Icy might be the most shit duelsit i've ever seen, and someone like me i'm very oldgen.
G2 Icy has 52 kills total in the past 20 games, jesus bottom fragging when u have JonahP on your team is very hard.
I agree with the sentiment that icy is probably below the quality G2 need if they wanna win a Masters or regional trophy, but JonahP catching strays is crazy when he has been arguably their most consistently great player. The man clutched a 1v4 to ace and knock out Heretics. But icy definitely holds the current G2 back from potentially getting trophies given other duelists have such a dominant presence that locks icy out of a map. He even said it himself after the loss to FNATIC. It's either drop icy for a new duelist or swap his role with leaf's. I like leaf on Sentinel, but he was frying on duelist for C9. He seems a lot more confident in his aim and aggressive with the util compared to icy.
https://www.vlr.gg/378675/edward-gaming-vs-g2-esports-valorant-champions-2024-winners-d keep in mind this is against the team who won champs, no clue what your sources are
I see this line of reasoning all the time - "he opens space", "he plays for the team". If that's the case, then play a different role. The duelist is meant to get kills off their util. The duelist is meant to get the majority of opening frags. And I think this is something key, but the duelist is meant to be the last resort when strats aren't working exactly as intended - a top duelist will be able to take over and adapt to the situaiton because of their raw mechanical skill in movement and aim. Icy unfortunately is not as mechanical as other duelists. He's a good team player, but you need someone who can pop-off and ride momentum. Valyn does well regardless since he is a top tier IGL. His calling at the best is pinpoint surgery and his aim can win out rounds. JonahP and Leaf are consistently amazing due to their dialled in mechanical aim. Trent is a very solid initiator especially on Sova.
True it was a G2 win in that match, but it can be argued EDG got better as Champs progressed. Couple this with their strong map pool and G2 tend to struggle on Bo5, then this match is nothing meaningful. If anything, by the kill differential metrics and first kills to first deaths, EDG should have won that game. They definitely squandered their lead in numbers during rounds, but it was a close series nonetheless and one that tested EDG's ability to adapt to really slow methodical Valorant. Unfortunately G2 couldn't get past LEV and FNC with icy being the bottom frag in both series with triple negative numbers:
https://www.vlr.gg/378832/g2-esports-vs-fnatic-valorant-champions-2024-lr1
https://www.vlr.gg/378824/g2-esports-vs-leviat-n-valorant-champions-2024-ubqf
His numbers were a bit underwhelming considering Leaf was the previous duelist and did arguably a much better job putting up numbers. Icy had few games where he was far away the top fragger on his team and in fact had more games going negative on K/D and in the lower end of frags. With a name like icy and how he was #1 radiant on a few occasions, you would expect he has crispy cold aim, but he was lukewarm on impressions. G2 definitely use the duelist more as a distraction to get kills for the other teammates rather than telling the duelist to "go kill". It's worked out to a great extent undeniably, but this line of thinking will only put a ceiling on G2's potential. The teams who have won trophies have shown that they have teams with great tactical depth like G2, but paired with a duelist who can hold their own and rally the team with their fragging capability.