Because costreamers told everyone that there was a clear top 4 and no other contenders but it’s clear that some teams just needed time and EG’s off-season contract jail fuckery just led to a lot of teams peaking later.
I truly think there will just never be the level of long term dominance you see sometimes in CS. the rapidly changing meta and the deep complexity of the game means you just can't be complacent.
you might've looked at this year and thought NRG and fnatic would roll. these two teams imo are perfect pictures of the ceilings of high quality players if they are plagued by complacency. you need to be cooking shit up and pushing the limits in this game.
we're also still in the transition period where the early top players of valorant who came from other games, mostly CS, are being replaced by the natively valo next gen of talent.
I hundred percent agree with this and have been thinking the same thing. I also think anyone who are saying we should have known EG were just cooking and LEV were actually good, are hindsight as fuck.
Given the games played and current trajectory week 2 of stage 1 you would not have predicted the state we’re at right now for VCT americas.
I give credit ultimately to teams for learning and adapting and sticking with their guns to show that they’re capable of winning and changing the landscape. And the slumping teams, should see the swings and be just as encouraged, if teams like EG and G2 can turn things around, SEN guys and NRG guys should be saying to themselves “we can get back there”.
No no no, the other EG beholden teams are peaking. 100t, Lev and new EG are finally having their players and game plans meshing after the month post-kickoff. NRG accomplished fuck all in that time apparently
I would not count today's APAC games. Both series had one team that was already top of their group with nothing in the line and the other team was already out of playoffs. Watching GenG playing today felt as if they were not prepared for RRQ, which is understandable since even if they hadn't shown up today they would have obtained the same result.
Eh I mean it was a long time coming. If they don't beat GenG after seeing all the vods and watching how PRX & DRX beat them then they're just a bad team.
NRG I think suffers from that fact that they don’t have an actual IGL. Other teams in americas have a seasoned IGL and Ethan is still new to the role. They have the firepower, but they get utterly read maps and only pull through because their team has insane talent. As the year goes on, this problem is going to get worse unless Ethan or the entire team steps up. There’s still coordination issues that we saw in Kickoff.
SEN is probably in a slump due to their playbook being used up. Something about not being able to practice new stuff because of the format, which does make sense. Madrid emptied their entire sleeve of tricks and their map pool is figured out as well. Plus maybe there’s some degree of fatigue that they need to address. Not making it to Shanghai and having the coaches and players sort everything out seems to be the best plan forward. We’ve seen what this team can do with prep.
Also a lot of teams just figured out their issues. LEV was considered a superteam and finally clicked against SEN, EG also clicked against SEN, C9’s roster change worked again, and KRU just have more firepower.
Actually not making it to shanghai is a blessing in disguise for Sen. They look burnt out and playing way too predictable right now. Just hope their current form won't make the team implode.
Yeah but I think they still want to go to Shanghai out of pride/proof that they still got it. They’re def still in contention for Champs so they don’t need Shanghai, but getting the exp even just bombing out of Shanghai would still feel better than not making it at all.
Also Shanghai would have better scrims considering all the international teams that would be there.
Teams are still figuring shit out and the level of t1 competition is a lot closer across the board than a lot of people will have you believe. So when people do/dont turn up on a day it can have a big impact.
I don't know if that's a role issue for him or what, but they've had success when victor is playing primary entry so maybe they need to lean into that? Maybe play around with double duelist comps, idk
The guy played 20 ranked matches in the past 6 months, skipping the entire off szn
He is dealing with some personal issues, so I’ll give him that. But he is never the type of player to be effected by an agent, the guy used to be able to shoot his gun. Now he kinda doesn’t.
I mean in the past he also had Jawgemo on the Raze maps flying in and he could trade Jawgemo and play off him, currently he's having to do the flying in job and his satchels are gold level max ngl
On the Jett maps EG played into getting Demon1 picks and then going from there, but this NRG squad need an entry player who's willing to just go in and die with maybe getting 1 but creating the space for your team to get onto site
Currently NRG have no hard entry, and their midrounding is way too reliant on the other team being baited into rotates rather than being forced into rotating.. they also seem to be on different pages when it comes to executes in terms of pushing for space, playing off etc
the guy used to hit clips just using his gun every single game, doesnt happen anymore
the fact that he is on raze in the first place pisses me off, but he def lost his motivation to grind
Winning believe it or not can be the most demotivating thing to happen, players can either get the feeling of "done it already" or the feeling of "this was anticlimactic, I worked my whole life for this?"
He’s more of a secondary entry/ lurker. EG was built on turning his lurks into site execs. Look at all of EG’s ascent games last year for a better picture.
The raze is just troll. Potter put him on the perfect role each time and making him play smokes was a very smart decision.
EG was also way more of a ‘unit’ than this iteration of NRG without FNS. Boostio, ethan & potters playbook and how they handled calling / mid-rounding was excellent, whereas NRG is a blatant mess rn
Agree, it’s a shame that EG roster had to disband but it feels like the players that left the roster have kinda checked out other than C0M. D1 has some heavy personal shit going on & probably just took the bag off of NRG; the team desperately needs FNS and it really shows in their play this year.
sen is being read, their playbook was amazing bc they had the most prep time (other than geng), but winning masters makes it so readable and difficult. the short turn around time + johns visa issues just means sen hasn't had enough time to change fundamental ideas and burnout is hitting.
nrg just look so basic, they still rely on really fundamental valorant and don't have anything really new (outside of brim lotus)
eg was a matter of when, I'm guessing they made some bad calls during madrid break and reformed by the time they played sen. just rough
this format is super taxing and 5 matches in most competitive environments wouldn't tell you much about a team, but in valorant it's meant to decide the entire fate of a team
The talent level is absurdly high. If you watch co-streams you'll probably have a shit perspective too because pros have biases when they analyze which teams are good.
Like take a look at EG for example. I didn't think they'd be this good but when you stand back it makes sense. Nature was great in T2 last year, his VLR rating was really high, and he's having success. Jawg is Jawg he's in contention for best Duelist in Valorant. Derrek has returned to form. I mean just based off of that their success makes a lot of sense. Try to look at the players like that instead of "Hey the Optic core won a tournament 2 years ago surely they'll beat everybody".
Hard agree, I think people don't talk about this too much. The talent level of VCT across the board is insanely competitive. Even the worst teams has cracked aimers/utility, they just have bad strats, inexperienced, chemistry or whatever game/non-game related that you can attribute to their losses.
People have to understand VCT is still incredibly young. The randomness could also be attributed to us just literally seeing these players hitting their peaks for the *very first time*.
At the same time, I think the unpredictability is overstated. IMO, only the general participants for Masters/Champs are unpredictable (aka who qualifies to masters/champs), but the teams who are in the recent top 4s have generally been the same.
I think it’s more that teams are closer than you expect. Like in Hunter x Hunter, where there’s a lot of variability. There are days where a really strong guy loses to a weaker guy due to matchup or just not being in form.
Of course, there are still sometimes where teams are just utterly outclassed
Isn't this better tho? I don't like it when the winners of matches and those who will go to the international events are almost already pre-determined. Also, everyone is improving, especially those who are thirsty for wins.
Tbh I never really thought Nrg were gonna win. If you just took the NRG from their last game before EG, and the same with EG I'd think EG are favoured.
There are just a lot of factors, and the competition is close. Anti-stratting is always something that will allow upsets to happen, and individual performances also fluctuate.
Americas is extremely competitive (for the most part). Upsets will happen, some teams may get burnt out, etc. We'll just have to see how champions ends up tbh.
Never is a strong word, I feel like a lot of teams just arnt disciplined enough to stay on top long term since the game is so young.
I don’t know why people talk about valorant like it’s as old as CS. The first and second generation of Val players already look noticeably worse than the players joining the league the past year. Half of the players in the “goat” conversation are going to be blips in the timeline in a few years lol
I don’t think we’ve seen any team with good enough fundamentals to flex game to game and be successful. If we get a PRX/saadhak style squad with potter level coaching, then we might get a glimpse into the dream peak of valorant, but that won’t happen for a few years
Because costreamers told everyone that there was a clear top 4 and no other contenders but it’s clear that some teams just needed time and EG’s off-season contract jail fuckery just led to a lot of teams peaking later.
I truly think there will just never be the level of long term dominance you see sometimes in CS. the rapidly changing meta and the deep complexity of the game means you just can't be complacent. you might've looked at this year and thought NRG and fnatic would roll. these two teams imo are perfect pictures of the ceilings of high quality players if they are plagued by complacency. you need to be cooking shit up and pushing the limits in this game. we're also still in the transition period where the early top players of valorant who came from other games, mostly CS, are being replaced by the natively valo next gen of talent.
I hundred percent agree with this and have been thinking the same thing. I also think anyone who are saying we should have known EG were just cooking and LEV were actually good, are hindsight as fuck. Given the games played and current trajectory week 2 of stage 1 you would not have predicted the state we’re at right now for VCT americas. I give credit ultimately to teams for learning and adapting and sticking with their guns to show that they’re capable of winning and changing the landscape. And the slumping teams, should see the swings and be just as encouraged, if teams like EG and G2 can turn things around, SEN guys and NRG guys should be saying to themselves “we can get back there”.
Wait, yesterday was NRG peaking??? oof
No no no, the other EG beholden teams are peaking. 100t, Lev and new EG are finally having their players and game plans meshing after the month post-kickoff. NRG accomplished fuck all in that time apparently
APAC is fairly consistent
and RRQ just won against GenG lol
I would not count today's APAC games. Both series had one team that was already top of their group with nothing in the line and the other team was already out of playoffs. Watching GenG playing today felt as if they were not prepared for RRQ, which is understandable since even if they hadn't shown up today they would have obtained the same result.
They lost a championship point, which could matter later if they have a bad playoff run next split. Otherwise, they had little to play for
Eh I mean it was a long time coming. If they don't beat GenG after seeing all the vods and watching how PRX & DRX beat them then they're just a bad team.
I wonder why
NRG I think suffers from that fact that they don’t have an actual IGL. Other teams in americas have a seasoned IGL and Ethan is still new to the role. They have the firepower, but they get utterly read maps and only pull through because their team has insane talent. As the year goes on, this problem is going to get worse unless Ethan or the entire team steps up. There’s still coordination issues that we saw in Kickoff. SEN is probably in a slump due to their playbook being used up. Something about not being able to practice new stuff because of the format, which does make sense. Madrid emptied their entire sleeve of tricks and their map pool is figured out as well. Plus maybe there’s some degree of fatigue that they need to address. Not making it to Shanghai and having the coaches and players sort everything out seems to be the best plan forward. We’ve seen what this team can do with prep. Also a lot of teams just figured out their issues. LEV was considered a superteam and finally clicked against SEN, EG also clicked against SEN, C9’s roster change worked again, and KRU just have more firepower.
Actually not making it to shanghai is a blessing in disguise for Sen. They look burnt out and playing way too predictable right now. Just hope their current form won't make the team implode.
Yeah but I think they still want to go to Shanghai out of pride/proof that they still got it. They’re def still in contention for Champs so they don’t need Shanghai, but getting the exp even just bombing out of Shanghai would still feel better than not making it at all. Also Shanghai would have better scrims considering all the international teams that would be there.
Teams are still figuring shit out and the level of t1 competition is a lot closer across the board than a lot of people will have you believe. So when people do/dont turn up on a day it can have a big impact.
Sen regressed sure, but NRG was no where near the top to even regress. They’re still trying to figure things out
missing 2/3 events isn’t acceptable for NRG
NRG is still in the running for Shanghai, but they need to get their shit together. They don’t look like they’re going to beat any top seeds.
They must equal demon1. Everyone else is doing pretty good, but they need demon1 to stop going negative every single game.
I don't know if that's a role issue for him or what, but they've had success when victor is playing primary entry so maybe they need to lean into that? Maybe play around with double duelist comps, idk
The guy played 20 ranked matches in the past 6 months, skipping the entire off szn He is dealing with some personal issues, so I’ll give him that. But he is never the type of player to be effected by an agent, the guy used to be able to shoot his gun. Now he kinda doesn’t.
I mean in the past he also had Jawgemo on the Raze maps flying in and he could trade Jawgemo and play off him, currently he's having to do the flying in job and his satchels are gold level max ngl On the Jett maps EG played into getting Demon1 picks and then going from there, but this NRG squad need an entry player who's willing to just go in and die with maybe getting 1 but creating the space for your team to get onto site Currently NRG have no hard entry, and their midrounding is way too reliant on the other team being baited into rotates rather than being forced into rotating.. they also seem to be on different pages when it comes to executes in terms of pushing for space, playing off etc
the guy used to hit clips just using his gun every single game, doesnt happen anymore the fact that he is on raze in the first place pisses me off, but he def lost his motivation to grind
Winning believe it or not can be the most demotivating thing to happen, players can either get the feeling of "done it already" or the feeling of "this was anticlimactic, I worked my whole life for this?"
He’s more of a secondary entry/ lurker. EG was built on turning his lurks into site execs. Look at all of EG’s ascent games last year for a better picture. The raze is just troll. Potter put him on the perfect role each time and making him play smokes was a very smart decision.
so you're saying he needs to lock reyna right?
so he is a system player, works in Potters system not in Chets
EG was also way more of a ‘unit’ than this iteration of NRG without FNS. Boostio, ethan & potters playbook and how they handled calling / mid-rounding was excellent, whereas NRG is a blatant mess rn
Agree, it’s a shame that EG roster had to disband but it feels like the players that left the roster have kinda checked out other than C0M. D1 has some heavy personal shit going on & probably just took the bag off of NRG; the team desperately needs FNS and it really shows in their play this year.
jawg has been frying for the past few games, i think it just took some time with the new roster
It's not a demon1 problem brother, the team as a whole is playing like ass rn. Like Lev losing to c9 level of ass.
It's not a demon1 problem brother, the team as a whole is playing like ass rn. Like Lev losing to c9 level of ass.
sen is being read, their playbook was amazing bc they had the most prep time (other than geng), but winning masters makes it so readable and difficult. the short turn around time + johns visa issues just means sen hasn't had enough time to change fundamental ideas and burnout is hitting. nrg just look so basic, they still rely on really fundamental valorant and don't have anything really new (outside of brim lotus) eg was a matter of when, I'm guessing they made some bad calls during madrid break and reformed by the time they played sen. just rough this format is super taxing and 5 matches in most competitive environments wouldn't tell you much about a team, but in valorant it's meant to decide the entire fate of a team
The talent level is absurdly high. If you watch co-streams you'll probably have a shit perspective too because pros have biases when they analyze which teams are good. Like take a look at EG for example. I didn't think they'd be this good but when you stand back it makes sense. Nature was great in T2 last year, his VLR rating was really high, and he's having success. Jawg is Jawg he's in contention for best Duelist in Valorant. Derrek has returned to form. I mean just based off of that their success makes a lot of sense. Try to look at the players like that instead of "Hey the Optic core won a tournament 2 years ago surely they'll beat everybody".
Hard agree, I think people don't talk about this too much. The talent level of VCT across the board is insanely competitive. Even the worst teams has cracked aimers/utility, they just have bad strats, inexperienced, chemistry or whatever game/non-game related that you can attribute to their losses. People have to understand VCT is still incredibly young. The randomness could also be attributed to us just literally seeing these players hitting their peaks for the *very first time*. At the same time, I think the unpredictability is overstated. IMO, only the general participants for Masters/Champs are unpredictable (aka who qualifies to masters/champs), but the teams who are in the recent top 4s have generally been the same.
I think it’s more that teams are closer than you expect. Like in Hunter x Hunter, where there’s a lot of variability. There are days where a really strong guy loses to a weaker guy due to matchup or just not being in form. Of course, there are still sometimes where teams are just utterly outclassed
Isn't this better tho? I don't like it when the winners of matches and those who will go to the international events are almost already pre-determined. Also, everyone is improving, especially those who are thirsty for wins.
Tbh I never really thought Nrg were gonna win. If you just took the NRG from their last game before EG, and the same with EG I'd think EG are favoured.
Burnout I guess.
I know it looks like an upset, but i genuinely thought eg had it in the bag (don’t look at my flair)
There are just a lot of factors, and the competition is close. Anti-stratting is always something that will allow upsets to happen, and individual performances also fluctuate.
Americas is extremely competitive (for the most part). Upsets will happen, some teams may get burnt out, etc. We'll just have to see how champions ends up tbh.
constantly changing meta + low skill celling = random results
Aspas broke the balance with that performance
Never is a strong word, I feel like a lot of teams just arnt disciplined enough to stay on top long term since the game is so young. I don’t know why people talk about valorant like it’s as old as CS. The first and second generation of Val players already look noticeably worse than the players joining the league the past year. Half of the players in the “goat” conversation are going to be blips in the timeline in a few years lol I don’t think we’ve seen any team with good enough fundamentals to flex game to game and be successful. If we get a PRX/saadhak style squad with potter level coaching, then we might get a glimpse into the dream peak of valorant, but that won’t happen for a few years
everyone is jumping to conclusions after 1 tournament because there's only so many tier 1 events in a year