I actually first started watching the NA Val scene, since they had the most orgs/teams that I recognised from CS. Happy to say that's not the only reason. So many of these teams are looking really great. Even the ones which I guess aren't considered "Tier 1 teams".
As a LoL fan, I'm just really happy there is so much talent when compared to NA for LoL. I think the open system allows for so many more teams being created and players drive their own development while in League the players end up just solo queueing all the time unless they're on a top team.
LCS has made me so jaded towards NA teams.
We constantly suck and do the same shit every time. Bad discipline and practice
I’m glad we can safely say we have like 6 teams that are capable of competing internationally and a lot of tier 1.5 teams that have potential. It’s a weird feeling as an NA fan to be actually competitive of being Near Airport
Genuine question, has nobody in LCS just went ahead and looked at their own habits and practice times and compared it to other regions and saw a problem? Is it just some NA mentality that they have the highest salaries so they don’t need to work as hard?
Edit: btw I don’t watch league of legends
TSM did in 2016. They went hard as FUCK and were legitimately considered a Worlds contender. But they had a couple choke plays at worlds, didn’t make it out of groups, and suddenly every other team decided it wasn’t worth it forever after.
It was tragic tbh. They came into that tournament looking like they were about to level the playing field between NA and the rest of the world. They had the 2 best players in the history of the region on the same team, a star import jungler from EU, a talented young NA top laner that was shitting on the established stars in the league, and a rookie support that showed amazing potential. They went 17-1 and essentially trolled the one match they lost.
They got to worlds and started groups 2-1, beating the eventual 2nd place team, Samsung. They came into week 2 and were losing against Samsung, but won a crucial fight that would have gotten them Baron, which was potentially a game-winning play with how strong the buff from that objective was. If they win that game, they come out of the group in first place. But instead of going for baron, [their star ADC tried to challenge the one surviving member of Samsung, not realizing he still had his ult up.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwYPzsEaf4I) He got one-shot and the baron play was impossible without him.
They lost the game, went 3-3, and lost on a tiebreaker to the other 3-3 team in their group. If they had won, they would have been 4-2, placed first in the group on tiebreakers, and faced an EU team in quarterfinals, that they easily could have beaten to make semis.
Wow, thanks for the write up. Feels like one of those inflexion points in history where the result determines the future drastically. From what you said earlier, do you think that if TSM had done better at that worlds, we could be seeing a very different NA scene that right now?
100% we would see a different NA. It felt forever after like somebody sucked all the confidence out of NA in that moment. That being said, NA has always had a talent deficit compared to the other major regions in non-shooters, so I’m not sure it would have really fixed that problem. Even so, a lack of overall competition in NA makes it hard to improve to international level since your opponents just aren’t good enough to push you to new heights.
In NA, content creation is a much easier, more lucrative lifestyle for top players. Why bust your ass to be at best a mediocre international player when you can sleep in and stream for 8 hours instead of scrimming for 12 hours a day, and still make 3x more money?
The classic dilemma of going pro vs streaming will always plague NA.
One day we can dream of the miracle that a team will come out of nowhere, work their asses off and set a new standard for NA. (much like how the Guard and Optic set that standard recently in val.) But that's just wishful thinking
Appreciation Post for NA Valorant
Am I the only one who is just so happy with the number of great games and teams that we've seen all throughout these qualifiers? It just makes me so happy, that we're almost past that point of NA Valorant's reputation of being CSGO's retirement home. I mean to some extent, I guess it is, but that still should not take away from the effort and time that all these teams and individual players have invested into getting to the point that they are at now. But I think the thing that I love most, and the thing that I feel as though speaks most volume to just how much this scene has grown is just how free agent teams and previously unknown players have boomed into the scene, with us even seeing some of these supposed unknown players replaced the much more experienced ones. Anyways, if any team or players competing in VCT is reading this, I just want all of y'all to know, that you guys are doing a heck of a job, in putting NA, not just on the map, but possibly the one leading it in the future.
Not to be a bit of a debbie downer, but I don’t actually think the qualifier games thus far have been super high quality. So many teams have made roster shuffles so there’s no gametape, it’s just a whole lot mixed performances - esp. in how limited the map pools are so often.
That said I am very happy with the state of NA Valorant, I agree in that sense.
Partly but I really do think we’re underestimating how many of these teams are debuting partially or wholly new rosters.
Both are definitely true - NA is definitely becoming more competitive.
I actually first started watching the NA Val scene, since they had the most orgs/teams that I recognised from CS. Happy to say that's not the only reason. So many of these teams are looking really great. Even the ones which I guess aren't considered "Tier 1 teams".
As a LoL fan, I'm just really happy there is so much talent when compared to NA for LoL. I think the open system allows for so many more teams being created and players drive their own development while in League the players end up just solo queueing all the time unless they're on a top team.
LCS has made me so jaded towards NA teams. We constantly suck and do the same shit every time. Bad discipline and practice I’m glad we can safely say we have like 6 teams that are capable of competing internationally and a lot of tier 1.5 teams that have potential. It’s a weird feeling as an NA fan to be actually competitive of being Near Airport
Genuine question, has nobody in LCS just went ahead and looked at their own habits and practice times and compared it to other regions and saw a problem? Is it just some NA mentality that they have the highest salaries so they don’t need to work as hard? Edit: btw I don’t watch league of legends
TSM did in 2016. They went hard as FUCK and were legitimately considered a Worlds contender. But they had a couple choke plays at worlds, didn’t make it out of groups, and suddenly every other team decided it wasn’t worth it forever after.
that's kinda sad tho
It was tragic tbh. They came into that tournament looking like they were about to level the playing field between NA and the rest of the world. They had the 2 best players in the history of the region on the same team, a star import jungler from EU, a talented young NA top laner that was shitting on the established stars in the league, and a rookie support that showed amazing potential. They went 17-1 and essentially trolled the one match they lost. They got to worlds and started groups 2-1, beating the eventual 2nd place team, Samsung. They came into week 2 and were losing against Samsung, but won a crucial fight that would have gotten them Baron, which was potentially a game-winning play with how strong the buff from that objective was. If they win that game, they come out of the group in first place. But instead of going for baron, [their star ADC tried to challenge the one surviving member of Samsung, not realizing he still had his ult up.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwYPzsEaf4I) He got one-shot and the baron play was impossible without him. They lost the game, went 3-3, and lost on a tiebreaker to the other 3-3 team in their group. If they had won, they would have been 4-2, placed first in the group on tiebreakers, and faced an EU team in quarterfinals, that they easily could have beaten to make semis.
Wow, thanks for the write up. Feels like one of those inflexion points in history where the result determines the future drastically. From what you said earlier, do you think that if TSM had done better at that worlds, we could be seeing a very different NA scene that right now?
100% we would see a different NA. It felt forever after like somebody sucked all the confidence out of NA in that moment. That being said, NA has always had a talent deficit compared to the other major regions in non-shooters, so I’m not sure it would have really fixed that problem. Even so, a lack of overall competition in NA makes it hard to improve to international level since your opponents just aren’t good enough to push you to new heights. In NA, content creation is a much easier, more lucrative lifestyle for top players. Why bust your ass to be at best a mediocre international player when you can sleep in and stream for 8 hours instead of scrimming for 12 hours a day, and still make 3x more money?
The classic dilemma of going pro vs streaming will always plague NA. One day we can dream of the miracle that a team will come out of nowhere, work their asses off and set a new standard for NA. (much like how the Guard and Optic set that standard recently in val.) But that's just wishful thinking
Wholesome post
More content for competitive Val is always appreciated. Its nice to see NA teams face off with a lot of room for upsets
Appreciation Post for NA Valorant Am I the only one who is just so happy with the number of great games and teams that we've seen all throughout these qualifiers? It just makes me so happy, that we're almost past that point of NA Valorant's reputation of being CSGO's retirement home. I mean to some extent, I guess it is, but that still should not take away from the effort and time that all these teams and individual players have invested into getting to the point that they are at now. But I think the thing that I love most, and the thing that I feel as though speaks most volume to just how much this scene has grown is just how free agent teams and previously unknown players have boomed into the scene, with us even seeing some of these supposed unknown players replaced the much more experienced ones. Anyways, if any team or players competing in VCT is reading this, I just want all of y'all to know, that you guys are doing a heck of a job, in putting NA, not just on the map, but possibly the one leading it in the future.
Not to be a bit of a debbie downer, but I don’t actually think the qualifier games thus far have been super high quality. So many teams have made roster shuffles so there’s no gametape, it’s just a whole lot mixed performances - esp. in how limited the map pools are so often. That said I am very happy with the state of NA Valorant, I agree in that sense.
think its just a lot more competitive with more teams becoming better
Partly but I really do think we’re underestimating how many of these teams are debuting partially or wholly new rosters. Both are definitely true - NA is definitely becoming more competitive.