people putting gen.g at the top are delusional. yes they are good and will probs make it far. but they just take way too many uncharacteristic losses for me to have alot of faith in them

I thought ZETA could've look decent, but after kick-off I set my bar low for them and I was right

T1 qualifying had nothing to do with the international event itself. That was completely the poor formatting of the domestic leagues which is a whole different conversation to be had (dont worry, its shit, i agree)

ah ok nvm then lol, im probs thinking of something else

Bleed is more an honorable mention. I just feel like their hype was really high and even disregarding yay, I thought this team had a decent amount of upset potential. Then they just fell apart.

I always thought GENG was a slept on team since the start of the season, i thought everyone else was just underestimating them but I didnt. Ever since Kick-off and Madrid though (apart from some weird losses) they have looked pretty strong throughout the year. Secret on the other hand i feel like have been underestimated throughout every part of the year and keep breaking those expectations. I really do hope they make Seoul, they do deserve it

Im actually happy that the international events dont award alot of point to all the teams there. Cause then your gonna get the same problem that last year had of having the same teams at both the international events and it will just feel like a repeat.

It really just depends. They have an element of unpredictability in the way they play that can be hard to play around, but they also have a tendency to just do stupid plays for the sake of getting clips/kills. I feel like if teams just punish their aggression and their impatience, they will be able to handle them well, but I hope FPX win the playoffs in China. Will hopefully give them the fire to do well in Seoul

The way placements is prioritised are:

1. Who has the most wins. If they are equal,
2. Map record. If they are equal,
3. Round Differential. If they are equal,
4. Head to head score, who beat who. If it got to this stage, FPX would take first

Biggest surprise vs Biggest Disappointment in each region this year:

Americas:
Surprise: G2
Disappointment: NRG (Loud is a VERY close second now)

EMEA:
Surprise: Heretics
Disappointment: NAVI

Pacific:
Surprise: Secret
Disappointment: T1 or BLEED

China:
Surprise: All Gamers
Disappointment: Titan

potter in 8th and alecks at 9th?????

still really cool

completely unrelated, im not sure whether the RNT people the cameras keep panning to are a fansquad or like owners or stuff, but it is really cool seeing how much they support their team

JiJieHao, 1000%

EDG is basically guaranteed a spot at champs now. But it doesnt mean that they should be complacent with the 4th seed, cause then that means that everyone else in their champs group will be ranked higher than them

If T1 beat GE 2-0
BLEED beat GEN 2-0
GE beat GEN 2-0
TS beat GEN 2-0
and T1 beat BLEED 2-0

Then they can qual for playoffs. So yeah they are basically out

maybe but i dont know to much about JJH as an org itself so i dont know what their finance is like

The problem is that OCE esports is very underfunded. Even if an OCE team won ascension, i am 99% sure they wouldnt be finacially sustainable enough to be allowed in. They would most likely have to give the roster to another team that is willing to buy them, kinda Guard/G2 style but Im not sure how Riot would take it. There are only a couple of big teams in OCE including PWR, Ground Zero and FOCUSGG. These are the only teams I can imagine being somewhat stable enough to actually join the VCT

a. doctor saadhak
b. i would call in sick too if i had to play for furia

I was pretty certain that GENG had this in the bag, but after watching heretics tonight... this is going to be a VERY close and interesting game

G2 wasn't expected to make it out of swiss by many, they made damn top 3. not to mention icy only joined this team at the start of the split. i think anyone would be stomped against THAT heretics

the fact that they almost took out this team, looking back is insane and I think I'm ready to say it... fpx is better than edg

its hard to count the chinese viewership due to censorship and stuff, but ive heard that the numbers in china are MASSIVE

im a firm believer in swerl

AMERICAS:
100T, KRU, G2, SENTINELS (Circuit Points)

EMEA:
HERETICS, KARMINE CORP, NAVI, FNATIC (Circuit Points)

PACIFIC:
PRX, GENG, RRQ, DRX (Circuit Points)

CHINA
FPX, EDG, NOVA, TRACE (Circuit Points)

although FPX are playing pretty well with their obscure comps, i do also have to mention that FUT are just playing awfully rn, some of their decisions are just completely stupid

G2, fucking ego org

i will still stand by this opinion until the day i die. DFM actually played and looked really good that day. which honestly just sucks cause now we cant just shit on them for being a bad team haha, we actually know that they CAN be good, they just dont want to be by the looks of things

well SEN is at least reasonable cause of their circuit points. but nrg???????

yes cause player changes mid season definitely helped sentinels last year...

Americas: Aspas
China: Life or KK
Pacific: Davai, texture honorable mention

i dont watch enough emea so i cant judge that

T1 i could probs justify replacing Vitality, I just gave them leeway cause they did just barely squeak by into playoffs. It would be hard to say DRX disappointed though after a 5-0, could put teams like them and kru in the honorable mentions though just due to their playoff choke

This isn't a worst of list, this is a expectations vs results list.
Gimme your own cause I'm curious but mine are.

5 Vitality (one of the more underrated teams going into this year, but hasn't really met expectations yet)
4 Loud (will excuse first game cause Riot fucked them over, but haven't looked like their normally dominant selves this stage, pulled it back slightly at the end though)
3 JDG (sucks seeing such a good roster in former Rare Atom, turn to shit)
2 Sentinels (from masters winners, to missing out on playoffs)
1 NRG (do i need to say much)

honorable mentions: T1, Zeta, Wolves, BLG

reyna has the most selfish abilities in the games. her character and abilities just dont work well in a team based game

will give asuna credit where credit is due, he looks better this year. calls are still shit and i believe someone needs to duct tape his mouth, but he isnt playing as bad as last year

CN is really good to watch if you just want chaotic and fun valorant. Is it as developed as the other regions yet, not quite, but in a way that gives it its own sort of unique charm

Was tossing up between EDG and FPX, ultimately FPX did just beat EDG so that does help, but also i see alot of more fire and drive in this team over EDG. EDG ever since Champs last year have had this acceptance for complacency and its concerning, at least not just yet.

Like I mentioned before, I'm the least experienced with the EMEA region so my preds probs aren't the best but from what I've seen NAVI are probably the closest thing to perfect in the EMEA, Heretics is pretty close to them though.

C9 could build the most shit roster of washed up talents and nobodies (not saying their current roster is) and they will SOMEHOW always manage to make it work. Some sort of wizardry going on there, could justify putting them a bit lower though

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1108658336943063110/1233802622981640235/image.png?ex=662e6bbc&is=662d1a3c&hm=2190bb8f8f84166a3d9b707ebddaab86cc0bf9e1eaa4a97e78eb2c85ef520264&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=810&height=355

• Am open to criticism
• Take my emea picks with a grain of salt (it is my least watched region)
• Each team's placement is relative to it's own region
• Only one team per region in the perfect tier

(also side note, i did this in like 5-10 minutes, im really fucking bored lol

bro whats the point in predicting shit anymore when every single game is an upset and nothing is being predicted right. i mean granted, it makes games more excited and interesting, but i want my predictions to be right dammit

KRU 2nd????????? that aint staying for long lol, they got lev loud and 100t in their next games

i dont get why Bleed is so scared of yay and chamber. today they literally had the best maps possible to play chamber and they didnt let yay pick it once, meanwhile Zeta picked it twice. i just dont get it

i dont know what GE did to Polvi, this guy looked like an diamond in the rough last year in t2

fair honestly

i still think sen had a better gameplan and had a good comeback, but wtf do you do against a record breaking aspas

yeah but you can keep dreaming about that, it aint gonna happen

i didnt like alot of secrets strats against rrq. they kinda are just praying on the fact that other teams aren't gonna anti-strat them

they have bleed, secret, ge and geng left. I can see them losing to geng most likely but the other three atm look like pretty good games for them to win. both drx and prx still have to face t1 and geng which they could lose in a close battle. as long as dfm can reel back some of their round differential in their next games outside of geng, its highly possible at this rate (granted they keep playing as they did tonight)

because their win looked GOOD, it was pretty convincing. loved the way they were playing (maybe not as much map 2) but in the first and third map they were playing really cautiously and gathered as many recon and info as possible and pushed off of that. they never let t1 play how they wanted to play and it worked in their favour. if they play how they played tonight for the rest of the season, i see them beating the rest of the team belows

meiy is definately the star player, but neth, medusa, ssees and anthem all proved they can stand on their own

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxoPOMRLY32-qhr2chrErDRWcACs_3KEBe?si=B6AQcfAgwXCya8me