Hello, I figured I would write down my preliminary thoughts on each of the franchised teams after watching them at LOCK//IN. The full list was too long for a single post, so here are the Americas teams.

Americas:

LOUD: Saadhak has done an incredible job integrating new players. I don't think cauanzin and tuyz are quite at the level of Sacy/pANcada, but this team is still the crown jewel of the Americas. Also, 4 teenagers has insane potential for success for years to come. LOUD aren't going anywhere.

LEV: When they won movistar gods despite almost no practice and looking like puggy mess of star fraggers, I had some doubts, but they looked so disciplined at LOCKIN. Taco sporadically disappearing is a problem, but this team is stacked.

NRG: Inconsistent fragging on every player besides crashies makes me doubt this roster's potential to sustain deep runs, but the overall firepower is acceptable along with world class teamplay and tactics to keep them a threat to every team they face.

SEN: The potential of this roster is still great, but everyone except TenZ has struggled to look comfortable in this system. I think this team will take down several top Americas contenders in 2023, but if the coordination doesn't improve, getting to Tokyo will be tough.

Cloud9: This team still has one of the best cores in all of Valorant. zellsis, leaf, and xeppaa are all star level players. Dropping yay is still terrible for this team's potential, and I think this team has cost cut just to be stuck in good but not quite good enough territory.

100T: I don't know what happened since RBHG3, but they integrated a top 5 superstar into a system with great fundamentals and made it work right off the bat only to see it regress back into the stone age. I actually think the firepower outside of cryo is fairly overrated, but cryo was the main focal point of their struggles at LOCK//IN.

FUR: I was impressed by Mazin's calling at LOCKIN, and mwzera is once again a contender for best BR player. Aside from mw, I don't trust the other players on this team to have the kinds of individual performances that I think LOUD/MIBR are capable of, but if this tournament's tactical coordination wasn't a fluke, they can challenge for a spot at Tokyo.

MIBR: This team works best off set plays, and they have underrated player quality to make that work. Their midrounding has looked pretty terrible, and I don't trust their ability to play the information game to outmaneuver or outcoordinate their opponents. Putting heat back on Jett and moving other players to make that fit would be my call.

EG: The epitome of good but not great. All of their players are competent (starting 5 + one or two on the reserve), but the ceiling isn't that high. The strats look good, but lack that X factor that many great teams have. The talent development concept is... unique as far as franchised systems go, but this roster by itself isn't going anywhere fast.

KRU: Adding keznit is great, but xand feels like a strange player to remove. This team feels like it has lost some of the fundamentals that made old KRU good, and the firepower just isn't there.

what's 🐔joe's opinion

love u

Sentinels fixture list is interesting.
the last 5 games are very winnable.
but the first 4 are very hard. nrg into lev into loud.. impossible really.

it might be good for them to use the backhalf to pick up steam going into playoffs

WH OMEGALUL

I actually think the firepower outside of cryo is fairly overrated

agreed.

SEN didnt look too bad their coordination seems to be going along pretty a tier, they just forgot to break kj turret on haven and walked into a with 4 people on it every time. i think them even winning some of those rounds says a lot about the individual skill we know sentinels to have always had, they just keep grinding the teamplay and get experience together and they will be top contenders

All good except eg, mibr, and kru. This 3 teams need to change their rosters or at least try different comps

zellsis is an “all-star player” kekw..

not fair to say nrg has inconsistent fraggers. victor simply had a horrible off-day and ardiis frags consistently when on duelist. you have to keep in mind they are testing comps where like four of their players have played killjoy this tourney.. & how is crashies the weak link brotha??

look at previous results when making these lists, some teams literally only played one match, difficult to form an accurate opinion off of.

Can I don't read this🗿

W write up, although I don’t think NRG lackfire power necessarily, they just seem to start off slow a lot.

W. agree w/ everything especially 100t

you are overrating 100t and sen

Agreed with everything bar “Aside from mw, I don't trust the other players on this team to have the kinds of individual performances that I think LOUD/MIBR are capable of”

If you ask any Brazilians most will take furia’s individual skill over loud’s and boaster even ranked dgzin as the toughest player he met during the event (said it in his Q&A), and if you remember just how stacked fnatic’s roster is individually you’ll see that Mazin and qck are pretty good as well. The only one who had a bad performance this tournament was Khalil which is why people have been saying that replacing him for pancada would be perfect, but we’ll see

what you said about NRG, you can say it to every single team