primary smoker would be Astra.

Even though overall Astra is not an S-tier pick, in this case, she would pair better with Raze and Viper (use Fnatic Bind as an example). Her kit would focus more on pulling and stunning on Breeze, Icebox, and Bind, rather than her being the main smoker.

The initiator role is a coin toss really... With the rest of the team comp any agent would make sense and would be absolutely unviable on some maps. KAY/O may just be the most efficient out of the bunch, but I could see Skye prevailing as she is a jack of all trades type of agent, but she would be utilized a little differently than what's usually the case (more info gathering and less of reactive utility usage )

Real ones will remember Derke on Sova!

I'll disagree. Some of the teams coming up in NA are making a lot of noise and it genuinely can cause a lot of upsets. Yes, OPTIC is obviously the best, but the gap is slowly being closed off. Good to see it for NA.

However, the gap in KR is much bigger... O2S are a second best team and they are nowhere near DRX in terms of structure, innovation and teamwork

What the fuck is this thread

everyone can find a crosshair they click with and even tho the impact on the game it could potentially have is minimal, someone may find crosshair change to be the thing they needed to get more consistency

plus, all OP asked was what xhairs look god on 16:9

Stories like these man... Love to see it! Love to see both of them being supportive of each others grinds!

Depends on how the rest of the season plays out... We can already assume some tho...
yay, Derke, sacy, aspas, sScary, Jinggg, f0rsakeN, Mako are all probably gonna be featured on the list no matter the results.

Thats basically a Bulldog tho

I always wanted MAC10 or MP9 type of gun instead of a Stinger. But adding any gun in the current arsenal would be a bad move.

Uncoordinated still... their potential is definitely bigger than their current results.
MAD Lions were a real test, as they have looked unstoppable lately

Vitality found its rhythm. Gonna be a banger match.

If you prefer a good sound - 100% Neptune

People really saying Guild and Fnatic...

People naming IGLs gotta realize how hard it is to concentrate on reading the opposing team, giving callouts and focusing on your crosshair.
They are not "no aim" players.

However, in the case of Boaster and Vanity, it can be said to a certain extent that their aim is just a little behind some pro players. Difference is not as drastic as people make it out to be tho.

A lot of these are kind of obvious picks, but Im gonna spice it up and say...

Leviatan has been giving KRU a run for their money lately
Guild has joined Top 3 EMEA chat
On a good day, 100T might just fuck around and beat anyone

if Acend win today, G2 is gonna start making roster changes before the Champs

From time to time, if my spendings ain't huge during the month, I drop a few bucks on betting, tho I'm in a 50e profit so far lol

[POV: You have fallen victim to numerous SEN threads just replying over and over again]
On a serious note, Sentinels criticism has been reasonable to a certain extent, but we exclude the braindead slander from here. We have seen them dominate and how they could always make it work even with comps which someone would characterize as "off-meta", as their teamwork always emerged victorious due to how good these players are.

Problem with team comps - Certainly these guys lack depth when it comes to their agent pools, as they are not capitalizing on some "must-pick agents" on certain maps. Additionally, their team comps have become predictable and are often easily counterable. For example, Shazam plays Sova very well even on maps where Sova has been pushed out of meta by other initiators, but it definitely hurts his fragging potential (which he was known for) on those maps.

Overreliance on TenZ - I hated this take originally, but it still holds little weight, so I couldn't fully ignore it. It seems like Sentinels sometimes (emphasis on the word sometimes) have a problem with helping him out on T-side. Timings on entries of his teammates are just off and they often result in him getting picked off early into a site take, putting them into a disadvantageous position when it comes to trading.

Lack of teamwork - And this one is the most obvious one, unfortunately... What made Sentinels the giants they were was just the way they would, at times even flawlessly, execute sites, play retakes and just play the trade game to their advantage. Yes, even back then people joked "TenZ go kill", the thing is, he was never not set up properly by his team to "go kill" like seen recently. Lately, everything looked sloppy or was just timed awfully. 
Sick on smokes - Look, I see why they wanted to include Kanpeki into the team, but personally, I would never move probably Top 5 flex player into a controller role. His performance was lackluster and his decision-making while on Omen has been questionable. I wish to see him back in the aggressive initiator & secondary entry role, where he excels at.
To conclude - As fans of the game, we cannot know why, when, and what went wrong for Sentinels. Obviously, we see the in-game performance and the obvious issues, as stated above, but we cannot know the root of that problem. At times, it even seems that the relationships have been damaged and the internal issues needed to be addressed sometimes (mainly the whole Zombs thing), but I seriously doubt it is the only issue. I also highly doubt that their streaming is getting in the way of their scrims and practices, as if these things presented issues, they would have been addressed by managers.

Unfortunately, at this point, in my eyes, it is better to hit the reset button and decide what your core is or who you want to keep on the team to start from scratch. I do genuinely believe that this is the best-case scenario for both organization and the players. Shaz, TenZ, Sick & dapr are all individuals who have proven themselves as top dogs in Valorant, but environment change and a mental reset could prove to be more beneficial to them than forcefully trying to fix every single thing that is not clicking for them. In my opinion, Shazam is the first one that would need to be benched and any other roster moves would be decided after it. This statement has zero correlation with people's perception and criticism people have of him (slander I find uncalled for at times). It comes from a perspective of knowing how crucial IGL is for the internal culture of the organization, team structure, and leadership. If roster reset is bound to happen, with these things in mind, Shazam would need to be the first one to be benched and given the opportunity to explore free agency. Any further roster change would be dumb to even predict as we are never gonna be in a position to know which players are gonna be available and how roles would be shifted according to the potential changes.

why did I read this with Scream voice and accent

To be fair, NRG tried something unorthodox yesterday eco-wise... Their Omen was super efficient when they played it previously (think s0m had like 27 kills), but this is out of context a little, as your point still stands

Agreed, especially when it comes to utility combos used.

And I think some teams will slowly move away from Chamber as he is not as efficient as one would think (I was surprised when I saw the stats after he was nerfed) and Cypher receives his buff.

Fnatic's recent dominance has come from playing in a way that opens up the space for their two star players.

Their mid-round calling has been immaculate, especially on defense, and have a near-perfect read of their opponents.

Roster changes have been made for the first time in December with their inner culture in mind, and after that they have been forced into making another one. The only roster changes that were their decision due to team's inefficiency were Doma and Magnum (reasonable ones at that).

The biggest critique of Fnatic's performance was the lack of raw frag power since Doma's departure. So they got a cracked player with better utility usage. Mistic was put back on a role he can be more efficient at and Boaster can more comfortably give calls on controller duty. The only missing piece was a very smart and passive player for info gathering they found in Enzo (Alfajer).

Even if they perform worse than they are currently, your "take" is just unreasonable and borderline wrong.

With all due respect - L

While I certainly disagree, I definitely appreciate someone actually having a hot take to go alongside the "hot take" title.

Problem is, Sentinels mental is gonna be in shambles after Stage 2, if it isn't already, and from a managerial perspective it would make sense to hit the reset button. Moving what was probably the best flex player in the world to a smokes duty was the nail in the coffin for this team.
They either have to put their comfort aside and practice the living shit out of new comps, because they are getting eaten alive by meta changes. Their inefficiency in team comps is even more emphasized by their incohesiveness and uncoordinated play.

Unless they all decide to polish their mistakes during the period where they wouldn't play official matches as much and learn new comps, they are gonna still be in shambles... Which is sad tbh, we miss them on the international stage.

I like the part where you called out vlr... after a braindead take of your own...

Liked all of the games except the first one, but I had no issues playing through it.
Liked all of the novels.
Liked all of the series and actually respect the moves they've made regarding the characters.

Are you all getting more and more people acting high and mighty in ranked, with egos that wouldn't fit on whole Breeze map, just screaming into voice comms whenever they die???

Like, I've stumbled upon few extreme cases here and there during the climb in the last act, but now in this act, it's literally every game... 10 games in a row I felt like I needed to report someone for extreme toxicity. Shit is not fun anymore I swear.

Just open the events tab and read LMAO, why'd anyone overcomplicate it

I think few analysts covered this topic, I just haven't had time to watch it, but based on the VOD it really boils down to anchoring A and stacking bodies prior to the third smoke disappearing, and on the attack, he is utilized for late-round site explosion, which compliments M3C / GMB's playstyle.

Astra would not be able to anchor as efficiently on Icebox, and on the attack, it does not help their playstyle of overwhelming the site with bodies, as whoever would be playing Astra, would need to stick behind them. Plus, Chronicle is very much known for his ability to make Brimstone as efficient as any smoker, even prior to his buff, so there is a lot of comfort on him.

They would sacrifice a lot of what makes them, well, them, by playing Astra instead.

1 - Pistachio
2 - Punch or Mojito
3 - Stracciatela

Note> any list is right, you can hardly make a bad ice cream

I feel like there is a gap between Xerixa and PRX.
Yes, people talk about PRX's untamed aggression and aim out of this world, but their mid-round calls might just be what gets them so many rounds.
Xerixia can beat them out possibly, but PRX in my eyes is a Masters2 contender if all goes well.

The only reason why I want this roster to hit the reset button after Stage 2 is that all of them as individuals are nuts and still capable of playing tier 1 Valorant, but for one reason or another, the cohesion we knew them for is far gone. It doesn't matter if they keep TenZ or Sick or Shaz, whatever honestly. As someone who misses them on the international Stage, I feel like the reset button, for both players and Sentinels at this point is a necessity

Honest feedback is greatly appreciated, thank you guys.
It probably is my utility overthinking that gets me to forget the basics of clicking heads lol

TL;DR - So basically I feel like my aim from Deathmatch is not "carried over" to regular games. Is it normal and does it mean I just have to play more of it or implement Deathmatch in some other way?

[Rank - Platinum 1] So recently as I climbed up the ranked ladder I have noticed that my performances have gone down both in fragging and ACS departments (which is fine for now as I still win more often than not, I just want to improve further). VOD reviewing myself I have realized I lose many more duels than I should (even when I position myself properly).

To me, this was really weird as I have had a fairly decent aim and warm-up routine (version of the PREMS method if you will), after which I play one or two DMs. During the DMs, I consistently have a positive KDA (on rare occasions I win, but I'm mostly focused on proper positioning and crosshair placement. But when I go into the match, I feel like with all the utility and thinking about how and when to use it, I have a tough time carrying over my DM discipline (crosshair placement, movement, angle checking and whatnot) to the regular games. This has also resulted in me having 20k+ games on the first match I play, but in the matches after that, I struggle to reach those numbers.

I have a few ideas of my own on how to possibly fix this, but before trying them out, I would also like to hear some feedback from you. So, if anyone had a similar experience or maybe has some ideas on how to fix this, please let me know. Any feedback & idea is greatly appreciated

Recency bias is TOO strong of few of these...
But I would like to hear the reasoning behind TenZ & Lakia.
Shitty team situations in both, so why are they being singled out as "overrated"?

I love Vansili's daring takes.
Mimi is unique and brings a lot of passion on top of her already great casting ability.
Doug shines when he is not mainly in the spotlight, but is there to coordinate the way the conversation between casters is flowing.
And I have a soft spot for Sully and Upmind, they are gonna become so so good, and work so well as a duo.

Heavily debatable, but I think he can be squeezed into Top15 lists definitely. Not many can do what he does with that much consistency, that is for sure.
And today's Yoru pick was just a cherry on top lol

Slander from average vlr users, directed towards casters is so undeserving and uncalled for.
As fans, yes, we can criticize and discuss why someone may be hard to follow or why someone should go more in-depth on the casting table etc.
But this kind of slander and blatant disrespect (not to mention the sexism also) towards passionate and hard-working people is moronic.

Half of threads do not criticize or give feedback to casters, but just hate and blatantly disrespect all the hours these people put into preparation.

Casters of Valorant, you are appreciated and goated! Keep up the amazing work ALL of you! <3

Guild are so disciplined and cohesive, and it is a huge advantage over a momentum based team like Liquid. So it is a possibility

I think they were coached to try to be cringe as fuck at all times and try to build hype by just saying random shit to make the teams seem better than they are.

How does a thinking human being even think this, let alone write it and post it lmao