I find this format really enjoyable so far. Especially in Europe where the VRL's run through the week. Yeah it sucks only playing on weekends sometimes but I'm glad the other tier 2 tournaments have been in the gap recently.

This year formats seem a lot better tbh

I don't like jasonr but he's not wrong, being a one trick of any agent is not viable at the top level. TenZ is a good Jett and a good Reyna but Reyna is only really played on one map. No one is saying TenZ has to have an absurd agent pool, but as least be able to play Raze as well. I don't think being able to play a good Jett and Raze is too much to ask. Same thing goes for guys like yay as well.

Just difference in preferences, EMEA plays more Cypher/Sage than NA does, NA plays more Viper/Chamber to fill the same sort of role

Didn't the old 100T roster beat Acend and Gambit? lol

Who do you guys have? I feel like T1 and Rise might be my two strongest picks but after that idk. Akrew, TSM, Pioneers, Knights, etc fighting for 2 slots.

You realize that Shahz has nothing to do with them not practicing and that TenZ is moving countries right? LMFAO

It's a 1head take thinking esports organizations only pay players based on performance

I don't think Wardell or Subroza (especially Roza) are 'average' at the pro level. Their team couldn't find success but I think those 2 personally still performed well. I guess we'll see now that they got Corey and Rossy if that's true.

Not saying Sentinels would have won or anything but it's undeniable they were the most popular (in terms of viewership) team of 2021

Why not? If Brazil deserves 2 surely NA deserves more. NA has been by FAR the second best performing region behind EMEA.

That's fair, I'd still have Sentinels #1 as they literally won every VCT tournament in NA last year and I'm pretty sure they're like 6-0 all-time head to head against C9.

What has C9 done to show they should be above Sen? Sen didn't lose an NA tournament all last year even if they did have bad results in international play at the end of the year

Do you have a link for this? From all the reports I've read they've never mentioned this. Says the person who Shahz was having a conversation with leaked the conversation to journalists.

TenZ doesn't even stream that much and since when is streaming a bad thing? lol

Apparently there was personal issues within the team.

Also the new roles are just super confusing. Nukkye playing viper/sova?

I find it hard to believe that the entire team is not scrimming because Shahz wants to stream more, even earlier in the year they were scrimming and he was still streaming 8+ hours a day and people admired him for grinding both that hard. Feel like them not practicing rn has got to be a collective decision but it's for sure worrying looking towards their 2022 season.

It's for sure not the sole reason why they didn't win lol. No one is saying that... I'm saying it's a contributing factor and all these 1 heads saying Shahzam should be benched for Sinatraa or whoever when he's the IGL and top fragger at Champions are deluded.

Gambit is literally the only team I can think of all-year that didn't follow the pattern I said.

You can say whatever you want but it's literally a fact that Liquid (twice), Fnatic, V1, G2, 100T and even more had significantly worse performances at tournaments right after their LAN performance. When teams can sit and watch you while you have to grind a tournament they have a significant advantage.

The matches themselves are not rigorous. It's the fact that they played the most matches, went to every tournament, then on top of that Shahz in particular is probably the most consistent streamer out of any pro player, the whole team also is flying from Texas to LA to film content for Sentinels and then also flying to wherever they're from to visit family. If you're just viewing it from the angle of "only 3 international tournaments in 2021" then of course it seems light.

For your second point I guess it depends what you want to get out of your esports career. Streaming is essential to building a brand that lasts past your playing days. If you want to be able to provide for your family in the long term (in Shahz's case this includes his mom who is now widowed because his dad died from COVID) then it's probably more important than pro play honestly lol. At the end of the day pro play in Valorant is not currently setting you up with generational wealth. Streaming has the potential too.

yes? I don't get what's funny. They played the most official matches last year by far I'm pretty sure and on top of that most of the team (but mainly Shahz) also full-time stream to build their personal brand. They're basically doing 2 full-time jobs at once.

Obviously I'm a Shahz fan so I'm biased but there is clear evidence of teams underperforming after being at LAN's. Look at how V1, Fnatic and Liquid all didn't even make Masters 3 after being at Masters 2. All the teams that missed Masters 2 and stayed at home to scrim/relax did much better at Masters 3. G2 looked great at Masters 3 then did poorly at LCQ. Same thing. 100T as well. Lots of evidence of it happening imo.

It's not only that it's the sheer volume of games they had to play. Acend/Gambit for example both had a 2 month break in the middle of the year because they didn't qualify for Masters 2, and all that time they got to relax/come up with new strats the other teams (Sentinels, V1, Liquid, Fnatic) were travelling, dealing with COVID shit and prepping for the first ever LAN. You saw it with Liquid, Fnatic and V1 too none of them even made Masters 3 and Fnatic only made Champions due to Gambit giving the region and extra slot.

It's honestly because people don't know what they're talking about. Sentinels played by far the most official matches last year, had to travel to every single international event, and had the biggest target on their back after Iceland. A lot of the times they aren't scrimming it's because they're trying to get a break from such a rigorous schedule.

NA was clearly a top 2 region this year idk why people say they should lose slots

Do you know who badplayer101 and jessica are?

At least Brazil was competitive. At this point Japan is easily the worst region. Vivo Keyd did beat Acend (although they cheated and it got reversed), Vikings stomped Crazy Raccoon and should have beat Gambit but choked, FURIA took maps off both Sentinels and KRU and were competitive. Although Brazil all went out in groups I think it was a solid showing.