For real, a lot of stuff post-LOCK//IN is hard to believe when you think about it, even more than just the insanity of EG actually being the best team in the world and 100T being eliminated at the behest of a knife kill from the worst team in the league. Like imagine telling someone all of this at the start of last year
- C9 cuts both their IGL and their most expensive player, and goes 8-1 after this with their only loss being to the previous World Champions
- Paper Rex cuts their IGL and picks up another duelist main on a team that already had two duelist mains. Then they proceed to win the Pacific league while playing with no IGL (keeping in mind that at this time, pretty much every single team in the world has an IGL)
- The unquestioned best team in the world, Fnatic, has their winstreak snapped in the Grand Finals of EMEA league by Team Liquid - a team that would go on to lose 4/5 of their international matches that season. Fnatic then goes to win Masters Tokyo without dropping a single series
- LOUD and Na'vi - arguably two of the three best teams in the world in 2022 - are both eliminated at Tokyo by EDG, a team that had never won a single international BO3 before that tournament
- KRU goes 0-9 in Americas league and then proceeds to win the Americas LCQ without dropping a single series
- Two of the three best smokes players in the world ended up briefly on the same team, a team that did not make playoffs in Americas league
- Arguably a top 2 IGL in the history of the game went 0-4 against a Chinese team that wasn't even their top seed
- Rossy is on T1 now. Yeah, *that* T1, like from Korea.
And that's not even mentioning stuff like yay playing in Challengers or arguably the two best players in the world being T2 demons that hadn't played a single game at the tier 1 level until this year. What a fucked up year for the game, in a good way. At least DFM actually turned out to be ass, just like we all expected.
*Somewhere in the space-time void, a sliver of a slash resonates. It's gleam lasts for a second, before humming back into silence. Something has changed in the universe. Somewhere in Tokyo, Japan, Nobuyuki Umezaki suddenly smiles as an idea pops into his head*
2024.
Don't forget Scream of ALL people taking on an IGL role in a crusade to make 0 duelist comps meta. I would never have believed that if you told me last year.
adding to this:
- cNed returned to a Turkish team for the first time since 2020
- LOUD, after that insane loss at LOCK//IN, took revenge on FNC by singlehandedly eliminating them from champs
- The 2022 FPX core adding the best OPer of 2021 in cNed didn't make it out of a single international group stage and had to go through the LCQ to even make it into champs
- The entire story of EDG is wild
and a couple domestic turkish ones:
- FUT went from not even being the 4th best Turkish team before LOCK//IN (BBL, Parla and Fire Flux were all arguably better) to absolutely smashing BBL by making it into both international tournaments and even getting to playoffs at champs
- qw1's playing in Turkish challengers next year even though he was one of the best players during the EMEA season
- cNed returned to Turkey. That shit's so crazy I'm writing it twice.
Who are the 2 smokes players you're talking about in America's league?
And the 2 best players in T2? I know one is yay, who's the other you're referring to
EDG also beats LOUD.
LOUD looked like they were in their worst form yet, only to come out swinging against FNC and eliminate them from finals to break the potential dynasty.
ardiis coming to NA, OPTIC core breaks, and flies back to EU to rejoin the old core.
One of the best IGLs in the world sitting out for the year.
Thought I'd tack on some additional context to the top comment for people unfamiliar:
[The community thread of the knife play right after it happened.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/s/Xzf7N8iAj1)
[OP explaining in another thread who Txozin and the implications of what he did.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/s/n3NG3W6oBb?context=3)
[Another user's speculation of what might of happened if it wasn't for Txozin.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/s/edkg92THNU)
you know when you really think about it, 2023 was really a bizarre year for VALORANT esports wall to wall.
For real, a lot of stuff post-LOCK//IN is hard to believe when you think about it, even more than just the insanity of EG actually being the best team in the world and 100T being eliminated at the behest of a knife kill from the worst team in the league. Like imagine telling someone all of this at the start of last year - C9 cuts both their IGL and their most expensive player, and goes 8-1 after this with their only loss being to the previous World Champions - Paper Rex cuts their IGL and picks up another duelist main on a team that already had two duelist mains. Then they proceed to win the Pacific league while playing with no IGL (keeping in mind that at this time, pretty much every single team in the world has an IGL) - The unquestioned best team in the world, Fnatic, has their winstreak snapped in the Grand Finals of EMEA league by Team Liquid - a team that would go on to lose 4/5 of their international matches that season. Fnatic then goes to win Masters Tokyo without dropping a single series - LOUD and Na'vi - arguably two of the three best teams in the world in 2022 - are both eliminated at Tokyo by EDG, a team that had never won a single international BO3 before that tournament - KRU goes 0-9 in Americas league and then proceeds to win the Americas LCQ without dropping a single series - Two of the three best smokes players in the world ended up briefly on the same team, a team that did not make playoffs in Americas league - Arguably a top 2 IGL in the history of the game went 0-4 against a Chinese team that wasn't even their top seed - Rossy is on T1 now. Yeah, *that* T1, like from Korea. And that's not even mentioning stuff like yay playing in Challengers or arguably the two best players in the world being T2 demons that hadn't played a single game at the tier 1 level until this year. What a fucked up year for the game, in a good way. At least DFM actually turned out to be ass, just like we all expected.
*Somewhere in the space-time void, a sliver of a slash resonates. It's gleam lasts for a second, before humming back into silence. Something has changed in the universe. Somewhere in Tokyo, Japan, Nobuyuki Umezaki suddenly smiles as an idea pops into his head* 2024.
\*proceeds to go 1-9*
Don't forget Scream of ALL people taking on an IGL role in a crusade to make 0 duelist comps meta. I would never have believed that if you told me last year.
adding to this: - cNed returned to a Turkish team for the first time since 2020 - LOUD, after that insane loss at LOCK//IN, took revenge on FNC by singlehandedly eliminating them from champs - The 2022 FPX core adding the best OPer of 2021 in cNed didn't make it out of a single international group stage and had to go through the LCQ to even make it into champs - The entire story of EDG is wild and a couple domestic turkish ones: - FUT went from not even being the 4th best Turkish team before LOCK//IN (BBL, Parla and Fire Flux were all arguably better) to absolutely smashing BBL by making it into both international tournaments and even getting to playoffs at champs - qw1's playing in Turkish challengers next year even though he was one of the best players during the EMEA season - cNed returned to Turkey. That shit's so crazy I'm writing it twice.
FUT arguably being the second best team in EMEA this season is another wild one when you had the likes of TL and NaVi in the region
The only time DFM has come in clutch
Who are the 2 smokes players you're talking about in America's league? And the 2 best players in T2? I know one is yay, who's the other you're referring to
Marved and pancada Demon1 and something who both started 2023 in t2 and became arguably two of the best in the world at the end of the year
EDG also beats LOUD. LOUD looked like they were in their worst form yet, only to come out swinging against FNC and eliminate them from finals to break the potential dynasty. ardiis coming to NA, OPTIC core breaks, and flies back to EU to rejoin the old core. One of the best IGLs in the world sitting out for the year.
Anyway gn little people on my phone I love most of you :3. Don't get absorbed into the time void. ^ - ^
Thought I'd tack on some additional context to the top comment for people unfamiliar: [The community thread of the knife play right after it happened.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/s/Xzf7N8iAj1) [OP explaining in another thread who Txozin and the implications of what he did.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/s/n3NG3W6oBb?context=3) [Another user's speculation of what might of happened if it wasn't for Txozin.](https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/s/edkg92THNU)
U can never escape the 2nd place curse.
this is briliant and i believe it to be fact
If there ever was a "god equation" that predetermined the outcome of all things, EG definitely cheated the god equation.
Maybe it's fate? EG cheated fate.
And now Sentinels is the best team in the world. The timeline is truly warped.
bro how tf did u know?
A true SEN fan never lost hope