Its not the exact same because of the cooldown nerfs. Duelists are better than ever before, Scan initators took a huge hit, cypher and vyse are dead. Meta should be quite different

Many people are saying lack of practice will hurt some teams who formed late in the off-season or didnt have a chance to prac due to other reasons. But is the prac really that necessary with this meta?

Because everyone is just running double duelist/chamber on every map and aim matters a lot more than ever before maybe even more than the 1st Rejkavik. I would say teams depend on the aim 80% of the time and 20% strats to win games.

You might say prac is necessary for chemistry but 1 month should be more than enough for any 5 individuals to build a chemistry as long as they get along

I think less initiators=more aim always.

Is there any deadline for Roster Lockin for the Kickoff?
Because I didnt do any pickems because some teams still havent locked in their rosters. Most notable ones:
LEV's sub for Neon
Envy replacements yet to be confirmed (Rossy, keznit rumor)
VIT's sub for Sayonara

Vitality 2025 and NRG 2024 are rare cases where majority of the community hatewatched these teams but this isnt the case most of the time. LOUD 2022, FNC 2023, PRX 2023(after adding something), T1 2025, MIBR 2026 are all the cases where most fans support the super team

Why does the Valorant community welcomes superteams unlike other sports/esports?

This just come to my mind as PRX and T1 won the most recent off-season events.

Your explanation of he didnt have to show his flexibility because of Cryo's agent pool might be right. But still 100T team identity looks the same as always

He does have defined agent pool which is kay-o, neon and raze and I dont think he is comfortable in other agents. Isnt this the definiton of inflexible? Dont get me wrong I have watched some of his streams and he can play every agent in ranked and still frag but we havent seen it in pro play yet

Who is gonna be worst team in Americas next year? It is really hard to tell just based on rosters alone unlike previous years. Upcoming season looks a lot more like 2023 where there are so many good rosters you dont know who is gonna crumble and get only 1-2 wins.

So from the start we can all agree on MIBR, G2 and NRG not being the candidate for this award. Even if they falloff the expectations they would be middle of the pack

Next tier, I would put SEN and LEV honestly. You might say putting SEN here is biased but I do genuinely believe they are gonna be fighting for internationals spots and maybe just miss out.

From here on I have no idea. Every team pretty much looks the same.
100T looked decent but they are the same as always just bit different players but I feel like Cryo and Asuna are stuck on the past and not developed and inlfexible. I also have doubts on Timotino because he is bit inconsistent he either takes over or goes 5/16

C9 have a good roster but they have a choking problem but they shouldnt be bottom table team

KRU have a bit questionable roster because I dont think Less and Saadhak are at their peak and dante didnt have a rookie year good enought to overtake keznit. Also I dont get why they dropped Shyy

EG's roster is bit similar to C9's, my biggest worry is they lack so much firepower if dgzin is having a bad game

Furia have a decent looking roster, I would argue they have a better roster than EG at least but this org is cursed idk

Envy with their ultimate roster would be mid table team but I have doubts with Rossy replacing ion, keznit should be so fine

LOUD might be a decent candidate but their players on paper are so good, pancada, cauanzin and lukxo all can be a part of a Masters trophy winning team

Vitality 2026 roster has 2 previous FNC players from the legendary 2023-2024 squad. At some point, probably near the end of the last season there were some rumors that Leo might return to competetive play and join Vitality to unite with Derke. Lets say that happened in some world maybe it might even happen in the future if Leo recovers well. Now who is the real FNC? Is it with FNC org with Boaster and Alfa, or is it supposed Vitality?

Even without Leo joining Vitality pretty much is closer to old FNC compared to this one because Sayonara was orginally sub for FNC.

That might help as well but I think its mostly getting rid of nerves and being more comfortable on stage. Because she was already finishing top 50 in some acts in NA ranked way before GC 2023.

Noia's improvement over the years is actually crazy. She was the weakest link in 2023 Championship and had a horrible upper final and Grand final with the average rating around 0.8. So many people even called to replace her after seeing SR barely win with how much flor was carrying.

But after that she steadily improved. She was the 2nd best player alongside Sarah on last years championship behind flor and now she is clearly the best GC player in the world. Its kind of a inspiration at the same time, you can always improve even if your debut is bad.

So french people do in fact spawn out of every corner of the world? Sick

Where do this people come from? I mean like there are always supporting from the stage no matter where tournament is. Is there dedicated fan club that goes to every event that is backed by the org or do french people just spawn out of every random corner of the world?

Team Liquid are so much better than G2 they played basically 4v5 after the first half and still won. Not to mention some lucky rounda by G2 including spam kills, collats, thrifties etc.

I heard so many coaches and analysts praise GC teams macro before but only 3 teams so far show good macro every year: SR, G2 and brazilian team. Every other team look like they are playing ranked tbh, especially asian teams. No orb maxing, no mid game adjustments, so many 5-man hits etc.
Util usage and ult usage is also really bad in every team other than top 3. GC players aim doesnt look that far off from tier 1, I think some of the best GC players could geniunely compete with 8-12th placed franchised teams players aimwise.

I think ardiis watchpartying srn dropping 40 on a team from eu might be the best watchpary experience ever. He wants to bet on GX as well to elevate the experience as well. Just cant wait

Its the same game everytime I watch SEN vs G2. I know G2 vs SEN matchup score is so lopsided but in reality all the games are really close but G2 always get away with some bullshit rounds. Its always G2 who wins double pistols against us, Jawgemo gets a kill with a shorty whenever he enters the smoke, G2 get so many spam kills or random flashed kills everytime.
Its so frustrating to watch when you are rooting for SEN because this shit happens everytime. I am tired of seeing SEN players get spammed and play tilted for the whole game and just lose. The worst thing is it never happens other way around, I cant remember anyone from G2 get spammed thru smokes when they play against us

Like really? Are they that deluded over there on G2? Surely they remember Jonahp was their best player in 2024 and was on a breach only duty last year right?

As much as babybay had a decent stage 2 playoffs, he was only popping off when he was playing chamber. What are G2 gonna do if meta changes again to double initiator mid season? Because their plan right now must be babybay senti + leaf flex to duelist/viper right?

Unless Jonahp willingly left the team I dont see the reasob why to make this change. They are losing so much flexibility with Jonahp

I think they are winning an international this year or at least making deeper runs than last year. If SEN wins this tournament they are gonna be in a similar honeymoon period like SEN 2024 had when they went on to win all the off season tournaments and had a great year off of that momentum they gained.

Team atmosphere looks great right now from outside looking in and another tournament win just gives so much confidence for the team that they were lacking last year, remember they always finished 2nd or 3rd even in off-season tournaments.

Tournament isnt even that hard to win, you have FNC without Chronicle, NRG with a keiko who just landed to NYC and maybe T1. I think its really doable and this roster wants this win much more compared to the teams I listed. Remember, the teams who wants it more tend to win these tournaments rather than clear favourites

*and signed zellsis as igl.

I think some rosters are gonna flop very hard this year. I think 100T have pretty much the same roster as previous years and they will achieve pretty much the same results, EG's roster doesnt look that good compared to other rosters, LEV's rookies from academy might just flop considering LATAM has the worst tier 2, I dont get KRU's hype that much because I think their roster last year was better than the rumored roster, idk whats going on with LOUD and Furia is cursed. So dont be that excited just yet

GC starts in about 1 week from now and if you had to do a top 10 best players in GCC 2025 who is gonna be on that list?

In my opinion, given the SR's dominance over the last 2-3 years, you have to have at least 3 SR players on that list: Noia, Sarah and dodonut. I think Noia is a strong candidate for number 1 spot considering her step up in performance and consistency after flor left.

Even tho TL won the brazilian GC league, I think only jelly is a top 10 player and I would include both bstrdd and srn in my top 10 from MIBR.

When it comes to EMEA, I think Vania is a lock for top 10, I might consider Amy, Petra or Akita as well but they are bit inconsistent.

I havent watched any APAC or LATAM games so idk much about other players. To be honest I only watched the games of the teams I mentioned because they have been contenders for all 3 previous GC champs and I dont think its gonna change much.

So who is in your top 10? If you dont know much about GC teams who is in your top 5 at least?

I am not really concerned by that because I believe in john to play any agent have an impact but I doubt the coaching staff in choosing the right comps and reading the meta.
Last year they didnt play any yoru despite zekken showing really good performances on agent (just remember MIBR games when zekken literally carried in tejo meta)

Pretty sure Valorant is 5 player game

Some sen fans are happy rn after seeing zellsis's shooting in first 2 maps but remember last year john and zellsis pretty much played like this entire year apart from 1-2 pop off games and bang joined them at the end of the year.

Thats why I am bit concerned with both Kyu and johnqt both sigining for 2026, I dont wanna see 2 players drop 7-8 kill maps constantly ever again. I am gonna admit Kyu might be better than Zellsis and idk much about him but how much can we really expect from rookie igl to not be reliability?

I think FNC has always been a team that is more than sum of its parts. Even when they had bad rosters in 2022 they were still very good in EMEA. I think you should just trust Boaster to find a good talent. Same worries were around when they announced Crashies was replacing Leo last year but it turned out okay

List of EMEA teams that are rumored to have 3+ Turkish players:

TH
NAVI (+ sociablee rumor)
BBL
FUT
PCIFIC
ULF

Literally half of the league has a turkish core and there are still some good Turkish players that are not signed yet or single in a team (Alfa)

That doesnt change much because they wont play cypher anyway in the new patch. I think curry is better aimer than inspire when inspire might be better when he is playing with his setups. So the new patch might help them out

Are NV favourites to win the whole thing? Because they have been in the same team together for a while, this tourney is gonna be puggier than VCT which suits NV's strength and the new patch also favours the team who shoots the hardest.

I think SEN might struggle in this tourney cuz they only had 2-3 prac days with this line up as they said on the podcast, C9 are always 2nd in off-season tourneys and Cubert just doesnt have the roster to do it (they just signed zander and Kess like 2 days ago for temporary contract)

I dont think players have that clause in their contracts. I think in EMEA they have to pay half of their salary until the end of the ongoing season, maybe this is the case for all the regions but as far as I know there isnt a clause like that

It is for the people who didnt know about it. I saw so many SEN and C9 fans get mad at the org for 2028 contracts but in reality its only good for the org

Some orgs are signing 2028 contracts with their players and some fans are questioning these long contracts saying like "Are you sure you are gonna keep this roster for 3 years?"

But you have to understand that Esports contracts work completely different than regular sports contracts. If a player signs long term contract in regular sports its good for a player because they get to secure their jobs for a long time. But in esports, long term contracts are only good for the orgs, there is no job security in esports contracts (except in EU I think, Germany has some 3-6 month protection rules idk about)

Orgs can release players whenever they want regardless of the contract but players cant leave the org as free agent if they have longer contracts, so they to be restricted F/A and have buyouts if they want to leave. Thats why you see the best players sign only 1 year contracts. For example, Aspas only signed 1 year contracts with LEV and MIBR, zekken's contract expired in 2024 alongside Tenz and Sacy but he only signed 1 year contract and now he is officially free agent.

If the rumors are true that Jonahp and leaf might leave G2 then MIBR leaf might become a reality. Just imagine the roster:
Aspas
Zekken
Leaf
Verno
Mazino

I dont think you can draft a better Americas roster than this even if you wanted to. Maybe you might take trent or brawk over Verno and Ethan over Mazino but still this roster is so good. They literally have best players in their roles with Aspas, zekken and leaf and Verno and Mazino are at least top 3 in their role.

Please god dont let MIBR add tex to this roster. Even if leaf doenst join MIBR, where does he go realistically? Maybe to FNC to replace chron? Idk what other good team leaf goes after leaving G2

They need to market Reduxx and N4RRATE as 1-2 power duo as they marketed tenz and zekken back in 2024. Now they lost their star players as in tenz in 2024 and zekken in 2025, they need someone to be the face of the org. I think those two can be that guy, most Sen fans remember how outspoken reduxx was when he subbed in for Red bull even after Tenz retired.

I think upcoming Sen City Invitational is gonna be so perfect for this. They need to start this as soon as possible.

Yeah I admit my only problem so far is I dont know much about Kyu, if he performs like Verno in champs while igling I think this roster is gonna be fine

This roster might seem like an upgrade compared to what we saw from Sen in champs but I think you yourself are underrating last years roster. Zekken at his best completely won so many series on his own, bang looked like the best controller in NA for the good portion of the year and zellsis had huge step ups in so many big games regionally.
Just think about it is reduxx + cortezia better than zekken + bang? I dont know much about Kyu so him over Zellsis might help out a bit, but still zekken spot feels like its not been filled

I think they are running double duelist with reduxx and narrate which I am compeletely fine with. My only issue is both Kyu and johnqt being on the roster, they are gonna have same problem as last year again. Other 3 will have 15-16 kills in the middle of the game while john and kyu will have combined 10 kills just like last years john and zellsis.

Kyu might be better than zellsis but you have to remember if he is gonna igl he is not gonna have that much better output than Zellsis.
I agree cortezia might be better than bang but my point is zekken + bang is much better than reduxx + cortezia. Thats the concern.

Even if this is team is better than last years roster a bit, that wont be enough cuz the competetion is much better this year and they did nothing last year at internationals with similar roster

Arent you guys worried at all on this rosters firepower? So the rumored roster is:

N4RRATE
Reduxx
Cortezia
Kyu
Johnqt

And apparently kyu is gonna igl. Isnt this just straight up worse than last years team? Kyu igl is not gonna be that much better than Zellsis and its same with cortezia compared to bang. They are both slight upgrades at best. But no one is filling the gap zekken left.

Some people might say reduxx is next zekken but I ve seen his tier 2 games, he is way too inconsistent, zekken was always either going even or hard carrying this team for 3 years.

I think they made a mistake by signing both Kyu and johnqt, they needed to pick one of them and sign one more cracked duelist player.

So are you telling that +1 is Kyu? They lack so much on firepower then. Kyu is not that much better than zellsis and neither cortezia nor reduxx is gonna fill the gap zekken left.

So if the report is true that Johnqt is staying then there is no place for kyu in the roster. Narrate already plays the same agents as kyu, johnqt is gonna igl and john will probably play the flex initiators / viper stuff if they are adding cortezia. So the roster is:

N4RRATE (scan)
Johnqt (flex, senti viper)
Cortezia (senti, smokes)
Reduxx (?, probably duelist, might be smokes)
+1

That +1 should be a someone who is a hard fragger for this SEN roster to succeed. I dont want them to sign average t2 players like kyu, nerve or satelite. They need some sort of superstar on that extra spot. Otherwise they are losing a lot of clout

I think MIBR are gonna be on the tourney since they filmed Aspas on Zellsis farewell video. Imagine the tourney with C9, SEN, MIBR and G2. That would be lit

Yearly Sen City tournament is gonna be held next week from 6th to 8th as leaked by C9 after their roster announcement. In that tournament, SEN is gonna participate for sure so we are gonna receive news about the 2026 roster very soon.

Even if SEN yields temporary roster with academy players, we will at least know for sure what happens with zekken and johnqt. I know everyone is pretty much counting zekken is on MIBR and johnqt is on EU but we will at least get the confirmation.
To remind you, zekken and johnqt's contracts have already expired so they will not play for the team temporarily.

Did you forget about Alfa when he joined? Chron also wasnt that vocal either. I dont think language barrier was the reasoning behing Larok not signing with FNC

Wrong site

This might be crazy but this roster might actually cook. Foxy gets the freedom to aim duel just like Less on LOUD 2022/23.
I also doubt other Korean teams pick him up after all the things that happened. T1 have Meteor, DRX have freeing, NS and SLT will probably keep their roster intact after Ascension wins.
Foxy is much better fragger and much more flexible than tex. Please MIBR, even if its not foxy, just sign someone who actually played good last year

Larok isnt downgrade tho. He is the next guy coming up just like Kaajak replaced Derke and outperformed him this year. Larok couldve easily done that. But with Veqaj? I have some doubts. Ok lets see, I trust Boaster to field a good roster

So is Veqaj straight up replacing Chron? seems like a major downgrade

So who is in the roster exactly?
As far as I know it is
eeiu
Koalanoob
Mitch
Alym
nerve

Is this the roster? Its basically 3 players from mid table tier 1 teams and 2 players from 4th best challenger NA team. That is the definiton of mid

Something is off with these FNC rumors.

So as far we know
Boaster
Alfajer
Kaajak

are locked for 2026. There were so reports that crashies re-signed as well. But now this Veqaj rumors seem so strange because he played scan for M8. So is crashies leaving then? There was also a rumor that PCF Larok joined the team to replace Chron. So how is Larok's situation going to work out in the middle of all of this?
Can anyone help out?