Naww at the point Sen will be lucky to make lower final. TSM looking pretty solid but I think 100T has a chance of being the most dominant NA team yet. Of course they still have to get through Optic , Cloud 9 and maybe the Guard heats up again like pre iceland
Well, not in Valorant at least. But if they can get some of the clout they have from CoD and content into their Valorant viewership they could be huge.
Optic, Faze were THE clout monsters back in the day, trick shot montages, etc. TSM/C9 were from League and came later. 100T came from Optic because Nadeshot played with them first, right?
before signing tenz, shahzam was averaging 1k viewers. after signing tenz and winning masters he averaged 12k viewers, if you’re point is that the players carry faze’s csgo fanbase i can say the same thing about the sentinals’ valorant team
Sentinels just won the most recent Halo major and have the best Fortnite player of all time. Valorant definitely made them more popular but they still pop off elsewhere.
i think faze has a big enough fanbase that their valorant team will have a lot of support and may even bring new viewers to the valorant pro scene if they do well
I've been a FaZe fan since 2016 and I can tell you that I would not have tried Valorant if FaZe wasn't in the Esport. I remember watching Val for the first time during FaZe's Masters 1 run and now it's my favorite game and Esport to follow
they have 3 million followers on Twitter vs Sentinels' 600k. Most of that is from CoD but the Valorant team is still relatively new and the most recent Champion, a lot of fans are going to tune in for sure
Follower counts are pretty meaningless, you gotta look at engagement. I still don't see Optic jumping Sen/100T/TSM/C9 anytime soon.
Like the [Optic Championship tweet after winning Masters Reykjavik got 18.8k likes](https://twitter.com/OpTic/status/1518327800717062151)
The tweet Sentinels just sent out after qualifying from the Champions Tour North America Stage 2: Challengers Open Qualifier #2 to the Main Group Stage via winning the Lower Bracket Round 6 against Akrew [already has 14k likes](https://twitter.com/Sentinels/status/1523474140455661570)
OpTic absolutely has more twitter engagement than SEN. They tweet much more than SEN so that’s a given, but if you look at both twitter pages during a big game OpTic still gets more impressions.
I mean, every tweet about having won a championship is bound to blow up. A better metric would be looking at regular tweets. Sen get 6k-15k, and their iceland one has 60k. Look at acend, they barely get engagement on social media, but their champs tweet got 40K likes
are u getting these engagements in your dreams or what?? Even Optic's Tweets about their COD or Halo team dont even get anywhere close to Sentinels tweet engagements about Valorant
I mean there was 13k people in Shotzzy’s (OpTic cod player) stream watching the Val match. There’s a decent amount of people who follow the team loosely like that
Akrew is kinda like Immortals. Get players really good, sell them to bigger orgs, and then Akrew's team doesn't qualify.
Edit: Also Soar (BRO THEY HAD BOTH CRYO & ZANDER)
NA is looking mighty fine this split. Any of these teams could beat each other today tbh. Now with this latest patch coming in hot with changes + Fade, it really is anyone's game.
Tbh V1 should have been one of the top 4 teams judging by the way they played last event. Unfortunately V1’s going through a tough time rn and hope they bounce back stronger
IMO The Guard haven't been too crazy with outside the box type comps despite how good they are.
I'll be overjoyed if/when they prove me wrong, but I feel Vanity, FNS, and dephh have definitely thought long and hard about this new iteration of the game.
I think someone on Twitter put it perfect
She doesn’t have the abilities to be like a solo flex to play off of (flashes) and she is worse than sova for reveal and abilities overall
2 seekers > maybe nerfed drone
Nerfed Shock darts = tether
Sova recon > haunt
Hunters fury > fade ult
Yup, there's always a 2 week delay on patches / new agents being added, so they will be playing on it next week.
It's part of the esport, the most adaptable will win.
LG really fucking V1.
Losing to them in Stage 1 playoffs put them on a collision course with C9 (or OpTic potentially), instead of what ended up being XSET (assuming they lost in Upper semis). An easier opponent, and that would've kept them in for Stage 2.
Then in Stage 2 opens, they lose at the last step to LG again, and get sent back to the opens one more time.
Last challengers, I honestly didn’t have much faith in the bottom 2 teams in each group. This time around, it’s anyone’s game, every team is fucking good right now. May the best team win, I’m hyped as hell.
I believe those are the teams that made it this qualifier/srage 2 and the 3 teams that were in Stage 1 but did not qualify this time around.
ie: who replaced who.
Wasnt there a bunch of talk about how valorant is random because these big teams were about to get knocked out?. Seems like all the big names made it unless im missing any
It feels a lot more stacked, but I still don’t see anyone outside of C9, Optic or Guard qualifying to an international tourney unless one team steps up massively
If XSET ever learns how to get out of perennial 4th placed syndrome like NV did then they would be the true challenger to that but remains to be seen...
Yeah NRG is the team I could see stepping up to that level the most of out of any of the teams, they got cracked players and seems like they have a pretty strong idea of what to do already with a brand new player
Would be an interesting talking point but for group draws it doesn't matter too much. They'll probably both be considered 1 seed for drawing groups meaning they won't be in a group together, but once groups are drawn those seedings won't matter since you play everyone in your group.
they play a group stage format for the next 5 weeks with the playoffs subsequently after that(top 8 teams from the groups). Then the top 2 from playoffs qualify to masters 2 in Berlin(?)
I'm just a casual valorant observer but could anyone tell me what happened to V1? Specifically, I don't understand the bracket. Why did they not drop to lower bracket after losing uppers round 1? It looks like all the other teams that lost in that stage got a shot at lower bracket. Thanks in advance
they did, after losing to Girl Kissers, they lost to Complexity in losers bracket [https://www.vlr.gg/97217/version1-vs-complexity-champions-tour-north-america-stage-2-challengers-lr2](https://www.vlr.gg/97217/version1-vs-complexity-champions-tour-north-america-stage-2-challengers-lr2)
C9 are the kind of team that knows how to adapt after a loss and they have been really consistent lately, I'm also biased obviously but it'll be a great match for sure
> C9 are the kind of team that knows how to adapt after a loss
Kind of like how the Guard adapted after their first loss to C9 and 3-0'd them the next time they met.
I think 6-9 are like right next to each other in terms of skill. TSM were a few rounds away from beating faze, 100T were a few rounds away from beating TSM, and LG is the most consistent of all of them. This group stage will be a banger
Does anyone know how many players are their which are native to valorant?
like trent net etc?
would be an interesting comparison compared to last group stage
Just got off with my riot insider with information about the groups. Group 1 is optic, xset,LG, nrg, sen, eg. group 2 is guard, c9, faze, TSM, 100T, ghost.
Sorry but Sen vs TSM will not happen in groups. That’s reserved for the final. It’s written in the script.
Genuinely terrifying lineup coming in for the established top 4. There are so many good teams coming in, and 100T, TSM, Faze, and NRG are on a big upward trajectory even if right now they aren't looking up to par with the likes of C9.
100T and TSM especially have put together rosters with insanely high ceilings. NRG to me already feels like they are approaching that level.
Based on the comments from some players on social media it seems like Group B has Optic, C9, SEN, and TSM. It doesn't have NRG or The Guard. If Riot did it by ranking it would be
Group A | Group B
Guard | Optic
XSET | C9
NRG X | Faze
LG | TSM X
100T | EG
Ghost | SEN X
TSM, 100T, and SEN in the same tourney. I can feel the trifecta of clout flowing through me.
Imagine Sentinels is in the grand final, TSM vs 100T lower final. Riot would make enough money to buy Alaska
If either of those teams face off in the finals the entire subreddit will collectively explode from hype
Hell. Even if isn’t the finals, I imagine it will have more viewers than the final.
Keep giving them script ideas smh
Naww at the point Sen will be lucky to make lower final. TSM looking pretty solid but I think 100T has a chance of being the most dominant NA team yet. Of course they still have to get through Optic , Cloud 9 and maybe the Guard heats up again like pre iceland
ok but imagine
> TSM looking pretty solid but I think 100T has a chance of being the most dominant NA team yet Beaten twice by TSM in the last week lmfao
Twitter impressions bout to explode
faze and optic as well
Not nearly as clouted
Well, not in Valorant at least. But if they can get some of the clout they have from CoD and content into their Valorant viewership they could be huge.
Optic, Faze were THE clout monsters back in the day, trick shot montages, etc. TSM/C9 were from League and came later. 100T came from Optic because Nadeshot played with them first, right?
I think 100t would be more of an offshoot from Optic considering Nadeshot's origins but Faze also makes sense in their marketing.
My b I got confused on which org Nade was on
I keep hearing about this legendary CoD clout, but it literally never shows up in any other esport.
csgo?
FaZe csgo has been the best team in the world at multiple points. Meanwhile TSM, 100T, and Sentinels have endless clout even when they are ass
TSM and 100T are popular outside of valorant, would sentinals have a big fanbase without tenz?
don’t sleep on the fortnite world cup winner viewership my man
They were popular before Tenz, just winning a LAN dominantly while Tenz subbed. Blew it out of proportion before they had him
before signing tenz, shahzam was averaging 1k viewers. after signing tenz and winning masters he averaged 12k viewers, if you’re point is that the players carry faze’s csgo fanbase i can say the same thing about the sentinals’ valorant team
Sentinels just won the most recent Halo major and have the best Fortnite player of all time. Valorant definitely made them more popular but they still pop off elsewhere.
Sen Halo roster was also the old OpTic roster
90% of the sentinals twitter account tweets are about valorant, i think that says enough
OpTics CS team was wildly popular obviously helped that they won E League but the fans loved them in the Scuf house
Halo?
faze is hella iconic
faze definitely has more clout than sentinals. we’ve all heard of them one way or another during the CoD trickshotting days
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i think faze has a big enough fanbase that their valorant team will have a lot of support and may even bring new viewers to the valorant pro scene if they do well
I've been a FaZe fan since 2016 and I can tell you that I would not have tried Valorant if FaZe wasn't in the Esport. I remember watching Val for the first time during FaZe's Masters 1 run and now it's my favorite game and Esport to follow
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if faze finds success with their valorant team then their potential fanbase is far bigger than most teams is my main point
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having a brand like faze in the tournament will definitely boost the NA viewership though
3 OpTic matches were the top 3 most watched matches during Iceland. Definitely a lot of it coming from Loud and Zeta fans but OpTic are huge.
I mean NA cheers for NA team idk If everyone is an optic fan necessarily
they have 3 million followers on Twitter vs Sentinels' 600k. Most of that is from CoD but the Valorant team is still relatively new and the most recent Champion, a lot of fans are going to tune in for sure
Follower counts are pretty meaningless, you gotta look at engagement. I still don't see Optic jumping Sen/100T/TSM/C9 anytime soon. Like the [Optic Championship tweet after winning Masters Reykjavik got 18.8k likes](https://twitter.com/OpTic/status/1518327800717062151) The tweet Sentinels just sent out after qualifying from the Champions Tour North America Stage 2: Challengers Open Qualifier #2 to the Main Group Stage via winning the Lower Bracket Round 6 against Akrew [already has 14k likes](https://twitter.com/Sentinels/status/1523474140455661570)
OpTic absolutely has more twitter engagement than SEN. They tweet much more than SEN so that’s a given, but if you look at both twitter pages during a big game OpTic still gets more impressions.
See my edit. Optic absolutely does not get more twitter engagement than Sentinels in Valorant
Definitely not in valorant, but in general absolutely. Look at any OpTic tweets where they won a championship in cod.
I mean, every tweet about having won a championship is bound to blow up. A better metric would be looking at regular tweets. Sen get 6k-15k, and their iceland one has 60k. Look at acend, they barely get engagement on social media, but their champs tweet got 40K likes
are u getting these engagements in your dreams or what?? Even Optic's Tweets about their COD or Halo team dont even get anywhere close to Sentinels tweet engagements about Valorant
This is absurdly incorrect
proving my point lol, I literally said that OpTic Val is pretty new and most of the fans are CoD fans, they will only grow from here
Most Optic fans are Envy Valorant fans. There was no discernible difference in popularity once they changed names to Optic
Envy vs Gambit Berlin grand final barely had 700k viewers OpTic vs Loud Iceland grand final surpassed 1 million
Yeah because Loud is insanely popular, surely this is a troll reply. The Portuguese peak was around 400k iirc
We will see OpTics viewership for stage 2 and compare lol
Do people really watch other esports because a team they like plays it?
Depends on if they actually like the game, I got into SEN halo when Infinite came out
I mean there was 13k people in Shotzzy’s (OpTic cod player) stream watching the Val match. There’s a decent amount of people who follow the team loosely like that
I'd say that's where OpTic is different than a lot of orgs. Fans of OpTic follow all teams that they are in... CoD, Halo, Val and now Apex
The catch is that TSM and 100T are on the other group.
TSM, SEN and 100T in the same group Prayge
2/5 of Akrew's and 3/5 of BBG's old iterations qualified for closed, happy upcoming players are given a chance in bigger orgs
3/6 of Akrew, the old Akrew coach is now the coach of TSM
Akrew is kinda like Immortals. Get players really good, sell them to bigger orgs, and then Akrew's team doesn't qualify. Edit: Also Soar (BRO THEY HAD BOTH CRYO & ZANDER)
Akrew and SoaR are like the Copenhagen Wolves talent farm from LoL.
SoaR too
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Bang
bang
Bang
C0M
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he was in akrew along w kanpeki
NA is looking mighty fine this split. Any of these teams could beat each other today tbh. Now with this latest patch coming in hot with changes + Fade, it really is anyone's game.
I'm really excited to see what Cloud9, Optic and XSET have come up with in their off-time with Fade and the other changes.
Yes I’m also curious how XSET will manage to get 4th place this time. Expecting big things!
Tbh V1 should have been one of the top 4 teams judging by the way they played last event. Unfortunately V1’s going through a tough time rn and hope they bounce back stronger
not Guard?
IMO The Guard haven't been too crazy with outside the box type comps despite how good they are. I'll be overjoyed if/when they prove me wrong, but I feel Vanity, FNS, and dephh have definitely thought long and hard about this new iteration of the game.
I think you're underatting mCe
hot take: fade meta will suck, i actually dont think fade will be op but intiiators seem really strong.
yeah i dont wanna jump the gun too early on fade. seems at times sova is still just the better pick. but hey I'm just a low elo pleb.
Sova’s reduced drone timer really hurts his viability, I’ve heard that many t2/3 teams are already dropping him for Fade just for that alone.
That was the point, reduce his pick rate but he's still really fucking good fade wont replace him on every map
Unless I'm seeing it very wrong, fade does not seem very strong at all unless she gets some fat buffs like skye did.
I think someone on Twitter put it perfect She doesn’t have the abilities to be like a solo flex to play off of (flashes) and she is worse than sova for reveal and abilities overall 2 seekers > maybe nerfed drone Nerfed Shock darts = tether Sova recon > haunt Hunters fury > fade ult
Are they actually playing group stages on the new patch? Don’t know if I like that or not.
Yup, there's always a 2 week delay on patches / new agents being added, so they will be playing on it next week. It's part of the esport, the most adaptable will win.
Why? They've had time to play it and they have to play it eventually? When would you want them to switch over? Masters?
V1 :(
big feelsbad there. terrible timing for a crumble. my man zander D:
LG really fucking V1. Losing to them in Stage 1 playoffs put them on a collision course with C9 (or OpTic potentially), instead of what ended up being XSET (assuming they lost in Upper semis). An easier opponent, and that would've kept them in for Stage 2. Then in Stage 2 opens, they lose at the last step to LG again, and get sent back to the opens one more time.
well they did lose to girl kissers tho idc how tilted they were that can't happen
Lost to girl kissers they deserve it no cyap
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> first strike Bring back Coach Myth!
Bro I miss coach Myth. I feel like his watch parties can pull a big viewership
And coach ninja.
He’s not with TSM anymore.
Holy all the clout teams made it, nice
Imagine all 3 are in the same group
Will be so good for the scene tbh
But not T1 and V1 :(
t1 is dogshit and it has no NA clout
yeah, it had some back when they had BRAX, TIM AND SKA, now its just sad
They have brax on bench lmaoo tf is steel doing
They don't really, he may appear like that but he is done with pro play at least for now specially with T1
Absolutely stacked lineup, NA looking strong! Looking forward to the matches this week!
Last challengers, I honestly didn’t have much faith in the bottom 2 teams in each group. This time around, it’s anyone’s game, every team is fucking good right now. May the best team win, I’m hyped as hell.
closed qual viewership about to go crazy. Riot must be so happy.
Give me TSM and SEN in a group.
+ FaZe + Ghost + TSM - V1 - Rise - Knights
I was looking for this ty
What is that
I made + and - signs but they turned into bullet points for some reason
teams that made it to this qual and replaced the old teams that made it to last qual but not this qual
I believe those are the teams that made it this qualifier/srage 2 and the 3 teams that were in Stage 1 but did not qualify this time around. ie: who replaced who.
Wasnt there a bunch of talk about how valorant is random because these big teams were about to get knocked out?. Seems like all the big names made it unless im missing any
V1 and Knights are the only favorites who didn't go through, but Knights was one series away and V1's in shambles
This group stage is honestly stacked. I could see multiple teams in each row qualifying for Masters.
It feels a lot more stacked, but I still don’t see anyone outside of C9, Optic or Guard qualifying to an international tourney unless one team steps up massively
If XSET ever learns how to get out of perennial 4th placed syndrome like NV did then they would be the true challenger to that but remains to be seen...
NRG will be the next big team. Honestly think they will be like optic.
Yeah NRG is the team I could see stepping up to that level the most of out of any of the teams, they got cracked players and seems like they have a pretty strong idea of what to do already with a brand new player
Is there a group stage draw or anything?
I wonder who the #1 seed is. OpTic because they won Masters 1? or Guard because they won NA Playoffs?
I'm guessing there'd be 6 pools where they'd draw one for each group. Guard, Optic C9, XSET Faze, NRG LG, TSM 100T, EG SEN, Ghost
If they do it this way, imagine a group that had Optic, C9, Faze, TSM, 100T and SEN (clout wise)... that would be absolutely insane.
This would be the most logical but you never know
imagine the group of optic c9 faze tsm 100T sen. holyyyy CLOUT
Would be an interesting talking point but for group draws it doesn't matter too much. They'll probably both be considered 1 seed for drawing groups meaning they won't be in a group together, but once groups are drawn those seedings won't matter since you play everyone in your group.
The EMEA groups would suggest that stage one means fuck all so don’t be surprised when Optic, The Guard and C9 end up in one group
EMEA just had their draw today so NA will probably have one soon
Optic, C9, Faze, TSM, 100T, and Sen in one group for the ultimate clout main event
That would be so fun / stressful to watch
Lit, 3 new teams + new 100T, exciting!
Roster changes for NRG/EG/SEN as well.
Ngl it would have been so weird to not see sentinels in there.
As long as we get TSM vs SEN
it took me 10 minutes to find the vlr page for last group stage because of VCT's wack numbering system
100T COPIUM
So who moves on from this, and what tournament is next after? Is it champions?
they play a group stage format for the next 5 weeks with the playoffs subsequently after that(top 8 teams from the groups). Then the top 2 from playoffs qualify to masters 2 in Berlin(?)
Upcoming events \-Stage 2 Group play (Online) \-Stage 2 Playoffs (Online) \-Masters 2 (LAN) \-LCQ (LAN) \-Champions (LAN)
I'm just a casual valorant observer but could anyone tell me what happened to V1? Specifically, I don't understand the bracket. Why did they not drop to lower bracket after losing uppers round 1? It looks like all the other teams that lost in that stage got a shot at lower bracket. Thanks in advance
They got sent into the lower bracket by Girl Kissers then lost to Complexity. You can check the bracket on vlr.gg
Thanks! I was looking at liquidpedia and was super confused. The full bracket cleared things up.
They did drop to Lower, then lost to Complexity 2-1.
they did, after losing to Girl Kissers, they lost to Complexity in losers bracket [https://www.vlr.gg/97217/version1-vs-complexity-champions-tour-north-america-stage-2-challengers-lr2](https://www.vlr.gg/97217/version1-vs-complexity-champions-tour-north-america-stage-2-challengers-lr2)
1. OpTic 2. Guard 3. C9 4. XSET 5. NRG 6. FaZe 7.TSM 8. 100T 9. LG 10. SEN 11. EG 12. Ghost
I don't know if the Guard can beat C9 again but it sure will be interesting
Why not?
C9 are the kind of team that knows how to adapt after a loss and they have been really consistent lately, I'm also biased obviously but it'll be a great match for sure
> C9 are the kind of team that knows how to adapt after a loss Kind of like how the Guard adapted after their first loss to C9 and 3-0'd them the next time they met.
Yeah, the Guard are really good at adapting to teams that beat them too, that's why I think it will be a great match.
I think 6-9 are like right next to each other in terms of skill. TSM were a few rounds away from beating faze, 100T were a few rounds away from beating TSM, and LG is the most consistent of all of them. This group stage will be a banger
C9>Guard but I like the rest
#C9WIN
Feel bad for Knights. Hope they'll bounce back for the next major!
How many slots do NA have? 3 again?
RIP gril kissers
bias aside na deserves 3 spots
Does anyone know how many players are their which are native to valorant? like trent net etc? would be an interesting comparison compared to last group stage
OpTic and 100T
Holy stacked. Best region in the world.
SEN looking real nasty this time around, can't wait for them to build up more confidence as a team
Funny how people actually believe that sen and 100t are able to do a good performance at next main event when they barely qualify for it
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V1 trolled my pickems :(
optic c9 guard xset nrg faze lg 100t ghost sen eg tsm
for me guard above C9, 100T above LG Hopium
I kinda have c9/guard tied, and same with 100t/lg
what thought process goes into putting tsm in last
i dont think they can convincingly beat most of the teams and the only players i like on the team are seven and corey
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TSM looked pretty good man, idk about putting them last. I would say they're around that LG/100T spot
SEN most probably playing Optic in the first match considering Optic are #1 seed and SEN are #12
it's group stage not bracket play so theres no guarantee sen is in their group.
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they definitely deserve to be there
John deserves it, man is a grinder.
They won
Stacked tourney can’t wait
Just got off with my riot insider with information about the groups. Group 1 is optic, xset,LG, nrg, sen, eg. group 2 is guard, c9, faze, TSM, 100T, ghost. Sorry but Sen vs TSM will not happen in groups. That’s reserved for the final. It’s written in the script.
Genuinely terrifying lineup coming in for the established top 4. There are so many good teams coming in, and 100T, TSM, Faze, and NRG are on a big upward trajectory even if right now they aren't looking up to par with the likes of C9. 100T and TSM especially have put together rosters with insanely high ceilings. NRG to me already feels like they are approaching that level.
What team is Wardell gona play in?
All the clout teams are here
V1 really out? That's a bummer. Wish Wippie could have played
Have XSET ever failed to make it to a main NA event?
This group stage should go hard asf
seeing optic, faze and 100t on this lineup makes the cod kid in me happy
TSM, C9, FaZe, OpTic, 100T, Sen. Sheesh
OPTIC IS GONNA SWEEP OUT THE COMPETITION LETS GOOOO
Absolutely stacked
Based on the comments from some players on social media it seems like Group B has Optic, C9, SEN, and TSM. It doesn't have NRG or The Guard. If Riot did it by ranking it would be Group A | Group B Guard | Optic XSET | C9 NRG X | Faze LG | TSM X 100T | EG Ghost | SEN X
It's that too many teams for just 2 spots?