Then if you don't want to profit, set a goal to get Berlin's inactive Twitter account to finally notice you (you have better chances of just making a weibo or bilibili account). You could try to just generally draw a following by appealing to a niche. Up to you what that niche is.

Great, then Skye is perfectly slotted in the current meta :D

But meowing on VLR isn't? You at least have a miniscule chance of getting 2 cents off of impressions

FNS, s0m, Demon1, Yay, Sinatraa

Just play Sova

Meow and @ Berlin's twitter until he becomes active on the account

Based pick. Also, what size shirt do you typically wear? You may as well cop the men's sizes. The Adidas website has a size-checker so you could always use that.

Most consistent core of players with minimal fuss about transfers compared to so many other orgs. Invy is also an upgrade on paper compared to Patmen so PRX should do better in theory with this roster - and that's keeping in mind that they won a trophy last year.

There are other more overrated orgs and such discussions are better done in hindsight of the season. G2 was so heavily overrated after missing out on a Masters trophy at Bangkok and then not even reaching the final of the following internationals. So much for the golden era.

The one benefit of the doubt I might give is that PRX could have a similar slow start like last season if they don't have stable comps with the map pool changes especially with Breeze (PRX's kryptonite) coming back into the mix.

If you have to ask, you will never know

Counterpoint: The two esports you mentioned that India have a strong following and a strong competitiveness in are mobile games. They have their following, but it's not nearly as visible as CS, Valorant, Rocket League or at least not nearly as spoken about as other esport titles. The other thing is that the barrier to entry for these titles is lower as mobile phones are easily accessible in these lower-income regions. It's easier to support something like mobile gaming when you know your people can access the games and play with specs similar to the rest of the world.

My last point is more so about how do fans from beyond your native region interact with your region. India will have a lot of fans from within their country naturally, but how big is the fanbase outside of Indians. It's like how in Valorant you have fans from all over the world support a team like Paper Rex despite Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore not being anywhere near the size of India in terms of fanbase. Having global recognition is subtly a really important factor to how much the government or other infrastructure will support esports in general.

For Valorant, it does feel like India's chances have slipped by when SkRossi and Lightningfast didn't succeed when given Tier 1 opportunities. Moreover, SkRossi became something of a meme and slipped into obscurity after whilst t3xture and Monyet continued to grow themselves. There's definitely a lot more moving parts to this, but GE or a Tier 2 Indian org needs to make calculated risks to boost India's recognition beyond its own borders and get people supporting them just like how PRX threw themselves into the spotlight.

What's worse? The IDF Val team name or the IDF military group name

Your player pool can be huge, but you need quality coaching, infrastructure to support aspiring players and to foster a fan culture that reaches beyond the native country. Stuff like the drums at the Rio Major in CS is what makes Brazil even more iconic in the general esports space. South Korea embraced esports as a viable path when they pumped out elite players into LoL. Even Denmark produced a generational dynasty in Astralis.

I won't lie when I say there is a stigma around being an Indian or South Asian esports player especially in shooters because of Optic F0rsaken. However, that can be overshadowed if India creates a positive global impression when they host an event or have someone representing their country.

This take is pretty warm, but definitely a little shellfish. What about quality salmon, cod or other fish? When you get a well cooked fish, it really does feel quite satisfying to eat. I think one fish I want to try is catfish since we don't really eat that in the UK, but it's popular in Southern US cuisine. I can highly recommend Basa fillets since that had an almost chicken-like texture. Other than traditional fish, eel is apparently highly underrated especially if you have unagi-don.

6666 posts - what a number to go out on (I hope DSBY is alright. Probably just logged off on a crazy number)

Exactly. Only aim-purists will say Demon1 is better when the game is clearly demanding people who can play a role. And as a side note, Penny is clearly Tier 1 worthy considering his sporadic appearances throughout last season as a substitute were mostly positive for his individual profile.

Xeppaa could definitely be swapped out for any alternative, but OXY prefers the homies than the trophies. Maybe one day Xeppaa might have his FNS moment and step back so OXY can win.

Kaajak is not that far off "best rookie ever". However, other rookies have had a more significant rookie year even without a high profile background in CS. Demon1 was a UT4 player before Valorant and became a superstar in such a quick amount of time to help turn EG from worst in the league to Champions winners. Less is the youngest player to have won Champions and Aspas was literally a ranked demon with hackusations before anyone knew of him. Karon was another ranked demon who got picked up and helped get APAC their first trophy.

Kaajak definitely was significant individually and it is a true shame that he missed out on a trophy 3 times in one year.

I didn't apply to immigrate. I was going on holiday with my family. I didn't need a VISA for just a holiday.

I got travel banned for 5 years when I tried to fly to Istanbul because immigration officers thought my name (a very common name) matched a criminal who overstayed their VISA. I tried to appeal with my local government in the UK and Turkish authorities were of no help.

If only we could get duallies

I can see how it can easily become not banter if it's just lazy comments to straight up harassment. It's banter until it is not funny and that just depends on the French person and the person making the jokes. It does remind me of how people would make the "bott'o'wu'ah" jokes for British people and it would get very old quickly. It's not even like it's upsetting, but it's just such a low hanging fruit joke that's been played out.

Wo0t

Your chair will affect your posture and how comfortably you can position your arms. It's a less impactful factor compared to what mouse and mousepad you use, but you should definitely try to get a chair that has adjustable arm-height.

Office chairs are definitely the best if you want unfussy but comfortable seats and backrests. Gaming chairs especially if they use a faux-leather tend to have the material break after a year. Whatever is comfortable and in your budget at the end of the day is what matters which is why I would recommend to look for second hand office chairs from places like Facebook Marketplace.

TL;DR: Get a chair that is comfortable with arm height adjustments that is within your budget.

Unironically, this play had my jaw dropped when I watched it live.

Can't disrespect unc like that. Supamen is generally speaking underrated considering his aim is super crisp and it makes him more of a threat in head-to-head gunfights.

Derrek is probably a better aimer than c0m for the most part, but they seem to want: 1) an IGL and 2) a storyline to keep EG in some of the discussions and fan favourites. Hopefully some of c0m's out-of-the-box thinking can translate to calls and decisions.

Icy is unfortunately the most mid player with the most goated in-game name. Yay is fairly past his prime, but has some glimmers of quality. However, EG is probably opting for the model where their players can be flexible and play as many roles and agents without compromise.

MIBR Scream would be the most mind-boggling thing.

ZETA beating PRX in a fairly impressive way at the end of 2025 season.
BLG beating NRG twice. Trace beating Leviatan to make it out of groups.

That glorious feeling knowing I'm on no lists (my name will never need to be redacted)

Fair enough. I'm sorry that all of that chaos was going on during an emergency. I still stand by what I said - just take a break to reset the mind. Valorant ranked will not be going anywhere unless we encounter Nuclear winter in January for our 2026 Bingo Card.

Thank you :D

I know you don't explicitly mention it, but I just want to clarify if you asked them to remake because you had an emergency and couldn't play before you left.

Asides that, I think it's best not to focus your energy on a Val game where you lost a little more RR than usual. Whether the emergency has passed or is still latently going on, you should focus your mind on that. Valorant won't be going anywhere and you can always get that Immo3 next act or the one after that.

People will be dumb in the game, yes. It's definitely coming after a long spiral of emotions from your loss streak plus the emergency, but you probably should let it go now.

Hope you have a better start to the new year.

Fair enough - the ranks aren't distributed in a way that should on-paper give you a lower RR gain, but they probably have relatively lower hidden MMR is my guess if you want something to cope on. That would basically be based on how well those individual players actually do (i.e.: if they don't get amazing ACS frequently then they are probably overestimated on their rank and vice versa). There are definitely players who are even overestimated in their rank at the lower ranks because people boost them a little.

Honestly, this makes me think of how Rocket League has a mod which allows you to see the MMR of each player regardless of what their rank might say. This level of transparency would at least give players a more accurate sense of how well they are doing in lobbies.

The short of it all: your RR isn't fucked, but the transparency of Valorant's ranked/MMR system might be. Keep grinding and you will get to where you want to be in your long-term plan.

I think you need a bit more protein. Seeing your hipbones and ribs protrude reminds me of tumblr girls from 10 years ago

Show the rest of the lobby's ranks.

Account made 3 days ago just to cause a bit of fuss with some low-tier bait discussions. The PRX thread itself is just mediocre since it ignores the efforts F0rsaken is making to be more of a leader in calling whilst maintaining some of the integral PRX identity. One of the most consistent org in all of Valorant at this point alongside FNC. Also, your username, flag and flair do feel like a bait account combination especially since the X geo-location reveal that pro-Israel accounts stemmed from places like India.

Louisiana wouldn't be the worst out of the southern states, but it's understandably still risky. Alabama, Oklahoma or Arkansas would probably be more freaky

Until you discover Skid Row at night

Hope you don't mind the occasional alligator on your Long Beach quest for a baddie

Most: Hawaii for vibes or Louisiana for the food.
Least: Alabama

-gyen is kind of rough given he was starting to feel a bit more consistent at the tail end of the season. Meanwhile SSeeS is still in the team for now - he is an alright player who can hold his own, but it would be better to have a fresh IGL whilst keeping some of these cracked out Japanese players.

So many good options for replacements like Aace, Hals, Yatsuka, Caedye or, if they are going to take up an IGL, Gon. I saw someone mention Persia and if he can comm in Japanese and IGL, that would make him a pretty underrated shout since he has quality that he hasn't quite recovered since Ascension of last year.

SIUUUUUUUUU, DODGED THE LIST AGAIN (I won't ever need to be redacted)

hello

facts, spit your shit indeed

Let's be very honest - there is way more to improving than just your pure aim and you are tunnel-visioned on the superficial aspects of aim such as HS% and KDA. You don't see or feel improvement because you think you're already improved in what you think is important rather than looking at the bigger picture.

Any professional or high-rank analyst would see how you highlighted on those two stats and probably tell you the same thing that you care about things which don't matter in the grand scheme of the game. Consider your decision making, your map awareness and your communication as well. These qualitative factors which impact your game will be constantly changing and something you will feel like you can always improve upon.

I can understand that this might sound hypocritical in a sense given how many pros and coaches say you can get to ascendant or diamond with aim alone. But they are talking about aim which can carry a team of clueless players and AFKs - if you can't do that then you aren't at the mechanical aim level these people talk about which can get you in the mid-region of the ranked space.

You definitely have a lot more to think about and I think a short break from the game to help reset your mental is well-deserved and perhaps even required to get back into ranked with a better idea of how to climb. I can understand playing without your friends sucks and it's way harder - trust me, I've been there. However, if you can prove to yourself you can climb, they will see your efforts and stack with you.

Your name alone deserves to be up there.

<insert that one gif of Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems saying an expletive and that he is about to pop hid molly>

Erased - revived my desire to watch anime. I am a big fan of crime/thriller and the time-travel concept is something that is fun. Summertime Rendering is up there and Steins;Gate was great after getting through the slow start.

Yay and cNed definitely struggled in 2025. Demon1 struggled too, but arguably has better mechanics, but lacks in team cohesion.

This guy is the biggest journeyman. Honestly, was the least impressive out of the whole GAMBIT roster. Went from EMEA to China back to EMEA and then back to China. Now he wants to stand in for an APAC team. Just needs to join an Americas team and he will have covered four regions, albeit with very underwhelming results to show for aside his GAMBIT period.

He was a good caller early doors considering he won a Masters and 2023 EMEA trophy. Definitely fell off. Would have probably been a bigger fall-off if GAMBIT won Champs 2021.

Definitely don't hate dreaming, but I always have either absurd dreams or hyper-realistic scenarios that end up somehow occurring in real life. The latter feels like deja vu, but in a more confusing and predictive way. As for absurd dreams, they seem to always be tied to the general area where I live or parts of my life but then elements of fears like being late to school/work make time speed up or my body movements feel stuck.

Lowkey, I kind of like these dreams because my mind feels active.