I think the problem with talon is that a lot of their vods is pure junk in terms of strats. (Frost openly admitted to saving strats in multiple games) While it may be easy to sort out the good from the bad, frost and talon have enough time to cook up something new and anti strat while their opponents could end up watching a vod from a month to possibly predict what their plans are.

I started watching valorant early 2023, so I started watching them post benkai. The main reason I supported them was due to their innovative comps and team fight orientated play style. It hurts seeing them fall off so hard, but I’m holding on hope…

I'd argue that Talon is just replicating PRX's raze-yoru comp but with governor's best agent.

I think there's a low chance of a 2-0 but a 2-1 is definitely in the cards. PRX lose ascent, win lotus, and decider is a coin flip

PRX has a 33% win rate on bind if we count shanghai compared to G2's 64%. You're cooked

The main problem is that their bind and ascent have abysmally low win rates being 33% and 17% respectively. (if we include shanghai) Assuming that their haven is so bad that they need to constantly ban it (my cope is that they just don't scrim haven because they only had one coach at the time, so they'll stop perma banning), they have 3 bad maps out of the 7 total. Moreover, if they have cooked on haven, they would only whip it out in a must win situations.

Now the reason G2 would ban icebox is G2 has a 33% win rate on icebox (only split 2) while PRX have a 60% win rate on it. The round win rates for G2 on icebox look bad as PRX have a good atk win rate and G2 has a terrible def win rate. While they have practiced icebox for much longer, they would be allowing their second worst map into the pool. While PRX has a strong abyss, G2 also has a decent abyss, and they would not struggle as much as they would on icebox. Even if they don't win, they wouldn't get stomped like they would on icebox imo

PRX will never ever pick ascent. I kid you not; they have a 17% winrate on it post monyet. The only problem is that PRX's perma ban is haven. It will probably be:

PRX ban haven
G2 ban sunset
PRX pick Lotus
G2 pick ascent
PRX ban bind
G2 ban Icebox
Decider abyss

PRX and G2 continue perma banning. PRX has a strong sunset, so G2 kills 2 birds with one stone with that pick. PRX's ban is significantly less useful, but idk if they'll cook something, so they'll keep that perma ban. PRX pick lotus because that is their next best map. Additionally, it is G2's next weakest map (although it is still very very strong) G2 pick ascent because PRX has shown that their ascent is garbage while G2 has a very strong ascent. PRX bans bind because that is their next weakest map. G2 ban icebox because that is their next weakest map. Both teams have very novel abyss with seemingly strong ideas, so they'll be fine leaving it as a decider.

Alternatively, PRX could pick icebox instead to exploit G2's weakest map, but PRX's icebox is not as strong as their lotus. It comes down to whether or not alecks will gamble or how scrims go.

Makes sense. G2 look incredible, and their playstyle counters PRX's well. Additionally, PRX look out of form and are playing less disciplined than they should -- even for PRX.

Probably for the same reason that teams like sen and fnc get hate: some fans are truly out there. Bad apples spoil the batch, and we often associate teams with their fans. Since there are... interesting... PRX fans, PRX inadvertently gets hate.

Probably botted no?

Wasn’t he on pace to break the kill record on a map? Sad to see him go tbh

Carpal tunnel is a thing. Health should be prioritized above all else imo, and if one gets carpal tunnel, they wouldn’t be able to play the game anymore (at least to a greater extent)

Beyn looked bad at the end of the split tbh. I think he’s just not used to initiator.

I think there's only like 3 teams total running this comp in t1 val, wdym everyone else

Good news is that you aren’t learning anything on the first day. Bad news is you would make a bad first impression if you are overly sleep deprived. (as much as people like to say that doesn’t matter, it really does, considering how subjective a lot of grading is) I’d recommend sleeping now if you want to catch the games tbh

I think it might be because demon1’s roles aligned with what he was looking for. Chet most likely wanted an initiator igl (because in theory it is the best role for it) and a cracked duelist. However, the main issue with the roster was that there was no senti/viper player. Demon1 flexing into smokes would fix that. On maps like split, bind, and other raze maps, viper tends to be meta as well. Thus, you can run D1 range smokes, Marved viper, and victor raze. (Which is what they were doing at the start of the season) On Jett maps like ascent, viper tends to be less meta, so Marved just plays range smokes while victor plays senti and D1 plays Jett. Unfortunately, theory does not always equal success in practice, which we found out very quickly.

The storyline of friends turned enemies, facing off in the gauntlet of death.

I’m not telling them to support the team because they’re going to win anything; I’m telling them to support the team because they have good vibes. If they wanted to support a team that could win, I would’ve recommended favorites like lev lmao (not saying lev have bad vibes. It’s just that prx does a lot more content from what I’ve seen)

I mean, som stocks were arguably just as high if not even higher than Marved’s. Som was considered by many to be the best NA controller of 2023. While Marved did look good and revitalized a broken sen roster, som seemed significantly better imo

Edit: just to put into perspective how good som was, he was the highest rated controller of: Americas League 2023, Master Tokyo, and Champions LA*. The only event he was not the highest rated controller was LOCK//IN where he was rated 3rd best controller. (In his defense, he was transitioning from an entirely different role) He was 4th overall during the regular season as well. Marved is good, but dropping som has gotta be extremely troll.

*Unless you count jawg/demon1 as controller players, then som was rated 3rd.

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/520826b4

Paper Rex is funny and has great personalities. They also play a unique style of valorant compared to everyone else, so they definitely are a top pick. There is also Team Heretics, which play with GENG on streams often and are also entertaining imo. Tbh, most of APAC is fun to watch because they are so unserious half the time xD

jawgemo ace is probably the best ace the game has ever seen

GEN 2-0 SEN (I think you're right, sen are out of form as it seems, so it would not color me shocked)
TH 2-0 FPX (I think 2-1 for TH here because I am mega copiumed on FPX. Also, FPX looked great at masters)
FNC 2-0 BLG
DRX 2-0 KRU
LEV 2-0 TLN (2-1 LEV, on primmie copium)
VIT 2-0 TE
G2 2-0 PRX (2-1 either way. alecks actually has assistants now so I actually have faith in the team to succeed for once. But G2 is in great form)
FUT 2-0 EDG

imo he was looking decent during stage 1, but yeah lightningfast has consistency issues for sure

fpx pull out the 5 smokes comp to nuke th's computers

oderus can get a coaching position probably

It was probably a deal with shopify. I mean, it isn’t moist x shopify if it’s just moist ig

"This is an FPS game. You get shot you die. You get shot you die"

kpi more points i think

From what I can tell, while she was underaged, he was 6 months older than her. The allegations did sound way worse than what it seems to be.

Even as a PRX fan myself, I knew they were going to lose to DRX. The talon game only showed me that they were even more undisciplined. Furthermore, PRX showed their hand in the lower final and now are getting get anti strat to hell :/

xccurate should stay if they don't sign an igl (since stax doesn't like igl)

I mean, it's the most logical conclusion. It's most likely a DRX player and Foxy9 and Flashback are the only people who fit the age range. Furthermore, the alleged perpetrator deleted his discord server, and Flashback is the only person who did that.

Eh, I don't think he's the best duelist on icebox because there are better options. Jett has so many angles to play on icebox due to the elevation (think of how many random boxes jett plays on). Compared to other duelists tho, yoru is on the same level or even better on icebox though. However, I do see the vision on haven and frankly I'm surprised at how little people play yoru haven. If one plays their card's right, you can pretty much have 3 on a site every time imo. Ascent is still iffy for me, but I honestly am a believer now after koalanoob showed off his yoru

At the end of the day, it's all about opportunity cost. On most maps, yoru has to be a secondary duelist due to his lack of ability to dive easily. Yoru would normally replace a flash initiator (similar to how he replaced skye in PRX's triple duelist split comp) but even then there are issues with information. Pretty much every flash initiator except breach in the game has an info gathering ability which makes mid round significantly easier to play. Now, solo duelist on yoru is an interesting idea because it can give a stupid amount of fire power with the number of flashes you can run in a comp, but I think most teams prefer a proper dive agent. Besides all that, I'm still with you that his pick rate is surprisingly low. He could definitely be very good on maps with high rotation times (similar to neon) and flashes are stupidly good anyway.

I think we can see TL, giantx, or koi pick him up tbh

I mean, it’s not a terrible gamble. Keznit would be good for at least one, and kru would have all the retake utility in the world

tbf it would be absolutely hilarious if a player hit radiant #1 off of two maps alone (like ascent and haven), got signed, and then only get subbed in for those two maps because they have absolutely bronze game sense on every other map

He also has the highest kast, apr, 4th in acs, and 6th in kd. However, this is sorted by minimum of 200 rounds on that agent, and there are a lot of players that play a lot of kayo but are excluded from this data. I personally would sort it by minimum of 100 rounds because this means they played at least 3 games on kayo. (so we can see players like rossy, woot, and kicks)

I think it might be because lev and g2 are probably just recycling strats and not coming up with anything new because they both made it to champs and that is already way better than expected. 100t vs Kru is a do or die match, so they're trying significantly harder.

I mean, a lot of valorant players tilt after losing literally the very first round of the game or even during agent select. I feel like a map ban system would expose the fragility of the valorant player mental even more.

Primmie
hiro
itztimmy
Chronicle
Life
Trexx
Sayaplayer
Tex
som
woot

initiator. The most recent agents are deadlock (senti), iso (duelist), and clove (controller), so it's around that time for an initiator.

In jinggg's defense, he totally could play something else, but PRX just doesn't want him to. For example, his flash initiator is actually pretty good. They are just doing what the entirety of the valorant community was advocating for players like yay. You have arguably the number one raze in the world, you are going to put him on raze.

Do you have valorant installed on an external disc? That tends to be the issue

He is the highest rated KAYO this season, so I'd say he's doing pretty well.

Edit: My fault, I was doing a minimum of 200 rounds. He is actually second after woot in rating when sorting by a minimum of 100 rounds.

it's probably because asuna has high peaks and low lows and pretty much no between. (honestly, I'm not too surprised since flex players tend to have this problem) This means he does have average performances overall, which is good for a flex player, but vlr is too focused on now to look at the bigger picture.

btw I heard that Laz might be retiring, so they need to find a new igl, unless yuran or hirononn can igl.

Yoru/fade, neon, jett, cypher, omen/astra

Idea: This is significantly better if you start defense I think. jett is basically pseudo sentinel with op, so she can hold one side of the map (probably A main or B main) Neon is for faster rotates since the map is huge af. Furthermore, the wall splits both sites very nicely. Yoru also allows for fast rotates with TP. This means you will almost always have 3-4 people on each site. However, fade is better for info. This does mean that operators are going to be the bane of this comp’s existence if you pick fade. Anyway, if any of the PRX staff read this, please kindly ignore this post, I want yall to win something.

DRX 3-1 PRX. Even though I’m a PRX fan, PRX seems to be playing undisciplined right now. I expect close maps but a lot of thrown rounds.