bump

Ya I have the same feel too.

How is Chronicle the goat after having such a mediocre 2022?

Chronicle can't be number 1 after having such a mediocre 2022.
Also a top 10 list without Yay is invalid.

The same FPX couldn't even reach lower final at Champs to play Optic.

Yay is the most consistent player of all time. Derke comes 2nd coz his best placement was in 2021 Reykjavik before lock-in.

Fnatic have always been a championship contender in the eyes of EMEA fans. Only the non-delusional ones will accept that they had a terrible 2022 internationally. Again if I say this people will call out my SEN flair.

I don't think DRX beating Fnatic will be an upset coz they are the 3rd best team in the world

Ok. Thanks for the clarification. Though it may not be feasible for some orgs to have an extra salaried player, it does have some uses in case someone's not performing well or suddenly gets ill or something.

Last year, when Fnatic were not able to get Derke and Braveaf to Iceland, they could get 2 other players to the roster as substitutes.
I don't know about Franchising substitute rules, but with things like Roster Lock existing what can teams without a 6th man do in case someone feels sick or doesn't get a Visa for an international tourney? KC are about to let their assistant coach play on the main team because they don't have a proper 6th man. Can you bring someone else instead of the 6th man to Masters Tokyo incase someone on a team does not get a Visa?

They won't even be top 2 in Challengers league.

When this roster was announced, I thought that the disastrous 2022 season could be forgotten but at the moment, the fire seems to be burning even more. Everyone's laughing at us since Split 1 2022 and it continues even today. When will good times come? When will Tenz start proving himself? When will SEN start winning again?

Giants, due to Cloud being too good.

It's difficult to form an opinion after just 3 games. Every team in NA are slow starters, they take time to adapt and understand. Even the gap between Loud and the other SA teams was huge last year.

People during Lock-in were talking about how dominating Americas were gonna be after first group results then after second group results everyone zipped their mouths shut.

GENG 2-1 T1.
EDG 3-1 ASE
ZETA 2-1 DFM
KRU 2-0 EG
LEV 2-1 SEN

That's true.

Mibr strat : Plant at 15 seconds and win all aim duels.

That shows MIBR are garbage at pistols. Don't expect someone to win a map when they lose both pistols.

Doesn't matter. Even C9, the team that was considered to be the worst, got a map of Loud, the 2nd best team in the world.

good jinx

Trust in Chet and FNS.

dude isn't winning rounds essential for winning a map?

That's because the maps aren't that bad that they need to rework something from the scratch. Split since rework has a 45-55 attackers win percentage. Pearl B site and Icebox B site are the only things they need to work on.

Just Buff chamber.

Shut up.

Don't worry, when Breeze is back they may rework it like Bind.

Every team shows early signs of promise in a new meta. Can they actually hold their nerve in the playoffs? That has always been the question.

B site has been free since Chamber nerf.

Either my take ages badly and no Na teams go to masters, or 2 NA teams go to masters. Just wait for a month.

Imagine saying this and suddenly the NA teams wake up in the playoffs.

DRX last loss to EMEA : Against FPX in Copenhagen
EMEA last loss to APAC : Against TS in Sao Paulo.

They did show improvement last week, but I think T1 threw so hard on Frac by bringing on Ban. I think that this game is a reality check for them and going forward they might play better. They have GE next week and Talon later so might be some good games to get back momentum.

why would bang downgrade?

They think that they can just out-aim everyone.

better than being a no-namer on VLR.

Excepting the series against NRG he has not been inconsistent as of late.

It's also a good chance for him to expand his agent pool. Yay has really good aim and no doubt he could just frag out on support agents too.

This fixture list for Sentinels is kinda cruel in my opinion. You have to play literally 4 of the top 5 Americas teams in the first 4 fixtures. Yes, it gets better later on but the teams people consider as average might also improve by then. As a Sentinels' fan I think they have to sneak a win against Lev or Loud (both nightmarish fixtures) to stand a chance for Tokyo.

MxM is a team that can improve with time. Players like Sym, Flyuh are sure to become better the more they play at this level.
We have seen what the players in G2 are capable of excepting Oxy right? Shahzam, Dapr, Wippie, Penny have all reached their peaks respectively and skill wise they aren't going to surpass their peaks by playing at the top of tier 2 atm. They can improve strat wise and that is what I am excepting from them in Split 2. It is not reasonable to rank them this low but at the end of Split 1 these are rankings I can accept considering how good teams like Oxygen and Moguls looked compared to the start of the Split. Don't you think G2 remained in the same place at the start and end of Split 1 barring Oxy's heroics?

I feel like G2's set plays are predictable. I feel like their run to the final in the MSI was a mixture of luck and experience. Teams like Moist and Oxygen looked better than G2 in terms of strats and set plays but G2 won based off of aim and some inexperience from these teams. I do want G2 to prove me wrong and do well in Split 2, but the competition has just become way tougher than it was.

The narrative that Yay fell off after the Chamber nerf is so stupid. Man played like 2 games after the Chamber nerf and was good in both of them. Can't blame the player if the team is bad.

Since Chamber got nerfed playing B-defense is impossible. They have to either set up with Jett and 2 other players cause once you plant on B there is no way to retake unless you properly flank or have ults.

They didn't utilise the Breach properly on defense. The only 2 rounds they used him well was the stun with Dgzin's ult and the trap play they set up at art when Viper ulted B long. I guess it's their fault of not locking down B-long and without the KJ potential of lurking through art and street is very possible. They also couldn't retake because they didn't have KJ ultimate.

This is just a stupid narrative. Just because Sentinels fell off doesn't mean Tenz fell off.

Leviatan is the second highest ranked team in Americas after Loud at the moment and are currently in the list of favorites to make Masters Tokyo. I was viewing a lot of users' predictions on which teams would make it to Masters and Leviatan was there in around 90% of the lists.

Having watched Leviatan last year, they have improved a lot this year and in current form they can have a 8-1 or 9-0 record in the league stages. However, Leviatan always had a problem in the knockout stages. Their record against top 8 teams in the world before beating NRG was 1-5 and they have always choked against these teams regardless of how good they have been in the previous matches. My worry for them is that they are a momentum based team and if they lose one series in the playoffs then they may not make it to Masters. The same happened in Lock-in against NAVI and against FPX in champs. Just looking at their previous results and matches against top teams can you really consider them as a contender for Tokyo?

This take was 1 year early.

Fun fact : Yay had the highest rating in 25 out of the 39 matches (amongst his teammates) Optic played last year. Not even the contenders for best players in the world, Aspas, Derke, Chronicle, Leo, Less has that monster of a stat. It's sad that C9 didn't use him the way he needed to be used.

They were comparing Crashies with Leo and Shao before this match but I have never seen them disappear like that

Leo in elimination match btw :
https://www.vlr.gg/112328/guild-esports-vs-funplus-phoenix-valorant-champions-tour-stage-2-masters-copenhagen-lr1/?game=91834&tab=overview

Crashies and Ardiis both had a bad game, why don't people accept that?

They have to realise they can't out aim every team and actually invest in making some good comps. Was honestly pissed after seeing they won Haven with Yoru but thank god TS held themselves and brought it back.