And Riot wants mixed teams... how is that going to work when the Game Changer World Champions are losing to male College teams and other teams in Challenger Qualifiers?

What is with Vici?

Ehm... wow. What a BIG choke.

Congrats to DE.

The East United finals not long ago:
https://www.vlr.gg/283110/diamant-esports-vs-acend-valorant-east-united-season-2-stage-3-finals-playoffs-ubsf

That's quite the opposite of that performance.

Bro, he is a troll anyways... just look at his profile. Who tf comes to news like that and talks about regional sh*t.

Group A is a joke for NRG and Group B is the group of death.

bonkar is pushing Oxygen to VCT now... but it would be nice if he'd come back to coach Sayf one day.

Wasn't meant offensive, just as an addition to the conversation. I think Alfa is the best Sentinel in the world, followed by Less and then there is a big gap.

When it's about EMEA Sentinels by origin, I'd say something like this:

01) Alfajer
02) SUYGETSU
03) nAts
04) vo0kashu
05) al0rante
06) Vici
07) Chiwa
08) Elite
09) Fizzy
10) nukkye (basically a Flex player, but still a great Killjoy)

I think nAts is still INSANE with Cypher and Viper (and yes, Viper is a Controller - but by the mechanics basically a Sentinel).

That's more than 1 year ago. chiwa is great, but I'd not
say he is crazier than SUYGETSU or nAts.

Razziss is just 17... he def. got a bright future when he continues to play like that.

Very interesting roster. I don't give a damn about EG as an org anymore, but I wish jawgemo just the best. That Cambodian aim monster really played a great VCT year in 2023 and seems to be an awesome dude regarding to interviews and his streams.

alexRr as coach???

Big, big W

Very experienced dude in CS:GO and Valorant.

Acend stronk.

Yeah, against Heretics and FUT he showed it, too. In general al0rante is one of the best riflers I've ever seen... doesn't matter if Tier 2 or Tier 1. His aim is insane.

eXampL on KAY/O super dangerous.

Still, I think FKS will win. I say either 2:1 or a very tight 2:0.

*Edit: Okay, wow. That was... unexpected. al0rante was insane, saved so many rounds with his Vandal on Breeze and SEIDER on Ascent was a force. But FKS def. need some time to really become a unit and their Sunset strats need to be adapted for the future, since more and more teams like to play that map. I also bet that DIVIZON will qualify via lower.

Who is kirya?

But okay, I think I know what you mean. Thanks for the answer. B1SK and purp0 are def. good players.

Why are people disliking KPI?

Yeah, I didn't want to sound offending. I was referring to the matches I watched during the offseason. But I'm just a Diamond player, so what do I know?! xD But overall I'm a big FOKUS fan, also trying my way to support the players on Twitch (bucher, Kuba, al0...) and yeah... very nice dudes.

And it's no secret that azury was one of the best players in Ascension. He did several INSANE matches. :)

Are you part of Team Vitality or are you part of a scrimming team that has access to those Discords etc.? :)

That would be very good for both sides.

The whole concept is a nice thing. Good idea of Riot there.

w

Yeah, you're right. I mean OFFSEASON says not THAT much anyways and probably he already knew he would leave, so yeah...

I didn't say anything. Let's just forget it. I just wrote what came to my mind.

azury = awesome <3

Also it's so crazy to see how imptacful John is when he has a good team backing him up. Now I'm actually super excited for FOKUS, even more than before. Let's go.

Hmm... okay. I mean al0rante is an absolute monster, John and Lewis are also good on their roles and SEIDER is an nice IGL, but azury struggled lately in the off-season. Dunno if that's all a good omen. Fizzy proved instantly his value... he was almost as good as al0rante in those matches against Heretics and FUT. And FOKUS without Lime? Bro, that's heavy. On the paper MOUZ might be even stronger.

Will be an exciting DACH season for sure, but I'd have prefered when FOKUS would stay in Polaris. Lime, Lewis, al0rante, Fizzy and SEIDER would have been better than Apeks I think.

Any news about how the FOKUS DACH roster will finally look? My last info was:

Duelist: DisIsJohn
Initiator: YaBoiLewis
Controller: SEIDER (IGL)
Sentinel: al0rante
Flex (?): azury

So that Lime left is sadly no secret anymore, but on that one News-Channel on Twitter it also said Fizzy would leave for azury. All that because in the DACH league the teams need at least 3 German / Austrian / Swiss players.

If he really joins JDG, that would be a very nice move as well. Vici is so damn talented - would be a very cool thing to get stew as well.

And yeah, you're right. At these Chinese teams they earn more 100%. Many of these teams have ultra rich people behind them.

Yeah, I meant that. Basically they didn't continue the contracts. They don't keep the players in their rosters... that's what I meant. "Sold" is not the correct word, you're right.

They should have released Foxy9, since he was simply not performing as well as the others on the last tourneys. But that they didn't continue the contracts of Rb and Zest is actually insane.

Now I hope for them to buy / sign stew from RA. It's almost a MUST, tbh. Biggest Korean talent.

chiwa and musashi going strong again.

OXG with bonkar are going to be so damn dangerous for everyone in VCT Americas.

bonkar is the coach that teached Leo and Sayf the way how to play the game. Sayf recently answered questions about bonkar in an interview and was basically saying that he's the best coach he ever had. Leo and Sayf both still wear the "bonk" tag on their ranked accounts.

Now with 3 of the biggest talents in NA (Verno, Reduxx and skuba), they will def. only get stronger and stronger. Big fan of that team.

At Liquid soulcas was really, really good towards the end (I still remember his insane clutch against EDG on Lotus in Tokyo). Sadly they disbanded at the moment when they actually became one unit.

Finally kaajak showed something. Still... pretty bad for what they want to achieve. But hey - young team. Let's see how they improve.

Rb was one of their best without a doubt. But yeah, I guess stew would be a great addition.

Ehm... what should I say?! :D I'm glad I didn't bet money.

kaajak upcoming tourney MVP.

A true OG. But he will probably find his luck in a new team.

The new roster looks promising, though.

Click is one of the biggest talents in the game... can't wait to see that dude in VCT one day.

And awesome to see the OLDEST E-Sport team in the whole industry entering Valorant.

This is so damn cool. What a crazy roster! Still... nzr was a big player. I don't know why they dropped him.

Boostio is a massive win for them. One of the best IGLs right now.

Hmm... was it his decision or their? Great player in my eyes.

Is C0M already sure?

Big w.

vo0kashu diff

But stew will def. also have a great future. Dude is insane!

I didn't watch it and was heavily surprised a few seconds ago when I saw the 3:1 for DRG.

stew with almost 90 kills and a 1.78 K/D, but they still lost 1:3... that's crazy.

*Edit: Rewatched the last match now and DRG played so much better than yesterday. They really deserve this in my eyes. I mean the 0-13 is still crazy and stew is def. one of THE big upcoming Asian talents (probably someone for DRX in the future), but I think DRG really worked on their issues and tried to play more disciplined. Looking forward to see DRG improving more and more. vo0kashu is a machine!

Weirdest game I've watched in a long time. DRG have some very good mechanical players, but watching their attack on Ascent was painful.

But yeah... GG.

vo0kashu and Luke def. deserves the win.

RA vs. EDG will be more and more exciting in the future, since this team gets better and better.

MarT1n and YiHao are already twice as good as all mates of Kr1stal. He's basically as alone as vo0kashu at DRG...

Insane roster! Super glad for Demon1 and ethan that they escaped the EG contract situation.

I think the Champions "desaster" was no fault of mini or any coach. They won 2 major trophies this year, prior to Champions, played every tournament to the GFs and had to travel for every major to the opposite side of the world (South-America, Japan, North-America). When you take a look at how they played Lotus at Champions and 2 months before in Tokyo (where they beat EG 13-3 and PRX 13-5 on Lotus), it was like watching 2 different teams. I guess they were simply exhausted (NRG as well btw.) Sean Gares (I think it was him) made a pretty nice "review" about the whole situation. The insane will of LOUD to win was simply too much in that situation

Since 2024 is going to get even more stressful for all players, the whole "working and recovery" process is what they should adress the most. By skill and strats they're able to win every tournament. The constancy is their only big issue - and it was even worse in 2022 and before.

Let's go, vo0kashu!

The Acend team looks super promising. I hope either FOKUS or Acend is going to get a VCP spot.

But CGN is def. also going to play better again in the regular season in 2024. This was the last offseason tournament of the year and they played with one external player, so I wouldn't take their performance too serious.

Smart dude.

Vitality attack: Kill everyone
Vitality defend: choke²

For real, it was like watching a different team. xD FUT simply too cool.

The FOKUS boys!