100% agree with this. There's a reason they extended ENGH to 2027, and that reason is developing young talent. Also their fanbase is MASSIVE. This is what happened after just a rumour on Twitter: https://streamable.com/9rww5t

posted in General Discussion

Whoops you're right

• EG does a lot of scouting and runs programs for players they find interest in (see https://youtu.be/UNCh69AyIRk for an example). Their rosters have historically been groups of scrappy young talents and rejects who always manage to defy expectations and, under a great coach, make lengths they probably shouldn't (this year they were one game off playoffs, last year they actually won Champions after getting 13-0'd earlier in the year). In fact, their coach potter alone is a great reason to be a fan of the team
• LOUD are probably not a good choice for you, I just thought I'd throw them in there because they met the criteria for that one point
• Cloud9 has the least number of fans of any team in NA, so you'd have that going for you. And I don't know what their financial situation is but orgs should be looking to pick up players from tier 2 anyway, especially in NA. v1c is a really good player and I have a hunch we'll see that next year
• Your opinion on NRG is fair, but honestly, if you're gonna support a team, you might as well do it for the players, y'know? They're picking up mada and Verno this year, both of whom are young and ready to prove themselves
• Karmine Corp focused a LOT on building talent last year (marteen, N4RRATE, and tomaszy were all duelists from tier 2) but it didn't go well for them because the team had a huge issue with midrounding. This year the team is bringing in more experienced players in Saadhak, SUYGETSU, and Elite (mostly because they're the biggest French org and Champions is in Paris) but they're still keeping the idea of building talent in mind by keeping marteen and adding avez, who's an amazing flex player (and I'm pretty sure the only player in the league) from MENA. Their team also focuses a lot more on trying to innovate and come up with new ideas (ENGH and Saadhak are both very good at this), so they'll be playing different stuff than most other teams

I still feel bad for Klaus lmao

Here are my thoughts:

• Former M80 Players
  Your options here are Sentinels (johnqt), 100 Thieves (eeiu + zander), and Natus Vincere (koalanoob + Happy, though both are technically still leaks and could be subject to change)
• Vision includes winning and making a legacy not just brand exposure and money
  This applies to most orgs so I won't make a note here
• They often prioritize new, young and rising talent
  Americas teams that come to mind are Evil Geniuses (they're very dedicated to building talent and the org has a program for it). Other teams such as LOUD, Cloud9, Made in Brazil, and NRG are doing building rosters next year where they mix experienced veterans with rising stars. Also do keep in mind a few teams are gonna have academy teams in tier 2 next year, such as Leviatán
• They care about their community like they often make content, give out goodies and listen to their fans etc.
  No one Americas org jumps out at me for this category. I do know Paper Rex and Karmine Corp are very connected with their fanbases, though, probably more than most orgs in all of esports
• I don't care about history as long as their is no controversies or bad brand image (such as BLEED) as long as their willing to make history
  Again, this is almost every org, so I won't make a note
• I am Muslim, Canadian and South Asian and so I would love to support teams/players that I can relate to
  The Muslims in VCT that I know of are d4v41 from Paper Rex, johnqt from Sentinels, and avez and ZEISH from Karmine Corp, but there could be more

Overall, I think your best options, in order, are Sentinels, Karmine Corp, and Paper Rex. I'm biased because it is my favourite team (2025) but I think you should consider Karmine Corp :)

Leviatán snaked no one bro

That's fine, honestly. His Neon is pretty good from what I've seen, anyway

Nvm then 😅

Are we gonna act like elllement, aNguiSt, DaviH, and Vince don't all deserve to be in tier 1?

"First"???? Brother what 💀 you planning on getting a second or smth?

Am I tripping or did they go from BETA to BETA2? Did anything change at all?

Nah all g I get where you're coming from

Lanthanide. It's the first element in the segment you see taken out of the table and put at the bottom

I'm pulling an Elon, buying the company and throwing it into ruin so that we never get another movie in this franchise ever again

Oh no, don't worry, I'm on the same page. I'm just saying it's a pretty obvious place to start if you're gonna make a thread like this

Br(ON₂)OL³⁻

You should watch some of the past stuff, mainly the 4-5 hour episodes from mid this year. They were SO funny

The Champs curse may strike yet again

I don't know how to feel about the fact that you mentioned so many meaningless little things and not the fact that they bought out a world champion controller only to bench him and keep him on the bench until his old team bought him back out

Not too late, I'm still making rosters. I'll edit him and take out Felix 👍

I get where you're coming from but I'm a big FENNEL fan and have been watching them for over a year so I'm gonna ignore what you just said and keep pretending 😃👍

(That being said, I do like ZETA and DFM equally)

Hey Vaaero,

This is a really cool piece you did on VLR! I always like reading about ethnography and this was a fun one for sure.

Here's just a few notes I had. Feel free to accept/discard any points you like.

• The tradition of replacing vowels with 0 (the "0" treatment, as you called it) originates in Counter Strike forums. My guess is HLTV.org, but I'm not an expert on the matter
• Off Topic is not a channel, but rather a category. Threads can be sorted into three categories: General Discussion (which is most threads), Site Discussion, and Off Topic. The idea of these categories is to allow users to sort between them and read through threads only related to the category they wish (you can filter threads by going to Forums and clicking on Forum Index)
• You mentioned that there are baiters who get confused for "intellectuals." From my perspective, they're mostly just "intellectuals" who like to bait engagement from time to time simply because they find it entertaining. That's not to say this applies in all cases, but it is more common than not. If you want a few users to look at for examples of this kind of bait, n1cf and CanadaMan are a good place to start
• This is pretty inconsequential but I just thought I'd correct you for the sake of accuracy... the capitalizations of these usernames are BulkyLettuce and CanadaMan

Also "there is no isolation on VLR because VLR itself is the isolation" is a fire line, I can't lie.

Oh yeah, just a final note... I think it might be in your best interests to reformat this if you want people here to read it, just for the sake of legibility. This might sound a bit lazy but it does take more effort to read big block paragraphs than it is to read something formatted more like what I'm writing here. 👍

This is a good point, but there are, in fact, instances of players who have gone to play for countries where their parents were born and/or have a citizenship of (Emilio Nsue is one example that comes to mind, but there are a lot more, likely hundreds). So it is possible by FIFA rules that reduxx could (hypothetically, of course) play for Morocco if either of his parents are personally Moroccan

Oh yeah it was, completely forgot about that. Ty

They probably wouldn't be able to afford kaajak's buyout of $100,007 (for legal reasons I'm making this number up)

Did I see carpe in the trailer?

https://www.vlr.gg/413306/nasr-ignite-vs-giantx-gc-vct-off-season-spotlight-series-2024-lf

It's not about what he's running from. It's about what he's running to. And he's on his way to a trophy rn

Source?

Huh. Their website says it's still happening

I've had 3 cheaters get banned and 2 were in spike rushes

Did you know VLR lists Less as Felipe de Loyola?

You do bait sometimes though

FYI there is a preview button in the top right corner of the text box

Hopefully

I'm actually going to simulate mine, run a full bracket tournament

Remove viewership rewards on Twitch, viewership outside of China goes down by >80%

UPDATE

We're at 32 teams, so I'm gonna run a Valorant Simulator tournament to see which team would win

Not gonna start for a while; I have to manually input every player for all 32 teams, which is super tedious since I have to calculate the stats for each player. I've done up to Hong Kong as of writing this

For those curious, I'm gonna follow the same format as Champions, only with 8 groups instead of 4

Liquid is taking form

No prob 👍

Will update, ty for input

This is heavily Americas biased but I agree with your opinion on the teams

https://www.vlr.gg/329914/paper-rex-vs-gen-g-champions-tour-2024-pacific-stage-1-gf/?game=167292&tab=overview

That is a helpful trick, true, but until this becomes second nature it's not very convenient in practice, I've found

What is a sticker

Here's a quick pros/cons list for you:

Sova
✅ Scan + drone to reveal enemies
✅ Shocks to break trips + deal damage
❌ Does need at least a few lineups to play effectively
❌ Doesn't have util to help you take fights

Fade
✅ Everything gives you info (info is key)
✅ You can chuck everything and it just kinda works
✅ The ult and seize deafen people (this is super fun to abuse)
❌ Eyes can be broken pretty easily

Gekko
✅ Util can be used very frequently
✅ Ult is great, especially if you farm it
✅ Planting/defusing spike is great as well
❌ His util can be pretty easy to break
❌ You can get killed picking your util back up

Skye
✅ Very simple kit, lets you focus on gunplay (the Brim of initiators imo)
✅ Flashes are very flexible
✅ Dog is always good to have
❌ Not much info once your flashes are gone
❌ You will get flamed for not healing your duelist who's at 97 hp on the other side of the map

Breach
✅ Util dumping people is fun
✅ Ult is great for execs/retakes
❌ It's really hard to play for yourself
❌ Util is pretty clunky
❌ Doesn't give you the info that other initiators do

KAY/O
✅ Suppression is great, especially in higher ranks
✅ Very well-rounded kit
❌ Left-click flashes are hard to use (unless you're proficient with KAY/O you need lineups)
❌ Has the worst winrate of any initiator in ranked

Money, probably (I'd elaborate but I don't feel like it ngl)

I like this a lot :)

You're a hater, FENNEL was one of the best T2 teams in APAC and would've easily made Ascension if there was an LCQ (them and MiTH)