64 in 3 maps is insane whatever the record is hes gonna take it if they go 5 maps 100%

I see pros just go into settings and turn their volume to 0 after they die sometimes. In ranked/streaming would be one thing but even in pro games you see it sometimes.

Anyone know why? Seems like it would only be a hinderance if you wanna help your team after you die in comms

rookie mistake mb

On the vlr match page between t1 and trace it says Sylvan is playing not carpe. is this just a visual bug/because carpe is the "sub" or do we actually have evidence that sylvan is healthy enough to play?

drx doubt comes from experience of people being excited for drx only for them to choke and get owned + they have 2 rookies that most people haven't heard of + people saying apac is a weak region overall + drx changing roster spots every few months but keeping the same coach

not saying i agree with this i got drx beating sen but this is the general reasoning behind why people dont believe in drx

i haven't watched any of the anime but i've read it twice. all i can say is that it was one of the most popular of any serialising manga/manwha/manhua around for good reason. it's not like demon slayer where the anime hard clears the manga (manwha) by having goated visuals it does look very good. no harm in reading a few chapters to see if you'll like it or not - if you prefer the anime then wait after that and you'll only have "spoiled" a small amount of anime content which you'll probably forget about anyway once season 2 airs

also as is literally always the case the anime leaves out a bunch of stuff from any manga/manwha etc so you'll be getting more overall solo leveling content if that helps. if you really don't want to risk any spoiling by reading 2-3 future chapters then you could even read the beginning chapters just to compare with the anime to make a decision

absolutely and they're always huge underdogs so it's nice to watch people be surprised (trace)

also their domestic streams are pretty fun just the little things like having crowd interaction with those sprays at halftime. granted i dont understand a single word but it's fun

when zellsis was on c9 they had the best domestic record of any NA team and 2nd overall behind only loud. since then they've only declined and that's even with the pickup of oxy who is insane

before he came to sen over pancada they were very very mid and after he came they won a masters (no hate on pancada great player)

some people just look at stats and cry but moving reduxx for zellsis 1 for 1`makes 0 sense even if zellsis is worse mechanically and will have a worse k/d he is 100% needed. not to mention team mentality/energy, role flexibility, proven chemistry and experience

not sure about the cute but you do you king

regarding the last part "perform at their highest each time" - they don't. not even close. most pros who play ranked are not trying anywhere near as hard as they do in scrims or matches it's just that the average tier 1 pro is way better than a random average radiant. he doesnt compete anymore but an example being sinatraa he just hard autopilots every game with music on in high radiant last i checked

someone as mechanically cracked as primmie can absolutely play an average game and still topfrag in radiant especially on duelist or clove.

also for primmie he might enjoy it more in ranked right now since talon are dealing with some struggles

derke has more international finals appearances and if he wins with vitality it will prove he can be duelist on the best team in the world on 2 different teams - aspas only won with loud

at that point it will at least be a conversation about who is the goat instead of just 100% aspas no?

why would tex be a bad description? he isnt as good a duelist as... aspas? it's ascension-winning duelist firepower on another role and he was insane the entire year. easily 2nd best after aspas

i feel like people are judging "superteam" based on results. when lev was formed it was called a superteam and it was a team of superstar-level players (or close to that level) who had thrived on other teams all coming together. that IS a superteam. if vitality fail to win anything this year they will still be called a superteam. it's not about whether you win it's about the individuals being brought to the team is it not?

idk if you follow the nba but the nets got kevin durant, james harden and kyrie all on 1 team and everyone said it was a superteam - they never won and they all left after a few years. it was still a superteam because it was formed by bringing together 3 superstar players from other teams

people call all the lock-in tournaments mickey mouse - i think the thought is that at the beginning of the year most teams arent really locked in and dont have the prac time in yet. it's a stupid argument though no lockin winning team has been weak

was it not?

literal goat duelist
very highly regarded fragging IGL
ascension winning duelist-turned-senti
another world champion
mazino (sorry bro)

at worst this is at least pretty damn close to a superteam they just didn't win. doesnt mean it wasnt a team of stars

yeah i don't think anything lines up with fnc just dropping him. they havent even hinted at wanting to change anyone else - even with the unfortunate leo situation they're doing everything they can to bring him back and keep the old team

yes

are we sure they hard dropped him and it wasnt a mutual parting/derke wanting out? he seems to be enjoying having more freedom in vitality (his words) and he ended up on a superteam

for anyone who isn't at semi-pro or aspiring analyst level i think it's more about "will the players try" for entertainment and i'd say very likely yes. will they save a few strats or play older comps than the one they won in scrims recently? probably. but they'll give us an enjoyable match and the casters will give finals-level hype

people called lev a superteam last year and they didn't win anything tho even with aspas

if he wins another event this year (and if aspas doesnt) he has a claim to goat imo. not saying he is but it's a real conversation atp

if you're looking for some cope:

typically the team that sits longer waiting for a match actually doesn't do as well or gets off to a rocky start in bo5s

recent examples being

• trace vs edg CN 2025 kickoff
• edg vs heretics grand final map 1 heretics owned them (edg waited longer from being winners side)
• lev g2 (americas stage 2 grand final- lev won map 1 and series from loser bracket after losing winners finals TO g2)
• drx geng (apac stage 2 grand final - geng won series but drx stomped them map 1 after going losers side)

so... most of the recent bo5s/grand finals. the only exception being emea grand finals but that had a mid vitality roster tbh (relative to top teams)

also g2 have a history of choking and sen are no stranger to comebacks

yeah but nobody on live broadcast really does that it's the people on valorant media/social media (vlr, twitch, youtube, twitter, discord etc). more or less also the same answer basically every other person in this thread is giving

i'm primarily not talking about the people in live broadcast who paid to watch but the online fans. never said cheering is bad i'm not sure how that was your takeaway but i guess people see what they want

i'm not a hater but it is very easy to root for the other team when one side has very loud obnoxious fans who over-hype their players at every opportunity and shove it down everyones' throats. i like the org, i like the players, even rob himself is quite likeable but man do the sen lovers make this team hard to like as a neutral

fixed ty

drx free1ng and hyunmin for sure imo

other notable rookies

TL kamyk
Fut xeus
bbl sociable
everyone on nongshim - maybe ivy imo
dgzin was on furia a while ago i cant remember if it was during franchising or not
c9 v1c - had a bad showing at kickoff but he's good
mibr xenom
mada + verno (prefer mada tbh)
flor but man this team is bad so idk
yoman

dfm and boom have some promising rookies but i struggle to pick 1 who is the obvious favourite

dont follow CN enough to know but xlg have some good guys

the opposite really they're quite well rounded nobody really stands out as the carry. keiko is just a consistently high fragger on smokes

g2 are playing very clean valorant (imo) and they have shooters. though it is only a kickoff event so i imagine other teams will step up more in stage 1 as usual

im surprised there is no stream at all though. even if it was just no casters im sure some people would want to watch it seems a little unprofessional to cut all streams + would give fans something to watch before drx t1 starts (also people gamble on esports i guess)

regardless beyn about to cook

in their other wins he didnt go god mode (played well ofc) and the rest of the guys stepped up tho

also yeah a team's level is their level regardless of where it comes from - mechs diff, 1 player diff, better strats, better prep imo

why do people hate doombros? after navi cut him they lost like 8 maps in a row to mid teams and choked the freest qualification they could have ever dreamed of? they actually looked good the first half of last year only losing to heretics and once to bbl. they beat like fnc and had a great record then got fucked by single elim playoffs for masters qualification where they ran into heretics

w coach

how can you have mibr in 7th and below a team they just beat? the rest of it seems fairly reasonable

cn: trace - even though they're top 2 and qualified people don't really respect them and didn't at last years champs either until they cooked. people still say CN is a 1 team region. trace are a genuinely good team they even beat lev at champs

amer: kru - everyone says they're mid and they're always underdogs but they actually do pretty well consistently. last year they were like 6-0 domestically and always good for an upset win. honourable mention mibr not just aspas and friends

emea: bbl - i know they lost to liquid so i should say liquid but man did liquid have some shockingly bad maps. really cool core for bbl and sociablee is looking clean. jampii free from liquid seems like a whole new man. GX also seemed better than expected

apac: boom - underrated team going 0-2 is a tough one to sell ngl but they made those series close and competitive vs some of apac's better and more confident rosters. they wont be qualifying for any masters this year (imo) but i'd be surprised if they didnt give us some banger series vs top teams during the regular season and maybe finish around the middle of apac. HM: dfm and maybe talon since everyone says talon suck but they dont

if i had to choose 1 from every team i'd probably say trace then kru tbh

at this point i dont think changing coach by itself will even do much. they have an identity of hyper aggression and over-pushing and fighting everything. they need a real IGL who can actually implement whatever a coach says whether it's alecks or someone new. they need some discipline and to get back to having real set plays like they used to. i feel like just getting a new coach isnt gonna be enough to fix their terrible habits when theyve spent years with more or less the same people nurturing the same behaviours over and over

unless the coach is that dude from trace he could pull it off alone

prx
nrg
fnc
wolves

wolves were only good in the off season and it was an off season with EDG going full meme and many teams having roster changes. they never looked amazing just did well in meme cups 3/10 disappointment

fnc have looked very mid for a while just winning from better individual players + emea is not a very deep region. some great teams but many dog teams lets be real 6/10

nrg have unc igl but with all the off season hype and everyone saying verno was him they really looked bad. definite disappointment so far. great individual talent squandered all around 8/10

prx for all their chokes they have always done very well domestically so this is a huge L. while everyone else gets better and the overall level of valorant goes up they just keep everything the same again and again. i do expect them to bounce back in split 1 tbh but crashing out domestically for the first time this badly is a terrible look 9/10

marved as IGL was pretty awful. as an individual player he clears FNS no question but as an IGL bro isnt even close. and i dont even rate FNS as a top tier IGL just he still clears tf out of IGL marved from what we saw of his IGLing

best smokes is a bit far but im glad people think the team is more than just aspas and friends. genuinely looks like a good team to me and xenom was great yesterday

even worse when the guy is on your team and he still smokes you off

regular dm is so much worse imo. in tdm some people are a bit cringe but generally i can just swing or hold long angles and get decent 50s most of the time. regular dm is just footstep simulator everyone is just headset abusing and not trying to take normal fights - holding off angles from your steps etc

tdm is easier to just turn my brain off and take fights to me even if i get cringed a few times it's w.e the ratio of good honest fights vs footstep sniffers is much more enjoyable

getting to practice more on the real maps would be great i see your point but i think there must be a reason they developed those TDM maps specifically and didnt use the existing ones. the tdm maps have a lot more open space maybe they're afraid people will play like rats and games will go too slowly on the regular maps for tdm. or maybe the spawns are too far away and there's too much running?

i like the idea i just feel riot probably already considered it and turned it down for some reason otherwise why bother making new maps just for tdm. maybe they thought new maps would bring some people back idk

just to clarify how would this mode be different from the existing team deathmatch? you mean no guns at all or what

it's a real phrase though nothing wrong with it at all

even for the overlap of people like you who find it weird - is the word bum really that bad? let people speak the english language bro you're the one interpreting it in this way and making it strange if you think he's somehow talking about anal

Map 2 went so long I honestly don't know if you sent this before the series started or just before map 2 started. fire

Most of peoples' praises go to good fraggers/aimers and sometimes IGLs. Great general util that sets up the duelist is rarely praised even if it's consistently very very good (even for a pro level). It's much harder to see that and also just far less interesting from most fans POV. If aspas gets a 3k but 2 were blind we all call him the goat and nobody says a word about the flash or the call or the molly that trapped them

It's just the way these games go and really every team game including real sports tbh. Meteor got praise because he fragged like an absolute madman and was easily a top 3 player itw before they got grouped at champs. Karon was a rookie who clutched and fragged and happened to be on a team that went from mid to S tier so he got a lot of shine (rightfully so)

In fairness tho duelists also get the most shit when they don't frag out or get first blood diffed or something so there's a give and take ig

i sure hope not

g2 have won 1 series so far in kickoff. 1 match and it was vs c9 who are already eliminated

prx going into shanghai had a huge win streak of matches including wins over drx, gen.g and t1

i like g2 and i think they're great but people need to calm down and let them play first...

based on what i've seen last year in tier 2 (NA and emea) some of the matches only get streamed by 3rd parties. When they have 2 matches going on and one isnt on their "main stream" they just let some content creator/org of the team playing stream it and don't publicly release the raw stream anywhere

yeah true fns going back to playing was a big hit. was sinatra ever a regular watchpartier last year? idk tbh

ah nice i'll check him out if i see him on

compared to last year I feel like there are so few English (language) watchparties on twitch for apac. Did people like curry and others lose watchparty rights? it's only sliggy and 1-2 others like lothar what happened. i get that the overall english speaking viewership may be lower than americas or emea but still this is kinda weird. who you guys watching?

yeah true, some vandals and a few pistols (1 filler gun like bulldog/marshal maybe) then you can afford to have ~2 guys die and recover the rifles and buy up again

I'm actually quite impressed with the AI valorant analysis ngl much appreciated my guy :)

Altho slight error the FPX buy was the alternative (at the time) to the full armour spectre or similar buy. They would opt for a more greedy hybrid approach of like ~2 rifles a pistol and 2 filler slots depending on spike plant

Would very much like to see some competitive balance as you mentioned