because if you talk trash and lose in this game you have the entirety of the eastern hemisphere sending you death threats on twitter

that's not possible in the first match, nrg are 3rd seed

'there is still room for nrg' yeah eliding the fact that they've had to reinvent themselves on more than a few maps and swap to double duelist because their old style is literally no longer viable then sure. G2 have lost their identity entirely because 11.08 killed it. In kickoff they of all teams were reduced to cosplaying prx because, again, their style was not viable. GE playing double initiator on the new map and the only map in the pool where double duelist isn't an automatic best in slot comp doesn't move me, nor does loud supposedly playin 'slow and methodical'. Yeah they might be compared to the true unga bunga of nongshim but that's because their star is on chamber and not neon, they like to give luxko time to go for picks, not because they're playing like fnatic lmao. If you wanna talk about a hypothetical world where 11.08 were reverted a team like nrg would not be playing phoenix on haven or abyss I'll tell you that for free

kachoww clears

"The game isn't pick a site preround and slam it" it basically is compared to any other era of vct due to double duelist being way stronger compared to every other archetype that got nerfed hard after champs 2025. The problem is you think that's because the level of play increased and not because the game became more one-dimensional due to your bias for that apac style of play. There used to be room for your fncs and nrgs as well as your prx and drxes even late last year when yoru double duelist was already broken (drx didn't discover this btw, prx won toronto playing that same archetype) because more prevalent info gathering/exec-stopping initiator and senti util made the balance less skewed than it is now

ah yes the team that came 3rd was actually the best because they play a way you like (run pretty valoplant execs with 0 midrounding) and therefore are objectively superior lmao. Get the kr cock out of your mouth for 2 seconds and get yourself some fucking perspective

neon is a cancer on this game, archetype diversity is probably the worst it's ever been and macro is dead so no I don't think this year has been 'good'

if that's true it's because riot gradually killed slow playstyles over the past 3 years culminating in 11.08, not because it's some fundamental aspect of the game. Last champs grand finals was literally between two slow teams who like to work the map and trend double initiator, there was also at least one of those teams in every 2025 grand final so it wasn't some fluke occurence. Nowadays 4 -1 or 5 man valoplant execs are almost always superior yes but that's not some primordial truth it's just that riot fucked up the game

How layered your set execs are have basically nothing to do with igl quality

double initiator is not viable unless you're nrg and even then only on a few maps and double duelist is still dominating non mirror win rates, just because sage chamber can work on 2 maps (literal only decent non-double duelist comp outside of lotus) barely means anything.

"greatness" it's literally a seeding game

11.08 just made basically everything that was already bad about the game more prominent (snowballing, shit gunplay, overpowered guns like outlaw/shotguns/odin, flash initiators being unplayable garbage, neon existing) without doing anything particularly positive unless you really hated watching double initiator

lev got 1 less point for coming 2nd in that same regional, kickoff and stage 2 playoffs is what fucked them

yep

mada jumping into t spawn for no reason, brawk running through smokes, just obvious trolling because they wanted the map to end quick basically

The timezone actually works for me but I just hated watching vct so much this year so I might not watch live, the game has been so boring. I skipped london except for grand finals bc I was busy and still felt like I missed nothing

nrg were running it down because mada had some issue with his wrist

refer to #12

mada obviously had something wrong with his hand, they wouldn't tech pause twice if it was just a strategic throw

making light of someone who was clearly playing through an at least somewhat serious health issue

Genuinely kill yourself

sick or hurt or idk, the early tech pauses were weird

sliggy seems to think something is wrong with mada and they wanna finish the map asap

brazilians will forget about it in 2 weeks when lev make it to playoffs

it's these cn/apac fans bro, idk how their brains even work

they aren't trying that much if they picked abyss first, they're playing for reps

nrg haters are mentally ill exhibit #36475

lev also won a masters abusing neon dambi ain't special

if next year is still like this I'll just move on from the game, I'll let you guys have fun with your cocomelon esport

yeah let's just 5 man exec through a sage slow on the ascent b main choke to lose the map. Sorry but this team would not have won dick in a serious era of vct

I think they can beat g2 in a bo3 for the record but you're acting like they're on some historic heater run when in the second to last game they played nrg was toying with them, they won 2 gun rounds on lotus total and one of them was when they were down 12-4. They also got 2-0d by 100t in week 5, not like that was forever ago. Only way I can see them making it is if nrg start deliberately testing their weak maps lev style, nrg are better than them on every map not named sunset and abyss and their abyss was first time and very fixable

china and apac are their 2 regions where this game isn't dying and are far better at double duelist than anything else, plus all the casuals think double initiator teams like nrg, g2, fnc are boring. Riot are probably gonna double down on double duelist next year if anything

eg fracture is my favourite because of how many crazy ideas and util combos they had with the sova comp, it felt like every time they played it you saw some new gross ult play

acting like you guys weren't just as annoying in 2023

I've seen nothing that makes me believe they can beat 100t/nrg in a bo5, in fact they already played nrg and we saw what happened

If i wanna watch mechanical talent I'd just watch cs

eg vs fnc upper final tokyo, still the most important a double map ban has ever been imo

I hate ns and lev rn, you simply cannot tell me these teams' calling styles could win trophies before 11.08

first mena player to win an international

johnqt

fnc fans coping about the meta is so dumb when g2 and nrg who were nerfed just as badly qualified to all 3 internationals from a tougher region. Makes me think boaster is a one-dimensional caller

it's the opposite, that's the only way they don't qualify

not really, edg won abusing busted ass neon and running it down. Double initiator was more viable than now I guess but if more teams leaned into neon that champs goes very differently

tbf when they copied their corrode last year it worked pretty well for them, they were the 2nd best team on that map in champs

mibr just copies nrg all the time when they need to fix something, even last champs they copied their corrode

pretty sure he speaks 0 english

they lose 2-0 to eg without his heroics on sunset

if you can't flex to other roles then sure but otherwise it's fine, nrg have the best lotus itw and brawk plays vyse there

you will never be him (king bob)

t1 was the only even slightly flukish win in the history of vct (edg and ns got lucky with the meta but that's not a fluke) but idk why everyone cares so much about flukes either way. In cs everyone knows c9's major was a fluke but no one gets into pissy arguments about it

I don't think summit over sunset is that egregious, g2 like that map. The only major problem was not picking split vs 100t