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

Watching GiantX and especially Redgar in this Kickoff tournament for EMEA made me feel really sad, how can one of the strongest IGLs during year 2 of competitive look so ineffective and bring down a very decent to the point where the only fighting chance they get is when Cloud pops off?
This got me thinking and now i have a theory for why Redgar's system looked so good in Gambit/M3C and why it looks so bad for GiantX.
Redgar comes from CSGO and he IGL'd even there, when he came to Valorant he decided to transpose the traditional CSGO roles to Valorant and that worked out great, as we saw during 2022, mainly the distinguishing features of said system where
-Huge enphasis on creating space for a Lurker (nAts) on T side
-The duelist used as an info tool both on T and CT side (D3ffo)
-Executes built around getting info from D3ffo and feeding it to good trade killers (Sheydos, Chronicle)
this sytem mimics perfectly CS where the star player is not the entry fragger but either the lurker or the trade fragger.
While at first this system worked great, problems started to arise when people started figuring out just how strong Valorant's utility is compared to CSGO and thus more and more enphasis started to be placed in making entry fraggers shine the most out of everyone thanks to very coordinated utility (Skye flashes, Omen Paranoia, etc) and the strenght of anti-flank utility and good coaching made getting lurks off way harder (nAts while still a good player cant get away with the things he did 2 years ago).
Despite the meta evolving, Redgar, very clearly didn't as we can see by him trying to make Nukkye into a decisive lurking threat and sacrifing Fitinho very often to create space (just hink of the FUT game where Fitinho had 13 first deaths), i think this is the problem with Redgar's calling and i dont know if he will adapt or die.

Valorant exception cause of cartoon artstyle and no blood, yes im serious, its the same reason some University competitions allow valorant and not Counter Strike

thanks for response! Im always curious about upcoming talent ill check some of these players out

havoc clears both i fear

who would you get as the indian talent tho? Is the talent pool deep and strong enough for tier 1? DEATHMAKER looks promising and Lightningfast doesnt look that bad but idk if they are tier 1 material

just realized Lumo and Kr1stal aint the same guy lmao, they are doomed then

EMEA: Apeks
APAC: Probably SCARZ since they retained the russians
America: M80 if they dont sell zander

CaYdeN drops 30 on these washed Overwatch players

custom game on Sh1n's tracker (https://tracker.gg/valorant/profile/riot/KC%20sz1n%23SZN/customs-) actually show him on Controllers and MAGNUM on initiators, MAGNUM played under Enzo in the last year and now he's igling, i think he might have picked up the initiator IGL mindset from him, which id like to see.
Still roles look good to me, the 3 kids they got as a fragging core have insane aim, if they pop off this team is dangerous

They all have robot aim, as long as Engh does his job they should be able to transition into other roles without much issue since the most utility heavy roles (intiiator, controller) are already occupied by Sh1n and MAGNUM most likely, just need one of the duelist kids to learn flashes and the other to learn some lurk timings

Dsyre 13-0 i fear

My personal theory is that termi wants to turn Flashback into the next IGL for DRX and to do so he needs exposure to Tier 1 gameplay, regarding -RB + Foxy9 i think its just because of Foxy's allegedly superior mechanical abilities and ability to play Jett (allowing Buzz to focus on sentinel or flex initiator i f they prefer Flashback on sentinels)

Duelist: B1SK (i think this guy has insane mechanics, might be the enxt big russian player after something if he smooths out his decisionmaking)
Sentinel: Tag (very good gamesense, willing to sacrifice, has shown he can hang with the best of tier 2)
Controller: Cayden (most underrated controller in European tier 2)
Initiator (IGL): SEIDER (I think hes been doing very good work on FOKUS with his calling)
Flex: Musashi (the most flexible player in Europe)

off/season performances have been below expectations and they have no intention of making roster changes, i think its fair to say the team has reached its peak and will now be surpassed by the rest of the region unless they do something

APAC: PRX, T1
EMEA: FNC, FUT
China: EDG, BLG
America: LEV, FURIA (Bold prediciton but i think havoc might be insane)

I think FUT, Heretics and Vitality can be very entertaining, give them a chance pèlease! I have to admit EMEA doesnt have the best talent tho, i fear most of the very talented FPS kids in europe prefer Counter-Strike rather than Valorant

lets compare the workload of EDG, a very average CS top 30 team and an upcoming team in CS

EDG played 22 official matches since Champions in August, most of them being regional matches versus chinese teams

BIG Clan, a pretty average team that attends both Tier 1 and Tier 2 tournaments both online and LAN has played 33 official matches
https://www.hltv.org/results?startDate=2023-09-08&endDate=2023-12-08&team=7532

Preasy are an upcoming Danish team, currently ranked 34, to achieve such a ranking in the past 3 months they played 53 official matches (they play one more today)
https://www.hltv.org/results?startDate=2023-09-08&endDate=2023-12-08&team=12334

The levels of grinding official matches are completely different in these esports, not trying to downplay EDG, but 22 officials in 3 months is definetely doable, especially when you are salaried (and according to reports EDG salaries are p decent)

cNed doesnt look the same since 2021, but theres no way hes worse than qw1, yetujey is great and qraxs-mrfalin-atakaptan is probably the most mechanically gifted "support" core in europe, they will do great

Dsyre owns Mid80

ITALIAN VALORANT IS REAL LETS GOOOOOO

hope fusion wins, dont wanna see Pancc anywhere near tier 1

not surprised that one of the worst CS player to ever reach tier 1 somehow and that leeched off the valorant pro scene by getting in early enough ends up finally being exposed for what he is, hopefully all the other ex CS tier 2-3 leechers fianlly get all exposed like him

agree, hes just an awkward nerd as youd expect in DMs, the girl is 18 and while some may say he comes off as creepy, i just think he's not very adept at flirting and leave it at that

if gekko died as last player while wingman defusing, attackers still won the round, but gekko would get a ult point if wingman completed the defuse, this just takes away a confusing thing

1. Marteen 1.22
2. Cayden 1.20
3. Bipo 1.08
4. AFoxx 1.10
5. Feqew 1.21
6. Wackie 1.18
7. Denzo 1.11
8. Loom 1.08
9. Tag 1.07
10. Heartbeat 1.02 (best igl)

GE fix
disband pacific roster, relocate to EU
+JoYnT(coach)
+HeartBeat
+Bipo
+Cayden
+NAISS
+Braso
easy champions trust

Cayden, Bipo, Heartbeat lets go italy

Prolly the best possible pickup they could have done, now Mary can go crazy on duelist, Roxi is an insane KJ player and the rest of the lineup is insane and we all know it, G2 gozen coming for that GC belt next year too

Leo "Leo" Jannesson

Ardiis never cheater, but he was a well known matchifxer

would love to see a ranked demon pickup, its kinda like when CS teams pick up FACEIT players and we seen lots of good stuff from that kind of hungry and young players

i hope none of em, they aint VCT level at all, the only ex-KC player that i would even consider keeping is Newzera purely for role reasons, honestly they might even consider Juseau who seems to be switching to a more sentinel role from what we seen in red bull homegrounds, if he plays an aim-heavy sentinel style à la suygetsu he might be a decent pick

EG dropping jawgemo? Literally their best player and one of the best entries in NA? For victor of all people????

munchkin, xeta and ban are all korean and all 3 very talented, definetely a good core for a team in korea

FUT brings in turkish viewers which are many and is backed by some good investment (its the biggest sports news site in turkey that backs them iirc), sadge that heroic, big and rogue couldnt make it but you never know

Giants is a very big org with backing from one of the biggest Internet and phone providers in Europe, doesnt surprise that they made it in, very stable org and if they play their cards right they can end up with a very good team

T1 wants to play in the APAC league im pretty sure, they have a big pre existing lol fanbase in Korea and they suspisciously signed Korean, players for their NA team

Yay
MaKo
Shao
Saadhaak
Aspas
optimal team

Stellar is way more handsome even if hes worse player, you cant deny that hes a total hottie

Na has 3 slots brother

They are chanting against alfahjer whos the hometown player, it would be weird if there was no booing lol

fraudnatic showing up in full force today, never seen derke and Alfajer aim duels be this bad

IGLs play whatever they want, screaM igls on raze, Saadhaak IGLs on Kay/0, FNS igld on chyper and KJ for a long time, zest igls on sova/fade, I think comfort is way better than an ideal role igls should play, also there's an uptick in star controller players, like Mako, Sugarz3ro, Marved, nAts in the worlds top teams

i think he should just take up gMd roles, I perfer subroza on flash agents, he looks way more comfortable than playing controllers

Sacy is very good dont get me wrong, but I think Copenhagen cemented Shao as the initiaor to beat rn, with Leo, Crashies and Stax close by, Sacy is definetely around that level tho

they have a very popular player in Trent, a well known international to pull some foreign viewers in Saya, lots of money behind them and good social media presence, I think they have a better chance of making it than most other orgs like Ghost, Version1, Knights, etc.

I would suggest Ange instead of v1c ngl, he has been a great player on darkzero and now dark ratio while playing really sacrificial roles, really like him as a player on those smokes agents, I also doubt trent is leaving TGRD unless they dont make franchising(i doubt, they got a lot fo money behind the org), so I would say that Jovanhi from ex-Akrew deserves a shot at tier 1, I really liked him in the recent games they have been playing