Fair play for giving a source, but you have to be critical here: that's 2.5 years ago in an off-season tournament. He has since switched to scan-initiator where he is a lot more comfortable and impactful on the role. He can play Breach and KAYO, but that doesn't mean he should. Role-swapping even between scan and flash initiators takes a fair bit of adjustment since you have to use very differing styles of utility. Even if Kr1stal were to rejoin XLG in this hypothetical, he would more than likely be playing Sova/Fade like he did in Ascension. It's the agent pool he is most comfortable on especially as an IGL.

Unfortunately G2 just collapsed in on themselves vs. PRX and it was still fairly close. SEN seem to be dialled in and I can see them winning against PRX. PRX wins if they can keep their micro-details in the round correct, clearing space properly and pushing as a team, but they lose pretty badly if they underestimate Bang or Zellsis in the clutch.

Tell me the last game Kr1stal played Breach or KAYO in a pro match.

Kr1stal plays completely different initiators to S1mon. Kr1stal is a Scan-init and S1mon is a flash-init.

Double spite since apparently it was EDG fans that bullied YOU out of XLG by dredging up his old matchfixing allegations

Bare in mind that YOU was the one to majorly set up his team so of course when you remove such an impactful player, your team is gonna take more reckless, uncalculated fights. On top of that, XLG basically set themselves up for failure in the name of entertainment by picking Sentinels who were looking like the 2nd best team out of the playoffs and continue to ramp up with depth in the tournament. XLG basically fought 2 of the best teams back to back as opposed to taking the easy route of facing Wolves who they have a good historical matchup again.

XLG is definitely bad, but you can likewise make this point with how EDG capitulated without S1mon in Stage 1. Is EDG therefore bad? You can argue so, but you jump straight to a conclusion before you consider how valuable a lot of these support roles are. T1 using Carpe instead of Sylvan looked diabolical at Bangkok. As soon as you have Sylvan, you have someone who can use smoke util effectively and position himself to support his team well. Likewise XLG's YOU was always providing supporting impact to make Rarga look like a demon taking 3ks like it was nothing.

The TL comparison is a bit half-baked since their IGL literally rejoined the team after 1 game. It's not like they played their elimination match without Nats. The PRX comparison is a bit more warranted, but PRX in 2023 were insanely strong compared to the world. Their style of Valorant was still difficult for a lot of teams to adapt to.

Ooooor, acquire S1mon who is benched by EDG

Big facts, it's a shame that he left because of opposition fans dredging up old allegations that he served a ban for already. He really helped Rarga and the team with his precise util in China. Who knows how much better XLG could have been with their dedicated flash initiator. This is perhaps a little hopeful, but XLG could get S1mon given his track record on Breach and KAYO has been great and he is currently ousted from EDG.

Didn't know Midi was playing Harbor

Thank you, he's been amazing in Stage 1. Just a shame that LOUD were narrowly losing their maps and series. Him and Pancada were going absolutely crazy. Hopefully Stage 2 might have some greater promise.

I think G2's comps are fine. A lot of their mistakes seemed to be more minute rather than a macro issue such as how an agent's util affected their plays. Though, if you really wanted G2 to shift their comps, I would put JonahP on Viper, an agent he has had success on especially on Lotus, and have Leaf play Vyse/Killjoy/Cypher on more maps. G2 ran these sorts of agent comps last year and it offered some stable success despite their duelist being mid-tier in quality.

JonahP has been more than fine on Breach/KAYO in the past. The performance against PRX is definitely one of his worst to this day. Also, Trent was pretty solid on Sova/Fade before Tejo. His agent knowledge is pretty amazing but the rest of his team seemed to be getting diffed by one or two players consistently.

FNC not famous for comebacks... looks at their Lock-In Trophy. Also, Number_1_Hater is not blaming FNC, they're blaming the tech pauses so you can chill on putting words in another person's mouth. GENG definitely could have closed it out 2-0, but as I saw it, GENG were getting too ahead of themselves on a few occasions and squandered a few man-advantage rounds. t3xture also got picked by kaajak so often in the tail end of that map.

The format will have some questions on whether it's any good after this tournament. Your arguments against the buy are mostly valid such as nerves, not being used to equipment and the expectations being high. However, being warmed up is a matter down to them. Sure, Swiss Stage warms up your stage performance, but at a professional level, you should be able to warm-up before any match to have that mental arousal in-game.

As for not being used to the new meta in officials, anything can go right or wrong on the day on-stage. Teams will have been scrimming for hours a day to adapt to the new meta and develop a new playbook for their comps. And you have to remember that there was a solid 2-4 weeks buffer time from the Stage 1 grand final - of course, you can argue most teams won't be using all this time to develop strategies, but there is nevertheless ample time to practice new things.

The meta is actually so open now so anything can work as long as you have confidence in the agent synergy. It's not like certain teams are late to the party in going with the meta since anything can work if you have success in your scrims using a certain comp.

Lastly, the fact that #1 seeds can pick their opponent is a huge advantage since they can VOD review their opponents on every map they play in swiss to develop an anti-strat. 4-9 maps of gameplay is quite valuable to base your veto especially if you've got a deep map pool like G2. Serot mentions XLG trolling their pick and on paper it is what it is, but XLG have a bigger issue where they lost their key flash initiator player. YOU's assists and util to set up Rarga was actually huge and that's something that cannot be replaced easily. I feel bad for them since YOU left/was released for allegations from years ago (matchfixing which he upheld his ban for back then).

For me, I see it as:
Duelist: Kaajak/Keiko/t3xture
Initiator: Kushy/Verno/Trent
Sentinel: Chichoo/Cortezia/Lukxo
Controller: F0rsaken/Karon/Bang
IGL: nAts/Munchkin/valyn

I put 3 candidates since you can make a huge argument for any of these options in their raw aim talent currently

The format will have questions drawn about it, but the buy into the playoffs is still somewhat advantageous since teams have a chance to VOD review opponents and develop strategies to counter it. The downside of course is not having stage practice, but you could counterargue that teams are already scrimming enough to practice new comps after the meta change. I do think the meta change timing was a bit poor, but there's not a lot that can be done in hindsight.

PRX came into Toronto being somewhat dark horse APAC reps since they took RRQ the full 5 maps in a Tejo-dominant meta. GENG look revitalised and probably even surpassing peak Shanghai performance. Sentinels had the easiest #1 seed since XLG lost YOU who was key in providing Rarga a lot of assisting util. Wolves is probably the biggest dark horse since they just keep ramping up their quality - my one gripe with them is that their defense is shaky.

Lysoar is a sentinel player. He's more of a defensive flex with Spring being more of a primary smokes player. I will say that if Wolves had a Chichoo level defensive flex, they would be extremely promising.

🧍‍♂️

If you're telling him to get a haircut now, boy do you not want to see what he looked like when he started off. His hair was out of control

We need Ange1 in the mix. Ange1 Yoru is too goated

You've literally listed 2 smokes players and 2 sentinel players, about hater. Who's gonna play initiators?

If XLG picked Wolves (arguably the weakest team coming out the playoffs and their in-region matchup), the teams would have basically all been in-region picks to play it safe. XLG definitely are a little lost, but SEN are playing to their strengths especially with their map picks. I will say that XLG lost their flash initiator player (YOU) and he was very key to a lot of their in-region success. They've had to make do with a quick replacement who doesn't have the same impact as he did.

I mean, that Grand Final went too crazy. I think any fan of any team would be crashing out over a close loss with so many pivotal swing rounds.

Wait did Achillios predict PRX dub?

1.45 VLR rating as well. He provided insane impact and value for G2 on Lotus yet people just want to make it out that Tejo made him the best player going into Toronto

I will sacrifice myself to be your common enemy

G2 fans are probably some of the more chill users here. It's other teams' fans that glaze G2 to high heaven since they are the most systematic team in Valorant with actually good aimers to back up their strategy. You would expect them to win a masters at this point since they probably have the deepest playbook next to FNATIC

For attack, a stinger buy can be pretty brutal for the defence team. Those stingers actually fry especially on smaller maps and sites. In theory, teams could stack the smaller site since that's where stinger and eco buys in general would go. However, there is probably a lot more minute detail a team would need to consider - that and anything can go horribly against plan in this game.

I can understand why you pose this question since Outlaw is the best antieco weapon. However, you have to remember a lot of teams don't read into the opponent's buy especially if the eco is coming after a full-rifle round. On top of that, to beat a defense-side stinger round is a lot more difficult since you need to convincingly pull players off their close angles and apply map pressure effectively. The stinger-buy is a niche tactic that pretty much NA teams exclusively use but other teams are starting to adopt it. Antistratting the stinger-buy will eventually become a thing, but in a fast-changing meta, the stinger-buy is probably a lower priority.

But you have to remember PRX Attack on Lotus is either some of the best or some of the sloppiest Valorant. They notoriously lost to G2 on this map last year because they didn't properly clear info on this map during attack.

Verno I wouldn't say as much. He was pretty much cooking as Sova during MIBR's pitiful 2-match tenure at Toronto.

I believe so. Beyond these 2 teams' cores, it's just a single player that's been on a single team for a long period of time like FNC Boaster or 100T Asuna

G2 Hockey jersey actually looks great. I prefer it a little more over the Sentinels one because of that G2 logo

Nah G2's playstyle is more systematic which a lot of Val fans say is boring

f0rsaken's omen ults have not been too great. First a late omen ult to fake a reposition on Split. Now an obvious early TP against Nats

He might not frag hard, but he got some serious impact frags in those last few rounds. If Serial can find his value, I can see him staying.

Not just that, but it's the micro details. They got Aced by Keiko on ramp not clearing it - they do the same thing in overtime where they don't clear ramp and Keiko gets so much info despite missing his pick. It's sloppy and mindless to not clear information thoroughly. At least use viper orb on ramp to cut vision there.

Everyone except Verno was struggling on MIBR. Artzin must work on his calling and someone has to help him on the midround calls.

Gekko swapped for Breach was the least of their problems. Yeah, you can still point out that hard flashes are better than Gekko flash and having that long stun is amazing. However, there were serious coordination issues for MIBR. Artzin's calling was significantly worse. Aspas kept going for reckless duels and making some really silly decisions (I'm looking at that Icebox moment where he walks to cross site whilst looking at belt and then dies). Cortezia's aim looked so off. Verno was the only one who turned up to win and it was far from enough.

MIBR and TH competing to see who's the biggest troll at Toronto. I was hoping for MIBR vs TH in the 0-1 draw to settle that little drama where apparently Benjyfishy called Aspas overrated in a TH content video and Frod defended Aspas. Instead we got mutually assured destruction without them even facing off.

Still big up Nats, the true definition of leader. Penny on duelist proves to be a beast. Keiko is recovering some of that kickoff form. Patitek is looking more confident on those aim duels. Serial is solid on the Cypher. Kamo on Neon is a menace.

3rd draw we get TL vs PRX which would be a banger if you watch Sliggy. BLG vs Wolves will be an aggro banger since Chinese teams do the wildest plays.

Jinggg's Raze tech has higher peaks in form. Some of Jinggg's util on Pearl vs TH was genuinely impressive. His boombot, satchels and nades got so much value. If it's a pure Raze head-to-head, Jinggg could probably edge it out since his agent knowledge on Raze is top tier.

But best Singaporean duelist is a different story. Jinggg's only duelists that he has had success on is Reyna, Phoenix and Raze. He has not been great on Jett and Yoru in their metas. He was looking fine on Neon, but Jinggg ultimately is a Raze specialist with a Phoenix pocket pick. Juicy can probably play any meta duelist and his confidence when taking aim duels is insane. I would say Juicy is a better duelist overall due to his ability to play the meta duelists to a high degree and alleviate the agent pool stress on his teammates.

7-1 in pistols is horrendous (obligated BRA71L joke), you have to imagine that TH need to reconsider how they play certain maps since they just felt so disjointed. I know superstitions are a joke, but Blonde Benjy is definitely a cursed hairstyle.

Agreed. Chronicle when Gambit was frying looked more dominant than any other player. His position on FNC definitely has him less in the spotlight, but he's still so consistent for the majority of his games

If MIBR plays TH, I'll pass out.

This series was shit? It was fairly entertaining despite it being one-sided. That first pistol was complete chaos. Go through enemy spawn to B is insanity. PRX stomped, but they make it look so much more disrespectful. Honestly, fun series despite it being so quick

That whistle sent me

That pistol gave me a stroke. I'm here for the chaos. Going through spawn to B is only something PRX would force

noot noot down (karie and brick got exposed by a 3rd party for being a toxic instigator and a gold digger respectively)

This isn't some smalltime he-said, she-said break-up Valorant drama. This is an extensive investigation on matchfixing and collusion. Of course he won't drop accusations right now or anytime soon because he is an actual adult with a brain who understands that there is no benefit and only drawbacks if you blurt out some nonsense without the proper backing. He even hated it when someone tried to drop hints on what he is looking at because that is going to backfire his whole investigation - people will act differently, hide or destroy some of the evidence he needs to verify the claims. Don't focus on it now and let Sean Gares gather everything. There's plenty else in Valorant and the wider world to occupy your time.