The Sideshow Jinx

0-9
LCQ Run
Champs Qualified <--- we are here
Champs Run

happy monday everyone

as i said in the original post, i'll occasionally necro this post. keep sending recs, they've unironically been great so far!

might be a small sample size, but red bull was probably the most popular drink at my high school by a good margin. and that's coming from someone with a pretty severe soda addiction i luckily grew out of

coffee seems to be drunk at most ages from what i've seen outside, and also from when i worked at a coffee shop for a summer. you'd be surprised at how many young kids drink coffee and their parents don't bat an eye (and only like 5% of my orders were ever decaf)

i'm convinced energy drinks and starbucks are a direct contributor to why teens and kids have such shit attention spans. not the only contributor obviously, but some big ones

energy drinks are readily available at stores vs making coffee or going to a coffee shop, starbucks drinks are usually chock full of sugar and caffeine and they are accessible almost everywhere in the world. just frying brains at an early age

i drink coffee for the taste and even then i have it black no sugar so i don't feel like drinking more after that one mug

at this point the devs should make it easier to filter forum posts by offtopic -- i'd love to just make all "valorant general discussion" posts disappear because that's where all the troll baits are. there's still cringe ass baits in offtopic but at least there's some more diverse fun threads (like music, that guy that wanted to rate wallpapers, recommendations for things like shows, etc etc)

i commend the honesty

i remember downloading the app when night market was shitting itself and i never used it since lmao

sadge for the dev but i find most tracker apps like that and overwolf to be cringe and bad

don't know why the discord needed to be taken down though that just feels like too much

this would be the best thing to happen to shao

bro got so pressed he went down the archives. stop living in the past and realize that navi is washed rn

for me it just feels like ange1 + d00mbros vs the rest of the team

you cannot be trolling comps like that in lcq. "saving strats" my ass

oops i forgot -- that just makes it even worse

and remember, if it weren't for fnatic they wouldn'tve even been at tokyo...

a team with 3 4 masters winners and one champs winner and not only were they just squeaking by to go to a masters, they're tied with a team that was in total shambles midseason

just embarrassing

mistic if they find a way to fix his tendency to hard choke at big events

edit: i realized right after i sent this mistic doesn't igl in apeks whoops

ngl even if they win ange1 needs to go. he's actively holding the team back

based on the cinematics, it'd be pheonix. the cocky overconfident guy whose primary arc is to become more humble without losing his flashiness -- it'd be a good fit!

my girlfriend loves rina lol, my favorite song of hers is lucid

if only falcons made it far in ascension sadge

it'll be closer if navi doesn't look like they were matchfixing like against koi. that showing was actually just horrid. but knowing navi their mental is just so boomed now that they get 2-0d

i never heard of this, is this some new up and coming indie guy

damn this is good -- do you know if they releasing anything this year?

thanks owen <3

This is an idea I had for a while just for shits and giggles. Hopefully it hasn't been done before (or at least, not very recently. Let me know if it has).

I'm going to make a Spotify playlist using songs y'all put in the comments. However, the point of this playlist is to show hidden gems that you really want others to hear. This means an obscure song or a song from an obscure artist that you think is great and underappreciated.

My example of this: Moon Chamber by Embracer (not virus link) -- the song has 1.5 million listens, but the artist itself only has about 30k listeners. I found it through my Discover Weekly some time back and thought it was fantastic, despite not being my usual genre. Some other examples are Play My Favorite Song by Tigercub, I Suppose by Maudlin Strangers, or Sisyphus by Quadeca

So, a basic rule: whatever song you pick should EITHER

• have fewer than 3 million listens, AND/OR
• come from an artist with fewer than 5 million monthly listeners.

So, a song with 50 million streams from an artist with 600k listeners (aka their one hit wonder) is fair game. Similarly, a song with 600k streams from an artist with 15 million listeners is also fair game. These rules have some leeway to them obviously -- the really concrete rule is no mainstream songs/artists that everyone knows, since that's not the point of this playlist.

Bonus points if you recommend people with fewer than 100k streams or listeners -- some of them put out some really good shit, but they're hard to find since they're so small.

I will compile this playlist by the end of Champions (so ~ a month). I will necro this post a couple of times a week so more people can see and send their recs.

Have fun! (also inb4 allat)

nothing but thieves

honorary mention to tyler though, i've been binging his music despite not usually liking rap much

that's ok man. it's ok to try again, as many tries at it takes!

25% -- based on how they're performing I could swear they want Shao to leave for greener pastures. feels intentional even.

fans are a good 80-90% though

smartest kc fan

a bo7 sweep is a 4-0

kru making a run
koi making a run
lev possibly making americas lcq a latam grand final

la comunidad hispana/latina celebra esta semana

aylez is a rare navi fan that doesn't make navi her whole personality so she gets a pass

ange1 and d00mbros more than anyone

facts, unless it's a final the only teams apeks loses to are fnc and liquid

na na navi
na na navi
hey hey hey
goodbye

based on that performance i wouldn't be surprised if botvi gets caught for matchfixing

nah prx's comps are strange but they're not this bad. brim on lotus is just a hard throw

W

saving strats for champs 2027

they are handily beating fnc/2022 loud as the most annoying fans to ever touch this website

the team is fine, i like shao

🫵🏼🤡

he literally left coaching because he didn't like it my guy. he was definitely what 100t needed but you can't force a guy back into a job he doesn't want

tbh i didn't even know the original i like men thread existed lmao, i was going off the i like women one

right when i posted it the original was necro'd

so many new threads by the second rn, hope this one gets buried fast

i guess that's true. if kru's big improvement was just clearing their mental hurdle of not closing out matches then edg deserves to be in that same tier. all credit to kru nevertheless -- going 0-9 and now potentially going to champs is still a huge improvement

my argument is that SEN hasn't had the time to really show their improvement...as of now, at least. it still felt like a clear upgrade after getting marved, so they're at least showing a little potential there

liquid was one of the few teams i lacked a bit of familiarity with. were they really that bad in lock//in? i just always expected them to be top 3 in emea in regular season regardless and they did fine in masters from what i saw

i had them there initially, i just thought the improvements seen from KRU and especially EG were larger atm. if they do well in champs then they totally deserve the "most improved" spot

i knew i could get your support on this aylez, just a hunch

-skrossi (no pajamas)
+skrossi (with pajamas)

instant champs winning roster

-dephh +marved was a big upgrade

no bias obviously?

Original thread here

*my points of comparison are Lock-in / the start of the regular season vs the end of Masters/current LCQ. Since LCQ is ongoing that can obviously change stuff for the LCQ teams.

image here (not virus link i promise)

some notes on why i placed certain teams in certain tiers:

• Vitality isn't included because it's not fair to them after what happened.
• PRX in "clear improvement" post-Something (they were rocky pre-Something).
• LOUD in "got worse" after crashing out in Masters, but if you exclude that they're in "remained mostly the same." same with NAVI
• RRQ and BBL weren't expected to do very well but they almost snatched a playoff spot in their respective leagues, so they have potential.
• EDG + KangKang went much further than anyone expected, so "clear improvement."
• BLG and ASE weren't included in the list I used. BLG go in "clear improvement" after qualifying for Champs, ASE remained mostly the same (not very good)
• I AM NOT COMPARING TEAMS AGAINST EACH OTHER, JUST HOW THEY PERFORMED. FNATIC IS IN THE MIDDLE TIER BECAUSE THEY REMAINED THE SAME (GOOD)

i welcome thoughts and opinions. i may edit the list today and provide a new link after i see people's comments. i obviously couldn't watch every match in every league so some more input is appreciated. might also make a list after Champs just to see how much each team changed post-lockin

EDITS FOR THE LATER LIST:

• EDG to most improved (owen has convinced me)
• Liquid to "clear improvement" (i didn't realize they were really bad in lock in, but I expected them to be top 3 emea anyway. dolphin has enlightened me there)

OWL was dead for years sadly, this is just making the funeral faster