I think people are annoyed just because they are too good, so they fall back on hating them. To be fair this years' G2 is more flashier, they take more individual risks and fights, its only tejo stuff people hate.

You never know, they might just go on a run. But I think they have less chance now after seeing yesterdays Lotus, even if Shyy and Keznit have peak performances and still they couldnt win that map? They will find very hard to get rounds against G2 if they dont step it up.

I think thats just not true. Who is stronger than 100T and KRU in bracket? Sure they didnt get G2 or SEN in their bracket, but still they are not below top 3.

In Masters Toronto there will be at most 4 but most likely 2 non-english comming teams out of 12. They are: GENG, winner of EDG/BLG, and another potential Korean team and KRU if they qualify. Every other team that has qualified or about to qualify comms in English.

I think Sen needs to target yoru maps to take advantage of Aspas not playing yoru. If Sen get 2 of Haven, Pearl and Split they should be able to win against MIBR.

I watch a lot of zekken's streams and I think I know since when SEN has been working on the new Icebox. Zekken did stream on April 3rd and played only omen, about 4 games on stream (https://tracker.gg/valorant/match/d3622c11-039d-475e-ab78-dd6df84d6aac). After they lost to KRU, it looks like they have been working on Icebox with Omen for a months now, I now zekken bottomfragged that map today but his util was pretty good (need to work on some paranoia lines), especially his smokes were confusing G2 a lot.

The best thing about this win is SEN overcame all of their demons. They lost on their best map Split due to nerves and won on their 2 worst maps historically Ascent and Icebox purely based on prep, setups and teamwork. We didnt need the crazy good form from N4RRATE, zekken and johnqt to take this win, although they had some important rounds. Bang being in a really good form and zellsis making some clutch plays definitely helped. Maaaan what a day to be a Sen fan.

They are playing so scared and midrounding is so bad right now, they just need to wake up and communicate to each other. John and bang are playing so scared especially, they are waiting out every smoke like its undestructable wall

SEN players are so nervous man, why are they so slow on making decisions? They are so disconnected its insane, zekken wants to flood, bang and john are waiting behind smokes everytime, zellsis looks like only player who has confidence but he is so isolated every time. Just be together, mpre confident and decisive man

Am I wrong in saying that he doesnt know how to properly peek? Watch kaajak or Alfa peek angles and compare it to boaster, are you saying they are at the same level? He is getting a lot of his kills from anchoring or lurking, not from taking 1v1s.

You are kinda right he doesnt know how to jiggle out angles like duelists or crouch peek but he wide swings a lot and it helps him to get more frags and get traded easier than the players I mentioned.

I think one of the main reasons why so many igls and some initiator players who get clowned on for not being able to shoot back is because of their movement and the way they peek angles, basically they are easier to kill.
For instance, you see players like boaster, FNS, boostio get insta headshotted when they peek players but its usually them not peeking correctly instead of other player being cracked. Usually their gun barrel or their body's edge sticks out before they fully peek angles or they swing extra wide not expecting to see a player on an off angle.
I think you can see this difference when you watch GC as well, you can only spot 3-4 players in entire server who knows how to peek, but in tier 1 its usually around 1-2 players in the server who doesnt know how to peek.

When is NRG players are just gonna admit they are just bad? So far this for every loss this season in the interviews, podcast and other public responses, there is always a some sort of excuse. So I decided to list a collection of all of them below:
1) vs C9: Xeppa life series, they are abusing tejo
2) KRU: just got unlucky with bad starts, got spammed thru smokes, Verno isnt communicating well enough
3) C9: another Xeppa life series, its just Brawks first game
4) G2: just got unlucky at the start of Lotus, G2 cringe post-plant meta abusers, Jawgemo life series
5) MIBR: FNS did well to get to sites but just threw post-plants and nothing else wrong, oh dont forget another Verno life series
6) 100T: Asuna so lucky in his entries and neon abusing, shouldve won Haven but 100T just snowballed on their defense, aaaaand Zander life series.

I didnt believe this fact and I just checked it is actually true. Even in the 1st game where they stomped MIBR or recent games against 2G and EG he had gone negative. Thats honetly impressive and disappointing at the same time, even FNS and boostio have at least 2 matches they have gone postive this season.

Is this years 100T definiton of mid? They beat bottom table teams convincingly but might have some close maps, but lose to top teams convincingly but might have a close map. They are like picture perfect 6-7 team this year.

Yesterday, I was able to predict 5/6 maps in the matches (https://www.vlr.gg/477830/americas-playoffs-preds-with-maps/#1) so I hope I can predict todays matches.

1) 100T vs NRG
Mid off you banger you didnt expect to get at the start of the season. 100T on paper showed a better form in group stages, also they should have a better firepower but their map pool matchup is very hard to predict against NRG from their perspective considering the prep time difference.

100T ban Lotus
NRG ban Split
100T pick Haven
NRG pick Pearl
100T ban Icebox
NRG ban Ascent
Fracture remains

I am not confident at either team to be consistently good at any map, so only thing to go off is firepower and I favor 100T 55/45

2) EG vs C9
Although EG are heavy underdogs, its quite hard to predict their map veto as well, because they have been banning their opponents best map so far so its quite rough prep day for Immi. One thing good from SEN game to take away is though, C9 are leaning into their strengh which is 7-map pool and banning their opponents good maps even tho they are quite good at it, for example Haven and Split bans yesterday. So I expect C9 to ban Lotus which looks like EG's best map:

C9 ban Lotus
EG ban Ascent
C9 pick Haven
EG pick Fracture
C9 ban Icebox
EG ban Pearl
Split remains

One of EG's biggest weaknesses is I think their defensive sides on maps like Lotus, Haven and Pearl and I dont think they have fixed this issue so far and this might be the difference maker even if individual form is close today. I wont be surprised if EG get less than 7-8 rounds in defense this entire series. So my pred: 70/30 for C9

You can lose even with the best aimers in the league, just look at some Talon or T1 games this year, or even Vitality this split, it is not all about shooting, you need to have a good gameplan to beat other teams in VCT. Talon for example, didnt respect Zeta as much and thought we can just outaim them and win but they got destroyed, but next week they came hard prepped against the team with arguably the best aimers in the world and they won.

Just rewatched the split game vs 100T and I am not gonna lie MIBR won at least 6-7 rounds from prep and early half gameplans.
MIBR on attackside abused the fact that Astra is not as good of an anchor against fast bursts on B and got the 6-1 start based on solely abusing Zander on B.
MIBR on defense had a gameplan to play verno solo hold A line and they 4 stacked B every round at the start of the half and won 4 out of first 6 rounds because of it. It wasnt until 100T started doing hard execs MIBR started losing rounds.
Really impressed by how good of prep MIBR has and how fRoD has such a series changing impact because by watching MIBR early on I thought they were just 5 aimers.

How do you feel about this match in general. It feels nice to get the win in playoffs but I dont know how to feel about their chances against G2 still.
Player formwise, Sen basically won of heroics from Zekken and Bang, and 1v1 clutches from Zellsis, johnqt and N4RRATE didnt show their form aimwise in group stages but their util was still good. Gameplanwise, I was satisfied with Ascent and Pearl Attack gameplan but their Pearl defense still looks rough against good opponents, this game awfully resembled their kickoff Pearl defense halves against G2 and MIBR, i dont if it was nerves and C9 just snowballing but some rounds they did some really bad mistakes.
MIBR still look better than SEN so far but they should secure top 3 if they keep up this form. I have little bit more hope now against G2 with how good their Ascent looked and zekken looking like one of the top 5 players in the world again, but other people need to step it up to beat G2, especially N4RRATE.

But still they were competetive on non-gekko maps like Ascent and Breeze at their peak and beat some good teams on those just purely on individuals and outshooting the other team. Right now they were only be able to outshoot EG and 2G so far, every other opponent outaimed them

How is 100T look like they dont stand a chance in terms of firepower? Similar thing happened in the games against KRU and SEN as well where they lost a lot of gunfights in strategically good positions and lost the match but it seems weird to me this roster is lacking firepower considering their success last year. It looks like I am watching 2v5 or 3v5 everytime against MIBR, was Bang that much better than Zander?

Why is nobody shooting in 100T except Asuna and Cryo? All of the 8-10 kills Eeiu, boostio and zander got are all exit kills pretty much. Come on how is their trading so bad with teams that is together for 2 years? So disappointing

Split comp specifically was first played by Sen and G2 played it with Astra instead of Omen, they changed into Omen at Bangkok after they got 13-4d by Sen at Kickoff. Give the credit where its due

People talk shit about Furia so much but I am sure they would be able to beat KOI because at least FURIA players can aim

I think its too early for Sato, give him some time in NA tier 2 to develop because we have seen some inconsistent performances so far from Sato and he is adjusting to a new team in recent matches and showing decent performances. I think for now dgzin is still a good duelist to stick with and he is not the reason why LOUD were losing matches. I think they need to find another breach/kayo flex igl player who can shoot basically and that solves a lot of problems.
Spike joining might be a good for the team but LOUD turns into just 5 shooters team in that case and I dont know who is gonna setup other players in this roster because every player is better with their gun than their util.

If zekken wakes up they dont lose a map against C9 because of C9s playstyle. In my opinion, some of C9's bad macro decisions are getting covered by amazing individual form from v1c and xeppa, and some good maps by Oxy. If you look at their attack rounds they dont default as much as other top teams, they 4-man site hit a lot within 40s and push into spawn most of the time if they dont have a lurker or other space. If SEN come ready for that and their players hit their shots C9 will hit a brick wall and dont win a map.

8 hours from now on stage 1 playoffs in Americas starts and honestly these first two games will tell a lot about how the playoffs will playout.
First of all, group omega teams seem stronger and they have shown more consistent and better valorant so far and we have to see how they play against Group Alpha teams to really see how good they are.
1) MIBR vs 100T
MIBR are huge favourites coming in because they play better valorant than 100T in general, 100T playstyle is heavily dependent on teamfights and individuals popping off whereas MIBR resembles old macro based 2022-2023 LOUD, with a star duelist like Aspas, aggro lurker who is eager to take fights like Less/Cortezia and good aggro igl with Artzin/Saadhak.
If 100T want an upset they must 1st ban one of Pearl and Icebox and lift their Lotus perma ban because they dont get more than 7 rounds on Pearl and Icebox in my opinion, meanwhile MIBR dont love Lotus that much so they most likely wont 1st pick it. Ideal map veto for 100T and more competetive match:

100T ban Pearl
MIBR ban Fracture
100T pick Haven
MIBR pick Icebox
100T ban Lotus
MIBR ban Ascent
Split remains.

Honestly, I favour MIBR in all 3 maps and Split and Haven might be the best chance for 100T. 65/35 for MIBR.

2. SEN vs C9
   This match will totally be decided by C9's ego and individuals stepping up. If zekken and n4rrate are the best two players on server today, C9 stand no chance even in Sen's worst maps like Icebox becauae of their brawly style. If C9 really want to win, they should focus on their opponents weakness, not their strength because if they pick Haven, Lotus or Pearl thinking they are just the better team on "common ground" maps, they might get 2-0d very quickly and stand up to choker allegations once again. They must pick one of Ascent or Icebox and force Sen to ban the other, also try to get Pearl or Lotus 3rd map.

Sen ban Fracture
C9 ban Split
Sen pick Pearl
C9 pick Ascent
Sen ban Icebox
C9 ban Haven
Lotus remains

From map pool wise, it should be 50/50 or slightly favoured for C9 but I dont trust C9 to pick Ascent and 2nd ban Haven, they might get too excited about their Haven after G2 game and leave it as the 3rd map which will give SEN a better chance. So 55/45 for SEN.

TH players are obviuosly clip farming in this video and you guys are just falling for the most obvious rage bait

People only remember early to mid 2023 when they talk about Leo but forget another great iniator players exist. Before Leo reached his peak, Sacy, Crashies and Shao were the players everybody talked about and learned from. After 2023 we have seen other initiators peak arguably even higher than Leo, Riens was playing out of his mind all of 2024, S1mon's breach singlehandedly turned EDG that was getting 26-5 ed at Internationals to winning champs, Trent and Jonah are teaching everybody how to play breach tejo in the current meta etc. Its crazy how people forget great players who played before and after 2023, somehow they forget about every great initiator when they talk about Leo.

I think its just stylistic problem for now. He was allowed whatever he wanted to do and he had eggsterr and cane running in before him so he just cleaned up afterwards. He is trying to find his role on a new team, just give him some time, he is just 16.

How are they still playing on 30 ping bro? You can clearly see BBL players are abusing this 30 ping and swinging everything look at how Magnum is playing just to know how joke of a game is going on. Peekers advantage is still existent on Lan servers with less than 5 ping and they are playing with 30 ping in an official match and there is still an hour tech pause? Also there is no German team in EMEA and only Click in M8 if I am not mistaken is the only German player in entire VCT. Its time to move on to better city with better studios man.

One thing thats really good for C9 is that they played all 7 maps and they look competetive in all of them. I think they should pretend G2 game never happened and prioritize Icebox and Ascent to get better on. Because almost every team in playoffs apart from G2 doesnt have a good Ascent and I dont think G2 are as good in Icebox as the scoreboard shows.
If they wanna beat G2 and SEN and go to Toronto they must get better on Ascent and Icebox and force their opponents ban those maps and pick one of Icebox or Ascent against SEN. If they came away from G2 game and pick Haven or Pearl against SEN and Sen picks Split, they might get 2-0 ed very quickly because I dont think their Haven is world-beater level, they just happened to hit G2's weak site everytime and won a lot of rounds due to ults&clutches.
Although I am a Sen fan I want to see Oxy in an international tournament and for that to happen they need to drop their ego a bit and work on their opponents weak maps.

Thats what confuses me most about Asuna, if you watch his streams he plays like normal valorant pro and uses the vandal and aims like a normal pro. He is usually top fragging in ranked servers with current pros and tier 2 players but when it comes to matches he aims wildly with a phantom and always sprays.

Sen since johnqt was added has always had a map pool like that, they are so good at some maps to the point almost every team copy their comps and strats like Pearl and Split, but they are bad at simple and no macro maps like Ascent and Icebox. They have always been like that and I dont know why suddenly it became a talking point.

Who is the 2nd initiator on raze maps on this team and who is the breach player on other maps? Will Cryo full-time play yoru jett and Asuna flex? Can Asuna play breach?

Am I crazy to speculate #1 seeds from Americas and China will struggle in Toronto this year? Because there is a 6 week break between Americas and China Granfinals and playoffs of Toronto and teams might start cold after being off the stage for so long. Remember the fact that for last couple of tournaments, teams that are not pre-torunament favourites but the teams that improved throughout the tournament won the entire thing.
For instance, PRX and FNC were pre-favourite tournaments in Shanghai, GENG won the whole thing and top 3 teams were all swiss stage teams in that tournament, same with EDG in champs and T1 at Bangkok; they are all the teams that improved over the tournament and reached their peak at grandfinals. Do you think same thing will happen again or G2 and EDG(most likely #1 seeds) will still finish top 3 at Masters?

Lotus is a bit of copium and bias for sure but I have trust in johnqt to improve their attackside calling. They were getting 8-4, 9-3 attack halves last year even if they lost pistol sometimes so they should be able to do it in theory.

I also feel like thats coming because Lotus will be in the pool against both C9 and G2 probably and so far they dont look good enough to beat G2, but if they can they will go on a run for sure

Playoffs are approaching in Americas this week and most people are predicting Group Omega teams to qaulify for playoffs with the competetion being easier in Group Alpha. I feel like Sen are sneakily improving and peaking at the right time, although their group were easier they were the only team who won convincingly against everyone in their group apart from KRU.
Their comms look a lot more calm compared to kickoff but the most imposrtant thing is they have a similar map pool as old SEN last year. They have 4 good maps: Split, Haven, Pearl and Lotus. Old Sen also had only 4 good maps if you remember they were Split, Sunset, Lotus and Haven. This is much better compared to their kickoff map pool where they winning off of hero plays in a lot of close maps and they looked good on maps based on form but now they actually look like they have good protocols on their good maps. If they can improve their Lotus in this week and can win against G2 they can win Americas for sure but right now they look like #2/3 team alongside MIBR.

I feel like Brazilian teams get ecoed the most in Americas especially in 2nd rounds. I think sometimes they are either too agressive as a team and get swormed or take individual risks when they dont need to especially on defense. It does feel like they play for stats sometimes, saving in 3v4s, getting too agressive against ecoes, saving even in bonus rounds when you have to damage your opponents economy etc.

Lets hold off on players who dont perform internationals for now, otherwise we only glaze title winning players and other players get overshadowed.

I didnt watch too much of Bang when he was on 100T but I always thought of him as a viper/astra player who is really good in clutches but not that agressive controller like Mako or Tenz. But so far this year in Sen, Bang has been fairly agressive anchor and agressive 2nd entry alongside zekken and narrate, was he always like this and I didnt notice or is it just his new playstyle on a new team?
For example, in stage 1 he has the 2nd most first kills after zekken: zekken- 45, bang- 23, narrate - 21

My god this game is gonna be interesting, what a time to have The battle of the mid. Loser of this game is gonna get flamed so hard by the community you cant even imagine what is gonna happen in mid-season break. Loser of this game will be the only NA squad that doesnt make playoffs and oh man the roster changes are gonna be coming for both of these teams. Just cant wait

I dont think they get points for playoff wins they only get extra points for 1-4 th places

I feel like for their playstyle to work at least 4 out of 5 of their players need to be online and be shooting or Cryo to drop 30 for them to be competetive against playoff teams. Because they are not just able to outshoot other teams like they did against teams like EG and 2G. They are swinging into spawn with 4 players when Boostio and Zander are having a rough game and Eeiu although good aimer is not that agressive usually. I feel like if I were to rank them just purely on firepower in Americas they are top 5-6 at best and I dont think they can beat other teams in playoffs with their current form.

No it doesnt, but it does matter for LOUD for their pride and confidence going forward because they have a squad that should contest for internationals. If they dont win tomorrow, their mood for whole 2 months of prac will be low, also that means no Brazilian team thats not named MIBR has won a match against teams from other regions this split.

How do you guys sat through this kind of depressing games like this for 4 years? I feel like I need to check with a doctor after being a 100T fan for 1 map.

Zekken is better overall player and more flexible in general but jawg is a better dive duelist, his raze, neon and waylay movement is just otherworldly. I feel like you never see jawg's full tap aim montage clips they are almost always movement outplay, spraydown or some crazy play no one ever goes for but zekken has so many pure aim clips. Both of them have similar yoru but jawg has some crazy plays as well that zekken doesnt go for.

1st seed on the line, eco reset round, 4v3, bomb planted on the best spot and out of all the rounds you choke this round C9? I am kinda happy C9 looked this good but disappointed they didnt close this out at the same.

We'll see at the playoffs I guess. 100T vs C9 should be a fun match, almost like APAC game in Americas cuz both teams just run it down

I mean C9 kinda melted after I wrote this, G2 had a good defense but their attack wasnt 8-4 worthy good