uncharacteristically funny too... almost as if... nah must just be my imagination
https://twitter.com/mooseloff/status/1555313132712693766

we havent seen much bind from them so gonna be interesting how they changed things up
their last bind game vs xerxia was rough to say the least

This game has me a bit worried for onic going forward, was sorta expecting this to be more dominant
GGs for pulling through though

Ender for both EMEA and NA is a bit weird, id rather have them take one of the VRL hosts if they wanted to mix things up from Yinsu
At the end of the day ender isn't bad so not like we're missing out here, so seems like a great lineup regardless

With how the mith onic game is going there's a decent chance secret makes it 3rd again though
Like i agree that TS have been struggling hard but they're still getting really good results

Was a great match and makes me very hopeful for the regions future
Being able to push the top Philippines team within a year of international play is great; lets see if they can surpass them next time

more hype yes, but pansy + hypoc provide more in depth commentary
As long as there's a healthy mix its fun to watch, so we still need at least one of these APAC duos at masters

not 100% sure about NA rulings, EMEA has split for lcq but Masters wont have it anymore

I mean its better than VRLs atm so ya know... its a really good starting point for the scene

What a statement, FUT looked amazing this game, both aim wise but also anti-stratting on Haven
If they can show up like this tomorrow Fut have a really really good chance of winning this
Also MrFaliN might actually be the player Turkey needs to break back into the top of tier 1 in vct, hes looking amazing as an igl while also fragging

Idk how much you can really interpret into this since picking up a game changers team atm is pretty much the best investment an org can do in Valo; new scene so no huge buyouts for top teams, decent viewership and international tournaments for top teams (and currently no risk of losing that investment to not getting into partnership)

Bleed have been pretty consistent in VCT events, only losing to the 2 teams that qualify so with PRX and Xerxia not being here they have a really good chance.
With Team Secret you gotta remember that they're not the top APAC team that they were a year ago; they come into this event as 4th/5th "seed" tied with MITH, so while I agree that they've been looking bad its not like they came into their match vs Bleed/MITH as favorites

Also pretty much any game order wins atm is an upset since they just dont have the same results and experience as the rest of the teams here, so watching them is always super fun

And yea Onic, Bleed, Boom matchups should all make for good matches since theyre the 3 favored teams by far based on results

Its even worse tbh, based on what we saw from TS this far Order would actually be favored
Good news is that last qualifiers they lost to bleed too and started playing well again after so should still be ez for TS

afaik boosts arent allowed in vct atm
I doubt theres gonna be much of a punishment here since raze can get up there on their own, but it depends on how many rounds they did this on

Today wasnt ment to be the day of stomps, wtf is going on
Edit: Map 2 didnt help wtf

which is fair as long as it doesnt lead to people hating an org
I cheered for Ovation in DACH too since they're the only full DACH team, but that sure as hell didnt stop me from cheering for AT afterwards since they very much are still part of the region

I dont really get why importing players into the region is that much of a problem here; if an org starts replacing all their players and stops trying to grow talent in the own region then yes, but bleed has an academy team and only imported players around their previous teams core

Well that was quite the showing ngl

The only argument that hasn't been explained/debunked when context is added is that he has a troubled past with racism in cs (though Ive yet to see a proper documentation on that either)
Otherwise he's just a toxic player in ranked/scrims so people are bound to get upset with him eventually (see the reply above for the case that started the hate train)
That being said from an outside view the hate he gets seems unproportional to anything he did in Valorant and seems to rather be due to a lot of info spreading by word of mouth rather than researched articles
The main problem this whole situation caused is that actually good information keeps getting drowned out by already explained/out of context clips/situations, so if there is a bigger problem here people outside of Brazil will never see it

this match is def up there for the most fun matches to watch, its just pure chaos with amazing casters losing their minds

yes but yacine being a stand-in does not mean he leaves his current team, hence the question of the post xD

what team is yacine joining instead then in your opinion?

https://twitter.com/FinestEsport/status/1554433501046480897
So Yacine is rumored to be playing with Guild for lcq and has now left Finest, splitting the Bonkar Yacine duo after 2 years of playing together.
Given that Bonkar posted on his twitter (https://twitter.com/Officialbonkar/status/1554459048422133760) this doesnt seem to be a breakup on bad terms either.
As such I'd consider it unlikely that Yacine is leaving for another t2 team. So is Yacine a permanent addition to the Guild roster now or is there another t1 team that wants him?

I mean tea parties have proven rather effective, historically speaking

i meeeean... both teams were feeling it based on the amount of tea they were preparing

You know what? I will sit down with my instant noodles, cause i dont wanna spill hot water over myself

Also peeps calm down youre gonna get worse than a "gg, ez" out of your average ranked game xD

very few analysts expect guild to actually win this tbh, coming out of a international event into a qualifier 3 weeks later is just way too rough
(youve been nonstop working since the last qualifier, youve shown all/most of your strats, other teams have had way more time to prep new stuff)
And yea qualifiers in EMEA are never easy since everyone is good af

... im still high on hopium though

Its probs gonna take a while till Australian teams can properly leave a mark in these events since its a small player base region thats completely isolated (so international events are gonna be the best place to grow, and if last champions is anything to go off, they will catch up rapidly)
That being said as we're seeing in BLD vs AE atm it might be too early to judge since we dont know the power level of Onic yet

Twisten is just a worse short notice pickup
And pAura is currently signed to a team which is in lcq so that really isnt an option
There are still a ton of t2 players who fill Russ' role so its not like taking Yacine isnt risky, so it seems theyre just banking on existing synergies and taking a proven t1 player

unlikely, yacine was playing kayo and sage on stream 2 weeks ago so im guessing he was asked to fill russ' roles (or just a lucky coincidence) but i doubt theyre gonna swap up their cores roles for a stand-in since you just dont have enough time to get everyone comfortable on new roles

he was playing kayo and sage on stream 2 weeks ago iirc so I assume hes been practicing russ' roles... but yea gonna be interesting

no they can actually win events now, they broke their curse last qualifier by making it to lan

Im a bit confused about the roles now, because ignoring those Yacine is 100% the perfect short notice pickup (existing synergy with the old guild players [and i assume decent/good relations with trexx since he recommended him for trials?], good coms and a lot of t1 experience)
But I don't want trexx to stop playing raze, so are we gonna see yacine play sage and viper? (not that worried about kayo and skye since they fit his playstyle way more)
That being said im exited af seeing some of the old Guild boys get reunited for lcq, them making it to lan with yacine would be the perfect arc

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/b9b658a2
the reason i have Vit going last is just their bind & (based on their bans) fracture; assuming both maps are bad thats just SUCH a huge disadvantage
AT surprised me today by actually making the game vs Fut close, but until Lime turns back into the monster he was during the end of DACH playoffs im just not confident they can beat Fut and Case
And Case vs Fut is just a tossup from what I've seen; I havent watched much of their regional leagues and theyve been smashing here (gonna end up giving the edge to Case since I consider the competition they beat higher level, but at this point idek how to rate excel)

we have no way of rating how good coaches are, all we have is that pipson was given a star roster, told people he'd be able to turn anyone into an igl and well... g2 have been struggling with executers and mid round calling
this might not be related to him at all but the least we can say is that he wasn't able to achieve his vision with the roster yet
as long as the roster believes in him and vice versa he's still got time to prove us wrong since they def have the talent for it

.... you are aware they were playing a team which almost everyone had in their top 4 too?

I think the important part is that the individual skill celling will eventually not be as relevant in pro play. With all the util Valo has, duels will become less and less relevant since they have a lower % "winrate" (being 50/50 as pro players improve)
This in no way means that valo has a "lower skill celling" since you need the same mechanical aim as in cs (though you SHOULD be less dependent on it) but more importantly learning numerous execute/combos for your team

Thing is valo is still so new that we dont know how it will develop, maybe we're gonna end in a similar state to cs where spacing and timing are what make the best teams

the "fit with their roster" is probably the biggest part of makes good scouting though
you need to know what your team needs and be able to predict if a player will grow to fill the role, fnatic managed to do this with 2.5 t2 players in a row now so clearly their scouting priorities are effective

He very much was an underrated player;
Surreal had some hype around them and did well in the EMEA Promotion but if you look at the https://www.vlr.gg/event/stats/885/champions-tour-stage-1-emea-promotion stats, its not like he stood out as the best t2 player.

Based on the stats why would you pick him up over for example chiwawa?
And thats why fnc get praise because they just scouted well and saw that he had way more potential than he showed in Surreal

read the article, at least here he doesn't bash csgo at all xD
like the only reason he gave in the clip they're reporting about is: “I wonder if it’s hard because everyone is so good, and everyone is so good because the game is arguably easier,” he added. “Maybe that’s why [it’s harder]. It keeps the competition high.”

The comments on twitter are funny af since its clear not a single one of them actually read the (super short) article
And i love how people are mad someone who spent years grinding csgo compares stuff to it... because who tf does that? compare new stuff to stuff you know?!

currently there is no reward for vrl finals, its a bit of money but like... worth playing an entire split for ey

There's way better examples;
the 2v4 was benkai dying in an advantageous fight (since he shot first) then d4v4i trying to trade asap (ye this timing was super bad since there was enough time for suygetsu to reset his aim and he missed his first shot, but the idea is fine)
and lastly jingg + forsaken trying to set up to take the 2v1 together at different elevations (and again just the timing being SO bad since jingg was jumping when suygetsu swung and insta headshot forsaken)

Just before and during international events its toxic regardless of region
And it not being a NA vs EMEA finals def helps with people calming down faster after this event since peeps can just appreciate that both teams did amazing

No PRX and Xerxia to knock bleed out... lets see if they can stay consistent in APAC qualifiers

? im not sure what you mean
When they were presented with a clutch this tournament mindfreak was the most likely to win his clutch

The stat doesn't try to claim who was better at clutching since it doesn't take the value of X in a 1v X into consideration, only their clutch winrate %

oh yea cneds been slow to adapt to chamber, but started feeling himself again against fpx and actually abusing the champ like he used to on jett
we'll see if that game was an outlier or an indicator for the games to come

Well the "they did better than guild vs prx" is a meh argument since one team had 0 matches with 1 day prep time vs 2 matches with 5 days prep time
We saw how good optics prep was on bind and we just dont know how prep time would have changed the guild match

That being said i dont see much of an advantage of dabbling in hypotheticals since we will then never be able to agree on a ranking because theres just so much bias
Fact is optic placed 3rd this tournament
Just take results, its the one unbiased ranking we have

agreed, this format is pretty accurate when it comes to top 2 teams, but the rest of the rankings are less accurate since teams get eliminated with less matches
As long as people understand how the bracket works this format is perfectly fine for what riot wants

but they lost so their playstyle is dumb, reeeeeeeeeee