It was zellsis and sacy pack calling and john freeze time calling, so it was a good system, it gave a lot of flexibility for the team. Now its john and narrate pack calling as far as I see from their interviews, you can kinda see why they look so one dimensional

Holy shit we are bad, if zekken doesnt get entries they cant win rounds, no strat, no midrounding, horrible post plants against a team with a sub coach.

Observers really hate NRG players huh? I swear observer is on RRQ players 75-80% of the time regardless of the situation on the round and they are missing a lot of kills.

Yeah, I forgot how he saved them on Lotus after they lost on TH's perma ban. Meteor is really that guy

GENG only won Shanghai because TH are even bigger chokers than them. Any other team in that playoffs wouldve wom the grand finals against GENG in that tournament apart from maybe FUT.

Edit: Yeah some of you guys are right, Meteor wouldnt have choked that, remember that sheriff round on Lotus mount that started like 9 round winning streak? My bad on this take, Meteor stocks are rising day by day

Yeah my bad, but you get the point

Idk how crazy high ego you had to have to entirely rebuild your team just because you felt comfortable calling as a senti. They just wasted their entire off-season to build chemistry just to try out narrate as senti and they fell behind other teams because Narrate had to switch back to initiator woth no chemistry. And then he plays scan for the first half of split 1 and realizes narrate should play scan instead switches roles yet again, like they are playing catchup all year just because of john.
Then he plays horribly in all last 5 maps in Toronto shootingwise and callingwise and now he plays Omen and misses all of his smokes, goes 0-7 in first bloods as omen igl, like what is going on?
Just imagine what kind of team this couldve been if they just fit narrate and bang as pure replacements.

Yes my mistake I think I saw +13 on d4v4i and just put +14 next to forsaken. Thanks for the correction

He has even worse stats, I just googled who was the 2021 Acend igl and it showed zeek, so idk

So far in Valorant there has been 14 grand finals and igls have shown bad performances in most of them. Out of 28 igls that have played in grand finals, there was only 7 times igls went positive. So lets take a look at their KD:
2021:
Shahzam: 65/50 (+15)
Boaster: 52/61 (-9)

Redgar: 51/47 (+4)
FNS: 32/61 (-29)

Redgar: 59/68 (-9)
Zeek(?): 74/75 (-1)(Idk really who was the igl)

2022:
Saadhak: 50/61 (-11)
FNS: 43/54 (-9)

Benkai: 53/73 (-20)
ANGE1: 70/75 (-5)

Saadhak: 65/63 (+2)
FNS: 45/68 (-23)

2023:
Saadhak: 65/86 (-21)
Boaster: 75/74 (+1)

Boostio: 46/52 (-6)
Boaster: 34/43 (-9)

PRX(no igl but probably forsaken did the most work)
Forsaken: 54/67 (-13)
Boostio: 62/67 (-5)

2024:
Munchkin: 71/73 (-2)
Johnqt: 70/67 (+3)

Boo: 61/69 (-8)
Munchkin: 56/58 (-2)

Boo: 58/78 (-20)
Nobody: 59/69 (-10)

2025:
Valyn: 94/82 (+12)
Stax: 82/84 (-2)

Boaster: 41/71 (-30)
Forsaken*: 81/75 (+6)

If you only count true igls and not the team effort callings you should remove Shahzam and forsaken from this list and there would be only 5 igls that went positive in 14 grand finals total. So in average only 1 igl goes positive in a grand final per year.
Also valyn is the only igl that went positive in the grand final and lost. Let that sink in. It must hurt even more as a G2 fan after knowing that.

I expected a good match and boaster is telling lollibies at lunch time, what is this? When did the game I loved got so boring? I better go eatch the CS major than this

This year he had good jett tho, its peobably due to him needing to take more risks compared to before and thats why his jett improved imo. He needs to take risks on this team because they somehow turned from one of the best macro and teamplay teams intk " Balls, lets brawl team"

I am not saying he is a bad coach, I am just disappointed with these results considering how good he has been before and how good of a roster he has on his hand.

If he is uncomfortable they shouldnt force it, you can even know it from zekkens ranked games as well, he played Omen on Icebox on stream the other day and went 20/22 and played Jett the very next match and dropped 35 kills. Idk at some point you have to value comfortability higher

Watch the last few games he had on jett.
Highest rated player on Icebox vs KRU, even tho he had a bad to average Lotus
Carried on Ascent vs C9
Good defense halves but bad attack halves on Ascent against G2

His Jett this year is one of his best agents, he has 1.25 rating all year long and Kap said "Nah lets play Omen and lets put john to useless agents like kayo and skye and see what happens"

I dont think they win Split but they wouldve had better try at Haven compared to Icebox. They dont know how to defend on Icebox, period

Some rough and inconsistent performances from the players but how tf did we end up in a veto with Ascent and Icebox in this map pool? With what mind did you guys ban Haven? And why tf zekken is playing waylay and omen on jett maps when clearly he is the carry?
Split comp sucks, Ascent comp sucks with no tejo and zekken on the worst agent in the game, Icebox comp sucks only because of zekken omen.
Players worked for 1 month scrimming every day and this is the stuff you are trying to implement? Deeply disappointed honestly, this roster should win championships and so far lost 3 grand finals, bombed out of 2 tournaments and 1 meh masters(I am including off season too btw)

After just watching G2 vs GENG this match so far looks likw a shitshow. Even tho I am a SEN fan, to be honest both teams are playing so horribly compared to G2 and GENG like people are team flashing, self stunning, 5 man hitting, melon rounds, so kany 2v4 or 3v5 throws, people misplaying clutches from both sides and so on. Honestly I will be surprised if the winner of this match beats G2.

Even boaster will play good and have actual postive impact in at least 1 out of 4 maps, john is having literal negative impact 4 maps in a row. Like its unbelievable how bad it is.

Bro johnqt is straight up playing for the enemy 4 maps in a row now. He is team stunning, team flashing, whiffing shots, gifting kills, throwing rounds, misplaying clutches, making bad calls 4 maps in a row now. Like wth is going on?

GENG were prone to combeacks all tournament long and their situation just kept getting worse.

First, they almost lose an Ascent map to PRX when they started 7-0 on attack and barely win that map 13-11.
Then, they lose a 12-7 lead on Split against FNC and apmost every round on that split map on comeback were opened good for GENG but FNC brawled thru in the last seconds. Then they lose a series to Wolves with 8-4 and 9-3 halfes and go down to lower bracket. And finally, they lodt a 11-4 lead on map 3 against G2 in elimination game. Its honestly impressive, never seen anything like it

What is this map veto? GENG literally have all 3 of their best maps. I dont think G2 are winning this tbh, this map veto looks too good for GENG

Why is viewership so low compared to Madrid even in such a hype game?

SEN vs PRX game had only 700k+ live concurrent viewers, meanwhile in Madrid, even group stage games like SEN vs KC and SEN vs TH had 900K+, Sen's playoff games vs LOUD and PRX had 1M+ live concurrent viewers. What caused a drop like this? If you say its a timezone issue, all 5 most watched games in Toronto are PRX games so people from APAC are not having issue. VCT feels like its growing every year but why the viewership is declining? (For the delusional fans, 300k people didnt stop watching not just because of TenZ, there are other reasons, Tenz is still costreaming)

I am not coping I am just stating the reasons why they lost, I am not saying they were better, PRX totally deserved the win

Bro I just rewatched the last 3 rounds, the more you watch more you become angry, they shouldve won all of the last 3 rounds.

Round 22: Zellsis randomly dies in a 4v3 walking with his butt turned back towards top mid
Round 23: John and bang both messup their util.
Bang missess his one way towards spawn and paranoias late. Johns both flashes and stuns are late and they stack paranoia and stun onto the same line and still they are late. PRX were late to the site to help solo anchor forsaken but SEN messup their exec.
Round 24: Zellsis again peeks into A link top box in a 5v4. Even in 4v4 they are way too hesitant, bang misses his smoke to spawn, john isnt holding anything netiher flank or the spawn from elbow and he is left on pretty hard clutch.

Honestly I dont get it man, out of all the rosters why this roster is so nervous when pressure is high, its honestly confusing how nervous they are and make constant mistakes and default to just rush sites. I honestly dont remember the game last years roster lost due to nerves, they always won the close games and they've never lost BO5s. Idk why they are so much different with 2 changes

You are just talking about 1 round. Look every other round when they hit B, they already killed 2 and Bang is still in elbow. They didnt just overrotate all the time

What do yo mean they arent used to it? PRX tried to slow default in the first 4 rounds and it didnt work and they just started 5 man hitting B off rip and then PRX started getting rounds. Honestly still they shouldve closed out Sunset with allat

They were really nervous today, I think they were overcomming in a lot of situations thats why they didnt hear a lot of raze satchels, omen teleports, sage walls etc. and lost like 5-6 cruicial gun rounds purely because of that.

I dont really care if john or zellsis barely get kills but they actually felt like reliability today it kinda reminded of me the games against TH at champs, everytime PRX hit zellsis and johns site they jist blasted thru, everytime zekken narrate and bang are swinging but those 2 are baiting or failing to get the easy trade. The round where zekken and narrate swing mid alone and other just didnt swing sums up the entire situation( even tho they won that round).

You are telling me RRQ wouldnt get more than rounds if they just played 3A and 2back of B every round and FNC wouldve flanked them from spawn every round? Use your brain and calculate first before replying

When did you see team using spawn on Ascent? FNC only used it once this whole attack half and it was due to RRQ mistake not FNC's plan, just sit on sites FNC dont have a good exec and they are low on time

Surely you just sit on sites against this comp when they are execing with 20s left every round right? Just play 3 on A site and 2 on back of B and you just win on time. FNC are getting away with murder, they shouldnt get more than 4 rounds on attack with this comp

Even after seeing G2 struggle in Americas with tejo at its peak? It was a 60/40 matchup at very least and 40% turned into reality this time

Amount of excuses 1st seed teams are making and them tweeting about changing the format is absurd. You guys never complained about experience gap when the similar format was implemented at 2023 Tokyo and 3/4 1st seeds won their opening game at playoffs but now you guys complain?
Get a grip and have a better excuse. Reality is XLG and RRQ were really nervous and we havent seen them be good without tejo esp. crazyguy, and G2 and FNC lost really close matches against good opponents.

Did you forget the guard core that was demolished by PRX in Reykavik 2022? They've lost before. Out of Sen roster only Narrate lost to PRX once, every other player has won against PRX

Everyone who are saying "SEN got a fraudelent run", "Sen are farming China" before you say that just remember the fact that FNC skipped group stage for winning clearly the worst region in the last 2 years. Put some respect on VCT CN, they have 6-2 record against EMEA teams in the last 3 events

What crack are XLG smoking? I want some of that.
First, they first pick SEN instead of Wolves and 1st pick Sunset which is probably the Sen's best map and 2nd ban Ascent and give SEN a chance to play Pearl 3rd map? Are they that confident on themselves that they just give SEN their best 3 maps? I guess we take it

G2 lost, PRX and SEN won, what a great day for Valorant.

Johnqt didnt lose a 1v1 to dicey so

I would love SEN to play FNC no matter the result because I think FNC is the best matchup for SEN in playoffs map pool wise and they have pretty similar playstyle so the matchup would be fun

I dont think FNC is making top 4 as everyone is expecting and I just wanna state the fact that FNC played tejo only in Icebox out of current map pool and they also had 3 weeks prep time just like APAC swiss stage teams. So they have no excuses if they bomb out.

Also, TH shouldnt have had any excuses as well, PRX got out of group with 2 weeks of prep because they had to play EWC and TH also played Tejo only in Icebox(altho they changed it) and Lotus.

I dont know who is good or bad in this tournament entire way. This whole tournament feels like a fever dream and I dont know whats going on
SEN beat both Chinese teams barely but both Chinese teams beat EMEA teams so idk how good SEN are, TH and MIBR look horrendously bad so I cant judge any of their opponents who beat them, PRX look like last years Madrid PRX sometimes really good sometimes really shit and they are just here for fun, idk how good XLG and RRQ is without tejo breach since they were not this good before tejo meta, EMEA look like the worst region so is FNC any good or are they also gonna bomb out?

This script is so boring man, this is the exact same draw as last years Shanghai:
Chinese #1 picks the team that beat both Chinese teams in Swiss stage
Usually disappointing but the team who somehow won their regional stage 1 pick the easiest opponent
And G2 vs PRX with FNC remaining with GENG.

China vs Americas since champs 24 is 7-4 for Americas:
Sen: 3-1
G2: 3-1
LEV: 0-2
KRU: 1-0
On the Chinese side:
EDG: 3-2
Trace: 1-1
BLG: 0-2
WOL: 0-1
FPX: 0-1

I know we all joke about how NRG lost to BLG or whatever and say China is the worst region, but the matter of fact is that Chinese teams are 6-2 against EMEA teams in the last 3 events. (Basically since Champs 24):
EDG: 3-0
Trace: 1-0
Wolves: 1-0
BLG: 1-1
FPX: 0-1

I think TL picks one of Icebox or Ascent, they are not gonna pick comfort map for PRX like Split or Sunset even though TL are good on those maps.

Am I crazy or is attackside calling in Toronto worse than past 3 years in Internationals? I am watching so many teams only 5-man or 4-1 default and hitting sites where they put pressure every time. So far I ve only seen SEN, GENG and BLG showing multiple different defaults like 3-1-1, 3-0-2, 2-1-2 etc. You can understand TL are pretty much playing ranked with so little time and PRX have always been 5-man hit team but what are other teams doing?

This is crazy if you consider the fact that 4 worst players in thsi tournament by VLR rating are all Brazilians.

On paper roster wise and for the memes XLG might be the best opponent but I think lowkey FNC might be the best matchup for Sen map veto vise because FNC perma ban Pearl and have to play Sunset against Sen which FNC were historically bad at. Also if SEN first bans Icebox, FNC will pick one of Split or Lotus which are good maps for Sen. And the 3rd map will likely be Haven or the remainder of Split/Lotus.
Only against FNC Sen will be able to play top 3/5 maps of their map pool and other opponents might pick Ascent (I thing G2 and RRQ will pick Ascent against SEN) or Icebox(XLG will pick it).

Honestly its pretty likely TH and PRX qualify for playoffs considering PRX are probably the best team remaining and TH play against Wol and TH and PRX dont play each other in the final game. If that happens I think Swiss stage teams are looking much better compared to 1st seeds just like last years' Shanghai.
Be honest, which lineup is stronger:
GENG SEN PRX TH
G2 FNC RRQ XLG

Oh I skipped thru replays and I didnt notice he was playing on stretched. It felt like an unlucky day for zekken, he was hitting some nice shots but he was getting caught a lot and that shouldnt happen again. 7-13 fk/fd is not something you see every day