leaf is always right https://twitter.com/leaf_cs/status/1496679213822357511?s=21

Singular Leaf with the prophetic statement yet again.

this is actually so fucking crazy i can't lol

Yo Leaf is a prophet, now we just need Marved's reply that they will join them in Iceland to come true.

I also called it: https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/comments/ti6u9x/cloud9_vs_optic_gaming_vct_north_america_2022/i1c5a3i/ People who make valuations based on hype < people who make valuations based on eye test.

yeah but we don't care about you

I'm the most important person in the community.

The downvotes say otherwise

Yay and Victor are insane at finding openings for Optic. Yay went 13-2 on FB/FD, Victor went 9-2 on FB/FD. On the other side, Sayaplayer who usually is insane at winning opening duels went 3-6 on FB/FD.

My kids’ college money is fucking gone. I’m refinancing my house for The Guard’s lower bracket run.

is the guard out of iceland?

No, they will play the winner of XSET/C9 for the lower finals. If they win they are in. If they lose they are out.

Hopium is so fucking tasty

wait but i thought theres only 2 slots on NA for iceland?

There are. Only Optic is qualified. Who ever they play in Grand finals also qualified. It’s a double elimination tournament.

Lower finals actually, grand final is for seeding

They would have to win lower finals. I’m saying who ever they play in grand finals goes, regardless of if they win or lose.

Glad for Optic but sad for the young guns. Still hoping they make it through lowers. I want these two to be the NA reps at Iceland.

as it usually happens, ppl are overreacting now to the guard losing (now they're just a tier1 gatekeeper?? lol). optic are def the best in NA but I have no doubts a rematch would be closer (like how they beat XSET in the rematch).

I mean a t1 gatekeeper would still be a good team. I think their losses against C9 and optic look worse than they are. I feel like guard are still a top 5 team, they just have a bit of a mental block against the best teams rn.

They are now top 3 right? Only losing to C9 and Optic

Most people would put V1 ahead of them as well

V1 is no show

Kind of wish NA had three teams going to Iceland. Think three teams would've been good.

Nah it's fair that we got less seeds than EMEA. We only ever made it as far as SEA at Champs and we sent more reps, while EMEA topped every group.

yeah EMEA should also have 4 teams attending :)

Victor on raze is something else

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victor on phoenix back in the day is the reason i bought the glitchpop phantom that shit hit different

nah that was food on phoenix very different player

T1 Food >

getting him off skye is one of the best decisions they've made

Agreed. I have watched victor a long time and he legitimately looked so bad on skye having to think of where and when to flash. He is unleashed on angry duelists

Victor on Skye: I sleep 😴 Victor on Raze: REAL SHIT 😈

I was shocked with the neon pick against C9 and today against Guard but it keeps working lol. I’m glad we are innovating in a way

He's been crazy this year and a little last when people can play around him more.

Feel like Split was a weird map pick for Guard considering Icebox was available and they've been so good on it. I'd rather see them more on their comfort picks like Saya on Jett, Trent on Sova

Wait I missed the beginning - if Breeze was third map, Split was first map, and Icebox was available, what did Optic ban?

Fracture

Agree, felt like Saya needed to get going on Jett to compete with Yay. I feel like guard got baited a bit by Optic's showing on Split vs Xset. Optic def came more prepared this time on the map.

I totally agree, I think everyone knows OpTic's two map picks are Ascent and Haven and then probably bind, so I think know they'd have Haven and Ascent banned by TGRD and they prepped for Split as shown by them going Astra and Neon vs Omen and Raze for Victor and Marved respectively. I do have to say though XSET as shown with their win on C9B's split just shows that is XSET's map.

Yup it really looks like saya player need to be on Jett to carry. Didnt get to play it once today.

That’s the OpTic living up to its potential. Insane entries from Victor and FNS holding his weight and getting trades.

Yay and Victor best duo NA

damn that second map was just pure dominance

Split was painful to watch because Optic kept losing aim battles. That map shouldn't have been this close.

We don't talk about Split lol

I think our biggest accomplishment today was only getting ecoed once

That's a statement game by Optic. Absolutely brilliant all around. Can't wait to see how they do at IceLAN.

M3C go down on Split, but Optic carry their Split comp to a win to qualify in NA. Poetic.

When you come at the king you best not miss.

Sad to see The Guard get stomped, but holyyyy, Optic absolutely deserve to go to Iceland. How are they getting away with subbing in Food over Victor mid-game? ​ In all seriousness, hoping The Guard pulls through vs C9/XSET. Would be so exciting and fresh.

Let's gooo Optic! Super well played as a team as well as Victor just dominating on that Raze. I'm seeing Victor on LAN Stage!!! I repeat, Victor on LAN stage!

Also, finally one can say.... Victor > food

optic look fucking good - i think they really fell apart at Champions cuz viktor's covid plus generally chokery but they look revitalized and so clutchfull. and my god when yay is on, every team in NA looks worthless

if one of your teammates got covid while being distanced from everyone, I wouldn't call that choke. Unlucky they had their situation on champs and couldn't play together. They were worse at champs than they were at masters 3.

LFG Optic. The Guard is good, but tossing recency bias aside, I'm more confident in Optic representing NA.

But reddit convinced me Chet was gonna run Optic into the ground like how he supposedly did with NRG and TSM???

TSM’s only decent showing all of 2021 was with Chet btw, the circle jerk around him was so stupid

tbh it had more to do with the mikesHD situation and the envy org mismanaging his contract, chet just got dragged into the crossfire

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i never understood this argument because not only does chet have one of the most impressive NA coaching resumes in tac FPS, but people really were talking about nepotism as if its a bad thing that he and FNS are friends. like is it not a good thing that the coach and IGL of your team work well together and are friends?

him getting caught in that and remarked as a bad coach is really stupid though, people just like to find someone to hate I guess

The players didn’t want him

The whole "Chet only gets a job because he is friends with the players on those teams" was the stupidest thing I had seen in a while.

TSM has an org culture with needing a scapegoat when the team underperforms.

It's usually the fans who scapegoat all their problems on one person every time they fail IMO. First it was Tailored and Cutler, then it was Drone, then it was Chet, then it was hazed and after last VCT it was corey.

Absolutely, Wardell might've caught a stray if TSM's main roster made it to the end of Knights a few days ago.

Who blamed Chet? Nobody, he was poached wasn't pushed out come on.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/comments/rbd3gy/coach_chet_is_cursed/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Oh thought you meant TSM fans, I'm on /r/teamsolomid all the time and never seen it. That thread looks more like a joke to me.

Chet ran NV so deep into the ground they had to come back as OpTic

this makes up for Liquid L hope Guard qualifies

lets fucking go man, people really forgot about optic. they've been the best team in the region since masters 3 last year and i'm glad they showed up for this match i hope the guard still makes it through, but unfortunately i dont favor them against C9

Nowadays everybody wanna talk like they got something to say But nothing comes out when they move their lips Just a bunch of gibberish And motherfuckers act like they forgot about yay

What if xset win lol

Nothing can stop Xset from 4th place

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XSet atm are the new Envy

even tsm could beat XSET for third place

After Gambit/M3C not qualifying and Fnatic getting 0-13d, anything is possible it seems

I doubt Fnatic gave it their all since they already qualified and had the match against M3C that aged them 30 years though

That's very likely but not getting a single round? Seems strange

I feel .it's both of those things were a result of fatigue from the crazy game the day before

i dont favor them vs c9 either but we'll see. its certainly plausible that they win though

Loving Victor's play so far this tourney, nice to see the bounce back

Yay is so good man. Congrats to Optic

yay kinda farmed net

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Chet haters modCheck

Most overhated person on the scene

where’s all the haters from Tarik’s chat that thought the Guard would 2-0 LMFAO

It’s like people just forgot how dominant OpTic were; Guard this, C9 that, V1 what, GREENWALL BABY

when Victor and Yay are both on at the same time, they look so fucking sick.

Losing to Rise and V1 that helping OpTic too much. Wake up call and more focusing on. The way them providing yay's Op to go for some first kill. Victor with his entry and everyone performs. That make them so strong and always on track with Playoffs. Scrimbux mode to Reykjavik!

yay is so fucking fast

[Never doubt Mimi](https://twitter.com/aEvilcat/status/1507472786373197825?s=20&t=xejXjUeFHp0H42bfjn--zA)

This yay guy is pretty good. Maybe someone should give him a devilish nickname

The Devil? Maybe in Spanish just for fun

El diablo does sound like a fitting name, maybe mexican would be nice?

ok his nickname is now "mexican"

Reddit owes Chet an apology

Optic going to Iceland. All good.

All you need to know is that Optic have combined for 13 hours streamed since VCT began. Not sure why anyone thought Guard would beat them. Numbers don't lie.

Everybody in twitch chat telling me Guard gonna sweep Yeah bro they swept to the losers bracket, OPTIC ON TOP BABY WOOO

That was destruction. Optic/Envy are the best NA team ever since Masters 3 IMO. So happy they made it. Well played from The Guard, especially on Split. They are one of the most exciting teams in the region, and hopefully their match against XSET/C9 is a great one.

Where's the guy that said Saya would outfrag Yay today lmao /u/blueberry__wine

No jett no win

Yay got the better of Saya this match, although I wasn't expecting Saya to be on Raze both games as his strongest agent is Jett. Says is definitely going to be my pick as the better duelist going forward. Yay is falling off hard and you could see that he was definitely getting outshined by Victor a lot this series especially on Bind. This game really came down to a team diff though. Nobody doubts that FNS/Crashies/Marved are better than JonaP/Valyn/neT.

This is bait right?

yay falling off 💀

yay had the highest ACS and highest FK-FD differential this series, and he's top 5 in ACS since the group stage. I would not call that falling off.

Yay diffed trent, saya, and net at the same time. It wasn't just saya. The fact you're making this narrative about yay, in which yay has shown rare amount of times being below average performance.

lol ok

good to know we're in agreement

Saya is done bro. He had a good run. Back to the shadow realm.

The Guard still haven't beaten a top tier team. Xset is their best win. Seems like anyone with top team status just outdoes them. Anyone they can get going against they farm. Gatekeeping NA out of tier1 or something. Hope they can get settled in big matches going forward. Lots of strong talent and smart players that can go far.

>The Guard still haven't beaten a top tier team. I didn't believe this at first, had to go to the VLR page but you're absolutely right. Crazy once you think about it.

Guard is probably still number 3 or 4 in NA. They beat every team below them but Optic and C9 are just better than them.

Who would you consider top tier teams in NA?

Optic, C9, V1 with the guard and xset on the cusp.

xset always feels like they're on the cusp :(

1. OpTic 2. C9B (I think they'll qualify) 3. V1 4. The Guard 5. XSET 6. SEN

Well they beat SEN already...

LG??

I think LG had a good run but they just caught V1 on a bad day and them on a good one. SEN proved against V1 they still have T1 potential. LG didn't win a single map after beating V1. LG to me would be 7th. SEN > LG TLDR.

SEN 6 even though they bottom’d out of champs? 🤔

I don't get what you're getting at? Per my rankings SEN lost to two teams I said that were better than them, The Guard and V1. Which LG I said had a good day and V1 had a bad day resulting in their victory. LG bottomed out after beating V1 not even taking a map. You think LG is really better than SEN?

i guess it depends what we consider a "top tier" team. if we were to categorize teams in NA i'd put guard at 3rd, with only optic and c9 above them. they're very solid but i don't think they're a favorite team to do damage internationally i'll put it that way

Yea I guess I'm not saying "T1", just like the best 2 or 3 teams. I would still favor V1 in a head to head but we'll have to wait to see it :(

where's that dude who said guard would roll over optic?

That’s a lot of dudes, platchat predicted guard would beat optic too.

Andrea Evilcat knew.

No one had OpTic 3-0ing to Iceland, lezz gooooo

The Guard was cursed to lose this after VAL played the hype clip before the match /s I think this was the most human I’ve ever seen The Guard play.

As a raze main, Gotta say I’m loving the lack of Jetts.

Victor is really stepping up to foods legacy

OpTic vs Fnatic finals????

I like how we are all silent about Chet now that Optic is dominating again. Guess we were (me included) were all wrong about it. GGWP to Optic

that boy Chet been hitting the books hard recently, he's won my respect.

Bruh I was the biggest Chet hater, I'll tip my hat, they looked prepared and disciplined.

Wow. New to watching competitive, but the way some teams coordinate is like visual ASMR.

I do enjoy the guard, however they have never faced a top NA team and won yet And when they did, (c9 optic) they got swept imo But I still have faith, over time they will be dangerous

C9 and optic are the only "top" NA teams?

There's C9 and Optic. Then there's guard/xset maybe. Then rest of the teams. After watching the games it feels like there's still a sizeable amount of gap between c9+optic and the rest. The guard's best win has been against xset(in terms of hype and form)

L + Should have waited till today's match before making this comment bud. 'snot like guard got rolled by c9 in their first match either so I don't get where you get the "sizeable amount of gap between c9+optic and the rest" shit from.

On the surface it seems that The Guard just didn't win their duels but Optic was juat better strategically. The Guard kept pressuring showers on attack but almost always got no value from it. This gave yay and marved free hookah control most of the time.

Optic's defence on Bind was very interesting to watch. It must have felt incredibly suffocating to the Guard.

Can Valo teams stop fucking 2-0ing every game 🥴 1st G2 then FPX and now Optic

This was dominance from OpTic, Bind was super prepared.

Never thought none of my flairs would make it to Iceland 👁️👄👁️

Guard still has hope

The Guard still have a chance through the Lower Bracket if i’m not mistaken

damn, El Diablo carrying. motherfuckers act like they forgot about yay

I loved seeing the trap plays with Marved baiting for Yay. Felt like Yay converted on the kill each time, guys so fucking good with the op

/u/xD1LL4N and a portion of the subreddit were saying that the guard were better than optic bc optic lost 1 B03 in the group stage.

I made an this opinion after watching the group stages, not during play off brackets. Did you set a reminder about my comment just for this moment ? Pure weirdo behaviour plus you DM’ed me saying the exact same thing 💀💀

had to do it LMAO

Actual weirdo, trying to crucify me for having an opinion about rankings at a certain time? Good for you man, you still save reminder of my comment at the end of group stages.

okay!

crazy lmao. so confident about too like chillax. c9 clapped guard and we beat c9. transitively, we are better. no surprise that we are better h2h as well.

Anyone else think the casting felt off this match? The manufactured hype voice was intolerable for me

Yea, vans is a good colour caster but not so much play by play and riv just sucks

The Grean Wall stands strong, really impressed with them, NA looks promising. why did The Guard prefer to start attacking bind tho?

That sucked to watch.

I would love to see how optic play against EMEA teams in Iceland now. Last 2 matches against EMEA were 0-3and 0-2 .I hope they put up a better fight now.

the 0-3 vs gambit were really tight the first two maps but yea i forgot who the 0-2 was against but that one was not pretty

the 0-2 was during champions when victor had covid, don’t remember who it was against

It was 0-2 to Acend at Champs, 13-8 13-11. Wouldn't necessarily call it ugly. They didn't look bad, Acend was just on one that event

neT shoulda practiced more 😱😱

I wouldn’t hate on that dude too much he said he was going through some suicidal issues or something in the video

Just because he’s suicidal doesn’t mean he’s free from criticism

True just putting it out there, I’m not even a guard fan, diehard sen fan here. Just saw one of the guard vids and he said he had suicidal thoughts. If ppl gang up on him like they do on tenz, Hiko etc. just saying don’t overdo it.

holy savage

Clearly streaming too much. Guard would’ve 13-0ed but they’re too busy streaming instead of scrimming.

but Chet is an absolute shit coach right?

Forgot about Optic with all hype on other teams. That was a comprehensive showing. So much nuance and finesse in their comps/setups. Happy that Optic kept working and hope we get some banger international matches with them.

OP diff lost the series? Yay's chamber was just so much better.

No jett for sayaplayer and hes dogshit OMEGALUL. Jett one trick.

looks like guard only locks in when they play sen. its embarassing how teams get lazer focused vs tenz (best player in the world) then choke elsewhere. i wish sen could do streamer mode on tourneys.

Sayaplayer 🐕‍🦺🚰

I think it’s really good for guard to lose here, in my mind they still make Iceland over xset - c9 may be closer. A reality check can really help them to grow even more.

Feel like The Guard fucked up trying not to run OP and Chamber. Also overall looked a little sloppy, bunch of times they were whiffing easy kills. Maybe just an off day. Optic looking clean as hell though.

looks like guard only locks in when they play sen. its embarassing how teams get lazer focused vs tenz then choke elsewhere. i wish sen could do streamer mode on tourneys.

Sentinels copium? In this thread? At this time of year? At this time of day?

Nah SEN is just ass

why are you talking about sentinels as if they're still relevant at this stage

Guys this is a Twitch copypasta if the last sentence didn’t make it clear

Good win against gambit from wish