Stopped reading at "it's rocket"

stop giving him attention please

Best: Astra and Clove (I've gotten more comfy with Clove and the Astra star buff made her fun again)

Worst: Yoru (just don't play him enough. if i'm ever on duelist i go raze, jett, or even iso)

honestly i see this happening. the moment he and sacy announced their retirement everyone went rostermania mode and expect there to be a decision on the roster immediately.

like i for sure see curry playing in RBHG because that's been his job as the sixth man. TenZ could probably also play as a last hurrah if another player hasn't been picked up (unless they decide to pull Tarik in like that time they had Shroud for a few games)

Give Wingman 9 Nuclear Devices

skinny pop white cheddar popcorn

and ascent

not to mention i already play two lotus games every day. riot loves giving me lotus and sunset over any other map

There is no other option really -- that's why I'm saying what's done is done. Right now the T2 system isn't stable enough for a lot of orgs to manage financially but hopefully in the coming years it'll stabilize. That Acend announcement does leave the door open for them to return 2026 assuming things get better

I agree but I will forever say this... franchising came too soon and started too small. if they waited another year and/or started franchising with 15 teams instead of 10 per league... we'd probably see much fewer orgs leave the scene. Acend would probably still be around.

Unfortunate, but what's done is done

Expected, given that he wanted to retire last year. Still an inspirational part of Valorant and a big reason why Valorant became so popular with casual audiences. I don't think the pro scene would've ever been the same without him, and as annoying as his fans got sometimes, it only speaks for how influential he really was.

Thanks for your service, GOAT o7

I agree now, but before franchising there was the possibility of T1 valorant growing enough to fill more leagues. Franchising actively killed most prospective T1 teams.

In NA (as an example), if franchising didn't happen, it might have had a 10-team league on its own with known orgs (think TSM, Shopify, Luminosity, etc... hell, maybe even GenG since they were in NA pre-franchising). LATAM would be a different thing since only KRU and LEV were (and still really are) the only good/well-known non-Brazilian teams, but a combined LATAM/BR league pre-franchising would've also worked (think LOUD+MIBR+FUR+Vivo Keyd/Keyd Stars for Brazil and orgs like KRU/LEV/RETA/AK/FUSION for the rest of LATAM)

There just isn't the money in T2 right now that would incentivize orgs into competing. Now that TSM is out of Ascension (example) I honestly predict they will drop the roster or have the roster bought out by another org.

The other regions I also agree but I don't have much knowledge about region strength. Korea and Japan could probably create their own league but then the rest of APAC would be in a weird limbo, and China still being separate still makes things awkward. EMEA is fine as is.

TL;DR we wouldn't have this discussion if Riot waited another year to start franchising, or if they didn't do franchising to begin with

Galorys beating M80 after losing to TSM would be prime South American chaos in action

you are correct -- because astra is not a secondary controller

next they're gonna talk about how the how the mouse sensitivity slider in cs is better than val's

it was either her or Brim as the worst controller in the game, now it's definitely just Brim

before Abyss there was only one map where Astra was even comparable to Omen and that was Split, since Pearl has been out forever

Brim still sucks but at least he's almost always picked on Bind (or Lotus, if the team feels quirky), but IMO he's one stim beacon buff and/or one smoke duration buff (since he can't replenish) from being one of the best in the game

Assuming this mosque is in Kazan or somewhere in Tatarstan (since #6 says that nAts is Tatar which I believe), it's even better in person. The architecture in that region is incredible. The Kul Sharif mosque in Kazan is similar in color and it's gorgeous

I lived in Texas most of my life. Since OP is college-age they'll be fine. It's the primary school systems that are going nuts with politics primarily

I love Texas dearly and it's my home but I would not want to live there in its current state and I'm happy I moved states for work

Vermont's only real problem is that its population is very very small, otherwise it's a lovely state and close enough in climate to Canada that it wouldn't be too unfamiliar

we're so fucking back

i've been advocating for the 5th star back for so long

W post

LEV flair to TSM flair is a generational downfall

realize that mmr does not matter, and that you will never have perfect teammates

play to have fun

i stopped solo-queuing and only play trios or 5stacks because as long as i have fun with my friends then i don't care whether i win or lose. there are moments where i do tilt (ex. we get 13-0d, we let the other team come back, etc), but it's much less frequent than if i were playing with total randos

even if he could play astra and brim... they're both contenders for the worst agent in the game rn

apart from abyss (and maybe pearl once it comes back) there are zero maps atm where astra is good where omen is not completely better in every way

apart from bind (and lotus if you ask certain people) there are zero maps where brim is considered even viable, let alone on the same level as omen

why would TenZ play more controller when all he needs to play is omen lol

from this list surely brawk is the better choice right? least amount of role issues (assuming zellsis stays)

that's a big jump in your learning :p

but yeah i get it, some Colombian accents are Interesting to say the least. Bogota for example has maybe the easiest Spanish-speaking accent in the world to understand, but further north towards the coast they speak a million words per minute. I imagine for Narcos (never watched) they're going with the latter since Escobar was from Medellin.

you'll start picking it up eventually. my one rec would be to watch with Spanish subtitles. Even if you don't understand what's being spoken being able to read it will make more sense over time

do you know the dialect you are hearing (like who the person speaking is from)

i'm fluent in Spanish and it's my first language but dialects make a WORLD of difference. i can barely understand certain dialects despite it being the same language on paper

split and abyss (IMO) are the only maps where astra is even remotely comparable to omen, and her utility can be stronger than omen's depending on the comp, which is why she's played a lot on those maps

that doesn't mean astra is good though. i main astra -- she sucks right now. it's like saying brimstone is good because he's basically a permapick on bind

Barca 2-0

Raphinha 33'
Lamine Yamal 68'

isn't it that GN has to win the next one and also Barca has to beat Apeks

so it's possible but not likely

if they can't/won't reconcile there's only a few possible reasons:

• whatever they were beefing about is much, MUCH more serious than what was shown online
• they have middle schooler egos

ah yes, hall of fame thread right there

link?

considering how cringe many other troll/bait users are trembo usually makes me exhale out of my nose

make your own spreadsheet and post it on twitter

i've come across a couple of Mag Bay songs and have liked each one. will check out Imaginal Disk tonight! :D

i know people don't believe in you but i can imagine that happens. if you don't use twitter often it's an actual cesspool

i went on a hiatus and came back to uncensored porn on my "For You" tab. i had never seen nor liked any porn posts on twitter.

"but the algorithm-" yeah no it's bullshit on twitter now. russian roulette every time you scroll no matter how hard you try to influence the algorithm. elon buying twitter genuinely just ruined what was otherwise a serviceable app

glad to see people sympathize with me (an Astra player), the suck nerf was basically kicking her when she was already down with Omen still objectively being better 95% of the time

i will always advocate for her 5th star back

BRAT is unironically my album of the year. understand if you don't like it because it's overplayed but it has BANGERS

other good albums are SMILE! :D by Porter Robinson, CONCRETE JUNGLE [THE OST] by Bad Omens, and HIT ME HARD AND SOFT by Billie Eilish (was album of the year for me until BRAT personally). and if anyone's looking for a REALLY deep cut, Welcome to NOTHING by Moxas I really liked

there are also two albums i'm hyped for that release next month -- SOPHIE's posthumous album (she passed away in 2021), and What's Wrong With New York? by The Dare. the singles for the latter have been amazing

real question though, did anyone actually follow Challengers this year? like last year i remember all the hype around M80/TGRD/MxM in the NA side, Bleed in APAC, etc, but i feel like after the TGRD fiasco after Ascension it really lost its glamor. there were multiple games at very watchable hours for me across all leagues but i never felt the draw to watching like i did last year :(

fair. if Verstappen and Norris weren't the big title contenders this year (at least I think, i've stopped following F1 religiously like i used to) i would fully expect them to do a joint venture since they're besties and avid gamers/streamers when not racing

i agree. had a similar ranking in another thread, just with EDG over TH because silverware matters at the end of it all, and it was the most important one of it all too. those two are very close though

GenG 1 and SEN 4 are the obvious ones. If GenG hadn't gotten grouped at Champs this would not even be a discussion

funny yet unsurprising that it'd be Norris being the first F1-related esports org

it was basically a toss up between him and Verstappen on who was entering first

fair

the big downside is basically what you said though -- i was fully convinced the new map pool was coming with this most recent patch alongside vyse release... i was so excited for pearl return

and again this all leads to many people's old argument that the map pool system is dumb and there are still not enough maps to justify having one

it's good to have announcements for changes early, but this was a little much lol. two weeks-a month is more than plenty

another act another set of months of playing Ascent against the most boring meta comp ever made

polar bear in arlington texas

ah ok i get it. i'm in a cubicle with some other guys but luckily my boss is on a different floor. do have to keep my eyes peeled for any surprise visits tho

what job do you have that doesn't let you spend 10 seconds to check a tweet D:

yeah but no one is going to remember how poorly EDG looked at Shanghai, but they WILL remember that they won Champs

also a team going from a dysfunctional team to Champs winners is, IMO, a bigger success and makes them a better team that year than a team that were serious contenders/favorites for almost the entire year and couldn't win ONE trophy

1. GenG (2nd in APAC S1, Madrid Top 2, Shanghai Winner, 1st in APAC S2)
2. EDG (1st in China S1 and S2, Champs Winner)
3. TH (2nd in EMEA S1, Shanghai Top 2, Champs Top 2)
4. SEN (Madrid Winner, fell off and had a pretty satisfactory result in Champs)

No one in 5 years is going to remember how many finals a team went to in a year, only the finals said team won

TH went to 4 finals yeah, but they won exactly zero

I would agree TH above SEN though because SEN's fall off between Madrid and Shanghai was insane, and their comeback was good but not enough

those that call demon1 the goat are a little delulu

yes but it's not a pro team-owned thing, just that Messi and Aguero have ownership stakes in KRU

Barca esports is owned by FC Barcelona (obviously), Wolves CN is owned by Wolves, The Guard used to be owned by the Kroenckes who own multiple sports teams etc