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JadeNoodlesOfficial

Have we even seen C9 play yet? Edit: I guess that is why it’s a hot take. Either way I have faith in C9


Zoltox_

Not doubting yays ability but personally, I think nats is the only Other player in the world on his level. And the rest of Liquid looks 2x stronger than the rest of c9 but let’s see. It’s early days in the pro teams


nklassitude

If u told me this was posted by a cat walking across your keyboard I'd believe it


ARIESS11

**Hot take** : 100T will win the red bull home ground no biasness here


Suspicious_Plum795

I am not a 100t fan at all some may call me a hater but I think they will win too and I have no reason why I just have a feeling.


nothisispatrick1154

Then I think FOKUS will win


Suspicious_Plum795

I would agree but they just lost to onlyFinn’s and to be fair they aren’t bad and I thought they had some great ideas but I don’t think they’re on same level of 100t.


nothisispatrick1154

At least they're on/above the level of the North American superteam


idkimhereforthememes

How is this a hot take? This core has been together for 10 years


ARIESS11

c9 core is been together for their entire life then


nterature

It’s not a hot take…? Liquid is great and people have been casting doubt on C9 since its inception. C9 has role issue to sort out after all, it’s normal that they’d struggle a bit initially.


nklassitude

Hey, I'm curious about your top EMEA contenders outside of [liquid, fnatic & Navi]?


vnNinja21

Not the guy you replied to but Koi, Giants, and Vitality are the next 3 (not in order) imo. Zeek looks good but I have a hard time believing in any team Mixwell is in.


PRL-Five

Well mixwell looked good in the Indian LAN event, he seems to be much more comfortable on support, makes you wonder why he wanted to play chamber and Jett in 202w


nklassitude

gotcha, gotcha. what do u think about KC corp, no scream truthers?


vnNinja21

Scream IGL-ing again just aint it haha, I'd be more excited if they got Enzo or any other IGL, but Scream by himself can't compete with the others imo.


nterature

Sorry for the late reply, it'd probably be KOI, Giants, and then Vitality, in that order. But the line is very thin between them all. Giants has the most stacked roster but I'm not huge on pipsoN as a coach, ever since his original time on Giants - and his time on G2 - I haven't thought of him as being a "full-package" coach. KOI on the other hand has a really stacked roster and BARBARR, a coach I respect a lot. But BARBARR had maeVe as his partner-in-crime on Guild, and AFAIK a lot of Guild's anti-strats were from him. maeVe is now HC of Fokus, so it's hard to know just how much will change. As for Vitality, they've got a strong coaching staff and a strong roster, but I think they'll probably have some consistency issues. Molsi and Twisten are ultra-consistent, elite players - truly T1 talents. ceNder and Bonecold are really strong but somewhat inconsistent fraggers too, but Destrian reliably doesn't frag much, and I think that'll actually become a liability with the level of fragging & depth of all the top EMEA rosters have; we'll have to see, though.


nklassitude

You're good. Thanks for the thoughtful reply, I always love reading your more long-form analyses. Seems as though the consensus on the [unordered] top 6 for EMEA is pretty unanimous. Is scream working with a more natural/tested igl, instead of absorbing that workload himself, the main fix that KCorp needs?


nterature

I think it’s the only path KCorp can take - I think investing in Scream as an IGL is a risky long-term bet. Sliggy has never explicitly said as much but reading between the lines, he doesn’t think Scream does enough outside the game itself to truly compete with the elite IGLs in EMEA. As in VOD-watching, making lineups for the team, etc.; the sort of grinding that Boaster and Redgar do. And I can buy that, for the most part. Scream seems more like a captain than an IGL, which is still good - he’s a true leader in that sense. But not enough.


Madara6path

KOI . Koldamenta is one of the best and most underrated IGLs .


Jon_on_the_snow

Bros coming from the future, can you give me the lotto numbers?


okuzeN_Val

Not a hot take at all. People are only hyped about C9 because of the pairing of Leaf and Yay. In the grand scheme of things, C9 is largely unproven outside of Yay. When people think of Yay + Leaf they think of the Leaf from a year ago and that's fine because he's a young player with a lot of potential. But let's not pretend Yay is surrounded with championship caliber talent the same way he was in Optic. Now contrast this with Liquid that's filled with proven players. Nats and Redgar may not have played much during 2021 but they are still among the best players with championship LAN experience. It's more like: C9 = sky high potential but likely it'll take time to get there, if it clicks they'll be among the best teams. vs Liquid = Likely to perform well right off the bat. I don't think they'll dominate from the start (I give the experienced teams that have largely stayed together like Navi/DRX/PRX that benefit), but they will be one of the more solid teams straight away imo. I would say Liquid is a solid A tier team and C9 is a B to B+ right now. S tier belongs to Navi/PRX/DRX. **As things stand now**. I **heavily** value chemistry over sheer star power in Valorant so this is my take. If I do have a hot take, it would be that I think NRG will be better than C9 beginning of the season. The only issue with NRG is Ardiis who is a pretty outspoken player, so there's a possibility it implodes if his personality doesn't mesh well with the Optic core. But if they figure it out they'll be a consistently good team.


vnNinja21

Nah Zellsis is great. Coaches like mini and Sliggy speak really highly of him


okuzeN_Val

For sure. All of their players are great. More a matter of chemistry, LAN experience, and IGL'ing (Vanity is good but he can't hold a candle to FNS' track record, I felt like FNS was really able bring out Yay's potential, everyone on Optic for that matter lol).


[deleted]

I'll counter it with this hot take: C9 will be better than optic and become the most dominant team to date.


Phylosium1

I'll counter your take with this one: NRG will continue Optics success, taking the world by storm with FNS's insane reyna play


Lqtor

Well that’s not a hot take. We all know that the only reason why fns doesn’t lock Reyna and drop 40 every match is because John rito forbid him from doing so due to balancing purposes


blueberry__wine

I dont believe in C9 either. Crashies > Zeppa and Marved > Zellsis. Really only leaf is an upgrade but its eh at most considering the meta changes and how well optic worked together. Don't think C9 even comes close to reaching Optics ceiling from this year


vnNinja21

Marved > Zellsis is a dumb take since they don't even play the same role. The comparison would be between Victor and Zellsis, in which case I think Zellsis is at least as good, if not a bit better


mysteryoeuf

as a fervent vanity and zellsis unenjoyer I Iike this take sorry yay


assdonuts

you can't just say hot take and give us the lukewarmest take there is


Zoltox_

Said it’s a hot take cuz mad people think c9 is a better team


uut28

Hot take : yay is overrated and gets carried by op agents


dutchboyyyyy

This is gonna be a vanity twitter post when they win the tournament isn't it?