How the fuck would the "language excuse" be xenophobic? There's literally nothing in there that implies that people from Brazil are stupid or worse? English is a really difficult language to learn. Plus, add in the fact that you're on a team of zoomers/millennials that are going to speak in a version of English so broken that it's not going to resemble anything you learn on Duolingo or a textbook, and they're going to be speaking really fast.

Even Sacy who has really good English still chose to keep his twitch in Portuguese when he joined SEN ( I don't know if it's changed now).

Also for FNC, most of Europe learns English alongside their birth language at a much higher rate then in other continents, because they need to use it the most.

How is Pancada in contract jail? Is our idea of contract jail just having a buyout now?

The fact that someone missed the joke so badly is making me double-check to see if I'm actually going crazy and it was true.

Back when I was a kid, I wasn't the smartest and used a combination of my first name and my birthdate. After that I wanted to use the name "Ni" as a reference to one of my favorite movies from when I was a kid(Monty Python and the Holy Grail), but some friends informed me that it might not be the best idea.

Riot gives out API access if you want to apply for it (https://www.riotgames.com/en/DevRel/valorant-api-launch). I haven't used them personally, but there are some unofficial APIs out there,

the yay, vanity, leaf, and zellsis c9 lineup might be cheating....

ardiis is finally carrying a team at something

There's a chance I might be in Spain for work around the time of Masters Madrid. I'm debating about whether or not to go, since there's a high chance that the team I'm rooting for, JDG, is going to be there.

In case I do go, do you guys have any recommendations for where I could get merch to wear to support them? I'm not too familiar with Chinese esports and they don't seem to have any website outside of their Weibo. Preferably a shop that ships internationally. Thanks!

I never said anything about "trying to win." Riot doesn't care if KC sits in last place for eternity because KC brings fans and, in turn, money to the sport. You could take Cloud9 for example. Sure, they pay the org minimum, but they constantly try to create engagement on social media, create skits for their roster announcements, create merch, and compete in off-season tournaments.

Again, I don't know if these are things in the contract, but if I was writing it, I would include them. If not, you're just gonna have a bunch of teams join the league, receive the stipend, and then pay league minimum while pocketing the rest.

Also, you're assuming the players are the only ones being paid. Afaik, EG is only in valorant atm, which means that they still have to spend money on salaries of employees, executives, and any work that they contract, while collecting no revenue outside of investment, and who tf is investing in EG right now?

I'm speaking out of my ass here since I don't know the contracts, but I doubt that Riot has their contract set up in a way that if an org accepts the stipend, and then spends the bare minimum on salaries, and nothing else, they would be fine.

The likely have obligations that relate to promoting the sport. These could be things like driving social media engagement, creating merchandise, etc... stuff that will get people invested in the team, and as a result more invested in the VCT. Which is part of the reason Riot looked for orgs with large fan bases instead of new teams, even if those teams invested more in the early scene of Valorant.

I think Deadlock is actually in a good place right now. I think on certain maps, her trips make retaking into a post-plant really difficult. Certain areas you have to make noise (I.e. drops) and you either have to accept you get stunned, or spend time finding and destroying trips instead of defusing. You do kinda need to combo her with a different sentinel for flank watch (cypher/kj)

EG most likely has certain contractual obligations they have to fulfil as a result of receiving the stipend. Those obligations likely cost EG money and are hurting their bottom line, which could lead them to being insolvent. EG doesn't want to have to do that, so they would seek to exit the partnership league.

It's unfortunate, but if you're going to seed teams like this, you have to do it based on the orgs placement last year. I'm not sure how it would work logistically, but I feel like they should've done a swiss format.

Curious how they'll seed China. EDG will probably be number 1, but it feels almost impossible to tell after that. DRG is #11 because they were ascension winners, but they beat the only other team to be close to EDG throughout this year (Rare Atom) to win ascension.

Bad choice of words by me. I was a little annoyed that they were saying it was for women ( and not marginalized genders) in a ruling regarding a player providing false information. Just thought it was a bad time to forget that info.

Felt like people might use it as an argument.

Moreover, VCT Game Changers is a program designed to provide additional exposure and opportunities to women within VALORANT esports.

Uhh? Riot, I thought it was about marginalized genders not just women.

Hard to tell if their champ's performance, which was still good, was because of them getting complacent or teams figuring out their playstyle. Fnatic have maps where they're not impossible to beat, i.e., ascent, lotus, and Bind. They're definitely the top candidate this year considering that every other top team of last year, presumably, got weaker. Meanwhile, Fnatic's best map reentered the map pool. There are a lot of dark horses this year, and I can see them challenging Fnatic: sen, lev, loud, and nrg. Hard to say until the season starts.

Xeppaa and Less in the same tier is actually criminal. Idc if you think Xeppaa is A tier, but that makes Less at least S

Doesn't make sense to import a player like Gov, do all the work with visas and such, only to bench him. Especially if you have bn on the roster, might as well just go full Thai at that point so language isn't an issue. My guess is they're either replacing both bn and gov or Surf is 6th.

A lot of people thought EG was at the bottom of the tier list last year, but then they won champs.

However, that was after finding demon1 and every other player stepping up their performances. With the current rumours of the roster they're building, I don't see the same thing happening. However, I am happy to be proven wrong.

Good showing from nuclear. 10-13 isn't that bad.

Why is bro verified? Literally an anomaly.

https://www.vlr.gg/player/19616/ayuchakakoigosu

Give Fennel some respect. That roster is really good, and would probably be better than current ZETA and DFM in franchising. Plus the map was Ascent, one Fnatic is not the best at.

Art is a good igl. Has a track record of leading teams to being good T2 japanese teams (Notably Sengoku and Jadeite). Plus, DFM was criticized early on in franchising for taking a JP slot and having 3 instead of 4 players being Japanese.

Demon1 (3k Guardian on Split) and Yay chamber. Suygetsu def up there tho.

If 100T could somehow get Potter I think this roster has the potential to be really good. I'm still holding my opinion until I see how Ziks does as a HC.

Depends. With old Lev, I'd say taking a hit in firepower would've been a really bad idea, so they should've stuck with nzr. However, I think Aspas and Kingg are enough to carry the team in firepower, so c0m is probably an upgrade. Though, c0m has gotten a lot better, so I don't know how much I would say he's actually worse in firepower.

I considered making a community-version app in the past that used web scraping, but it raised the question of whether or not that would be fair to the VLR team as they wouldn't get the ad revenue anymore. As well as being questionable legally, so I decided not to do it.

Would be cool, but would be difficult in the initial setup since I'm assuming VLR doesn't use a code base like ReactNative or Flutter that makes the web-to-app transition easy.

LOUD > Leviatan imo

I think the war was an amplifier on gambit/m3cs performance. I think we still would've seen a decline, teams like FPX, FNC, and Guild just kinda looked better. Instead of not making a single lan, they probably just been a top 8 team at most events.

The meta didn't suit them, and nAts' play style had already been adapted to.

The actual sad opinion is that fnatic, going off last years results, will probably be the best. only top 4 team of last year to not either implode or lose a key player. Still a chance for dark horses like Sen and Nrg, but I think it will really just be weaker loud and prx vs fnc

Goat Mod

I played it briefly when it had just come out. Imo, the main issue is that if you don't want to spend money on the game, it was incredibly boring between big updates. Don't know if they changed it though.

Demon1 and c0m.

I was pretty annoyed that EG dropped Bcj and kept c0m and brought in Demon1. I thought it was a really stupid move at the time, and was hoping that they would do badly to prove a point, but they ended up winning champions. So, good for them.

Remove monyet and add zellsis to the bottom of the list.

Bro what is with all the Sinatraa fans recently?

I don't hate the guy or anything, but there's so many glazers out of nowhere.

Contracts, could be he just got that image from the production team and the videos not finished yet, could be that they're waiting to finalize some legal documents.

Odds are he's going to 100T.

Ludwig actually had a good video on swatting that addressed why many popular streamers get swatted despite talking to the police about it. More of a breakdown in communication between dispatcher and responders, rather then police feel like they have to go anyway.

Team pancc 2-0 Team Leorge

Can we get a TD:LR for people that can't watch the video.

I'm kinda talking out of my ass here, but I assume that Potter would want players that she can mold into her own system (assuming she stays w/ EG). Seemed like that was her idea with picking up more rookie/inexperienced players last year. I doubt players who have been playing for as long as these would fit that category.

I wouldn't be surprised if they pick up players from OXG and TTR who haven't really been playing at this level for too long, but are showing promise.

Fennel from JP, assuming the roster doesn't change, is who I'm thinking wins.

Looks more like Vitality want trexx. KOI assistant coach (I think?) worked with his replacement in the past, so they don't think it's that bad of a loss.

Don't know why they would give up Trexxx for a practically free agent. At least use him for something else. Idk, guess they got the bag for him.

There was a good thread by BoDork this morning on this topic. https://twitter.com/Bo_Hoogland/status/1737787907430076680

Also if you want a fun read, https://twitter.com/Tanizhq/status/1737798066407604313 . Him starting off the post with, "This is wilfully ignorant at best." is pretty funny.

There's no reason to think that an org would be rejected from ascension for any reason other than their actions. From what's publically been released. TGRD didn't sign the contract that they were presented at the beginning of the year, not because they were not financially stable or Riot didn't like them. It seems TGRD tried to use it as a bargaining opportunity to try to get team skins, which apparently weren't in the contract.

The reality is that NA salaries are way too high, and a big reason for that is the players choosing to live in some of the most expensive areas in the US. It's not the only factor, but it's certainly not something one can ignore.

Would be, also essentially enforces a 4 year period where you need to be good enough to be in t1, opening up more positions on the teams.

Would be hilarious if the NA T2 scene just goes the way of every other American sport where you have collegiate and then pro level.

It's okay, I hear he made it big in crypto, so trashing his reputation with most of the community was surely a good idea

The production team kept trying to push that narrative for the season, but TBH I really couldn't get into it. I like all the players, but watching that team play was just not very entertaining. I liked the storyline of them finally breaking the chokenatic curse, but the entirety of Tokyo I found myself more invested in the EDG and EG storylines.

I agree with your previous example, but I still think c0m played sova better. His ults and util were just so good. With Leo, it didn't feel like he was getting the most out of sova. You could've put him on other characters, and he would've been able to get similar results, baring the agents being bad on the map. C0m's sova single handedly reinvented the meta on fracture, a map where teams historically stayed away from Sova.

I still believe that Leo is a better all over player.

Maybe this is just me, but I always feel like most good smoke players get overshadowed by people who can 1v4 or igl well.

People like Mako and sugarzer0 seem to have a great awareness of when and where to smoke, while Pancada and Marved have that to a lesser extent, but are known more for their clutch/fragging.

This clutch from sugarzer0 always impressed me with how he played around his smoke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BagbwF4TtyQ