100%. Leo is first and foremost so insanely famous because he also makes a ton of kills and is just gifted by his mechanical abilities - but the actually heavier impact was always accomplished by his insane util with Sova, Fade and Skye.

Another good example is something from PRX as a learned Duelist. He plays a lot of Initiator recently and even though he still flicks the sh*t out of people his role impact is not even comparable with a Leo or a trent (or a Sacy), simply because his util with Sova and Fade is not on this crazy level yet (with Breach and Gekko it works).

Didn't they already dismantled that myth?!

When I watched those behind the scenes videos of Sentinels on YT, I feel like kaplan and also some players said N4RRATE added a lot of communication and especially calling out mistakes. I think the man is insanely competitive and works his ass off, so a totally different situation than Vernos.

Btw.: Whoever is the observer at these games... please watch a tutorial or whatever. You are never on the right POV and your replays never show the important killcams and mostly stop before the end of the replay. You basically didn't show a single round winning kill on Haven.

Yo what? Ehm... GGs?!

Poor Tarik. :(
Happy Harmii. :)

EDG is not so strong because of KangKang, they are so strong because of being a perfect unit.

I'd say career wise aspas and Derke are #1 and #2 and then comes KangKang - several reasons for that.

But (!) EDG also have CHICHOO AND Smoggy, which belong to the top 3 players worldwide on their positions as well. EDG is like Heretics but more experienced.

CHICHOO is the clutch master. The way he disconnects his enemies and is roaming is almost perfection.

Yeah, probably. I mean I find it just amazing that players like him are still so on fire even after having 2 won majors. That shows how great players like Derke, Less etc. really are.

I can hear the Fnatic HQ sighing until my living room...

But for real: Two insanely strong teams and Derke made the difference no joke. That dude is on fire.

IGL as Initiator + first ever seaosn for him IGLing and he's doing an fantastic job. He showed before that he can frag, now he needs to call the whole strats, it's def. something new.

Vitality played so good. That ace of Derke was beautiful! Bro, I wish Fnatic would have signed that guy. 💀

Also crazy how insanely good IGLing works on the Initiator role, Sayf def. called them so many important rounds on Bind even though he got very bad stats then. But everyone did their jobs.

T1 still a very good team, they showed it the whole season.

G2 2:0 TE

*Edit: Wow, I finally had a direct tip correct.

DRX are legit back.

He'a so good. It's always so wholesome how nAts and CHICHOO directly post pictures. xD

Also flor won't make a difference here. It's just a fact that the level of Challengers is a Tier higher than Game Changers.

Kapio (CGN coach) was right... BBL PACIFIC are THE team to beat at Ascension. Alone ComeBack looks like a legit monster. It's crazy how every year you have at least 1-2 Turkish talents to be good enough playing a solid Tier 1 season. Like Brazilians in Americas.

If BCF won't win Ascension, some team def. needs to sign ComeBack.

So Verno needed to leave because it didn't work out online and offline and bonkar wanted to keep Verno to the point that NRG and bonkars "vision of the team" (-> X) were so different, that they also decided to part ways with bonkar.

Actually sadge. I think it could have been a great story. Verno is def. one of NAs biggest talents and insanely skillful and bonkar is easily one of the best coaches / Valorant brains.

But sometimes it simply doesn't work. Shit happens.

Sayonara and Canezerra are insane. 16 years young is crazy ^^

Bro, they had a different team last season.

al0rante, DaviH and xuss are the best in the league... always delivering on their positions, always pulling off crazy numbers.

Absolutely.

al0rante <3

Wasn't his best map on Haven, but he is always good for insane performances. His 46% HS in average of the season are ridiculous as well. I hope so much that this FOKUS team will grow and grow... they have a lot of potential.

Techpauses are def. insanely annoying, but by the crowd it's better than 90% of VCT.

Sadge. musashi is such an big, big IGL and azury gets better and better. I think when they were 11-10 ahead on Lotus they would have won it... but then this insane tech pause came and they even got withdrawn a round.

SGE had a lot of bad luck today.

He is the IGL and Split is def. insane when it comes to that. Bro is a great player and I think musashi is someone who would resign before taking money for a rigged game.

But yeah, the tech pauses were weird as hell.

Worst tech pause since Red Bull 2023.

Btw.: Regarding stream it will be backrolled to SGE 09-10 CGN because of heavy tech issues on CGN side.

*Edit: Now they said 10-10.

16-17 years young talents like Canezerra, Sayonara, nightz, ion2x etc. playing already so good, I wonder how brutal they will be a in a few years having the most important "developing years" still ahead of them.

Def. gonna stay awake for this one. :)

I like UFC and K1... *Edit: Btw.: Enjoying a game doesn't mean I love every org or team or support just the winner of every major. I always supported Fnatic since 2022 and just enjoy good esports in Valorant and CS2... I just enjoy watching it. Doesn't matter what region... I also enjoyed G2 vs. Sentinels and T1 vs. DRX.

No one really carried at Vitality. They all did their jobs to almost ideal Valorant.

Derke as an entry monster, Less anchoring and rifling, Sayf roaming as a Flex + great util usage by Kicks and trexx. Just beautiful to watch. 3x 80+ kills is crazy.

What an insane match.
Derke, Sayf and Less are incredible.

And Liquid are a serious, serious team again. I think it was pretty clear to see that their strength with nAts as an IGL is definitely on maps where they can lurk a lot and win rounds by smart positioning - and that played out very well on Split and Haven, where you traditonally can outwalk your opponent a lot, lurk and roam extremely well.

And just as G2 leaf said it yesterday... Vitality have a lot of firepower. That's their strength. Derke as the ultimate pressure machine, Sayf as an Flex player with crazy rifling and Less as one of the best aimers in the game.

Crazy series to watch. Both teams look very crisp. For G2 as a German org it def. was smart to not go again for another EU team at that time, they picked up some insane players there. I remember watching The Guard winning Ascension. trent is def. one of the most insane players right now... that dude is brutal. For me as a big Fnatic fan I feel like he is the only Ini beside of RieNs that comes close to Leo.

Sentinels can win against any team in the world with a bit more fine tuning, though. N4RRATE and bang are very good additions. And with SEN it's like with Heretics... you can add +10 strength for Majors anyways. :P I bet they will be a true menace in Bangkok. zekken is also still one of the most fun players to watch.

mini: "This isn't the Heretics that I know."

I think we all can agree here.

But they're humans, sh*t happens. Sometimes you need a little downfall to be able to stand up stronger.

And CHICHOO meeting nAts is always wholesome. :P

Something seems off since they had their insane illness wave. I think Wo0t was ill twice and everyone else once or something like that. They are super young... I think last season was so insanely crazy for a debut season that now everyone thinks they can't fail. Maybe it's also that pressure.

Congrats Sentinels. :)

Still sad for aspas the holy... :(

Vitality are insane. Derke and Less fit them perfectly.

Derke is truly a duelist... someone who does his entrying job and distracts the opponent from the very first second, putting them under heavy pressure even if that means to get blasted by his own Tejo... xD But yeah, Derke is insane this season again. <3 Also crazy that he just got 22... :O

But (!) Heretics showed on Haven that they are still Heretics... aiming crisp and showing insane skill. I wouldn't interpret too much into this loss. They had similar losses in 2024 against Fnatic and KC and ended up playing two 2:3 grand finals in Majors. Every team should be "allowed" to have a down phase... it's e-sports, it happens.

Still def. an impressive performance by Vitality with a very clear sign of a balanced team. So, yeah Derke maybe had not the #1 this series, but then you have trexx and Sayf being in top, while last series it werke Derke and Kicks. Less also always delivers. It's such a round and professional unit already.

Team Liquid is one of the big orgs which could afford primmie. Next season they should stick with nAts, Keiko and paTiTek and sign two new players... imagine primmie and an IGL, that would be insane. primmie, nAts and paTiTek in one team. :P But that's just dreaming of course.

Realitic would be Paper Rex signing him when they make the announced roster changes... maybe one player will go and they will rebuild their positions. primmie can play any agent, he could play whatever he wants for PRX.

aspas the HOLY! <3

Can't wait for this banger after G2 vs. Sentinels. Those 2 match ups are the best pairings that can happen in Americas and EMEA atm.

Good decision, imo. Have no problem with him but his style and Fnatics philosophy + the players didn't fit, imo.

And when it comes to Leo... it actually concerns me. Long-COVID is so damn dangerous. They don't say anything in detail, so this is pure speculations but he could have a myocarditis or something like that, it's a common effect of Long-COVID and a very good friend of me just went to hospital because of it last week and was diagnosed with it. 6 months no sport or heavy stressful situations. Which would fit for Leo. That is def. neither an allergy, nor the after effects of food poisoning. It was mentioned by Boaster in a stream that Leo has been diagnosed with Long-COVID - so it's def. a serious thing. Would be a horror if the best rated VCT player of all time would not return to the game and for Leo as a 20 years young man who goes to the gym, eats healthy etc. it would be a desaster as well for sure since regarding to CoJo he also absolutely loves the game.

crashies is awesome in replacing Leo, but of course I wish the GOAT to return to the boys and that he get's fit and healthy again.

Bloss für FROSTA! xD

tex on KJ and Demon1 on Jett is top. Keep that up!

I said overall by their talent they def. belong to the best and showed it already.

I also said this: That's why it's better to compare after a full season everyone who played that season incl. 2-3 majors and compare all important numbers. Compare for that specific year and then maybe make a long term comparison every 3 years.

When we talk about primmie we can talk about MiniBoo easily - and also about the others, since primmie didn't play majors yet. But people can acknowledge TALENT and mechanical abilities, skill to roam, to anchor... you can see that at players without seeing them on majors, even though they need to prove it of course that they can show it under pressure on big stages.

So I guess we agree there. Many talents need to show it on a long term.

I'm not FNC biased. I'm just into statistics because numbers don't lie.

Most deadly players in 2024 by duels (Leo by far on #1):
https://i.ibb.co/yBN74mGW/Unbenannt.png

Best players 2024 (Leo played almost 900 rounds; by far the best KAST% and best disconnected duel wins as always):
https://www.vlr.gg/stats/?event_group_id=61&event_id=all&region=all&min_rounds=500&min_rating=1550&agent=all&map_id=all&timespan=all

Best players OF ALL TIME in VCT (min. OPP raiting of 2000 and min. 750 rounds against top rated players / Leo is the #1):
https://www.vlr.gg/stats/?event_group_id=all&event_id=all&region=all&min_rounds=750&min_rating=2000&agent=all&map_id=all&timespan=all

• Leo also was rated 1x official major MVP by Riot and 2x unofficially by one of the big websites (VLR, SPIKE.GG etc.)
• Leo is #1 by VLR and THESPIKE.GG rating for 2023, #2 for 2022 and #2 for 2021 (no other player has such a crazy top 3 stats)

So... it's just numbers. No bias there.

And primmies stats also don't lie. He is a menace. I'm 99% sure players like MiniBoo, primmie and xeus will show great performances on big stages.

Hard to say who is "the best". By statistics when you take the last 4 years of VCT it's Fnatic Leo (numbers of disconnected duels, impact, KAST% / survivability and winning duels in low chance situations).

When you take Duelists and these kind of entrying players who are also anchoring etc., I'd say Derke, aspas, primmie, MiniBoo, zekken, something, Jemkin, KangKang, xeus and kaajak are the best at the moment. Like of all the players in VCT. Hard to tell who's the best - by mechanics probably Derke, aspas, primmie and xeus. That's why it's better to compare after a full season everyone who played that season incl. 2-3 majors and compare all important numbers. Compare for that specific year and then maybe make a long term comparison every 3 years.

Fact is also primmie would play even better stats at a better team. So I'd say he is def. one of the top 3 Duelist style players when it comes to pure talent. Interesting though, that he did almost no entry kills in this match. It were much more anchor kills.

No. Stay loyal. That's what counts... supporting your team when they're down.

Yeah, I mean this was probably exactly what they have been steering into for a while now.

PRX simply needs solid comps and a mindset "reboot". When you watch their social media stuff it feels like they're not taking most matches 100% serious. There is no doubt about their talent... don't even need to say that, they're all crazy good.

I hope this shakes them awake, especially their managers and their whole team. The players need a good mental coach or something like that, someone who is able to turn the fire back on 100%, so they want to DESTROY every opponent... just like G2, Heretics, RRQ, DFM, T1, DRX... those teams with endless will to win.

What a match. Honestly, this will go to my alltime top 10 Pacific VCT matches.

Jemkin ACE /w Showstopper 3K <3

Imagine PRX would need to replace f0rsakeN and something.

01) Impossible to replace Leo
02) Impossible ro replace Derke

It will take a long time to build a new monster team. kaajak def. has the ability to be a star duelist, but it just needs time to make a unit out of these guys. And also... when Leo comes back everything will be better again for sure. Alfajer needs to be back on Sentinel as well - he was so much better as a monster rifler on Sentinel.

The inconsistency is so damn weird. :( Yesterday it was pure dominance against M8, a team with a duelist who was very strong against Heretics and they also played insanely well against a very strong NAVI team.

Chronicle is so damn good, kaajak is def. getting better and better, but I honestly think it was a mistake to pull Alfajer from the Sentinel. His "new" playstyle is like a mix of his 2023 Sentinel style and his old Duelist style - not this and not that. Rifling better than everyone, but he can't benefit from his skill in all situations because his playstyle seems not really fitting anymore. When I see how Derke destroyed FUT, I miss him even more. And I miss Leo so much... he always annihilated strong mechanical teams.

Fnatic is in the craziest situation ever. They need to get over Derke and to replace Leo until he comes back... replacing two of the best 5 players in the world is basically not possible in such a time.

Exciting match so far. FUT doing good for the cursed defence on the damn void map. xD

But xeus... dude is a MENACE! Derke was right.

Matchfixing is such a cringe call. You watched too many conspiracy thrillers.

There are many reasons why matchfixing makes absolutely NO SENSE in such a match and why it would not be done so blatantly.

You have no clue what you're talking about, tbh.