the top 6 teams are the same because they all improved xd
biggest difference is T1 might be joining DRX PRX as teams that can make deep runs, and geng zeta looking like event qualifier teams

lowkey drx might peak higher than old roster, we will see but the potential is super high

ardiis and yay both leave NA and start losing weight, hmm

ratio + TYLOO xccurate devours your family

teams really didn't consider that people will buy these based off aesthetics, like im definitely getting the LEV one even though i'm not a fan

Paper Rex -- look shakier (settling into roster and roles) but still top level team
DRX -- expected to look shaky, actually playing very well. new additions very impressive
T1 -- leveled up (previously perma-grouped internationally, now a genuine threat)

GENG -- leveled up
ZETA -- leveled up
SECRET -- inconclusive (redeemed themselves today but first game was very bad)

-- international contenders barrier --

RRQ -- macro-wise sloppy but players leveled up
TALON -- leveled up, much more potential than last year
GE -- weird overcooking and questionable decisions. when they look good they're good but..

DFM -- look better than last year but still very meh. only positive is meiy, very skilled player, should be able to win them a match this year
BLEED -- too many anomalies to assess. played awful but high potential if they fix their role issues

TLDR:
almost every team has substantially improved from last year besides the bottom and the top teams (for different reasons), so the top 6 actually is about the same as before
would consider T1 to join PRX and DRX in the "can make a run" category now, and GENG - ZETA in that category of "can take some games internationally" -- SECRET need more data
if DRX new players continue to grow they may peak higher than previously

T1 and DRX look nice, they stuck to the two tone vibe

i heard old furia had a history of ego problems so it must be a huge shock going from that to a japanese team for carlao lol

seems like a win win, zeta have showed a lot more fluidity with him on board

i believe what he's saying here (mainly bc he's never made excuses and pretty much always owns up to it) just because there were so many odd things that game that weren't even like "ew that was messy" and more "wtf is going on"

anyways regarding his aim visibly looking worse than during andbox-nv-optic era

my real crackpot theory? after optic he started working with aimlabs and getting professional "aim coaching" from some voltaic guys. now i'm not saying aim training is bad or anything, i do it myself, but i think in his specific situation they either got him to untrain certain habits or lean into certain things that functionally made him worse

he is a perfect viper. crazy thing is he wasn't playing viper! someone who has never played viper (or any smokes) professionally was! isn't that odd

hes known for his sova but for some reason we only see fade lmao

because prx admitted geng shat on them in scrims
also the geng roster is actually good
also prx are notable slow starters
its not that crazy

CLASS IS IN SESSION

PROFESSOR P

if he had like 5% more discipline kru would be shitting on g2 rn

CEO OF OVERHEATING

secret police is coming for you, they're already knocking on my do

haha wtf i just realized my thread got deleted, that's hilarious
what rule did it even break

GENG 2-1
upset time

Facebook clears Talon

1leaf 🤝 keznitdeus
goats hated by brazil

For the record I got almost everything wrong yesterday and am ready to do it again

G2 2-0 KRU
oneleaf + trent + professor p clear

GENG 2-1 PRX
yuuuuuup im goin crazy!!!! buying in on the prx scrimbux + geng wont get completely aim diffed

BLD 2-1 GE
Im gonna be honest if a team is gonna lose to GE's weirdo shit it would be bleed. they aren't ready to adapt yet their stratbook is like 1 index card

T1 2-0 ZETA
straight forward game needs dep + laz god mode to upset

ehh some first game nerves but besides that the diff in firepower between the old zeta and new is huuuuge

hiroronn a beast and yuran looks good. tbh when i heard they were getting players from zeta acad i wanted aace, but yuran is doing well

well it's hard to play a solid game when you've never seen your opponents comp before for bind

fns enjoyed that win more than the lev players

i know you mean it earnestly but "only 7 weeks of practice" is hilarious

+verno
+s0m
+third player i cant think of (nismo sure)
100t can compete against the best

Yup

how come it's like boostio became kingg on old lev. bro has to do everything while his team is mid

Hydrogen bomb vs Coughing baby no?

u must pick one to defend the earth from an alien invasion

i get if his util is better on sova but his fundamentals should not be changing this much from agent to agent even if he's less comfortable

what is bro running from?

HE JUST TOOK OVER LMAOOOO CHAADHAK

why he looking like mako bro

SEN ARE WINNING EVERYTHING THIS YEAR

saya said he had a caffeine crash in the second map and the other players probably felt like shit too. sucks

could be that ones pretty high upset potential

SEN are expected to win this event

SEN 2-1 LOUD
i love less and chaadhak but qck debut vs sen in form is tough (maybe tenz will be sick or something idk)

LEV 2-0 100T
Hydrogen bomb vs Coughing baby (aspas beast mode)

ZETA 2-0 GE
Regular bomb vs Coughing baby (dep beast mode)

SECRET 2-0 TALON
invy solo crashes talons bus

DRX 2-1 DFM
foxy9 chokeclass incoming + meiy drop 60 kills or they have no chance

i agree but if u see all the content pieces bleed put out they all had this vibe of "we're playing for champs" and kinda accepting that they're gonna have a slow start so i think they anticipated this tbh

if he could he would sadly he chose to waffle

cope

sdgdfdrgdrfgdrgdrfttdhy responding cope is beast mode for sure i know ur overweight irl

me when someone talks about valorant on valorant forum XD

yay topics always pull the lowest effort trolls on this site man has as many opps as 2022 tenz LMAO

yeah i'll just ask boaster or saadhak how bleed's internal decision structure is are u fucking stupid

bleed is not optic

the system is different, the midrounding is different, the players and synergy are different. brute forcing a player into a system and expecting him to play the same way is like shoving a square peg into a triangle hole (this is why DSG failed btw)

clearly legija and bleed wanted to see if yay could assimilate into the identity of the bleed playstyle, and part of that involves stepping out of your comfort zone. trying new shit. playing in new ways you haven't before. could they do better if yay just played like standard? maybe? but this is a long term play

also sscary clears marved

also also y0y = i own you

it's pretty obvious to me that they're testing out new shit if you look at how yay's playing. he's way more aggressive and risk taking than he's ever been and it looks like they want to complement that by putting him in a new role environment instead of having him stay comfortable and just do what he's always done

like even on breeze when he was playing well i saw him pushing up back yellow to get ecos and i was like O_O is this even yay

they want him to embrace the new style and that comes with getting uncomfortable

they're even with zeta and favored against ge

the current issue with BLEED (which i predicted) is that with their roles and amount of time together, their stratbook is really shallow. all the players are cracked but they rely heavily on a couple of the same strats which makes them suuuper readable. with more time im pretty sure they'll be insane

https://twitter.com/vctpacific/status/1758761507163451456

they tweeted about it. that's it. no eta.