Genuinely one of the worst NA Valorant Orgs. Screwed over Yay in 2023 and did it again with Rossy for next year. You’d expect a level of professionalism where they talked with Rossy to resolve issues, try to shift him off the IGL role, or even kick him early so he’d have time to look else where — but they just straight up threw him under the bus.

I can’t imagine any potential star player would be interested in joining this mid-tier org when they can’t guarantee star coaching or job stability for a full season.

You realize that outside of GenG, not a single APAC team won against NA?

• PRX lost to SEN, 100t, and twice to G2.
• T1 lost to G2
• DRX lost to SEN
• GenG also lost to SEN twice.

Because it’s the best player of the year — not a single tournament.

2021 - Tenz/Chronicle
2022 - Yay
2023 - Leo
2024 - Meteor/Riens/KK

Probably a bad idea to make it a habit of checking vlr right before or after matches. You’ll cook your mental with this brain rot.

W Rainbow

Tunnel vision or mental strain probably. Play when you’re mentally relaxed but warmed up.

If your mechanics are good but you’re still losing then you’re not getting impactful frags. Keep in mind that Astra is one of the hardest controllers to get value out of at lower ranks because of the required coordination and negative incentives to take early duels. I would recommend you switch to Clove and take as many duels as you reasonably can so that you’re less reliant on your team for impact.

Sounds like I’m a T5 player! Good post

The point of that advice is get players to prioritize practicing their mechanics while gaining experience with committing to duels. That’s the deciding factor at lower ranks — can you convert your 50s?

Most sentinels/smokers play too passively and don’t know when to take risks simply because they don’t actively seek out fights. They also over rely on utility. Getting them to try out duelist helps combat these bad habits but isn’t a sure fire way to get them to climb.

My advice is to use this act to just send it on duelist and then slowly switch back to Sentinel and to start applying that aggression you’ve learned.

Your stats are inflated by your defense halves. You’ve got 2/3 of your FBs on that half and 240 ACS compared to 209 ACS on attack. I’d wager that you’re either a baiter and your team suffers for it or you have awful pathing for site executes.

High individual stats but low win rate has nothing to do with shit teammates over a larger sample size — it just means that your kills have low impact. Either you’re getting them later into the round when you already have numbers advantage or they’re exit frags when you’ve already lost the round. I’d wager you do both since your K/D is so ridiculously high that you take literally no risks.

Also, high stats below Ascendant mean nothing if they don’t translate to rr gain. They’re only good relative to players of the same rank and it’s a clear sign of improper play that you need to identify when VOD reviewing. Blaming teammates gets you nowhere.

For context — my individual stats are far worse than yours but I convert my rounds because of decision making.

Tracker Link

You just can’t beat C9 at RBHG.

I guess reading comprehension doesn’t come naturally for everyone.

T1
G2
TH (stop fucking around)
FUT
C9
FNC
KC
Fokus

Only Aspas and Derke outrank him due to tenure.

Jawgemo is in the same class of players as Zekken, KangKang, and T3xture. Who you think doesn’t belong in top 5 is a matter of opinion but it doesn’t change his eligibility.

Dude’s surprised like Jawgemo doesn’t have a place among the top 5 duelists itw.

Not possible. They’re playing each other next and only one can qualify to playoffs

Lo and behold, it always comes back to a Trent underperformance. He gets a clean Guardian ace the first half and then only a single frag for the rest of the game. He needs some serious coaching to fix his inconsistency.

It would be a miracle if their roster breaks top 5 in Americas next year. If you’re losing to them as a top 3 team in your region then it’s a really bad sign.

Trent has a feast or famine issue. He’s proven he’s capable of extraordinary highs — he just need to show up consistently. If he can, he’ll be NA’s first Leo.

KC are much too new. G2 should take it 13-7.

Off-season Xeppaa wins C9 this map: 13-9

TH 13-0. Any other prediction is hopium

I’ve got T1 just barely taking this. They’ll start strong and then fumble a lead before Meteor goes nuclear, finishing 13-10.

Change your flair.

Maybe it’s to minimize the advantage that invited teams have over qualified ones — no time to prep using VODs.

Ascendant is doable but you need to consistently practice good mechanics. You need to maximize your impact and that’s best done by converting your duels so that you can create man advantages.

Game sense and utility abuse doesn’t become a hard wall to progression until high Ascendant/low Immortal. Just focus on micro-mechanics: aim, movement, and gun hygiene.

Jawgemo and Valyn with the openers and clutches. That should have been a 13-8 given how poorly the other three were performing ngl.

Edit: Apparently both Leaf and JonahP have been on vacation and haven’t practiced in weeks (pulled from Sen City Classic appearance).

The lack of practice because of the Spotlight Series is showing. Both Leaf and JonahP whom were stuck in NA are underperforming heavily and they need to work on protocols. GGs FUT, it was a good game — xeus and Yetujey look insane.

They’ve only started practicing with their full roster for a week — with JonahP and Leaf in NA while the other three were in Berlin for the Spotlight series. Protocols take time to get fleshed out.

I see a lot of parallels between G2 and TH — especially if Trent maintains his vintage form. Their individual peaks might be slightly lower but they’re more consistent and have tighter spacing and cleaner utility. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get both teams in top 3 for every international this year.

I’m a fan of SFF builds but they go for a premium because itx motherboards and SFF PSUs are niche products with less supply. A good budget option that’ll fit an mATX board is the Dan A3 at 26L.

Decided to share my list for next year. I’m not super familiar with SA players so correct me where I’m wrong.

Duelist

1. MIBR Aspas
2. SEN Zekken
3. G2 Jawgemo
4. KRU Keznit
5. NRG Mada
6. C9 Oxy
7. 100T Cryo
8. LEV Demon1
9. 2G Silentzz
10. EG TBD
11. LOUD Dgzin
12. FUR Havoc

Initiator

1. NRG Ethan
2. SEN N4rrate (It would be foolish not to switch back)
3. G2 Trent
4. 100T Eeiu
5. LOUD Cauanzin
6. LEV c0m
7. MIBR Nzr
8. EG Derrek
9. FUR Mwzera
10. 2G Zap
11. KRU Adverso
12. C9 Xeppaa

Flex

1. G2 JonahP
2. KRU Mazino
3. NRG Verno
4. 100T Asuna
5. C9 Rossy
6. LEV Natank
7. SEN Zellsis
8. MIBR Artzin
9. EG NaturE
10. 2G Pryze
11. FUR Raafa
12. LOUD V1nny

Controller

1. LEV KiNgg
2. G2 Valyn
3. NRG s0m
4. SEN Bang
5. EG Supamen
6. LOUD Pancada
7. 100T Zander
8. FUR Khalil
9. MIBR Xenom
10. C9 v1c
11. 2G lz
12. KRU Melser

Sentinel

1. G2 Leaf
2. KRU Shyy
3. EG Yay
4. LEV Tex
5. 100T Boostio
6. SEN Johnqt
7. MIBR Cortezia
8. FUR Heat
9. LOUD Tuyz
10. NRG FNS
11. 2G Gobera
12. C9 Moose

I’ve probably underrated some SA players but the field looks pretty stacked in general. G2 and NRG are a step above everyone else but SEN, KRU, 100T and LEV should be pretty close when it comes to qualifying for Toronto and Paris. MIBR could also be a dark horse and I suspect that any team that they beat convincingly has no chance at Playoffs.

Not really. TH has two distinct records where they had map leads and then lost the match — against FNC (Reverse Sweep) and GenG (Shanghai Final). G2’s losses were either extremely close with each map (Split 2 GF) or they just didn’t show up that day (Shanghai LF) and got crushed; they rarely throw leads and it’s more common that they start behind and mount comebacks.

They have a similar regional record but it’s dubious to consider G2 chokers.

You don’t place second in your region across a whole year and third at an international with “mid tier players”. Don’t forget that G2 has a 2-1 record against TH and are responsible for EDG’s only loss at Champs.

Their system was designed to maximize teamplay with trades, making it difficult for any single player to accumulate “star fragger” stats. Even then, it’s clear that Leaf, Valyn, and JonahP are world class players, not to mention Jawgemo. Trent needs to prove his meddle given how far he’s fallen since Ascension but I have zero doubts about his potential peak.

And yeah, Purp0 is good.

All of the players have unique strengths but JonahP has the best micro decision making for sure.

TH are proven favorites but choke often.
G2 and FNC have single role swaps and are main contenders.
T1 and KC are dark horses.
Everyone else is mid.

If Gozen win GC Champions, they can ride that high hard enough to beat BBL. Should be a fun match!

I’ve never heard of Siko but here’s your preemptive F in the chat.

Edit: should be fun to watch both G2 matches at the same time!

I’m not super familiar with EMEA T2 circuits but I thought Izzy was surely going to be picked up by one of the Turkish teams if not another org. Why did BBL opt for LewN?

Just got home from the gym after taking a 3 month break due to depression. I had stopped taking my ADD medication around that time too which certainly didn’t help. When you spiral, it’s so much easier to go with gravity than against it.

But I’m glad to say I’m be sending out job applications again tomorrow since I recently picked up a new software suite to revisit my design projects after I lost access to my student privileges. Shit doesn’t start moving until you accept you got problems and start working on them.

I know this forum is mostly for bait and bad takes but I just wanted to share this with someone. Appreciate y’all.

I’ll add Outer Wilds to that list. Been tryna get into Subnautica and Dishonored too.

Your active aim is poor and you rely on good crosshair placement paired with clean peeks or flashes to secure kills. When you’re taking unexpected fights you struggle to pause for microadjustments and opt instead for sprays which are ugly — illustrating your mouse control.

If you want to fix this, pick up an aim trainer or go into dms and minimize your movement when taking duels. Go for two bullet bursts and if you spend more than 6 bullets, let yourself die.

Another comment mentioned you over-rely on your minimap and it’s possible that distracts you from fully focusing on your crosshair. Make sure you’re distinguishing between when you’re in a potentially hot angle and when it’s safe to use the minimap — that’s a game sense issue though and the only way to improve is to get punished.

I’m A3 rn (rough Act) and I have similar issues to you but I play smokes/senti so I don’t have flashes to compensate. If you truly want to improve, you need to clean up this aspect of your play.

I dislike the switch. JohnQT is a proven site anchor and Zellsis was meant to fill the midrounding role when he lurks. You can already see the adaptation issues in their retake setups where JohnQT forgets to rejoin the pack and still plays as a sentinel — holding space while the rest of the team aggresses.

At the same time, Zekken’s entries have suffered because of the quality of support has declined; before, he’d have Tenz as a secondary either as Kayo/Gekko/Omen, resulting in more explosive space creation. Given the talk I’ve seen of the N4rrate Jett and Zekken Sova combo, I want to see the two build chemistry as an entry duo. Put N4rrate on full time Primary Initiator/Jett while JohnQT can flex with Zellsis for the secondary Initiator/Sentinel slots.

I only want to see JohnQT on Recon when N4rrate is playing Kayo/Gekko and can fight with Zekken. I don’t want to see N4rrate on Sentinel at all.

Not sure what an appropriate response would be for your culture but by principle I would communicate my displeasure towards the disrespect and make it known that you’ll be taking space from them. You can make it a set amount of time or until they apologize but for your own peace it makes sense to be forthright and then put the ball in their court to make amends.

Edit: Just realized this post is a month old and you resolved it. Feel free to ignore my advice.

Sounds good. Praying for the 5-0 record and a sweet comeback.

I’m a G2 fan but an EMEA hater. Who do I support this match? D:

This is pretty damn cool. Good work!

Fair enough. Do you think the core 4 are good enough that third place is their likely lowest placement though?

First list I’ve seen where G2 isn’t top 2. Why do you have 100T over them?