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

It's mostly a mindset thing, European valorant players don't chase social media relevancy as hard as NA pros, they dont stream as much and focus mostly on scrimming and training, there's nothing wrong with wanting to build a personal brand, hell i'd even say that from a career point of view, NA players are smarter, cause they build audiences that stick with them and provide them with a consistent income, look at Shroud and how he turned his meh CS career into a streaming empire or on lower scale, look at BabyJ that despite being unsigned makes a living streaming valorant cvause he used his time as a pro to build a brand.
In EU, most players have a background in traditional team sports(look at how many pros used to play football or things like that) and having that team game mentality makes hella difference, it teaches you how to treat your teammates, act profesionally, suppress your ego and makes it clear to you that training is sacred and more important than anything else.
This kind of mentality definetely amkes for better teams and team players, but you arent building huge personal brands so maybe in the long run you might actually lose out, money-wise.
I also think a lot of NA pros aren't as passionate about the game, most of them are either failed CS prospects stuck in tier 2.-3 of NA Cs(dapr,tex,crashies, curry, penny, food), Players past their expriation date that couldnt find teams(Dephh, FNS, hazed) or players forced to swtich cause there wasn't enough money in the game anymore(Subroza, WARDELL, Ethan, Vanity, Xeppaa, Leaf), all these players I feel like aren't in Valorant cause they truly love the game, but because it's the only game in NA that pays as much as it does, not to say that we dont have those types of players in EMEA(ANGE1, ScreaM, CREA, HyP, Mixwell, Hoody, Nukkye etc.) we also have lots of ex-CS pros that couldnt land jobs and switched, but I feel like the main core of Valorant players in EMEA is young players that never really had a career in CS and are now realizing their dream in valorant(nAts, Shao, Cloud, cNed, twisten) which I think makes them way more passionate about the game, just my opinions tho.

Jady is an insanely talented player, its his first game on M3C and its not like hes having major whiffs, simply, he's taking passive roles cause Chronicle and Nats are really feeling it today and he doesnt have to take many duels, chronicle is showing that hes 10 times the space creator that d3ffo was and trsut me that your going to love jady on this team

tbf right now hes playing better opposition and the support pieces on his team aint exceptional and maybe he got a bit of mental blocvk since he got his butt kicked when he was a stand in for FNC, I still think that he hasnt shown a super impressive level in a long time

idk, on KOI he was good but he definetely never looked like a real tier 1 Talent and in vitality he looked good but nothign sdpecial yet again, He has yet to convince me that he's such a great player

idk, maybe he just doesnt have what it takes

Clearly didn't watch Soniqs when bob played for them

couldn't have said it any better, the only other team that plays such a fundamentals heavy game is imo Optic, although they have a different way of going about it that is probably why they ended up falling to FPX and PRX, FPX is very well drilled in their fundamentals making them able to play any agent in their role, while Optic went into the "Let's adapt the agents to the perfect role for our players", in Optic case the roles are

Victor - Hard Entry
Yay - Aggressive Operator(yay picks up the OP way more often than ardiis, even on T side) and rarely second man in
Crashies - Second Man in
FNS - Passive rifle that waits executes and then enters third
Marved - Late entry
Their system reminds me more of Astralis than SK since their clutch player is on the lurk(Marved/xyp9x) and they dont look for info as aggresively, relying mostly on the entry to get the info and then work off that.

The biggest difference is, as I said, that instead of playing agents In Spite of the role, they try to look for as much synergy as possible, which is why they were one of the first teams to make Neon work, as she fits Victor super sacrificial role very well, or the reason why they have been moving crashies away from info gatherers like SOva and into Flashers like Kay/0 and Skye.
I think that this kind of system is why Optic have been very consistent on LAN and domestically, as many pros said on stream(i remember WARDELL saying this) FNS is the only igl in NA that plays like its CS and its why he's so good.

While this system is great, I think that most teams are starting to catch up and play very similar to Optic(PRX actually does implement a very similar system, albeit with different roles, but if you look at their comps and how they play, you can see the players are always following a certain script, with Jingg entrying first, even on Sage, with utility from d4v4i and benkai to suypport him while f0rsaken enters second trying to look for off timings on his yoru/neon picks) valorant is definetely evolving in the optic direction, but Im sure that FPX way of playing is really the next step of the evolution, where players stop fossilizing on agent picks and start to become more and more flexible in the agent selection while maintaining their role, leading to the best possible comps for the team they play against.

that's what im saying, managing to make someone like xms look good means that the IGL is definetely doing something right by putting him in the right positions and making him comfortable, and in regards to firepower, TL needs everything but firepower atm with ScreaM, Nivera and Jamppi, what they need is a good IGL that lets ScreaM and jamppi take their mind off calling and keeps them focused on fragging out, if he can make XMS drop 240 ACS every map, imagine what he can do with better players

what I mean by CSGO roles, is that ANGE1 makes his players play in positions they are comfortable, regardless of agent, because he values the player individual skills more than the agent skills, he only values agents for what interactions they can have with the map(see how he always tries to fit Kay/0 in the comp, often giving up Raze and Chamber, zyppan and ardiis "comfort" picks, cause he values kay/0 utility more than comfort utility, he trusts ardiis and zyppan gun skill so much he knopws they can find value even without tailor made util), if you look at their vods you can see how on T side you always have

ANGE1 playing aggressive early for info(like most CSGO igls do)
Zyppan is always entering in first, be it on RaZe or Kay/0
Ardiis is always second into the site unless he has an AWP(Classic Entry/second entry like in CS)
SUYGETSU always looks for late pinches on the site or anti-flank
Shao is always last into site and plays safe for clutches and trades(Think of him like Coldzera in FalleN system)

By taking back the SK Gaming analogy to Cs(which works really well) you can say that
Ardiis is FalleN
Shao is Coldzera
Suygetsu is Fer
Zyppan is TACO
ANGE1 is fnx/Boltz

By splitting roles this way, the players always know what they have to do despite playing a different agent, sometimes they play different agents on the same map(Look at Zyppan playing both KAy/0 and Skye on breeze during this event or Shao playing Fade and Astra on Split) this lets them have a lot of flexibility in anti stratting with agent picks and I think that was the real push that got FPX the dub, other than their amazing mechanics(which should be expected by a team that iams to the top)

Liquid fans always complain about no IGL and Br0die almost won VRL france with an absolute csgo failure like xms as his superstar, thats enough for me to rate him higher than dimasick

Your post is very smart and I think there is a big discussion to be had, FPX really showed how important team comps really are in countering the opponents rather than always going for comfort picks, thats because ANGE1 operates FPX with a CSGO mentality(likew FNS does) in that players aren't categorized by the roles that Valorant uses(Duelist, Sentinel, Initiator, etc.) but instead he makes his players play roles that are more akin to the roles tyou'd see in CSGO, completely ignoring the agent choice, his agent choices are always tailored made around what utility he wants, not what utility his players want, Im gonna make a big ass wall text very soon

can't believe they would go for Dimasick with so many talented controller players in VRL, very disappointing when they could have gone for Magik, Matrixx, DavidP, keodo, br0die or gatsH, so many talented players, hungry for a chance to prove themselves, really disappointed by tl management

NA is a very mechanics heavy region, I feel like any team could make it through the LCQ if they grinded hard their prep work, which is why i think EG or NRG are the teams i want to make it through, EG has amazing tactical work, an absolute superstar in the makin with Jawgemo and they looked like they put in more hours than anyone else, NRG has so much experience that comes in clutch in high pressure situations like an LCQ and I'm a big fan of Hazed mid rounding.
But I think FaZe should be the ones making it, definetely the best pure mechanical team in NA with good support players, they are a bit one-dimensional but Dicey+Babybay is such a good duo that its hard to not be one-dimensional with them

undoubtedly, but I don't feel like giving Dephh the excuse of "awww poor smol bean he was feeling pressure from the LAN environment" , this guy had a 3 year career on Complexity CSGO, attended Majors, IEMs and ESL One events, there's no way a LAN in an empty room is giving him LAN jitters leading to bad calls, there is no excuses for a player with his experience to call this badly

Optic - Still having Victor under contract in a region filled with talented aimers

They didnt look to crumble under pressure, in fact the younger and inexperienced players(Cryo and Zekken) were the absolute highlights of the LAN campaign, unlike with The guard, where their inexperienced players underperformed heavily(Trent and NeT mostly), Xset was a complete failure not in mechanics but in prep work, Dephh milquetoast calling couldnt prop the st ars of the team to win against teams that could match cryo and zekken fragging and the rest of the support players were completely outclassed, especially AYRIN, sadly, this is what I expected by a team IGL'd by someone like Dephh, but hopefully, Zekken and Ctyo will get better support pieces, eventually

optic wont win anything again until they get rid of Victor mid entry fragging, L + Cope

Suygetsu and Zyppan are 20, Ardiis is 24, Shao is 22, Zyppan has some experience in Fortnite so im not surprised he doesnt feel LAN jitters, same for Ardiis who played LANs on Endpoint(CSGO), i think suygetsu is the only real LAN rookie and hes outstanding

ANGE1 is a master team builder, he used to be in CS and still shows how great he is at discovering talent(he was basically S1mple's mentor along with BladE and theres many interviews of s1mple giving him high praise) and giving them comfortable positions to shine and making them complete players(look at how flexible Shao is, or Zyppan and Ardiis alternating Kay/0) FPX really is a well oiled machine like the best hellraisers lineups ange1 put togheter

He was undeniably a good T2 player, Orgless had plenty of good T2 results such as Flashpoint top 4, but yea, he never seemed anything more than that, Its cool to see him pop off in valorant, like many other T2 csgo players both in eu and na

yay never got big in CSGO mostly because he was out mechanic'd by many players in that game, especially in the NA scene(think of players like Elige, Brehze and to a certain extent oBo) that completely overshadowed him in the star rifler role, he had a promising run in orgless(with FNS, wardell and subroza! ) and early in his career he played with Shazam, Sick and Dephh, weird how things turn out lol, but then valorant came out and trhere were no players that overshadowed him anymore, i think the confidence of knowing he is the biggest fish in the pond is what made him so good

vo0kashu and Simond4rk would make this team way better imo

look at the positives, maybe screwface and ange might get a shot at tier 1 if they enter free agency, the org might be gone but players arent, keep supporting them even if dz exits valorant, they will need it

nice study with no peer review, its as good as me saying "I found out that if you slam your head against the wall hard enough you can get a chiseled jawline", go touch grass and talk to some girls

seider is a good player, lets hope Suygetsu makes it in time for playoffs, its defientely doable in their group, just have to beat Xerxia and Northeption(definetely possible if Ardiis and Zyppan show up to play) and im sure ANGE! has some nasty cpunter strats to DRX, I can see them advance, Suygetsu deserves to play on LAN and it would be a real bummer if he cant

the national university level tournament by Amazon had a grand total of 2 teams in there(my team included) , so yea, i think that says it all about italy and esports

source that they have full roster?

1. CASE
2. Angry Titans
3. Vitality
4. Excel
5. Futbolist
6. Tenstar

SugarZ3ro

Derke has the chance to cement himself as the best OPer in the world by winning Coppenhagen, for Alfajer I think he has a lot of potential to be one of the best riflers in the world but Ill wait to see him on LAN, if he's anything like Derke then its going to be an extremely scary proposition for any team to face him

they need top get their hands on a good coach(JoYnt from OGLU just became free agent and he managed to make Mid players like Feqew, Dreamas and Destrian look good in his system) and I think they have a chance to get either a great IGL for cheap, Boo from OGLU is definetely affordable and has worked with JoYnt already in making some very average players look decent in challengers, imagine with better teammates, Bucher is a solid caller that can play the hard sentinel role and free up Nivera to play more impactful roles, they could also look to the VRL's, DavidP has played an amazing season on DSYRE and he knows the top flights of Valorant very welll, Matrixx from Ovation is insanely talented fragging-wise for a controller player and can up the firepower even more and imo HearthBeat from Angry Titans is showing that he has the talent both fragging and calling to be a world class player

imo it should be something along the lines of

1. yay
2. Derke
3. Aspas
4. Marved
5. F0rsaken
6. Jingg
7. Zekken
8. Alfajer
9. Sacy
10. SUYGETSU

Doombros
Chet
Mini
XQQ
JoYnt

while very harsh i agree with some points you make, the whole "Zoomer Content Hype" you mention is something I feel very strongly in Valorant, which gives me bad feelings, people seem to care mostly about the big content creators and not the scene as a whole, although i think this is riot fault for giving us so little official matches, the fact that most teams spend the better part of the year not polaying in officials is incredibly stupid and makes the scene boring and inconsistent.

i wouldnt call POISED a veteran while saying Stellar isn't, they were both very low profile NA CSGO players, Dephh also picked up IGLing only after switching to Valorant, in CS he was mostly a supportive element but he definetely has his years of experience playing if thats what you mean

id say Benkai is a better IGL to call around crazy fraggers like Jingg and Forsaken like he has already shown multiple times, team would be missing the sova role but im sure Benkai could learn it tbf

it actually reminds me more of dust2 with the very long sightline on B that you can bypass by going from a tight choke point on mid(catwalk), A sit e definetely feels more inferno-like with the weird geometry and many access points, its a cool map and it could be very cool to watch in competitive since it promotes late executes and lurking, always fun to watch

imagine calling one of the best retake teams in the world with a very solid strat core thats also really unique, with two of the most exciting prospect in EU's valorant, an explosive yet flexible duelist and two of the best utility users in EU overrated, Guild are the real deal and they are hungrier than teams like Liquid and G2, they will show up at masters and you will eat your words