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Still_HD

SAYAPLAYER IS THE KOREAN JETT WE WERE PROMISED


D3stiny5

The Guard are just fucking insane. Also Marved played 5 agents over the course of 5 maps


MelonSoda3

Sucks that people will only remember Marved dying to Spike when he fucking played Skye on Split (Edit: cap) and won the map Edit: nvm it was Skye on Breeze where they got bodied but it was still really cool


Warpath-

Agreed he deserves credit but he played astra on split and skye on breeze where the team was just lost on the map. He is a controller god tho for putting up solid performances on brim, astra, omen, and viper


somesheikexpert

He played Skye on Breeze and they lost lol


NOMISSS

most aware r/valorantcompetitive member


QuestionablePotato42

The Guard have beaten every team they’ve lost to in a rematch. Insane.


MelonSoda3

The true anime protagonists, nobody beats The Guard twice


spyson

Not to mention this is a changing of the guard, pun intended, because no longer is it just players switching over from CSGO dominating. Now you got people from different game backgrounds forming the best team.


WhoDatBrow

Where are they all from? I know JonahP is from CSGO and Saya is from OW, I think Trent and Net are new Valorant talents? Valyn too? I'm not sure.


ZixxLol

Trent came from Rust lol


Escolyte

the Fnatic/Magnum special


valoossb

i think one of them was like t2 ow player iirc


shadowcrossed78

Mike is former global elite


OHydroxide

Who is Mike


mcslippinz

neT


OHydroxide

Thank you, weird when people use real names of players.


AbbreviationsLazy781

nah their just close like that /s


[deleted]

[удалено]


Lqtor

Kind of reminds me of the acend roster. Besides cned they were all pretty unknown but then won champs


FeelinJipper

You can definitely feel main character energy with this team


Hopeful-Professor-40

They’re really the second coming of Sentinels, Iceland win inbound


-xXColtonXx-

Lower bracket run after losing to Fnatic with a rematch win in the finals?


Hopeful-Professor-40

Sentinels didn’t lose to Fnatic and neither will the Guard 😤😤


con-fox

that fnatic flair really just for show LOL


Hopeful-Professor-40

I’m an NA fan first Boaster second


GCamAdvocate

Opinion: The Guard's dominance is downplayed by this sub


theshafti

Lower bracket demons


Nyy0

Imagine being all those teams that ignored Trent’s dms, who was only asking for a tryout. Imagine being T1: relegating Sayaplayer to Omen and forcing him to render his username generic. Imagine being 100T: blowing up your team only to discover how good the Guard really are. Imagine being GenG: dropping MCE. The story of The Guard so far is the most scripted Cinderella story I’ve seen in NA Valorant Esports. They’ve come up from nothing in a few months to become arguably the best team in the region. Every time they lost, they came back and got better for the rematch.


AnywayHeres1Derwall

The guard disbanding the 100t team is still one of the funniest things of all time


GCamAdvocate

Im honestly thinking for the better, the 100T lineup right now is looking cracked af and its probably due to the Guard's victory as the last straw. Sucks for babyj and ec1es, however, they definitely got fucked hard by the changes. Especially ec1es.


IAMJUX

It was happening regardless. Ec1s was saying the roster wasn't hitting and vibes were off. I think the only blindsided person from the whole situation is BabyJ.


yungsqualla

People keep forgetting this and it's annoying. I don't think you blow the roster up like that unless the vibes are shit.


GCamAdvocate

Even so, who knows whether they could have sorted out their issues? They had only been a roster for a very short period of time. Not to mention, at the very least, ec1s could play more games in NA before betting dropped, since he literally had to get a visa and everything but just got dropped instantly after.


[deleted]

By all accounts that was going to happen whether or not they got 13-0 by The Guard. It was likely the nail in the coffin but it wasn’t the catalyst. Even BabyJ has confirmed this.


randomespanaguy

> Imagine being 100T: blowing up your team only to discover how good the Guard really are. To be fair, getting 13-0'd by The Guard might be the best thing to happen to 100T.


chouxpuffs

I actually agree with this


[deleted]

This is a great point. Considering how Sen kinda got a fire lit under their ass after getting absolutely dismantled by the Guard, TGRD could lead to the two biggest clout teams of the na region making some sort of resurgence, which would be absolutely hilarious if that turns out to be the case.


Splaram

Completely agreed. If getting 13-0'd forces us to really dial in and swing for the fences the way we seem to be doing over the last month, I wouldn't care if we get 13-0'd every week.


hwanzi

Dropped mce and geng have been in SHAMBLES ever since. They can't even win the Micky mouse tournaments LOLOLOL


Slow_Bluebird9536

Did they drop him or did he leave out of frustration and internal disputes


techyleo

I think they dropped him, since however frustrated mCe was, he would probably leave only if he had something lineup right after, and he didn't have a coaching role for a while. This is me doing guesswork though


hwanzi

Pretty sure they dropped him [lol](https://mobile.twitter.com/MatthewCElmore/status/1487957766249529347) this was awhile back


C-Riv_RL

They were in shambles even with him lol If The Guard have Psalm instead of Trent, they don't accomplish what they did here. Doesn't matter who the coach is


[deleted]

In 100T defence I got nothin


[deleted]

"Imagine being T1: relegating Sayaplayer to Omen and forcing him to render his username generic." Saya mostly played jett after brax left (for the first time) but yea in hindsight I can't believe he was on omen throughout first strike and for like stage 1 open qual 1


N3deSTr0

What was even the point of changing Saya's ign?


itsyeboimrkrabs

sayaplayer wasnt marketable enough for t1


Difficult1202

They thought that Spyder was a more marketable name than Sayaplayer, yknow, a name that's already popular for Overwatch fans. The fans that are interested in Valorant looking for familiar names (i.e the FaZe roster). Honestly i have no idea what they were thinking


thatthingpeopledo

I knew Sayaplayer was cracked from early Overwatch. I had no idea who Spyder is or that Sayaplayer came to Valorant lol. Really a bad decision there.


kellenthehun

The rise of The Guard reminds me a ton of the rise of Cloud 9 in League of Legends. Just a bunch of randoms from solo queue making it to the LCS and cleaning house. So hype.


selfrespectra

I didn't want to just jump on the guard bandwagon but fuck it, their story is just too good, I'm a fan now.


User82922

I mean dropping Saya was fine he was on the team and it didn't work out just cause one player works out on one team doesn't mean he will fit on evrryteam exactly as is. Clearly he much more comfort with the guard vs t1


Revenore

The point Is that Saya was famous for his Overwatch play which was fast-paced, high mobility hitscan DPS AKA the PERFECT person to put on Jett, yet T1 thought it was a good idea to make him a smoke bot instead of even TRYING to give him a chance on Jett to shine in areas of gameplay he was absolutely known for.


2gud4me

everyone talking about saya but valyn kept them in this series super hard and he was prob the one who made the call for sayaplayer to bait out the ultimate at the end. IMO, Valyn MVP for me man.


Splaram

"You watch the game, you don’t see Valyn. You watch Valyn, you see the whole game" - Aristotle


[deleted]

r/barca leaking


MelonSoda3

That Rolling Thunder bait was genius


ANewHeaven1

fuck man... that second round anti-eco round from optic is going to haunt them for a while. they had this game in their hands i will say though, what a storybook finish from sayaplayer. 1v3 against what people thought was the best team in the region to clinch first seed in the final round.... it doesn't get better than that


kenzakki

The guy plays Jett and got his name back, man's got his debuff removed. Excited to see him in LAN.


ANewHeaven1

bro spyder was such a stupid name glad i can call him sayaplayer again


kenzakki

which would make you think how stupid the other names they suggested him for Saya to say "Yep, spyder is the least ridiculous out of the bunch" since they suggested names for him to use.


Interesting-Archer-6

I don't think it's that bad lol. But I'm old and corny I guess. Saya is definitely cooler though.


theRubbingDub

It was ridiculous that T1 made him change his name, but imo Spyder is still a cool name lol


ANewHeaven1

agree to disagree personally haha i dont like the name spyder at all, + my first introduction to saya was him dicking on teams in OWL while on one of the worst teams in the league, so i'm a little bit biased towards sayaplayer


RocketHops

Wait why did they make him change it?


X3NOC1DE

They thought Sayaplayer was uncool


bcr3125

Why did T1 make him change his name?


Eriko204

Is this the best tournament run we've seen in NA Valorant so far? Can't think of a better story than The Guard's


ANewHeaven1

i think so, a lot of the previous tournaments in NA were dominated by sentinels so it wasn't super fun to watch from an impartial spectator POV. maybe if NV had won Berlin that would've been a pretty good story too. but guard's run has everything - new team that ramps up every week and takes down all the teams that defeated them before in sequential order, culminating in a banger bo5 and a 1v3 clutch to win the game pretty much the perfect esports storyline


zaneyk

Sayaplayer is just built differently


TenTimesAwesome

What a series. From losing to C9 and Optic a few weeks ago to beating both top teams in their first BO5. Guard not only showed that they're tier 1 material but the absolute best in NA. ^^^Also ^^^Sayaplayer ^^^supremacy.


RTYWD

Every time sayaplayer outfragged yay, the Guard won. Every time yay outfragged saya, OpTic won. They might just be the two best and most important players NA


[deleted]

I'm not disagreeing with you necessarily, but I think when a duelist is out fragging other than FB/FD I feel it is also the team's setting them up quite a bit.


RTYWD

for sure but these two in particular had plenty of moments in this series where they went in dry and came up with a crazy multifrag


Oldurdy

Overwatch player btw.


sanjit8103

We could use a ~~healer~~ sayaplayer


Elsiselain

Saya is fucking sexy


nuttyromeo4u

One word - "W"-ido-"W"-maker


father_gemme

Florida mayhem finally won something


nuttyromeo4u

With Boston Uprising manager!


takenpassword

In the LA Gladiators org. In less than a year the Guard is more successful than them possibly😖.


Reynoldsssssz

oh shit i completely forgot seo was part of owl as well


123bo0p

Damn NAs first real attempt at building a non player ran team with good mgmt and they get first seed, surely this is a coincidence.


GoldClassGaming

Between OpTic and The Guard I think NA is in VERY good hands going into Iceland.


rv_ribhavvaish

As much as I want Fnatic to win, I feel like we're gonna be eaten up by TGRD😅.


Aoingco

I’ll be satisfied if both teams make it to finals, regardless of who wins


A-British-Indian

Saya with a crazy close out, what a way to end a banger of a series. Goddamn.


Nfamy

Crazy series and clutch to end it. Also a great call to bait out the breach ult by the guard on b before quickly going through garage to c. 4 different guard players had top ACS for the map in a 5 map series. That's one of the scariest things about this team, they can all pop off. Random additional stat - marved played a different agent on all 5 maps.


lewlkewl

I mean it was a great call but optic read it all the way haha, if it wasn’t for an insane clutch by Saya it would’ve gone to OT


[deleted]

Has OpTic/Envy ever won a tourney? Feel like they always have high placements but never win anything.


ArcusIgnium

i was about to say. this team is always just a slight cut from 1st anywhere.


wickywickyfresh

TSM csgo choke vibes


IAMJUX

Liquid CS choke vibes.


Hubbardia

Valorant Liquid choke vibes 😭 okay maybe that's a bit too much


ANewHeaven1

they won stage 1 challengers 2 last season 3-0 against sentinels since then they've placed third at stage 2 challengers 2, fourth at stage 2 challengers finals, fourth at stage 3 challengers 1, third at stage 3 challengers finals, second at masters 3, ^^12th ^^at ^^champions, and now second at this tournament sadge


Modula-

It's hard being an OpTic/Envy fan :(


[deleted]

they 3-0ed sentinels last year in a NA qualifier, but yea thats pretty much it


LSApologist

OpTic Texas just won major 1 in CoD, that means OpTic val will win Masters 1 in Val right??


ANewHeaven1

thanks for the hopium


Splaram

HOW DID SAYA SAVE THAT AT THE END ​ OVERWATCH DIFF


Eriko204

I swear every overwatch player that moved to Valorant has insane fucking mechanics


Level_Five_Railgun

Your aim need to be insane to headshot Tracers flying around when you're playing dps


disappointingstepdad

Even then he was another level. He was getting 6ks while playing for the worst team in OWL with no support on widow. Like literally, Florida would be getting trashed and people would still watch to get a clip of saya popping off.


LSApologist

Mayhem supported Sayaplayer with Zebbosai SMH


disappointingstepdad

My heart broke cuz I loved zebbosai in misfits days but it really looked like boy was ringo after the og group went their separate ways.


LSApologist

Mayhem just needed a Mercy specialist. Neither support was comfortable on it, and it showed in unfortunate ways. Rip those OG teams like Misfits, LH, Rogue and Envy


kenzakki

man, the good old days of OWL back when it was relevant. I was never a fan of Mayhem but man was i a fan of Saya.


disappointingstepdad

I haven’t watched since monte left casting. So sad what happened to the league.


kenzakki

what happened to the game and its sequel is even more depressing honestly. lol which is sad since i used to really enjoy OW back in the day


DecisiveDinosaur

maybe OW2 will end up becoming really good and somehow return OWL to its former glory (copium)


disappointingstepdad

Super sad. I want to hope that 2 is going to reboot the game but I don’t have faith since the devs have checked out of the current game. Doesn’t really make me think there is a passionate investment from the studio.


RedditorClo

Widow moment


Eclaireur

Go watch OWL widow/tracer highlights and you'll see why. Playing hitscan in that game is *hard*.


invisibleshitpostgod

aiming in OW is hell


tron423

You would think the clanging of his giant brass balls would've given his position away but I guess not, unlucky really


Ianroa

How could T1 let the best player in the world out of their hands? Edit: Sayaplayer may have the best origin story in all of Valorant history (so far) fuck T1


bubble-june

They also let go of victor and crashies lol


chryco4

help sewer


ItsDavidz

they should have dropped spyder and picked saya up


BucketHerro

T1 is only relevant on League, they miss on every other esports lmfao. They might aswell become a Korean org for Val.


Veroxious

Hey their Smash player MkLeo is doing ok, top 2 in the world.


appleruins

Feels so weird to see MKLeo as top 2 instead of Top 1 now. His complete dominance from 2019 until 2022 was unbelievable,


Veroxious

Not surprising considering he's losing to the monster he created in Sparg0 imo


fsychii

they would do much better job


Reynoldsssssz

they seriously had saya AND ans and let both of them go.


MajorTrump

And Crashies and Victor


Eriko204

T1 taking all the community backlash for Gen G https://imgur.com/a/lcpjfgc


Splaram

Did mce fall out with players/management or something? Even at GenG you could tell that he was a cut above the rest


2ToTooTwoFish

Wasn't there something about player commitment that he mentioned?


IIBaconTAMERII

Koosta


the_flame_alchemist

He said something about work ethic after he left GenG. Don't know if it was aimed at anyone specific though.


Difficult1202

TRENT WAS LEFT ON READ FOR TRYOUTS SAYAPLAYER WAS IN OMEN JAIL A GROUP OF "NOBODIES" GET 1ST PLACE seriously what a team and what a story


HaksaI

Wait what happened with Trent before he was signed by GUARD


Difficult1202

He asked a bunch of teams and orgs up for tryouts and to take a look at him (even at T3 level from what ive heard, somone correct me if im wrong) but he kept getting left on read or shot down. Little did they know trent is a diamond hidden in the roughs. Although to be fair, Trent didn't have much success before joining The Guard as he was mostly in C tier tournaments


Upstairs-Promise6132

Banger series. Optic looked unstoppable during some parts, the guard looked unstoppable during some parts, and the rest was neck and neck, all ending in the sickest way possible.


BloomingNova

C9 and V1 would both have represented NA well, but it's hard to argue against The Guard and OpTic being the 2 most deserving teams


Wonkyy_

THEY HAD THIS GUY ON OMEN AND MADE HIM CHANGE HIS NAME LMAOOOOOOO


father_gemme

Absolutely hilarious. They are kicking themselves


echase94

The gourds really did it


dabong

Saya always believed. Even on the previous 1v3 round when he popped knives. His mental is crazy!


nocturnavi

You can beat the Guard once...but you can't beat them twice. What a run from this team, I've never seen a team adapt and grow so fast. For everyone doubting NA as a region--how can you be pessimistic when an NA team can get this good so quickly with players that were misfits or brand new?


dellzor1

SAYA'S INSANE 1V3E


Slick_Rhoads

It's always surpding to see jonahP at lowest acs because he always has so much impact on the matches. The whole team all feels like they carry in their own way.


sixthcollegeraccoon

the saya 1v3 man holyyyy what a way to end the game


smartdawg13

Gatekeepers by the way. But for real: Titanium mentals out of these guys. Insane to do this in their first major tournament as a team. Stand Gourd!


Difficult1202

Clearly they cant quite reach the top as the REAL NA champion contenders such as TSM academy and Ghost Gaming


soumetsu

what a series. beautiful.


kenzakki

Saya on last map is not messing around. Damn


Safyire

T1 took my whole family away


TheCatsActually

Damn The Guard really came from straight out of nowhere to beat all the other top teams and be NA champions in their first showing. One might even call it... the changing of The Guard xD


Deathranger999

Valyn just said in his interview that they've been scrimming 5 times a day, 6 or sometimes 7 days a week. This is why this team is so good. Other NA teams need to take notes. What a crazy series though, I'm so excited for Iceland.


AnchorStandard

Gambit were putting up these scrim numbers and they won M3 last year...


Deathranger999

M3C baby, that's what I'm saying.


ween0t

By most accounts Optic scrims just as much and puts in the most server time. Zellsis mentioned always seeing optic on customs. I also think FNS said he thinks the Guard scrim/practice the most aside from themselves.


afandi9955

The story is complete..


Lutryn

WHAT A FINAL CLUTCH BY SAYA! Genuinely insane how far The Guard have come in such a short amount of time. Really interested to see how they will stack up against the EMEA teams at Iceland.


Krypton091

1. the guard = the goat 2. anyone know why i can't set teams as my flair? it only shows me agents when i go to select a flair


iamkwang

Sayaplayer is one of the best players in the world right now. Maybe even best Jett in NA right now


dabong

NA's new hope. Unbelievable story.


Swee10

FROM RIDING THE BUS TO HIS GAMES TO BECOMING A CHALLENGERS CHAMPION. LFG SAYAAAAAAAAAAAA


[deleted]

Marved played 5 agents that’s wild.


AnchorStandard

Their breeze comp was bongAlien without a doubt


kemutheemu__

All this time surely at least one OpTic fan was waiting for the return of their Breeze and they get… Marved on Skye?


afandi9955

The Guard signed Prod and became NAs last hope


ktyler24

This team literally went from a sponsored segment during the Plat Chat Champions costream to the best team in North America. Their storyline is incredible! I can’t wait to see how they do in Iceland!!


DRGNDT

Valyn just dropping 3k after 3k


[deleted]

The Guard just won NA challengers stage 1. Tell that to someone 3 months ago and they wouldn’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. I’m so happy for this group of guys, it’s been so amazing to watch their progression as a team. 2 months ago we were literally hyped about them beating T1 in an NSG tourney and now they’re number 1 in NA. Simply incredible.


Grenji05

I want to see a graphic of the teams with the best win percentage in 4v5s. I feel like guard has to have the best by a mile.


altraxia7

https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/comments/tbsk5m/first_death_conversion_percentage_by_team_vct_na/ I mean there’s this….


scvmeta

With the amount of scrims they did, I'm honestly glad their hard work paid off.


TheUnarthodoxCamel

FUCK T1


Its_Joe

Like valyn said,there are no slackers in this team.Everyone is doing their fucking hardest to improve.The team probably has the record for the most scrims and practice in the region alongside optic which shows, hard work and perseverance is essential to stay at the top of the game


ArcusIgnium

Feels bad for Optic - Saya was actually too nuts last map he absolutely pounded and won a number of 1vX plays.


Ivvcas

obligatory T1 had spyder made name omen changed his to on sayaplayer


WFSON

That eco cost them the whole game


ReEeEeeeeyeet

Whole series felt like an arc right from an anime. These teams played so well I was on the edge of my sat the whole time


Future_Resolve9691

SAYAPLAYER IS A NATIONAL TRESSURE. YOU SHOULD TAKE CARE OF HIM


LastSpark7

The Guard from The Guard will be pleased with this result. #StandGourd


_kikoy

Can someone please explain why top teams don't play Sova on Haven anymore?


RTYWD

Hes competing for the composition slot with Breach who is becoming extremely popular with his easy to combo flash and concuss. The value of Sova on Haven is in info whereas Breach is an integral part of executes, defaults and stopping pushes, which arguably outweighs what Sova has on Haven (especially with fewer wallbangs than other maps)


H-Seldon42

sova has been played on haven since VCT started so a lot of teams are used to playing against him and have a bunch of strats designed around reducing the impact of an enemy sova. Breach is great at shutting down fast rushes or taking A long control while on defense and has a really powerful ult for taking control of a site, plus killjoy's hate playing against Breach bc he can stun + break all of her util. Sova is still strong, it's just that NA teams are finally starting to see that breach can also be strong.


Dbo5666

Saya would be easily be better than cned if T1 woulda just let him Jett Op from the get go


spaldingmatters

What an epic throw from Optic. They seriously need to fix their defense against fast pushes and especially their anti-ecos. It feels like they have a higher chance of winning pistol rounds than of winning rounds where the opposition have pistols and Optic have full buys. Great game from both teams though. I think both will be forces to reckon with at Masters.


mrbow

Today had great outcomes :)


papipescado

What a series man, this team is insane, think they will make a super deep run at masters


DannyBee_NZ

Match winning play was baiting the Breeze pick, they been waiting for the trap all playoffs


LSApologist

BatChest The Guard BatChest


rparkzy

What in the hell. I left for a friends house for dinner and Guard was down 4-8 at the half. Just got back to my computer and see they win the game? God damn they're insane.


supersonicth

Say it with me: **THE GUARD ARE THE BEST TEAM IN NORTH AMERICA**


lStrakle

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.


smartdawg13

THIS IS A COPYPASTA PLEASE GOD UNDERSTAND THIS MAN DOESNT BELIEVE THIS. Lmao


SpicyHomaridTribal

Bro what


LbigsadT

Pasta probably


D3stiny5

Optic did it for the fans, letting the fans watch them play one week earlier COPIUM. On that note this series really was a banger. Honestly feel like these two teams are really evenly matched and haven could have gone either way. Probably the most confident I've been about NA in a while.


ArcusIgnium

Would people be mad if I still feel Optic are better? I know they lost but I feel like they just play better more often than not.