When do people start considering that this guy might be the problem alongside DrewSpark. A roster this good should be playing much better. Sad to see that a coach that didn't even make NA LCQ and an analyst that put Sacy on controller are running the biggest Valorant org lol.
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what about the game against 100thieves on pearl. In that game they had SOOOOO many strats that it looked like they were forgetting what to do since they couldn't remember what the strat was. So against c9 and lev you can see they tried to make things more simpler which obviously didn't work out. But this just shows that even with strats the players dont get the results they want and without strats its the same story. It is a player problem and not a coach. I also think they need an actual igl and not just marved randomly being put as igl.
ur low iq, they have a good amount of set plays and advanced protocols that work once
they have NO basic protocols or default, which is what makes fnatic so good the fact that they have perfect spacing and trading, and that's not just individual skill it's what mini instilled
kaplan gotta revisit the basics
Mini and Boaster have been on fnc since day one. The player's ability to frag and work together is not on the coach. Mini can create the strats, but it is on the players to develop chemistry. Results speak. Mini has been creating strats for 2 years now, yet he is only now getting recognition for his work. Yet, when there were not results, was he really a bad coach?
your missing his point. Fnatic was ranked like the 2nd best team in a few events and almost every event apart from 2021 reykavick when they had 2 subs but with derke they were still ranked top 4. But in all those events only once did they manage to get top 4 even though they were expected to come top 4 every single time. So people wondered how amazing players like the best in europe are not getting good results just like whats happening with sentinels. It is not a coach problem but a player problem.
Since Mini has consistent results, what can we say about potter? EG is praised during Tokyo for being the ones for innovating the meta and leading in terms of strats, yet during the beginning of the America's season, EG was awful. The only change that occurred were between the players on the server. Granted Demon1 was playing out of his mind, at Tokyo, EG seemed to be very team-oriented and strat heavy. What I am implying is when a team has bad results, people will blame the coach, yet when that same coach has good results, they will be praised. The work the coaches do are invisible to the fans and it is up to the management who've seen the bts to figure that out.
The biggest difference with Demon1 is that before Demon1 they didn't have a consistent Jett which is played on 70% of the maps. Potter beat Optic with Apoth and Reformed, players we don't even know about. I'm pretty sure Kaplan's best result was a win against XSET. Potter proved it now with Demon1, Kaplan can't prove it with TenZ, Marved, Zekken, Sacy, and Pancada. That's all I have to say
You literally just proved my point. You say that EG without Demon1 lacks a consistent jett player, yet how is that potter's fault if there is role inflexibility in the players prior to Demon1. That is a problem for the players to fix, to try to improve their agent pool, not the coach's fault that the team now lacks a jett player. And how is the part about their past results relevant here? Firstly, Potter has been able to head coach a t1 team for 2 years now, she will ofc have some results, whereas kaplan has not as a head coach. I dont know if you are trying to prove how Potter is a good coach whereas Kaplan isn't, but it doesn't make sense because Kaplan has only been head coach for a few months with constant roster changes. Your last sentences doesn't make sense either because you make it sound like Demon1 enabled Potter because the only change between a good EG and a bad EG was adding Demon1. Isn't the coach suppose to enable the team and player, not the other way around. The way you make it sound, isn't that a detriment to the sen player's inability to enable kaplan as a coach?
So EG ran a 10-man roster correct? They used this 10-man roster to find what works and what doesn't, they integrate Demon1 in because they notice in scrims that he is the way to go for this roster to be finalized and to qualify for playoffs. This is an example of a good coach, Potter got 10 players that she requested management to give contracts to which they did so Potter can embark on this project and find what is the best fit. This is an example of a good coaching system and without Potter, this move doesn't happen and EG doesn't flourish. Kaplan and Dephh picked up 2 current world champs and brought in familiar faces with zekken & dephh while keeping TenZ. They later picked up Marved as a 6th man a say I'm sure the coaches had to have a say for. If a coaching system is picking out the players and the roles, how is there role issues. How is there synergy problems, how is there a lack of consistency, etc. Jakee and Runi played their first matches excellentally.. Same with Demon1 coming from Tier 2 with the assistance of Potter on how to position and set him up. I can go on but I want to sleep instead of argue with you about how I'm correct.
What??? So you're telling me the management that has 0 experience with Valorant is picking up players? I'm sure coaches had a big say in the players they can pick or else it would make no sense and would be even more of a failure if Kaplan and Sykko was entrusted with a roster they didn't even want. And if Potter is entrusted with picking up an academy team and forming a 10-man franchise roster, alongside with mCe being able to drop vanity and yay. I'm sure these coaches have a lot of power, not to mention that Fnatic was willing to get Leo and Chronicle and also invested in Alfajer earlier. All these decisions were heavily impacted by the coach and the igl.
They picked the players?? Also roles and agents should not be a problem in 2023 Valorant, I'd agree with you if this was last year or 2021 but if you look at rosters like EG, LEV, C9, NRG, Fnatic,(any good team) every player can flex multiple agents. I get it they were world champs in their roles but Ardiis was a world champion on jett/chamber but he plays KJ on some maps.
Part of NRG trying to fix their role issues was having ardiis play KJ and swapping init/lurk role for FNS/Victor because their playstyle fit the other role better. Part of SEN trying to fix their role issues while Dephh + Tenz was still a thing was having Sacy play Viper so that Dephh could play initiator and call with the pack. The only difference being that NRG had success with these changes and SEN didn't. Between TenZ, Dephh, Pancada, Sacy, and zekken who do you expect to play controller on any map? Put pancada on controller and either Sacy/Dephh are forced to be uncomfortable with the sentinel role. I don't disagree that there needs to be flexibility within a roster but unfortunately forcing players on less comfortable roles doesn't always pan out. Other rosters are insanely lucky to have players that have a large amount of flexibility, like FNATIC or NRG, unfortunately other rosters like SEN don't always have that option
EDIT: Not to mention that SEN had the most unstable roster of the season, TenZ in and out, Dephh stepping down to bring in Marved who has minimal IGL experience (also forcing another role swap), Sykko leaving mid season, like how can we expect these players to change something week by week and have good results?
You're acting like when they had the original roster they looked good when they were abysmal. These challenges you've brought up are challenges every team faces, Zellsis and Runi interchange agents a lot same with other teams in this season. You also have to consider that these were the players that the coach wanted also, mCe had a plan with c9, Potter had a plan with Demon1 and Ethan as the new pickups, Onur saw what he can do with Leviatan, list goes on and on. I feel like there is just special stuff given to SEN and although I agree they were unlucky, there are many teams that can just adapt and play well. PRX fucking added a pubg streamer and got 3rd at tokyo, I'm sure SEN should definitely be able to figure something out.
I won't fall into the VLR special of pinning the blame on one person on the team, it happened with dephh, it happened with TenZ, it happened with Syyko. Now, it's happening with everyone else on the roster. At what point do we learn that one person joining/leaving the team will not magically solve all of the problems. I'm absolutely sick of seeing changes to this roster every 2-3 weeks, time and time again we see the same failure yet here we are, "When do people start considering that this guy might be the problem"
This thread resembles the issue that has been at the heart of Sentinels since the beginning of 2023. Constantly pushing for changes, they never had adequate time to develop their roster. Between visa issues, having to start practice later than other teams, W3 head coach is gone, then W4 your star player is gone, then W7 your IGL is gone and now your 6th man has to step in two months before LCQ.
These guys never had a chance.
Also Kaplan not leading Ghost to NA LCQ last year doesn't mean shit lol, such a ridiculous results focused take when C9 are out here getting players from T2 and turning them into superteam players. Last year FNATIC got grouped in Reykjavik, 4th in Copenhagen, 5th-6th in Champs and now they're currently the best team in the world, and the first team to win back to back international trophies. Last year you would have said that FNATIC needed to replace Boaster and Mini as coach, this year you'd never consider saying such a thing. DRX/VS has stuck with their same core of players since 2021 even after bombing out of Masters Berlin and Champs and have had consistently good results at international LANs ever since.
You can look back on my posts, I have never said that Mini and Boaster need to be replaced. They got fucked over many times by stuff like COVID, braveaaf situation, etc. They dealt with it and still made it to LANS and performed decently. If you told me last year that Sacy, Pancada, and Marved would not make it to a single international lan this year I would not believe you but that is what that comes up with this. This game is very coach centric if you haven't noticed with teams like EG, C9, NRG, LEV, etc. I would much rather have more trust if the coach could even make NA LCQ let alone a LAN than the other coaches in the franchise that have incredible results and receipts of transformation. We've seen what Potter did against Optic, we've seen what mCe did to The Guard, the wild card is Sykko but that's the only roster I believe where that chemistry is what kept them going compared to the coach's magic. At the end of the day, the players are in the server and if they only have 1 strat which is an A rush on Pearl then the team is lost.
Anybody that has ever spoke to or worked with Kaplan can attest to how good of a coach he is, you're too results focused and fail to realize that in this game, teams are competing and aren't just going to roll over on their side, anybody can win. This is just classic VLR all over again, when a team wins, their coach/players are suddenly gifts from God, yet when the same team loses, we call them shit/washed and immediately push for changes. Again, you continue to list teams some of which carry player/coach cores dating back to 2021, Sentinels lost that at the beginning of their season, those teams have had time to develop and flourish, Sentinels were never given a chance.
No one is going to openly shit on a coach at the end of the day results are what matters, that's all what esports is. If you don't have results you lose your job, I don't care about the "feel good" feelings that a coach gives to players. If Kaplan is such a good coach then Sentinels will dismiss the results and keep Kaplan. You can come back to this post and prove me wrong if he gets resigned.
Knowing Sentinels he's definitely getting dropped regardless of him being a good coach lol, this org can do nothing except drop their coaches/players immediately after results don't go their way. Maybe if they stuck with the people they signed this org would have some success. Can't wait for them to change this roster again for 2024 and see a thread like this made by people just like you on VLR after they inevitably fail again. Of course results matter, but time does too, and I find it hard to put ALL the blame on a coach who had to deal with players in and out of the roster, losing the XSET core, needing to make multiple role swaps throughout the season, and then not even having a seasoned IGL on top of that. Oh well, let's just keep replacing and praying. Next time Sentinels lose a match, they should just buy an entirely new roster, since there's definitely no way they can win after losing a couple matches. I'm huffing that KRUpium hard, since that org knows how to stick with their roster and look at where they are at because of it.
There is def talent in Sen but I just don't think theit chemistry is good and the langauge barriers make everything difficult and then Sen don't have an actual IGL and then Tenz barely ever talks and doesn't give input or to tell teamates where people are when he dies ect... and the same thing is similar with pancada. It's also just a confidence thing as well as the SEN players would be at an all time low against LEV especially after map 1.
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