Was no surprise or was it? I mean if KC would have made it to Champs, perform well in EU etc. he would probably stay. But his contract ends this year and KC totally failed, even though N4RRATE showed he is a very good player.

I think he could help teams like C9 or so without any doubt.

xuss and al0rante need to play in VCT.

al0rante is EASILY one of the best riflers worldwide. There are clips of him destroying Fnatic in scrims (and I say that as a longtime Fnatic supporter). I don't say he is a "better" player, but his mechanics in terms of pure aiming are really insane. Dude is hitting the most insane shots with Vandal, Sheriff and Ghost.

Wo0t strong, but Sayf was an insane beast once again.

aspas x tex <3

Tell me one more time only EMEA and APAC are up and down. What even is this? You can't predict anything anymore.

Sayf is crazy, yeah. Overall easly one of the best and beside of f0rsakeN prob. the best Flex player.

Nah, it's just the stress. He's hyping his mates up a lot. But imagine his mental stress with his grandfather who just died (he was super close to him), all the stress after last season that Liquid put on him and he even wanted to retire. He lifted the pressure for a whole team basically and won them so many matches.

On the football pitch you also shout sometimes. It's normal to be heated sometimes during games.

Sayf is a beast, but Fnatic just got the better allround team.

Derke is playing such a great season, too. He's so good this year.

Yeah, pickems really still make sense this season. So easy to predict it all... NOT!

https://x.com/WootVL/status/1813294303919194375

He seems to be very exhausted.

Haha, yeah. That's what I mean. Leo posted today that he keeps on his break for a while and trexx posted a GUILD photo with Sayf answering "?" to it.

Yeah. He is no robot. Look at TenZ or Derke or something or whoever... it happend to everyone. To the best. Even aspas, Leo and t3xture had bad games.

Sh*t happens. Dude is 18, played the best Major recently in terms of entrying that has ever been recorded.

Consistency is something that every player wants to achieve, he has a long career ahead of him. It just started - last season he played Challengers.

Insane match. As much as I love the Heretics boys, I'm happy for Vitality. They're working so hard to get better and Sayf and trexx deserve every second of this.

Now I really think about how cool it would be if Leo would rejoin with Sayf and trexx for 2025, but I don't want to miss him on FNC. Also... Sayf said he might retire after this season. So a lot of dreaming. :X

GGs!

A day without a Sayf Ace is no real day.

Shao...
But still bad. But VIT also played very well again. Sayf and trexx are insane.

N4RRATE got a big future, though. marteen probably, too.

Glad we won this, even though I'd have liked to see KC at Champs.

And NA got an insane talent there. N4RRATE is an absolute BEAST. I wonder which team will sign him for VCT 2025. Maybe C9? Sentinels? Vitality when Sayf retired?

But FNC looks good. hiro is such a great player for being thrown into VCT like in ice cold water. I can't wait until Leo returns, but I also somehow wish that hiro stays. He got a great future ahead of him.

I'd say that's only possible if Boaster would retire within the next season, but I doubt that. I think the chance that Leo will come back is 50/50.

It's a fact that Leo won't be replaced if he wants to come back. FNCs manager made that clear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSj7ulcsWiU
https://youtu.be/ANguN5oaSco?t=145

Leo is Fnatics 2nd caller and is basically named as their future IGL when everything goes normal.

We all don't know IF Leo comes back for sure. If his mental and physical health doesn't allow it, they will for sure keep hiro - makes no sense to search for another player then, that's why they gave him a contract for the rest of the season.

It's just that there is no real dilemma. If Leo comes back because he's fit again, hiro will join another team. If Leo will retire because of his health issues or make a long break, hiro will stay. It's super simple.

What are you guys even discussing? xD

There is no discussion. Leo won't be replaced, Fnatic already made that very clear. Why should they replace their best player? Makes no sense. Just look at the seasonal stats - Leo was even better than hiro. Much crazier.

No dilemma, since there is no discussion. When Leo comes back, he is back. Facts.

There is no discussion about hiro replacing Leo. You forget that Leo is FNCs best and most consistent player. Leo played +28 in the GF against Heretics and also diffed N4RRATE and marteen in their match against KC, where he played +27. Leo is the best and most consistent player in the world beside of aspas.

hiro will probably get a spot in another VCT team then and maybe coming back when someone else retires. I bet they will do some contract stuff when it's time.

Okay, actually GENG might winning Champions for real. :P

No. But I also don't think that this game represents LOUD at all. 100T lost to FURIA and now they beat LOUD 13-1?
You almost can't tell what will happen anymore. Less is still a great player.

But Alfajer is the best Sentinel and there is a reason why players like TenZ, FNS, Boostio etc. name Alfajer as one of the best players in the world.

Honestly, Paper Rex is one of the few teams that could win against GENG - their problem during that type of 100% serious matches is always that they are not fully focussed all the time and that they don't play pure Meta comps. d4v41 said that in one of their last videos himself. They need to be 101% concentrated, serious etc. on every retake etc. - but they tend to improvise a lot.

I think Heretics, Sentinels, Fnatic and Paper Rex are the 4 teams that could beat GENG on a tournament (and GENG obviously can beat all of those teams, too). How important maps and comps are was shown in Shanghai.

jlgahfkljhsadnfds

Pickems are like a Lottery.

LEV just gets better and better.

I want a Thai super team with Buakaw as owner and he yells at them before every match.

They would be Champs soon.

primmie arrived and delivered. What a dude!

Sayf x trexx = GUILD duo cooking again

https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/mental-derealization-overview

He plays as a Initiator and is anchoring a lot. A bit selfish sometimes, but he's def. good. That team is way too self-oriented anyways... when they would play as during Kickoff when everyone was setting up their team mates, they would still be great.

Beside of f0rsakeN the best Flex in the world.

The thing is Sayf is not even on his "peak" right now, since he is struggling so much with his private life because of the death of his grandfather. He always was an insane player but when he has a good team that sets him up, he is without a doubt one of the best internationally.

Wasn't even NRG contacting him before ardiis? I think he said something like that once. But he wanted to stay close to his home or something like that. Maybe somebody remembers that / has more info.

Legacy wise no player reached Chronicle yet, since he is the only player in the world with 3 won majors.

N4RRATE is the better anchor, plays very Leo alike when he uses Fade - Phantom lover. eeiu is better with util, though. Both have different playstyles. I think N4RRATE is better mechanically, but eeiu is overall a bit ahead. But I think Verno is ahead of both in his variety as a Ini.

Leo is basically both styles combined... insane Phantom player, great in offensive plays and anchoring, but also util excellence and Verno seems to be the only one who might reach that level, since he is good on so many agents and insanely talented mechanically.

But i.g. great to see new Initiator talents having an impact on the "best talents" discussion... not only Duelists and Sentinels.

Sayf is a born entertainer for real. I highly recommend his stream as well... sometimes he plays Subnautica or WoW and stuff like that.

Maybe it's time for a all Russian team?!

Get nAts out of Liquid. He can play as a Controller, too (insane Viper and Astra). And then Shao, SUYGETSU, purp0 and B1SK or Cloud and purp0 or something like that?! I doubt sheydos will leave KOI after they now getting better and better and that KOI team def. has a future when they maybe upgrade the ShadoW position or so.

But it's a fact that Liquid, whose season is over already and NAVI need to change things. I think NAVIs players still are insane when they want, they just lost all their confidence and joy after d00mbr0s got fired.

And when nAts stays at TL, they should keep keiko as well and maybe Enzo as an IGL and bench Jamppi and Mistic and just get 2 top talents from Challengers.

It's so weird to see these normally insane players totally losing their confidence and abilities. It happened to Sentinels in 2023 and everyone was wondering why and now it happens to NAVI, NRG and Liquid.

Shao and SUYGETSU were stomping players like f0rsakeN and Jinggg in 2022. At Masters Copenhagen they were destroying an peak OpTic team with 3:1. After a difficult season during the end of 2023 you slowly had the feeling that NAVI getting stronger again. Split 1 2024 Shao was one of the best in the region. What happened after the org fired Erik aka d00mbr0s - the coach who was with these dudes since the beginning?! Since then it looks like they absolutely lost their joy to play this game. Sometimes you see their talent glimpse through... like Zyppan hitting every Sheriff shot, SUYGETSU flicking 3 headshots with the PtC Vandal or Shao clutching with 4 great kills - but then again they losing 5 rounds in a row with whiffing every shot.

I hope so much that NAVI, NRG and TL find their confidence back.

Leo. He carried Fnatic through the most difficult matches, he is Fnatics 2nd caller (listen to Boasters interview please).

Leo is even before aspas the best rated Valorant player since 2021 on VLR and other websites. He is performance wise the GOAT of this game. Leo always delivers, always wants to win, Leo is the best in his role and also a great caller - basically Fnatics upcoming IGL in the making, which has been announced for more than a year now (Boaster said again and again that he sees only Leo in following him as an IGL).

Also - Leo is just got 20. He is not old. It's the same with Derke and the others of Fnatic (except Boasty). The squad is simply still very young in international comparison.

People who pick hiro either have no clue about Fnatic and Leo or they simply forgot how insanely good Leo is and just pick a rookies few good matches now as an indicator for being better than a several times awarded MVP of Majors etc. - who (again) is the best rated pro player of this game in VCT when you combine all seasons.

hiro is a great player, though. He will have a great future - maybe even at Fnatic. Because nobody of us know how quickly Leo will be back or if he will be back at all, since life and health is much more important than being a pro player. Or maybe hiro will be back at some point replacing someone else forever then. It's simply nothing anyone can say yet. For now every FNC supporter should be happy that hiro is part of the team, doing his best do fill the role.

https://www.vlr.gg/stats/?event_group_id=61&event_id=all&region=eu&min_rounds=200&min_rating=1550&agent=all&map_id=all&timespan=all

Leo easily.

Alltime is crazy difficult to name.

Duelist: aspas / Derke / Jinggg / cNed / yay
Initiator: Leo / Sacy / d4v41 / Shao / crashies
Controller: MaKo / s0m / mindfreak / Mazino / Karon
Sentinel: Alfajer / Less / SUYGETSU / nAts / Rb
Flex: Chronicle / f0rsakeN / TenZ / Sayf / kiNgg
IGL: Boaster / saadhak / FNS / f0rsakeN / stax
Most promising upcoming players (max. since 2023): zekken / Wo0t / benjyfishy / something / eeiu
Most promising Challengers players: kaajak / Verno / Ruxic / mada / Minny
Overall (2021-2024): Leo / aspas / f0rsakeN / TenZ / Derke

You got destroyed by 100T and G2 and then TH destroyed both of them and got beaten 2:3 in the GF after their 2 best maps got banned and you are yapping... interesting.

Remember this?
https://www.vlr.gg/220445/paper-rex-vs-fnatic-champions-tour-2023-masters-tokyo-ubsf

I love PRX, but some of you guys are just so insanely retarded.

TC is not bad. marteen and N4RRATE are talented, but this youngsters learned their lesson. You never go Tier 1 from playing Challengers before and destroy a two times major winning team without the boomerang coming back somehow. TH learned that as well with being overconfident and teams in every region already experienced that.

01) Recon
02) Protocol
03) Oni
04) Prime 2.0
05) Reaver 2.0

Just happened in NA as well.

I think pati was just a very good 2nd caller and a great Initiator and Controller. I think he makes every team stronger and I guess people are not wrong when they say that the team incl. pati was more "perfect", since they got the best util during the major because of him and his insane experience seems to be more worth than simple fragging.

Also MiniBoo didn't find his best performance level yet and Wo0t is struggling with changing roles all the time. Wo0t is by far the best when you SEND him and make him take advantage of his crazy mechanics.

TH Shanghai was better than TH Split 2, yes. But it's not only based on MiniBoo.

benjy really has been TH's best player outside of Shanghai. His abilities are actually mindblowing. You can def. tell that he was playing Fortnite before where you need to have ADS alike reaction time as a pro.

But yeah, the recent interview with TenZ about the consistency in Valorant during the current Meta is so true. Probably also the reason why mechanically gifted players like Wo0t, Alfajer, Demon1 or TenZ etc. are struggling so heavy with showing their skills in every match. During Shanghai you could even see a player like aspas having no chance again certain comps.

It's one thing to make the game exciting with all the different possibilities that are offered through the different agents (comps) etc., but when Riot changes the game so heavily with every new Meta, no team in the world can't keep up with it to develope their own strats for every single map. And then you end up with GENG being able to ban TH's home maps and they los 2:3 because they play on GENG homeground mos of the time.

Competitive much better would be a game that stays 90% the same every season and when they change things it's only small stuff and not buffing Iso and Neon insanely crazy and destroying other agents just so the people see new agents on the screen. That's way too random and makes it impossible that certain players / teams become better and better. It's simply too much heavy changes in a small amount of time and overall randomness.

I like PRX, but they also played bad at tourneys. There is not a single consistent team this year, basically because of the current Meta. 2023 was kinda lit with Fnatic being dominant (as a FNC supporter obviously) and EG coming up strong the whole year until they won Champs. But it was already weird after Sentinels and NAVI / FPX won majors and began struggling, same with NRG / OpTic. And now? It's just random af.

Valorant and consistency: 💀💀💀

I think more that KOI, NAVI and or Gentle Mates will update their rosters for VCT 2025 with several Challenger talents. BBL might so as well, but only Turkish then.