I'm reading that they are participate in challengers but aren't allowed to fight for ascension? Can't they just give the spot to another org again, but granted that is unfair to like the second place team if an academy team does win

they have tuyz too

fr??? thats actually dope

G2 and TL last year were really the only teams that have challenged them and they only get to play them once a year. If riot really wanted to grow the scene I want them to try to implement another international instead of 3 open quals

meL has talked about wanting to get to that next level for awhile now. Its a big risk but what if they skip GC and try to T2 full on? (is T2 still open quals?) Obviously the chance of them doing this are practically none, but like playing in the GC circuit isn't helping them improve especially when the other top teams like G2, mibr, and xipto aren't in your region so you play them once a year at champs.

Obviously winning is fun and SR just won the biggest tourney in GC back to back. They won without dropping a single map, let alone a series with a +40 round diff. SR rolled harder than last year and they only dropped 3 maps last year. I feel like going into every series knowing you're going to win might take some of the excitement out of it.

Whats also funny is that everyone outside of Noia played worse than last year, stats wise. If they can take the next step as a team, they might make T2 through quals, not saying they can ascend, but GC is too easy for them

I don't have a strong opinion on this, but for most people, its not the idea of being trans or non-binary but the skill disparity. Competitive fairness is a big part of sports and esports. As of right now, men are better at the game at the top level as shown by no GC team finding success in T2 or even making it far in open quals. Its hard to watch when most girls in the tourney are struggling to keep up in aim and skill right now. Obviously there are outliers like G2 Gozen who are some of the top female talents.

But inclusivity is required if the goal is to have co-ed teams in the future, in theory the gap should close with time and practice. Esports is weird bc its not all physical like basketball, so I'm hoping this gap will decrease eventually.

The issue is that in the context of grand finals, it's the two best teams ITW, its rare that the "disadvantaged" team have many stinkers of maps. At the end of the day, you still have to play out the maps and if someone has an off series or one has the series of their life, it can swing the whole series regardless of map bans.

just food for thought LOL

They have bang, so he doesn't have to play smokes and if they lean into n4rrate senti. I'd feel more comfortable with zekken on flash initiator/flex than reduxx bc of how much experience he has. I have a philosophy that if you're bringing a new, inexperienced player, it'll more comfortable for reduxx to play his most common role.

In this scenario, it would be better for reduxx to play the role that he is comfortable with and have zekken take over zellsis's role, bc he is already a vocal midrounder and can seem to play anything

Sen has meme'd about reduxx replacing zellsis, obviously it wouldn't happen but if it did, would it work?

You'd have to move zekken to flex and take the sayf route of being a big mid rounder for the team and give the duelist to reduxx.
Duelist: Reduxx
Flex: Zekken
Initiator: JohnQt
Senti: n4rrate
Controller: Bang

Just a hypothetical for thought. I wish sen didn't sign him as 6th bc I would love to see him compete in T1

SR carried by a __

I feel like SR's international performance has peaked higher than G2G, but idk

its a new roster, so IG in a sense. I forgot they won the first GC champs

yeah its a terrible habit

No more SR dominance please!! I want change, I need change

Flor knows most of the time, she can out duel someone. Remember that updraft in spawn trying to get rezq? Its her ego, knowing she's mechanically better than most in 50/50s

cant forget the triple initiator that people were running, sen even ran it on breeze, which i didn't think was possible

Like..... in game............... playing ranked. It was more fun for me 2 years ago

For me, it was the map pool that ruined the year. No one wanted to play breeze, icebox or ascent, so it was just the same maps every series, lotus specifically

This one, I heavy agree with. What he did with zest and only bringing him in for important games, also not scrimming with zest. Apparently termi wouldn't call timeouts bc he wanted stax to grow as an igl, then all of a sudden the past year, he starts coaching again when the core is gone

My only issue with lock-in was that I felt bad for the teams that went to brazil to bootcamp, just to lose one game for it to be done. Lock-in was a great event tho.

Riot should let some third party orgs run tourneys like CS does

Wasn't the issue with him that he was kinda toxic? I thought I read some stuff about him not being a great teammate

I liked it bc it was carried by gunplay, now there's too much util to keep track of when watching/playing. Also by no means am I down playing the years after bc the players/teams are way better than what they were in 2021, its the valorant that I sorta prefer (but I still watch vct now)

The nerf to skye messed with that alot IMO, and then with the addition of run it down maps like icebox and breeze. It made the quality of the games go down alot

I agree on the chamber meta. I loved how strategic the teams had to be, which is a huge reason why optic and loud were so good that year.

I personally liked 2021 bc it was cs with extra util and it felt like gunplay was the number 1 focus. Obviously a high mechanical ceiling is still needed now but abilities IMO are too strong to the point where if you play site, most of the time you're guaranteed dead. When compared to 2021, it felt more brawly for site control and you didn't have to play retake all the time

Speak your mind

VCT 2021 and 2022 were the best years to watch and play. val has become a game based off of abilities instead of gunplay with the addition of abilities. Its just so hard to watch and play without some random bs happening. Also VCT has become retake simulator now which is boring asf

I want G2 to win but idk if their current form can pull it off. I felt like they were playing better in the EMEA stage 3

I wouldn't say "should be in t1", does she have the potential? for sure, but you can't just make that statement when her only accolades are farming in GC. Put up the same stats in T2 like on mxs or tsm then its a conversation

Steph: Flor
Klay: Alexis
Iggy: Noia
KD: Sarah
Dray: MeL

you go into a season hoping that someone else can challenge them but we all know they're gonna win it all at the end of the day

She wants to farm GC, easy tourney winnings

G2 won and then why did SR have to win. Another SR vs G2... sad

SEND THEM HOME TOMORROW '//,

Lets just say she was blinded LOL

Not trying to sound rude but most just aren't good enough

The issue isn't that duelist are weak, more that no other duelist can replicate the value of jett/raze.

What other duelist can OP effectively? Yoru, but then you lose the hard entry. Neon, but you lose the aggressive oping style and holding a passive line doesn't benefit you. Reyna, but you only get dismiss if you hit the shot and again you lose the hard entry

What duelist out-values raze? Nade to break util and clearing chokes, satchels for entry and breaking util, boombot for info and not to mention rocket.

Neon was played alot bc she was over tuned. and the slide accuracy got you "free" entries

Honestly i feel like most people would be happy if the only thing they changed was the slide accuracy.

The only thing is that suzu has many rounds of overheating

ACO

zombs is a co-owner of sen.....

I think it all comes down to how good you are at the game speaking from ranked perspective. Diamond and below, most of the time players aim is mediocre so they don't find constant value in iso and chamber meaning you can win the duel against them. Compared to a neon, if you're bad at tracking, most of the time you will lose to the neon regardless of how good the neon is.

I'm sure pre-nerfed chamber was busted in immo up but in the slums of diamond and below, players didn't know how to use chamber properly

LOL

Obviously bang is the new controller, but I mean second man in with zekken. I feel like every team needs that "crackhead" player who will go for round winning plays and I hope it doesn't turn into zekken just running in alone without a trade potential.

I'm overthinking something that doesn't even matter anyways

dude crashed his car then asked his bloody friend to get a better angle

0/8

I understand its the offseason but they have been the NA team that has practiced the most, they even bootcamped in korea and yet their stuff still looks mediocre compared to teams that barely practiced like NRG, and EG.

What if they throw whatever bag they have at MCE, that was honestly the last time they looked good and that was on short practice with runi and jakee. Give him a whole offseason, I feel like this roster can do some damage. And bring in mitch while at it.

With demon1, we know he's a top 5 jett in form, it just comes down to his raze and neon. Or maybe phoenix after the buffs this year