Prx have been bad all year so it was just you expecting anything, GenG disappointed but again we've seen this from every winner so not unexpected, vitality got grouped but not because they were bad, it was because trace had an amazing 2 maps on both them and Lev. Drx were amazing, if anything they were better than a significant portion of their early performances as the old roster and made it 5th 6th with rookies, that's not an underperformance. Esp if you lose to TH.

G2 underperformed as well but we also know that they do this every international event, there ain't nothing out of the norm out of everything you pointed out. Id only give validity to the G2 one and even then it's 1 underperformance, that doesn't warrant this tournament being bad

yall really dont remember the past champs tourneys do you?

even as a fan of FNC their wins were mickey mouse. It was almost a 0 map loss win in lockin even though Loud gave them a real competition and Tokyo was a lossless tourney with a 3-0 finals breeze. The only argument for Lockin is that every team was there so it wasnt a mickey mouse because thats ALL the competition in VCT. Tokyo tho was a fuck fest with some of the rated top 6 teams went out 0-2

nice flair

(informal, by extension, derogatory, sports, US) Any championship in a sporting competition that is perceived to be of lower quality than other championships due to weaker competition or circumstances
You really are a dumbass huh? Keep talking, its hilarious

4th champs is better than 2nd in an 8 team tournament by quite a massive margin considering this champs was generationally harder than either 2 tourneys

tf did you get that definition from my guy. Your argument is literally "i dont like your definition of this word so youre wrong"
Its mickey mouse TOURNEY not mickey mouse winners. The tourney was mickey mouse cause there was no competitior other than GENG, its that simple

Nah best team of the year likely going to Heretics if they win, either way tho the issue with the valorant scene is that they havent been able to regard champions as anything more than a 16 team masters because until this year every champs was the same 8 top teams globally that could even remotely compete for the title. Goign into this tourney people were debating all different versions of their top 8, literally almost any team you put down it would be pretty valid aside from a few.
Every team had difficult matches no matter what group no matter what side of playoffs no matter lower or upper bracket.
Geng didnt even have to sweat to get top 4 in shanghai, fuck they didnt even scrim bro and they won the entire event. Shanghai win was no big feat as an achievement alone. GENG couldve played at 60% and they still wouldve won it by comfortable margin

it was more competitive sure you could argue but it had so much more disappointment with the amount of egregious throws that happened. On top of that SEN v GENG was a matchup of giants going neck and neck whereas in shanghai we didnt really have any of that and GENG kinda just breezed on through aside from the fnc match

SEN were literally favourites for Madrid and Geng were only second to PRX in Shanghai and PRX didnt perform in the slightest

the flair on this made this one of the funniest retorts in vlr history

saying there were throws this champs is one thing but to lie to yourself and say the competition is just as good is insane behaviour. Just watch the matches and youll see that shanghai didnt deliver as much as it was hyped up to. PRX FNC G2 LEV 100T EDG all not delivering on their huge expectations coming into the tournament on top of TH getting completely rolled by GENG which showed how far the disparity in competition really was. GENG definitely deserved to win and they were the best team by far but there wasnt even a challenge for the title in shanghai.
In this champs tho its so much closer than anyone was expecting it to be.
EDG and LEV neck and neck going for the trophy, both of them finally delivering up to the expectations that were put on them so long ago
SEN making an unprecedented run after being thrown under the bus for "not deserving their qualification spot" playing some of their best valorant since madrid
TH creating insane energy and winning rounds of pure individual talent from EVERY SINGLE PLAYER on this roster that hasnt been able to compete together all year
FNC finally showing a glimpse of their prior form from 2023 even though theyre playing with a sub
DRX playing at a phenomenal level after being robbed of their spots in each qualifier right at the very edge of qualification

sure there were some throws but at the very least they mostly happened in the group stage or early playoffs rather than the absolute crumble at the very end of shanghai that we saw from 100t g2 and even to an extent th

i literally called my own teams single trophy since 2021 a mickey mouse, how is that narrative good for me? Either way you people really seem to not understand what a mickey mouse is. Im not saying either of geng or sen were bad, im saying there was no real competition for them and that their titles were practically given to them from the get go.
For Geng it was far easier than for sen but ill give them the benefit of actually looking better in shanghai than sen did in madrid

thats exactly what i mean, how much are we gonna weight an 8 team tournament 2nd place and a fairly uncompetitive shanghai over the most stacked champions weve had in valorant history?
I genuinely dont think im being that unreasonable when i say 4th place in champs is a huge deal to at the very least be in argument for best year over geng

are we really counting the pacific regional trophy? Thats kinda low isnt it? Thats like awarding EDG with a great year in 2023 because they won all stages of their circuit. Pacific wasnt really that competitive in the first place to be measuring it with any weight. All year it was DRX PRX and GenG at the top and PRX GENG were secured spots already. Ofc Americas wasnt a huge deal better but either way im not looking at regional trophies as they are really just glorified qualifiers
Im talking international achievements

yea but thats the thing though, it kinda is the same for GenG. Im trying to say 4th place in this champs means so much more than 2nd in an 8 team masters event that had no competitive teams aside from sen and geng

it genuinely was tho, im not taking the credit away from the winners cause they very clearly were the best teams weve ever seen thus far, both sen and geng are eons above what we had last year aside from EG but what im saying is the skill disparity was so huge. On top of being top heavy both tournaments especially shanghai was filled with chokers and round throw after round throw. TH couldnt even bring their full roster and made it to the GF.
Mickey Mouse just means a tourney where it really isnt competitive at all and the winners were clear from the beginning

dude the fact that everyone in that tournament other than fnc who went 0-2 got demolished by GenG who were only marginally better than their madrid counterparts just goes to show the level of competition was really not that high.
Just go watch the matches and youll see that shanghai had the most throws and shaky gameplay out of any masters yet even more than madrid (even tho i think madrid was more mickey mouse).
G2 fell on their face during their last 2 matches as they always do, Lev didnt even make it out of groups, FNC went 0-2, PRX didnt show up at all compared to their regional matches, TH got wiped in the finals. Theres really no argument for that tourney being anywhere near the most competitive masters weve had. Im not saying this from a sen fan biased lens but just as a fan of VCT, that tourney disappointed me more than Madrid cause i had expectations for so many of the big name teams that didnt show in madrid

both bind and sunset havent been amazing for either team but yea id say stick with what you know rather than an untested map that even they themselves said wasnt too good in prac. Even if they wanted to incorporate it eventually i think a bo5 would be more suited to that as it isnt as costly as in a bo3

they both had a mickey mouse win and both had high placements but is 4th in the most stacked champs yet enough to compensate for not making shanghai and to compete with gengs 2nd in madrid?
I think it really easily is just because the two masters this year were barely any better than last years in terms of high level competition. Both those tourneys no teams even came close to geng or sens dominance in the meta

i agree until we start talking about astra. Astra is meant for immo+ and nothing below. Even if you 5 stack if you arent immortal yet you dont even know how to effectively pre place her stars anyway so dont even try it

thats not carried at all, those are regular stats for a smokes player. If anything its above average id say

thats how you have to play as a smokes

Gonna put this here for easier reading

Sen 2021 fell off just like FNC have this year. The opinion of dumbass vlr posters don't matter.
But yes johnqt being an Ascension favourite/best igl having had only 1 year in VCT and reaching a masters and champs win in his first run of it is a more impressive feat than what boaster has done in his career.
On top of that boaster did it with 4 best in role players aside from arguably Derke since aspas was a thing but then again loud were in shambles for most of that year.
Johnqt did it with zellsis, who was claimed to be a washed vibes merchant, tenz, also claimed to be washed and out of his prime by 99% of the community (and tbf they weren't exactly wrong), zekken, moving to a COMPLETELY new role after showing his world class performances on flex being even arguably the best flex in 2022, and sacy, a man who was ridiculed for being the worst player on this team and that he didnt know how to shoot at all.
All that is far more impressive than boasters dominance with the greatest superteam in the history of valorant (coming from a Sen/FNC fan)

Sen 2021 fell off just like FNC have this year. The opinion of dumbass vlr posters don't matter.
But yes johnqt being an Ascension favourite/best igl having had only 1 year in VCT and reaching a masters and champs win in his first run of it is a more impressive feat than what boaster has done in his career.
On top of that boaster did it with 4 best in role players aside from arguably Derke since aspas was a thing but then again loud were in shambles for most of that year.
Johnqt did it with zellsis, who was claimed to be a washed vibes merchant, tenz, also claimed to be washed and out of his prime by 99% of the community (and tbf they weren't exactly wrong), zekken, moving to a COMPLETELY new role after showing his world class performances on flex being even arguably the best flex in 2022, and sacy, a man who was ridiculed for being the worst player on this team and that he didnt know how to shoot at all.
All that is far more impressive than boasters dominance with the greatest superteam in the history of valorant (coming from a Sen/FNC fan)

He was the highest fragging igl in ascension... Keep hating bro, the guy has an annoying personality but stop deluding yourself abt his skills

Nah dude the players all have insane potential, last year they would've been considered a super team but it doesn't matter if your igl is trash. We saw that with dephh in Sen and how huge of a difference replacing him with a real igl made. This would be no different.
The team has the players to qualify for at least a champs

Greatest thread in VLR history

Nah you not wrong tho

always 5-6th

He's not wrong edg Will stomp. Edg are the best team itw rn

The cope is insane, I'll be back

He's literally right, it was a Minnie mouse tourney with like 3 good games and somehow the GF wasn't one of them.
If Sen had been in the same form as Madrid it would've been another GenG Sen finals, the beginning of this year has been a massive disappointment

G2 fans rn: insert exactly what you're thinking abt

Is it not usually semis first before going into the lower bracket matches?
This is hella advantage for the lower teams being able to watch the match go on and anti right after giving the upper bracket guys not even a day to anti

Is pathetic meant to be patitek? ☠️

They never win when it matters most

I completely forgot that Sen absolutely shit the bed in the beginning of 2022 and barely played like a tier 2 team. End of year 2022 tho could've gone places if they had the time istg, I really wish shroud stayed, they way he played was actually super unique and disciplined

You can't just say they're the best because on paper they have the best players.
If I said I assembled 5 Aspas's would you say that's the best team in the world? Ofc not cause roles come into play and NRG from the beginning had lacked half the roles they needed in terms of personalities AND agent comp.
Best on paper is a team with great players in every role but has also completed every requirement. Igl, glue guy, clutch flex, reliable smokes, and that one random every team has, and they all need to be good vibes (unlike a certain coctor)
I said this over and over but y'all just kept glazing

Where'd the extra r come from

At least with Sens win they actually beat the other best team in the world whereas in Shanghai it was proven that Sen and GenG still hadn't been usurped in terms of level of play.
Madrid had 2 S tier teams, Shanghai only had 1.
Either way both tourneys were Mickey mouse asf, probably competing with Tokyo as most Mickey mouse

That's not a fluke it's called a Minnie Mouse tourney (yes Minnie mouse, the Mickey mouse was Madrid)

I genuinely don't know why but ever since the start of this tourney I've got the feeling that EDG is gonna show up and be the best team of a tourney 1 tourney too late.
I have a feeling it'll be close but they'll take it against Sen but I rly want them to prove me wrong

Yea it really do be like that. It's been 3 years since the tenz glazers and they still can't get over it

The name checks out. don't be so salty lil bro

This gotta be the most ironic statement ever ☠️

what exactly was the throwing? Other than SEN whiffing 2v1s and shit there really wasnt much throwing. DRX adjusted their setups and kept catching SEN cause they didnt allow any picks. Even after that SEN tried to play for picks and it kept failing so they decided to just take mid and hit site

i mean that is the map but regardless no match will have every round be insanely hype. Even then tho the postplants were insanely close and tense. There was like 1 or 2 boring posts in the first half i think but that was about it

Bro please, that was even more postplant sim than this and i like Heretics.
I didnt feel any hype from that map maybe because it was groups but also because it was just one sided halves. Not even in contention against this map

GOTTA BE THE BEST MAP YET NO???