I watched a ton of Apac actually. But I agreed with that sentiment. DRX looked shaky against T1 both series, maps were flip flopping and they weren't consistent. They have kicked it up a notch getting to Bangkok.

Watch Drx vs t1, the upper finals. Their util and ult usage while up 11-5 was atrocious on fracture, and they should've been swept. That's why all the analysts were rating them so low.

Narrate was clearly uncomfortable on cypher during offseason, so they switched him to init and put zellsis on full senti. i personally think with a little bit of 1 on 1 coaching narrate can get comfortable and get more impact on breach but he's looking uncomfortable on his role right now.

my point is younger players should be in academy teams. not players like skuba, Nismo, etc. If you're old enough to play in T1 you should be in a T2 team thats trying to ascend.

canezerra is the exact kind of player that should be on academy teams imo. Too young to play on T1 so there's no point being on a t2 team that's a contender. Give him good coaching and he's going to be a superstar

okay but academy teams can't compete in the ascension tournament. Most of the best players are signed to academy teams. you're going to have very little viewership for ascension

Cubert is part of the problem imo. A player like Nismo shouldn't be on an academy team. He should be on a top T2 team that actually has a chance to ascend. Academy teams should be for players that aren't old enough to play in t1

well thats just the thing though, academy teams can't compete in ascension, therefore weaker teams may end up ascending just due to that restriction. I think the rule should be academy players have to be under 18. That would be a net positive

Seeing recent results and player signings, it just seems like Academy teams are hurting the talent pool available to create strong t2 competition. The good players can just be bought by franchised teams who want a good academy team to pull people from whenever they need subs, leaving most smaller orgs who are trying to compete for ascension with much less talent to choose from.

Realistically, if you have the chance between signing with a franchised team, even if its on their backup roster, why wouldn't you. Top tier scrimming and coaching + pretty good likelihood that you get a job in the near future if you perform well.

I'm betting this causes this years ascension tournament to be the weakest yet. Next ascension winners from every region are likely going to be a repeat of Bleed esports in terms of success.

The only teams that have won a prior trophy at this event are SEN and EDG. 6/8 teams are still looking for their first ever international trophy win. Is that not exciting?

every region's t2 at this point in the season looks mediocre. All the good talent has been picked up to t1 teams and the newer talent hasn't gotten comfortable with their teams yet. Wait until midseason and they'll improve

Might be a hot take for some, might be an obvious choice for others.
Changing rosters after kickoff after their players visas just got approved seems like it'll never happen, but lowkey I think Rankers would perform better than this squad of Furia.

TL is good. For once emea may have 2 good teams going into a tournament. I still think G2 and SEN are slightly favored over both of these teams.

GenG look weak tbh. I'd give g2 60/40 odds against both of those teams easily

I'm sorry I just don't see a world where talon beats t1 today.

then again, I've seen T1 brutally mess up map vetoes before

Zander is 100% > Jawgemo on Smokes. Pros recommend watching Zander for his omen tech. He is far and beyond a top 3 omen player in the world. Jawgemo might be better on other agents however, but with an omen dominant meta it makes little sense to pick him if zander becomes available

Even if it's a "mouse died" situation, the general rule of thumb is that the round counts if damage has been done.

This is peak valorant IMO, while its nice to see the same teams at international events, upsets are the bread and butter of valorant. If the favorites always won, I wouldn't watch as many matches as I do

I don't think he'll be as dominant, but I think he can comfortably compete even at a T1 level in Americas right now. I think a team like EG, LEV (if TEX doesn't resign), or even NRG (unlikely though), would be good for him.

I personally would LOVE to see EG yay, if EG would be willing to pay the buyout (which is probably unlikely).

I mean they still finished first in Stage 1 and first in Stage 2. They're also the second best team internationally this year behind TH, so I don't see why they would need roster changes as crazy as an IGL change. I think coaching/anti-stratting is their weak point at the moment. (I don't know how much of that duty is on Boaster vs Coaches so I'm not sure), but they demolish teams when they get to play their own game, and when teams play a different playstyle, (example DRX or FUT), they have a hard time playing against them.

Start IGL'ing. Call for util when you need it, and start midrounding (as well as calling executes). If you start this in silver/gold you won't have to learn it later when you want to climb in dia+ lobbies

SEN will ban Haven and Float ascent probably. FNC will ban either lotus or Icebox. FNC is terrible at icebox though so I wouldn't be surprised if they let lotus through.

Icebox - SEN is better
Haven - Close but FNC is probably better
Bind - 50/50
Ascent - FNC is better
Lotus - SEN is slightly better
Sunset - SEN is better
Abyss - ???

I think it SEN aren't too affected by the loss they have a slight edge in this match. But mental could play a huge part.

I'm guessing map veto: SEN Ban Haven, FNC Ban Icebox, SEN pick Lotus, FNC Pick Sunset, SEN Ban Ascent, FNC Ban Bind, Abyss Remains.

I doubt SEN go out in top 3. I think Heretics look weak right now, with Miniboo not performing. Lev look shaky on a couple maps (like ascent and haven), I think theres a very good chance, unless either of those teams have their problems fixed by upper finals that SEN can take top 2 spot. Obv tho Aspas is the Americas killer and anything can happen when he is on the server.

Surely this is a clean 2-0 from SEN. The only potential curveball that would cause SEN to drop a map would be if they end up playing Ascent, and Zekken has a rough game on the jett (assuming they are playing default ascent comp this time). Hopefully this doesn't age poorly, but the only reason EDG are placing 5-6 in this tournament is because they got to play a regional matchup in their first game. Any of the other 6 teams would have taken them out

Trace beating EDG is unlikely. EDG is used to how trace plays and will just ban ascent against them. Even if TE beat EDG, SEN is very good at countering the CN playstyle with their slow default/disciplined play on attack side.
Imo SEN vs DRX is a closer match than TE vs EDG.

Objectively, Sen are great at all the Raze maps, and they've shown promise on Icebox as well. That's 3 or 4/7 maps they're very good on. If they continue to float the other maps and ban the opposing teams best maps, I think SEN takes most series that make it to 3 games. They just have too many solid maps. Most teams will want to ban their sunset, but they look very good on Lotus as well.

gotta be. No way anyone thought Guard was better than Optic in 2022

Here is a list of stuff that gets you upvoted and what gets you downvoted on this site:

(Instant downvotes)

• Supporting SEN in any way
• Having the SEN flair on your profile
• Hating on PRX
• Stating NA is a good region

(Instant Upvotes)

• Supporting SEN's opponent
• Hating on SEN
• Supporting Apac teams
• Hating on NA

what is this champions man. 3/4 of these teams lost after I made this post. Hopefully G2 can pull through.

In what world is shanghai EMEA? Top 4: Pacific, EMEA, Americas, Americas. I'd argue its between pacific and americas but I value 1st more than 3/4.

I think it's harsh to judge LEV from that match against Talon since Talon had tons of vods to review and anti-strat, while LEV was facing a team that literally had 3 matches played, and knew Talon could play whatever the heck they wanted. They had 0 prep against Talon's comps and still 2-0'd. Top teams in playoffs aren't going to pull out crazy comps like that without showing it somewhere previously

if they manage to at least take a map off of GenG i'll reconsider, but from what I saw against FPX they barely scraped by off the heriocs of Riens.

Personally I see one of 4 teams having a decent chance of winning Champs unless a different team comes into some sort of insane form.

My top 4 (In no particular order)
GenG
FNC
G2
LEV

Pretty cool how they're all in different groups tbh.

Yall are gonna ask about TH, but seriously they DO NOT look like they can hold a candle to GenG. Match today, I'm betting 2-0 with TH getting less than 20 rounds total

Ofc Meteor is the more complete player but Aproto is known for his sheriff, and for good reason.

GenG's strats and calling have been phenomenal so far in this Haven game. Perfect timings, every fight is favorable. Not to mention Texture is playing so so much better than Zekken right now.

Bili Bili upsets ANOTHER americas team in champs!

If you're playing an initiator, on attack, your main job is to make your duelist's job easier. I don't know how you play, but there's no way you only get 2,3,6 assists playing gekko. Try and set up your util for your teammates to play off more often.

Pretty sure every country charges for international students. Why wouldn't they

GenG Vs TH here. Former Grand Finals matchup, Now one will go home.

PRX.

No team has ever said PRX was going to be an easy matchup. Name a team that has been given that kind of respect

No clue what my stats would be like, care to check them for me? <3

Add Tricep Extensions for your push day, and imo you're doing too much volume for your shoulders, that is if you plan to do the normal push, pull, legs, push, pull, legs, rest split

what do you mean Shahzam, he's great for vibes

100T 2-0 G2
NA ftw

100T 3-1 PRX, Alecks has to tech pause again for his desk

I don't think you understand. They were making fun of what Boaster said when he was making a tier list for Masters Madrid.