Not really close - i mean the shanghai library gag is funny but it overexaggerates what happened.

People who were in the audience at Shanghai debunked this ages ago and confirmed the crowd was pretty loud for all teams (but the sound mixing on the stream had them really low so it didn't come through). Only one team was iced out - GenG at the start of the event because of the Taiwan comments made by the org's other team - but many fans were won over by t3xture's stream and towards the end of the event plenty of chinese fans were cheering for GenG too (and were happy to see them eventually win). The crowd, unlike Brazil, stayed for the trophy lift and applauded them too (even though the team that won wasn't their favourites).

yep this is the full answer - thank you

the confusion came from this article: https://valorantesports.com/en-GB/news/updates-to-valorants-path-to-pro-challengers-premier-and-ascension-for-the-2025-season - which has top 8 in IL as stage 2 playoffs

but i think someone else said that either way is fine - either make playoffs or top 8 in points gets you ascension

nvm apparently both are viable paths?

is it in terms of champs points though? i thought it was they had to make playoffs?

i'd rather watch ascension with boom and nongshim in it though - atm they might not even get to play in the ascension tournament 🥀

i feel really bad for them since they might not make playoffs at this point and both boom and nongshim are going to get straight relegated to challengers without a chance to defend their ascension slot - both are not even bad teams, but pacific is too stacked

the team kind of wanted him to be on util b*tch duties though and i remember s1mon used to complain about not really getting a chance to shoot his gun - kind of like how f0rsakeN had a quiet year in 2024 because he was super focused on his util (but now patmen has taken up that role instead, enabling f0rsakeN to frag again)

the last match he played with EDG when he stopped caring about the team and just played selfishly and top-fragged was funny

i mean EDG were having a horrible year by their standards before adding s1mon, went on a run after adding s1mon that included an international trophy and a 3rd place, and after benching s1mon have returned to the struggling form we saw before the addition of s1mon

obviously people are going to bring it up even if correlation does not necessarily equal causation

(especially now that he's also picked up the hype man + igl roles --> he's essentially alfajer + chronicle + boaster in one player)

to be fair he really is a rare kind of player - you can get plenty of players who are great fraggers - but how many can genuinely hop on any agent and play the agent to a world class level? he has a really good mind for the game and understands how to get value out of each agent's kit (creatively no less - case in point some of his omen smokes on the toronto run) and on every agent class too.

he doesn't frag as heavy as a lot of the other 'best players in the world' - but he truly is a very special player.

question is why they thought it was a good idea to play on the new maps in the rotation that they likely haven't had much time to prac on?

yeah termi has at least always been able to keep drx within the top 4-5 of pacific even with brand new rookies that he will have to train up from scratch - so he definitely has an idea of what he is doing.

meanwhile i'll just say autumn has been in possession of some very seasoned, good players

not just prx, but to have stax and buzz win a trophy the first tournament after they're reunited

i'll always be mad that the mako rb zest stax buzz roster was blown up - at least they were consistently making 5-6th at internationals and had a deeper run too

now it's almost like because sticking together with that roster didn't work, the new philosophy is to be as trigger happy as possible and keep swapping players - how are they supposed to build any chem like this?

bro both of you - no, pretty sure most people expected t1 to do more damage and even get a win because of how much of a time / not-jetlagged advantage they have over prx

people are upset because if t1 can't even do damage in this situation it doesn't instill confidence in them moving forward at all

getting lectured by Meteor during timeout is so funny to me

fk i miss rossy

yeah because he was one of their best players 2022 and 2023

anyway we need more orgs who don't just drop players when they have one bad split

yeah a russian world cup team would be deadly

but his home was actually located on the east side of Russia - so he's always been more on APAC servers than EMEA ones

with how little practice and turnaround time they've had? surely not or i'd be super concerned for t1

*won 2 trophies with 2 years ago

If they're still using his strats from back then they deserve to lose

i remember optic used to be really good at setting up yay - but that would be split between craahies/victor and even to an extent fns's calling

Alphabet bro

rip hfmi0dzjc9z7

prx collectively were often called the uncrowned kings - but i guess they have lost their access to that nickname now

yeah not that I think it would have changed the outcome of Tokyo given how absolutely dominant that era of Fnatic was - but I do think it's a little funny these fans complaining about not being able to play their best maps at a GF when Fnatic literally got to ban fracture against EG too.

with the FNC v PRX rematch coming up, some fnatic fans who are salty have been spamming threads about how fnatic will 2-0 or 2-1 prx now that there's no double map ban ... like the double map ban didn't literally do its job as intended by giving an advantage to the upper bracket team

these select fans have also convinced themselves that if the series had gone to a map 5 at toronto that fnc definitely would have won split - which we don't actually know at all since prx have a solid split too it probably would've been like lotus (if anything they had more reps on split and lotus than sunset or pearl throughout toronto - but chose to pick sunset and pearl since they knew fnatic were uncomfortable with these maps)

must be Sideshow in disguise

told ya :p

it's funny because in like tennis and some other sports - tournaments have always been single elim - but no one sees these as less valid whilst in valorant people have this notion because of all the double elim tournaments that single elim is now mickey mouse

it just rewards a different set of skills - consistency to not lose at all and being able to beat people on the first approach without significant anti-stratting help. I bet if you tried to introduce double elim in some of the other sports it would be widely protested for allowing champions to come out of the losers - so it's just really whatever the fanbase has been conditioned to accept

isn't it better that they aren't on the same side of the bracket - you could get hypothetically get 2 EMEA finalists instead of just 1 guaranteed EMEA finalist

out on EWC Extra, VALO2ASIA, etc.

FNC v KC; PRX v Sen; NRG v GenG; BBL v TH

it was leaked earlier on tarik's stream, but the official draw is now out that confirms it

t3xture is one of the most likeable pros out there HAHA ...

but yeah even large fanbases like prx still get bandwagoners - plenty more prx flairs popped up after toronto

but there exist a core group of fans who have been there since 2021/2022 and have stayed loyal without flaming the players who are pre chill

casual fans then - the ones who actually go to events, buy merch, are part of the discord, draw art, make edits, etc. for the most part reflect the wholesomeness of the players and are rlly chill - but you won't find them on reddit threads or on these forums which probably skews the perception since all you get are the 14 y/o edgelords

if this ends up being the draw then I love it

but FNC really can't get away from GenG if this happens lol

yeah that would be messed up

i wonder if there was a possibility where EMEA teams could be drawn against Americas/Pacific teams without being from the same group or breaking seeding ... but yeah even if there was a mathematical chance, seems like they got almost the worst case scenario (only worse if they're on the same side of the draw - that'd be chalked)

Real PRX fans are some of the most wholesome people, it's mostly the bandwagons or fake flair ragebaiters who are bad - although every fandom suffers from bandwagons too

don't worry NRG vs GenG is confirmed from Foxy9 tweet

Yeah rip, seems like all the EMEA teams are against EMEA teams since what we know so far is:

• NRG v GenG
• Sen v PRX

i'm sad that that Singapore tournament fell through where you could have had access to individual POVs for the entire match as a viewer

he said he was going to give a hint through the music he played to end stream with though - i would trust the hint unless the music was misidentified

I mean music from Jurassic Park (a movie about dinosaurs) ... who else could it be realistically no?

Unless chatbot wrongly identified the soundtrack ig

Tarik discovered who Sen were playing when still streaming, chat asked him to leak, he proceeds to give a hint through his choice of music - and he plays a theme from Jurassic Park

this theory might be cooking since we know PRX is vs SEN

PRX v Sen at least from tarik's hint

pls no PRX v GenG

oops sorry - I thought you meant champs

but yeah if it's ewc then I could see a potential back-to-back win if they're not too burnt out