Yeah, and they still haven't got any new bundles for the ascension teams. Feelsbad that they're missing out on sales

Poor take on Mindfreak. This guy has bailed out PRX on many occasions.

I'm shocked that LEV didn't consider the PRX comp with the addition of Vyse instead of KJ. Demon1 on Jett, Natank on Phoenix, C0m on Sova, Kingg on Astra and tex on Vyse. Demon1 is one of the best Jett players and yet the coaches are still putting him on Yoru and other roles that he is not fully suited to.

You missed the part where FNATIC changed their comp so M8s prep was directed to a different comp and strats. Alfajer was popping off on duelist which is going to show how much impact he has when he can be engaging more aggressively. A bit unlucky for M8s, but they were slow to adapt to the comp.

Round 11.

I agree and disagree with parts of your statement. I definitely agree that Japanese players and teams need to push themselves out of their comfort zone and raise their ceiling to see some sort of progress. I mentioned it in another thread that Japanese teams need to risk-take on their strategies and compositions if they wanna adapt to the meta and keep an edge on teams who are not so strategically prepared. ZETA has shown that they do have the capacity to be creative and have plans to play Valorant well. But they absolutely need to improve their willingness to push themselves beyond their comfort zone.

On top of this, I think the mechanics definitely need to improve for Japanese Radiant players. Meiy is the gold standard for a Japanese player with cracked mechanics, but we need to see more of that. A lot of these players are hunkered down in Tier 2 and I believe it's because Japanese Tier 2 probably has one of the best org investments in comparison to other regions. You could say they're playing it safe, but given that it's their job, it would make sense that they want to live stably before they think about self-actualising their potential.

I don't think Japanese teams and players need to make drastic changes like going to new regions and such since the talent pool in Japan is there. In some instances like Saya at The Guard, it worked, but in other instances it didn't (e.g.: T1 last year). You would always want to make the most out of your current roster and the creativity they can offer alongside the coach before you make a sudden change. It saves money and time as well as allows for the full potential of the roster to be played out.

As a last point, I think Japanese Radiant players need to have more ambition as a whole. The top of the leaderboard is dominated by Thai, Korean and Indonesian players for a reason. They are very serious about going pro and then after that winning games on the big stage. Not to say Japanese players aren't as serious, but you can feel the hunger from players like Kush, Francis and Primmie when they're dominating with their filthy aim. Players like Aace and Caedye will probably enter Tier 1 soon. They're young and they have that fight in them. It's just a matter of when for them.

ZETA Academy producing all the sentinels, but it's good to see him finding that improvement. He definitely needed some more Tier 2 exposure since he just had extremely poor decision making. Hope he continues to improve since I won't forget all the confidence he had in himself during the "Know Your Enemy" content VCT Pacific produced. I like confidence, but it definitely needs to be backed up by mechanical or tactical skill.

The level of strategy that other teams in Pacific have has overtaken ZETA. ZETA on their miracle-run were relatively creative whilst maintaining discipline. Unfortunately, when your specialism of strategy is quickly overtaken like it is now, it's a very bleak future for Japanese Valorant. We can see how Korean teams are improving constantly and developing new strategies that work very often against many teams. Teams like PRX who look at a glance like they just run it down are very creative with their aggression and it makes ZETA very uncomfortable.

If I had to pinpoint their needed improvements, it's their willingness to risk-take and have those agent-synergies that Korean and Chinese teams have found. Vyselock has been so pivotal in changing how some maps are played. If Japan can find that sort of unique development and have deep strategies with it, they will be a lot more dangerous.

Beyond this, they definitely need to level up their mechanics. I cannot say exactly how the Radiant Japanese players weigh up against other regions, but on a bigger picture, Thai, Korean and Indonesian players seem to have a higher mechanical ceiling now. Dep looked good on Neon today against PRX, but it's not feasible to have one player who can take over a map. Syouta and Xdll showed some glimpses of greatness too. But as it stands, Japanese Valorant is a few steps behind the pack. The positive I can say is that this ZETA looks much better than last year's mess. Hiroronn being on the wrong role for the majority of the year and Yuran being the biggest flop definitely did not help their case, but the FENNEL reinforcements look so much better. They just need to innovate something and run with it.

Breeze, I can definitely see that. It's been out of the meta for a while and is often banned that I have a spotty memory on how it's played. I just remember op-holding on Breeze makes it favourable for defenders since it is a map designed with this playstyle in mind. Bind, I can see it changing into defender-sided with these new Vyselock comps. But it has traditionally been attacker-sided since the post-plant util is so oppressive against retakes and B-site especially is difficult to retake given how little space there is for defenders.

Lmao, I tend to waffle a lot, but I enjoy theorycrafting how teams could have panned out. But thanks for the compliment!

Based on the history of these maps, Abyss is attacker-sided, Ascent is defender-sided, Bind is attacker-sided, Breeze is defender-sided, Fracture is attacker-sided, Haven and Lotus are attacker-sided, Icebox is defender-sided, Pearl is attacker-sided, Split is kinda even but probably still defender-sided and Sunset is defender-sided. I might have them a little wrong though, but this is going off of my recollection of how casters and coaches describe the maps. I would say to watch Sliggy if you want a good insight of how attacker or defender sided a map is.

However, it can definitely ride on the comp played. A new meta comp can shift how a map is played and that could lead to how many rounds that team would get as Attacker/Defender. For instance, Bind has been extremely attacker-sided due to the retakes being so difficult against Raze nade, Brim molly, Viper molly, etc. However, we are seeing the Vyselock combination to counter this and it's starting to shift into a bit more of a defender-sided map.

If it's true what frost said that Primmie wants to play as many agents rather than duelist, I think that's leaning into an issue of what f0rsaken was going through last season. You can be mechanically one of the best players, but at the highest level, you need to adopt a playstyle that can cover a good portion of the maps to have the best consistency. You will end up confusing yourself on how to play if you are playing Breach one map and then Clove the next. There's a reason why the best teams have solidified roles and archetypal playstyles that fit their strengths. It avoid stress on memorising how to play.

Primmie was frying on duelist, Clove and Sage. He literally was playing the best when he engaged in gunfights rather than holding site. And it's honestly down to his knack for being such a great peeker. Lumping him with an operator or making him play passive is not getting the best out of him. He was dominating as Clove on Lotus because he could take those gunfights. He made Leviatan look like a joke as Battle Sage until he was given the operator and told to hold main.

This does come to an argument of whether you nurture what the player wants to make them happy or you use your better judgment as a coach to tell them how they can lean into their strengths so they can enjoy the game as well as the fruits of victory.

On top of all of this, I think Talon missed a good opportunity to make roster changes. To me, Governor is not as high level as I want him to be. He has his moments, but if Primmie can do the job better, you would want someone like CGRS who can play Sova very well to set him up. Ban is very inconsistent and has a bad tendency to overextend as a sentinel. His peak as a sentinel is quite high, but I would rather have Laz (from MiTH) who can both call and play the role in a sharp way. And Crws has shown to be a good caller - maybe comming in two languages is creating some slowness in the decisions or misplays, but I think I would rather a new IGL who can challenge tactical teams like Laz did in the off-season and then have a fragging flash initiator like Killua support.

That last paragraph was a tangent, but I just believe if Talon went full-Thai, it would make their comms a little easier and perhaps give stability to the initiator and sentinel roles.

On the one hand, you can't keep cycling through pros and coaches because that will be far too costly for the org. Boostio dropping a -30 is certainly not ideal regardless of whether it was to a good team or a terrible team, but they probably need to go back to the drawing board on some comps and strats if they're realising there are some huge gaps that get exploited by good counterplay.

On the other hand, I can understand the frustration of Nadeshot wanting to maybe switch things up since the most his org has claimed was VCT 2024 Stage 1 Americas. And honestly, they looked quite good at that point in time. However, if they cannot recapture the essence of that 100T, they need to rethink who is playing on the team. A lot of the time Asuna is catching heat especially since he is their longest-standing player, but maybe there are certain synergies just not working outside of just one player being considered heavily inconsistent.

Overall, I think Ryan's tweet is undermining the potential 100T feasibly have - they can win regionally, but now they're locked out compared to the best teams. You have to figure out how to get back into that inning to compete and attend at internationals.

It's definitely a bit map-dependent on whether no-sentinel comps or comps with sentinels are the most viable or even meta choice. Bind definitely has been traditionally no-sentinel for a long period of time since the idea is to play for post-plant and basically spam molly, nade, etc. Solo-sentinel on that map has been difficult since the entries into site are rather short and easy to flood out from. With the prominence of Deadlock combos with Vyse, double sentinel will probably become the meta given how oppressive it is for attackers to push when there is so much slowing utility. Slowing down flood-pushes is truly the best counter to the old meta. Just like cloudberry mentioned, Vyse and Deadlock are fairly recent with Vyse being released post-Champs.

Some maps, the sentinel-pick won't really change. For example, Haven will always demand a sentinel given how long the rotations are and how many areas enemies can entry through. Lotus is somewhat similar where you can still see a sentinel being picked due to the similar issue of long rotations and that there's a lot of space where you would want info. You could play Clove or Astra as a substitute for a sentinel, but these comps demand a player have good enough mechanics to take fights rather than passively gain info from util.

Additionally, Sage is a sentinel, albeit not the traditional info-gathering sentinel. She definitely skews the data since PRX had a good run with her on maps like Icebox and Sunset. She is definitely useful in niche comps like on Split given she can flip rounds with her ult and provide additional heals alongside Skye. Teams definitely prefer info sentinels though which is why Cypher and KJ will probably never become out of favour across a whole map pool. They will definitely lose picks to Deadlock and Vyse due to the combos or initiators since Tejo has a high ceiling for post plant. Overall, most Tier 1 pro-teams love info-sentinels since it minimises the risk of having to face-check an area to claim space or hold flanks. The only maps which will have a significant amount of no-sentinel comp picks will probably be Bind and Abyss.

When I compare Leo and Kush, I'm not including who they played alongside - those are extrinsic factors when discussing a player's qualities. And sure, Kush may have been locked down in Alter Ego for a while which could have inhibited his playstyle, but I was discussing solely his off-season with RRQ where he had some of the best positioning and aim for an initiator that I have seen for a good while. He had raid-boss status with how dangerous he could be if enemies peeked him one-by-one.

If you also look carefully at the initial comment I made, Kush isn't an exact clone of Leo, but there are moments which feel like how Leo would play - i.e.: taking good timings and claiming space across the map to catch the enemy when they're least expecting it. Kush can hold his own ground a lot of the time and there is some serious potential for RRQ to succeed this season as they have strong duelist options in Jemkin and Monyet, Estrella is improving as an IGL and xffero could stabilise his performance. Nothing is certain until the end of each stage though.

I mentioned this in another reply post, but Kush definitely gives off a vibe like Leo. The smart positioning, sharp aim and sova ult has the makings of another highly talented initiator pro. Leo is the pinnacle of initiator given how well-rounded he is so definitely recommend Biostar to watch some clips of Leo and see how thee is some likeness between him and Kush.

Definitely ROTY in the making just like what the original post meant. In the off-season, he looked like a problem for any opposing team he faced with his crisp aim and smart positioning. There were moments where he was feeling like Leo with how he caught the opponents off guard and could flip rounds with multikills. Let's see how he does against GENG, but there's no denying Kush has a high ceiling if he can maintain progress.

Definitely agree with your point. Karon and Primmie are examples of when ranked demons turn out to be well-suited for pro-play and can hold their own. Alternatively, we have seen some blunders of this such as NDG from Team Secret. It definitely becomes an experience-diff between gyen and SSeeS so I think gyen needs to grind Tier 2 as you said. The potential is there if he can lock down the smokes agent pool rather than depend on playing Clove and playing overly-aggressive because you can pop heal or ult when you take damage or die.

Edit: If they want to give gyen his Clove and then have another player play smokes, they could do that, but this option is highly risky given the map pool seems to be leaning back into solo-smokes and the addition of Tejo is reintroducing double initiator and Vyse + Deadlock combos are bringing double sentinel comps to a new level.

The thing is, he was hit-and-miss in the off-season as well. Could be a bit of a Clove one-trick, but he definitely needs to consider if he has the right playstyle for Tier 1. SSeeS was pretty solid and decently stable on smokes getting DFM quite far in the off-season competitions. gyen might need to take some time in the Academy like Athan has done for DRX.

On the other hand, the rest of DFM minus Meiy were looking pretty sloppy. I'm not sure what happened to Akame, but he doesn't seem to be the same as he was before the PRX 3-1. Abyss might not be his kind of map and that Pearl comp was just not it. I would rather have seen the EG or PRX comp rather than Meiy on Yoru and Akame on Iso. I can see the vision, but Meiy works amazingly on Jett and Akame is a good flash initiator. Akame on a flash duelist as a pseudo-information gatherer is surely a better idea.

Feels like DFM got jinxed by their off-season highs

True, but that Udotan 4k on the last round was kinda clean

No cap, Robbie got me glazing him harder than the Krispy Kreme production line (he's actually a very good IGL who is capable of fragging and plays arguably the ideal role to call)

If NA Furia somehow beat LEV, then they need to let this roster cook until they lose.

50lbs is crazy weight loss. Good on him, the longer hair also looks better. Buzzcut made him look like a skinhead dwarf.

When I saw the name of this thread, I thought it was gonna be about Woohoojin. But to answer your question:
APAC:

• T1 brought in Meteor which is probably the best signing of the season at least in APAC.
• Akame from DFM, Kush from RRQ and HYUNMIN look like they can be the strongest within their teams - their offseason performances have been great.
• Biggest flop could be either Athan (DRX) or gyen (DFM). Athan just feels like Tier 2 quality at best and oddly reminiscent of Yuran who was the biggest flop of last season. gyen is just young and I think he could be amazing if he undertakes some of SSeeS' qualities as a controller.

EMEA:

• Imports galore with Less in Vitality and Saadhak in KC. This region has probably the most recycled transferred talent and you could look at RocketBullets' spreadsheet to see all the names on their new teams.
• Most hyped prospects objectively are florescent, kaajak, xeus. Though I am most hyped for RobbieBk. He is a solid IGL and seems to have confident fragging ability.
• Biggest flop could be the most hyped prospects and I think a lot of people are hoping on florescent to flop. I see kaajak flopping hard if he cannot make the most of the FNATIC system. flyuh is a huge question-mark signing and I see him flopping. And then the Vitality super-team could be a massive flop in of itself.

Americas:

• Verno and Mada from NRG look to be beasts. Cortezia may be the Brazilian ScreaM with his 70% HS in some of his games.
• Jawgemo went to G2 which could enable this Ascension team to win an international. yay and icy to EG could be big. Aspas in MIBR with nzr could be solid as he wanted to play with this IGL. N4rrate and bang in SEN could be solid, but the role swapping is a huge issue that needs to be smoothed out.
• Biggest flop could be C9 especially with their whole roster-shuffling drama. They got Rossy but released him after RBHG and got Mitch to replace him. Net came in for Moose after lacklustre performances in off-season. Equally, LEV could flop if Demon1 is not performing at his 100% and SEN could equally flop if the role-swap issue persists.

China:

• This region feels the messiest in transfers, but I would say that Wolves getting Juicy and having Spring on duelist could make them a Top 4 contender. XLG has a decent bit of hype since Rarga is a solid duelist.
• Yosemite to FPX could give some stability although it feels like they got too many players in similar roles. Haodong is back to IGL of TEC which could make them another promising underdog.
• Biggest flop is a huge coin-toss. But I can see it being BLG since they've been waning in quality since Biank left. JDG and All Gamers also seem very weak and spotty in terms of their acquisitions. Honestly, CN is probably the region with the most defined Top 4 and only BLG might get pushed out if Wolves go all-in.

It is probably the most obvious form of BMing. It definitely gets a fine. And I imagine that it also runs the risk of making a stream possibly "not family friendly".

Facts, if you have watched it a long time ago, rewatch it. It's so worth it.

It really depends on map-design. Astra is good on Abyss and Pearl due to the long rotations/entries into site. Omen is good on maps like Ascent and Sunset due to the faster rotations. When we get 10.0, I think we will be in arguably one of the most balanced dome-smoke map pools:

• Brimstone has Fracture and Bind;
• Astra has Pearl and Abyss;
• Omen has Haven, Split and Lotus.

Omen will still probably lead in smoke-picks since he is viable on Abyss. Astra can be played on all of Omen's maps albeit at the trade of the speed of his smokes and his flash.

In a short summary, Astra probably won't be better than Omen in picks still, but she has high potential if the teams/players prefer her playstyle over Omen.

Damn, this is rough. Even if he was given a content-creator contract with an org to help fund rent, bills, food, etc. it's gonna be the things that money can't really buy long-term like ensuring his sisters are raised with proper care and attention that put the weight on him. A tough turn in life for an 18 year old and I do hope the best for him. Hopefully he has some sort of extended family too.

I remember Zellsis on his first time with Sentinels and he would usually duo-queue with Katarina (Demon1's current fiancée). It would be super-awkward "flirting" and this was at a time when Sentinels were at a huge low point in regional performances.

A little bit hypocritical of Zellsis to claim moral superiority but on the other side, you can argue Zellsis has matured a bit from that period of time. Mooda is definitely going further than some of the stuff that Zellsis has done and his ragebaiting is becoming more and more jarring. It was a bit funny watching him swipe his webcam when he whiffed or choked or got trolled by chat as well as hitting Drake - Trophies when he got his clutch. However, he is now terrible to watch.

dawg just use mspaint or a cracked adobe photoshop/premiere pro

Was about to say where is JA since he was looking filthy on duelist and was fragging well on smokes. Seen some other comments about him going to TS with JessieVash going to coach which is kinda cool. Nice to see a player take the challenge of coaching and allow for new blood to play in Tier 1. Though it looks like JA is on sentinel which could be fine. I just wish we could see him on smokes or like a flex role. In an ideal world, TS would be: JA, xavi8k, invy, Wild0reoo, Papi.

I feel like many pros don't use Sentinels of Light because it would draw out the most insane BM on the finisher. You would need some self-control not to BM the enemy.

Hard disagree with your take. Maybe you're not serious about ranked, but people have goals in mind that they're trying to achieve. I can't speak for every player or every scenario, but in competitive, you will be more than frustrated if your team is playing stupid, making the same mistakes every losing round and stops communicating things.

You say get a job to kids which is so funny. But let's say these people are adults. Your point is just ad hominem rather than actually trying to criticise how they play the game. You can't relate to the passion they have because you're probably content with where you are. And that's fine to admit. But if that's not what you are, then you need to stop your hypocrisy since these people just wanna climb ranked as much as the next player, regardless of high, mid or low ELO.

Your mentality that these kids don't have a chance to reach their goals, which you don't know, says a lot about how you treat yourself and others. Stop treating everyone like they're trying to go pro. You don't realise how much hard work goes into playing Valorant at a high level and you just brush it off as "more talent than hard work". Talent only becomes understandable at the highest level when you can play any role on any map and produce results. When you consistently MVP games and make Radiant look like a joke. But that's 0.01% of the ranked pool and most people will not reach an adept mastery on every role since people "main" agents. But going back to the point, most people in Valorant ranked are putting in hard work to play the fundamentals right and be competent aimers. Talent only comes when you pick up things easily and progress abnormally fast to reach either points I mentioned or both.

I'll give you one benefit of doubt and say that some people definitely overreact to little things. You will trade someone but then someone cries about: "Why did you let me die?" or "Why did you bait me?" People will find the tiniest things to complain about even if you win a round or gunfight. In those situations, I would say it's justified to probably criticise their mental.

Reading the context, this guy is so stupid. He has one of the greatest voice-acting roles which would have his career set for life. I don't know why voice-actors act like they don't have real life repercussions. Recently, there was some controversy over the Dandadan (Anime) VA being racist and disrespectful. He deletes all his social media, goes to bluesky to "avoid the racists" despite being racist himself and the Japanese audience defending the original art of the main character.

Tangent aside, if this stops you from watching Beyond the Spiderverse, you are ruining the experience for yourself. This movie is unfortunately not releasing in 2025 due to other reasons - probably just making the movie as refined as possible since this is the finale. And if the main VA is cut, there should be an understudy.

Ardiis just baiting and reaction-farming. He has very biased takes such as the primmie stuff. His GC takes are somewhat fair since it's the truth of the esport. He is definitely very blunt and comes off a lot more rude than what people might hope for when discussing these topics.

I wouldn't say his mechanical level is that high, but what he offers is amazing stability on the Sova. He is still mechanically amazing, but his game-sense and ability usage makes him a great asset to any team. I agree though that he is a proven IGL and should have been given a chance to run it on EMEA. Maybe there was also VISA issues, etc.

You missed my second sentence where I acknowledged KellyS ain't playing Raze in Tier 1. And whilst Kr1stal first-timed Deadlock, he was playing very well with KellyS to set him up. It's just a skill-diff at the end of the day. 3-0 in the Bo5 to PRX, gg

KellyS played Raze on Split against PRX on Day 1. It's definitely not what he would play in Tier 1, but they probably made these decisions based on what they are most comfortable playing. Maybe enerii no longer feels like playing Raze. Kr1stal on Deadlock has been working very fine. Alexy has played Fade as well. You can call it off-roles, but they played decently well - at least KellyS and Kr1stal. I think enerii is still finding her footing as a sentinel player. She isn't getting her big numbers like she would on Neon/Jett.

Picking up flyuh as well when Kr1stal exists to IGL. But I imagine Kr1stal chose to play a role where he is not main-caller and can still play his comfort picks.

Kr1stal 1v4, KellyS 1v3, Jinggg 1v4. Nothing makes sense but it is wild

Double-sentinel comp is fine. You can see that it's a mirror match from PRX. Stop crying because your team is being outplayed. And just like someone else said, it's an off-season. You can be pumped to win, but do not take it as trolling if they lose like this. KellyS has been playing sick on Raze. So many nade-combos with Kr1stal's grav net

Honestly, the beef is so low-tier and obvious clip-farming from Shanks.

He got nerfed due to high pick-rate in pro scene. Kinda sucks that his one-ways (the key personality trait of his smokes) got nerfed. 5-star Astra will eventually overtake some of these picks on maps like Pearl and Abyss. Same thing happened to Viper who was viable on nearly every map in the pool at her prime.

Proof?

HS% is decent. You probably need to make better decisions since your KD could be higher

He was outclassed today by better teams, but bare in mind he was picked up from ranked. His aim is definitely not mid, but it's more so down to his decision-making as well as some of the team-calling today. SSeeS is clearly more experienced than gyen and can play out scenarios better. Additionally, gyen is probably still rank-brained where he prefers playing Clove and taking riskier duels.

So in this example, your opponent is clearly forgetting their role and perhaps they're not in the right mindset to play. But that's not in your control. What is in your control is downloading this knowledge that this one player will rush in no matter what. As such, you should play faster than him if he refuses to listen to your comms. Try and speak to other 3 players to see if they can send in a flash, dart and/or smoke to make your entry easier. Act as the distraction with your updraft+dash. You have util to survive like your cloud burst.

If you cannot win this scenario as Jett, then you need to play an agent which dictates the entry better like Omen or Sova. Sova's dart makes it so the enemy has to hide. Omen can flash generator and smoke common angles. And whilst you have done either of these, you need to make intentional peeks on angles that your util has not cleared.

SSeeS is great and I would love to see him play due to his aim being good enough to compete in Tier 1. But keep in mind gyen is still young and this is his first pro team. He will learn the agents over time to play his role better. Gyen is an insane aimer and his confidence allows him to play in ways that the opponents expect less often.

Exactly. If you really wanted to make a map which didn't have this post-plant issue, you would need to completely rethink the map design since it is so common on many maps. After watching the Shanghai Major, it's clear to see that CS maps have a lot more depth and openness. The sites are usually open with lots of objects that can obstruct vision on a defuser so you're forced to play on-site more often.

If you're getting punished by a "monkey" who does "stupid peeks", that's on you for autopiloting and/or peeking even more stupidly. You're in a lose-lose for your mental and you need to probably think as much as possible how you can refine your play. It's easy to blame opponents, teammates, guns, abilities. So difficult to blame yourself for a mistake or something you could have done better.