Hi guys, it's been a while since I made my last thread here, I missed talking to you. In this post I intend to give my opinion on the 10 teams that will play the Brazilian VCT that will start this Saturday 02/12, be polite and healthy in the comments, I also want to know your opinion!
The order of the teams is from best to worst, in my opinion, and I based my arguments with some information I have about all the teams in the scrims and also what I believe about how Valorant should be played.
Title contenders:
1- Vivo Keyd (Heat, Murizz, Mwzera, V1xen, Jhow): Last year's VK had an obvious weakness which was the MAP Pool, imo they had two exceptional maps (Breeze and Icebox), three average/bad maps (Fracture, Bind, and Split), and two really bad maps (Haven and Ascent ) compared to international Tier 1. This year Mwzera will have a more active role in most maps and will play as Raze, I believe that the meta with Neon/Chamber will favor the flexibility of VK because Heat is an excellent operator and will present a high level Chamber, I believe that with the improvement of the MAP Pool VK will be an even more solid team added to all the international and LAN experience they obtained in 2021, on stage they will be arguably the best team when the playoffs happen.
2- LOUD (Aspas, Saadhak, Sacy, Pancada, Less): What to say about this team? They're perfect, they're a super team, honestly the only weak point I can see in this LOUD is the short team time and Aspas and Less' lack of experience in LAN, but they already seem so connected! I am impressed with Saadhak's performance as a flex player, he was already one of the best Sentinels in the world and seems to be even more promising as a flex player, Sacy is the best Sova in the world, Aspas and Less are formidable players who are already impressive indeed without having experience, I'm looking forward to seeing them on the international stage, but what makes this lineup special is Pancada, this guy has been a rock for this team and piles up impressive numbers for such a difficult role and having to play anchor roles on the CT side, imo Pancada is already one of the best Rifling controllers in the world and I also want to see his performance on the international stage. In summary, LOUD will be the champion in this first split in my opinion, even if VK is a stronger team due to the experience and team time factor, in the long term LOUD will be the best team in Brazil.
3- Sharks (Gaabx, Prozin, Addicted, Killdream, FrzGOD): I don't understand why people underestimate this team so much, Gaabx and Prozin have always been excellent players and with a lot of impact, they called FrzGOD who together with Shion were the best flex players in Brazil in 2021 and I have no doubt that he will be excellent too as Sentinel now. In addition, they joined the 2 best Portuguese players and the best coach, together they were top 17 EMEA last year and this is no small thing, Brazil has a lot of talent but we lack a lot of game knowledge and tactical structure, I would say that the addition of Addicted, Killdream, and Mowzassa were excellent for Sharks and they will be my bet for Dark Horses, from what I've heard about their 1 month period in Europe I would say they are at the Vivo Keyd and Loud level without doubts, if they are not better, then they will be a big surprise in this VCT.
4- Furia (Qck, AbleJ, Nozwer, Mazin, Khalil): I've always loved this Furia team but I thought the players were uncomfortable with the roles they played last year, especially after Mazin was added to the team, now I think it will be different and QCK is 100% comfortable playing as a duelist, AbleJ is performing excellently as Flex, NZR is top 5 Sova in the world, Mazin is one of the best players in Brazil as Astra, and Khalil is one of the biggest talents in the region and has already proven that he can play any agent at a high level, the QCK kids and Khalil grew up and gained a lot of international experience in the past year and even became LCQ LAN champions. Furia will be a better team than they were in 2021 without a doubt, I'm told they have an interesting and curious approach to the metagame and I'm looking forward to seeing them in their debut.
Playoffs Contenders:
Small Gap - Firepower.
5- Liberty (Glym, Shion, Krain, Myssen, Liazzi): Liberty is the best organization in Brazil and they have an exemplary structure and career plan, I love what they do. This lineup surprised on stage 3 of 2021 and got the spot for the Masters of Belim, performed poorly on LAN and were eliminated early. I think the addition of Glym was interesting because he is a great player and is very knowledgeable and communicative (this will help now that Pleets left the team, he was a good IGL), Glym is also flex and can play with many agents at a high level, a consistent Operator. They work hard and there is a clear hierarchy between Staff and Players, I like that and I believe the sky is the limit for this team, it wouldn't surprise me if they were champions at some point this year. Individually I believe they are below the 4 teams above this list, but in structure and tactics they are on the same level.
Medium Gap - Structure, game knowledge, macro game.
6- Ninjas in Pyjamas (Xand, Jonn, Cauanzin, Bnj, Bezn): NIP has 5 excellent players individually and they are capable of beating any team from this VCT in a BO3, but I didn't like the way this team was set up, I can say that only Xand and Cauanzin are comfortable in the roles they are playing, the other roles are in overlap and the players are doing the role for the first time, Xand and Bnj are the brains of this team and I believe in the potential of Jonn and Bezn as Flex/Sentinel, but I think the lineup will take a few months to show convincing results , especially since the top 5 teams above on this list are already solid. NIP has great potential and is an long term project imo.
7- Gamelanders Blue (Dgzin, Chase, Vinny, Nyang, Fuzari): They've had about 15 days of bootcamp in NA in the last few weeks, they have amazing players and they work hard, I've always liked Nyang as a controller and I believe he'll be much more comfortable now, I also like the addition of JPzera, he's going to the trouble of restructuring the team as a whole so possibly we will see a different team within the server, I believe they will get playoffs through group A and I'm curious to see how they will perform.
Underdogs:
Medium Gap - Especially in firepower and structure.
8- TBK (TuyZ, Kon4n, Ryotzz, Luk, Matheuzin): Team with good structure and organization, they've been together for almost 1 year, TuyZ and Kon4n are very good players and they can surprise, they have a lot of experience.
9- Vikings (Veroneze, Pollo, DS, PepA, Swag): Lineup with good players individually but excessive role overlap, they were playing well in scrims and can win series of favorite teams if they are underestimated.
10- Light Ingaming (BRN, Pdr, Nanzin, RgLM, Flainzz): Good team that showed an impressive improvement from the first closed to the second, if BRN is inspired they can surprise, but they will have a very difficult path ahead, group B is very stacked and clearly the other four teams are superior in several factors.
This was my opinion about the VCT BR teams, I hope you liked it, what did you think?
Bump = Humble and Polite.
Thank you!!
Sincerely,
Noyn.
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