Wo0t may have had the best rookie debut in VCT history no? Who else can challenge that? Karon didn't have the same impact Wo0t did at Madrid. Maybe nAts? Idk would you call nAts a rookie at that time?

ah fuck my bad g
still can't believe you said blazek1ng though that guy is cheeks

US has better players than SK imo
imo
Zekken (tho i think Oxy is better Zekken can flex to Sova as well)
Valyn is a must
Demon1 is a must
tex is a must
I want to say s0m? But there would be role conflicts with Valyn. But I really like s0m and I really like Valyn. maybe Ethan instead of s0m.

disrespecting the goat Hannibal fr

bro said blazek1ng instead of zesbeew im dead

i dont think any coach has had such an impressive track record in tier 1 in such a short time
when Solo was in tier 1 he has never finished below 3rd place at every tier 1 event he has attended.
NU: 3rd place M2 Reykjavik
GEN.G: 2nd Madrid, 2nd Stage 1, 1st Shanghai, 1st Stage 2

LCQ/Ascension aren't tier 1 events to me personally but there's room for debate on that.

I respect the honesty tbh pretty based

US
KR
RUS=TR=BR
CAD
IND=JP
TH=PH=CN

I'm sorry you are actually high as fuck for thinking Yotaa didn't look good. He literally has the highest ACS of the main event and is the 4th highest rated player at the event. He's also the best pure duelist player of the event as well lol. He has the highest KPR and highest ADR as well.

Either you're misremembering really really badly or you just have a bias against SCARZ/Yotaa (I do remember you were talking about how SCARZ isn't a good team and is harmful for the JP scene because they speak English and focus on importing talent instead of picking Japanese natives)

??????

I mean, it's not really a "Best Tier 2 Pacific Talent" list if you're omitting the actual best players because they're well known...lol

Margaret made it to grand finals and won and was a major reason why SPG won map 5. Guy had a ton of impact to swing the momentum for SPG in the 2nd half. Sungjin didn't even make it to lower finals and got knocked out 0-2 to NS. He only played for 1 map at that. I don't see in what world you would rate Sungjin higher than Margaret, when Margaret has performed better against better teams/the same teams.

not with those stats. you'll make it out. gl o7

💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

100%. I have also heard scrim information from my sources also, which is part of why I'm pretty big on them.

In Bind's last match against T1, Bleed used a deadlock comp that only SPG uses.

Yeah, Tier 1 teams have been paying attention to SPG. Like I mentioned earlier, even FNATIC use their comp. I think it's their best comp right now actually.

Thank you for the additional information! The Bind part is very true. Margaret's agent pool is 100% one of the most exploitable parts of the team. But I think their grasp of the game and their confidence to pick off-meta comps is testament to their ability to understand roles and utility at a different level to some other teams.

thanatos finally deletes his account

idk thanatos what would you do

surprised Juicy isn't on for MYSG
I think margaret and freeing are top 2 sentinels in KR
Yoman i feel deserves a mention on initiator. and francis for flex

i agree with the marved take. him dropping 35 vs zeta and winning FOUR fucking 1v1 clutches on haven, his clutches vs DRX and GUARD were map-winning. That ace on Fracture vs the Guard completely shifted the momentum and turned what looked like a 1-2 loss into a 2-1 win. bro was cold in the clutch and had so much impact on so many crucial rounds.

MaKo looked like the more consistent player and his performance was the best Smokes performance of all time statistically, but Marved had arguably the best individual performance by a smokes player of 2022. Does that make sense? Like in terms of doing what a smokes player is supposed to do, the util and the overall philosophy, MaKo was the best. But Marved individually peaked the highest i think.

like 15 seconds into the round the guy's in your spawn as you're rotating to the other site lmao

FOR REAL LIKE WHY CAN'T YOU JUST COPY THE OTHER REGION'S FORMATS THEY'RE ALREADY TRIED AND TESTED MAN

statswise yea but nAts had the most unbelievable plays eye-test speaking. his impact on agents like cypher/viper at the time was completely revolutionary. he singlehandedly changed the way the game was played and his setups are still used today. to this day i don't think a single individual has been able to redefine and innovate such a fundamental aspect of the game like he has.

like i cannot stress how good this guy was on what the community thought were the most mid agents (for fragging) at the time. the only players that got the numbers nAts got were the top duelist players (Jett, mostly)

thank u for changing sushimeister =]

Yea, it might have been another fennel situation where perhaps the better looking team lost the grand finals. Either way, the team that won deserved the win and hopefully they can continue their runs at Ascension.

meteor solo won Lotus in the game vs G2, solo won map 3 vs FPX, almost dropped 30 vs 100T on Ascent, started the comeback on Lotus by getting 2 with the Sheriff on mound, and won the most important pistol round on Split with a 4k clutch
t3xture was consistently a top tier player and he really shined vs FNC but imo meteor came up clutch way more and on a less fragging agent. statswise meteor was also similar to t3xture.

thank you kindly man, i appreciate that you read the entire thing <3

Yeah, the ability to reverse sweep after mispicking your comp on your map pick definitely shows incredible resilience, plus Ascent went to OT and I think it was yatsuka who lost a 1v1 vs TENNN because the crowd gave away his flank.

SPG also were in the position of being upset, but Ivy pulled off what is imo one of the most clutch plays in tier 2 this year by getting an insane 4k to secure match point on the last map. SPG in general made a good comeback on Map 5 considering they were down 7-3.
Being able to deal with the pressure of a bo5 and the length of the game is a really valuable skill heading into a major tournament. I remember Northeption back in 2021 LCQ really let the pressure and fatigue get to them, which is part of why FS were able to win 3-2 in GF.

don't sleep on OCE frfr

man SPG need to come out swinging then. They'll 100% be starting with another game to play before they can qualify. And RIddle only need to win 1 game. This definitely changes things.

estrella is mid as fuck t1 better not get him. they could trade xcc for estrella but like idk i dont see a future for estrella in tier 1 ngl
jemkin is the goat and rrq will be shooting themselves in the foot if they drop him. i dont think monyet is better than jemkin on duelist and it's not like the players can't speak english enough right? ewok speaks english anyway so the players will have to know it

what are some things you noticed about OF (playstyle, setplays, etc.)? I've heard basically nothing about them and HK/TW has been a pretty weak region so far so there seems to be little chatter or recognition.

i remember being impressed by ray4c's satchel usage last year. sucks that he didn't qualify this time around. he was a streamer right? but i mean boom has experience, maybe this year they can win.

oh man. would have been really fucking funny if he did tho

i thought GARUDA was Alter Ego players, no? And yeah I mean it's a collegiate tournament. Pretty impressive showing from young Indonesian players nonetheless (though I see ray4c was on the roster lmfao)

didn't aace or someone flip the bird at the crowd after they won lmfao i was dying
this kind of confidence is really nice to see from the typical passive, scared playstyle we saw from a lot of Japanese teams in the past - but i think it could result in a lot of terrible throws. being able to strike the fine line between unexpected aggression and calculated fights is something i don't know riddle can do. and i wonder how often their mechanics will bail them out of rough situations vs other top Asian tier 2 teams. we all know SEA has some aimers, but SPG also look sharp as fuck too.

they look good and have 2 tier 1 vets on their team. definitely one to look out for!

ye. most of my preds are usually after the first day of matches, so there's no point to me doing pickems anyway. power rankings are fun for sure, it's always entertaining to share opinions about the level of play displayed from various teams. plus i think this is more productive discussion than the endless butterflyeffect/flashback/whatever posts vlr has been plagued with recently.

yeah I mean it would be nice to see Seoldam on a team that doesn't turn him into a human Skye dog but I feel like FENNEL could have done more damage. Riddle have the mechanics to hang though, at least. Maybe we could see them make a run, especially considering Ascension is held on home soil.
And the JP players on Riddle aren't the average passive JP players we see on like ZETA or DFM - they're confident and ready to fight at any time I feel.

yeye, i mean in the end we'll never know right. did you check my recent post? wanna know ur thoughts seeing as u appear to have watched the teams i didn't.

This applies to every tournament tbh, which is why I never do pickems or outright say "X team is winning Ascension" because really no one knows how well international matchups fare. I thought GEN.G were playing the best Valorant out of all 3 regions at kickoff at the start of this year and I was wondering if I was delusional as fuck, but I guess was right. At the same time, I thought NRG would be the best NA team and that EG could qualify to an international and upset again, but I was wrong there. Really is never 100%.

because Pacific TOs are dogshit or sth idk we still have single elim group stage/playoffs. Group stage double elim priority is literally a diceroll or some shit, so one team could luck their way into having a 2nd chance in groups or some shit, but if you're unlucky you start groups with no second chance LMFAO

edit: ok i checked again and this was my misunderstanding, but basically depending on a diceroll you have to win either 2 games straight or just 1 game to qualify LOL which is still cheeks. There is Group Stage double elim tho

https://valorantesports.com/en-SG/news/introducing-vct-ascension-pacific-tokyo-2024

thank u goat i spent a full like 8 mins writing this up

SIN PRISA GAMING
I'm really high on SPG. I've never been particularly high on KR tier 2 teams - only players.
SPG really look different though, the way they play is so different compared to every other tier 2 KR team I've seen in the last few years. A lot of KR tier 2 teams like Dplus looked disjointed/seemed to lack strategic depth, but SPG seem to have a great read on the game state and the mechanics to brawl things out. I think a lot of their micro plays and setups are pretty well-thought out and smart, and they appear to be able to adapt on the fly.

They also seriously cook with their agent comps - I mean, what asian tier 2 youngster team can say FNATIC copied their comp and playstyle?

Persia is obviously the star of the team but I think Ivy is a really solid player who gets slept on a bit statswise. He's clutch, has good aim, and I don't think he makes too many mistakes.
My only worry is how well they'll be able to fix their weaknesses on certain maps, and whether their inexperience may fuck them over.
They've been dominant in Korea, but I don't know what their scrim results are like or if they've scrimmed SEA teams and can handle the aggression/contact heavy plays some teams like FS have. Somewhat cautiously optimistic for their performance - but they look at least macro wise like the best Asian tier 2 team rn.

RIDDLE ORDER
Dominant JP team that also came out of nowhere. This team has 4 good shooters, maybe 5 if JoxJo is on his day. Yatsuka and Seoldam I feel are the most impressive - Seoldam's Jett is very explosive and aggressive, and at least in Japan, he finds first picks/kills out of nowhere. Yatsuka is an incredible anchor and some of the shots this guy hits are unbelievable man.
Only problem is, I feel like that's really all they have. I saw some horrible blunders from this team on a fundamental level, like staggered peeks and inexperienced pre-planning. Some of their setplays seem under/overcooked.

Seoldam's play is a huge X factor, he really finds great timings and his confident aggression often leads to early reads from Riddle. And sometimes the players just shoot their way out of situations - strategically they seem to have less depth than some other teams. I think Scarz during Split 2 kind of exposed these weaknesses - especially on Icebox.

If Seoldam isn't busting out his superstar Jett performance I think they're a weaker team than Fennel actually, at least from a macro standpoint.

FULL SENSE
This team actually looks quite good. I like the way they play - they show they can switch tempo from fast to slow at any point, are comfortable with contacting, and their utility usage is great.
JohnOlsen has been in Thai tier 2 for a long time, and he seems to be as good as he used to be all the way back in LCQ 2021. He got heavily exposed at Champs though, and I wonder if he's able to continue his performance against tougher and better-drilled teams. Foxz and Sushiboys are also familiar names - Foxz imo has always been a decent IGL with above-average mechanics, and iirc the only reason he's not on current Talon was because of attitude issues. JitboyS, garnetS, and Primmie have shown the potential of Thai tier 2 players, and Full Sense do look just as good as they did in LCQ 2021. I don't think they have a specific? weakness to be honest - more like they're a well-rounded team. But I haven't been particularly impressed or wowed by their approach to the game or maps with regards to their set plays, setups, or micro/macro understanding. Seems more like they do well on somewhat known comps that have been tweaked to the current meta (they've run pretty bog-standard meta comps like the typical Icebox comp we saw way back in 2022 started by DRX(?) Or the typical DRX/VS haven comp, but Neon instead of Jett.)

I haven't watched enough of BOOM/NAOS/LOFI/RVNT/JFT/OF/DSG to speak to their performance, and I think OCE is actually a slept on region considering how good their players like Autumn are in other regions as well.

As I understand it though, I was never particularly impressed by BME Famouz or BerserX because they've been called chokers at international/higher level competitions tbh. BerserX especially, but it's possible they've grown as players. No idea how good Rapid LoFi is - only that FCY were a surprising team at last year's Ascension, so they'll probably be able to upset.
DSG are a team I've heard a lot of chatter about, and their players are definitely good. I understand that Vera is quite good, and obviously Juicy has been class for a long time. But my biggest question is how good they really are, because I feel like MY/SG has always been a top-heavy region, honestly arguably even more so than KR I feel. A LOT of these teams are kinda mid imo, but seeing as DSG kinda appeared to have rolled their way through Split 2 they could be like BLEED last year.

Let me know your thoughts on the teams in Ascension!

inb4 "allat"

SPG did not lose a single game for the entirety of Split 2, they've been dominant in Korea.
And this year has proven how good tier 2 KR talent can be.
Last year's Dplus was a way weaker roster than this year's Dplus. Also I think many KR fans knew they would underperform at Ascension given they have a history of choking. Regardless, they were the only team to beat BLEED at the tournament and they 2-0ed them at that.

I hope to god you're wrong and SPG doesn't choke due to inexperience. I really believe in them.

imagine having that list of players and failing this badly
lmfao

don't get tenten lol there are better prospects

think i found his twitter
it's @zombzino

ok but to not give away the secret & to give a hint, his account's name shares a similarity to his vlr name trembolonaRage

VCJ is more competitive than VCK 100%, and VCK does have more mid teams than VCJ.
And yes, only Ascension will tell. But according to the eye-test, I just find more layers to SPG than to Riddle. I actually think if Fennel won they would have a better chance.

he's the head of strategy for geng, aka another coach. notice how it's always him and solo sitting together and talking to the players during timeouts

the same coach of dfm last year who went 0-10 ended up winning the first trophy for asia this year. gotta be some problem within the org considering how insane players look mid and then fry on other good teams

seoldam has lost haven to lose a defining grand finals to send them to a big competition before in a 5 map nailbiter...

can't think of a good comparison for city besides g2 tho tbh, maybe 100t but the real kicker for city imo is the whole saudi money controversy xd that's why i thought of g2