Trent being at C is weird given I’d have him over the majority of B players except Cryo and Demon1. He hasn’t been consistent recent but his fragging peaks should have him at least high B or low A. You mentioned that it’s based on current form but Cauanzin is S — maybe try to be more consistent?

G2 vs. NRG will be a treat to watch for sure. Historically they excel on opposite halves and we’ll probably see peak Valorant when it’s G2 (Defense) vs. NRG (Attack).

I personally think G2 has the edge because of endurance though — they’re known for insane comebacks while NRG has a history of tossing leads.

Everything else looks plausible though I’d move 100T and KRU up. You forgot Mibr and LEV btw.

Yeah, it’s possible I’m pulling from my memories of his KJ play but he’s just a different style of Sentinel player. Hoping that Yay and N4rrate take inspiration from that — I know Verno already is.

Derke was one of the most explosive Razes during the Chamber Meta and he carried forward into 2023. I’d argue he had some of the cleanest entries until we saw peak PRX and Jawgemo — I’d argue to say his style is closest to Zekken’s right now.

There’s basically two factions of Raze players — Movement Abuse and Space Denial.

The former

• Jawgemo | Jingg | Whzy

The Latter

• Zekken | Derke | T3xture

Cauanzin has shown hints of greatness and that Loud Comp from Kickoff/Madrid heavily relied on his performances in Breach.

I suppose he isn’t necessarily better than either JonahP or Ethan but I don’t think anyone has that dominant lead if we’re strictly talking agent mastery and not accolades. I just think he deserves recognition for running it on non-meta maps.

Meteor is just different. I know he hasn’t played as much Cypher compared to Benjy or Johnqt but he sprinkles in a lot of his duelists tendencies with mixups that you wouldn’t expect from a cypher. He’ll switch from hard anchoring to proactive fighting on offbeats, disrupting utility cycles and collecting multifrags. It’s very different from the traditional playstyle.

Rough Act. A2 rn but peaked Im2 and Im1 this act.

In terms of agent mastery I’d definitely change some of these. The switches don’t necessarily have as high accolades but they’ve shown extreme examples of how to push agents beyond their intended niche.

Yoru: Ethan (Hybrid Entry and Initiator)
Sova: c0m (Lurk Initiator)
Skye: JonahP (Bird Manipulation)
Breach: Cauanzin
Cypher: Meteor

NRG doubt is crazy. There’s zero chance they lose to Mibr based on offseason performances and I genuinely doubt the C9 upset.

Oxy | Rossy | Mitch | v1c | Xxif

That’s a champs qualifying roster right there

I disagree. People thought c0m hit his ceiling long before he had a chance to become a world champion. Not every player shows their peak early on and Trent’s issues have always been his decision making and not his base mechanics. With enough good coaching he can improve.

Move KRU up and 2G down. Furia beating KRU jumbles thing a a bit and they’re for sure good enough for playoffs — I just don’t think they break top 4.

Makes you wonder if the game has unexplored counterplay options. I bet Harbor would be more popular if the OP became more prolific.

Verno and Trent will contest Riens for best Initiator.

Pretty sure G2 is the team most well known for insane comebacks. Most of their losses are stomps because otherwise they recover with the next half and flip the momentum.

People say they choke because they have a couple 2nd-3rd place record but those matches were pretty decisive.

I think they should pick up Rossy and have Mitch play sentinel (one of his flex roles).

Makes me wonder if that that’s a failure by coaching staff to respond to the other teams’ adaptations by either reinforcing their mental or providing counter strats. We know they’re capable of comebacks when behind but SEN seems to have a problem with maintaining cohesion when their opponents reverse their momentum.

I’ll probably catch Map 3 of MITH and the GenG maps.

Do you think MITH is more equivalent to a T1 team?

I see the two SEN losses. Can someone give me a rundown of whether they were in bad form or if the APAC teams are just really good?

What are the chances they pick up Rossy and have Mitch play sentinel?

• TH: LITERAL BROTHERS
• C9: Xeppaa Blackmail
• TS: Jessievash past retirement age
• 100T: Zander (Asuna duo + 2021 SOAR)
• NAVI: Happy + Koalanoob Nepo package

Worst Offender: QOR snarly

Edit: Forgot to add GCN BennY

Maybe something like:
Dante | mta | Mazino | Cebando | Shyy

A bit of a toss up between 5th-8th?

1. G2
2. SEN
3. MIBR
4. NRG
5. LEV | KRU | 100T | C9 ?

Also, don’t read into NRG’s loss too much. FNS always loses the first group match.

Oxy has more potential as a pure fragger than Keznit while Jawgemo is practically unmatched as an entry with far greater peaks but slightly more inconsistent.

People repping Mada are riding the high from his T2 stats and those matches against a brand new SEN roster — he’s practically NA Primmie in terms of hype.

I figure that if they’re too familiar with VCT then they’re aren’t studying well enough. Give me the doctor who reps C9 because they don’t have the time to constantly adjust their opinions after the most recent matches.

Nobody who knew game thought NRG was the best. G2 is chilling back home right now.

NRG are getting upset now to get it out of their system for next year — just like 100T.

We need more top duelists to put in the hours for it to become meta. It has potential given the shear utility gap but it takes a lot of time to master and is less forgiving than Jett/Raze.

Players that could kickstart the shift:

• Derke
• Meteor
• Ethan
• f0rsaken
• Oxy
• Kaajak
• Koalanoob

Etc.

I don’t know China so I’m just not gonna fill it! Strictly my opinions :D

APAC
Duelist: Meiy
Sentinel: Meteor
Controller: Karon
Flex: F0rsaken
Initiator: Stax
IGL: Munchkin

Americas
Duelist: Jawgemo
Sentinel: N4rrate
Controller: s0m
Flex: Verno
Initiator: Trent
IGL: Valyn

EMEA
Duelist: Purp0
Sentinel: Less
Controller: Atakaptan
Flex: Chronicle
Initiator: Trexx
IGL: Saadhak

China
Duelist: Zmjjkk
Sentinel: CHICHOO
Controller: Smoggy
Flex: ?
Initiator: ?
IGL: nobody

Sliggy VODs on YouTube are a good spot to watch the matches.

Had low expectations since their match against NRG but Sen look much more polished. N4rrate and Johnqt have seemed to adapt better to their roles and the star fragging is showing through.

They lost 3/4 pistols and still managed a 2-0. I’m not sure if it’s because GenG have regressed (they lost their arguably best player in Meteor) or if SEN are genuinely good though. Both are probably 3rd best in region at this point.

I’d still rate NRG over them right now but if SEN fixes all their issues, they have the fragging potential to contend for trophies.

Edit: meant to reply to OP whooops!

Pretty decent list. I can see the justification for placements that I don’t quite agree with which means that you’re somewhat reasonable.

Personally I’d have 100T slightly higher given the Meta will shift back away from Neon to Jett/Raze. I think their match against Trust In Plug while worrisome showed that they’re capable of handling multiple role swaps — they just suck at Neon comps.

I have zero faith in C9. Oxy is the only reason they’d make playoffs (top 8) but it’s clear even EG could upset them. They’re far too inconsistent and should be lower.

Loud is a hard team to rank given they have two star players in Pancada and Cauanzin but they’ve proven inconsistent. The rest of the team is relatively mid and the quality of their IGL’ing is unknown. I would have them lower than EG and possibly even lower.

Lmao I had G2 making a lower bracket run too but I think NRG qualify to Bangkok over SEN.

100T might not even win lmao.
They’ve gotta beat Aspas, Nzr, Artzin, and two top Brazilian T2 talents.

Not sure why you’re being downvoted. All of these duelists are undoubtably good at Jett but Cryo is unmatched and Demon1 isn’t even included in the list — same with cNed who used to be considered a top 3 Jett in the early years.

Cryo
Aspas
Demon1
T3xture
KangKang
Something
Oxy
Keznit
Derke
CNed
Primmie
Zekken
Jawgemo
Mada
Miniboo
Hyunmin

Nah. I’ll agree that Oxy tends to have better raw aim but Jawgemo has far better movement. The overtuned Neon makes it look closer than it is.

At the same time, Jawgemo is a stronger entry which is more important for what his team needs out of him. Oxy tends to have better stats because his team completely sets him up to get multifrags and carry.

So glad to see the e-daters botfragging.
#NoRossyNoWin

Jawg is the best Raze and Neon in Americas. If he proves his Jett is up to par, I can see him contesting Aspas as #1 if he gets 1 trophy and straight up replacing him if he gets 2 this year.

Aim: Demon1
Movement: Jawgemo
Brain: FNS
Utility: Leo
Agent Pool: Forsaken
Leadership: Valyn

Didn’t doubt it for a moment.

Main: Sleeper | Viper Rec | Renegade | Mako
Alt: Ringleader | Raze Rec | Undefeated | T3xture

Guess I should try playmaking more on my main since there’s surely a sweet spot for my playstyle!

Yep. Sleeper and Mako!

EG huh? Why do you rate them? I know potter is considered one of the best coaches in the world and Yay dominated 2022 (on chamber) but I don’t know if that’s going to be enough.

That’s true! Ange1 is still competing despite being past his retirement age.

If he’s is to be judged by his IGLing, then why not judge the others by the same metric and kick them instead? How Moose remains on the team is egregious to me given he’s their worst performer, not an IGL, and not a vibes merchant.
Kick his ass out and get Mitch to IGL on sentinel.

The roster should have been:

Oxy | Rossy | Mitch | Xeppaa | v1c

Wait you think GX will at worst make top 4? Damn that’s not Dark Horse hopium — you straight think they’re going to be a TH level team.

I can’t tell if you’re on some really good stuff or if you’re Delulu, friend.

It’d be great to see another W Gaming team given it could definitely evolve with more exploration.

Thanks for pointing out Happywei. I’ll keep an eye out for him!

Makes sense! Fingers crossed for upsets!

I don’t get why they wouldn’t drop Xeppaa or Moose for Mitch. Even if Rossy isn’t the best IGL, his individual performance is a tier above the others and it makes more sense to keep him while onboarding Mitch.

The roles make more sense that way too since Mitch is a Flash Initiator/Sentinel Flex while Rossy is a Recon/Viper flex. Now the team lacks a dedicated Sova/Viper player and they should absolutely suffer for it.

Wow, that’s a lot of flexibility between double duelist or double initiator compositions? Do you think they’re well equipped for double controller/sentinel if the Meta shifts back that way?

I agree with that assessment of her trolling in GC but I wonder if it’s resulted in bad habits.

It would be sick if Rossy joins but I wonder if it’d be damaging to both of their careers long term. Might end up being more a meme team than anything.

Oh I had no idea of Havoc’s past! It seems like it’ll be a reunion for him and Raafa then.

Also didn’t know about Heat’s preferences. He’ll probably fry as a sentinel if that’s truly the case. Prayin they give us some good upsets (as long as it’s not G2 haha).