Drewsparks was smart to get out, realized he was gonna get snaked real soon

Wasn't aware all the white people in South Africa had the pass, good to know

I think they talked about it on spiketalk tho. And even if I'm remembering wrong, how are you a caster being this unaware of the scene? I actually think I liked him as a caster more than most people did last year, but he's been absolutely insufferable this season

Still not as bad as NRG picking Lotus into G2

Yeah based on kickoff and stage 1 from the other teams, I'd have them as like 6th in the region, which isn't where you want to be, but definitely not worth dropping the top NA prospect and your coach for. Now, going into stage 2, if LOUD get a real coach, I think NRG is like 10th.

Well the best ones aren't 18 yet. I love tdawg but his fragging would be pretty close to FNS's if we're honest and NiSMO simply isn''t playing tier1 with a kid to raise. skuba would be a great pickup though

FNS is so clueless about how valorant is currently that he refused to run tejo before kickoff. He might be an even worse coach than player and thats saying something

His viewership will still be okay, maybe a slight decline, but plenty of casuals will still watch, especially if he's watch partying with s0m/tarik. I could see his chat being moderated pretty heavily knowing his ego and how much people will make fun of him though

people who don't care usually don't have to make tweets telling everyone how much they don't care

yeah exactly my point. My understanding is that FNS, s0m and Ethan are all retiring at the end of the year, its pointless to keep them for the rest of the season if these are the results they can achieve. If you can't win now, build for the future

The fact they thought tejo was bad (verno said this yesterday and also was in a nrg vlog) and refused to try him out is such a giveaway that he has no idea whats happening anymore. The CS style calling worked when teams weren't as advanced, but FNS is just a dinosaur now

Yeah its ridiculous to suggest that he suddenly learned how to midround in like a month. I think he has said he was responsible for a lot of the ideas on OXG, FNS just has an ego and can't let a young player overcall him.

Based on this and some interviews Verno gave yesterday, it doesn't seem like Verno wasn't comming like NRG tried to imply in their podcasts. More like he had a different vision of how to play than the veterans and wanted the team to listen to his decision making. Seems like FNS wanted to him to just give info and not input. And ofc the ideas that FNS has about Val are outdated by a couple of years and s0m is playing omen like its ranked lmao. Doesn't help that I think there's a bit of cliquishness with FNS, s0m and Ethan, and Verno seems like a shy guy outside of the server.

I don't think thats a hot take, but if I were in charge I'd 100% be making roster changes. If they lose against LEV next week, which seems likely, they need to win out next stage and place like top 4 in playoffs or just make top 2 to go to champs, both very unlikely. You've got 3 players who have said they won't be returning next year; this team is going nowhere fast so just drop them all and focus on the rebuild instead, get young players experience and see what you have. And if it's Mikes and not FNS thats coming up with these 2023 comps, drop him as well. But I imagine they won't do this since cutting your 3 most popular players probably won't go over well with their fans

They let a player (FNS) make all the decisions, so obviously not

If the teams in each tier are ordered, I'd say its pretty good. I'd personally just move SEN, KRU, LEV and LOUD all up a tier, while roughly keeping the order

I completely agree. I have noticed a lot when he plays senti that if he goes to flank and catch a rotation, he wont play remotely aggressive. He'll just go and sit in a corner where he can get one but will likely just get traded out immediately. Obviously you dont want to full send the flank all the time, but its way too exploitable when you never do. Also when he does this, he's always holding his crosshair at body level, like he's afraid of whiffing on the headshot, which means he's never getting multiple kills. I'm thinking of today on haven, and last week on lotus. I also remember a clip on bind from last year where he whiffs with a stinger in a similar spot.

The current meta leans towards attack far more than defense. And yet his team is horrid at attack while being okay on defense. Not a coincidence that the IGL's calling is much more relevant on attack. The dude is exposed at this point

I'm a huge EMEA hater, but its so obviously China. EMEA at least has a couple of good teams and the bottom, while bad, still clears the bottom of China.

Thats partly true, his calling was pretty CSpilled at a time when many teams weren't at a high level tactically, but it definitely made his calls look better when he had guys that could just execute better. Now though the game is so advanced and he's been unable to adapt. His ego probably doesn't help with that either

ngl SENs regular season jerseys are mostly ass, I'm starting to think its a ploy to get people to just buy their masters/champs jerseys since those are actually dope

Wow a ranking list that isn't terrible, I'm impressed. I'd switch asuna and dgzin, and maybe oxy with cryo as well, but otherwise pretty good.

I agree, but also when Riot tried more unique ideas, we got fucking Iso

yeah I mean thats not news, its the reason he's still in tier 2. Pretty smart igl but thats not enough to make tier 1 anymore, unless you join a nepo org such as NRG

2 of the 8 non-korean teams' head coaches outright saying it + Alecs alluding to it. And tanmay too, but yeah, nobodies. Make sure to zip up joe marsh when you're done.

I saw they were getting rolled by cubert, idk if theres any more

in 5 years when people talk about the best controllers in americas people will all say tenz and not s0m even though tenz was just an omen one trick, simply because he retired at his peak. Kinda sad to see for s0m.

Them not changing up their split yet is concerning. Yes they beat loud on it but teams that actually prep against it will wreck them (see: SEN). Also their bind being the same as last year, even after teams figured it out. And Tejo only being used on 2 maps is wild

I mean Rob Moore has committed to making the cubert guys available so i cant be too mad lol. But yes that would be a good move from 100t

oh yeah I'm mostly looking towards next split, theyre all but eliminated for playoffs

Oh I agree they definitely need to put someone on IGL, but I think pancada could be capable of handling it. I dont think there's anyone they could pick up besides zap (and Im pretty sure his career is cooked)

I think its forsure -Asuna, and then either -Zikz or -Boostio. There's 100% a comms issue and a strats/team comps issue and its hard to know from the outside if the igl or coach is more responsible for whats going on (I'd lean more towards it being Zikz though)

they are 6th at best, 7th once loud finally kicks v0nny

LMAO even if you dislike him, this has to be one of the most delulu posts of all time

lmao brotha if you could "just adjust ur sens" everyone would still be playing on a qck, different pads have different static & kinetic friction which 100% affects shakiness independent of ur sens

I took a look at FNS on prosettings out of curiosity (so I could know what to avoid) and I saw it lists him as using an Artisan Hien pad? Im aware prosettings is pretty unreliable, can any FNS viewers confirm? I saw some footage that I can tell he's using an Artisan but I can't read what model it is. Because if the most notoriously shaky aimer in VCT is playing on a fucking speed pad, that's a level of trolling approaching matchfixing

80-20 sounds about right. If LEV is shooting and they manage to change up their stuff like today, and the map veto goes well, then I definitely can see the upset happening.

How in the fuck is Zeta and Secret above DFM?

165-180
144hz
plat3 (last episode, havent played much this year)

yeah its 100% speculation on my part as to why, but he definitely did seem to want to compete earlier in that year. And I definitely don't wish him to be like this but Id much rather see a new talent who is gonna to try and push themselves instead of collecting a paycheck. Like say flor, who I honestly wasn't really a fan of in gc, huge respect for her leaving the easy bag in gc to push herself playing for what was likely to be a bottom feeding team in a whole other region

I think cove and BLG happening within a month and a half legitimately broke him. Like he just has zero competitive drive since. He's extremely talented but if thats how it is, I have no interest in seeing him stay in the league. No room for guys who dont wanna be there and are just going to throw rounds like its ranked

I mean his most notable win was the other team matchfixing so yeah...

ngl i felt ill watching a video from trick and agreeing with it

putting up 180 acs in mostly immortal lobbies while getting boosted by s0m is not high immortal mechanics...

I think the balance team is separate from the agent design team. And the agent design team has not been cooking lately. Iso, clove, and tejo (3 of the last 5 added) have been horrid additions to the game

I don't want to pass judgement on brawk & mada, but FNS, s0m, and Ethan absolutely do not care. Its fucking embarrassing. How do you let players who have already announced their retirement and clearly just want to collect a bag with zero effort continue to play? I guess Mikes is probably trying at least and it could be that FNS is just running the team comp decisions from behind the scenes, but if its him he 100% deserves to be fired

hmm not sure about your bottom 3, I think I'd put pool-chan there

why would they pick the map that they lost against the worst team in franchising against arguably the best team in franchising. Make it make sense

I think the idea behind forcing retaining the roster is good, but there are a number of issues with it like having underage players. Or you could have a player absolutely crash out like zap did this year and you'd have to retain their toxic ass. And I'd like there to be a lower age restriction, but it just wont happen. Having to manage that in 4 different countries plus securing work visas for them for Masters events is so untenable, there's really no point in even asking for it

LMAO the cope over needing to import players becauses your own region is such shit. emea ascension teams are 6-16 playing in the weakest region (hasnt won an international in nearly 2 years). Meanwhile americas ascension teams:
https://www.vlr.gg/449009/team-vitality-vs-g2-esports-champions-tour-2025-masters-bangkok-ubsf
https://www.vlr.gg/449005/g2-esports-vs-team-liquid-champions-tour-2025-masters-bangkok-r3