THIS IS ROCKET LEAGUE

At the start of Valorant, there were a lot of orgs who had GC teams along side their main roster. Over the years, the bigger name orgs have dropped out like Faze, EG, C9 White. Orgs are gonna pull out if they see there is no money to be made and Riot should be incentivising these orgs to stay and sign the GC players. NA GC last year and this year has had max 3 big name orgs in the league and the remainder are smaller orgs or pick-up teams. On that front, Riot should be trying to get more orgs to help platform these GC players.

On top of that issue, what I was originally discussing was Riot having stricter vetting process on players because a lot of the GC pick-up teams drop out after 2 stages so they're not staying for a full season. I agree, that the players are an issue for not being serious or upholding professional integrity. However, Riot should still be working to enforce those professional standards including better identification/verification of players to avoid another noot noot incident.

Deryeon and Udotan could both play a better duelist than PatrickWho

Crashies is going to a Masters and potentially Champs if FNATIC keep form. He isn't going to have a little reunion in Tier 2. Yay is also doing well on EG and there is a possibility they could sneak into the 4th slot for Champs.

Particularly the NA GC scene is cooked. EMEA, APAC and basically all of South and Central America take the scene decently serious and have dedicated orgs. Sure, the investment might be low in some of these regions or the quality of play might not be as high, but I have more respect for the integrity of these regions which have official orgs containing rosters that will play every game they are appointed. NA feels like an anomaly since there have been 3 big orgs investing in the scene at a time with the rest being either smaller orgs such as Hakikimori or just pick-up teams with a silly little name. I just wish Riot would take the scene a bit more serious in NA and put some vetting rules on players to enable that orgs pick up reliable individuals and give the fans more players to truly root for.

Statistically, PRX should have won the series. PRX clobber teams at their best, but they still have small flaws like clearing smokes and corners or anti-eco strategies which disable them from closing out maps. I hope Mini gets to talk some more with Alecks since PRX need to have some strategy against ecos and stinger-buys going against the international opponents.

Then how did they beat T1 and DRX - the two teams who went to Bangkok? They have fairly good callers on their team. Stax is definitely a better caller than crazyguy.

Watching the whole series, it's not down to the IGL calling here. RRQ played very well - Jemkin and Kushy were going nuclear on the overtime maps (Split and Pearl) whilst Monyet, xffero and crazyguy were playing great support. PRX played well also, but they made some key mistakes against ecos such as not using prowler on smokes or clearing certain corners.

PRX definitely need to figure out anti-eco strats for every map as well as anti-stinger strats since the American teams will be ensuring that any big lead or pistol round won is nullified.

Honestly, Jemkin and Kushy just shot really well which made Map 2 and 3 winnable for them. Kushy looked like prime Meteor on Pearl with his lurks and multikills. I will say that when Patmen is on it, he is so difficult to beat. His impact is so impressive and if he continues to polish his plays by using his prowlers and util more diligently, PRX can go another step up. I did not fancy PRX on Split to be fair since they played the 2023 comp. Yoru's presence and Fade's util with Raze is undeniably great.

Honestly, a really good head-to-head. Both are recommendations by DubsteP and both are proving their quality as flex players.

They do have a tournament where they can play normal. It's called the regular GC season. Obviously, more LAN tournaments for GC would be great, but the instalock tournament is more of a fun concept. There's also the Spotlight tournament which is mixed between main rosters and GC rosters which I think is definitely a lot better for bringing traction to GC and promoting their skills as being able to hang with some of the top players.

Instalock is basically a tournament which is a bit more about having fun whilst using the common "duelist instalock" that a lot of people experience in Valorant comp. 3 duelist is considered abnormal for professional Valorant since you limit the amount of reusable util in favour of aggro util that refreshes if you get 2 kills. It's an unsustainable composition basically so it's used here as more of a "for fun" event.

RobbieBk, Pancada, Juicy, Francis if I had to nominate 1 player from each league. You still have players like purp0 who is jacked, natank who has god-tier beard, Kushy, Nats and quite a few more.

TE definitely doesn't now, but last year they were making their name in Champs. They took down Leviatan with Aspas. Current pro meta is definitely moving back to dedicated simple roles. I feel like Demon1 should be more of a secondary duelist and then tex plays duelist. Demon1 on Iso would also be great to see, but unfortunately it's probably never going to happen.

Honestly, it's crazy to think in less than a year, LEV have benched 3 players. Demon1, natank and Rossy. It feels so bad given the talent potential these guys have.

Demon1 should and probably has tried to learn to play as a dedicated duelist, hard-entrying for the team, but it is probably his personal playstyle to be calm rather than super aggro. If you recall his EG days, he wasn't extremely dynamic. In fact, he said at the time that he enjoyed playing agents like Astra.

Also, to say that other teams' duelists aren't flexing like Demon1 is just not true. Kai and FengF were flexing duelists and sentinel roles depending on maps during the times that they attends internationals. The issue right now is Demon1's agent pool isn't favoured especially with teams trying to lean into the Yoru meta. Jett is still favourable on maps like Ascent and Icebox, but it's becoming evident that Yoru-Breach-Tejo-Omen-Viper is the meta comp with variations swapping out Breach and Viper depending on the map.

Joliinaa

They should have honestly shown us the pick-rate numbers for Tejo in ranked as well as his win-rate. For pro-scene, it's definitely more transparent, but if Tejo is still not getting a lot of picks in ranked, I don't see why they have to go overkill. It gives more reason for people to instalock duelist, Sage, Clove or even Chamber to have a lot more engagements in the game. I hope that they review this nerf and give him the cooldown buff in a future patch since he was a great way to shake up the meta where Sova + Kayo/Breach dominated on the majority of maps.

You do realise that part of the game is retaking. Like it or not, you will have to retake. Better to retake as a team than to die solo because you thought you were playing old Chamber where you can just hold a site by yourself with an operator.

The suppress is pretty useful and it is literally intended to open space and punish people who might hold a tight angle or off angle.

As for your complaint that "Iso's util does not have an easy counter" - his shield is literally breakable with 1HP of damage. You can blind shot a molly or shock dart or anything else which damages and it breaks his shield nullifying it's utility until he gets a kill - which by the way is a lot harder without his shield tanking a hit.

You complain that Iso counters how Chamber plays and you're mostly right. However, you can still take that early aggression with a teammate. You have to make more conscious decisions throughout the match rather than depend on your agent alone to hold a site. Remember, Valorant is a team game. You have to pick and pull apart your opponents to get the best results.

You complain that your pocket pick has a counter - why not try different agents at the same time. You are not meant to have one instalock and expect to win every game. And even if you still think you can play one instalock, you should embrace the challenge of playing against a hard counter like Iso.

Honestly, I liked Tejo and would still use him, but the removal of cooldown timer is literally what killed Skye. Yes, Skye was practically being picked every map and had an information flash which is so strong, but the fact that you have less utility and that you may have to depend on jiggle peeks which is very risky hurts the confidence in the agent. A long cooldown like 40-45s would be fair. Drone increased in cost is fair since Sova drone is 400 creds. The rebound reduced cost is whatever since few people use the ability or at least to a high quality degree with the bounce. Ult going to 9 is fine since it is a very strong ability in the grand scheme.

Honestly, they should consider the timer for his Salvos since he is not a pure info initiator, but a mid-range like KAY/O and Breach.

Yeah, I know. Joined madv and Mary, both of whom I really enjoy seeing play well. Madv has got some nice aim when she is playing well. Shirazi is on Nova GC as well with Clem

Xipto/SMG since they were basically the female PRX. Still think about that Lotus win vs. EG GC using 4 duelists and their main duelist player was on Cypher.

It takes 1hp of damage to break the Iso shield. Literally could have a teammate with a rifle just prefire, throw damaging abilities or even just wait out the shield. It's an awp counter, but it really isn't that strong. Neon's constant movement is more of a difficult problem since it regens quite fast throughout the round.

Stun is a small change. I will say that it probably should have been kept at 4s since you have to place the star, wait until it is set and then use it rather than just aim your stun like Neon or Breach. Stuns overall are kinda ass since you still get a lot of that "cosmetic stun" and enemies hit you just fine.

On top of all of that, they play fairly aggressive and impressive Valorant. There is still some tactician work from Frod and artzin, but some of these plays just make your jaw drop. You can tell everyone in the org right now is feeling good about where they are - Aspas is taking more of a leadership role, Verno has more expression with his playstyle, Cortezia and Xenom being so hype after every round win and Artzin looking like a beast despite being the main caller.

Wanna be my Guatemama?

Credit where credit is due: GENG's coaches cooked on some of the strategies and tore through BOOM. PRX definitely need someone to support on a tactical front to point out errors and fine tune the plays. I feel like Mindfreak is kind of doing that as the 6th man - he is giving his player perspective to help with Alecks' strategy book.

Even then, the individuals on each of these lower bracket teams can flip a round. HYUNMIN from DRX, Primmie and Killua from Talon, Dambi from NS, Meteor and iZu from T1, as well as dos9 and famouz for BOOM. When any of these players are feeling it in a round or a series, it feels so much more difficult to run through them. Sure PRX have Jinggg, F0rsaken and Something, but these guys will take turns in having a crap series (obviously not intentionally) and because they want to fight to recover their mental instead of play to support more, they lose out even harder. It will take a lot of hard work to ensure performances can be upheld all the way through for PRX if they want to go to Masters.

Honestly, GENG turned up with a much more refined gameplan. I know it can be frustrating when you've seen GENG go on an inconsistent patch of form, but they seemed to figure out how they wanted to play their maps and they ensured to do it well. My personal take is that the whole team looked a little lost and off form compared to GENG who were hungry for another Masters appearance. There's something about Karon when it's time to get a trophy or punch a ticket to an event, he goes crazy.

I would loved to see 2 Indonesian teams go to Toronto, but I have my doubts for BOOM to survive the lower bracket since even if they beat either NS or Talon, they need to beat DRX who are able to claw their way out with amazing plays from HYUNMIN and Mako.

Teenage prodigy for ENVY. Puts up high kill numbers in pretty much every pro match he has been in. Lately his girlfriend broke up with him and the tweets are basically exposing his behaviour he conducts in private.

Head to head match score, then head-to-head map differential, then head-to-head round differential, then overall map differential, overall round differential and lastly Strength of Victory which I am unsure how that is calculated.

Watch this video essay from Commend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMMh22ikCI8

Commend interviews Mini about Leo and it puts into perspective how good Leo is because I feel a lot of people look for extremely flashy plays when Leo was consistently making intelligent decisions. A lot of the stuff behind some of his last matches makes you realise how crazy he was. The 26/9 masterclass in EMEA Stage 1 Grand Finals Map 5 is crazier when you realise how ill he was and that he could barely comm. Truly absurd how he played through his illness in some of these games.

Lewn has a crazy overheat problem. If he can dial it in, then he would be an insane problem for most teams. Xeus is definitely a beast though - could have been FNATIC's pick. Kaajak is still worthy if FNATIC can drop him an op and play more of his style of Valorant.

Very rare case in a 3-way tie between DFM, GE and PRX. I can't recall in recent times there ever being a tiebreaker Bo1. Maybe pre-franchising, but it is very unlikely. It will probably be more likely for a 2-way tie in which, yes, it would go to head-to-head.

Oh yeah, head-to-head match scores would count in that case. I always find this a bit weird, but it makes sense in the rulings. So in that case, PRX need to beat GE and DFM. If it's a 3-way tie where GE, DFM and PRX are on 1-4 records, then it would proceed to the steps of my original comment. So map differentials, round differentials. This would only come about if PRX beat GE but lose to DFM (DFM lost to GE in Week 1). This is the messiest outcome.

Yes. If PRX beat GE and DFM, they finish 2-3. They would need GE to lose to GENG to comfortably land 4th to go through to playoffs. DFM's last game won't matter if they lose to PRX. If GE somehow beat GENG, it will come down to map differential, round differential and in the rare chance those are even, it goes to a Bo1 tiebreaker.

I just remembered another one from VCT 2023 - Alfajer "the Wonderkid" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m76ia6L_Eg 1:27

Nah, it has to be Rb (Raid Boss).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1jo1p2_oeQ - 0:29, Bren says it nice and clear after the clutch

Whilst not a nickname, I think the casters calling k1ngg, "The Dark Knight" / "El Caballero de la Noche" for his Omen play here is really fitting: https://youtu.be/h-TpFPLaMvY?si=O7mQXjnC_6Q4z1Xl&t=39.

Trying to build an Astralis Val Roster?

I'll be honest, the original post definitely feels a bit unfair to ban over. I have seen more warranted bans in Sliggy's chat since a lot of people can end up just making troll comments with no substance. At the end of the day, most of the comments in chat won't be read by the streamer so it's better to save that energy for someone who will listen to it or just not waste your energy at all.

I've mentioned in my other post in this thread that him being washed is because teams don't realise he is not a tip-of-the-spear duelist but rather a second-contact duelist. He will occasionally get first-pick, but he is not the kind of person to dive a site and instead look for a pick by defaulting. He'd definitely fit a role that Meteor currently plays for T1 where he can play Iso but also flex into a different role. Tex should be the primary duelist since he has enough experience (I know Kingg does too, but he is the best Omen player on the team).

Not built for smokes but he literally won champs playing Brim and Astra interchangeably. I don't know what it is about Omen that he doesn't fully click on.

The level of competition his naturally risen so whilst Demon1 may strive for more, it will require a lot more work than in previous seasons. I think what is clear is that Demon1 worked very well on this Jett/Brim/Astra flex role. For one thing, he has openly said that he enjoys Astra as an agent and Brim is something of an aggro agent with that stim. I would be interested to see him play Iso or Clove since Demon1 could benefit from having an agent that makes his duels more advantageous for him (Iso shield, Clove movement after heal/Clove revive).

I feel like these newer teams have not realised that you cannot put this guy on the entry-duelist with agents like Raze or Neon since that is not his playstyle. He is aggro, but he prefers to play a bit more tactically than be the tip of the spear. Jawgemo was the perfect balance for Demon1 since Jawgemo is the kind of guy to send it. What hurts Demon1 more is the meta has almost no space for Jett. More teams are playing Yoru, Neon, Raze and the occasional Waylay. Iso is more of a secondary duelist option and Reyna is only getting very niche picks on Icebox. Jett is still probably most viable on Icebox but with how shaken up the meta is compared to 2 years ago, naturally Demon1 is gonna need to adapt to full duelist or find the new flex role.

I love how you slotted Re:zero in between all the other ones.

1. Erased
2. Frieren
3. Steins;Gate
4. Summertime Rendering
5. Rascal does not dream of a bunny-girl senpai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM4j9ObRUpA You really got these hands.

Firstly, damn, how you breaking a Sora. It's a surprisingly sturdy mouse for its weight. Secondly, understandable that the Sora V2 is a bit overrated especially because it was supposed to be an 8K-polling rate mouse but you have to buy a separate receiver.

Nevertheless, I think if you want simply the best mouse - it's gonna be the Viper V3 Pro. The most up-to-date sensor that no other mouse can use for another few years. It's a decent size and shape. Pretty much the best wireless mouse option.

If you're fine with wired, Endgame OP1 8k. Some of the most reliable gameplay and the design of the wire is aimed to be as free from dragging as you can get.

If you wanna try something smaller, Finalmouse UltralightX Cheetah or WLMouse BeastX Mini are great options with the BeastX Mini now housing a 3950 sensor instead of the 3395. Basically newer tech for a smoother sensor response. Finalmouse is more hype and you have to be more so ready for batch drops. But the weight is the lowest for a full-size mouse.

Maybe since it's a language barrier thing, but CNC makes that tweet even worse (CNC is a kink about pretending to not give consent - very extreme/taboo stuff).

Basically it's a kink about pretending to not give consent. Very taboo/extreme and wild to even suggest in your first DM with a random girl

I agree that S1mon was the worst-performing at Bangkok, but have you seen how nobody used to play in 2023 to early 2024. Whilst not the kind to team-flash, this guy had and still does have a bad overpeek problem on one of the most important roles. Despite S1mon's low point in Bangkok, he had showing of quality and I think he probably just got shaken up by how levelled up the competition was after 2024. I personally believe S1mon's big downfall is that he couldn't learn Tejo as well as nobody so it limited options of Tejo-Sova play. The teamflashes and whiffs can be smoothed out through developing S1mon's composure.