First of all 2022 Optic is NOT better then 2023 EG at their peak but whatever.

I mean, FNS just had much tougher competition in champs i fear. Loud 2022 is one of the greatest teams of all time with all 5 players being amongst the top 5 best the game has ever seen in their roles. PRX and Loud 2023 were great teams but not as good as that Loud roaster and FNC failed to perform in champs.

Same shit happens in football all the time. Neymar at his peak was a much better player than any ballondor 2024 candidate, but he never won it, which doesnt means he is worse, he just faced tougher opponents

I think the real problem with King is that he struggles to be an actual leader for the team. Emotional stabilty matters A LOT and he doesnt have that. He is great calling-wise but his perfomance on every aspect falls immensely when the responsabilty is on him to find the difficult solutions and to hold the team together.

all of them go negative somehow

Nobody is also a champions winner but he is not a better IGL than FNS and you are not gonna convince me that he is

Who is better? Personally, i think FNS understands the game better but is not as good as Boostio at actually executing his ideas. Its like FNS is a chef that perfectly knows the recipe but fucks up while executing it somehow. Boostio on the other hand may not know the exact ingredients he needs but he is good enough that he'll be fine anyway.

You have to give respect to prime Optic FNS but i think Boostio's career is already more acomplished overall so i have to give my preference to him

At the end of the day Saadhak clears both but its a fun discussion anyway

I said once in some random reply here in vlr that Valorant is a "dogshit" game without really meanting it (at least not totally) and people were actually mad at me because i said it. Like, unaronically. I was surprised because my first Riot game was LoL and the community insulting the shit out of that game was commom sense. Also its very commom you see pro players talk bad stuff about Valorant and point out many many reasons why the game is flawed in a lot of ways and they dont really hold their tongues while doing it. So, do you guys actually believe Valorant is a good game?

Its between MJ and Beethoven really

bro is from canada 💀

They won't have Spikez initially which sucks for them. But, assuming they find a decent enough replacement until he can return, this is how i think they will do:

Kickoff - Debuts are always hard and they have a very small time frame to deal with the loss of Spikez + Get used to their new lifes + Practice. Everyone else got their sweet offseason meanwhile 2G was preparing for and playing ascension and now they have a bunch of shit to deal with so yeah not good. Maybe they win a game or two but i wouldnt expect more than that.

Stage 1 - After the dust settles i think they'll look much better. At this point the Spikez replacement should be decently integrated on the team and the debut stress + new life style are not factors anymore. Teams that came back from masters should be facing tough times which will open a window for others to capitalize on. They can definetly make playoffs here if their group is easy enough. Dont think they go to Toronto thou.

Stage 2 - Spikez is back for more than a month right now so they should be somewhat close to their ascension form if not even better because of the experience the players and especially Zap as the IGL got playing tier 1. I would be disappointed if they dont make playoffs here since the table actually resets for stage 2 in 2025. Making Champions is an entirely different story thou. Realistically, they probably dont. BUT, for the sake of my Brazilian blood, i will put my faith on them and say they classify.

Champions - Just the fact we are here at all is huge. I dont think they will feel any pressure atleast during groups since just their presence in the event should make them more than happy already. Making out of groups will be tough especially if they are #3 seed. I want to say they make playoffs but considering that they will probably be the #3 seed and that the #3 seed is pretty much always the weakest of the group... yeah, i dont think they make it. Maybe they win one game but thats it.

Overall thou it was a pretty good year for an ascension team if things go like i just said. Making playoffs twice is awesome for them (Remember that the Champions part im only including for storyline and patriotic purposes lol)

Compared to M80, 2G is on tier 1. Thats all that matters.

kkkkkkkkkkkkkkk gringo é foda ne tmnc cara

just like your internet access is a waste of money for your parents

just like your account is a waste of a spot in this forum

I've seen multiple people now (From NA obviously) talk shit about 2game saying they're a POOR organization and that it was BAD that they won because they wont have money and brazil doesnt have enough talent.

Do you realize how xenophobic yall sound? even Sideshow was saying shit like this bro wtf. If you do a 3 seconds google search you will discover that 2GAME is actually a huge digital store for Game Keys and dont even rellies on Valorant to make money. They are not even a brazilian org lol. They invested on the Valorant team because they saw the potential the roaster had, and they were rewarded by it. The CEO himself already said the team is staying together. As 2Game Esports.

But what ACTUALLY pisses me off are people calling the 2G players bad and not "tier 1 material" like stfu idiot. Stop crying because they beat your team you're such a bad loser. I've never heard people talk this type of shit about any org or players that ever ascended but now that the brazilian unknow team (by NA atleast) ascends you yap crazy like that?

Cry more, we'll continue to win.

People are just envy thats all, nothing new below the sun

Thats what im saying bro just copy the world cup format or any successful sports competition format. Football is the most popular sport in the world because of the single elim playoffs

im too deep already...

i mean, true

why? first from each group plays the second from another group, how would this lead to the 2 best playing each other?

I agree that single elim is flukey bucause Valorant is a dogshit game so fluke wins are very commom, i dont know how to solve this but thats not my problem is leo faria's

i cannot agree with map vetos being a big advantage thou. Even if they are, its definetely not as big as being allowed to lose once

why do you enjoy watching a game thats barely worth anything so much like an upper bracket game? Why is this more entertaining than everyone having only one life i just cannot understand

Least games = Each game is more important = Higher stakes and a lot more fun

say what you want about lock in but it was definetely the most intense VCT tournament ever

I hate double elim a lot for 2 reasons:

1 - It's unfair to the team that gets to the grand finals unbeaten. It sucks from their POV. Everyone gets to lose once but not us? Why are we being punished for getting to the grand finals unbeaten? And please DO NOT mention the map veto advantage or im gonna lose my shit. Everyone knows the map veto advantage barely means shit since the teams that come from the lowers actually win the grand finals at least 50% of the time if not more. Basically you are giving everyone an extra fucking life EXCEPT the best performing team on the event??? like?????????

2 - Upper bracket matches have such low stakes it makes me wanna sleep. This is not group stage anymore my guy, this is PLAYOFFS, give me a high stakes match please omg its not that hard. Im not the only one that doesnt give a shit to the uppers as well since pretty much all of the most watched games in any tournament are the lower bracket games. Not even the upper final gets a lot more views in comparison to a regular elimination game. Thats not a coincidence.

Sorry double elim pisses me off

Aspas achievements:

Champions 2022 winner as finals MVP
Americas 2023 winner as year MVP
Top 3 in Champions 2023 as team MVP
Americas 2024 winner and year MVP
Top 3 in Champions 2024 as team MVP

Aspas records:

Most kills in a single map in VCT history (47)
Most kills in Valorant Champions history (1046)
Only player to finish top 3 in 3 different Champions

In conclusion: Yes, he is really good.

So Less just announced a new agency that will take care of negotiations for him. Before this, LOUD itself was managing his career.

Interestingly, Aspas also changed agency right before leaving LOUD and Less' new agency is not a brazilian one...........

He would be ground/rock type so he would be strong against flying/eletric/fire and weak against water/grass

Im bored so i gathered some data on the best VCT duelists and how they performed in first kills for their entire career and this was the result

-Name-
First kills / First deaths
Fk/success ratio

-Buzz-
1237 / 1001
55,2%

-Zekken-
1258 / 1001
55,6%

-Derke-
1846 / 1435
56,2%

-ZmjjKK-
1798 / 1230
59,3%

-Demon1-
881/600
59,4%

-cNed-
1693 / 1142
59,7%

-Aspas-
1237 / 801
60,6%

Am i wrong for turning them off like 75% of the time even before the game starts? I only started doing it recently because i've got tired of toxicity and complaining. Besides, no one really gives calls or speaks something important most of the time in platinum anyway. This significally improves my individual play to be fair.

Ok so i've seen people say the wall is bad and i completely disagree:

"You can jump spot it" - Well in that case it worked just like a Killjoy alarmbot except better since it also gives you 5 seconds to react to the information that someone was there + doesnt have a working range + cant be destroyed + cant be smoked of or flashed.

"It's useless on attack" - Insane take since it can be used just like a cypher trip to watch flank and its AGAIN even better because it cant be destroyed. Also it's fucking insane for postplant since it can stop the enemy retake and even stop people from defusing if you set the plant properly

"Multiple people can cross it instead of just one" - First of all this really hard to do since the wall goes up really fast, but even if they do, then they just gave you the opportunity to make the perfect trap play since they cant go back now and if you util dump them correctly well basically you won the round

Overall i think Vyse's wall is actually one of the BEST abilities in the entire game because of how cheap and flexible it is. Its basically a better version of every trip in the game. There's a million ways to use it and in every single one of them you get some value.

have not seen any game from shanghai to be fair because of timezone

the champs one was insane thou

Obviously i haven't watched ALL the VCT games live this year but between the ones i have my favorites were:

PRX vs TH easily Madrid's best game
EDG vs TH
LEV vs SEN with aspas dropping 47 kills in a 18-16 overtime like???? wtf was that
KC vs TH kickoff final was such an underrated banger

(guess i really enjoyed watching Heretics lol)

nah bro GF Zmjkk is a different beast entirely. D1 was better throughout the whole tournament but the step up for KK on the last 2-3 games is unmatched

Do you at least agree he just had the greatest individual performance of all time? Because if you do then i all im saying is that in a 4 year old game like valo these peaks of performace shine a lot brigther, therefore making it much more relevant in the discussion. His light will fade out though if he doesnt do anything next year just like yay and demon1

"nobody even knew who he was" is crazy you dont need to make him look like shit to defend your point. He's always been insane the only thing missing for him was a trophy

i mean thats why i said we should wait for next year because i think 5 years in a decent time period already.

Realistically, there's only 2 players you can make an argument for the GOAT status after champs 2024: Zmjkk and Aspas. In my opinion, your GOAT really depends on what you put in a higher regard between peak and consistency.

The peak that Zmjkk just reached is something we've never seen prior in this game. He went +39 in a Champions Grand Final, breaking the BO5 kills record with 111 kills. Easily the greatest series from a player ever.

Aspas' consistency is just as unmatched though. Winning Champions 2022 as finals mvp, finishing 3rd in 2023 AND in 2024 as the best player of his team, the only player ever to do that. (the guy has 1.046 kills ONLY in Champions).

My take is that we should wait for 2025 to settle this because i feel like we'll definetely get our awnser next year.

Is there a world Loud 2022 gets rebuilt?

Unless Aspas wins this event (wich i think is very unlikely) i'm pretty sure he is gonna try to leave Leviatan. I also think Sacy leaving Sentinels is plausible considering they really struggled after Madrid and even though they got a top 4 placement at champs, they didn't look convincing enough doing so, at least to me.

Even if they dont go to Loud again i think its reasonable to assume that, if they leave their respective teams, they will try to go to the same team since Sacy and Aspas are basically brothers to each other. I wonder how that is gonna look like

I know there was a lot of internal drama that led to that team parting ways but i can at least dream right

the script wont let us lose icebox if we do the gods have abandoned us

I mean lower finals are usually the best and most competitive game of champs anyway so i guess its fate

As a LEV believer i feel like we're about to get stomped guys i'm not gonna lie. TH really got that champs vibes on them right now.

Individually i think LEV was really good today, especially tex and mazino, but the teamplay and calling was just not it.

TH on the other hand look very cohesive as a team and individually they are even better. Riens on MVP form.

Honestly i'm scared but at this point i might as well sink with the boat. VAMO LEV!

LEV x SEN would be super hype to me because:

We would have the first 2x champs winner

Sacy vs Aspas. Mentor x Student. Former teammates who won champs together. Sacy was the one who found and brought Aspas to VCT, Aspas said multiple times how grateful he is.

SEN only qualified to champs in the first place because of LEV with Aspas himself saying he did it for Sacy.

There is no denying this is the best storyline possible, some absolute cinema shit

i mean its hard to count the china viewership, but if it becomes the most viewed one it will inevitably be surpassed by the lower finals or the grand finals depending if EDG win or lose and how well SEN does

Winning champions and a masters same year is too insane bro no one has ever done that not even in different years

------------------LONG THREAD WARNING------------------------

So i've seen a thread about how Sentinels will be the greatest team of all time if they win champs, wich i thought was stupid at first, but the more i think about it, the more i agree with it. That made me think: What is the greatest team off all time currently? Why?

First of all, we need to establish what "Greatest" means. To me, it's very simple: Consistency + Trophies. Having a peak high enough to win a trophy is great, maintaining that form is even greater.

Also, for "team" i will be considering the org itself, not the roster of players.

With that in mind, lets take the orgs that won something in each year. That would be: Sentinels, Gambit, Acend, Optic, FPX, Loud, Fnatic, EG, GENG. Gambit doesnt exist anymore, same with Optic. Acend is not on tier 1. FPX, like, changed regions? i have no idea what happened to them but doesnt matter they arent the greatest anyway. That leaves:

Sentinels, Loud, Fnatic, EG, GENG (That already makes SEN a minimum top 5 team OAT wich is crazy).

Next lets see how many trophies they each won:

SEN: Americas Kickoff 2024, Masters Reykjavík 2021 and Masters Madrid.
LOUD: Americas League 2023. Champions 2022.
FNATIC: LOCK/IN, Masters Tokyo, EMEA 2024 Stage 1 and EMEA 2024 Stage 2.
EG: Champions 2023.
GENG: Pacific Kickoff 2024, Pacific 2024 Stage 2, Masters Shanghai.

From here, i ask the questions: How valuable is each trophy?

So, we can all agree that Champions > Masters > Regionals, right? But, how big exactly is that gap? Is winning one Champions greater than winning two Masters? This discussion alone could make for an entirely new giant thread. So, to make my life easier, i'm gonna give each trophy an amount of points and go from there:

Champions: 12 points.
Masters and LOCK/IN: 6 points.
2023 League: 3 points.
Stage two: 2 points.
Kickoff and Stage one: 1 point.

You could disagree on that but whatever lets proceed.

With that, this would be the score for each team:

FNATIC and LOUD: 15 Points.
Sentinels: 13 Points.
Evil Geniuses: 10 Points.
Gen G: 9 Points.

It's interesting that this leaves LOUD and FNATIC tied as they are generally the 2 teams that everyone thinks about when they bring this topic up. Also interesting how close Sentinels are to both of them. There's other factors like popularity and podium finishes wich are relevant as well but idgaf i'm tired.

the beginning after the end. goated, trust.

He's been the second best player for Lev in champs imo, but it's also true that his perfomance was poor through most of the year, will not matter if he wins champs though, he'll be goated anyway.

They will most likely change, but they shouldn't in my opinion. I'm pretty sure Saadhak or Less or maybe even both are leaving. If at least one of them stays, i could see LOUD coming strong again for 2025, if not...

Leo definetely. Sacy close 2nd (could become 1st if he wins champs). Peak EG Ethan was a fucking monster on some of his util timings so he's 3rd to me.

Nah Lev will definitely pick Ascent if EDG doesn't ban it, i don't think the loss against Trace will be enough to make them lose their faith on their Ascent, especially because its against EDG.

Honestly this game should start 1-0 for Lev because they should win Icebox or Ascent (whatever EDG doesn't ban) pretty cleanly.

The other 2 maps are gonna be good for both teams no matter what so really its anyone's game from there. To me, its:

EDG ban Icebox
LEV ban Bind
EDG pick Lotus
LEV pick Ascent
EDG ban Abyss
LEV ban Haven
Sunset Decider

As you said i think Lev wins 2-1 or even 2-0 here but EDG did upset Sentinels so who knows