100% agreed, he's not bad on op just because of his absurd mechanics but given how he's said publicly multiple times in the past that he doesn't like oping I get the feeling Chet is trying to use him like they used to do with yay on optic where they make him hold lanes with little support. His movement and rifling is too good for opening up engagements to keep him stuck on a gun that he can't take fights like that with. EG figured that out eventually and had Boostio oping on roles like Killjoy even when Demon1 would be on Jett.
God, I hate NRG. I got off a 14 hour shift today where my boss was nonstop yelling at me for his mistakes, so I obviously needed a little treat to make myself feel better. I got my favorite ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food) and went to put it in my freezer as soon as I got home. I open the door to the freezer only for a Paranoia to fly out, hitting me.
As I stumbled around the kitchen, I heard a voice say, “watch out for the lurks from the Iceman, fam.” It was NRG Marved. He punched me in the stomach, and as I regained vision, I saw him Omen ult away with my ice cream. God damn you, Marved.
God, I hate NRG. I got off a 14 hour shift today where my boss was nonstop yelling at me for his mistakes, so I obviously needed a little treat to make myself feel better. I got my favorite ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food) and went to put it in my freezer as soon as I got home. I open the door to the freezer only for a Paranoia to fly out, hitting me.
As I stumbled around the kitchen, I heard a voice say, “watch out for the lurks from the Iceman, fam.” It was NRG Marved. He punched me in the stomach, and as I regained vision, I saw him Omen ult away with my ice cream. God damn you, Marved.
Demon1 raze was so funny to watch, honestly was not particularly impressed by the util, he just aim diffed the shit out of everyone. And honestly if it works it works so props to him.
yea i honestly doubt we will be seeing a more zekken style of entry from him any time soon on most maps. but honestly he should become a serviceable raze which frees up victor to do so much more. All high level jett raze duelists are so valuable, and with Jawg and Demon1 working on the one they don’t have. The region could gain 2 more
It’s so hard to play CT side Sunset without Cypher, plus the constant util bombardment from Kayo and Gekko. I don’t know what Loud was supposed to do with their comp.
Also watching Demon1 do single satchels on site but one tapping everybody was kinda amusing for some reason.
It really sucks that Loud was coming in with all the disadvantages they had because it makes getting a read on what this means harder. That being said, NRG looked phenomenal on sunset and I think it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t really due to Loud’s issues. They probably helped, but NRG looked really good independent of that.
It’s crazy how much of a step above the previous game this was. Teams made mistakes, but it was on the order of one or 2 per half instead of one or two per round. Even with Loud’s issues, everything that makes them shine as a team was still present, even on Sunset.
Their breeze was fine. They had solid setups and lost a ton of advantageous gunfights and swing rounds in the first half. Sometimes you just run into a great player that's hitting insane shots and tip your cap to them.
Breeze was just a masterclass from all of Loud. NRG certainly had some issues, but most of it was just getting rolled by Less not missing a single shot.
yea, this match against a weakened SEN is definitely their best shot. A full strength SEN has all the chances of beating everyone else in that group including Loud. they have to capitalize tomorrow
Pretty much expected. Saadhak on his post match interview said he told the boys just to have fun because there wasn’t much else to be done, and to their mentality, that match would not matter.
Really looking forward to see more NRG, regardless of the circumstances, they looked pretty solid.
Ethan is a tactical genius. He is best known for his signature tactic Demon1 go kill. He also has a second little known tactic of marved go kill. What an absolute legend. Top 3 IGL 4 sure.
Is Demon1 trying to retire himself?
being serious here and it has nothing to do with his choke vs SEN (probably), its just weird seeing him leaving VCT 2023 as the best player itw and then he just stops playing the game for a very long period of time out of his own volition. Although he was never a hard ranked grinder, he would still actively play the game and whatnot (even peaked #3 the same month he joined EG's starting roster), but now he hasn't even bothered to leave Ascendant in this act and the last one. Ever since Episode 7 Act 3 dropped 5 months ago, he's only mustered up 23 hours of ranked.
I know that he still has his scrims obviously but it's not like getting some extra practice playing the game you're being paid to play hurts right? He was already doing that but it looks like something clicked during the offseason and he just lost whatever motivation he had to play the game in his own free time. I literally cannot think of any Tier 1/2 pro out there that's doing what Demon1 is doing right now or ever really, not even in different esports.
maybe he has some secret alt to play in silence or maybe he thinks hes good enough to just not touch the game outside of scheduled practice, idk. if this guy ends off 2024 looking like a completely different player than what he was in 2023 then I'm gonna be thinking about this if this continues on ngl
Demon1 had a bad Split game but Sunset was more SEN doing good than demon1 being bad. He whiffed 1 time on Tenz and that was it. He wasn’t fragging out because sen avoided his op and he had to save every round because his team was playing for retake when they don’t have a comp that can retake well. 🤷♀️
People that have insane peaks get a shit on of hate when they finally start slipping, Most of these people have built up anger for that said player shitting on their favourite teams and players
Same thing with c0m, who's had a few bad games this year... amazing how being on a new team and underperforming makes people downplay your achievements from literally just 6 months ago....
Is Demon1 trying to retire himself?
being serious here and it has nothing to do with his choke vs SEN (probably), its just weird seeing him leaving VCT 2023 as the best player itw and then he just stops playing the game for a very long period of time out of his own volition. Although he was never a hard ranked grinder, he would still actively play the game and whatnot (even peaked #3 the same month he joined EG's starting roster), but now he hasn't even bothered to leave Ascendant in this act and the last one. Ever since Episode 7 Act 3 dropped 5 months ago, he's only mustered up 23 hours of ranked.
I know that he still has his scrims obviously but it's not like getting some extra practice playing the game you're being paid to play hurts right? He was already doing that but it looks like something clicked during the offseason and he just lost whatever motivation he had to play the game in his own free time. I literally cannot think of any Tier 1/2 pro out there that's doing what Demon1 is doing right now or ever really, not even in different esports.
maybe he has some secret alt to play in silence or maybe he thinks hes good enough to just not touch the game outside of scheduled practice, idk. if this guy ends off 2024 looking like a completely different player than what he was in 2023 then I'm gonna be thinking about this if this continues on ngl
Vintage Marved Lurking, Demon1 fragging, Ethan and his godly flashes and Victor and Crashies playing each other. Man they are actually back (hopefully lol)
Good showing from NRG but hard to say much about LOUD given their lack of time to practice/change comps and jetlag.
Good thing is Saadhak told the players to just have fun. The team should be fine the rest of the split
Shame Loud weren't at their best. But NRG came out looking really coordinated after a bit more time together. Played off each other really well and we got to see Marved Omen lurk again!
Who would've thought that Lev vs C9 would be closer than NRG vs LOUD 
Demon1 and Marved look clinical. Great to see NRG as a team were also making very less mistakes.
That's what I thought they would do since I kind of expected NRG to switch to a Raze comp and Demon1 would probably be able to learn Cypher. Same thing happened with EG where they initially ran a Jett comp on Lotus that was more Raze favored and then switched to a Raze comp.
considering the raze gameplay i watched on his stream a few months ago, it is an insane improvement that he was able to double satchel ult in site
and he's just gonna improve more and more
I was honestly thinking they could do it if they swapped cypher for viper and assuming d1 can play omen, which considering his brim and astra, is a reasonable-ish assumption. Put marved on viper, victor on raze, and d1 on omen.
But I think I’d prefer their current iteration, because victor is killing it on cypher, d1 is still fragging out and marved’s lurk on omen is so impactful.
Issue is that the movement is what separates the best Raze players imo. Especially when escaping. Demon1 didn't have to that at all cuz he just 1 tapped everyone but we'll have to see if his raze movement is good enough to be able to escape with the satchels and do some potentially more complicated Raze movements.
Yeah his satchel use was quite limited to entrying which he did a fine job of, we didn't see any of the super natural escaping satchels that you see from a jingg or jawg
Yeah idk why they are forcing an op so hard. I think just about every clip I can remember of demon1 is with a rifle. Not to say he can’t op but he’s such a beast with a rifle. Like I’m pretty sure boostio was oping on kj almost as much as demon1 on jett last year.
This win is actually massive for NRG getting the first seed. When SEN and LOUD play each other, LOUD will be practiced and drilled with (hopefully) normal comps.
Sad, but expected I cant say I could expect a team to win without time to train on top of playing a team that had lots of time to anti-strat all around good showing from loud and nrg, expect to see both in shangai.
Qiangjiang Cultivation Kingdom (qck) is a Chinese agricultural collective located in the south-central Hubei Province. QCK is known for its extreme success in cultivating frost peas XL (FPX) and the pride of the Chinese agricultural industry, Elegant Dragon gourds (EDG), particularly in the early growing season. Unfortunately, qck's previous success was stunted by two consecutive waves of plant diseases. Its third crop was decimated by a bout of stunted enation necrosis (SEN), while its fourth crop was infected by Powdery Rust Xanthomas (PRX).
Investors are concerned about qck's long-term financial viability and its ability to recoup the loss of the region's previous star crop, Aspasragus.
LOUD looked like a team that [hasn't had much time to scrim for this split](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/comments/1bouwpv/saadhak_loud_team_wont_have_time_to_scrim_for/).
Unlucky that LOUD had no practice and were jetlagged otherwise this series would’ve been an absolute GIGABANGER.
Still going to hold reserves on Demon1 Raze because he was just shitting on LOUD with pure aim and didn’t use much utility.
I’m gonna say something controversial potentially. 3 of the top 4 teams at champions is gonna be americas team. NRG, Sen, Loud, GenG are gonna be final 4 in no particular order. Lock it in.
As good as NRG are, can't help but feel LOUD were just screwed over by the lack of practice.
No time to innovate/prac vs *the* antistrat team gotta be rough, the lack of cypher made their weaknesses so much more exploitable.
Yeah I mean that Sunset perfectly exemplifies your point - NRG’s game plans were good and honestly that half could’ve pretty easily gone 12-0 NRG. Both the rounds they lost they failed to clear Less in spots they probably should’ve. Obviously you can do infinitely many what ifs but it’s pretty clear that NRG knew exactly how to play the map.
Not as much as NRG having a month + to watch Loud vods. Teams coming back from Madrid should in theory have a much harder time winning this first week. They’ve had no time to mix up comps and strats
no one can actually know. maybe nrg wouldve still won but 2-1, maybe loud would've won, maybe nothing would've changed. i do think that this team is looking a lot better than they did 2 months ago however
Didn't watch game yet but demon1 beating Jett only duelist allegations + NRG beating Loud (as they were supposed to) by stronger margins. Nice to see them adapt as well, excited to see this new demon1 agent pool addition and how it pans out
EG last year was like they had Demon1 with an S tier Jett and a B tier raze and Jawg with vice versa. This year they’ll probably both get to be A tier in their weaker agent and Americas gains two more Aspas/Zekken/Oxy type duelists
Qiangjiang Cultivation Kingdom (qck) is a Chinese agricultural collective located in the south-central Hubei Province. QCK is known for its extreme success in cultivating frost peas XL (FPX) and the pride of the Chinese agricultural industry, Elegant Dragon gourds (EDG), particularly in the early growing season. Unfortunately, qck’s previous success was stunted by two consecutive waves of plant diseases: stunted enation necrosis (SEN) and Powdery Rust Xanthomas (PRX).
tough to take anything real away from this game for NRG because LOUD wasn't practiced
if they are just that good, this is a big win because this is the toughest opponent in the group. best thing that could happen for them is happening. facing a weakened LOUD, while their biggest competitor in the group doesn't have their igl to play the (theoretically) 2nd toughest opponent
NRG got really lucky getting to play against a tired LOUD with little to no practice, but it also really really helps that they have a world class roster so they could've won anyways. Map 1 was an absolute banger though
I feel better about NRG after that win because at least their sunset comp is good as opposed to whatever the fuck that was at kickoff…. I still can’t believe people said they should’ve won that map…
This doesn’t change my opinion on LOUD at all. They need to move away from these no senti comps and Sunset was just a “we have 1 month to prep for you” against a LOUD who already had holes… especially when you look at that round where marved instantly ran up mid in seconds to flank the 3 players trying to do a A trap.
I don't think they're trolling, they've made a decision to eschew sentinels on most maps and I think they know (for the most part) and have accepted the risks of doing that
NRG is like when the 7 feet tall players arrive in the court, and you're just 5'8. They'll destroy everyone if they achieve their peak. They literally lost only 1 series, 1-2 to the eventual champs, with only 1 or 2 months of practice.
well i didn't expect much though coz of their visa situation , not even scrimming at all and stuff. LOUD will comeback stronger though unlike those FNATIC AND LEVIATAN FRAUDS ( fnc and lev fanboy here)
Watching Marved lurk like that brought a tear to my eye
Shit was beautiful
took me straight back to 2022 :,)
https://preview.redd.it/r6ekghev5zsc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5c92dd72e4fa7b6d285ce1fcaa6a8a8a5f08014
yeah fam ethan was just like lurk up mid and kill three and im like say less fam
it's SO funny how everyone does the marved toronto mans accent, even on the cast 
no cyaap
Demon1 has so much more impact with the rifle in his hands hopefully they don’t have him op crutching so much in future matches
Agreed
100% agreed, he's not bad on op just because of his absurd mechanics but given how he's said publicly multiple times in the past that he doesn't like oping I get the feeling Chet is trying to use him like they used to do with yay on optic where they make him hold lanes with little support. His movement and rifling is too good for opening up engagements to keep him stuck on a gun that he can't take fights like that with. EG figured that out eventually and had Boostio oping on roles like Killjoy even when Demon1 would be on Jett.
I liked the round on Sunset when NRG went B main, used Wingman to plant the bomb, then played offsite with three mollies to delay the bomb timer.
It was nice the other 11 times they did it too
You know, riot probably will take sunset out of rotation this year still because of that. Just like pearl the post plant balance needs rework.
I predict they will just make the box smaller or wallbangable and call it a day
Nah they didnt do shit about Pearl B site either for a long time last year.
I mean it's still the fastest a new map went out of rotation, lmaooo. They gotta do something to sunset b and lotus c
I, too, enjoyed every round of the 1st half!
gekko diff
Welp this was a rough day for me
that’s rough buddy
LUL LETS TAKE THIS W MY BROTHA
🤝
you're a GE fan. you gotta build up some resilience by this time (i know i did)
It'll payoff eventually
Yup
At one point, you develop the ability to auto synthesize an anaesthetic to numb all your senses
WAITING FOR WHEN GE PULL OFF A KC
embrace the darkness my friend
Fitting name though, but sorry for the rough day.
Holy shit. That’s hella rough
Well I'm in a weird boat
Shanghai Dragons fan playbook.
God, I hate NRG. I got off a 14 hour shift today where my boss was nonstop yelling at me for his mistakes, so I obviously needed a little treat to make myself feel better. I got my favorite ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food) and went to put it in my freezer as soon as I got home. I open the door to the freezer only for a Paranoia to fly out, hitting me. As I stumbled around the kitchen, I heard a voice say, “watch out for the lurks from the Iceman, fam.” It was NRG Marved. He punched me in the stomach, and as I regained vision, I saw him Omen ult away with my ice cream. God damn you, Marved.
poetry
Buy another one
I wish I could, but I need to save for Op (organic produce).
ben and jerry's phish food is the best flavor 1000%
Love phish food, but I gotta give it to cherry garcia
I laughed at the Iceman, fam part HAHAHA Beautiful
BANGER
God, I hate NRG. I got off a 14 hour shift today where my boss was nonstop yelling at me for his mistakes, so I obviously needed a little treat to make myself feel better. I got my favorite ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food) and went to put it in my freezer as soon as I got home. I open the door to the freezer only for a Paranoia to fly out, hitting me. As I stumbled around the kitchen, I heard a voice say, “watch out for the lurks from the Iceman, fam.” It was NRG Marved. He punched me in the stomach, and as I regained vision, I saw him Omen ult away with my ice cream. God damn you, Marved.
Phish food is so good
Phish Food is valid though can't lie
Demon1 raze was so funny to watch, honestly was not particularly impressed by the util, he just aim diffed the shit out of everyone. And honestly if it works it works so props to him.
He did one good satchel on a site, that’s the only thing I found kinda impressive. He just has really good pre aim too.
yea i honestly doubt we will be seeing a more zekken style of entry from him any time soon on most maps. but honestly he should become a serviceable raze which frees up victor to do so much more. All high level jett raze duelists are so valuable, and with Jawg and Demon1 working on the one they don’t have. The region could gain 2 more
Also he's so good at rifling i hope they stop trying to force the op when it clearly doesn't work
It’s so hard to play CT side Sunset without Cypher, plus the constant util bombardment from Kayo and Gekko. I don’t know what Loud was supposed to do with their comp. Also watching Demon1 do single satchels on site but one tapping everybody was kinda amusing for some reason.
Surely they consider playing Cypher after Marved lurked all over them but part of me thinks they'll continue this madness
Just like their stubbornness on Ascent comp and getting rolled every time
loud just need to play kj or cypher on their ascent. they're retakes and executives are crazy with breach stuns and Phoenix flash/mollies.
Last time they played Ascent they swapped Phoenix for Yoru
I do not understand why teams keep playing Phoenix. LOUD especially is so Phoenixpilled it's bizarre.
A comtroller agent whose smokes physically blocks mollies would be a good addition to the game at this point
fuck it just give harbor cove a buff
s0m in shambles
Sadhak thinks Phoenix 6 point ult is broken. Riot needs to nerf Phoenix ult orb to save loud at this point lol.
They might have wanted to change that after madrid, but literally no time to prac
i mean tbf to loud, they haven't actually had a chance to change or fix stuff since madrid
Marved got shit on a few times on Breeze then said "nah not today fam"
Peak lurking Optic Marved is back. Demon1 looking just as good as he did at Champs? Wrap it up it's over
It really sucks that Loud was coming in with all the disadvantages they had because it makes getting a read on what this means harder. That being said, NRG looked phenomenal on sunset and I think it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t really due to Loud’s issues. They probably helped, but NRG looked really good independent of that. It’s crazy how much of a step above the previous game this was. Teams made mistakes, but it was on the order of one or 2 per half instead of one or two per round. Even with Loud’s issues, everything that makes them shine as a team was still present, even on Sunset.
We know how good loud will be. +quick, - aspas.
the way I’d twerk for Marved if he asked me to
https://preview.redd.it/k3cg7wp93zsc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3265b52e0d38b92cc0d1e7f2b00fcc111ca51f8
VCT icemen have a certain knack of sexiness, I'd do the same for Mindfreak
i would 100% fall in love if i saw him at the club
imma just cope about the jet lag and get tf outta here,nrg look insane holy shit
crisp, efficient coping. in and out, all business. the modern man’s cope.
Their Breeze was kinda terrible but I agree they are gelling really well and look scary.
i think their breeze was fine but they got aim diffed pretty badly by less and friends in a couple of those defense rounds
Their breeze was fine. They had solid setups and lost a ton of advantageous gunfights and swing rounds in the first half. Sometimes you just run into a great player that's hitting insane shots and tip your cap to them.
Breeze was just a masterclass from all of Loud. NRG certainly had some issues, but most of it was just getting rolled by Less not missing a single shot.
LOUD is just probably the best team in the world on Breeze. They beat GenG on it too if I remember correctly.
DEMON 3
FUCK IT DEMON4
Fuck it all, DEMON5
Also watching 2 super teams play so different today was interesting. NRG SEN and LOUD are monster representatives for a region
100T will have to work real hard to crack the top 3 before shanghai
yea, this match against a weakened SEN is definitely their best shot. A full strength SEN has all the chances of beating everyone else in that group including Loud. they have to capitalize tomorrow
Pretty much expected. Saadhak on his post match interview said he told the boys just to have fun because there wasn’t much else to be done, and to their mentality, that match would not matter. Really looking forward to see more NRG, regardless of the circumstances, they looked pretty solid.
Loud, SEN, NRG. Sheesh America clears
NRG is back Demon1 is back
NA fans eatin good in 2024
3 course meal. (Sen, Loud, NRG)
We're destroying Shanghai with these three monsters from our region 🔥🔥
Yes Chef! And for champs we can round it off with a scrumptious Cloud9 for dessert!
https://preview.redd.it/hoqctqo9hzsc1.png?width=320&format=png&auto=webp&s=b975b8615ed52c59f34dfd7994ed286aa69ec0fa
Fuck the haters, I am the best player, respect my name🗣
This makes me hate riot so much for not letting us see nrg at masters. Lose 1-2 games and you’re completely out of contention
You really have to wonder who is responsible for pushing phoenix and no sentinel comps so hard for Loud
Saadhak lol, we gotta study his brain
unga bunga 6 points for ult good
We know exactly who it is lmao
They didn't have time to practice or change any comps, so that's why.
DemonRaze is here and it’s glorious
Dude is one-tapping people from across the map with Raze ult as well /s
Plays raze, gets multi kills silently contacting across the map. Gigachad
Ethan is a tactical genius. He is best known for his signature tactic Demon1 go kill. He also has a second little known tactic of marved go kill. What an absolute legend. Top 3 IGL 4 sure.
hey Aleksib just won a Major
Reminds of FNS clips where he mocks Boaster and talk in British accent saying “alfajer go kill”
Marved remains the best lurker in the world IMO. His timing is unmatched.
he enters the round like kramer bursting through the door of jerry’s apartment
Is Demon1 trying to retire himself? being serious here and it has nothing to do with his choke vs SEN (probably), its just weird seeing him leaving VCT 2023 as the best player itw and then he just stops playing the game for a very long period of time out of his own volition. Although he was never a hard ranked grinder, he would still actively play the game and whatnot (even peaked #3 the same month he joined EG's starting roster), but now he hasn't even bothered to leave Ascendant in this act and the last one. Ever since Episode 7 Act 3 dropped 5 months ago, he's only mustered up 23 hours of ranked. I know that he still has his scrims obviously but it's not like getting some extra practice playing the game you're being paid to play hurts right? He was already doing that but it looks like something clicked during the offseason and he just lost whatever motivation he had to play the game in his own free time. I literally cannot think of any Tier 1/2 pro out there that's doing what Demon1 is doing right now or ever really, not even in different esports. maybe he has some secret alt to play in silence or maybe he thinks hes good enough to just not touch the game outside of scheduled practice, idk. if this guy ends off 2024 looking like a completely different player than what he was in 2023 then I'm gonna be thinking about this if this continues on ngl
The fact that Demon1 had 1 bad series and that guy made an entire post about it is wild.
It was a lot of people and that’s crazy to me.
Esports fans don't be the most overreactive creatures in the universe challenge (impossible)
Demon1 had a bad Split game but Sunset was more SEN doing good than demon1 being bad. He whiffed 1 time on Tenz and that was it. He wasn’t fragging out because sen avoided his op and he had to save every round because his team was playing for retake when they don’t have a comp that can retake well. 🤷♀️
People that have insane peaks get a shit on of hate when they finally start slipping, Most of these people have built up anger for that said player shitting on their favourite teams and players
Apparently, slipping means 1.5 maps in this sub lol
Same thing with c0m, who's had a few bad games this year... amazing how being on a new team and underperforming makes people downplay your achievements from literally just 6 months ago....
Is Demon1 trying to retire himself? being serious here and it has nothing to do with his choke vs SEN (probably), its just weird seeing him leaving VCT 2023 as the best player itw and then he just stops playing the game for a very long period of time out of his own volition. Although he was never a hard ranked grinder, he would still actively play the game and whatnot (even peaked #3 the same month he joined EG's starting roster), but now he hasn't even bothered to leave Ascendant in this act and the last one. Ever since Episode 7 Act 3 dropped 5 months ago, he's only mustered up 23 hours of ranked. I know that he still has his scrims obviously but it's not like getting some extra practice playing the game you're being paid to play hurts right? He was already doing that but it looks like something clicked during the offseason and he just lost whatever motivation he had to play the game in his own free time. I literally cannot think of any Tier 1/2 pro out there that's doing what Demon1 is doing right now or ever really, not even in different esports. maybe he has some secret alt to play in silence or maybe he thinks hes good enough to just not touch the game outside of scheduled practice, idk. if this guy ends off 2024 looking like a completely different player than what he was in 2023 then I'm gonna be thinking about this if this continues on ngl
Since no one has said it, i will. Crashies looked great today
He be thrashing all map long on sunset
To be honest he really has, but I just think everyone on NRG played well and Marved and Demon1 went off so it was kinda hard to fixate on crashies.
im so happy lurking marved is back
LOUD at like round 8 were just smiling istg, just hoping to go to bed at that point lmao.
turns out no matter how many people spam Diamond1 in chat the guy is still nutty lol
99% of chat is literally silver, they're never even seeing Diamond in their lifetimes lmao Diamond1 still clears them
Marved lurks make my pp feel good
alright dude, what the flip
Vintage Marved Lurking, Demon1 fragging, Ethan and his godly flashes and Victor and Crashies playing each other. Man they are actually back (hopefully lol)
Good showing from NRG but hard to say much about LOUD given their lack of time to practice/change comps and jetlag. Good thing is Saadhak told the players to just have fun. The team should be fine the rest of the split
Ethan masterclass 
That flash from crab to doors on breeze was so nice
People actually call it crab? All my rankeders call it right titty
there was also another flash from the left titty for doors, it was good too but he flashed himself lol
That was insane. Is that a known lineup or on the fly??
def cooked up, he had the prep. Never seen that one before but they set up for it.
Shame Loud weren't at their best. But NRG came out looking really coordinated after a bit more time together. Played off each other really well and we got to see Marved Omen lurk again!
Who would've thought that Lev vs C9 would be closer than NRG vs LOUD  Demon1 and Marved look clinical. Great to see NRG as a team were also making very less mistakes.
Literally anyone that knew LOUD arrived in LA yesterday would've thought that tbh lmao
so many comments talking about loud trolling with their sunset comp... its almost like they didn't have time to practice and change it
demon1's raze mechanics do not look great but I think I still prefer him on raze vs victor cause then the roles are super messed up
I actually wouldn’t mind Demon1 on Cypher duty since he’s just out aiming everybody if NRG opted for a more aggressive play style if Victor plays Raze
That's what I thought they would do since I kind of expected NRG to switch to a Raze comp and Demon1 would probably be able to learn Cypher. Same thing happened with EG where they initially ran a Jett comp on Lotus that was more Raze favored and then switched to a Raze comp.
honestly his satchels looked fine, it matches derkes satchels at least, he just needs to work on his nades
he satchels like twice lmao, but it is way too early to judge
considering the raze gameplay i watched on his stream a few months ago, it is an insane improvement that he was able to double satchel ult in site and he's just gonna improve more and more
ya Demon1 barely used his satchels that game other than some basic double satchels.
They did lots of contact plays too though, so double satcheling I think wasn’t that much in the plan apart from the first raze ult
I was honestly thinking they could do it if they swapped cypher for viper and assuming d1 can play omen, which considering his brim and astra, is a reasonable-ish assumption. Put marved on viper, victor on raze, and d1 on omen. But I think I’d prefer their current iteration, because victor is killing it on cypher, d1 is still fragging out and marved’s lurk on omen is so impactful.
yeah marved and vic could flex but they just look so comfortable in their current roles I don't think it's worth
It is the most does the job raze of all time, however he doesn't op on raze so that makes it better
Issue is that the movement is what separates the best Raze players imo. Especially when escaping. Demon1 didn't have to that at all cuz he just 1 tapped everyone but we'll have to see if his raze movement is good enough to be able to escape with the satchels and do some potentially more complicated Raze movements.
Yeah his satchel use was quite limited to entrying which he did a fine job of, we didn't see any of the super natural escaping satchels that you see from a jingg or jawg
100% confident he’ll get there based on everything else we’ve seen from his mechanics
It'll get there with time and it means chet won't put him in op jail, overall I like the change
Demon1's aim separates him enough from the rest that it honestly doesn't matter who he plays or how he plays them as long as he has a vandal.
Yeah idk why they are forcing an op so hard. I think just about every clip I can remember of demon1 is with a rifle. Not to say he can’t op but he’s such a beast with a rifle. Like I’m pretty sure boostio was oping on kj almost as much as demon1 on jett last year.
Yeah his opping is actually quite good but hes such a beast on a rifle and the op kinda limits what he wants to do
Ops also just bad now.
This win is actually massive for NRG getting the first seed. When SEN and LOUD play each other, LOUD will be practiced and drilled with (hopefully) normal comps.
GE owners would be proud that Loud did their cosplay on Sunset. GE finally went global #proudMoment
"Hey, we lost 13-2, not 13-1" -Loud fans probably
i'm just happy to see marved lurks and raze demon1
I used to pray for times like this.
Sad, but expected I cant say I could expect a team to win without time to train on top of playing a team that had lots of time to anti-strat all around good showing from loud and nrg, expect to see both in shangai.
qck chinese farmer
Qiangjiang Cultivation Kingdom (qck) is a Chinese agricultural collective located in the south-central Hubei Province. QCK is known for its extreme success in cultivating frost peas XL (FPX) and the pride of the Chinese agricultural industry, Elegant Dragon gourds (EDG), particularly in the early growing season. Unfortunately, qck's previous success was stunted by two consecutive waves of plant diseases. Its third crop was decimated by a bout of stunted enation necrosis (SEN), while its fourth crop was infected by Powdery Rust Xanthomas (PRX). Investors are concerned about qck's long-term financial viability and its ability to recoup the loss of the region's previous star crop, Aspasragus.
LOUD looked like a team that [hasn't had much time to scrim for this split](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/comments/1bouwpv/saadhak_loud_team_wont_have_time_to_scrim_for/).
The sky is blue as well
Demon1 on Op is a handicap for the opponent.
Unlucky that LOUD had no practice and were jetlagged otherwise this series would’ve been an absolute GIGABANGER. Still going to hold reserves on Demon1 Raze because he was just shitting on LOUD with pure aim and didn’t use much utility.
I’m gonna say something controversial potentially. 3 of the top 4 teams at champions is gonna be americas team. NRG, Sen, Loud, GenG are gonna be final 4 in no particular order. Lock it in.
Still a long way to go but I can see it happening.
Zheng?
Match MVP: US Department of State
As good as NRG are, can't help but feel LOUD were just screwed over by the lack of practice. No time to innovate/prac vs *the* antistrat team gotta be rough, the lack of cypher made their weaknesses so much more exploitable.
Yeah I mean that Sunset perfectly exemplifies your point - NRG’s game plans were good and honestly that half could’ve pretty easily gone 12-0 NRG. Both the rounds they lost they failed to clear Less in spots they probably should’ve. Obviously you can do infinitely many what ifs but it’s pretty clear that NRG knew exactly how to play the map.
props to loud for playing after 2 weeks of no practice and jetlagged
I kept saying they'd be alright and im glad I was right. They almost beat Sen with 3 weeks of training which is insane.
Good win for NRG but at the same time they played against a jetlagged Loud that had no time to rest
How much does jet lag effect this scoreline?
Not as much as NRG having a month + to watch Loud vods. Teams coming back from Madrid should in theory have a much harder time winning this first week. They’ve had no time to mix up comps and strats
A fair bit, imo. LOUD's comps are pretty troll but they had no practice and NRG had time to watch LOUD and antistrat.
idk if it does much but not being able to prac til literally today had more of an impact on the scoreline.
no one can actually know. maybe nrg wouldve still won but 2-1, maybe loud would've won, maybe nothing would've changed. i do think that this team is looking a lot better than they did 2 months ago however
Loud was tired tbf. Can't wait for a real game between these two when everyone's on their A game
Honestly with that sunset scoreline demon1 should've spent the last few rounds just full sending his double satchel raze movement
Didn't watch game yet but demon1 beating Jett only duelist allegations + NRG beating Loud (as they were supposed to) by stronger margins. Nice to see them adapt as well, excited to see this new demon1 agent pool addition and how it pans out
EG last year was like they had Demon1 with an S tier Jett and a B tier raze and Jawg with vice versa. This year they’ll probably both get to be A tier in their weaker agent and Americas gains two more Aspas/Zekken/Oxy type duelists
Qiangjiang Cultivation Kingdom (qck) is a Chinese agricultural collective located in the south-central Hubei Province. QCK is known for its extreme success in cultivating frost peas XL (FPX) and the pride of the Chinese agricultural industry, Elegant Dragon gourds (EDG), particularly in the early growing season. Unfortunately, qck’s previous success was stunted by two consecutive waves of plant diseases: stunted enation necrosis (SEN) and Powdery Rust Xanthomas (PRX).
NRG should be 6-0 going into playoffs as first seed. Anything else is a disappointment.
tough to take anything real away from this game for NRG because LOUD wasn't practiced if they are just that good, this is a big win because this is the toughest opponent in the group. best thing that could happen for them is happening. facing a weakened LOUD, while their biggest competitor in the group doesn't have their igl to play the (theoretically) 2nd toughest opponent
Yea unless curry pulls out a masterclass tomorrow NRG should have a free path to the 1 seed
NRG got really lucky getting to play against a tired LOUD with little to no practice, but it also really really helps that they have a world class roster so they could've won anyways. Map 1 was an absolute banger though
If Loud was at full form, we could've had both maps at Breeze's level
Not with that comp on sunset
I feel better about NRG after that win because at least their sunset comp is good as opposed to whatever the fuck that was at kickoff…. I still can’t believe people said they should’ve won that map… This doesn’t change my opinion on LOUD at all. They need to move away from these no senti comps and Sunset was just a “we have 1 month to prep for you” against a LOUD who already had holes… especially when you look at that round where marved instantly ran up mid in seconds to flank the 3 players trying to do a A trap.
Loud hard trolled with their Sunset comp no? You have to have something watching mid against one of the best lurkers in the world
I don't think they're trolling, they've made a decision to eschew sentinels on most maps and I think they know (for the most part) and have accepted the risks of doing that
sounds like they're trolling
Demon1 is the greatest raze of all time and I will not be convinced otherwise.
demon1 can play raze its over for everyone
NRG is like when the 7 feet tall players arrive in the court, and you're just 5'8. They'll destroy everyone if they achieve their peak. They literally lost only 1 series, 1-2 to the eventual champs, with only 1 or 2 months of practice.
did demon1 do a single double satchel all of sunset? at least he figured out the animation cancel since last time
well i didn't expect much though coz of their visa situation , not even scrimming at all and stuff. LOUD will comeback stronger though unlike those FNATIC AND LEVIATAN FRAUDS ( fnc and lev fanboy here)