KK is really good as an aimer but i rate W0ot higher cause hes way smoother and wins a lot of fights he really shouldnt win, KK has amazing reaction times and good aim but I think his performances are more fo a product of his gamesense on the entry rather than pure aim (this is not a bad thing, its actually better for duelists to play this way) while W0ot most often than not entried in suboptimal ways but won his fights purely out of raw mechanics (kinda like Demon1 in 2023 where he was winning every fight thrown at him not because of positioning or brain things, he just moved his mouse better than anyone else on the planet)

best aimer in 2024 was definetely W0ot but i think there were higher peaks in prior years (2022 Aspas, 2023 Derke, 2021 Cned) mostly cause older metas allowed more raw gunfights, nowadays great aimers have to work a lot on utility and gamesense so they cant focus as much on aim as those in previous years imo (not saying they are worse, i think the average pro today is infinetely better, but on the pure aim part i favor prior years)

2023 Demon1
2021 TenZ
2022 Less

I know right, Ive been following him for a while since hes probably the best aimer to ever come out of Italy (outside fo Rainbow Six) and his aiming style has evolved to be really fucking good, reminds me a lot of a CS player called TeSeS where he has snappy and precise flicks, robot aim basically and if this MOUZ roster can prove itself to be among the top dogs in Europe at the big T2 tournaments I think going to Tier 1 isnt unrealistic for him (I have to mention xuss too, not as refined of an aimer but he understands extremely well how to play site entry and always finds a way to multikill)

I think FR has better rosters overall for Ascension specifically, thats it.
Regarding the talent production part I am actually not that high on Fangeer and yohpa and I consider Sayonara more of an ES product since he was scouted by FNC from there and hes in FR because of his age, DACH has probably the most ready prospects like xuss and Bipo, NE has really exciting players (very raw tho) like Akira, Bravo and Razzsizz, ES has very interesting role players that can definetely find their place in T1 like Tag, Fragger, Starkk and Kamisseq, very exciting T2 scene everywhere but as you said Turkey is one step above with talents like ComeBack that will definetely make a big impact when they come of age

Ill give my 2 cents here as an avid folower of European T2, I think that righht now the ranking should be
1) Turkey
GAP
2) France
GAP
3) DACH
4) North-East
5) ES-PR-IT
GAP
6) MENA

Dach, N//E and ES.PR.IT are really close in my opinion and all 3 house very good players (just look at how instantly improved GX looks with Ara and Flickless), France has very solid teams overall but I think they are actually a little weaker in the prospect department (very good players that can compete for Ascension but not as many exciting young players as DACH and N//E), Turkey is far and away the biggest talent producer for european valorant and its not even close, BBL Pcific alone is probably the best T2 team in the world and all of their players could easily play Tier 1

True! I am totally and completely unbiased when i say that DACH is going to give T1 their next GOAT duelist player in Bipo, he's been smurfing on mouz!

Reyne meta: Shot_Up

Astra meta: Sugarz3ro

Chamber meta: Yay, Cryocells

Kj meta: Meteor

Harbor meta: Tuyz, Mazino

Sage meta: The GOAT CaYden

Kru are locked for playoffs so they might take the game easy like they did last week and that would allow 100T to get first seed if SEN loses but I think KRU is gonna lock in and they are a scary scary team when Keznit, sHyy and Mazino are on, I got Kru winning on my bet slip

I think they are stronger, hes a solid aimer when hes off the Astra (probably cause he gets flustered when he has to think about his util too much since he never played main smokes before) and he's being coached very well, I still think TL is handicapping themselves by keeping Patitek on payroll but as long as it works they will keep him, I think TH and Vitality are better teams tho

ComeBack is definetely the biggest one to watch

yea honestly id love to see a full russian stack in valorant, every serious FPS needs one of those but i think that china money is way too good for rarga and vookashu to move any time soon

Navi wont hire any player representing Russia so unless they forgo nationality and play as non-representing and relocate out of Russia they wont get any of those except for Shao and zyppan, wouldnt be a bad team though (definetely better than KOI, GX and current navi for sure)

havent seen him play yet tho, maybe cause DRX and Geng are hard games but still i stand by the rest of my post (id even say letting him play against the harder teams that you probably wont win against is better than letting him farm cupcake opponents) split 2 is so far away and making him sit this long will definetely affect his confidence but PRX management definetely knows him better than me

I forgot about that, I was convinced they had space for 2 of them (I got mixed up cause leviathan had 2 european players but thats cause tex plays with german flag despite being american), then yea all ive said is irrelevant, subbing vookashu for autumn would just keep FPX as they are right now

They aint even letting him play, hes good player but I think PRX just has to give up on this core and rebuild completely around Forsaken and Mindfreak who are the most consistent players,theres a lot of talent in IND/PH/SG that they could try out, but mostly they need a more complete coaching staff cause every team seems to be reading them like a book

i think that would make vookashu an even better addition since hes also quite a good IGL (really liked his calling especially on Rebels) and would open up Autumn to go on Duelist instead of Life (who aint a bad player but hes definetely not as good a fragger as Autumn)

actually true, very good player when hes on sentinel, not a big fan of how they stick him on Raze and Jett at times tho, I get it that they want him to be kinda like Alfajer but i just wish he could focus on playing Vyse and Chyper (especially Vyse, hes really good at playing around her setups)

FPX is definetely good but since they are already english speaking (i'd assume unless Autumn speaks chinese which i dont know if he does) and vookashu would be an upgrade over any sentinel player in China besides Chichoo id say they could look into getting his services to solidfy their position as a top 3 team in CN

Cause its the lurker role on attack, you are supposed to put some of the best players on it like in CS, the impact you have in midrounds is huge and you need very good aimers to close out clutches, same reason why so many amazing aimers are starting to land on Initiator roles (Verno, Riens, Sayf, Free1ng) rather than duelist like its always been

I hope for him the money is good, this roster really feels undercooked and undertalented compared to the top chinese teams, FPX should grab him if he likes being in China but he definetely feels like one of the most wasted talents in tier 1 along with Cloud and Gobera

If they scrimmed with him and decided all he was good for was being a human drone that looks even worse for him, if you'd rather your duelist player be a pure space taker rather than a properly setup execute piece then it means that hes lacking in something that would make it worth it for the team to invest into him, these days the only hard space taking duelist player with any amount of success has been MiniBoo and even he gets lots of utility behind his space taking role.
Maybe it just means that Governor wasnt suited to play duelist at all and this new role will realize his potential or maybe Talon coaching staff wasnt very good, but what I saw in Talon games wasnt a great duelist player on an hard role, it was a middling duelist that was being squeezed for value by crws

cause smokes can have more impact in the entry pack since they go into site before Initiators, thats why you are starting to see more and more gifted players on smokes (MaKo, Bang, Profek, Cyvoph, Keiko, v1c) when it used to be the IGL role for a long time, also same reason why many IGLs are moving to int iator (scan and Breach specifically)

probably right, the fact that Governor has a job at all after how bad he looked in APAC is really telling that Apeks had to get someone as fast and as cheap as poosible

Hiro for suygetsu, not only is Hiro not that good but he also allegedly costed Navi a small fortune to get, type move that sets an org back a whole year

cant give him his preferred roles cause the bum Patitek gotta have his favorite agents ahnded to him despite being one of the weakest aimers in T1 while also not calling, on god i have no idea why the fuck they havent gotten rid of that guy yet, hopefully coach wakes up and puts Patitek on Astra so atleast Serial can focus on clicking heads with his preferred timings

as I said, im not saying BeYn is bad, far from it, he is a good player that deserves to play at tier 1 but when I look at the scan initiator role, the more I see it becoming more and more of a star rifler role rather than a secondary fragger one, it is a role very similar to the Closer in CS and we've seen a lot of teams thrive and make deep runs off of having an extraordinarily mechanically gifted closer of rounds, think of Leo in 2023/204, Trent, Riens, Trexx (no deep runs yet but you can clearly see how skilled he is), Sacy, Lakia, with EDG being the only big exception of last year (but they did win it all only at one event, the most important one but still)
BeYn is good but he doesnt have that much firepower in him as these superstar players that fill this position these days and even among younger prospects in the scan role you see teams looking for very mechanical scan/breach players (Verno, GSR, DaviH, Minny, Avez, Killua) rather than more gamesense oriented players, I think that BeYn could find a lot of success by kicking Flashback out of the sentinel role if Flashback keeps on being inconsistent though and i honestly would love to see him back on those roles because as you said, when he was filling in for Flashback he was looking very good

Free1ng looks amazing and hyunmin is definetely good from what we saw regionally but

• Hyunmin got to improve his play on LAN, I dont care that he was on Yoru almost all tournament, he was straight up losing duels youd expect him to win if it was PAcific kickoff
• Flashback needs to be more consistent from map to map (he struggled with this already last year, he needs to get it togheter cause sometimes he looks godly and sometimes he looks completely paniced)
• BeYn gotta step up overall, his play is definetely the most average out of the whole team and with so many good initiator players in Korea I honestly wouldnt be against trialing Ivy if he underperforms during stage 1

I think first 2 points can be pegged as development problems that will be dealt with experience (especially for Hyunmin) but for Beyn I am worried, cause while definetely a good tier 1 player, he hasnt shown those flashes of greatness you need to actually get on top of teams like EDG, G2 or even T1 and as I said before the competition in Korea for that Sova spot is fierce

N4rrate looked even more tilted on abyss but still pulled up 30+, i think the main problem rn is that Zellsis is doing nothing when the play is up to him, John is relying too much on Zekken to open up rounds and they get confused during retakes,i honestly think they need a stronger aimer on that flex sentinel role cause the team seems to default on relying on zekken too much and no wonder he gets overwhelmed and starts going flat

id say only EDG and FPX have great aimers (Dragon Ranger has some gifted players too but thats beside the point), domestically Trace is more of a structured team that executes a lot (thats why Kai looks so good on home soil) but i think that at an international level their strats are just easier to read and teams are already used to this kind of T side (think of APAC having to deal with PRX or RRQ which are very execute heavy teams with strong aimers).
I think trace just got outstratted and while i think they have some interesting players (Heybay, Kei, FengF) they need to evolve and start playing better comps and layer their game into a real team before they can start doing well at big events consistently

For VIT vs DRX depends a lot on Map selection imo, both of these teams dont want to play Pearl.
If we see something like Fracture - Split - Lotus i favor DRX cause their style of comps and utility use really lends itself to these maps but if we see something like Lotus - Abyss - Split then i favor Vitality cause Abyss really plays into their mechanics and their Split is solid.

EDG vs G2 i got G2, they really impressed me today and i think EDG depends a lot on Chichoo or kangkang popping off, if G2 plays their yoru comps and gets a decent map draft i see them shutting down atleast one of the two key players for EDG down and get a good win, but if EDG is prepared for the Jawgemo Yoru it might interesting (im going off the fact they kinda got fcked by Kamo on yoru on split and Jawg is way better than Kamo overall)

By defintion of impact thats gotta be Kangkang, his entries are great but Chichoo mechanics are just so clean, amazing aimer with great brain, if he can keep up this level they might win bangkok too (although i favor G2 for now)

Chichoo is so broken i swear EDG loses map 1 hard if he didnt play that well, i honestly think he might be the best player on EDG

true, i also hope my italian boys CaYden and Tag can show off in the League cause they are amazing support players

DaviH and Serial are gonna get poached so quickly its not even funny (Fnatic sign DaviH instead of that fraud crashies i beg you)

They were behind in the meta reads, look at how little Tejo and Vyse they played, Benjy was in horrific form mechanically, woot and boo traded roles and need to get comfortable with timings, I think with one month in the oven they should go back to being on top cause we know the mechanical skill form everyone is there, but honestly its fair their in a bit of a sophomore slump rn, happens to a lot of strong rookie players, hopefully the coiach gets their confidence up

WHAT, ok my bad then get unc out (i was conviced he was young cause he looks like an highschooler and only played in tier 2)

yea was talking about k1ng, forgot how his name was spelled and confused it with the leviatan IGL mb.
While i also like how Sin Prisa stayed togheter, i think Persia should eventually leave unless Nongshim promises to upgrade the roster because aside from him and Ivy i dont see them having the quality to get to big events considering Riot gives so few spots to teams for internationals (Francis might surprise me and keep developing but i dont like his eyetest), if Nongshim decides to invest heavily in the team and gives them new pieces id love to see him stay put tho

I missed his retirement! Damn i really liked him, well if hes out i think investing in young talents like yoman should be the priority, maybe get a very young sentinel player, put him in a sub position like Drx did with flashback, make him play scrims and wait until foxy9 fucks up again to give the youngster a chance, Wolverine from Sherpa would be my choice

atleast with yoman you can say hes young and this is is first serious torunament, for a first timer i think he performed fine, but Foxy9 has been around the tier 1 scene for almost 2 years now, he has no excuses imo

No idea why Gen.G allowed him to be poached, definetely best lurker in Korea, Munchkin and Karon should really pressure the organization to get KinGg )or persia if hes willing to switch roles, he has sduper strong mechanics) in cause foxy9 has been by far the weakest player on roster

Great job at gathering stats, I wish stats showed how good imo players like Tag, Waddle, Neptuno and Lele are playing in the spots they are playing for their teams but thats the destiny for more anchro oriented players

hes just a twitch streamer dude, if he was serious about competing hed be grinding tier 3 but he isnt, controller is becoming more and more of a star rifler rifler role with players like Keiko, Profek, Gobera, Melser, s0m, Persia and MaKo rtunning around on Omen and Brim, you gotta have a very strong aimer on controller to perform these days

PRX bigger disappointment, this tournament is showing that their playstyle is outdated and cant work anymore now that players are getting better at tyhe game and switching star roles away from Duelists to Sentinel/controller players.
FNC was disappointing but they had to play with super ultra washed up Crashies, honest to god 4v5 games.
NRG disappointed but had the decency to lose to some good teams and sent home 100 thieves, they will be fine in the long run i think.
Wolves hype train was real but honestly they were just overrated in offseason, i think they performed well enough for the roster is, China talent is super top heavy stacked in EDG and Trace so its really hard to get actual good players until the scene expands in tier 2

hes been on Furia for 4 years man.... He just plays decently sometimes and avoids kicks but has never shown actual Tier 1 level yet hes been getting paid for 4 years

if you paid attention to his CS career this was the inevitable endpoint, in CS he was a decent rifler that trasitioned to AWP and back to rifle, was extremely mid if not bad by tier 1 standards, he switched to Valorant and made the best of the headstart him and all the other Envy guys had over the other players and when people caught up skill wise he disappeared, relegated to the the potential he always had in his previous game,, just like all ther frauds from envy (Victor especially, Crashies too, FNS managed to stay relevant cause hes a smart IGL)

any team that plays with a franchise spot and financed Riots horrible format, only teams i support are the ones that grinded and made it from tier 2 into tier 1 like a real org is supposed to do, nothing against the players tho, excpet for some protected ass paycheck stealers (Hype, Sheydos, mitch, khalil, Crashies, the entirety of Zeta divison)

i think C9 is taking Pancada and moving Jake to sentinel, i just have this feeling

I think replacing neT is sadly the way to go, Sentinel is becoming qwuickly oen of the most stacked positions in pro play and hes been really underwhelming, Wippie opened up so hes an option but i think they should go for a young player with strong mechanics, id even import from brazil or EU honestly (obviously only if english is good), Swag from Legacy would be my pick if he knows english well, but i could see a player like Skuba working out if they rearrange roles (very good VIper player could free JonahP to play sentinels) or Verno if they prefer to keep the lineup american

agree on Nukkye, he's not a great lurker, he should utilize his great aim and play more trade-heavy roles, I think in general GIANTX has some potential, i think Fitinho isnt that bad and could be good, Cloud is amazing and we all know that, i think that out of all the team the one that id look to replace is Hoody, he feels like a very average player for the VCT and a strong Sentinel player could help them a lot by freeing up Nukkye to play Flash agents