One fan's take: Game Changers is partly why Tier 1 has been slow to incorporate women and marginalized genders into team lineups. For clarity I am not saying GC is bad or the problem, it is a visibility issue and IMO it's not gonna just magically fix itself.

From a player perspective: If you can get guaranteed a salaried spot in GC (ie: Top GC players), is it always worth the risk to try to move up to Tier 1? For some yes and that is awesome, some would rather stay in GC for the guarantee of salary or for other personal reasons, also great no problem. The players/coaches should do whatever they think is best and I support them, just trying to say that sometimes moving up to Tier 1 is not what is best for some individuals, same could be said for collegiate players.

I think there is also a structural issue that is hard to overcome when GC and Tier 1- Tier 2 are entirely different seasons, no chance of playing against each other in official tournaments, and therefore less chance that casual fans see women and other marginalized genders play. I consider myself an avid fan of Valorant E-Sports, so I enjoy watching anyone who is good/entertaining play. A lot of viewers are not avid fans, they have a favorite player, team, region, or only watch International events.

There are a couple of ways to fix that issue, and maybe you can argue that nothing needs to be done. Flor is on a Tier 1 roster, maybe this could be the start of a huge influx of teams at least more regularly trialing and hopefully signing more GC players. Personally I think there is still a visibility issue and the most obvious way to solve it for me would be inviting the top 2-3 GC teams from GC Champs to Tier 1 Champs, or at the very least including those teams in a play-in or something like an LCQ with Tier 1 teams. This would mean larger audiences get to see GC players/teams play against clouted teams like SEN, 100T, etc.

Personally, I think the best way to nerf him while still keeping some of the value of the signature ability is to adjust the pulses and damage per pulse to different break points. Lowering the pulses to two would decrease visual clutter and marginally lower the space denial aspect of the ability by decreasing the overall time it is up. The pulses should be set to 50 damage per pulse, meaning you need to double up the charges to kill full HP targets or deal chip/decay damage with combos like Fade Q. This would also allow Tejo to break KJ ult, but require both charges to be used. I also think the cooldown should be increased and not deleted, we saw what happened to Skye high-key an Initiator without a cooldown is pointless.

The Salvos are going to be game breaking and need to be nerfed before the update goes live. Go ahead and look at all the agents in the game and see what their signature ability does. How many are damage dealing, kill potential abilities?

Answer is 2: the 1st is Raze, who requires 2 kills to recharge the ability and has to have some level of skill with the character to throw the grenade optimally to get kills on full HP targets.

2nd is this new Tejo, who gets 2 charges refreshed every 40 seconds, has a mini map to perfectly target the locations he wants, has consistent damage AOE, and can be miles from that location...

I mean this agent is cool af, but wtf is RIOT cooking? Are we not trying to get out of the post plant spam meta? Congrats you have just made it talentless on a 40 second cooldown.

Make Cove and Cascade one ability with 2 purchasable charges, Cascade is buffed to have Cove bullet-proof duration (basically Cove + Iso Wall). Put the ability on one of Q or C and have it behave like Gekko wingman where you can select if you want a wall or a cove. This would make it possible to do double BP cascades or double coves. Overall keeping the strength of his kit but losing one charge (formerly 1 cove + 2 cascades, now 2 of either). This is where the fun begins, give him some initiating, molly, HE grenade ability on the other Q or C key (whichever is not the Cascade/Cove combo ability I described earlier). Harbor needs another interesting ability, that's the problem with him in ranked and basically it's the same problem in pro play, bringing harbor almost requires double controller, even with Astra and Omen this flexible it is often not worth it to include Harbor over someone else. Make Harbor Fun

A lot of the set attack strats called now are variations of 4/1 splits where you have your senti lurking somewhere and the pack taking space somewhere else. No offense to Zellsis, dude is funny as hell and an amazing team player, but he really can't get the same value as a cracked aimer like N4rrate in these sorts of 4/1 splits. I agree with OP tho, Zekken and Tenz was a great 1,2 combo last year with Sacy and Zellsis supporting with utility and John lurking. I honestly think Johnqt was really good in the lurk role, it's just that a lot of teams seem to think their ceiling is higher by having the IGL as part of the pack and with info gathering utility.

My Xbox360 randomly gave this name to me in like 2012-2013 or something. Used it ever since

That's just the APAC league for you

That tweet from C9 is the biggest cope I've ever read. Ok sure you don't like the IGLing that got you to top 2... even then keep the best player of the tournament. Idk who wrote that tweet but I can guarantee they are lying or braindead.

These guys must have top tier nepotism, blackmail on owners, or are playing and coaching for minimum wage. If it's the latter then I truly respect the grind.

I cannot understand any other justification for these roster moves. The roster should have been:

Duelist: Oxy
Initiator/Flex: Rossy
Flex/IGL: Mitch
Smokes: V1C
Sentinel: Most likely Moose, could try others

Pick up an Americas Tier 2 coach; The top 3 coaches all got Tier 1 jobs (Faded, Happy, Bonkar). There is no excuse for Immi to not have a reliable system built around Oxy at this point. It's been over 2 years of Immi developing Oxy. If this duo can't achieve results this year it's time for something new.

Not even trying to hate, Immi seems fine in the few content pieces I've seen him in and Xeppaa is one of the few pros with personality and an entertaining stream. Go collect the watch party check king. You've got my prime if Rossy comes back.

Brutha we could hop into a custom and I'll show you the spots that it works, RIOT deleted that shit tho. I ain't gonna flame you too hard cause yeah sometimes the neon is literally god and just slides thru it and wins anyway but it worked ~90% of the time.

He just like me fr 💯

And that's true 💯

what.

u thought it was real didn't u

Dear Omen Mains,

We are writing to tell you that we do not give a fuck about you goofy. Imagine learning fucking map geometry for 7 maps per pool 💀. We certainly couldn't be bothered to know how our maps work (see Sunset, Icebox, Breeze, Pearl). Guess those one-ways you have been using to deal with Neon players are all gone, btw we aren't gonna nerf that hoe in the slightest so figure something else out 💀.

PS we are also buffing Phoenix so enjoy being flashed by fucking Requis 3-4 times per round.

FAQ: I have indeed lost my sanity and will to live ty

FNC and TH are still both world beaters and should be in the running for trophies. VIT and KC have some big names, but so did 2024 NRG...

Overall tho, Americas average is higher than EMEA average. C9, FURIA, and LOUD look likely to be the lower table Americas teams and all of these teams would finish higher in any of the other 3 INT leagues.

Americas has 1 proven world beater team G2, and at least 4-5 teams that could be world beaters as well; SEN, KRU, 100T, LEV...

Even EG, NRG, and MIBR look dangerous.

Also Americas seems to be the only region with competent Ascension teams.

Imo double duelist is the most exciting meta to watch. With pretty huge Phoenix buffs, Iso still being strong, Yoru still being strong, and Neon being semi broken it makes sense to bring any one of those duelists along side your normal Jett or Raze depending on map. Split coming back and Icebox leaving is also huge, Split already has a history of Raze/Jett or even Yoru, and Icebox it's not uncommon for teams to play no duelist or use a different agent role as entry or mock duelist. The regen shield is going to give these agents so many possibilities to int and not get fully punished for it. Sunset is supposedly going to be less post-plant spammy, and a map dev agreed with Tenz about fixing post-plant spam on other maps (less opportunity to sit back and spam means more incentive to push further and int). Used to pray for times like this please Riot no more monkey wrenches you have already cooked.

Halo

https://x.com/LEGIJAcs/status/1842063519455281283

from HC saying he heard about it 30 mins before news dropped and tons of off-season rumors about Aspas. Why would coach and gm be trialing players/prepping for season if they knew this was coming?

What tf is BLEED management cooking brother the house is on fire

Zap is already in my top 5 favorite players to watch in VCT Americas. I'm excited to see the back and forth with NA yappers like Boostio and Demon1 as well as Zap shit talking horrible teams like Furia.

They took rumble's logo and stretched it out

If KOI had a good logo purple fans would be so back cause the Gyarados card was cool

Astronaut is cool, maybe something like SSG logo but purple. idk maybe I'm just biased about the name but the 2G vs G2 game just doesn't sound good. Imagine an announcer saying "All tied up, 2G 2 G2 2 in a match. Wack

YES. I wanted Galorys low-key but I guess we still get purple

Yes go for it

2G could we please change the branding up a little bit. The name is just freaky friday G2, the logo looks like a 2017 overcook that has no business making it this far, the one redeeming part that I am excited about is having a purple team in Americas VCT. Pls lean into that and design a new logo at bare minimum and hopefully a new team name. Congrats BR on another team gonna be awesome to see Zap calling out all the frauds on stage. <3

Pls god change the logo it is ugly af

2023 was a better year for him. The death of Skye and getting a better Raze player (Oxy) have hurt Xeppa's agent pool quite a bit, imo those were his best agents last year. By pure stats he had a down year, but this current C9 team doesn't snowball rounds and map advantages as much as last year's did. If the team improves and he gets agents better suited for him I think he's still a capable player for next season. Besides Oxy, Xeppa is the only part of that C9 team with any personality so there is also that argument if you can't be good at least be funny, which I think he does well.

Net is the shit that comes out of Apoth's ass

I would sooner keep Apoth or sign Dasnerth and Inspire.

Zander goes to T1

Nismo works at restaurant

Bcj T2

Koalanoob goes to Shroud's Spectre Game

Net... bro get your fucking life together man

Ok I just flamed you yesterday but dude. Jesus fucking christ are you bad at this game. Somebody get Dasnerth or Inspire on a plane to Mexico right now to fill in for this fucking traffic cone.

My comp lobbies aim diff and game sense diff these guys

Someone inform M80 that aim labs is in fact free. These guys couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat.

M80's best Opper is constantly put on roles that don't enable him to op, their best entry player is stuck in Breach jail on over half their map pool, their IGL is prolly best all around player and individual play has been shakier since needing to IGL. The other two genuinely look lost at times and cannot compete against BR and LATAM shooters. Yeah, they kinda overrated, even if the team has the best structure and has tactical depth they seem to want to troll that away and not win gun fights.

so you are saying I'm funny

Net can you please retire, figure your shit out, or just swap to Shroud's game? Istg watching you be the weakest link on two separate teams has gone from frustrating to funny to just downright embarrassing.

I get that it is easy to bash them in hindsight, but I feel like foresight should have caught this one. There are a couple maps FNC just doesn't like to play and despite bringing in Anderzz to cook for them on Abyss the team doesn't look cohesive or well prepped. This was the perfect game to make FNATIC play outside their comfortable map pool instead G2 try to pick into FNC's map pool. Very odd and seemingly uninformed.

Most of the year I thought that but this game changed my perception. I don't accept that they were thinking clearly when they made these bans. Sorry if it's unpopular to hate on this coach but it's fucking true. I'm not saying drop em but they need to get their shit together if they want to be anything but a joke next season.

G2 still having a perma ban for Sunset is fucking troll. I get their map pool is similar to FNC but you really want to play Haven and Lotus against FNC? That didn't even need to happen cause G2 pick FNC's 3rd best map Bind and can't even beat them there. What the fuck was G2's plan for the match? As a coach you need to go into these map bans with an actual plan, it seems like your plan was to serve them this fucking W on a silver platter while you bend over and spread em for FNC. Actually had hope for this team, not falling for it again yall are some chokers and your coaches are clowns.

Why the fuck is G2 banning Sunset? I wanted to cope that G2 had a chance but jesus they need another strategy coach to tell them what to fucking ban. Banning Lotus and Haven make way more sense against a team like FNATIC, but nawwww lets ban the map they lost to fucking KRU on. That will help us! FNATIC banned our best map, maybe lets ban one of their mid maps. This game was fucking trolled from the map ban, gg G2 see you next year maybe your coach learns how to ban.

Clueless

Title. EDG and PRX together for the billionth time in a row. All of this season's Master Winners and Runners-up in the same group. FNATIC get the mf fast pass to playoffs for the billionth time in a row. Group C try to care about one of those teams challenge: impossible (except Aspas <3).

Also RIOT holding on to the cope that a 4th place from X region is the same value team as a 4th place from Y region is just blatantly non-competitive and will always complicate drawings/seedings. Let some arm-chair analysts or somebody put these teams in a power-ranking/tier list rather than just 1,2,3, Champs Points team all different regions.

A pure random draw with zero respect for power ranking, finish, etc would produce similar or probably even better results. I swear yall were starting to cook with trying Swiss and Pick your Opponent, please just be more realistic about the quality of teams when you seed them and design the draw rules.

GIMME

Yes thank you ik that. I want them on this website believe it or not

Hello??? Is there anyone who works for VLR or has access to edit??? Update champions points pls.

My brother in Christ, you have a full utility on Breach. Why are we dry swinging every angle? I hope it was for a check cause aintnoway this is how you think Breach should be played

No aura, no motion, no action. imo if they can't win a game this year Riot should kick them out and replace them with runner up in Americas Ascension.

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Why no work?

G2
TH
LEV
FUT

Happy fishing brother, tho I would recommend better bait