If anyone can inform me as to whether lower ranked hated skye enough to make this happen thats honestly the only logic I can see outside of:
This wasn't agent balancing this was meta assassination. That in and of itself is not a bad thing, its what the game is at a fundamental level and people have been doing what they can to make it more like Counterstrike-perfectionist esque.

My issue is that skye isn't even op the other initiators just suck at reliability comparatively. Obviously sova/kayo have their maps with things skye could never do which is what is supposed to happen with balancing. I didn't think we were ready for this conversation yet but apparently Riot is ready to go into this territory: Initiators should not have 1 basically constant cooldown timer for their signature abilities.

Breach is a much easier agent to make the point with, Viper counters breach comps bc breach can take a line 3 times a round at best. that number could be increased to at least 4,5(in drawn out rounds with bomb down) before it gets into super broken territory. Especially with how often initiator util is used off cooldown, that should've been the start imo bc the comps that will follow skye meta just aren't as reliable. Theres nothing that will be changed about that before some of the biggest games in our careers for some of us.

I'm vibing im "that weird comp guy" anyway in NA so, ill figure it out. The guaranteed flash popping is terrible and that should be reverted and the person who wants that needs a pay cut. That is just terrible at every level we shouldn't need to make people hate an agent to put them in the ground the rest of it will do enough.

ty sir, it appears they have clapped back by reworking skye, more details soon.

not gonna give any opinions on how good anyone is rn but i would like to point out yay didnt change-chamber did. yay doesnt play chamber like dat anymore for a reason. doesnt matter who it is the meta itself is different. lowkey people forget how much prime time astra and kayo enabled the chamber meta. chamber in that state being released today is alot less powerful than it was then, theres just more in the game now.

it would absolutely be online in order to interact with the challengers teams. and tbh, it doesnt need that much marketing. it sells itself in your words of "watch the bad teams do bad" the purpose is that if the team as a unit isnt worthy of being in franchise the players who would be are competing against them. If the players are worthy of their franchise spot they have more opportunity to practice what they need to and try things they want to. It also means that everyone gets to stay as in form as possible all around for entire regions

edit: also just playing the game is good. thats what the job is. also again, ur saying bad teams but im saying teams that dont qual to the bigger events. thats alot more than jsut the bottom rung teams.

yes but there should be more

<3

Exactly, the game is going to be in a state of development toward the "final esport product" for a long time, and I don't think we get there easier/safer through making decisions as if we're already there. I think the fan base rn is tied to their favorite player on a team typically.
Like that team who is also an agent type in the game. content 24/7 involving their most "diplomatic" players

I can see where you're going with everything after the more splits part, but for that specifically I don't think theres enough time in the year really. Like yea we have ALOT of downtime rn but that itself would take a huge chunk of that away. I think we would need to do this 1 step at a time and I'd rather start with more events and better planning for the franchise teams that will have downtime while their regions front runners dont.

the breaks part i think the issue is that a lot of the burnout of from how hard teams practice, counterstrike has a forced player break where no teams are allowed to practice i believe. That would have to be more of the aim than any real "match-play" gap

W

This is gonna be about burnout, the less matches thing, and t2 scenes in general.

Gonna start this off by saying I have no expectation for this to happen(quickly). When riot starts doing things they already have a plan to follow.
Also I have a lot of region-specific experience/perspective in this, I'd rather people talk about the nuances of other regions than flaming me saying what I'm talking about might not be correct everywhere.

Out the gate, the best(consistently) performing team in the world, 2023 FNATIC, SHOULD FEEL BURNOUT. They are the best team, if they are comfy something is wrong. That does not mean we should dismiss what they feel and what players need to stay both in form and mentally stable. HOWEVER, the real issue lies in the rest of the teams that AREN'T making every event have nothing else to do! There is no extra grind to go work through shortcomings and theory craft creative solutions/comps. Now having even LESS MATCHES on top of that pre-existing issue, they need to enable non-circuit tournaments/matches for the teams that are left behind.

"How would that even work? What if the players need a break? Who would lead the tournaments?"

There are 2 concurrent coversations that have the same solution here from my perspective. Riot doesn't want organizations to feel profitable hovering in tier2. The community doesn't like this but its pretty simple to understand the approach. HOWEVER, the system for the players in t2 still mostly functions as if the opposite were true. Tier2 players losing contracts bc there isn't anything reputable to play after their season ends is just unnecessary. If they suck and deserve to be cut-IT WILL HAPPEN.

"WHAT IS THE SOLUTION ALREADY?!!??!?"

SHOWCASE TOURNAMENTS EITHER BEFORE or AFTER CAPSTONE EVENTS(Masters, champs, LCQs).
Franchise players that deserve to be in the league are capable of figuring out their issues, but most players need matches to really see what people will do to counter them. And need the reps to actually CHANGE their bad habits/plays that lead to those important losses. [Region]scrims.exe

Tier2 Players that deserve to be in franchising deserve an opportunity to prove that. That does not consist of stomping on other tier2 players. I'm sure this point will be more appreciated by analysts/team level players: It is an entirely different game between tier 2 and tier1. Both sides need the experience to improve their game. I understand the embarassment of a franchise team losing to a tier2 team and why riot doesn't want that to happen a lot. HOWEVER, I know for a fact yall hate player recycling. You give players an opening to show they understand the level of tier1 play those teams will notice.

I also believe its good for storylines especially with the state of most casting(sry its not yalls fault but this change would also help yall practice as well); people don't know who any of these "new" players are.
Let's use C9 Oxy as an example. He's been shitting on pros in ranked for ages now. 100% deserves his spot on the team and its clear as day even from the first matches. But it feels weird that the first time we're really seeing a professional-franchise duelist prodigy type play against another franchise duelist in a match setting, is once hes signed. The guy would have been shitting on the same people, back on g2, that he is right now on c9. But thats BRUTALLY obvious. What about all the other roles that being amazing at doesn't necessarily mean you look flashy and exciting and you just nuke everything in the server? They don't get shit, you need impeccable scouting. MCE was great at this, as much as there is to say about the previous iteration of c9 and blah blah; when I saw jakee getting picked up I was like, aight that makes sense he should be fine in t1. But for a lot of people, they just hear a caster say he was collegiate player and THATS IT. Like ???? And even then, jake farmed his games and ranked. There are playstyles that don't necessarily enable yourself to farm kills-but setup all of your teammates for success.
And thats necessary to the game. 5 isolated star players from each role put onto 1 team would very likely not succeed, at least quickly. Players have to make sacrifices all the time in order for the team to win.

I trust Riot to eventually get things right don't get me wrong, as much as they get hate for everything they do, esports is in a fucking horrible spot-lets be honest with ourselves. Rocket League is dying, Counter-strike is scrambling a bit, Apex is that whole thing, Overwatch.exe
Riot carries their pride in with the decisions they make, and a portion of that is deserved. I'm not expecting trolls to stop making shitposts but I think a lot of people with an audience don't comment on things as much bc they don't want to think past "well this is how it feels for me."
They have the motivation to make the game successful bc they make money from it. Its a pretty powerful motivator.
We have the motivation to make the game successful bc WE PLAY IT. Let's try to figure out how to get on the same page here and sync up some goals/expectations.

Riot wants a good form of control over the public image of their game and its very easy to prevent any tarnishing of that by not allowing 3rd party anything. Personally approved tournaments are not counter-evidence to this point. "I want my company's flagship FPS title to look good." is not a crazy concept.
(Final point)
HOWEVER, we need more in the scene. If we aren't going to get demos then we need more matches. I'm personally ok with what I can get from mapstaring vods and replaying rounds till I see everything that happened. Some riot employee is reading this rn saying "but you never answered who would run it!" I am not a billion dollar company. Yall have the resources to figure out how to make this work and honestly it would make more money. People buy skins when they get hyped. We'd have more hype. We'd have comparative gameplay from tier2 to tier1 and be able to truly see HOW MUCH BETTER a team playing in masters or Champs is vs a team playing in challengers. People just see kills and don't really have an opportunity to see more than that.

TL;dr
Riot if you can find a way that everyone plays a more equal amount of matches-while also enabling players in both t1 and t2 to prove that they each, deserve to be where they are at-and deserve to be higher than where they are at. Burnout is important to keep in mind but there won't ever be a good system that the best team in the world gets to sit back and chill for longer than a week or 2 after a masters event.

Ah yes, the classic "this professional player is not who I want therefore they are shit" bit.

Both are good players, both provide their own value. The reason you don't see actual pros constantly have takes like these is because just like you, they'd be talking out of their ass.

Player personalities contribute massively to the environment which has a huge influence in the progression of the team. Some personalities are more beneficial some are more detrimental, some have bits of both. It is up to the team/coaching staff to determine what fits their vision best and therefore-who to keep on the active team.

I don't know anything too specific about it and neither do you, so quit yapping and move along.

fax

i gotchu

Franchising for tier1 isnt necessarily the problem, the pseudo franchise system they ran for t2 this year that LEGITIMATELY doesnt enable ANY of their goals, put your energy into that. If u want t2 to be in a constant state of flux where players go in and out why are we completely isolated from the place we're supposed to be moving up to??? - Make people have to prove they deserve tier1 and let people prove they deserve to make it out of tier2.

We almost ended up with a token Ascension winner bc the Guard didnt make a deal with Riot, the actual invalidity/validity of the reasons for this aren't even relevant. If we're only gonna have 1 or 2 "league seasons" a year your system cant rely on orgs to support players in the downtime-there cant BE extended downtimes. People need to be constantly showcasing themselves.

We've been entitled as fuck and that hasn't helped but can we at least get a logical system?

edit: im tired of everyone just autoblaming riot-every decision they make is gonna have positives and negatives. This company cares more than any other I know. Give them credit and think about what we say to them. If they're just gonna get blasted no matter what they're just gonna put us on the shelf until its NECESSARY for the game to survive. Reward them for addressing things we need.

all due respect, its a very fun region to watch; there's a reason theres imports to your region. You have INSANELY gifted mechanical players but in valorant you can only utilize ur mechanics as much as u can follow what is going on in a round/know where u can actually isolate a kill/opening.
Seeing a player get insane ranked highlights/lower tier match highlights when the competition isn't really indicative of what the international scene needs: its not enough to just bring aim to a team.

Now is your statement true? probably, but Gov is a very marketable player/streamer and he ALSO has the mechanics and he ALSO has the dedication/puts in the time.
So when the question is gamble on a duelist that hasn't seen the same exposure/pressure/style that franchise orgs aspire to compete in, vs import, importing is safest.

that being said I am also a player and my opinions probably have a grain of truth but come up short as far as how things are truly weighted: I have no idea how much it mattered to them that Gov already has a bigger following but IK its the #1 thing thats told to us when we deal with contracts "How do we get our return?"

EITHERWAY GIVE HIM A CHANCE HE DESERVES IT

im stealing that flair

not by any real metric I've seen, we are building grassroots here vs 20+ years of cs roots. Sure maybe the big dip with the extensive cs2 bugs with movement on release then the explosion of cheaters in premier people stopped for a bit but most probably planned on just waiting till fixes.
We have our own spot and cs has its own, I've experienced both in depth: valorant isnt going anywhere nor is cs and neither has to actually crush the other to grow and prosper.

I aint no king yet but im entering my Duelist IGL arc so maybe soon

position-no change
"valorant dying?"
lol

I mean he was my roommate so its hard to really be objective but I think the only duelists he wasnt more valuable than are already signed to other tier1 teams across regions-announced or not.

yea im sure your eyes making orgs lots of money picking players to get

by what metric sir

Yoru good on this map cuz u can actually fight mid on def without being trapped, also lets u punish efficiently when u know what the other team is doing, raze solid go brr tho.

ok 1 meth per sloppy toppy

no i need it ty sry

meth

Space? created. Info? found. Proper setup gunfights? ERROR... ERROR... ERROR...

damn bro im 0-8 by map 2??? nvm kek

respect

we cooked up some food poisoning

As with many great things in life you have to work for the things you want. EVERY SINGLE THING YOU WANT COMES FROM THE T2 SCENE DEVELOPING INTO A BETTER LEVEL OVERALL.
Its like saying "I want to have more money."
"get a better job"
"WOT?"

yo

all those things you listed are not making the agent easier they are what makes him more effective. youre just on the wrong definitions here my guy

NTA, divorce her and marry the dog

ty

wat goin on wit jinggg

they do fund the a relevant part of the world this site is built for
edit: ok ig the line that people want to draw is on billionaire so i take back entire for a relevant portion

hello everyone, every other superteam that has been tried in this game is only super in aim, fnatic actually has god tier flexible players, and a great vibes igl. That is the difference.

Yea my vote was to just give map veto advantage somehow? like pick first 2 maps and side for 1 and the other team has to prove theyre better via beating them on their own turf (not sure the exact process that would be fair) but not having to play is not a good thing. never seen it go well for a team

no tourney warmups just playoffs

debuff of having a bye

bro WHAT

for the record at no point in either cs or val have i actually wanted to awp and i got picked up to be a cypher player and then shit happened suddenly im awping.

can you teach me how to be a better shitposter i feel like my friends think im being serious more than i am

ye it goes both ways. a player is not shit bc they dont have the best stats on their role

ye most of the time you see "upcomer" overperformances consistently its bc they do whatever they want in an environment not as much is asked of them. is that this situation? dont care. just here to make the point yall need to think of more than "holy shit he shoot so much kill"

^ everyone is spoiled

ya bro we take huge tokes together

he does have rly good highs

nah i got us in the bo3 im fill and the map wasnt run how they had even planned to begin with so was hard to not overassert but also not play to not-lose.