i was on that spring hype train back when he diffed kang kang on jett last year. he really is underrated, because he played a lot worse as he adapted to his new role of controller when juicy joined.

i dont think 2023 script applies here because there is no single dominant team from last masters here so it wouldnt be the same as 2023 EG at all.

no, i need to see wolves win this one. i care about them wayyy more than i care about PRX winning

but seriously can we just send SEN home? theres no way they beat FNC tomorrow.

"I think G2 SEN are horrible. The fact that they lost to PRX is embarrassing, and I think they need to be eliminated from the tournament. I don't even think they should be allowed to play their elimination game. Just send them home."

It's not a 2 player game. This is such a stupid take

yeah they get punished. in the actual game they matchfixed in. and chinese teams clearly care too much about their PR. otherwise how can being toxic in ranked warrant a player getting dropped? ok maybe XLG planned to bench him until the accusations were forgotten but why does XLG care so so much about what their public image looks like by keeping him on the team? it's clearly much more extreme in VCT China than anywhere else, which i already understood, but this puts it into perspective.

i am super happy because wolves was always the team i was secretly cheering for ever since i watched spring diff kang kang a year ago. seeing them do so well is making me quite happy. I also have started to like GENG as a team a lot more because they always seem to pull a game back from any position which i admire. I really hope one of these two teams wins the whole thing.

ive heard that many chinese VCT players have been accused of matchfixing in previous game in the past, and lets be honest who hasn't been toxic in ranked at this point? something doesn't add up about those two reasons, leading me to believe that the negative backlash of just the rumours of anti china sentiments being expressed was enough for XLG to take action. even though he left the team of his own accord, it does not feel like that was really the case. it almost feels like he was forced out of VCT china, and i am assuming that every chinese VCT team will have him blacklisted following these rumours, because it seems like the type of thing that ends careers in china.

he got banned for expressing anti-china sentiments on social media didn't he? from years ago as well. this takes insanity and parasocial behaviour to another level, where the entire fanbase collectively boycotts the guy for this.

maybe, but i think his gameplay would take a huge hit if he tried to learn a new language. at least initially. it really is a shame because DRX is the only team out of the 3 korean teams that is yet to get an international tournament trophy and mako was really loyal to a team that wasn't giving anything back. all his teammates seemed to constantly crumble when it mattered, and while every iteration of DRX has struggled with consistency, it has never been mako's fault even when he is at his worst. he would have been rewarded for switching rosters because both GENG and T1 would have picked him up in a heartbeat if their smokes players were not karon or sylvan or another insanely talented korean smokes player. especially after how long those two have spent with their respective rosters, and have even won international tournaments with.

sylvan is too good to be replaced. he is often their second best player. mako stuck to DRX for too long for him to jump to another korean team. sure, i would expect any team to want mako on their team, but now the other 2 korean teams have really good smokes players, and mako replacing either of them just doesn't make sense, even considering how good mako is. and mako only knows korean too.

this is wrong. geng, fnc, wolves, prx, sen, g2, rrq, xlg is my ranking for now. ik sen beat wolves in groups but this team looks like a whole different monster with the momentum they have gained.

yeah it seems that every player on that team is carrying a weight or pressure on their backs that none of them are able to live up to. it makes me wonder what the current roster could do if they were on different teams. especially my goat mako :(

tbh flashback was a huge upgrade for foxy considering they were playing the same roles. i dont think DRX predicted that flashback would have so many... complications, to put it kindly, leading him to not be able to play on the main roster. foxy9 has really grown on the role on GENG though and i am super happy to see him do well there. DRX did give foxy9 quite a few chances on different roles but that stability that GENG provides was probably what allowed him to break through whatever was holding him back while he was on DRX. he showed signs of life while on DRX but he really wasn't performing on any of the roles he was put on, so I don't think this is a case of DRX not recognising talent, but them acknowledging that foxy9 was unable to perform to his best ability while on DRX. but yeah DRX management is questionable at the best of times.

nah, fns is too PRX biased for me.

please censor that word, it gives me uncontrollable panic attacks.

no no kushy is really amazing. jemkin is able to frag heavy because yoru is very self sufficient allowing jemkin to set himself up often. kushy frags heavy even while playing initiator. he is insane at fragging, clutching, and providing high impact. watch him closely when RRQ plays. he is a major reason for how RRQ even made it to masters toronto.

i find that offensive.

DIABOLICAL CLAPBACK

I don't wanna sign off
Out here gettin commas
Like my dad, I'm a grinder
She don't want me locked up
Mama, I'm gon wash up
Whip my wrist, it lock up
All my diamonds rocked up
I don't wanna sign off
my top 5 favourite songs of ALL TIME!!!! dark queen was so PEAK. im waiting for his glorious return with this kind of music.

i think the issue is TL is in a few esports already, and are not willing to invest in valorant as much as the others.

fortnite. its so chaotic and i love that

ok yeah that makes a lot of sense now. but now that serial has severely underperformed, and if this continues into stage 2, i expect a mid stage roster change because TL should be making champs with the state EMEA is in right now, and if they don't then there's something seriously wrong and it's not an issue with the other 4 players. also I'm sure that there are teams in EMEA lining up to sign trexx right now even despite his chemistry issues because he is too good to pass up. i think trexx is taking a break by choice, and even if TL wanted trexx, he might not join any team in stage 2.

i don't think they win here. top 3 for sure, and they will most likely make grand finals, but i think a different team takes it. either geng or fnatic over g2 right now.

fnatic

if we are talking solely by gameplay, trexx is the best free agent flex in EMEA right now by far. but i also do wonder if he will mess up the team chemistry. there must be a reason why TL didn't pick him up instead of serial. i hope trexx works on his issues because he is a top 10 player at worst in EMEA (hot take i know but i don't think we have seen his peak yet).

jemkin and kushy are genuinely unbelievably good. i was an RRQ hatewatcher and i had to admit that these two are very very close to unstoppable in their top form. idk much about xlg and rarga but they must be good if they were able to win china in stage 1. also i really don't think that xlg is a one man army with rarga; i think all 5 are pretty solid.

that could be down to the coaching. if multiple iterations promote the same culture, and the coach remains the same, it just means that termi might put so much pressure on the team to perform with their strats that he makes.

Atp there's no one else to blame but the coaching staff because wtf do you mean they can make playoffs but then just choke? And it's not just that they get outstratted. The entire team just crumbles like a house of cards in a hurricane. Why is it that when the strats don't work, they forget their fundamentals? Literally it's like they all forget they are tier 1 pros apart from mako, and even he does his fair bit of choking when they lose. And it's every time. Not just one or two chokes. They choke every time at every international playoffs that they make. I think I'm done cheering for DRX exactly for this reason. How come every player who has left has done better apart from 2 of them? That's crazy.

CLOCKED

alright alright keep it moving bro, take your self righteousness and stay away from me. i am struggling to find any reason to care about your reaction to what i said MONTHS ago. this was not worth the necro.

Evil eye ahh excuses at this point. Can we just admit that they are washed chokers? It will make the losses hurt less at least

They still will have the same. Just give them this small victory. They need whatever they can get.

Yeah aspas is playing like a bot right now. Mibr do not deserve to make Toronto playoffs in their current form sadly.

He's been the goat since 2022

Yeah I know that. But estrella is the igl and unless drx picks up another fragging igl to replace hik, the best choice to increase firepower on the team would be to replace beyn with another player that has a lot more fragging potential. Or keep everything the same and hope that freeing and beyn lock in for stage 2 and champions

Mako and hyunmin are the only international-winning caliber players that drx has rn. Freeing fell off really hard and estrella is ok but not good at fragging out. I don't mind estrella on the team as long as beyn is replaced with someone else or he starts popping off like crazy

snorting unholy levels of copium rn omfg. there is NO excuse to losing 13-1 to the team that's known for playing like brainless chickens.

guys why didn't we just let this thread die? this is too much now

was he interested after trexx was dropped because they play the same roles now?

syfm

go ask them instead of me. every international tournament in 2022 and 2023 was just mako top frag and the rest of the team having half his kills.

yeah they are always manchildren who have to cry about everything going wrong in their games. insufferable.

buzz? CHOKER. stax? CHOKER. Rb? CHOOOOKER. Zest? (mild) CHOKER. flashback? TRAITOR. freeing? TEJO MERCHANT. Beyn? (mild) CHOKER. mako? GOATTTT (carrying all these bums even in the big 25). hyunmin? the future of korean valorant if he locks tf in next stage. foxy9? CHRONIC CHOKER. don't let the fact that buzz and stax won an international let you think that they aren't chokers and weren't chokers on DRX.

i cant be bothered. i would rather someone tell me where if they know instead of me spending 2-5 minutes searching it up.

where can i watch beyblade? i only watched it as a child (a LOT of beyblade) but it came on TV. is there an actual place to watch it? i loved it so much

When trexx was on the team

bro was trolling hiro and hated on him in every single possible occasion on his stream and now he's probably his teammate LMAO

Hey let me try this