SENTINELS ARE ****ED — Plat Chat VALORANT Ep. 130

set a timer for 10 minutes so we know when to start the full Legend show okay no I definitely don't I mean hopefully we trolled some people at home who actually have those but welcome welcome to episode 130 we're joined by Mimi Bala and sliggy we're taking time out of your sleeping schedule because anytime you're not co-streaming I assume you need to get those 40 Winks yeah pretty much this uh two hours that I could use but you know I thought I'd be nice to you guys appreciate it appreciate it very kind um we've also got Mel coming on the show later on to talk game changers and VC America so we're gonna have two double special guests and also you can stick around to try and see how we change the guess because the whole show might break that's what Kurt told us so that might be a cute little surprise for you about an hour down the road um so we're going to be covering emea we're going to be covering VCT and a little bit of the game changer stuff as well we're not going to be covering Pacific because unlike sliggy we have required sleep but I might throw a couple questions your way slicky in terms of like comparing team to team but uh if you're a Pacific fan unlucky unlucky that really is unlucky um the first thing to talk about though before we get started Brandon Wyatt not not on the show uh because they got in a car accident immediately as soon as they came to La so that's been I mean they're being just a a status check for anyone who's wondering uh we're looking after them Brendan's doing perfectly fine he's been on the broadcast as well he's just got some big bruises all down his knees and Wyatt is in a bit worse shape but uh he is being looked after and he will be fine kind of eventually once he's had a process of recovery um but yeah like he said he got concussed and he's got whiplash so he's he's not doing the greatest but he's uh he's got people around him making sure that he's doing all right so he'll uh he'll still be there in a metaphorical sense for his weekly award at the end of the show which you know that's that's what everyone looks forward to at all times of course all right let's talk EMA sliggy I want to pick your brains here Fanatic fanatic yeah that's that's my cue yeah of course they're the best team um they just look they just look great like they're not the thing is they're not even changing that much up and they're still winning really well like they're kind of playing exactly the same as they were at lock-in they don't have to change anything up which means that they probably have stuff saved that they're gonna be able to fall back on in the later stages so yeah it looks um looks very chilled out from them just just real basic good following like pretty much the best we've ever seen in my opinion in terms of like fundamentals so yeah it's looking good I'm excited to see what happens in playoffs like if they decide to bring stuff out then or if they're literally just waiting until the actual lands but yeah everything's everything's the same as we saw in looking we had a conversation a while or like maybe two weeks ago when they were still playing with kamik about like oh they're not really bringing in new stuff I was criticizing them for that and then Joshi made the point of like oh well they don't need to and they're always going to have this cycle of whatever that they innovate and that scares the living almost did it it scares me so bad because yeah they're not they're not doing anything new they're Haven exactly the same they're Lotus exactly the same like oh actually Lotus was a little different with the Odin spam stuff but um yeah I mean they really aren't changing anything so you know down the line they're gonna even get better which is they're gonna go Frieza form four or whatever like it's it's really scary yeah I think that's also just a testament to how good they are because just their their coordination between the players and like the individual quality of all them is just so good that they can do the same thing obviously teams are looking at them trying to beat them they're the team that everyone kind of has to Aspire to if you're in a Mia but it has not mattered because they're just that much better than everyone else that they've managed to play in the region thus far that they have the flexibility to be able to basically just kind of chill out play the same style and uh continue to have that work for them I don't know it doesn't feel like anyone can contest them maybe Navi can but they've continued to do quite a bit of trolling throughout emea and that's also the last group stage match that fnatic has so they don't even have like the one team you would maybe consider a challenge until the very end and even then that's probably not a game that even matters outside stuff yeah I mean the the Team Liquid versus fnatic game I do want to chat for a second about the navi trolling but the Team Liquid fanatic game first I shot a lot of people online being very excited for this game because it's been uh El Clasico of the emea you know all of these back and forth games to five maps all sorts of stuff but I was I was a bit confused about that because to me there is a massive golf still between these two teams I couldn't get excited like everybody else was I know but the fans were so bought into it and I was like God bless you I think you're going to be very let down by this game I was I was kind of looking forward to it I was hoping because I feel like I still didn't know where to put liquid like there was still a side of me that was just like well maybe this will be the week where like it'll all click and look good right yeah it didn't happen of course but I still felt like they hadn't I I was still hard to get a gauge with them obviously they played K Corp and you can't gauge any team that plays K Corp really in terms of where they stand um so yeah it's I was holding out a bit of hope I didn't like the map choices I didn't really like how they approached uh Lotus so yeah it's a little bit disappointing to be honest do you think it really matters for a team like liquid though like to me if you're a team in their position I'm not putting in hours and hours of specific prep against fnatic I'm just focusing on improving our game to go up against some of the more beatable opponents later on um maybe yeah I think there's a few approaches right you can even just focus on yourself and just accept that you're most likely not going to win it um I don't know I would like to I've got a different I would like to always be anyone no matter like who they are so I would have liked to have seen a closer game or I have had a better approach I feel like because they weren't changing so much up they actually had a chance especially over Lotus I saw uh like that then I still don't think that lowest comp is good I I still think it's very Fanatics yeah I I don't like the Fate I think the Fate needs to be a sky I think the no flashes I think we were playing a double controller against this comp you should be you should be winning to be honest with you and I know I've seen I think it was Anders who used to be the analyst that's like tweeting about it online but I just think everyone's giving them uh an easier ride than they should have on this map in my personal opinion and then you're talking about their opponents me being an RV towards the end I mean navi's main trolling has been on Lotus I mean I I don't think that it's even trolling at this point it's so much as they just want it in the map Pool so that they can fix it against the worst teams but when I watched the navi Heretics game it was like a totally different team when they played on the other two maps and then they come out to Lotus and it's like it's a different Navi I mean look at the scores 13 3 13 2 and then they drop lotus in the middle and it's the same thing that has been happening repeatedly for Navi they just can't figure this out yeah I mean just every time like it feels like no matter if they're like making changes or trying to adapt on their Lotus it's like they can't figure out how they want to play this defensive side at all like they've had a couple different ideas but none of them have been successful and like credit to Heretics I think they played a solid attacking side in that game but ah overall I think honestly for Navi I agree with you that I think their ideas just that they want to play this map against the lower tier teams and try and improve it but I wouldn't hate to see them just kind of move that to be the the map they're getting rid of I think they've been mostly Banning icebox if I remember correctly but I feel like at this point maybe you just get rid of lotus it's not clicking for you the rest of their map pool this after they kind of stop playing as much with like the gecko in the first uh the first week have looked really incredible as you saw from the rest of the series where they were just stomping yeah I mean they still played Gekko and pearl I remember correctly I I don't know this doesn't feel like the same pattern of Navi that we've seen in the past like the old FDX and stuff like that it feels well actually it feels more like the old fbx than last year's Navi where the experimentation was like a little less Goofy and I don't know there was always the your stuff but that was very specific maps and not like a full-fledged like let's play Gecko on every map let's not know how to like how to even adapt to a comp here where you don't want to be playing jet for whatever reason and put your jet on Omen I don't know it's like it's it feels weird and it scares me because it's not changing in a positive way like Cena is not comfortable on Omen you could tell that watching this game watching the prior game watching any of the games he's just not comfortable and he's not able to make the same amount of plays as he does with jet so like why are you trying to force it and so at least when I'm looking at it I'm like I can I can just play in the long game right they literally just they have it's like the opposite to how fanatic are approaching it right they have comps that I imagine they feel super comfortable on and instead of just showing them off and giving everyone loads of data and then changing later on into the more risky stuff they're trying to order the risky stuff now they're trying to make it so when you go up against them they're like oh they might be using this comp or this comp or this comp so the coaches just have like loads and loads of data to go off the like froze them off so I think yeah most of the time when you're seeing them kind of like as you guys are calling it Troll and they're doing it in like the fast second game knowing they can they have like two maps where they can come back so I'm not too worried I think they're trying stuff out I think I'm always a fan of that I think it's fine um and I think they have like the good stuff that they can fall back on so yeah I think I still think they're they're like a good Contender to be honest I think um like you said we probably won't see The Fanatic against them actually be like a proper thing until maybe the playoffs um but I still have them as like a good Contender for like winning Tokyo they're three and one at the moment sorry they're three and one at the moment along with a couple of other teams one of those other teams that's really been impressing me is foot um do we think that this is a legit team and have they got the chances of being able to qualify you know top four make something happen in Tokyo oh I mean I think for sure they have a chance to qualify for Tokyo I'm still looking at the depth of this team and not being crazy impressed with like the the Scrapbook like all the way down the line like the calling and hectic situations I think they rely on a lot on pop-off moments and that's really good and I think it'll make them to Tokyo but I don't I don't see them as a threat there I see them almost as a lock to Tokyo though given how everybody else is playing especially like now that Coy has dropped out of contention really like based on the way that they're playing obviously they still have a chance but like the way that they're playing is not impressive not inspiring at all Team Liquid still struggling like there's not really any more contenders to that spot they've hopped up and almost been become a lock for me that I mean they do have three really difficult games coming up though they've got Giants Navi and fnatic still left to play which if they won their games against Carmen Corbin BBL which are very likely to would put them at five and four which I mean that's gonna get them to playoffs but it does make their record less impressive than it is currently no because I mean a lot of people are looking at foot as being like yeah like like the topic title says one of the most surprising teams of 2023 kind of coming out of nowhere based on what we've seen in the off season um but if they end up more towards the middle of the pack there's that temper people's reaction to it I I would consider this team like right now like the top of the middle of the back of emea I think like you you look at this like this region it's like okay obviously we have fnatic at the top we have Navi probably second and then like you get like Vitality Giants foot kind of liquid that tier and I feel like there's a lot of potential for those teams to take wins off each other go back and forth and kind of like find that like craziness in the middle and for me well foot hasn't been I agree with you I don't think that they've like been like stunning in their game plans or in their in their calling consistently what they do have is a team that's fairly well coordinated that has some players who have some incredible pop-off moments I I think them like switching to keeping uh at a captain in like the main roster consistently has been a good move supposing that they keep that up because he's been playing insane even if like that Ascent like raised jet comp was kind of cap but it also works to win in the in the match that they brought it through so who am I to judge too much about it um like I think that this is a team who will be middle of the back who will be able to get into playoff but I think they're good enough to play up and and find upsets at times over the teams that are above them and I think that will be enough to get them to Tokyo in in a region that has four slots available to them will they be like a top level competitor at that event against International composite competition I don't think so but I don't think that should be the expectation for them I think they've already broken expectations I think most people thought that they would be like kind of bottom of the pack they you'd have like teams like like liquid like Giants playing like lights out above the level of this team but they've been able to compete with pretty much everyone else and even if they're losing to the teams they have left in their schedule like fnatic I think they still have Navi left to play as well that's perfectly fine for me I think like just like this team proving they can be like in the upper third of emea is like enough for this season to already break expectations yeah I think that's I've been kind of nailed it with that because again I agree with both of you like I don't think they're gonna they're gonna go to Tokyo and be any like anywhere near the favorites but I don't think that that should ever be a thing for them anyway they should just be happy that they got there get the experience and just kind of sometimes you just be got to be happy with the progress that you made um I liked their Ascent comp to be honest I think it's a one and done I don't think we're ever gonna see it again but I like that they're adding that stuff in like it's always a good sign when you see teams that are actually thinking ahead and actually are bringing in comps to again make it harder for coaches and igels to predict what's going to happen so um I thought that the kind of double Jewelers had uh had some cool stuff for it I liked it um I think it's a very good matter for them at the moment in terms of at a captain and um Mr Fallon in terms of double controllers a lot of the time as well I think it's a very limited for them so yeah having that I think they're looking good in terms of the most surprising team of 2023 I can't think of another team like maybe last week we would have been saying some other people but um I think some of the results from this week I think we just have to well last week we just have to say that in my Minds like they are they are the most surprising especially with how bad they looked at the beginning of well at the end of last year like they did not I didn't have high hopes for them at all yeah well I I think as well oh go ahead Josh sorry no no I was just gonna say that like I I think like the direct comparison for me that I have with this team is like their place in um in emea feels very similar to like the place that we've seen from like mibr in uh America it's where it's like a team that had very low expectations going in that took a few wins to people considered an upset and we're showing like some consistent like solid ideas and then also just like really good like individuals and clutch in the later on like that feels like a very direct comparison with me but I think the level of competition in emea with the other mid-tier teams has elevated this squad uh above the level that I have expectations for that Squad yeah I don't know I think mibr is slightly different in the in the sense that they like they looked really bad at at lock-in you know so like I compare them who else I actually I don't know a lot of the teams who were surprising kind of fell off like after lock-in like tunnel in like secret like they they're kind of not being as good anymore so I think yeah the answer is yes but I don't know about the direction person I'm a beer I think it's fine though yeah all right what about that specific game against koi because I mean koi came out the gates looking kind of spectacular shade of starzo going crazy week one they get the win of an RV and it has just been uh just like a fallen over House of Cards since then it's all performances alternating between different people on the team you know very bad week from Wolf Fern a couple of bad weeks from starzo uh the team looks a little a little more lost than I think they did at both locking and the beginning in terms of having those like good game plans what's going on over here I don't I don't even know where to put them I have um pretty much them and maybe Heretics just seem like does that that those kind of teams that if they win the pistol and they get a little bit of momentum going they can look pretty good but then if when it when stuff isn't going their way they just look uh they're like a completely different team they don't look in like they don't look consistent so yeah them and Heretics are kind of like similar in my books of just like they have to have a good start um otherwise it can be like a really bad game for them they rely on a lot of individuals popping off and actually just turning up because yeah I don't know I don't see too much consistency with their gameplay it's a little bit worrying it's about it's completely shifted since like the first I mean obviously the first week where they've been up even the second week against Vitality like it feels so drastically different in the sense not like when you watch like when you're when you're comparing like the amount of set plays that they're going for back then to now it's like so different um you're looking at a bunch of miscommunication rounds like there was one round specifically on Ascent we're called the mental like doesn't get the calm that Shadows died and alarm Bots down he's just like sitting there and gets backstabbed by QE and it's like a lot of that stuff happening over and over you're not seeing cold dementia being able to sink his flashes from Omen like significantly anymore and you're just missing all of that and when you when you call it a house of cards Josh I think that is very like apt because I see this team getting worse week after week it doesn't feel like that doesn't it yeah and I I don't know last time I was speculating something else was going on but like I don't know man like it it doesn't feel like this team is finding the chemistry that they that they need obviously I'm just speculating wildly but there's there's nothing to me that indicates that um people are able to have moments where they're ready where they're where they're um consistently happy with the way that they're all playing with the calls that are being made all that sort of thing yeah I wonder if there's a bit of a breakdown happen in the I we you've reminded me of a moment in the job I mean this is just a mod tangent to be honest but it reminded me of a moment in the Giants BBL game that I was watching this week where they show you a clip of the um they showed a clip of the comms and rhyme is screaming at people to get into sight on icebox because they were kind of struggling against BBL on icebox and so he's saying you know next time you need to get into sight you need to get inside and help me and Cloud just goes shut up is this is so good I mean the comms cut off straight after that so I guess there's a chance that we misinterpreted it because of but it just sounds like he was telling Ryan to shut up I mean I could I I it makes me think the reason that I thought about that is because I was thinking about the hearing um hearing starzo and hearing um Zeke on comms back when that whole the same team was playing screaming at each other and wondering like if that kind of thing could potentially be you know happening on this koi Squad as well in terms of I mean that's the sort of thing that's the sort of thing that I'm I'm thinking of because I don't know that's yeah anyways I also think that Cole dementia is like has been I don't know in a sense where he has like a lot of young players that he's bringing up and this team is more established people who have been star players who like it's it's harder for somebody like Cole dementa to handle all of that especially when you're not like when you're not delivering in the frag sense a lot of times that becomes hard as an idea when they can point at you for you know you missed up you missed that situation up you your aim is off whatever you're not fragging and then on top of that then you start to doubt their calls that's the sort of thing that I think of in this team with the dynamic that they have I mean just speculation but yeah well is your timer off yeah it is actually the Alexis just started Bing bonging and I think that means it's time to go to the next one uh there was another great clash of the French teams so Vitality played calm in court this week and I didn't write this title I want to be very clear this this one is all good this one is all cut who would win five sideshows of common call I can tell you it would definitely be common Corp I'm I'm hard stuck let's do you think the game would be it depends cream sized or are they Josh sized or you know all right like five scream sized sideshows it doesn't make it too much of a difference I don't think there is a large size difference between me and scream um yeah I don't even want a mold about common Corp anymore because it's just sad yep yep yep I scream just needs to uh if there's if there's one way they can get out of this if there's I mean obviously they would have more ways but to me it's just the answer is Scream stop by jail and give it to anybody on this team please you look so unconfident like so unconfident going into these games playing the Duelist which is good by the way good good change I think it's gonna work out better but like it's not gonna stick to it he tweeted that the Duelist didn't make a difference and that's not why they're losing no he did he literally tweeted that and then there's a tweet afterwards saying we just need oh maybe it was the same tweets and we just need to play like we do in scrims I'm like oh come on man I don't know I kind of I play with Max money and scrims I could tell bro I almost read that tweet from Scream and like interpret it more as like guys what else do you want from me I did what you want I played duelist it still didn't work like it just felt like a continuation of like despair like the tweets from him the tweets from there coach p.m like everything I'm seeing from this team it feels like they're just like mentally crumbling uh yeah I think like one of the the coaches tweets was something like the fact that like we haven't found a solution yet we have to find a solution there has to be one just like struggling to like grasp on how to fix this team at all like it it just feels like the team is beyond salvation and it's it's yeah like you guys had it's past the point of being funny it's just like I feel like it is it's so sad it feels like punching a toddler when I'm like co-streaming them because I I the the thing is too I remember saying on Plancha after locking that I thought they were hanky trolling the way that airplane was awful but the mistakes were quite fixable and if they did fix those mistakes I thought that they would have a decent chance of making top six or maybe even top four in emea which is mad perhaps especially considering the liquid improved and you know that wasn't really factored in that kind of stuff but but really they have just gone down and down and down and I think at this point the conflict evidence is missing so much I mean you look at how screaming news era especially are playing and it's unbelievable how lacking they are in confidence compared to what you what we've seen in the past from Scream playing duelist and what we've seen I mean actually news era has kind of always looked like that with playing on this team but like the moment pedestrian teleports up onto heaven and nuzera just lets him get the spike lets him challenge well doesn't let him get the Spy but lets him get the TP off without challenging him and then dies taking the 1v1 afterwards and it's like those kind of moments where they're just not grabbing all the timings at all it's sad to watch it really is yeah it is I mean Dustin had probably the best game I've ever seen him have to be fair it's really the best I've seen him look but if I did look at K Corp it's like uh it's like there it's it's like they view the game as like a square but the game's actually a cube and they're only seeing literally just one side of it and they and they just can't they just can't figure out that actually they can't use the same thing week after week they have to have better game plans and like so so they basically when they play BBL the only reason they won that game in my opinion is because there were no demos out there of them because they did the exact same thing against uh Heretics exact same thing against like a liquid just using the same thing again and again and then just going well why is this not working and it does it does ring true of a lot of things that I experienced when I was in liquid I'm not going to go into it too much um but it definitely Rings true of a lot of stuff that I experienced from that in terms of being like we we have to change stuff up we have like we it is easy to anti-strad how we play in my opinion it is very one-dimensional um and I think yeah we're just seeing that kind of rain true I think the I like the jet but the you'll just like what you're saying the confidence is gone like I'm looking at him I'm looking at scream taking Angels where I feel like I would get the kills faster than him man and literally like never in practice I ever thought that once it's like a difference yeah he's going practically like this guy is the best I've ever watched he's the best you can I'll aim everyone and I'm watching this official and I'm seeing him whiffing shots and I'm just like I I would hit that like I'm I would hit that like what who is this player like you take the name tag off I would say it's someone else and I think half of that has got to be confidence but half of that's also going to be his brain just going with the stress of trying the igl team that doesn't have anything set and doesn't or if they do have things set they don't get them to the Finish Line they're set for like the first 20 seconds and then it's just let's see what happens after that and then so I mean they're just set up so poorly you can tell I mean how hard it is for him to be calling because of how often you see them change setups at the last second on defense like so often they don't have their Viper wall down for like two seconds left and the Vera just throws it randomly because they haven't made the call on how they how they want to use it I mean maybe that's also up to the Vera but like you could tell how hard it is for them to understand what's about to be called so like that's what I'm saying like just scream is actually a great leader like he has great leadership qualities in terms of like emotional leadership I think when it comes to actually leading and calling strats that is where it falls falls to pieces and that is where you start to get a lack of confidence because unfortunately the reality is he's probably listening to all the critics and pundits and podcasts out there like this is a moment that you expect them to get that right click every single time and so yeah he's listening to all that and he's realizing okay I'm not doing a great job IGN but he doesn't see any solution and I think the solution is cut your losses start giving it to somebody else give it to Nevada I don't care give it to XMS xms's calling experience in the past give it to one of the two new guys it doesn't really matter as long as you get new set of eyes on how to adjust your how to actually get a nice Playbook going something like that maybe the other person will be able to do something but you could still be there as an emotional leader that this team is looking towards to have their confidence come from because when you're lacking confidence as a leader then all of a sudden the rest of your players are not going to be confident either and it's great so yeah I I agree with all of that I think maybe you said something there that made me realize that maybe maybe this is all my fault because when he was like when he was igelling in liquid like I I was when like obviously you want to get everyone's confidence up so I'm just like going like a deal like great calling and all that stuff and maybe that's maybe that's gone too far in his head because honestly his shock calling is has always been good I think it's shock calling on on the Fly is good but yes a lot of the outside of server preparation is often why I would say that he wasn't a like an actual igl in terms of that stuff he was like more of like what he's saying like a leader whereas um all of the igl stuff um always always like a void in this team that I tried to to feel to the best of my ability so I think uh yeah I think what you said is kind of kind of spot on but yeah I'll take the fall for it it's my fault I think as well appreciate that I think as well like that that to me sounds exactly like what I'm thinking of where he is he's actually good at mid-round calling too but when you put him in this situation where he's trying to actually execute strats that they've worked on and mid-round at the same time that adds an element that is really difficult to handle I also just want to point out too that this is not all on screams igling like if scream calls a comma of like let's say they're playing split which they've played a ton of and they've got like seven rounds total in three games that they've played or something let's say he's calling all right it's a slow round they've taken somebody having control let's go back to B guys like pivot B the players on Common Core so timid and poor at being able to create space for themselves to go on and execute uh go on a rotation like that they're always very slow very cautious about how they move around the map they don't properly understand how to get Space off their utility I mean I'm watching these players like beefing walls constantly beefing smokes beef and flashes like it's not just the you know it's not like screen should be a master Puppeteer telling them exactly where all their utility should go there's some expected competency when you igl a team that if you say let's Flash and go into this site they don't just go and Flash themselves right there is some expected competence yeah you're not supposed to micro them all yes but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're not that they're incompetent maybe it's literally that the calls are incompetent I mean we're we're speculating again because we don't know what's actually happening but I've seen moments where igls are making the right calls and like you say the players are not reacting but I've also seen moments for myself where I make calls and I realize later that the calls I'm saying are [ __ ] like the stuff that I'm saying are ridiculous yeah but I feel like even like if the calls were [ __ ] it doesn't feel like they're like doing things together like the like what Josh brought up like it feels like their rotates are always so weirdly timed and also there's still like so many just like personal mistakes that just shouldn't be happening at this level the economy is still getting trolled so much we're missing like there are things that go beyond just like a bad idea like there were just like fundamental pieces of utility that are like trolling and falling apart like yes we can blame scream to an extent but also like everyone else needs to get their [ __ ] together too yes yes by the way of course so by the way common call I'll actually have a win by the way they beat BBL at the beginning they're still negative 52 in terms of their round differential and frankly they're getting a bad rap in the community right now because we're not covering Pacific because if we were watching any of the Talon games oh my Lord we should be going as hard on that team especially with the [ __ ] expectations that they had they're negative 47 with zero wins putting Pat on a different age in every [ __ ] game having no clue what they're doing I mean an absolute just horrendous performance out of Talon after looking fairly decent and making it to what was it like the quarter finals or something of locking get a [ __ ] grip what's going on over there and we're not molding about it because it's happening at [ __ ] 4 a.m so none of us are watching it live I mean are they brilliant and then they've added partying and I don't know if he's a different player than when that I was watching but apparently he can play it and he could play everything like everything they just put them on a different age and every single map um and then maybe they're trying some of the most outrageous stuff I've seen like the triple like when I'm calling outrageous you know it's outrageous like triple Jewelers like yeah it is that's a mental one and like I saw an interview where they said it was working in practice and I was joking on my stream where I said like if I was say that like it say I was in liquid and Heretics tried this against us and like you go into a prac and you see them lock in triple dualist I'm telling my whole team to just let them take every single round so they use this and then you have two officials and and like I'm literally messaging their coach after and I'm just going man you you're a genius dude like this is incredible and I honestly think that's what happened like that's the only thing I can think is like they play you actually look kind of incredible though I don't know what's going on there I mean riq were one of those teams where I mean we've been I've been having conversations with people in my chat and stuff people love asking who the worst team in franchising is as if as if it's they just want the Chardon Freud it's unbelievable and people are asking like oh you think comical would be able to beat crew or be able to be you know roq was always the team that people were bringing up and then roq just destroyed secret this week they look they look decent this week I don't know that like I looked at them this week and I was like damn this looks like a legit like Goods team like that I could see go into it like the Tokyo land I know it's a little maybe a little bit too late for them but I was looking at this game Thinking damn they look incredible right now like they didn't really do many mistakes they looked like so good everyone was hitting their shots it was all together sick XX I loved watching this game so it's like I do want to ask you because you know we're unqualified to really cut uh talk about this because I don't think any of us caught all of the Pacific games right but in terms of those teams that are at the bottom so like your EG and crew yeah BBL your common core and then your dfm Talon and let's throw rrq in there as well yeah there was a quadruple elimination tournament okay but every time you lost you advanced who's winning that tournament s um if K if K Corp because obviously they could win the first game if there was no demos out of them but if there's demos out on K Corp then they would lose the whole thing they just play the same like if even if you're a worse team like on paper like you would still beat them you can't do the same thing over and over again there's a crazy one-dimensional mad well there you go you heard it from the expert you can stop asking me now every time oh yeah I think so I I trust enough in that well actually maybe there again it would be an absolute [ __ ] show wouldn't it be oh my goodness I couldn't even imagine it but I would like to think that a culture and igel that understands the game would be able to anti them so super super easy so like like literally on on split when I'm watching them they and when I'm switching cake up and they they go take middle and then they try and get a kill and then they don't get a kill and then it gets into that 40 second Mark and then they get into a heaven but there's there's been no kill when they just sit in heaven for 20 seconds I'm just like damn they've they haven't played a prac where people like are giving them space for free yeah and they're just they're just not decisive of it so honestly I just think you can you can outplay them by not even giving them a kill and you'll be fine almost these Maps they make too many mistakes while we're on the topic of Pacific um we're not really covering it in this episode but this week Genji versus DRX is happening and that looks like a banger so if you don't watch any of the Pacific games you should probably tune in for that it's two undefeated teams four and Zero versus four and zero is is the two top Korean teams playing off against each other king against his former team as well there's like so many reasons to tune in here and Genji have been doing extremely well uh capitalizing on that close game they had against Lauder lockin to really bring some momentum forwards into the Pacific region so this should be sick if you can watch it or catch a VOD I would recommend it and King's probably playing the best I think I've ever seen him play that's one of those games actually where I think I'm obviously DRX are favorites but I think I'd be tempted to say that Genji win that just because of how good they look like I just think they might be able to clinch this it's a real it feels like a real 50 50 game so it would make sense to go for the underdogs in this one like a furious pick like if you're like maybe not that one way too much I've watched that I was like damn you a lot of yeah I mean they they yeah they they got rolled we'll talk about that later um let's do some predictions so we are terrible at predictions on the show here sliggy I don't know whether you've seen but we cursed some teams dramatically last week so I'm hoping that you'll stop us from cursing people it's some of the games have been hard to call though I'll give you that some of them have been uh pretty hard like people ask me on stream and then I'll say something and then that's him at least I didn't pop at least I didn't too publicly do it right I haven't got on a YouTube or anything we'll be fine yeah I know who would do that every week all right so the first game coming up here in our emea week four predictions is team Heretics versus Team Liquid oh God oh no oh no I think this one is a guarantee though isn't it to some degree like liquid have been playing well enough to be able to get through Heretics I asked Kurt to change my prediction literally 20 minutes or before the show started I had Heretics Heretics because only you had Heritage I had Heretics why did you have Heretics because I just feel like Heretics are due for for a big win and Team Liquid are due for a big loss is what does the word do you mean like the same Cosmic fate involved yes yes that's how Valor Works how do you think the 30 law is achieved it's because people are do their dues uh right but realistically like okay Heretics is not playing a fantastic but they also aren't completely shooting the bed you know like they're able to capitalize on beating Navi when they're trolling like that sort of thing and Team Liquid outside of the carminecore game but we've already established that we can't really watch that entirely and think anything of it outside of that game a lot of trolling still a lot of trolling still and they have they have they have the switch now I think where they can go into the different modes because in that game against who was it football is where they took their their win um by safe going insane on a sense I thought they were going to lose that series 2-0 because the split started so horribly it started like lock and split um type beat and so I think that that can that can rear its head again especially if you go into a game where you think your favorite where the community thinks your favorite and that affects how players play so that's why I was a little scared of it I'm still gonna go Team Liquid I'm not gonna break the guarantee or anything like that but um yeah I don't know I don't think that this is I don't think any Team Liquid game at this point against any competent team is a guarantee right yeah I think that's that I don't feel crazy confident like I said earlier Heretics are one of those teams that if they get a good start like if they get a good start they they can win these kind of games um and also I'm a little bit worried about liquids mapple going into this um I know that Heretics had probably the worst part I've ever seen like I'll just put it out there and surrendous but um apparently it's been going a lot better for them in practice so I actually I'm just trying to look at all the maps that liquid can win and it's kind of kind of close on a few of these maps in my mind so yeah it's a little bit it doesn't feel it doesn't feel uh too confident in my books but yeah I still think they should win I'm looking forward to seeing safe play against um Kellogg's as well I feel like that if Kellogg's is having a game I feel like safe has been pretty great it's amazing yeah so I'm looking forward to that Clash yeah I just have like no confidence like I feel like there hasn't been a game from Heretics that like can give you confidence they're only like win was against carmencore sure they were playing fnatic Navi they took that map off Navi but it was just like the Lotus it was looking tragic from another I just haven't seen it with this team yet whereas liquid who has been doing some trolling have had Maps or I'm like okay this feels like we're getting closer to what this team should be safe clears it's like I'm pretty confident that this that's definitely uh been a tough strength for schedule though early on for team Heretics they've played against fnatic Navi already they took a map off one of them they played against foot too didn't they and they did play against foot and they got rolled it was like 13 5 13 something it was like super dominant yeah yeah I I'm interested all right let's take a look at the next game though the next one is uh probably the game of the week to be honest it's foot playing against Giants who have we got here oh it's not a guarantee okay only one of us going for foot actually um I'm interested here Mimi you looked surprised there do you think the foot is just the default pick no I don't think foot is the default pick I feel like this matchup is is pretty even like I think uh Giants have looked good thus far but for me it's just like on paper I don't think foot is favored I think this this is definitely me like picking on an upset I would say it's probably like 60 40 maybe for the side of giants but I feel like for foot in every one of these games where I feel like they're gonna go out of it they've they've come in and they've had like some ridiculous individual performances to clutch up at the end of games they've been really good at just like I think improving uh throughout what we've seen throughout emea thus far I like having Ada Captain full-time on the roster now and I think that it will be a close game I think this is like the kind of game that will like Define in my head like who is the third place team in Emir but I think if there's a punt that I'm willing to take like foot is like a team that I've like like predicted against a lot in the first few weeks and this is the moment where I'm like all right we've seen some good stuff from them I think this is like a worthy risk to take on foot I think it's interesting that um I I I think it's going to be a very interesting Clash on lotus in particular I think foot have got a very unique composition that they're running there that they're finding a lot of value out of um I suppose it's not that unique anymore now that they've swapped to playing the double controller but previously with this age it was a bit Bonkers but anyway the fact that they're running neon and finding a ton of success on Lotus is quite different to other teams approaches and Giants have just swapped to a comp that has no Sentinel on that map with Nookie playing the Viper and the way in which they were playing they absolutely dominated koi but I think quite a lot of that was just getting extraordinarily good reads on where Corey were going around the map and stacking those areas um so I am really intrigued to see if that um if that goes differently and also who even picks it because Giants last few games their map pick has always been really really dominant and then their opponents map pick they've just like you know gotten through it by virtue of being a decent team which seems to me to indicate the Giants are much more focused on like their game line on maps and you can see it in the way that they like play their Lotus and stuff that much more than trying to anti their opponent in any way so I think this is going to be a great game I really don't know who's going to win it I think it is a bit of a coin flip but I like giants yeah I think this is a banger game I'm um I'm kind of the same as you I'm excited for Lotus because I don't okay doesn't even sound a little bit harsh but I don't really account a lot of foot's wins on lotuses like super legit or in terms of us looking at it too much like they'd be rrq obviously in lock-in that was fine then they paid 100 thieves and 100 fees look lost on the maps they're playing like a a cipher which I just think is does not a thing um then then they played Heretics where they won double pistol so so that I'm kind of like they had the momentum on that one is like 13 39 or something then they played liquid that has no Sentinel on that map and that in my mind is a little bit weird but again they're gonna be going up against that most likely again and then Vitality they played against a single Harbor so I don't think they've been like properly test did on the Lotus um and I I'm thinking that maybe it gives them some Force confidence um what kind of see they definitely look very good at it but I I still don't think they've been properly tested on the map so I'm kind of excited for that um I think like we were saying I think they're gonna pick it though I think they're gonna have the confidence on it it seems kind of how they roll with just getting a getting a map under their belt that they feel very confident on so yeah that's exciting but in terms of the maps I just think the Giants takes that okay all right let's move on to the next game the next one is just put in here for the Chardon Freud to be honest it's Common Core playing against Navi yep if if there was a game for Comic cop to win that would that nobody would see coming at all this would be the funniest one for them to win I mean I'm not saying it's happening at all but it would be funny I have a comment called played Lotus once since they looked good at it at locking up what and it literally looks incredible like it looks so good out of the whole of the lock-in I was like damn come and call have the best attack side on Lotus like I was so convinced and then they just never picked a sense and I was like what are they doing I mean they must be losing it as Grims right because otherwise it just makes there's no logical reason at all there they haven't played Pearl either yeah the pro looked all right too like they had a really really slow attack side on Pearl but of all the maps I feel like that's one of the best ones to just have incredibly incredibly slow defaults into a b execco into an a exec like it just works for their Style and then played it yeah I think I think we're missing out on a few of their better Maps I um I had Doom Bros in my chat and I asked him to just let Angel just go full troll for this one I want to see the craziest com server so I'm a little bit excited to see uh if that happens and that could be that could be a win condition yeah how tall did Navi have to get for gay club to win this oh real trouble you're ruiners yeah I think so Angel back on your route too it's not just you know you're it has to be Angel back on you okay that was the worst timeline I've like blocked that out of my memory but that the yard looked good though right this time I thought it did yeah good it looks so much better yeah it's better than better than like the prior time they were in Europe but come on good they had five rounds that were set that was actually pretty legit yeah this is good in my books oh my God yeah I I was I was there with you we were having this discussion last week I actually thought that I was fairly impressed with they had like a lot of different ideas of what they wanted to do with it I was I was still involved the last time but then they played Angel your last time they had one idea I know I know but they relied on the TP they relied on Angel taping under stairs like 15 times out of like their 12 attack rounds like yeah there was some cooler ideas and obviously they were they were prepped with some Nightfall your TP [ __ ] stuff but like but come on good good you didn't like take them to like I'm pretty sure it was like the last or second the last round that they even ever did like the Nightfall stuff it was just like the same thing they were playing they were playing BBL they were playing BBL like I I don't I don't feel like we we do definitely see lothas in this game though right like common cold can't get away from picking Lotus against Navi it's just the most obvious pick Navi are bad at it comical previously I mean like who knows Navi might just Troll and switch up their veto and veto Lotus again and yeah I suppose and bring ice box because Carmine is trying to avoid ice box now too but simply enough Direction you get like a scent or split or ice box and k core is just like ice box is that they're working on it and they're waiting to unveil it later on you don't want to unveil it against I mean I guess machinations of Angel one [ __ ] mad vetoes and prep there's just no way you can yeah fair fair all right let's have a look at our final pred of the week then it is a Vitality playing against a BBL also icebox leaving the pool sorry what game is this uh against BBL okay yeah BBL do they I don't get BBL man they should they should eventually be good like they they like they should eventually be good but they just they just can't close games out I swear like it's the same thing from last year they just can't close games out ever they have they have opportunities to win games and they just can't close them I don't know why but maybe that's a team could this team end up just going winless despite not being the worst team yeah yes but what's the rest of their schedule good question liquid foot those are some winnable games there is an upset in there somewhere there's got to be at least one that's what I that's what I say every time every season with BBL there's an upset I predict one of the the most easily upsets ever and just never comes and then it comes the next freaking game but like some some of these games they look incredible like the The Haven game the ascent game against fnatic for example like they looked really good and then they just lose the series anyways because it's fanatic but like ah yeah but I mean was this team any good on behind is that the cope that like icebox coming out and buying the coming in is gonna I remember them being particularly bad on buying but I don't know if that's I don't I don't know if that's the case it might have been like SMB or something last year yeah I mean SMB were ridiculous at one point running killjoyon bind repeatedly so I don't know the Turkish scene's always been a bit a bit crazy there uh is it I feel like Vitality should be good here right yeah there shouldn't be a risk they're looking they're looking decent if that's if that stream's playing this good then I'm kind of scared of them actually look like a good team all right so that brings us on then to the power rankings so let's let's power rank some emea teams I feel like this is gonna be somewhat easy at the top and the bottom and then a bit of a mess in the middle of the pack to be honest but that's a kind of cool place for emea to be because I did think the middle of the pack was going to end up looking pretty weak and it's it's been better than I thought have you been doing personal Power Rankings yourself silligi nah I've been recording it yeah I know people love them everyone every time I look over in chat someone's mentioning I just I just avoid them we've robed you in this time where do you want to begin people this feels like actually fairly reasonable from last week like I feel like the only things that are really changing are just like maybe a little bit of Chaos in the middle for the most part but like top and bottom like top two bottom three still feel like that's good that's about me Heretics winning a map over an RV looking somewhat more competent than BB I mean we had BBL in this spot because they look decent on ascent and they've beaten fnatic on Ascent right but I think long term probably Heretics have more chances than BBL do they yeah I agree with that I think the only thing I see here is like Heretics BBL and then eventually I guess these little things is a is like a big gap between right yeah yeah it's like a tear down okay I mean eventually The Fanatic and Navi one will be removed but we haven't seen that yet so I think it's cool to keep it there that's literally the only change I'd make to be honest and I agree with that change I'm like kind of I I don't see how I can maybe maybe we move the tear gap of undercoi akoi yeah up one oh yeah but even then I don't think like maybe it's even above Team Liquid I don't know like that's that's the place because I think Heretics has a chance against liquid I think it's too early to tell I think after next week we'll know whether in Heretics are really in the same theater but I think it's kind of early to to know that kind of thing um what about the movement in the is there any movement in the middle of the pack with obviously Giants and foot we were predicting Giants to be a little better than foot but I mean Vitality come off a big win against Common Core does that move them up the rankings I think the only argument you could make is maybe swapping foot and Jones but I think like just looking at form from the games we've seen thus far I feel like for me what foot has had is like kind of like the craziest and late game and like the individual pop-offs and like the one-off like Ascent comp and things like that that don't really give me like an idea to be like okay I've seen the consistency from this team to rate them above Giants I think those two teams are very very close like there shouldn't be a tear Gap or anything but I still think that like in terms of form giants has looked better like they've just looked solid this week and last weekend have just been consistently pretty darn good in most their games definitely some games coming up this week though that could change things around you know what this felt like a coherent power ranking segment where it's just a small tweak adjusting that America's one is just all it's it's almost like doing it every week like it's reasonable changes yeah but it wasn't in America's it's like go in the past get on the episode and make the argument because nobody's making the [ __ ] argument about yeah they were trying stuff as well they were trying out new comps of course of course of course but they still I mean all right never mind never mind never mind just gotta take the elbow just gotta take the elbow honestly okay I was talking to the people in the the Brazilian talent and the Brazilian fans and stuff a lot of a lot of the Brazilian scene was expecting Fury to win that game too but I think it's just a lesson in like loud you know it's I think some people are going to predict that kind of stuff against Navi as we get deeper on into the playoffs and stuff as well without realizing that Navia gonna be good like if they just choose to be good for a week they're going to be a lot better than what we've seen for them we would have the exact same thing in the mea if Navi was like at like if there was any other team if there wasn't so much more turmoil down in three-fifths in the mea if there wasn't that we'd have the exact same conversation in Navi about like football as being up above them or something like that it's just it's just the nature of week-to-week play where teams are experimenting that's what happens is their power looks worse keep coping Bala keep coping you were wrong I literally said last last episode I said well we're probably gonna be number one by the end of like in a couple weeks but right now they're not that's that's how it works I mean I also predicted loud but still put Fury above them so I was just playing both sides is this good are we done with this yeah I think this is good I think it smells good yes what is the thing that could what would what would mess this up the worst out of all the games that are happening because like Giant's foot wouldn't mess it up like Heretics liquid Heretics liquid is the biggest mouse well I guess K Corps [Laughter] that wouldn't change anything to me that would that would be like the most like expected dumb [ __ ] that would happen that wouldn't change anything for me we would literally not even move Carmen it's actually just insane hater status yeah I mean maybe bbo Vitality would shift things but that would still just be kind of changing in the middle I think that could like if there's an upset there that could like disprove the where we're placing the tear gaps but yeah you don't feel like it would be super unreasonable like I think that like what you're saying like surely bvl will get an upset at some point surely it's bound to happen don't feel like it's this week but with shift things if it did okay then well I think that just about wraps everything up then with uh emea thank you for joining us sliggy oh yeah thank you for having me it was nice enjoy uh enjoy the N A Madness America's Madness thank you very much enjoy your 12-hour shift at the coaching Factory thank you very much yeah this week's going to be a bit nuts of uh specific moving an hour earlier but yeah yeah for anybody that's um that still is looking for where the fine sliggy you will see him live about 16 hours of the day code streaming whenever Valerian is on yeah the super week this week is gonna rinse you so good luck with that thanks so much I appreciate me all right thank you very much so we're going to be covering game changers and we're going to be covering VCT Americas with Mel who I believe is hopping in Fairly shortly here I might have honestly might have dismissed sliggy a bit early but we'll go to a break and we'll figure stuff out and we'll uh we'll pop back yeah yeah so you probably won't break and if it does we'll blame Kurt anyway yeah I made like a cool little hot swap thing so I'm gonna press this button oh and Kaboom so right now my program is telling me that if Mel is connected to the chat she's here right now but I don't think she's connected right now yet I just told you there she is yeah she's here she should be able to hear that yay here I'll be right back hello we are live right now as well but we're in on break screen so but yeah people can people can hear you so don't leak all of the crazy roster moves that are happening oh that I was I was okay I'll save it for after okay good good good all right we've muted our mics now now I'm scared just I mean how to burn Bridges instantly all right get some water I'll be right back okay okie dokie I'm gonna I'm gonna fearlessly boldly for the first time ever open the chat oh God and see what people were talking about for the first time ever I've never opened the pledge of Allen chat before it's pretty well I have what I've I have when I've not been on the show hello people [Music] hello everyone everybody type Sideshow l um actually true I mean people just saying egg [Laughter] what's the secret to your hair yeah yeah there's no secret hello melon sharp knife say hello melon Mel do you ever get people calling you melon um honestly ever since the rise of that of that term I have not been because I feel like it is derogatory now so therefore I I have not been called that I hope I I don't start getting called that that'd be nice you I feel like that would be a great I mean listen I don't want to put it in people's heads but any any metal whiffs the melon would you know with the capital that would kill me I think I think I'd retire that that's just too much that's just too [ __ ] much uh and yeah I can see people in the chat talking about Pacific so the reason that we haven't been recovering Pacific very much is that the matches are happening at I think it's 1am like this is gonna sound silly but 1am Pacific time like one in West Coast like L.A time uh oh no it's 3 A.M some of these games as well so unless we're catching the vods of them we are not able to cover it and we've got a super week of America's coming up so to be honest with you Pacific is just a perfectly in the time zone where it's a massive pain in the ass for us to be able to um all have watched and so basically here's here's what you would get what you would get is one person would have watched all of the games because they had a bit more time than everybody else and they'd be monologuing for 20 minutes about the Pacific region and that's not really that's not compelling television thank you producer Josh yeah slicky could have covered them yeah do you want a sliggy monologue for 20 minutes about Pacific while we all just sit there and Nod I mean people probably would want that yeah yeah people probably would want that to be honest but yeah we will cover Pacific um later on and we'll do some Recaps and stuff like that but if you're a Pacific fan I'm afraid you're just going to be out in the desert for a couple weeks but yeah if you if you are a Pacific fan genuinely sliggy is doing Live code streams of those games so if you want somebody to give you like analytical coverage I would highly recommend going and watching his votes yeah suck is the goat a lot of uh emea folk are doing it because it's easier to schedule for them it's still not easy like I live in the UK and that [ __ ] is the wrong time zone for me anyway while I'm in the UK what time is it in UK uh for I think the game start at 9am or 8 A.M or something and I'm trying to cover Americas too which finishes at like 2 A.M so I'm not sleeping for six hours and then getting up and cooking yeah for you it's bad because they're watching Americans 100 all right yeah yeah if the others are going to bed at a reasonable time I suppose that makes sense it's like an insane amount of valorent like I I feel like I'm just trying to watch like Americas and emea and even that feels like so much content it would be a funny segment where like one person knows and the rest are just bullshitting the entire time the Pacific games by just looking at vlr I think that'd be really funny yeah pretty great hello okay we're back we're gonna talk game changers we're gonna talk America's with our fantastic guest Mel how are you doing good I've been like on break since game changers I've just been sleeping all day um this isn't my first productive task of the week I think I would say yeah [Laughter] I don't know how productive this is gonna end up being oh boy yeah but you've um well Bala you were casting the game as well but Mel you've you've started your road down establishing another Dynasty under a different name Within game changers North America by the look of things uh very clean no map dropped in the uh uh in the Run toward the finals There You Go version one on top that's what was was it um more challenging than it has been previously or was it just a cakewalk again uh that's a good question I think it was challenging in its own ways like leading up to this point but the event seems as easy as like the last game changers I played with Cloud9 domestically not the Berlin one obviously right but yeah it's definitely had its own challenges it's building a new team like entirely versus like doing it with the team you've been with for like one two years already but it's been a pretty fun experience I think that I think that too we didn't even play our technical best at least to me and G in the grand finals but that's I could say that for later yeah I mean I would agree with that like the the series you had in the upper bracket finals was way cleaner than the series you had in the in the finals like it's particularly on Ascent like it wasn't as clean as I would have expected from from you guys especially with how floor popped off in like the earlier stages of the bracket but no it was I mean it was ridiculously easy it was ridiculously easy so yeah congrats on that yeah I mean it's super super sick to see you continue that that's now for for you and Lexi you've continued to have never lost a game changers except for the land or at least a game changers nna going all the way back to that what was it like the pre-game changers for the women summer Showdown whatever the hell 50k event so that's a pretty sick record to maintain but I guess I I just kind of I want to ask like since we have you here what was the progress like to kind of like redevelop with it while it's just disappeared goodbye what was it like to have to like completely redevelop like with a new team because you played with Cloud9 for like what like two years straight with the same team getting to build upon that structure what was it like to like have to restart for the first time in like so long it was honestly all pretty sudden like having to restart the team died like a couple days after Berlin to be honest like Berlin ended I had like two days off to like spend with my boyfriend and my cat and then team died and I was like all right well we're gonna go a separate ways um I'm gonna go with Lexi and at that time I heard about version one and I was like oh this is a sick opportunity like I've always heard about these players being like insane on their respective teams and it's honestly a completely different experience because with Cloud9 it was like I had grinded with those girls for a period of two years and we had gotten from the bottom together like I I've looked back on those like old magical vods like not even Cloud9 White magical Bots and I was like oh my God I was [ __ ] we were all so [ __ ] and just getting from the bottom and learning everything about the game like understanding Tech FPS at a fundamental level learning that all with the team to going to a team where it's like I already we all kind of already have this knowledge and building from there is so different and it's been such an awesome challenging experience for me but not challenging because like they're bad it was challenging because it was like different and it's been different especially as a terms like as it comes to like being a leader because again when you grow up with the same people I feel like there's a like level of like we were all there together right so it's not as big of like a leadership position but on this team it's like I actually feel like mother like I feel like Mom truly it's like I feel old I'm like 22 I'm turning 23 and it's like I'm not even that much older like the next oldest person is like 20. and I feel like old I'm like damn I'm 18 bro I have like wisdom and experience that I can bring to this team like that's when it starts hitting that like damn I'm at that point in my career when I'm like hail frame wisdom wisdom it's been fun it's been fun being like the older experienced person bringing like uh unansertained knowledge to the roster from before it also feels like with the addition of like the the I don't want to say new players but the new roster that you're now playing with it feels like there's different Dynamics there in terms of having fluorescent at the front where she's just cracked I mean just absolutely insane um how does that change the dynamic for for you and for the team like the different strengths and weaknesses between C9 and this team is like we have just I think one of the best duels players like honestly in the world and obviously I'm biased because I'm on the team but there's [ __ ] that floor I can curse by the way right yeah yeah okay if we brought you one first you would have ruined it but thankfully thankfully we got sliggy on First and he's very mild-mannered well that guy couldn't [ __ ] talk anyone to save his life it's actually incredible horrendous run of valorent and be like it's not looking good like yeah [ __ ] are looking good no but having fluorescent at the like the head of the spear is something insane that I can really lean on it's something so different that I'm not really used to this isn't any hate to anyone that ever played dual SIM Cloud Nine like I've played the list because he's played the list like he's played duelist but I think it's it's not hate to anyone to say the fluorescence just insane just the things that she can pull off I've never seen anyone else do like this 1v2 that she clutch she's like who the hell does that like a draft Dash backward like Dodge the re like what is this like who does this [ __ ] so it's been awesome having her as part of the structure and I think you know reigning her in was a big first step for us because on her previous team she literally just ran it down she literally just wouldn't be nine like ran it down obviously her team supported her and like you know backed up with some of the plays but a lot of the [ __ ] she said which is purely individual and so with me and Lexi coming to the team and Effie's as well it's been definitely a job of like okay let's rain around and get her like some discipline and like that alone has changed so much yeah the development she's had already has been so impressive like from watching her on Misfits I totally agree with you it was just like okay we have fluorescent she's gonna go kill everyone we lose around or we win it off of that but with your team it's like she's showing so much more like discipline like being able to still have those pop-off moments well also slowing things down getting her one pick pulling out like it really feels like you guys have found a balance of like putting the reins on her and also still allowing her to be the absolutely insane individuals that she is but I kind of wanted to ask about like the development and the leadership because with Cloud9 you guys had like kind of a rotating cast of coaches and like support staff throughout your time with that team like it was like I feel like something like four or five people throughout the history of your team that you all were working with but now switching over to V1 you're working with Effie's who's another like new voice and also I believe like his first time coaching in Valor off of just being a pro player with V1 before what's it been like with with him on the team and kind of having maybe a more consistent voice to help you and Lexi out Effie's has been like a godsend in terms of coaching like game changers lacks a lot of like good coaches because a good coach like at least for me it's like obviously a very high understanding of the game um at like a high level and also knowing what to work on with game changers teams I think a lot of what I see in game changers for the past two years has been coaches that kind of do like Google doc strats they're like okay here's this Google doc of all the strats we're gonna run you're gonna run this on this on this round and then this on this round without actually explaining how the game really works and that's I mean obviously I'm not on these teams but that's how it looks from the outside just playing these people for two years like there's a very like lack of mid-rounding lack of like fundamental understanding of the game when I watch these games and fe's encapsulates the outfitness that you need in a head coach where he's like yo you need to do this better like he's not going to shy away from criticism which is something that I've experienced with other coaches who haven't really criticized like players or myself as much as like I would like them to because they're afraid of you know like stepping on people's toes but at least is not that he is hard on us and like it's it's to the point where let's say we're screaming like a good team and we throw around that it's just unthrowable like on some Casey [ __ ] for all and he will be like guys I I just canceled our screams tomorrow against [ __ ] franchise teams and Challengers teams we're screaming shitty for the rest of the week because you guys need to learn how to play against shitties and I was like that's so real I was like that it sounds like really harsh but it helps so much because we've been able to like enable and like pull up our skill floor from the bottom and that's something that I struggled with um before on like C9 I feel like where our skill floor wasn't um like it wasn't it wasn't as high as it needed to be in order to like win a game changers or win really important games so him coming in has been a godsend working with Abby's has been amazing he has a really high understanding of the game he was in igl before so he's helped me a lot with my calling um especially I feel like my calling has gotten a lot better in the past couple months I feel like I've really simplified the game but I know when to complicate it I know I just have such a better understanding he's just an awesome coach but before we like move on to other things within the game changers too I wanted to ask because you invented now twice you're you're screaming against partnership teams right yes yeah and you said floor is the best player in the world not just game changers that's what you said I'm not sure if you've met game changers but no I definitely meant in the world uh I I'd be definitely need to record the rumors you definitely scream Challengers and um partner teams or CPCC America teams 100 we do I think I've seen the weirdest like Dialogue on this where I've seen people be like game changers only stream other game changers team now why the [ __ ] would we do that like well bro what kind of grief is that obviously we scream like partnered in Challengers teams um and I say that she's the best in the world because we scrim these teams and she performs extremely well in these scrims and this isn't just from like a mechanical level I hope to paint like a better picture of floor here her her calms have Inc have just gotten so much better and have increased like tenfold over the past four months her Palms are insane now she is like a very communicative judge she's very assertive in what she wants to do like she'll come over to a setup and sometimes like I've watched like rank streams and I watch a lot of comms videos from other teams and even from Challengers and partnered I'll see their Duelists be kind of like more quiet than I'd expect like obviously there's some sort of like leeway you can give to a list because they need to focus on their Crosshair in their back but Flora is like a perfect balance and she strikes that perfect balance where she calms exactly what she needs to and it's a sort of when she needs to be like she'll come over to a setup she's like Mel Roots it over cat pick up cat with likes you I'm gonna post a meme for you like very assertive very good comms and very good action comms and knows exactly when it's like if you're getting a split on she'll be like let's fight this leg of the split come with me like flash for me like she's very sort of in like the dynamic between her and Lexi is also really good where like Lexi has like given her a bunch of comms and they can both have like that really good system to bounce off of so it's not just like mac with floor she's a really really heavy on calms for a duelist and I say this too because the first week the first week me and Lexi child we played a partner team and we beat them in scrims and I remember thinking at the beginning of the scrim I was like all right guys if we beat them I'll sign the contract right now and then we have I was like oh [ __ ] okay well I guess this is a so I I when Cloud9 white kind of dissolves and you realize that you had to reform a team was there a thought about just going into the wider challenges circuit rather than game changers and seeking to take what you'd learned from that and going into you know one of the teams that was hunting for an Ascension one or a partnership one that was definitely on my mind at the time I had a lot going through my head after uh Berlin to be honest bad thoughts and good thoughts and definitely through my mind I was like I'd love to like make a I like to see if I could even just run like free agency and try to make a challenges run with them but I ran across V1 and I saw so much potential in this team to not only be like a winning GC team but actually push the boundaries of what Cloud9 White had done before Justin scrims with them like like literally the first week like I mentioned we beat a partner team I was like holy [ __ ] okay maybe I can actually get the best of both worlds here with a game changers team where we can make a challenges run at some point uh obviously the Open qualifier was like um like we had three weeks of practice going to the first Open qualifier so my expectations weren't we need to win this and make Challengers obviously but later down the line in the next qualifier or next year's qualifier I see like a lot of potential with this theme so in my head it was just like a Best of Both Worlds uh scenario because everyone on the team is [ __ ] the one you from my understanding from before was that you guys all came together to approach V1 it wasn't like that it was 4 or somebody on that team but like like the very cool you guys yeah it was um it was very conveniently you had already signed floor Nicole and uh sorry Noya and Sarah already and there was very conveniently two slots open and I had reached out to them and they had told me yeah we already assigned our contracts I was like oh cool so um me and Lexi you're like a package deal like we can trial with you guys and that's pretty much how it went uh and it went pretty well I would I would say yeah clearly uh so it's just a rehash that kind of point though about the open qualifies and the Challenger system and stuff it's a lot weirder this year than it was last year it's kind of more locked out if you don't get in right at the beginning um last year we saw a lot of teams or at least a good bunch of teams competing in Game Changers and then you know dipping their toes into open qualifiers or some other third-party tournaments and that kind of stuff whereas we haven't really seen I know it's only April right it's not like 2023's done and dusted but am I wrong or is there not really that many opportunities to actually get involved in the wider VCT circuit um if you didn't right from the off it's not like there's open qualifiers every few months there really isn't like you said there's been one Open qualifier I think there were some rumors that maybe there'd be another for the split a second split but as we're seeing the second split started there's no Open qualifier like the bottom uh two teams from each group aren't relegated or anything and I feel like there could be some improvements there obviously I'm not bashing these themes and Challengers but I think that for the rest of the scene to be really healthy to have like some sort of relegation it's like Open qualifier system because it does feel like yeah if you don't make the first qualifier you're locked out of the entire year I don't unless there's something I'm missing I think that I I had like I had a rumor or not a rumor I'd have thought where maybe the premiere system was going to drop and then they were going to run an Open qualifier on the premiere system but as it stands it's coming out and it's in beta so it's not even going to be happening anytime soon so maybe next year is going to be pretty yeah but it's kind of you know disheartening when it's like only one qualifier and obviously I know it's rougher like in other regions and stuff like that but it definitely sucks playing videos are you missing the chances of being able to compete like you know outside of the game changers okay definitely miss those chances I think right now there's going to be some NSG and some nice tournaments like there's gonna be that always where it's like a nights monthly or I know nsg's hosting um like a land and they're holding some weekly qualifiers so that's pretty much the um the most that we're gonna get to be honest and I our goals are just to like win these smaller tournaments and build us up to get ready for Challengers next year we're kind of already like set on there's not going to be other uh open qualifiers so we're just gonna have to grind it out and see where we're at like a year from now yeah I I wanted to ask a little bit about some of the some of the other teams uh in Game Changers that we saw because obviously Cloud9 gets dissolved you guys aren't the only two players from that you have exit who has Bob and Kat who used to be your teammates on C9 and then you also obviously still have Shopify who ended up beating you guys when you were on Cloud9 last year to make it to the Grand finals of Game Changers Champions but from looking at that first game changers to me it felt like for Shopify before well like towards the end of the year they were starting to get closer like occasionally taking Maps off you guys and Game Changers and eventually um beating Cloud9 at game changers champions in this one it was just back to them just kind of getting rolled over by y'all uh and for exet actually playing a super duper close game against them to almost be that team into the grand finals do you think that for the rest of the teams in GC right now like do you think that there's anyone that's like starting to push to a level where they can compete with your team I think it seems that are the closest to compete with us because without saying is probably Shopify but my point I guess would be like the teams that are playing in co-ed there are like I could count on one hand the teams that play in co-ed events and it's not it's not very money I think I know complexity has been playing it a lot Shopify plays in a few of them exit's been playing it a lot um but it's just those teams really like there aren't if you aren't playing in these events you're just not going to beat us it's the same thing it's the same Mantra as last year and the year before that where on scene I was saying the exact same thing if you're not playing music Still the number is the same I can count on one hand still and it's like three of those teams are um our teams that have xc9 members on it so it's like yeah well [ __ ] but that's just the reality I think to be to give credit to Shopify I do think there is a tier I think the Arts here above the other teams and then there's us there's just a tier above them at the moment um but it's it's kind of rough I didn't really like come into this thinking there was going to be like a huge challenge obviously the only challenge I thought would be like us beating ourselves that's like the most like uh the most common like Trope ever obviously but really like coming into it I was like I don't feel like a lot of pressure um against these teams against unless if we're playing like Shopify Rebellion because I know they're probably gonna come into it trying even harder you know trying to um to beat this like super team that's like huh on the Block so talking about you potentially beating yourselves how are you going to transfer the success that you're having into land performances a little better than happened last time um I don't want to put words in your mouth that it was you beating yourselves but it felt like um it wasn't quite up to your expectations the last time that you'd been to a line event and there's game changers challenges is you know everything that all of this leads up towards that has been on like the Forefront of my mind since John happened to me ever again Ling Berlin was proud probably a top three worst feeling in the world not gonna lie that was awful I think the others would probably be like losing out on like the open qualifiers for um for VCT like the years prior but that was a pretty shitty feeling for sure because I feel like that never should have happened and I think it's a case of like what I mentioned earlier which was us having a low skill floor and that's something that we're already addressing on V1 since the creation of the team this isn't like something that's taken us off guard me coming to the email before Effie's I was like we need to work on our skill floor because that's what owned me on Cloud9 like we should be able to win game changers on our worst day like that's just the reality of it our worst day we should be able to beat these teams because they aren't like we're not these aren't partnered teams or challengers teams and we win against those teams in scrims so this isn't something that we should be struggling with really um at least if we're performing to our own expectation and trying as hard as we do in uh in the partnered scrims that we get in the Challenger screams that we get but that's like number one and number two would be um having more resources to like boot camp and Lan which V1 has given us like a ton of I've already like boot camp twice everyone um I did earlier on this year here without Sarah and Flor like in January for the open qualifiers I was there for about two weeks and I just came back from three weeks in Minnesota being at the full boot camp facility with all my teammates all my teammates there so already like pretty good start I think the next one'd be us going to lands we've already been to astral clashland we won that so for us that would be huge because on Cloud9 we only went some like one land together and that kind of sucks when it's like you're going into like the biggest land of the year and it's like you've only boot camped once you've only been to one land and then shopify's to have boot camps every single time they've uh I don't know if they've actually been to like a land together but knowing that they've played in person together is a huge Advantage when you're finally playing together in person but that's definitely the takeaways for me is just like getting those extra land reps getting those extra boot camp reps raising our skill floor and being like really hard and critical of ourselves during practice so we can like perform their best in tournaments for sure so even after uh last year's Berlin you don't feel like G2 is feeling the exact same way as you guys are especially after their win last year where they should walk into a game changers tournament and and win on their worst day so this is no hate 52 goes in I have a lot of love for those girls in the roster I met them in person they're all amazing people and I've looked up to some of the people in that team for years back in CS the reality is the as of today pretty sure let me make sure my facts are right as of today the last coed event they played in at least Loganville was 14 months ago so I don't really think that uh just with that knowledge I don't feel I I don't know I don't see it to be honest and again this is all this is the same thing as like four months ago was Berlin right so when we lost them in Berlin they went 10 months without playing a co-ed tournament on blr so that's I'm not saying I shouldn't be worried or anything or like there's gonna be a breeze but the reality is like when I view teams I view game changers teams differently if they play color versus when they don't and this is a situation where I definitely view them differently and in Berlin I hold pretty truly to the fact that we beat ourselves um there was a lot of like internal things happening with the team we had three coaches there was too many there was too much chefs too many chefs in the kitchen there's just too many cooks and there's a lot of things that led to us losing in uh Berlin that I wouldn't really I'm not saying take away the credit from the teams that beat us but I really did feel like we lost ourselves and I think it was very clear we were not performing at a level that we had performed at in open qualifiers and any other game changers we looked like a completely different team Berlin I'm looking forward to it I think it's going to be a a nice Revenge Arc if you call it that I think um but I also I know that you've been following VCT America because we're going to talk about it in a bit but the VCT America's audience I think is about 150 people isn't it a hundred people is it less than that in the venue yeah I look 150 I couldn't even get like tickets from my mom yes yeah it is sold out real quick it's quite small and it sells out very quickly but the reason that I bring that up is because I wondered if you'd seen Leo's tweet where they were talking about uh the game changers uh championship in Sao Paulo and the fact that it's in such a small Arena and that kind of stuff um so I wanted to kind of discuss your thoughts about the um the announcements there although it was what about a month ago at this point I'm sure you've got more uh specific thoughts on it than than we do perhaps and more relevant thoughts too and also Leo tweeting specifically that they um are not trying to grow game changers particularly they want the whole thing to flow into the code tournaments as you've been putting it um but at the moment that doesn't seem to really be happening like just because you make it small it doesn't actually seem to be incentivizing the game changers players to to try out those bigger tournaments or to make teams of uh you know specifically challenges teams either yeah I when I saw this tweet like obviously there was like the whole this whole drama right there was so much I think my teammates here responded to this and she was cooking not gonna lie but seems to me and seeing he's like you know we want you know GC players to be playing at Masters and Champs obviously but the reality is that there's a lot of issues that stand in the way of that that aren't even like related to skill and uh I don't I'm trying to think of how much I can like get into this I could talk about this for hours by the way but like there's a lot of things that go into you know women playing on GC or GC players you know playing on Challengers and franchise teams one day that like I said aren't related to skill at all like there's been things where like even me personally that I can share with you guys that have gotten in my way of getting to that next level that were not related to my skill I feel like it's only a matter of time before DC players even like get real opportunities and I think it's gonna be happening soon but there's even stuff like on riots I know they could be doing more like I feel like like for me um I've had several like actual interests from teams from like top teams over my career um I can just name them like at this point it's kind of like old news and I'm on version one not on c9s anymore so I feel like I can talk about it but like even just me just speaking for myself like I had interest from Immortals back when they were like a top N A Team I had interest from nights when they were a top 10 any team in VCT like closed uh 2022 and obviously kcp which was like I had a twit longer about that and there were like a couple other teams too that I can't really discuss right now but because they are still involved in Valerie at a high level right and these are things that like I had that were not like they denied me because of my skill they're like okay no she's [ __ ] bad women are bad at the game it was literally it in every all three scenarios the reasons that I didn't join those teams were related to my org shutting down the conversation early because of my perceived value to partnership application process or it was a case where I trialed or was attempting to trial but the buyout price ended the conversation immediately at the work level right related to me playing the game it was completely out of my control whether or not I had the opportunities do you think those things are related to you being a game changers player in the sense that the brand value is much larger for you know if you're if you're any kind of player that's trying to get into Kansas City Pioneers let's say then probably most of those players don't have as large a value to their current organization as you do because you're kind of the the central point igl of a game changers team of which that's an incredibly important part of a team's branding and you're also kind of well known because you're at the top of that scene it's I don't know what what would the equivalent even be in a in a in a non-game changer setting like some unbelievably goated uh Collegiate player or something that's just like the big name on campus I don't even understand like what the what the comparison Game Changer setting content creator like a massive I guess yeah yeah like a massive content creator who's actually really decent and wants to start going uh into professional play so did you uh is that kind of are we on the right track there that that seemed to be the the reason behind it like people holding on to you too tightly for your value to the game changer scene I would say that is pretty accurate that and like the buyout cost because salary like I feel like I've seen people discuss this um as well online is like this isn't like a while GC post only wants salary that's why they don't go to a challenges team I have like pulled my agent I will take the pay cut I will take whatever pay cut I want to play on these teams um but that's just not like something that has changed anything really it's just been like a matter of like you know work's holding a little tightly because of like you know perceived value to um at the time it was a partnership application but even with the partnership application it was like your value to the org you bring eyes to the org you bring XYZ to the org you know stuff like that and also just like the buyout which is just unfortunate I know this isn't like exclusive to GC players but because of that value your bio is going to be higher as a GC player for sure especially if you're like top of GC and you're playing very well you're gonna have a bigger buyout than someone maybe like someone that might be grinding out in tier two that's a free agent like think of it from like um the teams that were reaching out to me think of it from their PV like why would the org pick up a GC player how to to pay a buyout maybe pay extra maybe not because I personally asked for like I'd take any salary cut necessary so it'd be on these teams why would I do that when there's like a tier two free agent that probably has similar stats maybe isn't as like a doesn't have a bunch of tournament wins or anything like that but why would you take that over this person right so it's kind of it's kind of hard and I feel like at some point maybe there needs to be more like incentives from Riot to incentivize teams and Challengers to like pick up DC players so when it comes to that good good when it comes to that tweet then the Leo tweet where he's saying they're not trying to grow game changers you think he should take that a step further where they should not like you shouldn't grow game changers because we want to incentivize the pathway from game changers to to co-ed you'd think you should take that a step further so for context switch before you answer the question right now to my understanding the systems that ride has in place for like to kind of give advantage or give incentive for Orcs to have game changers team is just that in qualifiers for events you can have both your game changers and your like your main rosters like to co-ed team playing at the same time and I'm pretty sure that's the only thing right now and the thing for partnership where um important important yeah you can break in Port limit with game changers players as it stands those are the only two things that really incentivize teams to pick up GC players but um I mean for the first one of just having an orc having a GC team rather than like anything else but I think and I don't know I'm I'm trying to Theory craft ideas here I don't I don't know what the answer is I just know that there could be like more done but I think something that could be interesting would be like as it stands now there's a roster lock rule right for the split where you need to have three of the five of your core in order to play you can't make two out of five or something that but um during a split and I think something interesting would be you can you can get around that rule you can get like two out of five if you pick up a game changers player for example like you'd have to think of some creative ways I'm not asking for things like yo let's have a game changers team make it to Challengers for free like [ __ ] no please do not do that I don't want that nobody wants you get that 2-5 Rule and you know trick is gonna go crazy on Mad lions oh my God yeah it's a weird one isn't it because I saw a lot of the conversation really being about the fact of like we want game change you know a lot of the people that really enjoy the game changers product of being like we wanted to grow larger because also the larger it is the more it incentivizes other uh people of marginalized genders to get involved with actually playing the game in a competitive sense and that is one of the goals of Game Changers to start with but it's really interesting I never thought about it like that before but the larger the game changers gets the more difficult it is for the players to be able to escape from its orbit and go into playing challenges it's a really strange Dynamic actually that I hadn't thought about yeah and Emperor unique go ahead go ahead yeah I was just going to say like what do you think can help to change that because it feels like a lot of that is on the org level because it's like for players like you and other top players like your value as a game changers player is obviously huge because in a lot of ways you've kind of I feel like become like the face of Na game changers and the person that a lot of people affiliate with that and in that like obviously Cloud9 didn't want to let you go because they thought you were too valuable but for players like you or you were talking about fluorescent saying that she's like could be like the best player in the world and is someone who can compete at like a top level on teams outside of Game Changers like what do you think incentives can be put in place to actually get uh get not only organizations but also maybe in a way Riot to be able to like get more of those players out of the way do you think it's something that's more on the org level or something that's more on like right should be setting incentives or just in the way that like players agents are negotiating contracts or something I think it'd be a combination of all three it's a good point I think obviously Riot could have more incentives like something creative like what I just thought about I think if you really delve into it you're probably I'm [ __ ] stupid you could probably think of something better than that let's be real I feel for a [ __ ] Valor team like how smart can I be but uh I think orgs can also do better in terms of like good faith you know knowing that like okay you might lose this player but the how do I say like the positives for the scene this would be if a woman were to play on these teams outweighs the potential profit you could make off of them would be like a you know a nice First Step idea but also from Riot I think there could be like something brought up maybe with the players union where Riot um when it comes to teams that have GCT or or have GC teams making it so that um they kind of not enforce I'm not sure how exactly this would be would be enforced but making it so these orgs are having good faith negotiations and um kind of trending positively for the players in terms of like less holding on to them and more like letting them explore co-ed options if that's the thing they want to do and I can say just just to clear up any early version one is very very nice to me and my team we have some nice stuff in our contracts that allows us to explore our options in terms of co-ed so that's not something I'm going to be dealing with this year I hope but I think that would be like a good start or exert having better like uh good faith negotiations and maybe Riot is kind of enforcing that and being like hey like we want GC players to make this jump we understand that it's not a skill issue at this point even though like I go on Reddit like I'm this uniform player is not ready and they don't even know how our screams are going they don't even know that we're screaming partners team they don't even know where screaming Challengers team they don't know that we're winning some of these scrums you know what I mean it's not a skill issue I promise you it's not a skill yeah I think I think you could take anyone from my team any role and you can put them in a challenger scene and they would perform about equal or if not the if not better than some of their counterparts I'm not saying that every Challengers team I'm not saying you [ __ ] put me on M80 and I'm gonna be out calling John John QV like instantly you know what I mean or something like that but I think certain Challengers teams you could honestly make that switch and it would be very beneficial and I could see that it wouldn't be a flop do you think that level of playing game changers is somewhat Universal or do you think that's something that's more around like your team and some of the players you played with on the past with Cloud9 because I think you have a unique perspective because the scrims and the behind the scenes stuff you're seeing has always been with your squad who has always been at the very top of Game Changers you were saying talking about how there's like kind of a tear gap between you and Shopify and then like a tear gap between everyone else are you seeing that same like level of talent or like I guess Readiness of of players elsewhere in the na scene to start to make that leap do you think that's still um a barrier I think this also kind of goes back to the points you were making about teams not playing in co-ed even just as a full game changers team uh I don't think so yet I think it is pretty much only related to like uh former Cloud9 white members and like my team to be honest I think I don't know if that's controversial to say now that I say it out loud um I think it's just like the reality is like you said um there's just not enough Community playing in co-ed for me to even make that judgment because as of right now like how I would base my judgment would be what teams are playing very well in code and it's not there's like two it's Austin like I said let's be real so if I didn't even play in the first seven qualifier it's like uh and it's not a coincidence that those also happen to have X cloning my players on it that's just like always been our motto and our Mantra and it really is only like uh us I said I think complexity plays in a couple of the uh open qualified not open qualifiers the open Cloud events as well so it's been fortunate but I think it is kind of sustained only to that group but I'm not to say that it can't get bigger like it would genuinely be as simple as these teams playing in coed tournaments and proving to me and proving to everyone else that they can hang in like two or three like that's it I mean I I heard you know during the break when all of our mics were obviously turned off that fluorescent is going to be something for Sentinels you know so that that should be fun we're leaking now okay yeah that should be a huge opportunity so I mean that's that's that's fun so yeah listen we'll we'll get to see whether she really is the best player in the world she'll be instantly judged on one match and again against loud and if she fails she's trash the same way that people judge list of Sentinels that would be insane though holy [ __ ] shall we talk about Americas then I know you've been keeping up with it Mel so I wanted to begin obviously with this insane Sentinels uh situation um they've announced Kaplan did a video where he was talking about the fact that he is now the head coach and they're gonna bench tens temporarily that's ostensibly temporarily because he has kovid because he has um an infection on his finger that's making it difficult to play um and they're going to bring in Marv who is the sixth player who's just got a Visa now before we even get to any of that [ __ ] I want to start talking about the the psycho being dropped and Kaplan coming in as head coach kind of situation because I'm very confused I want to start right there I'm confused I don't get it I don't see how any of the changes that they're going to be making heading into the future are going to be or would have been impeded by Don continuing as the head coach Don literally formed this squad and the coaching staff because he has a strong working relationship with Kaplan as a strategy and with Drew doing analyst work as well it's you know I don't understand what psycho would be blocking to stop this team getting better it's not like psycho's forcing sassy to play smokes surely what does this actually improve changing the coaching stuff it feels like I I so for context in similar tweets that we saw below this and for those of you that don't know Kaplan was already heading up the majority of like strategy for this team he's been the Strategic coach since the beginning he's been on something else the whole time and uh Seiko Don has talked about that he built the team intentionally to have this team of coaching staff that would kind of compliment each other and help build up this team and now I'm looking at at this point if it's been Kaplan for the most part already making a lot of the Strategic decisions and that's already been the places in I'm with you Justin that it's like what was he blocking it almost feels like for dropping him at this point if he was just kind of an additive part of that team will not significantly change anything unless behind the scenes maybe he was blocking some ideas or or pushing more of his own ideas into the team than we're kind of being led on to but I somehow doubt that and it feels more like it might just kind of be like okay we had really high expectations we've been getting [ __ ] on thus far we're paying this guy a bunch of money we should scrape out someone and just get him out of here I mean it really does feel like he's been the fall guide for this yeah it definitely could be I I mean the only theories that come to mind when you're thinking of like oh potentially blocking somebody or what obviously has transpired now that is uh gone right it which is tends taking a little bit of a break and bringing it marked that's the only thing that is obvious because my mom didn't even have a Visa before this did he was working on it as a member of the inactive roster he was working on getting that Visa yes right so I don't it's not like Thomas in the Visa office saying decline This Guy's Pizza hey we can point to so I mean a good must be right like it must be it's just strange too because I also I'm pretty sure in the most recent rule set for uh Americans and for the internationally I'm pretty sure that both assistant coaches and coaches can talk during timeout so I think both of their input would have already been added like I don't think this is even a thing where it's like okay we get rid of him I could be wrong on that but I'm pretty sure certain because it's like practice Yeah get rid of him you know already had all of the you already had both those voices in the timeouts you're not really changing anything by just eliminating one is that a change or or what because that's not how it's been working yeah it must have been a change because I at Berlin because we had three coaches and maybe I can kind of relate to the situation at Sentinels where they have like you know they have an analyst they have an assistant coach and they have a head coach on C9 we had three coaches there wasn't as much of a hierarchy as there was on Sentinels but I think it could very well be like what you guys were discussing in terms of this might have been like me behind the scenes he was like interjecting or like I mean there's just too much Cooks in the kitchen that Kaplan wanted this way and this person wanted it this way obviously we can only speculate but I feel like with how it's been announced it definitely seems to Trend that way I I feel like I find it hard to believe that players would just scapegoat him especially when they have like former accent players without like any like Rhyme or Reason to it well I'm not I'm not saying the players would have done it I'm saying management I've done it personally I mean I mean especially that it was announced probably because it was like announced on like Rob Moore's like personal Twitter which is a little bit weird which by the way we were talking to Don earlier in the day and he did not give any indication that he knew that this was coming either I mean his you know his wife and his kid were in the audience too for that game and they lost the game much closer than we thought they would play it and they could have two zeroed it genuinely had they won the OT on split so a Bonkers kind of situation there and to be fair as well like if if it was like an idea of okay Kaplan wants to be the only voice in the coach current timeout so the players want that to be the case then they probably would have just said hey can you just gem like because you're the guy who's building the team why why not just let me do this and his like announcement posted he's leaving he's like I'm open to positions GM ain't doing anything like I feel like he would have been comfortable switching over to that position being like okay kaplan's already taking up a lot of the strategy it makes sense for him to be the guy to call adaptations and I'm honestly surprised that that's not how they started to be honest because Kaplan already has head coach experience and he has a high level experience with the game not that Don doesn't either because he's obviously coached except but Kaplan has literally played like on High level teams before so um I don't know that that to me to me seems like the more obvious solution if it was player or coach decisions or whatever do you think let's just look at this from you know Rob Morrow Management's perspective do you think the panic button needed to be pressed for Sentinels at this point oh no come I mean they're what one and two they almost beat Leviathan here they could have two of them like it very much could have been the case no it feels so reactionary because it's like you lose the one map in overtime to go to map three and like their Pearl wasn't very good but you're playing with vieton who I think have the best Pearl in the league their read was a little off the KO idea didn't really work out for them but I I don't feel like that series was a tragedy in any way tens was [ __ ] like sick he had a he had coveted he had a infection at the same time like a lot was going wrong to like build against him winning that game and they still almost beat Leviathan who's like a top three team in the league yeah I I just guess I'm coming from it from the perspective oz of I haven't liked what I've seen from Sentinels I thought that the game against Leviathan yes it was close but I I thought that the the major things that they improved were their pistol rounds in their early round game plan but they still looked uncomfortable in the roles swaps that have happened sure and I don't see that I mean that is gonna get better over time I'm surely except now it's not because they've gone back to their old stuff but you know had they stuck to it would have got better over time but then they're um their their defensive protocols their mid-rounding on the attack side still looked really shoddy and I think that they were able to get a lot of their value there just by doing some pissed around work and hard anti-ing um and making sure that they fixed up the sloppy mistakes that they were making in the first like 20 30 seconds of the round uh not giving away free picks but do I think that Sentinels would have been able to make Tokyo with sassy playing smokes and the current setup I don't I mean I don't think so like you said I mean it's a surface level change and even if the panic button is hit like it's not it's not changing anything right like well do you think well here's the other part do you agree that this is going to be a temporary change oh the tense thing of course yeah 100 no for sure even if they find a bunch of success with it while he's out uh you're confident that this is going to be a temporary change even if they start winning their games the [ __ ] rod board wasn't sitting next to him okay I mean he might have been off camera but you see the video Rumble had a [ __ ] gun to his head he said he said Kaplan swear every other sentence so we can get our edgy fan base on board dude a hundred percent kaplan's saying we're gonna work really [ __ ] hard like I've talked to Kaplan Kaplan is not like edgy Sentinels person like that that was so scripted the way that he was talking there it's so cool it's like deliberately Zuma but but again what are you what what are they getting at by replacing uh tens with with Mars like ten tent again exactly I don't see that sense being the problem I watched the games and it seems more like macro game plan oriented both attack on defense they have like all the right pieces like I watch their games and it's like tens will actually make the best play in the world possible like he's Walling off the Heaven There was a noise cut they can only go a and the a players are all Heaven no one's turtleing in to say no one's getting into side setting up crossfires they play retake Leviathan as uh Leviathan has Viper role they hit the site and they just hold the site like it seems like way more macro like even like on a scent like I can't even like attribute any of the losses to tens like you look at Ascent tens is playing retake with an OP every round because it was making me so mad bro tens is floating he goes B and instead of the killjoy or the Sova anchoring B they both rotate how does the KJ and the sofa both rotate from B and leave tends to up a line when he should just be Road sitting with the op it's just like absurd I don't see the game plans I think they have the right players but the game plans make no sense sometimes I think maybe part of the improvement though will come from having so when you watch tens operate around the map often he's um alone at the beginning of these rounds and not being set up to do something as part of the the team and I think possibly Zack and will end up being a bit more decisive about that because when he was playing with exit he was when he was playing the entry he was getting loaded with uh help and he was the main focal tip of what was going on and I think that if second's confident enough to be able to you know come for a lot of that additional help it might make a big difference in terms of the value that they get because at the moment it just feels like they've told tennis to be on a bit of an island and it's just like yeah get whatever value you can but it's not like the it's not like they're defense sided systems work around always having him being in great spots I mean he's either holding hands with zeken all the time anyway when they're playing or he's doing the same thing every round like he was always playing B heaven when he was playing Sage I don't think he moved anywhere else he never had like a Warby Mane or a wall a main or you know playing up in a different position or you know it was always just the same kind of spots and it comes down to Izzy wood second or is he alone I think that that it's not like it's not like that's necessarily on tens obviously to adjust their entire game plan and say hey this doesn't make too much sense but I think or mixing things up probably will allow second to do that more second is definitely a lot probably more assertive but I I don't think I've seen more experienced um he is at the top level he really is I mean he's played with much better systems than tens has tens is the kind of player where you want to teach him how to play in a really good system because he's playing on some shites I mean they've talked about how like how a lot of this scene was about like reteaching him and like him like kind of regaining the drive and having to get him used to the new system like I think that's a very valid point whereas I think the maps were Zach and has played duelist with assume or even the double duelist ones it has seemed like they they've been a lot more proactive and this is obviously kind of like digging a little bit deeper into like comms and stuff that we don't hear but from like his time on exit he was always that guy who's super proactive kind of what you were talking about with floor um where he's very willing to call for his own utility call for setups like set himself up for success with his teammates I don't obviously we can't hear the columns but we don't I didn't seem like they were having that with hens in the same way it seems like it was just like something was being called he's gonna go sit in the same spot I wonder if it's a part of it being like tens doesn't want to be like an inconvenience something as simple as like he doesn't want to ask for this because he doesn't want to like [ __ ] with the system as simple as like hey instead of starting like CT can you come break my Darden Market or it's like instead of a you know him holding the bean line when two of his teammates that should be angry beer rotating instead of being like all right y'all hold this being like yo let me wrote it I have op like I don't want to play music with off like stuff like that maybe he doesn't want to say because maybe he might be like unironically too nice like he just doesn't want to mess with the system they have already which he's also already a team that has a lot of voices in it like deaf is in igl he's talked about how like players like second will add stuff in Saucy was doing a lot of like secondary eye gelling on loud into my understanding he's doing some of that on this team as well like there's already a lot of people like adding input that I could see that being a possibility the the other part to that too is is 10 is really going to want to mess with a system and ask for help from people who are learning and adjusting to new roles anyway I think it's going to be easier for a second because he's got sassy on an easier role now you know he doesn't have to um if you're trying to ask pankada and um sassy to do stuff while Sassy's playing Omen and pankada's playing uh Sentinel they're still adjusting to their roles you can see in terms of the way that Sassy's had some big moments because he's still a great player but the way in which he uses his utility is not like he's a natural smokes player he's still getting adjusted to it and for pancata I feel like we haven't seen very many of those incredible moments because he just can't be his mobile and outplay people with his brain which he was doing a ton of back when he was playing smokes so if pankada stays on Sentinel maybe he'll still be putting in just like those you know solid decent performances but I think the improvement from sassy and the way that he plays will be astronomical I don't know why but people seem to have forgotten that he was like arguably the best initiator in the world and of the kind of player that never made a wrong move like never he was always in exactly the position to win his team rounds and that did mean that he was much safer than a player plays a lot more aggressive you see the hero plays and stuff like that coming out of him um but sassy is going to be Rock Solid for this team on initiator and I think that's going to make things a lot easier for them yeah but again brings it back to the whole idea that like this has been my problem from the beginning with Sentinels is that there's too many problems at the same time that they're trying to cover and this is maybe it's going to help alleviate some of them but at the same time too you're adding a [ __ ] ton of turmoil to the team when they're already dealing with you know the doing with a sick player they're not sure whether he's going to be coming back uh and then dealing with role changes dealing with adding a whole new person dealing with in introducing new language as coms for players like all of those things matter so so so so so much and when you combine them like it's just there's just too much to deal with so I to bring it back to the whole Dom thing I think it's just absolutely absurd to do something that drastic especially when it probably didn't have like it probably number one didn't even need to like happen super super super publicly um there could have just been something in the background where there's not somebody getting freaking fired in the middle of a scene after week three and um it probably also just isn't changing anything anyways like in the comms that's my do you think Marv's had any idea he was actually going to be required to play when he signed that contract yeah yeah you think yeah I think he thought he was getting a nice little streaming bag maybe I mean I feel like he thought that but also like if you wanted if you have to come in and play like two matches I feel like that's pretty chill you don't have to like I don't know if they're making him full-time move to LA that sucks if that's the case but I don't know he'll just he'll kind of vibe with it Marv wanted a break and I'm pretty sure he wanted to come back eventually right like it's not like you I would assume so so like I'm sure I'm sure he's feeding to get back into these games now that Americans have started right probably if it yeah I mean most people with competitive Drive really do end up like missing it when they're gone um we haven't I haven't exactly asked the question in as many words but I think you've kind of intimated as much ballot do you think this is going to make them better um no no give me for the week coming up yeah there's just too many issues yeah there's too many too well yeah no there's too many things going on I don't think they'll they're playing loud and who like mibr yeah I mean on top of that you have the pressure from on the two Brazilians which might be really good to be there there the people who they've never lost to so it could benefit from a more plugged out system though on their matches if we were talking about like tens not wanting to interrupt the system and now they're bringing in marvs and people are going back to roles they haven't played in a couple of weeks maybe they're just like [ __ ] it we just start plugging it out and then you need those like bombs that maybe don't come out as much when you have a structure because things are presumed that might actually help them you know I don't know maybe I mean that is always a little Buff when the teams can can no expectations and puckiness are the ultimate [ __ ] buff dude I also think like playing loud first to kind of get a game where there isn't expectations of you winning it might actually be kind of nice for them because you get that match they will probably lose it they end up losing it then you can learn from that you have another kind of like what like four days to go back and prep for mibr and fix things up with this new roster it's not like they're making a substitution for like one match that they're really expected to win there's a lot of pressure and then it's immediately switching back to tens or something like that like this feels like if there was going to be a swap like this this is kind of the best time except that they're coming into Super week and there's two games happening this week um yeah but Joan you had like a few days off after the lab match before you play in my VR oh it's only two I thought it was longer yeah that's not a large amount of time and also they're winning oh sorry they win they're they're the close loss to levia tan look look at me the coping already history um they're close loss I think and the map win that they got on Ascent was largely powered by doing a lot of good anti-ing of uh of what they were doing I mean the first pistol run on in fact a lot of the pistolons at Sentinels won was like a hard anti of levia Tan's normal pistol round attacking Strat where death gets two of them just fully expecting that pathing over towards heaven um I I don't know if you're gonna be able to I mean what do you do just give up on the loud game and hard on TMI BR because they're more easily won a winnable game I mean that's probably the the best option when you look at things but there's no way they're gonna do that um so I think it's going to be very tough uh if it was the management that called this panic button are they going to be panicking more if they go zero and two in super week is it just absolute turmoil well I mean at that point their expectations are shot right like it's going to be if the expectation for them is to make Tokyo and they go zero and two in super week then there's no chances of going to Tokyo then like there still is actually though that's the mud part even if Sentinels go zero and two here and they're one and four if they win that so that means they would still have yet to play Cloud9 EG and crew all winnable games so there is still a chance even if they go one and four here that they end three and five oh sorry no I've I've messed up there haven't I they go four and five sorry if they win against Cloud9 EG and crew they'd be four and five they'd probably get into that sixth spot and then it's just about winning in playoffs sure but but what else can you do like what what other what other Panic is there to do like there's nothing no it's true just keep moving down the line yeah head coach tens [ __ ] it like you're getting shroud to coach if they go oh and two this way they'll run it back yeah wild scenes wild scenes all right so let's let's move on to another team that's having an absolute nightmare at the moment I mean actually getting a win so uh it can't be that much of a nightmare was bcj really the problem with eg should we I mean should we blame all of their problems on bcj and the reason that they won was all to do with demo one coming in that's a serious question I don't know the answer is no no come on the answer is no I I think I think they played I mean I don't even necessarily think that they played better than the past I think Peru is just not as good of a team as I even thought and did not really expected crew to win this game same same absolutely um just just based off of the if you watch the first two games from EG and you watch the Locking games you could tell bcj was performing perfectly fine maybe maybe I I don't know bcj is a really nice guy I can't imagine that he has problems with anybody inside of that team when the team was built up by being like this super nice family team that like everybody gets that gets along together like I thought pcj would fit perfectly in that so I mean maybe my read is wrong but and that's the only way he could have been a problem in my mind I mean when you look at the compositions that they were playing it seems like bcj ended up having to sit because they wanted to keep giorgomo in the squad for presumably like Firepower reasons I would imagine because bustio and jorgemo ended up playing the smokes kind of stuff that bcj would have been playing um I mean that's even that's even without the whole question of what I think makes way more sense which is but bcj to go back to play an initiator and for them to um to have com sit the bench but com actually played better this week than he had done previously too yeah I feel like though a lot of like what we're saying also just has to be put in context of like I agree with you well I feel like they looked pretty similar like they were they were playing crew it was still incredibly Scrappy like I let's give credit to demon one because he came in he played like three completely different roles across the series and individual I mean it's [ __ ] crazy at this first time brim killjoy and Jeff he played really well on all of them like just as an individual player like credit to demon for being able to step in and do that but does this get does the win here give me long-term hopium for EG absolutely not it was the Ninth Place versus 10th Place matchup in America's there are so many really really good teams in this league and I don't think that this that BCG going out will solve all their problems I don't think demon one is the savior of EG I think they're still gonna show same issues that they were showing when they do have to face off against the stronger teams that they are yet to play by the way first time that the North American team has beaten a uh latam or Brazilian team let's go America [Laughter] the secondary roster for ug what have they even been up to they don't even have a fifth right so what has anyone even been doing this whole time they've just been sitting in a custom are they've even been screaming they can't scream or say okay you have Insider info but like is that do you know like is that rosters I don't even know I scrimmed them a couple months ago but they stopped screaming you know what the whole Adder thing I haven't seen them scrim since so I'm just wondering like what has demon one been cooking I think they're screaming still I don't know with who who I don't know no I've been signed for four months like what I mean how is he even playing like this considering the situation I don't understand yeah they just have bcj screaming with that roster then if it oh my God I don't know I didn't even think about that wait I need to check my friends list [Laughter] yeah uh I I I don't even know what to say about the okay here's where here's where I want to go with this crew had a close game against mibr very very close game um it looked like they were both on about the same tier as each other split by a hair mibr goes on to beat EG crew goes on sorry mibr goes on to beat NRG crew goes on to lose to EG what the [ __ ] is happening in the Americas League that's my question legitimately how can you predict games or do Power Rankings or anything for a region in which that's the case someone make it make sense is it because it may be on crew are so familiar with each other I'm not even sure they would be at that point that just seems like a bit of you know a bit of a cop out well what's going on here our mibr is going to be a very inconsistent crazy highs and and bad lows that's where I was going to go with it I think that mibr is a bit more of a fluctuating team given what we saw at lock-in they looked really abysmal there and then they come into the first two weeks of Americans and look okay um but I think against crew they they were not playing their best um they were they were just not they had to they had to have multiple comebacks in that series um to even stay alive in it like crew had was in the driving seat if I remember correctly for most of that so um on top of that I also think that crew are now hitting the point where they're getting worse because of cousin being in the team like if you watch this this series and compared to the rest of them was just like going crazy in this series and forcing his team to like do a lot of catching up to him because of how aggressive he was playing and I think that one and eleven on attack side jet on Ascent that was something I've never seen before from kesnet yeah um uh yeah so but if you watch like Pearl and you watched even fracture for example fracture was this race game and that wasn't that great but Pearl specifically like the dude was inching into backside for example and his team had to rush to catch up to him or that was not happening on him in the mibr game so like they've had a playstyle shift because of the way that cousin's playing I don't know why but this was always what I was really scared of with kesnet coming back on this roster was forcing a difference back to the old crew in comparison to where they wanted to go with Mauser coming in the team with Dave he's coming in the team with having new blood in the team entirely it's a bizarre situation yeah I mean just a very fitting game for the toilet bowl of Americas uh it was though it was like a 9-3 lead on the first map that got thrown away all of EG's games before this EG were in the lead and then just tossed it massively and then this game they're down 9-3 win up 8-4 lose and then fracture I mean it was like just a it was a whirlwind it was very very bizarre it wasn't even the worst game so far by the way the parole game the way that they're like Reed was so interesting on this like no duelist double controller comp that they're playing because they're like okay we're just gonna get judgment orb every round and then once he throws his wall we are just gonna have him in the hardest he possibly can to probably get two kills and then die and then guess what we just have a reckoning every two rounds like it was deranged because it was ridiculous and it kind of worked so he's just swinging inside his Cove though like he's just turned his Cove into a Thunderdome and then just trying to 1v1 people inside of it oh my God I think of the round like back B where George Mo ran like [ __ ] 50 feet in front of his team and then he gets one kill swings into like towards secret someone's in front of him he has a coven hand he throws the Cove down the crew member utterly whiffs on him they both run into the Cove joachimo kills him runs back out kills another guy like it was ridiculous that's why bcj's on the bench for those kind of plays bcj probably doing those kind of plays that's true that's a joke about playing like the roles still don't make sense like when jajima played race was really good he's really good at that role but we have him like flexing on the Harbor it's just EG's still doing such weird things that it feels like they're trying to like run before they can walk and like they got this win over crew and that's cool but yeah uh I don't know what to think about this team yeah uh people were asking me if EG were going to go winless I said no they'll probably be able to get one win I think this is it I think uh yeah but I don't know maybe we'll maybe we'll see some more crazy Shenanigans happening um this team is the only uh North American team though that's been able to beat one of the latam and Brazilian teams I said earlier but uh one of the teams that hasn't had an opportunity yet that maybe is the Last Hope for North America is Cloud9 they actually look good like this team is looking decent and they came out here with oh a devastating lost a hundred thieves but it was a pretty good performance from this Cloud9 Squad now oh they won as I say that they win versus Under thieves sorry what sorry what I meant was a devastating lost 400 themes sorry I phrased it very poorly there but yeah devastating lost 400 thieves in this game but Cloud9 came out and I think they looked very strong my point kind of being that it wasn't just hundred thieves fall into pieces although it does feel like that 100 thieves definitely look really poor but it was also a good performance from Cloud9 I thought yeah go ahead oh yeah I I was going to say I think the thing that impressed me the most on this map was both of their defensive sides and they're calling against Thunder thieves was just really good they like consistently had the right staff to cite it stacked a site site to stack in light rounds on both of these Maps I think a big part of that was like how well they were using Zappa's initiator utility in the mid round uh across both games like on Lotus like his late round flashes and the fast pivots that he and leaf would do across the map to have the right setup in late rounds was so good it felt like they were out calling Hunter thieves and having better information across that map and then on Ascent they had like rounds where they had a couple like cool KO knives it would like delay land across the map you'd get information off that you then know that you can stack towards the other side and win that out for 100 thieves like I don't think it was horrid from them but they definitely just got outclassed across both of their sides where they were trying to attack and for C9 like that's so impressive to me because I feel like the coordination for this seam is it about as is it a level so far above what I expected with the amount of practice it had I think for Rooney this was such a dream situation for an igl I can speak from being an igl here is that that like core of Cloud9 from what I've heard because we have scrimmed against Cloud9 blue I've worked with the old cloud and blue uh coaches back on C9 white is like that core of zeppa leaf and uh and zelsus um it's also obviously new but regardless are so vocal they are such vocal and mid-roundy players that as an ideal like this is the legit best case scenario for someone like Rooney it's so much better to go into a system that has like really vocal players that can like really put some up like get some weight off of you in like the mid round and like even like the server time aspect of things because I know they used to play really loose but having like that core of players be your three and you're the ideal like that's coming from like um from like the bottom like lower like tiers of valorant is so [ __ ] helpful and it's so obvious when I watch these games because I can like I can like see the vocality of all the players and like everyone buying into also what Rooney is calling like that has to be a godsend like I would love to be in Rooney's position to be honest with these players yeah the the performance out of leaf on duelist is also nasty good I know you've talked about before that he doesn't like playing the Duelist that much but holy [ __ ] he's [ __ ] do it don't care just [ __ ] do it at this point he's insane I mean he goes plus nine in first kill to First deaths Rooney was plus six too which I don't even know how Rooney on his role is taking that many first duels to be honest but the the way in which Cloud9 look like they're playing is lights out and it also like part of me is sad watching them because I keep thinking what this team could have been with yay and vanity on the team too but you know you shouldn't um I I guess I shouldn't assume that they would actually look this coordinated with that Squad I think they would but they look like they have very good ideas of their approaches I'm just so impressed with MC's coaching every time I watch them but they also get like a buff from like back when they played Red Bull you guys know like the whole Narrative of them being like a super team and being able to like shed that label is actually a huge Buff when now they went from like a super team like everyone had so much pressure on them even though MC was an interview saying we don't even have best enrolled players stop calling us a super team please like he's just hoping that people stop calling them a super team to actually being like beginning of the split no one had any expectations it could not get less expectations than this other than like EG like that is actually a huge Buff when you don't have expectations and you're bringing in people it's like you feel like you can do no wrong to be honest like what's the worst that can happen you lose that's what you're expected to do anyway and having that is actually a huge buff and now what's crazy too is they play NRG this week and if they beat NRG rather than the community narrative is like this is the best na team like I think it's fair to say that like it could be Na's Last Hope because obviously they've played 100 thieves in EG and they took a map off loud and lost the prep wouldn't allowed game to win the one map is really good rest is serious just wasn't there to the level of loud thus far but but I mean if they continue on this momentum I think that that NRG series is actually going to be really really close and if they can manage to win that obviously NRG I think is still pretty far favored like there's a real discussion of like this Cloud9 roster was a real success with the players they picked up and like actually are like Na's best chance yeah that would be pretty ridiculous I mean probably won't happen but like also it's not I do think it's closer though than it ever should be right like in terms of where Cloud9 were at the beginning of the year I feel like a [ __ ] broken record every time I talk about Cloud9 because and I feel like at some point the players are going to get annoyed about it like us all talking like no one was expecting them to do anything and now they're popping the [ __ ] off it's like it's crazy though every time I think about it how badly they [ __ ] themselves up the organization and yet they've still managed to bail themselves out it is ludicrous however I wanted to talk about something different Mimi you said earlier it's not like 100 thieves played awfully I think this was an abominable performance abominable like the Snowman from 100 thieves what the [ __ ] are they doing playing a solo smoke comp on Lotus they have never understood how to play that map and that continues to this day again and also what was I watching on 100 thieves attack side what am I witnessing the the the so uncoordinated it's so unconfident cryo looks like a different player it's like watching screenplay it's just they're burning all of their utility and then trying to walk into the a site when there's a double setup on on Ascent it's so so poor no no I was watching it and I feel like the I feel like hundred thieves doesn't have the best read on what is very good on Lotus even just from a comp perspective because the way I see it is that Lotus is like the most attack sided right now and like the least defensive in the pool like by far it's not to show that as well but just a pure gameplay perspective you see people running double controller not just for the attack prowess but mostly for defense you see a Cloud9 like completely shutting down sights if you try to go to see early you're getting Molly if you try to go second time just a KJ Molly if you go B there's a KJ Molly like there's usually a lot of stopping points in the ground but usually when you're playing these Maps what are which are very attack or defense sided you want to run a comp that is like that like uh helps the side that's weaker so you'll see teams that like run double controller because defense side is so weak to try and make defense more winnable than it is right now so it makes no sense to me what comp 100 thieves is running because it's a very attack sided map by default no matter you could run any comp and you'd get more rounds on attack than on defense and it's like their comp seems to be attack cited but then when I see them actually hit sites should be like favored for them because they have the breach Aston is like running in completely untradable like no util being used and then you watch how C9 plays the map and it's like they're actually completing their defaults like 100 thieves will default c not break any of the KJ util Cloud9 will default C they break the kg2 and then reset even though they have like less utility they're getting way more value in a time I don't I don't understand hundred thieves read at the moment it was tragic though 100 themes of burning that Trailblazer off the rip to get b control so they have no ability to retake towards a they also don't have any Viper utility down so they can't like slow contact re-clear a but it's so obvious where they are on the map at all times I mean look at this look the round that we're looking at round five they've they've tried to go for a retake towards a I think this is the runway 100 thieves even won but everybody on C9 is here they all know that it's here on a leaf wins this round or something doesn't he but yeah it's just like untradable has bombs with Spike as well yeah it's just so garbage and I mean we we had Slinky on talking earlier about um footballers playing against hundred thieves on this map when 100 thieves were running the cipher and their whole game plan was just like take somewhere else on the map and then have Stella look towards a with his Cipher cap they they just don't get how to play this so I think it's a great pick from Cloud9 to put them here but the fact that 100 thieves also didn't win on ascent and they looked I mean again terrible like cryo looks completely he looks like he's still out of his depth like is that slow uh on a lot of places like I I barely feel like he's taking the space that he needs to uh almost ever understand when that's like literally the Jets only role in a lot of cases um but yeah I mean this is what I've this is under these is just not improving and you're seeing now desperation in a lot of in a lot of cases too for example Austin again way too well not necessarily way too aggressive but like too aggressive when his team wants to fall back like that sort of thing has been happening over the last three weeks at this point um so yeah this is uh this is pretty bad I yeah and I think what what their strike the schedule is insanely difficult correctly like it's it's yeah it's it's I mean this is the question like what world can they actually make playoffs should have hit that panic button like weeks ago so the next four teams after crew is Leviton energy loud Fury every good team that is like the top four teams in America back to back to back and yeah I think I was definitely being too kind when I said it wasn't tragic because it was bad but yeah I'd say it was but tragic like the attack side too just every time it just looks like they have no idea what they're doing and it feels like they're never having like any productivity with cryo even when they're on the attacking side even when they're running like these double initiator comps also these rounds were like C9 was going for this like their variation of like not quite the titles they've done this in so many series before in their previous series they did this like twice they did it or they did it three times before they did it twice in the series other things they're just not ready for it ever uh in this one as well in the default too they would have like a player playing like deep in B name to just hold that space and then C9 would just walk someone up and they would just look like they're not paying attention get owned like the mid round just was it looked lost I don't know it feels like they're always moving in a direction though it's not like like K Corp or anything like that sure but but the movie downwards that's not a good direction the expectation of this scene like they have moments where they look solid but I still feel like overall like the attacking sides it's like when the uh kind of initial default filter like Cloud9 does something aggressive they're just really lethargic to react I think yeah they seem like they've lost a lot of their confidence and I'm not exactly sure what it's from um I think the the thing that I was focusing on pretty heavily was the fact that you know they'd been talking in interviews a lot about how they've deconstructed a lot of their set plays and their set protocol stuff hoping to make things a bit more flexible and uh are they still saying that because no that's what I mean they said it at the beginning of the yeah okay of the spirit because obviously that's not the right approach right like I agree but I also think that when you look at when you look at their again like that response to that set tile scrunch there doesn't seem to be a set response and it's not like there are fast protocols to getting pushed on other sides of the maps and also they're like when they were hit with their ax just looked like they hadn't talked it through like they used the Canon Dart and they Dash to try and put pressure on the a player and then cryo just kind of wanders in it's like no if you've burnt all your that if you've burnt all your utility and you haven't got that space you need to at least get people posted and ready to use another wave of initiated utility to to be able to get in like you need you need a kale flash to be able to pop in there or you need at least multiple people swinging and it it just looks very lost and they look like they don't have anything set um it's it's bizarre uh the other part too is they've got rid of James their um assistant coach who knows why should I say is there any did anyone know why was that like a financial issue or was James like a too many like Cooks in the kitchen because even when I watch their comments videos from lock-in like seeing his input in between in between games or after they lose was like really cool to see just hearing him in the background I know James is a really intelligent guy really smart when it comes to Valance so when I saw that I was like this has to be like a finance right like this can't be he doesn't seem like a detriment to the team whatsoever teams have been letting go of a lot of people for financial reasons recently um the coaching staff is so much smaller than when Sean was with the team I mean massively massively smaller John had James and Mike and uh yeah he did he was working with no C9 at the time yeah oh my bad sorry so what is when was James uh in the off season it was it was before locking I think yeah like the same time they picked up cryo all right okay okay that wasn't I thought there was another assistant coach it wasn't just Mike maybe there was I don't remember though no right okay maybe I've mixed that up then but even still they definitely had a lot more people involved they don't even have a sixth player right now isn't that like against the partnership I think that's illegal is ddk their stuff right now like without being seen actually do you think he just sums in he plays jet like it's Quake or some [ __ ] they just plays neon and just oh that'd be great I saw ddk in ranked yesterday I invited him to the game but I didn't realize [Laughter] didn't realize he was prepping yeah I mean James was their sixth right yeah right they didn't have anybody else so or I mean how does a rule set with a spreadsheet I feel like it would have to be Mike's it would play then right no he can't because he listens to the head coach can you play without a coach that's illegal too right you get fined for dropping down below the minimum as well I would imagine that James has been let go whilst being retained as their sixth for an interim period in order to avoid the fines and costing them more even if someone gets sick it's like oh [ __ ] sorry I know we fired you James but you got to come back for what someone gets sick they're playing while they're sick that's what's happening with 100 thieves right now oh I'm gonna curve 100 thieves is like my second favorite team so I'm coping I think they'll bounce back I think they would benefit a lot from what you were saying is maybe incorporating some setups instead plays now because I know what's uh working with that bees early on from the very beginning we're like okay screw this side [ __ ] we need to learn how to [ __ ] talk to each other and play off of each other just organically off on the Fly Like learn how to play the game but then I feel like there's a time and place and after that period is over we also were like okay we've gone to this point now we can start incorporating like setups set plays and stuff like that that we can like lean on now that we don't have to play off at each other at least in the last few weeks here's what happens though a lot of times you go through that process that now you're saying I've gone through that before it's like I've tried to implement new strats with a new team it's like dude like we don't know how the [ __ ] to play with each other yet so you just start winging it you start mostly poking it for the most most part and then you start introducing that but what happens is when you introduce the sets then all of a sudden it goes back to not being able to play with each other again especially if it's not fully approached as well because it was only one change it was literally just one player out will go on cryo in like that's that was the only [ __ ] change so it like feels weird that like so much of the issues we're seeing with this team seems like it's around like the calling and the ideas and like honestly the fundamentals like such a strange situation the trading does not exist for this team in the same way that it used to I mean the pieces like Champions ERA this team was like but actually actually fantastic about that to me I think a lot of that comes down to a confidence loss like the way that cryo is playing it isn't confident at all is not being able to get into good spots and then the players behind him are all teammate as well and it means that other people have to be running forwards like I think I I think the I think the way in which client was playing or the way in which like he's um yeah I think the way in which he's playing is causing a lot of other issues for other people playing off of him as well and I think obviously the cryo was getting a lot of value on other teams before a specifically exit so I can't help but kind of blame 100 Thieves for their integration of him more so than cryo himself for not living up to what we expected him to be uh I know that I mean why like we said at the beginning of the episode has a concussion currently and he spent about uh he's not supposed to be thinking or watching vods or anything like that because he's literally got you know a brain injury at the moment but he spent a long time looking back over these vods and I was dropping some food off for him and he was kind of explaining that he just couldn't believe what he was watching but he's got he your concussion of memory problems and he's still more annoyed at 100 thieves than he and he wasn't his own situation and uh he said he looked at it a lot in like pretty slow motion like really rigorously and he was amazed at how poorly they were playing for each other specifically Derek as well just so many opportunities where Derek could be swinging for people and and wasn't that's not something that I've noticed particularly but I also didn't go over it with a fine-tooth comb but it definitely seems like there is just this lack of ability to play off each other um let's let's talk about the big game then this week there was one game that everyone was talking about loud Fury yeah the power rankings the predictions etc etc Mimi's got some stuff to say cloud is still good loud is still the best team in America's like okay I I want to start off by saying with you guys Fury looked fantastic a lot of such a misuse they were testing some comps out some of that wasn't working some of the ideas were off I understand why the furyocopium was there but also at the end of the day it is loud and they do not lose to other Brazilian teams and they are just fantastic like this entire game was so good from them like honestly I think the things that stuck with me the most was just like they're incredible coordination in the light rounds on the split game particularly with their retakes like the way that like cowanzine and less were playing or excuse me counting in all spots were playing together in the last few moments of this game was just [ __ ] incredible they had so many like great rounds that they managed people off of that one and also just the calling was on point it felt like a lot of the ideas they had was clear kind of counters to stuff that Furia has done in the past I think this is a very predictable map Pool and on split I think it really showed that the the read was a lot better from loud yeah I mean they just went back to the double duelist thing too and I think that's really good against um this against teams who aren't necessarily like the best teams don't split uh especially like against a double controller or something like that like that that becomes a lot harder to convince me that that comp is good against that but um yeah I also think that that helped all of their players get insanely online like best of lock-in type performances from all the like accounting from ospas from literally every single player that was on that team and the movement that counts dude that guy's [ __ ] insane his movement is ridiculous um and yeah I mean even on split it wasn't it wasn't necessarily like just a blowout or anything like that I still I still think um particularly Mazin from Furia popped the [ __ ] off oh it's so good on like like the second half manzan was insane but also like this this Furious chamber stuff like the the way they prepped against it going back the double duelist was comp was so good like every round digits in set up it was like okay you're getting overrun himself I honestly thought they were cooking uh for a second I thought I watched this game last night first time I was like maybe they're cooking with the chamber because it's like you know they're thinking like okay let's just get like a better jet on our defense one that can give us a trip in [ __ ] ropes or something or one that can give us a trip here while they up but then you look at how loud played jet anchor a because aspects likes to Jet anchor a and it's like somehow jet is a better Anchor at eight copies than chamber it is Gen I do like I think it was like [ __ ] like round like 17 you literally just see ospas take a shot up giraffe Dash back sight Drop Smoke meanwhile yeah and then meanwhile you see DJ's into the exact same thing and loud just punishes him because he tp's two [ __ ] feet away they were not cooking anymore yeah no the Irish box is insane I mean there's not many people who opt like that do that yeah that's also true yeah I mean I think both and kawasing just had like the [ __ ] best movement in this you guys already talked about counting but it's so good yeah it just is insane any any of the like 1v2 1v3 moments that happened in this game and there was a a lot of them by the way it was not like super clean the little jiggle steps yeah in between his first hat is just crazy good and for that to work at this level by the way is ridiculous because these guys are hitting the first shot every single time like if you if you try to go for an extra movement you're getting hit most of the time before you even get that movement out so yeah I mean it's impressive to say the least oh this yeah I think it's this round isn't it like he can't chamber can't do this why does jet look like a better Anchor than chamber legis capability especially when you have someone like osbos it wasn't like it was it wasn't Around Heaven in the round that we're thinking of I don't know but either way I completely agree with you but there aren't many players that move like aspass moves when he's jet open there's a lot of people that jet up really well but they don't instantly get out of situations use the updraft to keep momentum to get around corners like asbestos jet movement is extraordinarily good um and it makes a huge difference for his ability to find Value in moments like this oh yeah I guess it wasn't I think it is a surround yeah they just hit away like dude look at this guy this guy's like every time I think I've seen it all with jet even for us and on my team I just watched this guy and it's like bro like what the [ __ ] it who thinks of this [ __ ] he's out of there like and he buys so much time gets a kill and then the whole rotates are all here like how is he better than James yeah man I mean well that's all happening loud is like fully ready to like crunch onto heaven so while he's doing all this [ __ ] and something distracting everyone it's just all for the rest aloud is crunching having to retake that space and owning yeah it might not seem like that sexy but highlight because he only goes one for one and he even missed the first shot but he's just absorbing all of their attention and everybody else on loud gets full Heaven control and then just destroys them it's so good um the uh the the overall game as well I feel like there was a major difference in terms of how the pistol rounds were going Furia were winning 80 of the pistol rounds this year the only one one out of four in the game and Loud went back to their like when loud were doing their best at Champions they were winning a [ __ ] ton of pistols insanely good pistol team and that was one of the first things that the players gave fraud credit for uh Friday was now their head coach um but they they just went straight back to being extraordinarily good and they utterly dismantled them on icebox I think default pistols are the wave other than icebox like everyone's gonna run like a set pistol let's figure out just hit AOL but like I've noticed like default pistol's been getting a lot of value even for V1 like we've been doing more defaulty pistols and more often than not we've been winning most of them in screams and in matches it's kind of insane how much value you can get I think yo loud on this map on defense they bought five frenzies on icebox yeah on a map where you just think that's like the least likely Mastermind of frenzy they and they won a Flawless CT pistol with just frenzies pushes up B and like just hides there on a close angle with the frenzy it honestly made no sense to me when I watched I was like actually wait they're cooking bro like you think get sheriffs because we had a similar pistol on D1 where we had 4B but we had sheriffs but I'm like dude maybe we need to get frenzies like the fights on this map you can make them closer than you think to be honest yes yeah I I also think that there was like well Fury of putting down the their their Harbor wall where he was just sitting behind it as well um that yeah also they have like so many follow-ups like this one was so cool because they just Cascade into the spawn this is the best Harbor team easily obviously the first Harbor team as well the first real Harbor team well TRX was playing no no it never does mean something loud are are the ones who committed to it on all like the most possible maps and it shows like they know how to play so many different variations on all these different apps where you don't expect that there's variations that you could actually run on icebox right you expect okay let's just go post blind but even on pero for example DRX is just trolling by going for postponed every single round on B1 which you know is maybe the meta but loud also has like a million different ways to take B Link in a million different ways to follow up off of that and and hit whichever site you want which is way way better than any other team like yeah you you expect some of this like aggro wall stuff at the beginning on defense that loud does to set up ask us all the time when they have a flash list comp and no somebody else does that nobody else does that sort of thing I mean the way that aspas was playing in general playing off the Cove was crazy they weren't using the Cove to get plants on their attack side that much so we're using the Cove to like bait spam and then aspass would be on top of screens killing everybody it's like no one's doing that nobody is doing that with the harbor right now they're it it actually though it means to me watching the game that they really did respect Furia because it's like what we were talking about earlier with emea they're not showing their their true strength in these games um this felt like true strength loud like top strength loud they brought something curated different they showcased how fresh their old comp could feel it was very good but also yeah it kind of made all the difference because Fury got [ __ ] flattened to say too that I was watching this game and I don't even think Furia is like even a bad team like I'm still hoping I'm on the Furious train I think that loud was just so much better that I feel like they are like a tear of their own also like how does he get that kill bro like [ __ ] he's 50 meters away it pisses me off no I agree with you Mel I feel like it was actually like not egregious from from Furia I I think the the main issues that I saw in this one is like they cooked a little too much with the split Clump I want to see them change that comp I don't think that one really works out but I think the ice box was mostly fine like I'm fine with them still applying the old comp instead of that Harper Viper but a lot of it just came down to I think just really good stuff from loud that we've already talked about and for me I still feel like Fury is a top team like I don't know who's totally just for me I I agree I think um the only thing that really scares me is the fact that uh Khalil didn't have as monstrous of a of a game and mw's still just not finding his form here in America it's like like he did in that fnatic game like that's the type of NW that if you want this team to be a top team needs to be coming out every once in a while um but as far as the icebox comp I actually really don't like them going for Sage on this map if they are trying to go for Harbor Viper on other Maps I feel like that should become a core thing that they're looking to implement rather than um especially because they're doing it on Haven too by the way it's not like yeah they're doing it on even more maps than you would expect from like like for example NRG who's just running it on um on just Pearl I guess so yeah I don't know I feel like you should be working towards that I like the rice books comp I think it's they're not bringing anything new with the sage though either like that's my problem no I think that they find that they're not bringing much that's new is definitely an issue but to me the the two big problems I noticed for Fury during this game that concern me a little bit were that they had no answer to our spouse operating on on split the aspass defensive job was getting gigatons of value and they just could not get around it in the slightest uh and the other parts of that is that that after they got punched by loud their players just couldn't pick it back up yeah I think they collapsed I think there was a mental part to the game of them getting kind of halfway through the map and realizing what I don't think that I don't think a mental aspect is just because they they show a little bit of uh I don't know whatever you're saying here about their mental against Leviathan that was a big strength for them so like I think that I think it's specific against loud I think it's because they've they just know that louder the best Brazilian team it's just in the back of their heads there's just know that they're better they don't need to be loud yeah but I think that but that goes back to my point where it's like I don't think this shifts my ranking for Fury down I thought they were like a top top four American team I think there's a lot of fluctuation within I think the only thing I'm like solid on is like loud is going to be number one everyone else will Flex around in that position I still feel that way I still feel like this team um will probably or could win their game against energy I think everything else in their schedule is like looking at it now EG Cloud9 mibr 100 thieves and then Sentinels I think they win so every one of those games except maybe yeah like I think they just roll their way through the second best team in the league all right well the big upset result from this week the one that we kind of talked about a little bit earlier but deserves its own segment was NRG losing to mibr um we curse them but also I really did think that that was a bit of a guarantee it might be able just coming off a game of I guess they pushed loud a little bit they want a map of them but then they also had a really close win over crew that did not look convincing and then they come in here an NRG Lucid series one two OTS all over the place very close maps there was no map where energy looked dominant it wasn't like um yeah often often these losses there's like one map where the team that's expected to win smokes the other team and there's two close losses wasn't like that really here I mean there might be I would just up close with them the entire time so what do you think went wrong for NRG to lose this one um I think it's the problem that they're they've been displaying kind of the entire time hasn't been coming to the Forefront because they haven't had like a major loss like this yet but their their roles are all over the place and it's causing that inconsistency in in all all of their players um Victor and crashes are the most consistent players and that that's good I mean they're playing very well but they've always been more flexible than everybody else anyways um some is the only guy who has a consistent role on this team right now and I think that's a major problem um so plus also like when they're going for the harbor or Harbor Sky stuff which is very good they rely way too much on the sky right now um to actually get value with the flash like actually trying to guarantee a Flash and they swing with it and that's causing them a lot of deaths against teams who are able to just dodge the flash which is very easy yeah I I also feel like for the scene like I agree on the roll stuff like specifically like their Pearl map I feel like their defensive side like just I it didn't really feel like to me they were applying to their strengths my thought with this with this race comp was that it was going to be a pretty good like exploitative way to play against Harper Viper because like Harper viper versus Harper Viper like perfect mirror matches I think are really tough to play right now especially on Pearl because oh it almost always just be like a retake simulator on the B site for like both both sides when they're on defense but for them I thought their game playing with this compost to play a little bit more proactive B use like raise nades into codes to try and like shut down plants use like this guy flashes to fight through and hopefully find a little bit more value I didn't really see that and when it did just come down to like the straight up retakes it didn't feel like the coordination was fully there and then also like you're bringing up like when the other two maps of the series on both icebox and split there was always like a player who just felt like looked uncomfortable like the the the Victor Rays was solid on split but I didn't feel like the like artists like killjoy was that I I don't it's just like it's so weird this team feels like they have like solid ideas and they have those moments where they're really good but they're just not able to find consistency and I think it probably is like the amount of like juggling of ideas and roles that they're having that is a contributing factor by the way there were plus Teton on first kills on that final map the one where they lost 14-16 it was 10 first Bloods to 25. Victor was firing on that like yeah like was it treated immediately or did they really just like up five before and I think this is that is insane like their defensive side with Victor's office so good mibr like didn't find an answer to it but then just the second half fell apart yeah there was also like a lot of um it didn't feel like finesse was able to read this team as well because it definitely felt like it might be I was just kind of floating randomly between both sides without at some point giving up starting to like give any sort of faint or anything like that and they would just rotate towards one side and I think finesse was like trying to rotate the killjoy around to try to read it but it just was not working especially on icebox like that kitchen was moving everywhere and constantly videos like the other side and that was the same gamepl IES were getting very heavily shut down on icebox too that was um something that ended up going a bit rough uh the I feel like the when you look at the way that the kind of the the exchange of gun rounds and stuff it's not like NRG sucked in the second half um of split sorry but losing the bonus after losing the pistol just puts you dead even and then from there it's just you know it's it's just an 8-day game where energy are on the attack side of split you're not really favored in that situation to to win anymore despite the fact that you are eight four up at the half yeah I I didn't feel like NRG actually played terribly here I don't no I don't think even that when I was watching I thought oh you know they're players on weird rolls look uncomfortable it just felt like the normal NRG masterful rounds that they pull out or extremely good team play off each other or big moments didn't seem to be happening particularly I felt like it was a very mediocre overall game from them whereas previously even when NRG had been losing even when they lost to uh Leviathan I thought that apart from their Lotus the first map what was it Pearl or I think yeah was lovely well they had like a gorgeous game plan it you could exactly see what they were going for manipulating their opponents it just ended up being Olivia Tom were better on the retake than NRG ended up being in the postponents but in this game I couldn't really see the vision it felt like an off game from FNS mode from like a a read of the game perspective rather than a fragging perspective although I suppose it ended up being from a fragging perspective too um yeah that's that's kind of was getting out of special on icebox particularly or I mean it was a theme in both games or all three Maps was mibr just playing slow working picks and then slowly rotating to another site and grouping up and eating and oftentimes the read was wrong from NRG well that was sick because he um got pinged by The Flash so they knew he was there and he just spammed based off of the mark it was really cool I mean the turret season as well doesn't it no because it's smoked off I think oh was it he was stuck in like the super tight corner so you couldn't see him actually yeah a crazy a crazy game now also I think this might be avoiding some responsibility for us because we did utterly curse NRG and that's the second time in two matches that we've cursed energy because we full predicted them for the game against levitana now we full predicted them in the game against mibs I mean this isn't our fault against that I mean it's not like uh it's just it's just it's more it's more disrespect to mibr out of anything right it's not we're not it's energy right I've been here if Brent have been here he thought mibr was gonna yeah there we go wasn't Brent on the uh and he literally I'm pretty sure he said he repented about mibr he said sorry guys I was trolling about mibr all good it's too early it wasn't about no but Bren was trying to get us to move and my beer from like what seventh or something like that uh and replace them with Fury okay and yeah maybe you thought he was showing but I was not trying to make the argument that mibr was bad like I I mean maybe it came out that way maybe I all right I mean I think the issue keeps trying to replace Furia yeah yes um anyways but also my BR is good like they're a team who I think has like a pretty solid shot of like probably making playoffs and like being a continuing to be like a team who can upset like top teams in Americas look at these [ __ ] yeah and Josh both playing both sides on both weeks uh whatever Power Rankings no no no no no no no no no no no fury is the best team by the way I agree with bala oh I'm gonna predict Loud by the way uh just because just because a team is currently the best doesn't mean that they're going to be the best in the next week Power Rangers are supposed to rank the power going into next week no you're supposed to rank the power of what you've just seen but it's like inherently predictive no it's not no no she's I mean uh Josh is Right Josh is right I agree with this but you're still playing both sides yeah but in the best possible way I did think Fury looked better than loud from that previous week now I don't anymore easy nice W announced yeah easy easy dude you know what energy reminds me of right now and I know I know Josh you're actually right like I don't feel like any player is particularly uncomfortable on the roll it's not like Saucy on smokes or CNET on smokes or pancake on KJ or anything like that they don't look uncomfortable but they don't look super comfortable they don't look insane nobody was coming out with like crazy good play making on on their individual uh agents and that reminds me a lot of old ass fpx where they're just like coming out with random for why type of decisions that but why not just like who's who's the Duelist who's the smoker who's the flex who's the central like let's get down to it man that makes my job easier and then maybe we won't curse you that is such a throwback remember when Xiao was jet on fpx and [ __ ] angel on an interview and was like we actually have the best jet in the world in our team we had no idea is such a throwback but that that low-key is reminding me of that and I don't know this artist brought the poison from old FPS over oh my God you're right because you're [ __ ] like ancient deck because once he was on FDX they figured their [ __ ] out the shower completely I think it's like they still made it to International Angel playing jet with artists on the team in the [ __ ] Grand finals yes yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah they're playing the grand finals that wasn't a Troll game it was inherently a Troll game like they they trolled an EMA last year but it's I don't know I don't know there's a conspiracy theory here I'm not seeing the bigger picture yet but there's a [ __ ] picture out there holy [ __ ] okay the uh the final thing in the in the runner show here from Kurt says special message from a secret special guest I don't know what that is uh do we have that oh God so I wanted to ask Brent to make a fun recording talking about mibr but he just goes to me oh so I know it's gonna be [ __ ] right amazing all right no there is no clip Brendan ghosted nope where is it so go to America America's super week predictions let's let's get into the presents we all predict NRG I'm gonna freak out yikes I'm sorry to ask you guys like oh how do you think they're gonna do in the super week but that's what this whole segment is so now we get to talk about it properly is playing uh playing against Cloud9 and then I don't remember who the other team is anyway let's get into the first game we'll go through them in a bit of a weird order but we're going to start with loud Sentinels the first game of the week it's a banger the Brazilian players playing against their old Squad and Sentinels nobody's gone with Sentinels yeah certified guaranteed plot this is a real honest guarantee there is absolutely no way Sentinels win they're seven seven at the last minute they have turmoil behind the scenes they're trying to figure something out and loud just looks insane there's no way uh it's so cool that Marv is playing in this game you [ __ ] can escape he can't escape that's the Kryptonite though all they need is only a win when Barb is on the team that would be [ __ ] hilarious but like history is crazy because it's also like the two old loud players now playing against their former teammate plus more of playing against his Rivals like it's crazy they formed it's like old Loudon NRG have just come together in order to take down the organization they couldn't beat loud separately so now they've joined together to take them down yeah uh having said that it's a bit like the liquid fanatic game I feel in emea where the storyline's fantastic but they ain't gonna win so the storyline's really good so watch it probably it's exciting and cool I think it will be a fun game to watch and I actually do personally I think the Sentinels are probably end up playing better than they did last week even last week yeah I think so I think the the I mean they have been playing up like almost every single one of their games has been like somewhat interesting even the game against NRG for example was like somewhat interesting until the the last map yeah I think they'll probably get just destroyed on one of the maps but the um yeah maybe they don't look as good on like specific pistol prep or whatever but I think their overall gameplay will probably be still very decent let's have a look at the next game this one's pretty uh pretty fun one it's Leviathan playing against mibr and maybe at the beginning we wouldn't have had any expectations here is anyone taking a punt all right we're so dumb we're so stupid ridiculous this is not a guarantee I swear we need to go back to the old system where even if we all preded something we had to say whether or not it was a guarantee because we're just we're just handing out these guarantees we're pretty good we're actually pretty good right now we're still above the 40 that we were last year when you guys all started trolling so we're pretty good my Counterpoint my Counterpoint to this is that I think it incentivizes you guys to take a risk in order to prevent the game yeah you could do it right now Josh do it right now it's like a [ __ ] prisoner's dilemma no the screenshot's been taken it's too late no it's not yeah it's too late well okay I just can you honestly argue that you think you're my bear is going to win this matchup no but I think they've got a good shot of winning the matchup I don't think it's a guarantee in the same way that loud over Sentinels is a guarantee I think that they've got I think maybe are gonna be an upset team in America's but I think they've already cashed in their upset box last week on NRG so they're out of fun something here's a here's a question is Olivia tan a team that has more footage gets out there of them they become a lot worse is it's been the case where they look [ __ ] insane at the beginning of tournaments always and then and then they lose and they lose badly they were doing the same time yeah yeah I could actually see it almost had some good crap no it's like dude I was surprised to see people running like similar pistols like on uh since these anti-strat was literally just dodged The Omen blind and then hold the window but I think for like Olivia it's on if they play split they rely a lot on these mid-round 1v1 pushes on defense like they'll just like at like 50 seconds or one minute and they don't have any info cross map they don't have mid control they just push me like and then the the round solely rides on that b main push but if they win that fight or if he sees nothing they have a complete good stack a day or it's like they need to push down mid like this guy just takes an insane 1V when he gets Saucy Saucy knows it's coming he still loses the fight like I feel like teams read into that like really important like 1v1 like Lane uh space taking like later into the round I feel like they could actually get hard Nancy I'm not gonna lie they do it pretty consistently on a lot of apps I feel like the problem though with this discussion is that mibr have won like two out of how many Maps do they won five or something but two of those have been on Lotus they beat loud on Lotus they beat it might be uh the big uh crew on Lotus I think it was um and I just think Leviathan looked way too good there the game against NRG they just looked like they knew exactly where they wanted to go on the on the map and their B retakes look fantastic don't see how mrbr get an advantage there and maybe are also not very good on ascent you have to be good on Ascent to be able to beat level yatan I'm not saying the best in the world anymore they've lost the last two but you have to be good yeah what do you have you have like your your they'll play Ice Box that'll probably get floated like if you're mipr looks like a pretty good ice box team and yeah it's tragic there like I think that might be our gets a map if they like get an ice box in the pool but then where are you gonna go Ascent maybe Pearl or both Maps would get in the pool I I think Leviton clears on both of those easily like I I just don't I don't see the upset I think it'll be closer than maybe you'd expect on paper but I don't see the upset should they just get rid of fracture instead and bait mibr into picking fracture because if they leave icebox open icebox is just an insta loss for Leviathan no looked like they didn't know what they were doing there they got smoked by Fury Fury are a great team but I'd be willing to for them to take a risk in the map they're not they're normal permabans fracture hmm that is crazy yeah it's actually so good and then seeing what happened now I remember basing whether EG was good off of that game she was like Wow Talon was good I thought EG was good after I got I I had such cope not even cope I still you know I'm not gonna if I say more I will be in trouble I'm good all right next game Prue plays against hundred thieves and for the love of God if 100 thieves got win this one it is over overdone shut them down here too late the screenshot was taken messages too late but but then I can't all right this is the system is failing then the system is failing this system all right tell me why tell me why you're so averse to us all picking hundred thieves here um because what we just we've got in this entire episode and we talked so much [ __ ] about them and I haven't prided 100 thieves like a single time let's go oh this is crazy and so I can't do it again because every time I bet against 100 thieves it's been correct and crew question is gonna Farm dude the confidence he's gonna farm and 100 things can be like I don't know how to do this Leaf was doing this to us the other day and uh we got [ __ ] on what are we supposed to do Mike and Mike what is leaf and it's not as good a team as hug nine it doesn't matter we're just talking about EG versus crew and I always think a hundred thieves is gonna lose the crew EG I mean I'll be honest the good I predicted 100 things the main reason I'm doing this is because all y'all went for 100 thieves let's be real clear here I mean I am a bit confused what to pray here because I don't think either these teams are very good I'm just kind of thinking 100 thieves did dismantle EG and then egb crew but also Krug play mibr close I don't know what to think about these squads anymore I thank you for reducing the plat chat curse yeah I think that's the only thing to say I can't wait thank you uh let's move on to probably the best game of super week it's Evil Geniuses against Furia this is a guaranteed [ __ ] smile um [Laughter] you forgot you picked Fury are you in trouble are you in trouble I did have a few meme picks I just forget which ones were the meme and I will not say where Twins were me I'm sorry gonna win it's just like one of those things where I look like a [ __ ] Prophet if I get it right you'll see I'm gonna have some questionable picks upcoming you'll you also have to see I think this next one actually could be a moment for a questionable pick so let's go into the next game it's NRG against Cloud9 the battle for North America's Last Hope has anyone got oh oh Mimi's gone there I'm not gonna do another I refuse to do another curse to to NRG first off we've we've been down that road [ __ ] that not gonna do that anymore second of all Cloud9 was looking pretty good yeah 100 thieves was tragic but c9's coordination was on point I thought they're like Annie stratting and their game plan was really good uh Leaf is the best player to ever touch the video game valorant he is insane him and zeppa as a Duo continue to be fantastic this team is really proactive in their mid rounds has really good ideas I think their map Pool is improving and I feel like they're looking very strong and NRG we've talked about some of the problems before it's still energy I think it was just an off week last week I think they should still be favored to win this one uh because of the experience because of the the player quality but in the same vein they've lost some games in some series that they shouldn't have with that mibr series the roles are still kind of all over the place and it's just I don't have the normal confidence that I would have about that team and on the other hand Cloud9 has just impressed me so much in the last last two weeks that I think I gotta go for the punt on this one respectable most importantly they don't have real issues like why is that such like a that's hell for what like I feel like you could just go does the team have roll issues and just tell where they are okay that's why they would never have worked with yay yeah that genuinely was just I was looking I was like working out uh dang you're getting in trouble today though seriously I need to get off of this yeah stop stop stop stop um this wasn't me dude the same director of the Kaplan Sentinels video is the same one as the [ __ ] C9 MC video yeah yeah everything is going to be good now we had a little bit of issues but uh we're gonna start farming in the next season the new head coach bcj comes on with a video with a video about how he deliberately got benched so that he could help push the team towards relevancy all right let's do the next game the next game's pretty interesting actually I could see this one going both ways mibr plays against Sentinels is anyone on the Sentinels cope no all right that's just wrong that's just wrong we all took the Sentinels oh my God I mean I thought I would be doing a bit of trollery here how have we all gone for this is it even cope [Laughter] oh my God they haven't they're [ __ ] their coaching staff is exploding they're bringing in a new player subbing in who only just got his Visa so probably hasn't been practicing you in the team and I might be our just upset energy like this is Extreme cope I was on the the Mel train earlier where she was talking about how uh when you just start pucking it it actually becomes better and I think literally every single one of these guys are ranked Gods top top five leaderboard right now so I don't think dude a lot of mibr was like their crazy late round pop-ups like mazine like flashing into a site and like killing three on a retake like I think a lot of mibr is like we're gonna play this little default we're gonna try and play our pick and then we're just gonna have like a big late round where one of our players like pops up where's like honestly what if Sentinels is just better individually across the board what if sentence I mean holy [ __ ] and what I don't understand about whatever huh better head better go ahead from who from from head to head yeah sassy versus I mean rgl is going to be playing against the content creator oh dude personally bro that's crazy start the NBA screenshot quote Barb is taking that [ __ ] personally he's gonna win Tokyo now and he's gonna point at you while you're casting the finals and [ __ ] I know what you say I'm not a content creator and then he's going to teabag you on stage what I'm confused about with this segment though is when we were talking about Sentinels I said I think they'll end up playing better than they did last week and use you guys were like no they're gonna get worse this team has so many issues how the hell are they gonna be in my BR if they're going downhill in your heads like to me my pick makes sense because I'm imagining Sentinels actually being a bit improved just by virtue of having sassy on initiated that to me is going to make an enormous difference to the way in which they play and having second on duelist I think is going to be better for them than tense but in your world where they've got all of these problems and it's all being a big issue how the [ __ ] do they gonna win Josh the thing you're missing here is um whenever you talk I say the opposite [Laughter] I mean we have this is disrespectful to mibr yes it is but it's too late he would not be standing for this what can you do I mean he probably right do you know watch I bet you Kurt bring up Brian's prediction because I guarantee you it's something I guarantee you Brian went for something and he would have [ __ ] went they have more yeah your mic'd be completely [ __ ] with Auto game uh submit picks this week oh you have to dig that up well we'll find it at some point in the future but now let's move on to the next game the next game is leviathan playing against 100 thieves the beginning of their top four battle oh and I can explain okay please do um this is honestly hard coat because 100 is my second favorite team behind energy and after Loud it's like a favorite thing okay no no okay I watch all their comms videos and I wouldn't think that they are that they are this placement right now I am such a big fan like I watch their comments I'm like dude their comments are still on point like I hear the adjustments that they're making I hear that calls are making no those videos are edited right now oh I know oh I know but but I can see the skill ceiling and it's their skill floor and I just keep coping and saying they're having like a they're just doing a slump they're just having a bad week they're having a bad weeks if that's what you said I I I'm I don't care if it's cope I just don't I actually think they could turn it around I think I mean like if we're this like critical of them surely they're seeing their own results and Mike's in the in the kitchen cooking like all right this ain't working we gotta do something different and surely something happens like mid-season now like it's I feel like now would be like a big 24 100 themes I think they actually could turn around I think I don't know if they could get to Tokyo I don't know how down bad they are like mentally it'd be really tough but if anything I don't know I I don't really have much defense here I know it looks bad it looks bad but trust me bro something that's kind of interesting with both the game that we predicted just before this the mibr against Sentinels and this one uh bye-bye Bala is that it's a bit of a oh there you go you're back again it's a bit of a trap game for the favorites both of them when we think about the previous one mibr play against levia tan to start with and I would imagine quite a lot of their prep Works gonna go into that battle because both teams just recently beat energy there's actually quite a fight for like those top seeds it's a really important game and then both of those teams Levitan and mibr go into playing against on paper I guess based on the record weaker teams of hundred thieves and Sentinels afterwards I could see that being a bit of a trap that the top teams fall into perhaps not gonna lie I didn't listen to words you said oh good all good never do let's move on to the next game [ __ ] point [ __ ] it we ball Cloud9 versus Fury a [ __ ] it we ball what did I predict oh thank God anymore is not forcing you to you can change it's time Cloud9 is one of my favorite teams that one okay that one was really troll like that one was actually meme but this one I don't know okay I wasn't even a believer in C9 I'll be the first one to say it I wasn't a Believer because everything that happened I'm like dude this is such high expectations I don't know how these guys are gonna perform based on all the you know pressure and everything but they've actually looked pretty good like I I think the first week Cloud9 was really rough even though they pull out a win versus EG I wasn't not really convinced I didn't really think they played very well and I think they would tell you the same thing and they both seems to tell you they did not play well that day but C9 happened to make like less mistakes and punish DG but I actually think this is like I think they're writing a momentum wave right now and as good as Furia is I think it could be pretty close I'm not like 100 I'm not like Cena's definitely gonna win this game I think it's pretty coin flip but that's just that's my logic there's honestly almost zero logic I just see that how they play and I think that it's going to be consistent they're going to be they have a lot of momentum coming into this week I actually think they can punish a lot of furious map Pool right I think that that is an area where Cloud9 can really get go crazy I think Cloud9 can definitely pull off a win on split if that's not taken out of the pool uh and I think that there are other places that Cloud9 have been willing to go in that map pool that have been very quickly they've they've very quickly come up with some good ideas on different maps that if they have a good idea of where Fury are gonna lean towards uh they might be able to get two maps in the pool that are winnable here I could see that happening yep although if they go for Pearl then they're coming because gonna One Tap him yeah yeah I mean what what a furious Maps where they've just been looking insane I mean Ascent would be the same kind of thing right a scent a nice defense on a scent is good they're ice blocks and they lost a lot sure but like uh other than that their icebox is legendary yeah but that's three Maps Cloud9 can get rid of two of those they can probably pick split off the rip because Fury have a permaban right Euros permaban has been uh Lotus but then they didn't Perma it against loud they went for what have they been in that game Pearl instead yeah because Fury were playing that weird like triple flash comp or double flash neon comp and they just didn't want to play it anymore so I don't know I mean I think if whatever Fury if Yuri leaves Lotus open Cloud9 have to go there right and then go towards split as a decider if they can yeah to bring up your like prep narrative you were bringing up though I feel like this is like really tough for C9 because they're like the newest team who I think is still trying to like figure out their map well I think we saw that in their loud Series where like they had one map where it was clear they really drilled and really had a lot of time to any Star allowed and on the second two they didn't have that same level of preparation I think they might kind of have a similar situation here because they have two really hard matches in super week they they play energy after rep and then like two days later they have to play Olivia Tom that's a lot of crap against two really hard teams that you have to do in a pretty short period of time and on the other hand for Furia I think they have so much they can learn off that loud series and then they get the kind of the the treat of getting to play EG which on paper should be a pretty easy one-sided match for them and then Cloud9 is their second one two days later like that feels like a reasonable amount of prep for a team that I would already say is like on paper favorite and whose consistency I think has been better throughout um this league but I also see like I mean I punted the C9 on energy I don't think it's insane to punt them here no I agree I don't think it's insane I think it's it's what's the ball of percentage on this game is this like a 70 30 yeah 35 65 maybe no is it 30 so it's the minimum yep okay that's that's more confidence than expected honestly from the official ball of percentage okay this next segment I'm not saying a word one second it's a [ __ ] lie one second everyone we have breaking news breaking news yeah breaking news oh snap what's the news wow he can't what do you mean what does that even where's the announcement where's the announcement what's going on we're informed earlier this week by our player news era of his wish to step down from our VCT roster it's important for us to listen to our players uh we respect his decision regarding the rules to change plays during a split our assistant coach and official substitute will take his place in the roster starting Friday who is this guy I mean assistant coach is he like a corporate assistant coach or is it straight up he's played but like you like a long like beta type like 2020 in like French tier three in 2020. oh oh boy what is this translate tweet wait who's the who's the Tweet sorry this is from this is from Scream if you could read it aloud uh here's the reason for my tweet this morning he's referencing another tweet though that I don't understand so are we able to take a look for what the context might be just to begin here oh oh is it this one it means uh yeah it's starting oh right okay okay so he just posted a bit of a cryptic tweet and now he's following up like this is the reason for it okay so this is the reason for my tweet this morning um my brother my brother and I uh uh okay my brother and I uh still remember the moment when one of our teammates abandoned the team whilst inside a competition uh but today we're encountering a lot of difficulties internally honestly I think this is the first time in my career where I need all your support and strength to overcome this ordeal playing as a team is such so intense I wish everyone this happiness on the other hand it's enough that a link does not attach to a chain and all his losses like a metaphor presumably that like uh don't know don't really understand the metaphor but that's just Google Translates problem it's shade towards link actually yeah same liquid right yeah that's what that paragraph is about yeah but I assume he's not like the way that I'm reading it is not that he's throwing the same shade towards Museum no no no but I mean maybe but he's just saying the entire like the the train is not getting derailed because the sub is idealing today we are going to play with my brother the role of leader for me it is normal that the coach and assistant coach have control over the lead and I am very happy to be able to count on him I will finally be able to focus on me and my Crosshair holy [ __ ] I actually like the move we have so much power we literally made this happen we have no unlimited power we've just talked about this definitely did not say they should be running their assistant coaches their ideas I said anybody just bring anybody you did literally say anybody yeah but I mean new Zera has been looking really shodding for that team and I just didn't think that they would make a change uh because the rosters are locked so but hopefully this guy is gone like hopefully he's been dming a little bit ah just a tragic situation for the team to be in though genuinely yep what'd you even say about that it's just the assistant coach was clearly a part of like the coaching structure that already wasn't working like but can it get worse probably yeah exactly I mean if he has if he has any idea of how to execute their ideas when they're in the game it's probably just gonna free up scream to be a better player I hope that's gonna create something do you think I mean let's tell them how much money they need to save into the next round like I hope this is the first team that's properly just exploded every year there's going to be a couple from work in the OverWatch League uh you know for a few years every year there's one team that just goes poof and just explodes and is terrible for the rest of the year and uh looks like Comic-Con won the race to the bottom I'm sure there'll be other teams that will join them over the course of the Year genuinely dude that sucks though like their entire year is over like I feel so bad for the play like the format this year is brutal one split you do bad in the first place it's over for the rest of the year and you just have to sit and think about what you've done like you say that's the format being rougher this year that's how it's going to work next year as well except that you get an extra split instead of locking yes like if if they had trolled the first split and they're not made any roster moves they would still have ruined their season by April next year but I think it's a little different with you have more time to fix you know in like a League season even if it is only like eight or nine weeks like K Corp played two games at lock-in over like three days like I think it would have made a difference but yeah it's tough either way it's a brutal format yeah that's uh that's a rough one I feel like um it's time to move on yeah Power Rankings yeah Power Rankings Let's uh you're just mad you can't make content anymore bro just no I'll definitely find a way to still make content don't worry about that I'm gonna dress myself up as Luffy and start cheering for me most Americas America's super weak Power Rankings so move on let's fix things out put them in Stockton do they belong in second I think that's a really like because we we were discussing whether levia tan loud Furia like we talked about the top three being fairly interchangeable I think after the loud win it's clear that that was not the case but I think Levy attorney Fury might be interchangeable now well does anyone have strong opinions either way nope I um yeah I mean Furious only loss has been too loud they beat Leviathan they should be above Leviathan they beat Leviton levia's Pawn beat energy that solves it one two three four holy [ __ ] it's all coming into place what are they doing at fifth we have them get them out of here oh we were on some like actual copium 400 thieves I think 100 . I think I think why because every team looked like they would play him poorly remember if you can cast your mind back crew and mrbr had a really close game Cloud9 looked like they were on the rise but 100 thieves and Sentinels have played themselves close and then had also 100 thieves looked like they might be trending better than Sentinels consent has had all of those like you know problems with how the roster was working but at the end of the day hundred thieves just looked so bad against Cloud9 that I don't think you could justify them being anywhere near that fifth place and ibr and fifth hmm oh you see already though mibr beat NRG right so do you think that was an upset result like would you still stand by that being an upset rather than what you would expect to happen normally yes I would stand by that being an upset what do you think Mel I feel like it shouldn't even ever be that close be honest but just like my POV like watching energy and they're being really such a big fan of fns's calling and how they run their ship I feel like they you can't really excuse being up like 10 first Bloods and like not closing out just fundamentally like it's just pure fundamentally but at the same time they're really close games so I thought you could honestly read this ordering for one through five is correct but the tear Gap is supposed to be after Loud I was actually going to say what if there's a tear gap between loud Fury Olivia tan and NRG and my br ah I [ __ ] with this volunteer bro okay do you think that mibr and NRG are on the same tier as loud and uh levia town and fury maybe say it again the fourth and fifth that we've got here are they on the same tier as two and three because they've only lost to each other NRG have gone zero and two against Olivia tan I don't know yes yeah you think well not not fully like I don't think it might be ours there but but I think that everybody else is together okay all right I think like Furia Olivia ton and energy can all just like trade wins and I think mibr could upset any of those teams so they should belong in the same tier then we shouldn't put a tier right between I think the tour break is after five okay so then who would you put at sixth class at the top of the next tier wow yeah honestly is Cloud Nine are we I feel like I'm not gonna tear grab below mibr right that's what I was getting to they're clawing their way UPS maybe ball is correct maybe Bala was right all along oh [ __ ] like I'm saying like the the reason why I'm struggling with them that it might be our question was that like mibr obviously beat energy so like they can't be a tear Gap below them no make any sense but Fury and the Vietnam are still farther up along that line it's just NRG could also be then like we almost all of it done in the standard well not almost but no no struggles two zero but yeah um it's close first map close Friday yeah so anyways that's the argument it's like the the teams at the bottom can do a little bit more damage to the teams in the middle the teams at the top might struggle a little bit at the teams at the bottom but they're mostly going to win and then they're going to struggle against the teams in the middle that's why it's like weird in this sense because it because all these teams are genuinely really close like really close we've got to put EG in ninth right yes sure they just beat crew I thought they would lose the crew I really did but they ended up getting the win can we put Sentinels above 100 thieves ah not without I was just thinking oh yes I mean you could yes 100 Sentinels beat 100 thieves and 100 thieves looked so awful in their game against Cloud Nine whereas Sentinels just got a you know very very close game against Leviathan Sentinels might be underrated here considering how close their game was against Libya who did they beat who did they who do they beat on here did to move up did they beat Fury did they beat energy did they beat M ibr like mibr would be the big one from Super week right like Sentinels literally plays against mlbr don't they yes but we're also playing with the sub and we like yeah and we all predicted them to win yeah but that's that's full Coke from every single one of us and also all of us thought we were doing something crazy but we were all simultaneously crazy we're all just too group think that's the problem even when we don't tell each other what we're thinking we still tell what each other are thinking problematic the the reason here's here's the reason why Sentinels is still in seventh I think 100 thieves looks poor enough that on their own they would stand an eighth out of tenth now Sentinels they probably have a little bit more potential than we're putting here and that's why we're arguing to push them up but we just haven't seen it so we have no clue and I think it's fair without having seen marvs on the team without having seen Kaplan as head coach and how that changes things I think it's fair to undervalue them a little bit based off of what we think their potential might be um I don't really believe there's a tear Gap though between six and seven is there no no five and six they're using their own tier their own do you know Sentinels is not in the same tier as Fury Leviton energy or even just let's just narrow down they're not in the same tier as Fury Olivia Tom I mean I feel like they're really close game versus Louis Vuitton outside of the third map does a lot of heavy lifting for them being on the wrong even you could say that having role issues or they don't look nearly as good they still brought it to almost a 2-0 that's what does a lot of heavy lifting that's what it means to be in the same tier as somebody to have games that could go either way like that Sentinels game could have been a 2-0 had a couple of rounds been different doesn't that mean literally that they're in the same tier as them I guess it oh it's just hmm I I feel like it's just like with the changes with like a sub I just like can't function we're literally predicting them to get more wins with this no there's no tear breaks we're literally changing the two bricks every single week it makes no sense okay what if the only tier break is between loud and second place and between 100 thieves and Ninth and tenth place I agree with that I think the way [ __ ] on EG and the way the loud [ __ ] on Furia maybe there's not even a tier break between loud and the rest to be honest because the when loud are not taking the game as seriously we saw them have like three mappers against some of the others that are more towards the middle but I think it might be fine nearly off of Power like power this is Power Rankings they showed their true power this week in like playing their real comps and not experimenting as much in like actually I think playing to their full potential and they [ __ ] dumpstered on a team that we thought could possibly be better than them I think that if anything shows that like well everyone else has been like trading win and sure loud has been there in the early days I think that was just experimentation it's early days they were trying new stuff I think they figured out their [ __ ] now and it's like they're focused up against the teams they know they can be and I think that clearly puts them just a tear above I'm happy about this which is how you know it's wrong yep I'm indifferent that's how you know it's wrong how do you feel about this I think I like it I think I feel like I'm gonna look like a [ __ ] idiot after next week though already so like that's gonna happen regardless yeah I think I just in my brain like going into this split I really had 100 these pegas like the second best in a team and just seeing this my brain is like breaking my brain actually breaks and I mean they've only dropped to the third best I mean I mean that's just that's just how bad the N A teams are doing right now is that I say we do have them at four right now oh sorry they're the fourth sorry I literally counted incorrectly no sorry I literally counted incorrectly yeah I really thought it was a bit about Leaps and Bounds after a lot I thought it was gonna be like energy hundred thieves Gap rust but this makes me sad to see you I feel like this is pretty accurate that's that's what ddk said in his interview before they just lost to Cloud Nine as well it was like energy 100 thieves the most fundamentally sound teams maybe I mean maybe in scrims but they ain't shown it in matches all right well there's another little power ranking fuel to mold over at home I'm sure that's already been posted to Reddit and people are getting angry already love to see it um All That Remains is for the most important segment of the week a little check-in on wire what's he up to it's a wise weekly award s good stuff I love that I love that um there is only one worthy winner of White's weekly award this week and it is uh Wyatt himself um he's been still doing 100 thieves analysis despite having a concussion and being in a car accident so I mean if there's if there's anybody grinding valorant out there that's doing it harder than him I don't know I mean maybe Slinky the sliggy's probably got a concussion from watching some of the other games that guy's watching Talon and K corn the same guy he needs but yeah why I think it's a very uh deserving winner of this one um wishing him an extremely speedy recovery um and like I said he's been looked after so uh you know go and send him a nice message I think he'd really appreciate that um find I don't know YouTube channel or a tweet or something and tell him how much you appreciate him and tell him he's good at tolerant or something yeah whatever comes to mind um because I think I've had brightness day up and uh yeah that does it for us over here for episode 130. Mel thank you very much for coming around you guys for having me I can't believe it I made it on apply chart my career is made retire now all ruined see what happens after these uh predictions you made come out yeah exactly dude what if I have 100 character you guys don't want to be [ __ ] ass yeah I mean we'll have to get you back on for next week if you have 100 correct this is the last remaining n a fan all right well you can catch us next week uh leave a comment again if you can't find Wyatt's Twitter or whatever then leave a comment down here wishing why it well and that way we'll you know be able to show it to him uh later on okay we'll see you for episode 131 after North American super week and Pacific's fans will still be molded so I'm lucky [Music] thank you

Channel: Plat Chat VALORANT

Views: 319,091

Keywords: plat chat, plat, sideshow, mrx, bren, mattmrx, faze, tsm, immortals, 100 thieves, cloud9, tenz, sinatraa, wardell, t1, ScreaM, G2, FunPlus Phoenix, Gen.G, Immortals, Team Liquid, Gamelanders, Vision Strikers, wyattr

Id: KYKiQ8483Os

Length: 209min 6sec (12546 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023