I don't mean to shame any players but that version of G2 Gozen was also arguably the weakest G2G has been, ending 3rd at GC Championship. I think vania and amy are some serious shooters (imo a huge upgrade) and we should be looking forwards to the Red Bull event when they play their play-ins and see how they end up.

ex-GC player that qualified for NA Challengers with SaD

GX GC, i think that's a little controversial but they're the only team able to beat G2G, other teams don't even get close including FLCV

FLCV is 3rd strongest EMEA GC team but outside of that you cooked

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/b9719718 surely G2G doesn't randomly drop a game in group stage this time

summed it up perfectly LOL

Most people commenting on GC do not watch GC and just shit on them whenever they play outside of GC as a "gotcha" to call them bad. GC level of play is improving, but it is not happening as fast as a lot of people would've expected it and that's probably the main reason why you see the hate.

When it comes to player-focused hate, this has unfortunately always been a thing regardless of the league and there's close to no reasoning with people who do it.

Forced on initiator sadly

I have incredibly high hopes for G2G and FLCV this year, but G2G win. Really hoping that whichever team wins also makes it into their respective VCL league, it's about time best GC teams prove themselves outside of the GC project.

Vania for sure

I never claimed they're good, but that was still an underperformance LOL, 3/15 6 FD as a duelist is atrocious

Damn what a brutal underperformance by dodonut, nt

ohhh thanks for clarification

Surprised FlyQuest got invited and I am especially surprised SR didn't play open qualifiers. Wouldn't be surprised if it goes to game 3 though.

Derke
Vania
Meteor
RieNs
primmie

It's really not that crazy, sometimes people don't learn more languages because they have no reason or motivation for it and they're happy that way.

More than enough, should have you covered for other games than valorant aswell.

Tweeted about how it badly affects her mental and she deleted / deactivated the account shortly after.

that's pretty smart actually, will consider doing the same, but i'm surprised you foresaw TE qualifying

whats your pickems for playoffs?

You shouldn't be, there is a lot of guides on how to open and clean your laptop on youtube and you can't go wrong if you follow step by step.

link your pickems here on vlr?

They showed up and beat VIT and LEV, didn't really dominate them but put on a really good performance regardless. Can they get through EDG / DRX / SEN? What are the odds they repeat the same and win their first two games now aswell? I feel like EDG played well against PRX but I'm not sure who is favored in veto if it goes the distance.

I doubt it, SR hasn't necessairly looked weaker, other teams got better. FLYQ Red was able to "upset" them, and we don't need to mention how the new G2G roster is a powerhouse. Flor can't carry on her own against actually good GC teams and there's usually nobody consistent enough to put up frags alongside her.

I'm more interested in seeing GC teams in VCL relegation/delegation cuz we all know who's taking the GC Championship anyway

Valid take, I'm not particularly familiar with how they played in VCT Americas due to timezone differences unless I fucked up my sleep schedule so I only went off of stats (watched their Champions + last 2 games they played before that) but on paper it seems like they should be performing better than they are right now

You lowkey cooked with this one LOL

FPX has looked consistently convincing with their performance but getting mildly "scammed" out of their victories (wouldn't be surprised if it's because of fatigue), meanwhile SEN is underperforming expectations to a degree, they lost a fair bit of pistol rounds as of recently (last 10 games) + zekken massively underperformed so far. If zekken is online I would favor SEN, if he plays an average or worse game, I favor FPX.

I've seen effectively a 50/50 split when looking at both Pick'ems and comments under the match post, so I'd like to hear which team wins the matchup and why.

You heard correctly, it got taken over by HP and HP just makes them worse unfortunately.

Was Soniqs ever qualified for Challengers? All I see on vlr.gg is just qualifiers, they got close but didn't actually get in.

Went ahead and looked a bit further, I see the First Strike win, but if Bob was officially announced as the first woman by KA to be in Challengers when SaD qualified (what I consider to be the only tier 2 validation), then this in a way means she doesn't have tier 2 experience outside of SaD, unless I'm missing something.

I'm aware Bob was in T2, but she left early on her own terms which is unfortunate and personally not big enough of a showcase of what she could've been in SaD to talk about T1.

I think the main issue with bringing them to tier 1 is the fact there's none in tier 2, regardless of the region, which then leaves you with no relevant sample size, however if we exclude NA GC, I do think Vania and rezq (G2G), Bizerra (TL BR), enerii (Xipto) are all great shooters and I see the potential to do well in T2. Outside of GC, I hope katsumi makes it to T2 aswell with Burger Boyz. Once we have more GC / fe players in T2, there would eventually be one to make it to T1.

I haven't paid attention to their games as much because I occasionally tune in for VCL NA but they ended up making a few upsets through the season and now against DZ. Fluke or not? Can they take down MxS or is it too far-fetched?

I don't think this is an extremely unfair / bad thing for GC teams, it is just qualifiers after all, not like they have a guaranteed slot in their respective Challengers region.

They still have to get through qualifiers and I feel like some of those teams that would get the "last slot" now given to GC would lose to most GC teams that entered the bracket this way regardless. SR, TL BR both took away series in their respective qualifiers already, and G2G qualified for VCL through Premier and they will most likely do it the same way again.

I understand the EMEA slot, you have to keep in mind what happened in 2023 with BBL Queens (all got sick, one player was on stage) and G2G got a 3rd place finish with what I think was a weak roster, this year GC EMEA looks even better with GX GC, FLCV and G2G consistently finishing in top 3 (for a reason).

HOWEVER

China getting it over BR is kind of ridiculous, I think BR has shown a really high level of play this year it doesn't do it justice to have only 1 slot. TL BR and MIBR are getting closer and closer to each other.

Don't quote me on this, but I have seen FlyQuest Red scrim against Sentinels on one of the scrimbux posts a bit ago and I have also (100% sure) seen G2 Gozen scrim against FNC.

But to answer your question, there's a few factors that come into play when it comes to GC teams not qualifying:

1. The competition is not easy and GC level of play isn't on par with tier 2
2. Only 3 serious attempts have been done so far (by TL BR, G2G and SR), because most GC teams "want" to stay there
3. Only 2 GC teams in this moment have 4+ best players of their region on a single team (those being TL BR and G2G)

TBF it was always her or Toki taking the spot in G2 Gozen roster as a duelist. With young potential (16 at the time she signed w/ them iirc), a proper backup is needed to get them to fully shine through and that's exactly what mimi + petra + their entire org did.

People that hear about GC and don't watch it only see flor glaze/hate, but ppl who watch it know FLYQ cooked with the roster, they have a well rounded team where anyone can outperform expectations besides maybe theia, but she's igl so it's forgiven.

Cannot wait to see what FLYQ can offer on their map pick(s), seriously hope they keep it up.

Well when talking about mixed teams, katsumi exists, and outside of katsumi, NA GC players occasionally pug in tier 3 tournaments (i.e. flor, sarahcat, sonder, dodonut).

If we are talking outside of NA VCL, I do think TL BR and G2G are not incredibly far off from making it, give or take a year.

If I had to guess, her getting better over time (mind you she's still 17), having better teammates to set her up and having a better organisation with more resources to help her.

I think they could've made it in when Split 1 relegation/delegation was ongoing but they played a bit fearful, they need confidence and if even one person starts performing well, all of them will perform well. If they secure a Premier playoff win again, I'm 100% confident they can get the 2 needed wins to make it through the Split 2 rele/dele bracket.

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/6cb4c151 Mary is looking insane atm, I wonder if that's enough to take down G2G

https://twitter.com/SadEsportsOrg/status/1796276017092542697?t=9i_IvOHjl8tBhli9GU3GuQ&s=19

Bob leaving on her own is unusual and honestly unexpected considering she wanted to play co-ed, hoping Bob will still be playing val otherwise it's unused talent.

A lot more stable showing than yesterday. Petra and Vania dropping 30+ helps their confidence moving onwards.

I think as long as EG exists in Valorant (which doesn't seem to be very long), she will be with EG for the time. The second she's out though I am convinced she's gonna be getting offers.

NACL qualifiers were a really subpar showing imo, ever since then looked better but I would hold back from calling her able to play in VCT, can stomp GC, can stomp tier 3 tournaments but no actual showcase in tier 2 and above. Probably a hot take but pugging for tournaments and eventually leaving SR to prove herself is the way.

I'm honestly surprised, I expected both of these to be the two hardest hitting teams above everyone (combined with GX GC). Don't really understand how something like this happens.