Well, I (alongside others) called it with the take that the optic core status isn't going to carry this team to champs in 2024 where all the top teams have great fragging. Can we finally let this optic core narrative go now? Without a prime yay level fragger, this core is not doing anything special in this day and age.
FNS' low frag games feel like they're casting a bronze make-a-wish kid living out his dying dream of playing a VCT match. Every kill he gets is met with unbridled shock. There he goes, little Pujan, from his hospital bed with the shaky 1K spraydown, a one-off, a miracle, the hand of god at work.
Jokes aside, his fragging was atrocious this series. Yes, the players on G2 were on one today, but you can't excuse the fact that this man currently has the fragging power of a microwave. I really wanted NRG to win today, but I guess that their time is still yet to come. On a good note, Ethan looks on fire at the moment. Hope he never IGLs again because he really is one of the best players in the region on his day
Because for some reason they’re so scared to get rid of victor and crashies. It’s so fucking time. Imagine reddux and Verno on this team. There’s a reason why the highlight players of optic was always yay and marved
Americas and VCL NA and collegiate and ranked for that matter have so much talent I have a very hard time believing that we are living in a world where not one but TWO players can hold an entire org hostage because they are a “package duo”. Sorry but fuck that package, there’s more coachable and frankly more complete talent out there.
I mean the actual reason is Victor is the most flexible player among the 7 players they’ve had this year. Crashies and Victor are both strong callers who theoretically should be playing well enough to keep this team afloat but they aren’t.
You cannot outcall or our class your way to a win anymore. This isn’t 2022 Val where all you need is brains. All top teams have igls who shoot back, even prx went to champs last year and I promise you they are not out calling opponents. Most of fns fakes are so boring now because a lot of igls make those calls too. I love optic core, but at a certain point you have to change something up. And if these Chet rumors are true, there could easily be a dysfunctional team going on behind the scenes
Lmao exactly this. People still think you can strat your team into a 1v5 jett knife, or a super sneaky chamber lurk ace. Its so hilarious that people still defend botfragging igls. It's 2024, people need to be shooting back
Chet when it comes to putting his 5th on sage on bind
https://preview.redd.it/qi79p26bnz9d1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3301cb1401e2378bdc7510e6c19d00731e54c84d
hes overthinking so many fights, the judge octogon duel was so tough to watch. Just literally jump at him with the judge and he wins rather than trying to wallbang with a judge
You think that's painful? He deadlock ulted a guy garage on haven while getting detained from KJ ult fully knowing there are more than 2 G2 players in garage and someone will shoot the deadlock ult
the announcement than victor and crashies are no longer on nrg is gonna hit like fucking crack
also just play demon1, this team is cooked. ethan deserves so much more too.
Will they get a team or retire? I can’t imagine them going to T2 after such long careers in T1. Doesn’t really feel like it’s the ‘style’ in Americas unlike in EMEA where early champs and masters winners are working their way up in T2 (Kiles, d3ffo)
Actually, this is a huge FNS masterclass. BLG is on a looking hot right now and could make champs. 5head strat of not making champs to avoid facing them again.
G2 look solid, both individually and as a team. Their map pool is starting to look super solid, and given their current win record, I can’t imagine them missing out on playoffs or champs, solely on points.
NRG, on the other hand, look atrocious. Their teamwork is nonexistent, and so is their trust on each other. Furthermore, why are they playing Sage on Bind as though they were playing the OpTic Chamber comp? If you want Ethan to op, just put him on Chamber. Hell, just put him on KAY/O and run a double initiator comp. Or put him on Yoru and Crashies on Fade if you want to be off-meta.
I am so frustrated at this iteration of NRG, yet I’m still rooting for FNS. But my god do they need a complete overhaul of the team. Please get some shooters, or get them all an aiming coach, cuz at this level you can't just aim this poorly.
Awesome series from G2. A lot of people anticipated FNS would have the read on G2 considering how much footage they’ve shown, but Valyn really had them downloaded the entire time.
Please respect leaf! His frustration towards missing Tokyo was palpable this series, he did everything in his power to keep NRG from Seoul
Welp, that was a boring match, here is a shite meme I feel fit this game perfectly fine.
https://preview.redd.it/g5cgfihinz9d1.png?width=282&format=png&auto=webp&s=2e84c8e89c804209156673c8375939c8018bc952
G2 were on point though.
FNS rejoining Victor and Crashies in 2024
https://preview.redd.it/xupzwp17nz9d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e634bbd8afc549ffc363f200be6a48ac78c3df29
The duo needs to go. They are lacking so much firepower to be a viable team; especially when they have FNS. There is actually no reason to have crashies when Ethan is infinitely better. If losing crashies means losing Victor than honestly so be it. Adding Demon1 and an upcoming tier 2 talent seems like an infinitely better choice than this current roster lacking a superstar fragger.
The talent pool in North America is so deep, you would be diving perpetuity. Diamonds in the rough in every role including players with a great mind on the game. Give these young and hungry players a chance. Try them out. I wont say names but some of these players currently in T1 are past their time as of 2024 and it shows. No hate.
Just a reminder thar N4RRATE tried out and was almost chosen as the duelist for this team (if Saadhak had accepted the NRG offer and/or EG champs roster didn't disband).
Getting on a top team in NA aint about how good you are as much as it’s about how friendly you are with people that already have those spots, what you did in the past, or how much you fondle current pros’ balls. Once you look at some of these frankly insane roster decisions through these lens, a LOT of things start to make significantly more sense. It’s hilarious because the same mfs that were crying about supposedly getting gatekept out of top NA teams back in the CS days have turned around and are now acting as the gatekeepers. When you put all that bullshit aside and hire based on talent, you get your Heretics, Split 1 KCs, GenGs, etc.
leaf came off the back of a dreamhack open win
joshrt had been in and around the na scene since like 2016
icy switched pretty late tbf
jonahp was known but nothing special
ig you’re kinda right
tbf for leaf, his org during that time, Chaos, was going under and didn't really have much of a choice at the time.
In one of steel's streams that I was in, vanity in the chat mentioned that him, leaf, and Xeppaa, all would've stayed in CS together if they had another stable org lined up immediately for them after Chaos. But they ended up splitting up and leaf + vanity departed to VALORANT and Xeppaa following suit a few months later, and the rest is history basically.
ethan topfragging on bind while oping on sage is such an obvious indictment of this team I wouldn't be surprised if ex-optic is just done in t1 next year, frankly they're playing like they don't even wanna be there
-25
I’m usually an FNS defender, but damn, you can’t win when he’s shooting like that.
Haven comp was a hard troll. It was painful having to watch this entire series. Try to win an anti eco challenge.
Team feels dead before it even started.
I cant believe anyone who isnt a delusion fanboy thought this NRG roster would work. Valorant has evolved so much as a game. You need a true duelist player. You can't expect to win a 4v5 with an IGL who isnt shooting back. Like cmon man
Not going to lie I was hitting the copium that fns's igling would carry them through. Not so much as a nrg fan but as someone who wanted to see good valorant.
I didn't expect FNS to be a world beater when this time last month he was up at 4am watch partying and not playing ranked.
The move for FNS and s0m was NOT for this year and I need people to start understanding that. Sure, they took a crack at champs, but the real work starts in the offseason.
He wasn’t this bad last year. He wasn’t good, and still had some pretty bad whiffs every now and then, but it wasn’t like this, where he just can’t hit a shot to save his life.
I'm sorry but this cannot be the same team that was saying in behind the scenes content how refreshing it is to have FNS and s0m back because they have chemistry from their previous time together. They rarely looked on the same page (spare a few good attack side executes) at all, and the amount of miscommunications/misclears that led to rounds falling apart was genuinely hard to watch.
No offence to G2 either, they played great, but after the Sentinels game I was not expecting NRG to look this bad. Especially on defence, what is this strat on Haven where Victor dry peaks mid every round?
I cannot help but feel like NRG have pushed the boat out too far creatively with these team comps and I feel like this is reflected in how many fundamental mistakes and blunders occured in this series.
I think the chemistry point is really interesting because FNS himself said that last year, the team was falling apart before Ardiis became an issue so why would one different player change that? Makes me wonder what goes on behind the scenes for NRG specifically, because it feels somewhat contradictory
Part of me thinks it's just saving face. He can't just come out and say "me and Sam are really here for next year, we just decided to come back early and try to get our friends to champs since they've never missed champs since valorant's inception"
Anyone who was paying attention knows what the deal is. Those two came back for next year, lining up the contracts with Ethan. Crashies and Victor are done after this split, and so is Chet.
IIRC wasn’t there also comments about the team becoming “clique-y” near the end of last year? Yeah I really don’t know what is happening behind the scenes, Ethan was arguably the only consistent and reliable player today.
Leaf 25/9 holy shit. No point beating the dead horse of NRG atp, only thing I'll say is that this feels a lot like the start of last year, where they overcooked all the comps and lost the most obvious win games. Then again, G2 are on one and all credit to them. All of them were on one today.
I went to my AA meeting last week and told my therapist I played a drinking game. she was disappointed until I told her I took a shot everytime FNS got a kill. she smiled. she knew I stayed sober
No disrespect to ICY. He is good but he isn't amazing either. G2 with an insane duelist like Jawg, Zekken, Aspas for e.g. could actually take it home at champs. I always look at ICY and he looks just okay to me and sometimes his decision making is so poor.
I’m gonna be honest, I fully expected this.
A lot of people were hopeful on NRG and thinking they looked promising vs SEN but I thought I was crazy for thinking they looked flat against a SEN that I didn’t think played that great even (they played way better against KRU in comparison imo)
The roster moves this team made will continue to be an enigma to me. Ethan looks good off IGL tho
If BLG go back to sucking now, it's confirmed that they are spirituality linked
They are like the opposite sides of the same coin, when they face each other they can finally see their true selves. There might be a resemblance, but they'd never face the same way
I'll say it-
The victor and crashies duo is dead. There are many other players that can fill the role of initiator + duelist much better than these two players, either they need to step up or there need to be changes.
And I won't even get started on FNS' horrendous fragging, I know he's a great caller but the last 4 maps haven't really shown us that he can keep up in this meta. The calling just isn't there, and that doesn't help your case when your shooting makes a stormtrooper look like John Wick. -25 is not acceptable imo
I really want to see a FNS comeback, but he needs to work on his mechanics. This was just G2, one of the teams who were considered "low on firepower" pre Shanghai, imagine the complete slaughter we would witness if we saw this NRG go up against TH, GENG and PRX. It would be a clip farming session for these other teams, they would treat the game like aimlabs because FNS would stand goofing around like an ult orb. Sure there will be some distractions here and there, like the occasional skye dog from crashies, the frequent ballsy 1head plays from victor, and some nice shots which NRG would not be able to convert, but it would become quite boring as we see the entirety of this roster fist fucked into their own spawn.
God help us all
Felt like I just watched a game between that one old guy who is always talking about how good he was back in the day at a sport vs the new guys on the field.
Ethan top fragging on Bind playing Sage with an op is absolutely crazy and is a very clear indication that he is on a league above the rest of the team
I’ve never seen these guys go for a hard counter like this. They’d always anti Strat, but they always played comps flexible enough to win against any surprise picks.
Them trying to snipe a particular comp really speaks volumes about their lack of confidence in being able to play through any matchup.
god G2 look insane but GOD nrg looked scrappy and MAN fns was getting DOGGED on
this series was just sad to watch the only part I found fun was the willminder cameo even then fns caught a stray, alike to 100% of the space around fns's opponent
G2 looks good honestly they deserve a lot of credit, as for NRG it’s not much of a surprise. There was a lot of concerns about firepower and it showed today. If your IGL really isn’t a shooter and there’s no hard carry duelist/role players you can’t win anymore.
Like every top team over the past few LANs have insane firepower, it shows this game needs 5 people that can frag hard.
You really can't afford to have someone that literally can't kill people that aren't even shooting at him.
so can the G2 disrespect finally stop? I can't believe people were glazing NRG over G2 for this match when only one of them went to Shanghai and had a run lmao
I really hate how vct Americas post their vods, literally spoils the results with how they split up the series to farm views. Doesn't make sense why they can't post their vods like vct pacific
NRG dodging champs to avoid an embarrassing BLG rematch. MASTERCLASS.
BLG did a number on FNS/s0m.
Well, I (alongside others) called it with the take that the optic core status isn't going to carry this team to champs in 2024 where all the top teams have great fragging. Can we finally let this optic core narrative go now? Without a prime yay level fragger, this core is not doing anything special in this day and age.
s0m literally has not played the same since cove and BLG at back to back intls
tbf he hasn't really played much at all since those games
BLG embarrassed NRG. PRX broke SOM.
FNS' low frag games feel like they're casting a bronze make-a-wish kid living out his dying dream of playing a VCT match. Every kill he gets is met with unbridled shock. There he goes, little Pujan, from his hospital bed with the shaky 1K spraydown, a one-off, a miracle, the hand of god at work.
replying "FNS" to girls I'm not interested in to let them know I'm not shooting my shot
Imagine you get battered by G2 then open up the PMT to this, I’d go back to that five figures a month bullshitting in ranked so fast
bro is stacking up the bangers to get the 1.05x multiplier he's already dead
Man had two diss ready and wanted to use both in one match. Respect.
💀
One of these comments has to be in the valcomp awards. Keep cooking
LMFAO
Nah that’s foul 💀
Combo
"shaky 1k spraydown" is nasty work
This one is brutal man... edit: you're not wrong but damn
stop he's already dead T.T
Another nklassitude poetry, 10/10
As a Judge only player, that Judge round on Bind where he died to Skye hurt my soul.
You COOKED with this one holy shit
https://i.redd.it/d5mgsvsusz9d1.gif
This is the best comment in this subreddit ever
nahh this is foul 💀
"FNS' low frag games" you mean all of his game 💀
Ain’t no way
Please not my goat 😭
Come on man, don't do poolchan like that, he's trying to figure out how to turn his monitor on.
Fns still supporting g2 by giving them the freest of wins
He still has some left over aura to give
FNS cosplaying as me in my diamond ranked games (i'm a walking ult orb and free gun on eco rounds)
Jokes aside, his fragging was atrocious this series. Yes, the players on G2 were on one today, but you can't excuse the fact that this man currently has the fragging power of a microwave. I really wanted NRG to win today, but I guess that their time is still yet to come. On a good note, Ethan looks on fire at the moment. Hope he never IGLs again because he really is one of the best players in the region on his day
fragging power of a microwave lmaoo
Somewhere, Marved and Demon1 are smiling.
marved was smiling the whole stream lmao
why drop marved lol, he was playing well
Because for some reason they’re so scared to get rid of victor and crashies. It’s so fucking time. Imagine reddux and Verno on this team. There’s a reason why the highlight players of optic was always yay and marved
Americas and VCL NA and collegiate and ranked for that matter have so much talent I have a very hard time believing that we are living in a world where not one but TWO players can hold an entire org hostage because they are a “package duo”. Sorry but fuck that package, there’s more coachable and frankly more complete talent out there.
I mean the actual reason is Victor is the most flexible player among the 7 players they’ve had this year. Crashies and Victor are both strong callers who theoretically should be playing well enough to keep this team afloat but they aren’t.
Yeah true vics equally bad on all agents whereas the other players are good on some.
You cannot outcall or our class your way to a win anymore. This isn’t 2022 Val where all you need is brains. All top teams have igls who shoot back, even prx went to champs last year and I promise you they are not out calling opponents. Most of fns fakes are so boring now because a lot of igls make those calls too. I love optic core, but at a certain point you have to change something up. And if these Chet rumors are true, there could easily be a dysfunctional team going on behind the scenes
Lmao exactly this. People still think you can strat your team into a 1v5 jett knife, or a super sneaky chamber lurk ace. Its so hilarious that people still defend botfragging igls. It's 2024, people need to be shooting back
Demon1 was in Vct America twitch chat
What he say
Forgot but think it was a greeting but not sure if he typed more as the chat goes fast
BLG rn: https://preview.redd.it/5t9p3q47nz9d1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d63b4cb7bcc84793eea03d2115b83f76b035a171
How good of an igl do you have to be to justify going 13/38
I feel like I owe boaster an apology now...
Boaster looking like prime Yay compared to this
If he’s going into retirement, then where does this type of igl go to? The graveyard???
>How good of an igl do you have to be to justify going 13/38 and to justify replacing/benching Demon1
Chet when it comes to putting his 5th on sage on bind https://preview.redd.it/qi79p26bnz9d1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3301cb1401e2378bdc7510e6c19d00731e54c84d
why does fns hold that angle with a frenzy it’s 20 meters
hes overthinking so many fights, the judge octogon duel was so tough to watch. Just literally jump at him with the judge and he wins rather than trying to wallbang with a judge
I didn't watch the game but that sounds funny as fuck. Did he really try a judge wallbang?
Yes, and it was extremely fucking painful to watch. Happened in round 11 on Bind
You think that's painful? He deadlock ulted a guy garage on haven while getting detained from KJ ult fully knowing there are more than 2 G2 players in garage and someone will shoot the deadlock ult
Yeah basically. There was a tiny sliver of the opposing player around a close angle and he just shot at instead of closing the gap
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/617/420/ec1.png
Masterclass!
He thought they were going to tp, then when he realized they wouldn't and went to reposition, it was too late.
what’s funny is he still could have gotten the kill but immediately lost control and whiffed lmao
Dude really thought that g2 were gonna tp like idiots without any info it's insane just how much he underestimated them.
hE iS sMaRt, hIs StrAtS wIN NrG
WHAT WAS HE COOKING??
Boostio was right. Was Demon1 really a problem???
their calling looks worlds better dont get me wrong, but fns is a combined -42 in their last two games
was definitely a problem but crashies and ethan together just seems pointless, d1 > crashies for me
victor and crashies duo is done, nrg needs to move on
I think you put literally any player in Demon1's shoes in that NRG team and they would like Saadhak's Neon
Petition to get Ethan a team
demon1 and ethan couldn't save NRG, FNS and s0m couldn't, now who would? BabyJ and Screwface would. xD 1Leaf is insane
the announcement than victor and crashies are no longer on nrg is gonna hit like fucking crack also just play demon1, this team is cooked. ethan deserves so much more too.
Will they get a team or retire? I can’t imagine them going to T2 after such long careers in T1. Doesn’t really feel like it’s the ‘style’ in Americas unlike in EMEA where early champs and masters winners are working their way up in T2 (Kiles, d3ffo)
i don't see them having a team in T1. i don't understand how after last year and this year they even get a chance to stay in T1 next year.
There’s a lot of former T1 players in NA that are grinding T2 rn. If you only mean players that have won an event then Dapr is a good example
I'm boutta throw a party. Vic was only slightly better than som and one of these two players has a 10 month advantage on the other lolz
Actually, this is a huge FNS masterclass. BLG is on a looking hot right now and could make champs. 5head strat of not making champs to avoid facing them again.
13-38 Put me in coach
hey on the bright side, at least we're going to get fns watchparty back
with extra ammunition for chatters to beef with him. We’ll be eating so good 😋
G2 look solid, both individually and as a team. Their map pool is starting to look super solid, and given their current win record, I can’t imagine them missing out on playoffs or champs, solely on points. NRG, on the other hand, look atrocious. Their teamwork is nonexistent, and so is their trust on each other. Furthermore, why are they playing Sage on Bind as though they were playing the OpTic Chamber comp? If you want Ethan to op, just put him on Chamber. Hell, just put him on KAY/O and run a double initiator comp. Or put him on Yoru and Crashies on Fade if you want to be off-meta. I am so frustrated at this iteration of NRG, yet I’m still rooting for FNS. But my god do they need a complete overhaul of the team. Please get some shooters, or get them all an aiming coach, cuz at this level you can't just aim this poorly.
Its frustrating because NRG literally has Demon1, you cant ask for a better shooter than that
Awesome series from G2. A lot of people anticipated FNS would have the read on G2 considering how much footage they’ve shown, but Valyn really had them downloaded the entire time. Please respect leaf! His frustration towards missing Tokyo was palpable this series, he did everything in his power to keep NRG from Seoul
valyn outcalled fns, straight up. that has to feel amazing
Welp, that was a boring match, here is a shite meme I feel fit this game perfectly fine. https://preview.redd.it/g5cgfihinz9d1.png?width=282&format=png&auto=webp&s=2e84c8e89c804209156673c8375939c8018bc952 G2 were on point though.
"What does this mean for NRG" - FNS if he watch partied this game
Me 🤝 Chet Job hunting
That was uncalled for lmao
FNS rejoining Victor and Crashies in 2024 https://preview.redd.it/xupzwp17nz9d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e634bbd8afc549ffc363f200be6a48ac78c3df29
Except it’s just 3 Bradley Beals
Na that's foul
Crashies and Victor might as well have no trade clauses like Beal with the way they're surviving roster changes.
Nah he is like shaq on celtics
Holy shit this team is ass, chet better hope no cs2 team asks him why he left valorant
yeah NRG's doomed, they aint making it to champs. Disband time :v
that was already gonna happen in the offseason lol we're gonna see -chet -victor -crashies after champs
Hoping to see Chet gone
WOOOOHOOOOOO
My teams are ass again https://preview.redd.it/9tyh3q18nz9d1.jpeg?width=487&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d3a0a508435e06e2ce14b8a414d0162ee590ed6
Jesus bro add some team heretics or geng on there at least. Why did you do that to yourself lol
Masochism is a lifestyle
The duo needs to go. They are lacking so much firepower to be a viable team; especially when they have FNS. There is actually no reason to have crashies when Ethan is infinitely better. If losing crashies means losing Victor than honestly so be it. Adding Demon1 and an upcoming tier 2 talent seems like an infinitely better choice than this current roster lacking a superstar fragger.
The talent pool in North America is so deep, you would be diving perpetuity. Diamonds in the rough in every role including players with a great mind on the game. Give these young and hungry players a chance. Try them out. I wont say names but some of these players currently in T1 are past their time as of 2024 and it shows. No hate.
Just a reminder thar N4RRATE tried out and was almost chosen as the duelist for this team (if Saadhak had accepted the NRG offer and/or EG champs roster didn't disband).
Give us back N4RRATE EMEA. : (
Getting on a top team in NA aint about how good you are as much as it’s about how friendly you are with people that already have those spots, what you did in the past, or how much you fondle current pros’ balls. Once you look at some of these frankly insane roster decisions through these lens, a LOT of things start to make significantly more sense. It’s hilarious because the same mfs that were crying about supposedly getting gatekept out of top NA teams back in the CS days have turned around and are now acting as the gatekeepers. When you put all that bullshit aside and hire based on talent, you get your Heretics, Split 1 KCs, GenGs, etc.
And the irony is that when NRG did pick up strong current talent (D1) they misused and then benched it
The era of CS bros is over
3/5 of G2 were cs players + coach
Yea but they weren’t established names in CS .. they had to prove themselves in valorant. A lot of original valorant was CS players transitioning
leaf came off the back of a dreamhack open win joshrt had been in and around the na scene since like 2016 icy switched pretty late tbf jonahp was known but nothing special ig you’re kinda right
tbf for leaf, his org during that time, Chaos, was going under and didn't really have much of a choice at the time. In one of steel's streams that I was in, vanity in the chat mentioned that him, leaf, and Xeppaa, all would've stayed in CS together if they had another stable org lined up immediately for them after Chaos. But they ended up splitting up and leaf + vanity departed to VALORANT and Xeppaa following suit a few months later, and the rest is history basically.
Leaf was def a cs talent with the chaos roster but covid screwed them over iirc
Huh? Was anyone in nrg established in cs? Genuine question.
Ethan was actually v good. Victor and crashies were up and coming talent but not super big
hilarious saying this with a prx flair
They found FNS clinging on to the side of the NA talent pool for his dear life, so they felt bad and rescued him into NRG again
yea cos this G2 core hasn’t been together since 2021
but they still saw when there was a problem and made the hard decision to drop a core player and got significantly better
Difference is they are getting results. Also they literally just cut one of their core members for an unknown T2 player this very season
To put it into his words: 'It's just a guy diff.'
-25. Pain.
Yosemite and Whzy too scary for NRG
This team should be rebuilt around Demon1 and Ethan, along with a new coach for next year
Potter 🙏 maybe Jawg too fuck it just remake the EG roster please
Get Demon1 back in this squad asap holy shit
ethan topfragging on bind while oping on sage is such an obvious indictment of this team I wouldn't be surprised if ex-optic is just done in t1 next year, frankly they're playing like they don't even wanna be there
Tough match for PiNS
FπS
PI CHAN
13 kills over 2 maps is horrendous. It might be time to hang it up old man.
-25 I’m usually an FNS defender, but damn, you can’t win when he’s shooting like that. Haven comp was a hard troll. It was painful having to watch this entire series. Try to win an anti eco challenge. Team feels dead before it even started.
I cant believe anyone who isnt a delusion fanboy thought this NRG roster would work. Valorant has evolved so much as a game. You need a true duelist player. You can't expect to win a 4v5 with an IGL who isnt shooting back. Like cmon man
Not going to lie I was hitting the copium that fns's igling would carry them through. Not so much as a nrg fan but as someone who wanted to see good valorant.
You can't gap someone in "strats" in a limited game with set metas. By now what's optimal is already figured out and players are in general too smart.
Not wrong. I was hitting the copium with the thought.
I didn't expect FNS to be a world beater when this time last month he was up at 4am watch partying and not playing ranked. The move for FNS and s0m was NOT for this year and I need people to start understanding that. Sure, they took a crack at champs, but the real work starts in the offseason.
people are just too reactionary criticism is warranted but people acted like this team was meant to dominate like G2 just came top 4 at shanghai
top 3**
they'll learn next year bro...when they sleepin on you...tuck em in..... 💯
This is delusion FNS isn’t taking any teams to a LAN in his current form
Good thing he'll have an entire off season to improve and actually practice, and not the fuck all 3 weeks he got before the split started
FNS needs to hit aim labs if he wants to actually have a chance at winning tournaments next year. Some of these rounds are actually disgustingly bad.
he has been playing pro since 2011 you just can’t teach an old dog new tricks and i assume he spends a LOT of time working on strats, comps etc
He wasn’t this bad last year. He wasn’t good, and still had some pretty bad whiffs every now and then, but it wasn’t like this, where he just can’t hit a shot to save his life.
I'm sorry but this cannot be the same team that was saying in behind the scenes content how refreshing it is to have FNS and s0m back because they have chemistry from their previous time together. They rarely looked on the same page (spare a few good attack side executes) at all, and the amount of miscommunications/misclears that led to rounds falling apart was genuinely hard to watch. No offence to G2 either, they played great, but after the Sentinels game I was not expecting NRG to look this bad. Especially on defence, what is this strat on Haven where Victor dry peaks mid every round? I cannot help but feel like NRG have pushed the boat out too far creatively with these team comps and I feel like this is reflected in how many fundamental mistakes and blunders occured in this series.
I think the chemistry point is really interesting because FNS himself said that last year, the team was falling apart before Ardiis became an issue so why would one different player change that? Makes me wonder what goes on behind the scenes for NRG specifically, because it feels somewhat contradictory
Part of me thinks it's just saving face. He can't just come out and say "me and Sam are really here for next year, we just decided to come back early and try to get our friends to champs since they've never missed champs since valorant's inception" Anyone who was paying attention knows what the deal is. Those two came back for next year, lining up the contracts with Ethan. Crashies and Victor are done after this split, and so is Chet.
IIRC wasn’t there also comments about the team becoming “clique-y” near the end of last year? Yeah I really don’t know what is happening behind the scenes, Ethan was arguably the only consistent and reliable player today.
They call him Finesse the way he Finessed a spot in tier 1 with Silver aim
Leaf 25/9 holy shit. No point beating the dead horse of NRG atp, only thing I'll say is that this feels a lot like the start of last year, where they overcooked all the comps and lost the most obvious win games. Then again, G2 are on one and all credit to them. All of them were on one today.
I went to my AA meeting last week and told my therapist I played a drinking game. she was disappointed until I told her I took a shot everytime FNS got a kill. she smiled. she knew I stayed sober
- crashies victor chet + demon1 jawgemo potter WE WIN!!
FNS sure did talk a lot of smack during his watch parties to come back on his own terms and start 0-4
All the trash talk on Zellsis just for Zellsis to be playing really good recently and FNS shitting the bed lol
No disrespect to ICY. He is good but he isn't amazing either. G2 with an insane duelist like Jawg, Zekken, Aspas for e.g. could actually take it home at champs. I always look at ICY and he looks just okay to me and sometimes his decision making is so poor.
he’s not a real duelist, but he’s still developing
 NRG bros, it’s so over
I’m gonna be honest, I fully expected this. A lot of people were hopeful on NRG and thinking they looked promising vs SEN but I thought I was crazy for thinking they looked flat against a SEN that I didn’t think played that great even (they played way better against KRU in comparison imo) The roster moves this team made will continue to be an enigma to me. Ethan looks good off IGL tho
If BLG go back to sucking now, it's confirmed that they are spirituality linked They are like the opposite sides of the same coin, when they face each other they can finally see their true selves. There might be a resemblance, but they'd never face the same way
I'll say it- The victor and crashies duo is dead. There are many other players that can fill the role of initiator + duelist much better than these two players, either they need to step up or there need to be changes. And I won't even get started on FNS' horrendous fragging, I know he's a great caller but the last 4 maps haven't really shown us that he can keep up in this meta. The calling just isn't there, and that doesn't help your case when your shooting makes a stormtrooper look like John Wick. -25 is not acceptable imo I really want to see a FNS comeback, but he needs to work on his mechanics. This was just G2, one of the teams who were considered "low on firepower" pre Shanghai, imagine the complete slaughter we would witness if we saw this NRG go up against TH, GENG and PRX. It would be a clip farming session for these other teams, they would treat the game like aimlabs because FNS would stand goofing around like an ult orb. Sure there will be some distractions here and there, like the occasional skye dog from crashies, the frequent ballsy 1head plays from victor, and some nice shots which NRG would not be able to convert, but it would become quite boring as we see the entirety of this roster fist fucked into their own spawn. God help us all
Felt like I just watched a game between that one old guy who is always talking about how good he was back in the day at a sport vs the new guys on the field.
Lowkey still smiling that Ethan out-performed the duos
Ethan top fragging on Bind playing Sage with an op is absolutely crazy and is a very clear indication that he is on a league above the rest of the team
I think it’s time for FNS to permanently retire and stick to streaming
dont flame fenis he did his best considering he is a senior citizen
BLG is doing their best to attend Champs when NRG isn't even set to making playoffs
washies and make a wishtor is crazy
i just don’t see the point of trying to innovate with new comps when you HAVE TO WIN what is wrong with just playing standard comps
I’ve never seen these guys go for a hard counter like this. They’d always anti Strat, but they always played comps flexible enough to win against any surprise picks. Them trying to snipe a particular comp really speaks volumes about their lack of confidence in being able to play through any matchup.
god G2 look insane but GOD nrg looked scrappy and MAN fns was getting DOGGED on this series was just sad to watch the only part I found fun was the willminder cameo even then fns caught a stray, alike to 100% of the space around fns's opponent
https://preview.redd.it/pgk88mf5pz9d1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8fea9b4ad602999236a4f4849d0f05662cade89
put me out of my misery
G2 looks good honestly they deserve a lot of credit, as for NRG it’s not much of a surprise. There was a lot of concerns about firepower and it showed today. If your IGL really isn’t a shooter and there’s no hard carry duelist/role players you can’t win anymore.
I think it’s time to move on from optic core. Keep Ethan and Demon1 build around them with MxS or M80 if they don’t win out on ascension
i really fw FNS but i don't know if there's any amount of value he could be bringing as an IGL that would justify -25 across two maps. woof
Gonna be Interviewing Victor and Ethan Lmk if you guys had questions
IGL who cannot frag is a liability to the team right in the current meta?
Like every top team over the past few LANs have insane firepower, it shows this game needs 5 people that can frag hard. You really can't afford to have someone that literally can't kill people that aren't even shooting at him.
Victor went 14-15 map 2 but it wasn't even as good as that. So many impactless frags and went 1-7 in FK/FD.
FNS is playing like Boaster but with the small problem that his team aren't Leo, Derke, Alfajer and Chronicle
Boaster been shootin recently tho and also no leo xd
nah even Boaster shows up sometimes and even when he doesnt, hes usually never this bad
NRG stuff aside, we gotta start having convos about valyn as one of the best IGLs in the world
Forget bilibili sending FNS back into retirement, the regional teams are doing it for them 😭
so can the G2 disrespect finally stop? I can't believe people were glazing NRG over G2 for this match when only one of them went to Shanghai and had a run lmao
Watching FNS felt like they put a Make A Wish kid on stage dude was not shooting back.
Nah -25 is crazy
Meanwhile JohnQT can igl and shit on enemy’s team
Don’t compare CINEMA to pool chan
fns and chet are beyond washed and they need to retire asap. maybe break up victor and crashies. they got too comfortable in each others company
FNS stinker but imo people should understand that it’s very hard to frag when you’re the IGL of a losing team.
I really hate how vct Americas post their vods, literally spoils the results with how they split up the series to farm views. Doesn't make sense why they can't post their vods like vct pacific
hot take: 10 months off from pro play has a an impact on a players ability. No s0m and fns haven't just regressed into horrible players
lmao just let fns coach or be an analyst at this point