"The winning team"

2 game sample space let's calm down

2nd worst team is a lie, and their issues aren't purely or even mostly a "not-enough-time" thing. G2 is a much better team though, no way anyone argued that at any point since Shanghai

Yeah, I'm just looking forward to the FNS-s0m ranked duo, and I'm sad for BilliBilli, Yosemite really wanted the rematch

Limited scrim time, yeah, but I had too much faith in FNS' calls and the individuals on the team carrying them through.

I agree that EDG is regressing, with respect to their competition, but there is literally no advantage for the first seed in Champs, everyone starts from the group stage, and because they've dominated China so much this year, they're already guaranteed Champs, and so they're trying to shake up their system, which I agree was centred heavily around KangKang's moments.

Improvement is characterized by dips and bobs, so they'll look shaky even against teams that they should roll, but the Stage 2 losses carry too much weight in people's minds, I think.

Oh, no no no, they shit the bed at Shanghai and Madrid, I'm just referring to their Stage 2 games when I say they haven't needed to show up. They looked good at Tokyo and LA, and fell off internationally, but I still believe that China's in their pocket, they just don't need to win in Stage 2, which I believe is what's bothering most people who are interested, that they're losing regionally.

The Loud game at Madrid was hard to watch, and I had such high hopes for my goat KangKang, but they still owned all of Stage 1, which is why they're in Champs without a win in Stage 2.

I get that they've dominated China for a long time, but China's only been franchised this year, which I would believe changes up the ecosystem, and the loss to FPX in Stage 1 was rectified by them winning the finals, which got them a bye in playoffs in Shanghai. Seeding in Champs means nothing, because all the teams are in the group stage at the beginning, I'm pretty sure, so 1st seed or 4th seed, it's the same starting board: the group stage.

I don't follow China closely, but isn't EDG's whole thing that they show up when they need to? They're in Champs already, so they don't really need to do anything for Split 2, other than try to get back whatever they've been missing at internationals all year. I wouldn't say they're saving strats, but officials probably feel like scrims for them.

All of the above is speculation, I would love to be informed if I'm missing something.

This is some funny hating, because you're sort of recency biased, but not really, because if you weren't a hater, it would be obvious that KRU not making it to Shanghai even with having the first seed position meant that they'd been heavily figured out.

Valid concern, the title makes it sound like you have a problem with the org, and its fans, which according to you are 99% of fans.

They won the first Masters, TenZ is a Valorant household name, Tarik's the most successful Val streamer by a lot, who ever's in charge of SEN's publicity is a genius, need I say more?

"Too many fans"

If my nan had wheels...

Yes, the game has changed, and yes China has improved as a region, but in Tokyo and Champs, where EDG got 5th-6th, they looked significantly better than they have internationally this year. I don't think anyone reasonably expected them to win an international tourney, they were just touted as a sort of "dark horse" for Shanghai, bc home crowd, no timezone adjustments, etc. And I think the dip is overexaggerated, not because it isn't a big enough dip, but because they have already achieved the goal every team has going into Stage 2 (they're in Champs), so they have a decent amount of leeway to try revitalising themselves for said Champs. I really like this team, and I just want to see another KangKang popoff.

That is true, even going back to Kickoff, just like it's now hard to argue that they aren't shitting the bed rn. D00mbr0s had some sauce, TH was too good for it to work on them, and now it looks like they have nothing.

Yeah, I agree, FPX looked much better at Shanghai, but "owning" EDG implies that they (FPX) consistently beat them (EDG) in H-to-H matches (EDG beat them in the Stage 1 Grand Final) and EDG has had Chinese Valorant in their pockets since inception.

DRG had a similar performance to EDG in Shanghai, only, one of them was in Playoffs, and the FPX that won a LAN could not be more different from the FPX rn. EDG's already in Champs, so the matches they're playing rn mean little and less, so they'll obviously experiment with silly stuff, EDG's the only team that's won a playoff game in an international btw, so these are just blatant lies.

Highly anticipated match for SEN fans, and most NA Val fans, and the crowd is doing crowd things == corny/annoying

peaced believes that a team of players who have played together for almost all of Val and even ties back to CS are a 1 month old team. And also that a team that has won a trophy this year isn't worthy of all of the respect placed on their name.

All of these players have been teammates before, s0m and Ethan on old NRG, the rest on Optic, s0m played with the Optic core all of last year, and Ethan all of this year. Yes, you're a SEN hater, but NRG is definitely not a "1 month old team".

Flair