Why do you expect it from Noia - a GC player whose team is barely competing in Tier 2 - but not Shanks who has played briefly at the top level? I guess Noia's experiences are more recent, but Shanks did play pro-level Valorant. As for Sideshow, he dogged on KC in 2023 quite a lot and he was a consistent doubter of Paper Rex.

Unfortunately, watchparty streamers flame players and teams quite often because it is how they can engagement bait or clip farm. I personally think this is one of the more annoying types of clips since it's more fun to appreciate quality plays. Noia might be flaming Bang the most because he has a high potential and he was simply out of it completely.

He went to Shanghai, but he plays for a Chinese team so he isn't going abroad technically speaking. He is on his team's home turf.

Feel so sad for vo0kashu still. This was his first opportunity to go to an event abroad. VISA situations suck. Demon1 on stage though is going to be cinema especially if they somehow meet G2 - Demon1 vs Jawgemo one more time this year would slap.

Sorry cNed beat chronicle at the first Champions grand final.

Chronicle was MVP in the grand final of Masters Berlin. He was head and shoulders above in statistics for that match.

GX definitely looked amazing in Stage 2. Ara and Flickless have really looked amazing. People underestimate GX most likely because TH and FNC, whilst 4th and 3rd seed respectively, are pretty well-experienced teams. TL is the best team coming out of EMEA and they honestly look like a Top 3 contender with how nats leads them. GX went through a fairly rocky season. Started off the year with tomaszy, runneR and purp0. Then they brought in flickless and ara. Tried to make it work with either purp0 or runneR on smokes, but they settled on a dedicated smokes player in grubinho. Even then, it still felt like BBL could have gotten to champs, but GX persevered against all odds.

People who don't watch EMEA haven't noticed GX's rise. They could be a true dark horse team.

The rookie claim is outrageous. Every region is taking in rookies. SEN is not even comprised of rookies. I will say that some of Americas' new talent have been individually shining: Mada, Luk_xo, v1c, cortezia, sato.

In my opinion, what holds Americas back is that a lot of their comps are uninventive and they recycle through what has previously worked. They play it safe in a lot of their cases. A lot of teams are levelling up in their creativity and it's paying off hugely.

I do feel that GX definitely rose to the occasion today. SEN could bounce back, but it would require a lot of mental fortitude.

TL are the most of your problems since they're dialled in. EDG are still trying to figure out what works for them and NRG, whilst solid, don't use any outstanding comps. DRX have also had the most time to cook so it's more on DRX if they chose to work with their time so they are more difficult to play than previous showings.

Agreed. XLG are mechanically amazing. Viva is an aimer who has taken the IGL role. NoMan really stepped up this map. Happywei is a shooter but he definitely had a tough time this map. Rarga was pretty great and Coconut had his moments. But PRX is strategically on another level - Something and Jinggg pulling out hero multikills and impact kills like it's nothing also helped. The Viva 1v4 should have been a PRX round, but likewise the Something 1v2 with the op should have been an XLG round. That map was honestly a nice opener to Champs.

Honestly, Mindfreak is another shout for Astra. A more niche pick could be Demon1. He may have been known for Brim/Jett, but his Astra was solid. But definitely Mako, Mindfreak and Astra were more well known on Astra.

I pray for G2 vs DRG so we can get an opportunity of Jawgemo vs Demon1 again.

This actually feels so emotional. In my opinion, Bangkok rivals this for cinematography, but this just hits so different being in Paris - one of the most passionate cities for esports

League of Legends started with 40 champions and currently stands at 171 champions. This was a quantity that could sustain an agent-ban with no mirror picks.

I agree that Valorant needs some drastic change for certain maps because it is absurd how comps from 2021 can be meta in 2025. I missed when Riot would at least change up details in a map so there was some difference in the gameplay. I understand that for some maps it's a case of "if it's not broke, don't fix it". However, there are several maps will fairly stale metas that could be spiced up.

The idea of not having mirror match-ups is a nice idea since it's akin to other games like R6. However, there aren't really enough agents to balance out bans. You've got agents like Omen who have an incredibly high pick-rate and then agents like Harbor and Breach who are never getting picked.

Low sens is the way for sure. I'd say if you play high sens, you want a good control pad to balance out the sharp movements. OP should definitely be aim training in the range and doing some DMs to at least get into good aiming and swinging habits. It also can help you to figure out where to preaim for headshots so that you lower your time to kill. Regular sleep and a healthy diet sound like a weird tip, but you need consistency even in your life to ensure you aren't feeling mentally sluggish. Very niche tip, but OP could get some grip tape so they remember where to exactly hold their mice for their preferred grip style. Make conscious decisions and do not autopilot rounds.

I read this completely differently lmao.

My critique with your analogies is the Niko has been in the CS scene longer than Valorant has been around. He is a 9x Top 20 player of the year. Valorant definitely needs to take a couple more years to really put players like Leo's legacy to the test of time. The league examples are somewhat fair but I would argue that the Zeka comparison is more akin to someone like Demon1 who won Champs but has never quite hit the same peak since. You could also throw in Zeek and Cned.

If you want to divulge into the pre-2023 history for Leo, he was on GUILD which had some promise, but was competing against the likes of FPX, FNC and TL. Even then, they couldn't get past teams like OG LDN UTD and NAVI pretty much because GUILD was not great outside of Leo and Sayf and a bit of Trexx. But Trexx was and still somewhat is kind of a middle-of-the-pack player who has a high ceiling. Koldamenta, Russ and Yacine were all not really great. Despite this, Leo was still putting up numbers on GUILD which is why he got the move to a winning team. Think of it like Lebron switching from the Cavs to the Miami Heat.

Time will definitely test Leo's legacy, but his retirement is undoubtedly impactful for the community and I don't think it's an overreaction when other players and his former coach still hold him in high regards.

The whole argument of: "If we just ignore the year Leo actually won something whilst still putting up numbers, he's a nobody" is silly. DRX players like Mako are going to go down in history as the best players to have never won - the greatest loser. Sure, that might actually hold a more memorable title, but Mako will always be held back in the GOAT conversation due to his lack of trophies. Leo is in the discussion because he not only won once, but he won back to back whilst playing good. The fact that he won two trophies in a year is testament to his quality because FNC had never won a trophy before then and that was a team including Derke, Alfajer and Boaster. Chronicle was a good player, but Leo MVP'd Lock-In and was the second best player at Tokyo and Champs.

The DRX core and the organisation as a whole will basically be overshadowed by T1 and GENG since they won something at least whilst DRX continue to come close. If you want to push the goal lines and change the criteria for what puts a player in the GOAT conversation, please keep doing so. The fact of the matter is that Leo's time in the spotlight was amazing and his legacy will last through initiator players that follow in his style because it truly was how Valorant was meant to be played.

He was a key supporter in enabling Rarga as well as a midround caller for the team. I think OP should still stay up to watch the game since it is the opening game of Champs. Additionally, XLG can still keep it interesting even if they get pumped by PRX. I will be most interested if Lotus is picked since XLG have that triple sentinel comp and it might be an intriguing way to counter the double-dive.

If FURIA can cook with a mixed Brazilian/NA roster, it might be a worthwhile move. Alym is pretty crazy and if he can get a competent team to coordinate with his movement plays then there is something better than the bottom-of-the-barrel quality of this year.

Alright, then let's consider the old VS/DRX core. Mako, Buzz and Stax are the most significant players and the team as a whole definitely paved the way for Korean Valorant. VS/DRX are a cultural cornerstone in this sense and hold a legacy. However, you brought up the point about Leo doing nothing outside of 2023 in terms of international trophy wins. DRX have never won an international trophy and have a curse associated with them with how frequently they ended up in 5th/6th. Buzz and Stax only won a Masters trophy after going to T1 with Meteor who was an MVP contender at Shanghai - not to mention, G2 arguably choked that trophy.

Leo might not hold much cultural relevance for Sweden or EMEA, but he is very much a relevant individual in the initiator role. FNS's retirement was him fizzling out because he couldn't provide the results his team needed - he was a great IGL, but his fragging power was far below what was needed and his calls were starting to not hold as much value. Leo's significance as I have mentioned is down to his playstyle being so refined that it is quite literally influencing other top initiators. This may not be visible to you, but the players definitely see the value in Leo.

His "one year peak" was him being a great player on a well-built team. Leo was always as good as his FNC days when he was on GUILD. His individual stats speak for themselves and the eye-test of his gameplay backs up how solid his decision-making is. If you don't want to take it from a VLR nobody, take it from his actual coach, Mini. He quite literally called his gameplay "how the game should be played". Mini is an amazing coach and his understanding of strategy and planning definitely gives him a valid stance to make this sort of claim about any player.

I agree with OP that the what-if's should stop now. Leo was amazing, but we have some new initiators who can show their quality.

Pretty much the CN Carpe. Carpe can be invisible or low impact throughout a map and then pull out an ace or clutch.

That checks out. Anyone who brings up her tracker to debunk the immo or top .1% play claims gets ignored. Honestly, the toxic comments aren't as important since VLR is overall quite toxic - still an issue, but I think the false claims underpin her overall bad presence in certain threads. Depression is serious, but that's not an excuse to lie about your rank especially if those lies are meant to strengthen her points in threads. She uses it to seem like a reliable source of advice and opinion which only makes it worse for herself.

Here's how I see it: I_LOVE_LESS most definitely lied and anyone who would address her tracker in a response would just be ignored by her. I think this should be the primary focus since it's just bizarre to lie about your peak rank and being anywhere near the "top .1%" of Valorant play. She used that as a constant talking point to leverage her talking points. She claims to have played in GC and claims to be a semi-pro, but even by those points, she is not near the top .1% given that the majority of top GC players loom around high immortal with a few reaching radiant. To be semi-pro in GC or basically a pick-up player, you're probably high ascendant or low immo which is roughly around the top 1.6-2.4% of players. The semi-pro GC claims could check out but the top .1% claim is far off based on the rank distributions.

I think the toxic comments such as "braindead" are a little bad but they are not as important. VLR is a cesspool of toxicity and ragebaiting. This is relatively less important since the main issue is that I_LOVE_LESS is a serial liar about her rank and by proxy a liar about playing in the top .1%. I will say that the comments in the aim genetics thread are overall not amazing. It was initially an alright thread, but the main discussion spiralled around the genetics claim. It doesn't help that her points just revolved around her trying to assume a superior position purely off of rank claims rather than actually make some valid counterclaims and counterexamples. I could divulge into the genetics claim being somewhat spurious but that's a bit off topic now.

Asking for Brazilian teams to play even worse is diabolical

Leo's health issues seemed to be extremely persistent. Not playing for over a year is pretty rough and the fact that he hasn't tweeted much or done much in the way of maintaining his Valorant career even to stream or play shows that he has really struggled. His tracker is private so this may be more of a closed curtain on his career. I imagine that Vitality will promote Sayonara to the main team since that is why he got signed.

The engagement bait is unreal, but I'm all for a discussion. Leo's individual numbers are what make people call him the initiator GOAT. Sacy may have a Champs trophy as well as a Masters trophy, but Sacy has never been an outstanding fragger - his utility is great but that just makes him a good support role player. Leo had the capacity to put up numbers, provide support and survive to win his team the round. He is the exemplar way of playing to win.

Mini is an incredible coach, but no coach is invincible. They lost to LOUD in Champs and I would argue that LOUD were basically in FNATIC's head. They had all the pressure to go 3 for 3 in that year's trophies and solidify the dynasty. Chronicle was not playing particularly well against LOUD on both instances at Champs.

As for 2024, FNC lost to a rising KC and TH who defied expectations so there was no Madrid. FNC really didn't seem as dominant as 2023 and that was just part of the adaptation to a new coach. They eventually beat TH in Stage 1 and it was Leo who really pulled FNC over the line. That Breeze match was some of Leo's best since he just took over. He apparently took over the calls from Boaster and continued to fry. Leo at his peak performance was unreal and it's a shame that it couldn't be sustained due to health reasons.

There is no overt source from DRX that Estrella will not be at Paris, but this tweet from Beyn shows that he is going: https://x.com/BeYNvlrt/status/1964418655510487163 and in this group team photo: https://x.com/DRX_VALORANT/status/1964820099409564148/photo/1 you can see Mako, Free1ng, Flashback, HYUNMIN, Flicker and Beyn. Also, this photo and tweet is where the Estrella not at Paris discussion mainly stemmed from: https://x.com/camilpham/status/1964406013978636512/photo/1

Apparently Estrella isn't going to Champs. Beyn will take his position and Mako will be calling. Viva IGLing has been one of the saddest tradeoffs but if he can continue in the role, he might be like nats, minny or f0rsaken where he can call whilst also having fragging impact.

It definitely feels like the tempo and energy of the song just stays the same level throughout. It feels similar to Fire Again in that sense where it keeps that energy going but there isn't a significant slow-down. Fire Again has a bit of slowing down but it's not quite like Die For You or Ticking Away where it really slows down to allow for emotional build up.

It's giving more of a PG-friendly movie credits song energy.

It's an alright song but people definitely don't like how it doesn't fit the theme of champs. Die For You was probably the best song for Champs and in my opinion the electric guitar really gives this song that main character energy. Close second and my personal favourite is Ticking Away since it has more of an emotional vibe with the piano slowing everything down and the crowd sound rising up. Whilst it wasn't popular as a Champs theme, Superpower does have nice energy when the trumpets hit. Fire Again is funky but I don't think it has as much emotional factor as the top 2. The most recent song feels like end credits for a film like the Minecraft movie - it has a vibe about it but it's more like the vibe of when things end.

I understand that they wanted to try a new sound, but this is like Fire Again in the sense that it holds one level of energy and it doesn't slow down.

Better question is how did Noia pull a Zekken?

This team is showing a lot of quality, but Ascension is gonna be where it matters the most. Other teams definitely could have taken this stage more seriously, but I still see it as ULF taking an opportunity to develop some momentum. Also, if you play some of your better rounds and lose some of them, you can learn a lot more than not trying and leaving a lot of room for refinement.

In my humble opinion, Artisan Foil is extremely underrated. It is a battle pass so no longer available, but this knife was beautiful and had a nice right click animation.

0.1 x 1600 DPI. Used to play on 0.19 and before that, 0.25.

Mandatory beat Twisted Minds

Funny you mention that, people were flaming him the other day for bottom fragging against ULF.

LEV doing a KC/TH style rebuild. Probably more similar to TH if they're keeping K1ngg who will IGL. Just surround him with young beasts hungry to win. Sato proved this stage that he is a frag monster. Can sometimes dominate a map for his team. Spike, whilst not as strong as his ascension run, was solid for 2G. If they promote 2 LEV Academy players then they are covered quite nicely. Gonna most likely be blowz and ghoul33 to be promoted. LEV Academy seems wildly stacked.

DRG ended this season 2nd in their regional league. Their team honestly looked quite strong. Vo0kashu definitely could explore other options, but if DRG are giving him a crazy contract, I see no reason for him to go. Russian players are plagued with VISA issues. This is probably the major drawback with this whole Russian roster concept. Just look at Chiwa - didn't get to play a Tier 1 on-season game the whole year. Vo0kashu might not even make it to Paris on time.

Lemme not get started on the Chiwa mess. Feel so bad for him - probably had one of the worst seasons in VCT... because he didn't even get to have one. Nats barely making it for Toronto, Something not making it to Tokyo in 2023 and now Vo0kashu might not make it to Paris. Russians are fucked over on the VISA situation.

From a distance, he looks like him. Maybe 2022 yay when he had longer hair and rectangular glasses. Now he's got more circular ones. Also the moustache is a little long in this guy compared to yay.

If it's all Russian: Purp0 (duelist), Kr1stal (IGL/scan-init), Sheydos (flash-init/flex), Suygetsu (smokes), Rexxtoned/Chiwa (sentinel). Coach Engh. If they wanted to, get ANGE1 as an assistant coach or main coach if Engh is not available. Shao on smokes is another option. Demon1 as an import is a wilder option but I am note sure how good his Russian is. Demon1 could play either sentinel or smokes-duelist and flex with Purp0 who can play every other duelist except Jett and then flex to Omen.

It sucks, but I doubt a Russian org will come in. At best, you might see an All-Russian roster, but that might be difficult to pull together as well.

VCT CN 2024 automated announcer for the grand final was a good "robotic voice". I don't mind the dedicated announcer calling the names. Also, APAC and China production is the best out of the Riot Franchise Leagues. The grand final in Tokyo for APAC's Stage 2 was probably one of the best - Japanese audience really showed their love for the game. Of course, a bit of PRX bias but they are probably the most loved team in the game. RRQ still had a lot of cheers. China is usually solid on production. I think last year's grand final felt a lot more well produced, but this year with the player's key stats that they dominate in is a nice touch (e.g.: most assists, most kills, most kills per round)

I think OP is just taking a shot at who else could get terminated. It's not fake information, just a guess. FURIA hit bottom of the league and their only win this year was with an All-NA roster subbing in.

JDG has been pretty terrible with only Stew looking like a standout on the team. However, it should be noted that JDG is owned by JD.com which is quite big in China. TEC could be a reasonable shout but China usually won't mess around unless there is a significant opportunity posed by either of the ascension teams. Ironically JDG and TEC are in the grand finals of the CN EVO Stage 3.

Pacific, I can definitely see GE losing their spot given how high their turnover has been. TS has been pretty much subpar all year. With both, you are risking outrage in a nation's fanbase (India for GE, Philippines for TS).

A lot of teams are walking on thin ice in terms of quality. It's not without question that another team could be booted early, but they would need to be lacking resourcefulness for Riot in many aspects such as content creation and sales. Underperforming in VCT is inevitable for one or two teams, but you need to offer something the fans can latch on to.

He has shown that he has individual quality, but MIBR as a whole is heavily inconsistent with results. Their strats don't feel amazing and they fall apart quite easily. I can only hope there is something cooking because the MIBR season is coming to a rather disappointing end. Credit to them for making a big move and 3rd in Kickoff and Stage 1 because MIBR could have easily ended up in KOI's spot and been terminated.

Epomaker84 - plan on upgrading to a Hall Effect Keyboard soon

They actually ruined my theory of a Russian superteam build that KOI could have explored. I hope the KOI players find a team.

Thanks, I'll test this option out