And we say goodbye to another team from the VRL finals, it's Angry Titans in 4th

TL;DR
It's a team with good fundamentals that doesn't make huge mistakes, but
their opponents seem to always be half a step ahead. some of their team
comps and agent distributions need work but they got a fan in me after this
tournament for all the fun i've had while watching their yoru, phoenix
or cypher plays.

Angry titans, for me, were an unknown team coming into this thing.
The only thing i heard about them was "they aren't the worst team,
they can upset someone"

A.Titans vs Flacons

Haven was a quick game, a 5-13 loss without any real gameplan shown by AT.

Saving strats maybe?

Bind was... something for sure. they decided to pull out the yoru, and while
at first it seemed to be a bad choice as Bipo wasn't doing much for the
first 5 rounds or so, after he warmed up a bit he was a clear MVP.

Falcons seemed lost in the world of our Japanese friends and once again,
my favorite proplay agent shines bright on bind. also i think this game
might pave the way for more teams to pick up yoru as AT has shown you don't
need to be PRX to be good at it.

Breeze didn't have much to write home about as Falcons picked jett AND reyna.
it was GG go next from the start so i barely paid attention.

overall not a bad game from AT, but Falcons aren't the biggest challenge.

A.Titans vs FUT

first we had them meet on haven where titans looked better than vs Falcons
but not as good as they had to be.

what i'd love to see for them here is a raze. Against FUT they ran
fade+kayo wich while good is just not at the same level. also overall i
prefer Raze over Kay/o on this map.

on Split i have another comp issue - Bipo on breach. this guy who was a
beast as a yoru is now gonna play an initiator?

worst part is, they have great fundamentals. it's a team that doesn't make
obvious mistakes that you see and immeadietly go "Oh my god! What are they
doing! they're throwing!". it's just that their opponents are always this
tiny bit better...

A.Titans vs Case

on Bind the yoru of Bipo struck once again, but this time not to that extent.
In the end some nice plays from fall and wolfen were enough to secure the
win for case.

now the other two maps is where the fun ends.

i was hype for haven as AT pulled out a cypher and... Phoenix!
they also ran jett at the same time.
unfortunately it backfired and i'm gonna double down on my raze proposition,
as they got blasted 13-2...

on icebox they went for their usual coinflip with picking reyna, and the
Reyna of lime didn't deliver going -9, final scoreline 13-3 for case.

A.Titans vs FUT(2)

i was curious to see whether they learned anything from their first FUT game.

we kicked it off with the icebox reyna pick, no suprise as AT lose 6-13.

qw1 popping of a few times as well as their stubbornness to keep going
middle led them to a mediocre attack half ending in a 6-6 scoreline.

since icebox is an attacker sided map they won nothing of defence, the
aggresion with the reyna is easy to predict and very 2020'ish, FUT just knew.

On fracture it just seemed like neither team knew how to attack often
coming into sites from only one entry on full buy rounds.

but ultimately AT was more coordinated and i think FUT's weird comp might've
fired back a bit. (Althought AT also picked astra to be fair)

On breeze at the start FUT was giving sites away for fairly free while AT
had great postplants, but as FUT started holding onto the sites more
aggresively the trouble began.

titans could only time their entries right half the time wich led to a
lackluster half ending in a 6-6 scoreline. Now on defence they started with
a very passive stance, wich changed after a timeout but they overdone.

it was that lack of another layer that got them here. once they got
aggressive they didn't stop while earlier they were always passive.
Fut read it and just waited for them to push in the last 2 rounds.

phew... this was a long one. felt like writing i guess.

player thoughts:

Bipo - give this man all the duelists. His Yoru is so good he should just be
the star player of this team, taking all those roles like raze, chamber ETC.
also wouldn't be suprised to see him get picked up by a bigger org.

hearthbeat - probably the most underwhelming performance. he's solid but
could be replaced by almost any other player with a similar role.

Lime - i feel like he could benefit from a role switch with Bipo on most
maps. He doesn't look comfy on duelists and it would also take some pressure
off his shoulders.

Eppz - was very solid this tourney, had some nice plays. a solid 6 or 7/10.

AFoxx - just doesn't put up the numbers a chamber should, but he is not bad
overall. another players who i'd love to see on other agents.

Valorantle #7 2/8

🟥 🟨🟥 🟥🟥🟨 🟩
🟩 🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩 🟩

https://valorantle.melro5e.com

so ez

oh? i don't follow League so didn't know that. well then probaly PSG , FB or Galata. or maybe even Besiktas? i know they had a cs team at some point and i think a lol one as well.

Tenstar summary, didn't post yesterday as i wasn't home and just finished watching the vod
of their last game. btw wish i didn't watch it...

TL;DR
Tenstar did what all polish CS teams love doing - they beat one of the
favorites to then go out in 2 games. they looked impeccable in their first
vitality game, to then get outaimed by case and outplayed by vita in a
rematch.

As a Tenstar supporter i gotta say - i expected tenstar to go out in a 0-2
fashion. Don't know if anyone had higher hopes for them because i never
really seen anyone discuss them but that is how they've come into this for
me.

Vitality vs Tenstar

the first map was vitality's icebox and in an amazing upset Tenstar manages
to take the lead after this map with a 13-9 victory.

tbh it seemed like both teams had a fairly limited playbook, but it was by
no means a bad game. A lot of great midround calls as well as individual
feats from both side - but Vitality picked reyna so there was no way they
can win ¯_(ツ)_/¯

.

then we saw bind and what a show that was from tenstar! they had tons of
set plays and were even mostly outaiming the vitality players. also the way
they were controlling the pace of the game on attack was great.

once they got a spike plant the round was basically over and they knew
exactly how and when to push and when to fall back. We didn't see a lot of
their defence (3 rounds) but from what they've shown it seemed to be solid
as well.

a great game, Tenstar clearly was prepared and were looking sharp that day.

Case vs Tenstar

oh boy throw it all out the window. whatever i said. just cut it in post
or something...

bind, the one they beat vitality 13-2 on? non-existent.

Tenstar couldn't take space anywhere and while in game one they
looked as coordinated as optic, in this one it was all so disjointed.
solo peeking, missing easy kills, poor positioning, poor util - it was all
that combined that led to the 3-13 result here.

.

oh my... the haven game lol.

the amount of absurd and stupidity from both sides on this map is
astounding - but tenstar definitely takes the cake. and round 19 was the
cherry on top, pls don't check out any vods to see it - you'll regret.

worst pro map i've ever seen and i refuse to elaborate. there was nothing
to praise about this one maybe except for maniek still hitting shots?

Tenstar vs Vitality(2)

Breeze had us start with a poor defence half from tenstar and the comeback
attempt on attack turning out to be unsuccesful.

not much i can say here except Stix deserves some reward for this game, he
was amazing. Unfortunately the defensive plan of Tenstar got read and
clearly countered.

on bind we saw two different versions of tenstar - one from their first
vitality matchup and another from the game vs case.

on attack they were world class, just like the first time around but on
defence? vitality came back from a 2-11 to a 13-11 with how awful tenstars
defending was. We didn't even get a clutch or something to secure the 12
point, just nothing going their way.

ultimately this game shows that tenstar might have the DRX syndrome, they
are great on attack but once we come to the defence you can see it's lacking

Schalke maybe?

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/6ae1d043

eh not too hype for l1nk tbh but we'll see. maybe he truly was just not comfotable with his role on liquid and will be a beast now.

ahh shit man you got me, the only reason i made this post was to capitalize the L.

ok ima go die now, byeee!

again, a long one so beware, TL;DR right below
also, i know no one asked but i'm bored so fuck the haters.

TL;DR
Falcons has some cracked aimers but aim is not all. They are unable to
adapt to their opponents if their initial gameplan doesn't work - not to
mention the gameplan itself is often poor. and for the love of god stop
with the freaky comps if you clearly have nothing special planned for them.

Falcons coming into this tournament, had no real expectations from the
valorant fans it seems like. as winners of the MENA region they were pretty
much expected to go out quickly.

Falcons vs Angry Titans

First we went to haven, Falcons map, where it seemed like most rounds
came down to crazy solo plays. it was also like AT didn't really have a
plan going into it.

utimately Falcons had no issues with securing the map getting themselves
a comfy 13-5 victory with the help of Alvar's and Outlaw's regular
multikills.

on Bind althought the scoreline was close, in-game it seemed very one
sided for the most part.
After a slow start Angry titans started playing better and better as
Bipo, initially dying after each tp, started to get a ton of value
from his yoru wich falcons failed to adapt to. Also whenever their
initial plans would fail they would get lost in the round veeery quickly.

and with a 8-13 scoreline the map was over as Falcons showed that their
midrounding and general adaptation to the opponent might be an issue.

Breeze... breeze oh breeze... Falcons pulled out a jett+reyna is all i
have to say. fix your comp or ban the map pls.

Overall while looking sharp aim-wise Falcons couldn't match their
opponents gameplan nor could they adapt well enough to counter it.

FUT vs Falcons

we go onto ascent picked by... Falcons? yup, that's right! our pals from
MENA tried challenging Turkey on their homeground... 13-4 for FUT, not much
to say here.

now on Bind, FUT's map pick, Falcons had a savior called Spy - but his
heroics were not enough as it still ended in a 13-6 win for FUT. Also
they picked neon for seemingly no reason, what's with the comps???

simply outclassed on every level is all i can say, there were no redeeming
qualities for them here.

player thoughts
Alvar: a very good player, aim-wise at least.

Outlaw: a solid player with good awareness and util

Spy: had one crazy good map, the rest was pretty meh. maybe his
haven vs AT was fine as well?

Fr4nky: didn't show anything special.

moh: had a few good rounds but overall not much to say here.

it's a long one so i'll provide a TL;DR

TL;DR
while excel's deafult heavy style worked well vs case's aggression and bravery,
they were unable to stay focused and lost due to several bad individual
performances and many questionable decisions. against vitality the team just
seemed disconnected, rarely playing well off of each other leading to their failure
and early exit from the tournament.

they have a lot to work on if they wanna be a T1 team

In a suprising turn of events Excel is the first team to go out of the VRL finals.

Now they came in as the winners of VRL north and probably as one of the
best teams on paper, so how and why did they go out as the first team?

case vs Excel

this game first took us to ascent - Case's map pick. while Case's very agressive and reliant-on-duels style
is flashy, it was clear that XL was prepared for this map. they knew exactly how to contain their opponents
aggression, they were very passive on defence sticking together, trading and playing off of each other.
just good valorant, not much here to highlight.

as Haven rolled around, things were looking great with an 8-4 attacking half, and although wolfen started
popping off and got some mad kills - Excel handled it well. defence is where the trouble began tho'
Here first thing they failed to do was adapt.

almost every single round Case had full A lobby control by just putting wolfen there and if XL ever
peeked him, they did it 1 by 1. Alive struggling to win fights on jett across the whole map didn't help
and ultimately Case pull off the comeback and win 13-10.
well gg go next.

Icebox started off well as excel took a 5-1 lead on attack but then it all crumbled and the half ended
6-6. and since icebox is an attacker sided map case took the game with a pretty comfy 13-8 scoreline
with XL looking very uninspiring.

On this map Moe and Foxie were basically non-existent, while foxie as an IGL can be excused, Moe's
performance in this series should be unacceptable as it quite possibly lost them the game. Alive also
seemed a little out of place sometimes.

notice how i said nothing about patitek and chiwawa? well it's because these two been stellar on all
3 maps and played very well. no issues there.

Excel vs Vitality

Haven (Excel's pick) was full of weird solo plays and crazy chaotic rounds. Excel seemed to have
never had any control over the game during this map and ultimately lost 10-13.

some moments worth noting are: Moe on the sova solo holding A long or Patitek dying 20 seconds
into the round bc of pushing short as a Breach (wich also led to an unsuccesful retake later, as they
had basically no util for it). it felt like there was a general disconnect between the players during this
map, often not playing off of each other and the util provided - but Vitality liked to return the favor and
throw some rounds of their own.

Ascent was next and XL definitely had a chance after their good performance vs Case 2 days ago.
after a close game they however go out of the tourney losing 12-14 on their opponents map pick.

Here we saw a repeat of their issues from map one as the solo peeks and weird decisions continued.
Notably Chiwawa pushing a smoke in a 5v4 as Vitality was executing onto the site. Also their A postplants
were horrendous for some reason, leading to them losing i think 2 anti-eco rounds, correct me if i'm wrong.

my biggest conclusion from this map however is that chiwawa on sage is a bad fit.

individual player thoughts
Patitek and Chiwawa: one summary for both of those - they still got it. Chiwawa shouldn't play sage tho'

Alive: please take him off the jett, the amount of times he dashes forward on accident alone is awfully huge
for a player at this level and enough of a reason to move him onto a chamber or raze/neon

Foxie: Foxie has been playing well but also didn't shine too much during this tourney, hoped to see more from him.

Moe40: not sure if he should have a place on the roster tbh. he was horrible. definitely didn't bring in too much individually and his util usage wasn't anything special.

no? the guard fell off after weeks of prep, cloud9 literally had player changes mid tournament. how smool is your brain?

different story, C9 had a sudden roster change and had to readjust roles and strats. the guard simply dropped off, not comparable at all.

let'go tenstar!

tenZ > Zellsis > Trent > Sayaplayer > Dapr > Net > Valyn > Ratzam > JonahP > Shroud
at the end of the day tho the strats might matter more that individuals
oh no wait, it's NA. what's strats? I guess only optic knows.

what is that foxie slander?

they always had great rosters but none performed to the point you would expect them to. either a staff issue or some curse, someone above dissed their coach maybe that's the issue.

same with cender

yup came outta nowhere

yup people seem to have forgotten how not so long ago they were the top 2 team in NA, if they put in the work to figure out their roles and get curry settled in they have a real chance (and i'd assume they did).

it's been known for ages now that what FPX are best at - is counterstrating teams. hence why i believed they were the only team from the top 4 that could beat PRX and why i wanted them in the final instead of Fnatic near the end. and i fully agree that teams from the T2 scene even should start learning how to adapt their comps to better fit them vs different opponents as sometimes a small change in agent select can win you the game.

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/9fdeca02
people imo overrating M3C, a team with no org will not have the level of prep needed surely

hope at least you know your own fifth by now and are already practicing with them, can't wait for the announcement.

aww thank you! good night to you then i assume?

XD and who else? can't wait to see mfers say wardell

edit: nah i see it already happened lmao

but it's morning for me

the orgs? sure. but i'm pretty sure the comment was in relation to the fans perspective.

bro you good? Latam will be fighting with NA on at least and equal level. look at leviatan and kru this last masters.

who knew him? speak for yourself, not everyone watches VRL, i just started from this season and know almost no one from the previous ones.

who cars?

i'd swap NRG and 100T but it's mostly how i'd put it

Victor used to be fantastic but it seems like he just keeps getting worse and worse now only waking up occasionaly

kneel in front of the danish god

someone started watching valorant yesterday huh?

and the first thing he does is throw around cheating accusations lmao

i'd understand if you made this thread while people were shitting on tenz but now... are you really just complaining that no one is shitting on Yay?

i said it all along - loud was a fluke

yeah, it's not like Nitr0 has been shit ever since he came back to cs

Bleed xd kkkkkkk

what do you mean what's the point of them qualifying? they won so they qualified and even with a sub they can be very dangerous wich they have shown in the past

Seider isn't bad and FPX are great at making their stand-in's comfy. I see a chance for them to get out of groups with this roster

good, this way everyone will know he is an alfa male

can't even recall him ever being there lol

ofc, since when was Acend the topic of this thread tho'?

They wouldn't win shit anyway, just be happy something entertaining is happening on the scene instead of shitting on Shrood now.

gonna be hype to see him play even if he gets dunked on lol

the greatest battle of our universe

casual play is fairly popular. not as popular as CS i think but it's not that far off.
most of my friends who I played cs with switched to valorant at some point, some are switching rn.

Pro play i feel like almost no one cares about (probably since we don't have a Virtus.Pro'ish team for Valorant :/)

i feel like most of us are here bc of that lol
only one of my friends kinda cares about it but not even half as much as i do

bro went from sharing opinions to throwing insults in 1 message, wtf?

you daddy

i feel you man... even the ones who used to be fellow tiktok haters have now fallen to the dark side and i feel just... so alone... yet so good...