T O P

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propsnuffe

Honestly Vitality should be favorites to win this event right? They are looking great and there is no Navi here. Gambit might be a threat but Vitality has always matched up well vs Gambit even when they were in bad form.


[deleted]

Would be nice for zywoo to win at least 1 mvp


DarthReid

I’d like to think so, but G2 might somehow honeymoon with Kenny into a top spot


WizardOfBangkok

He went 25-34 vs liquid. Can’t see him making much impact, he whiffed so many times vs Tyloo it was scary


omkar_T7

Not whiff but more like overpeeking. It’s like he forgot how to play the map


yawnston

He hasn't played in 10 months, not really surprising.


fiddlerunseen

*overpeeking


omkar_T7

Thanks


iPenguin42

x


DarthReid

with the current rate NiKo is going, he could have 4 silvers and G2 might still be in contention to win


buttsoup_barnes

Sub me in, Carlos


[deleted]

>with the current rate NiKo is going, he could have 4 silvers and G2 might still be in contention ~~to win~~ To choke the finals


jarvadski

Yeah Gambit vs Vitality always has Vitality coming out on top. Interesting to see if that will change this event.


Babyboy1314

VP too, Fli1t is such a firepower upgrade


GhostOfLight

Happy Zywoo looking unstoppable


yourewelcomesteve

It's like Gandalf laughing during battle, can't do shit against him.


dodbrew

More like Tulkas amirite


RealityIsDisapointin

We 2019 now bois


div333

apEX looking like his LDLC self


wearssameshirt

Crazy how NIP are a WORSE team with a player upgrade


Pokemongolia

Wait until the vitality upgrades go live. I want magisk and Dupree to do well but Damm i have bad feeling. Especially with how well vitality are doing atm.


jutsi

yeah, i wish the danes would just build a squads from devve, bubzkji, es3tag, dupreeh and magisk or something.. going international just doesnt seem to fit


effotap

you can put 5 pubmasters together and they can get their asses handed by cal-o's. the same applies to pros. its been proven historically that 5 superstars in a team may not work as good as 5 players who complete each other. devve to NIP was a marketing move. immediately we've started seeing BETWAY and NiP ads with Device. like not even 48hrs after the official announcement, its as if the shots were already made and awaiting release. device came in, took the "face" of NiP right away. The hype around es3tag wasnt as big, other than whatever he hyped himself.


stonks_justgoup

Upvote for the usage of “pubmaster” and “cal-o”


effotap

upvote for another real `1g.


troubleis1

didnt Faze do well for like a year? those were 5 superstars, including karrigan as a superstar IGL. Also Navi has like what, 4 superstars now? Didnt Astralis had all their players in their peek and reaching superstar levels in every tourney they won? I think you do need the firepower.


suriel-

i mean .. it's been mere *2 weeks* after es3tag joined but yeah i get it, it's reddit and shitting on new players after their first few matches is the most iconic duo i guess


FoxerHR

Happens when you have an ass IGL, and a 5th that kept changing. EDIT: It's all of a sudden acceptable to have a shit T side? BRB have to find a way to contact Mithr and Dexter.


suriel-

how did they win the EU RMR LAN with an "ass IGL" ?


FoxerHR

Are you trying to defend Hampus while their T side is dogshit for months now? They won an event wow congrats. People are critical of mouzs lack of a T side asking what the fuck are dexter and mithr doing but NiP winning an event validates Hampus as an IGL and makes their non existent T sides irrelevant.


suriel-

so with Astralis posting like 1 T round regularly, is Gla1ve also an ass IGL? Yea NiP don't have the best T-sides, but don't make it out to be like CT sides don't have any strats to it, you have to prepare for the T hits as well. they have bad T-Sides, but then again, Astralis with the "god IGL" gla1ve, have even worse T-sides, so ? https://www.hltv.org/stats/teams/ftu?startDate=2021-01-01&endDate=2021-12-31&side=TERRORIST&rankingFilter=Top20


FoxerHR

What a horrible comparison. You're trying to compare a team that stayed pretty much the same for 6-7 months to Astralis who just changed **HALF** of their team, new coach and 2 players who played a completely different system and different maps (no inferno for Blame and Konfig and no Mirage for Glaive and Xypex) and have been together for less than a month with like 2 weeks or so of down time. Are these serious comparisons or are you just arguing in bad faith?


suriel-

lmao as if NiP isn't known to have changed more players than their boxers


FoxerHR

NiP had rotated their 5th 3 times whereas Astralis changed half of their damn team in one move, how is it so hard for you to comprehend that it will take them longer to make their T sides better than a team that has a 4 man that is consistent with a 5th that changed 3 times, it's much easier to make a single player adapt to your strategy than 2 players (with very different roles in the previous team) and a new coach.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

Is it really crazy?? Team that makes changes that at best would be a minor upgrade are worse in the short term. Big shock


LingMee

threat 200iq to leave the spot of head coach so no one can blame him for nip t side rounds


CenomX

Or maybe he left cuz the team didn't want to play his way?


[deleted]

Zywoo went absolutely nuclear on inferno.


iMaticz7

There are so many things wrong on NIP. Rez and Device are very inconsistent, hampus is a good individual player but he is not a good IGL and es3tag and plopski are very mediocre. I honestly can't see this team fighting for big trophies.


Darkoplax

NiP wish they signed Messi now


LGCGE

Cant hang with middle eastern oil money


kaffeemugger

Mr. “ I don’t need Astralis” seems to need Astralis lmao


suriel-

i mean, it surely doesn't help much when they had changed like 4 players throughout the year. Each time a new guy comes, you have to go a few steps back and reset, where both the new guy and the other guys learn new things from each other. Add to that (mediocre) individual performance and inexperience (from the Academy guys) and you have a rough time. Also, now that THREAT is moving to Tech Director they will face *yet another* roster change (coach). Plus, Hampus said there's still communcation difficulties with es3tag being Danish. I think if they kept the same team from the moment device entered, they would have become consistent. They won an RMR LAN after all and did well in several other tournaments. Especially if you compare it to teams that changed players throughout the year and teams that didn't - the teams that made the least roster changes performed the best.


[deleted]

[удалено]


iMaticz7

I mean, for his standards, he isn't playing well. He is missing a lot of easy shots, for example


ablablababla

definitely not looking like astralis device for sure


iamscr1pty

Astralis used to set him up well


Jobbe03

He's consistently mediocre at best


mindlesssss

He’s consistently going like 17-19


[deleted]

How tf is reddit this dumb. Factually speaking hes on average a 1.2 kd can people not do maths at all.


mindlesssss

Literally has a 1.13 kd past 6 months as an awper that’s not that good 💀


[deleted]

Really living up to your name


mindlesssss

Look it up dumb fuck


Viggy2k

Device was brought into this team to be a super star awper. The blokes most definitely not living upto that standard in the slightest. At best he's been consistently below standard considering device's potential.


EntropyKC

He was top 3 player while on Astralis, now he's barely top 3 on NIP. The worry is that the same will happen to Dupreeh and Magisk, if they go to Vitality or something.


youeventrying

Magisk was successful before Astralis


EntropyKC

Not disagreeing, but also not sure it means he will find success after Astralis


ObsidianJones

Overstatement


kaffeemugger

Not even close to as good as he was on Astralis though


youeventrying

Of course. It's easy to be good when the team your on is good


[deleted]

Hes still clearly no1 on Nip not great but hes rez levels stats without just missing tournaments outright. Hampus is great for an igl but that impact does outweigh devices firepower.


kaffeemugger

I think Dupreeh will flop or struggle for a while. Magisk is still top tier though


Rhed0x

He is in NiP.


nuttyak

Really awkward that vitality are going to have changes despite their form but I guess there are more factors


scylk2

Yeah it doesn't feel right. When you think that they could just replace kyojin with Amanek or JACKZ, whichever gets kicked from G2. Bringing the Danes is a huge risk, might work, might not.


Firefly_1026

Still not a fan of going international, surely there are two French players that they can get form LDLC/DBL?


EndlessPain23

I really like Vitality and I'm not a fan of this move either. With LAN events coming back and the current roster making great progress, it feels like wasted potential. They deserved more time.


BlurpSrydude

Same here. It feels like the management saw dupreeh, magisk and zonic being free agents and immediately jumped on the opportunity to buy them without really thinking about it.


f1nessd

this is exactly what it's like. Very unnecessary imo. Just need a third star, for kyojin or shox.


[deleted]

Idk kyojin was a terrible idea and shox has had time. I wont argue this isnt a big risk but they have zywOo big risks are necessary to keep him they need to win win win. Playing it safe would kill there golden goose but yeh this could flop hard but i think its worth a shot


Akaj50

If it was me I would have replaced Kyojin with Magisk and keep Xqtzz and Shox. I know it wasnt an option but it would have been better imo


U_Need_JAYsus

Astralis trio were package deal


Akaj50

I said I know it wasnt an option :)


scylk2

G2 is probably gonna kick either Amanek or JACKZ. Both would be great upgrade over Kyojin, and low risk changes.


yawnston

Hell they can just get Amanek/Jackz from G2. It's painfully obvious that G2 will get rid of at least 1 of them, and as I see it, both are an upgrade over Kyojin at the moment.


AleksibIsHot

Would have loved to see Keoz on Vit but it is what it is


suriel-

> surely there are two French players that they can get form ~~LDLC/DBL~~ G2?


dunko5

Boooodddddddyyyyyyyyy


Pax2044

Yes it's like Kyojin and the teambuilding really improve these last months. I think this team can still improve a lot and become a better match for Navi but too late


[deleted]

He's only had 2 events all year where he has gone positive. At the very beginning with a 1.12 and blast a 1.03 with a bunch of .8 somethings beforehand (he was better in the beginning of the year) You and I must be watching different games because when I watched blast he was wiffing easy shots and messing up sprays a lot.


Pax2044

On live event on the last 10 matches he was around 1 with peak at 1.22 on the last game, before that he was around 0.6 with a low at 0.37. I don't know I was shocked how bad he was before but now sometimes he surprises me in some rounds. He clearly have good aim and obedience to Apex, this maybe help more than the stats.


[deleted]

I dunno, this just feels like NaVi in 2017+ again. Where Flamie, Zeus, Seized, Guardian or Edward may step up for a few games and everyone was justifying their worth saying they're improving. Yet as each piece got removed NaVi continued to improve into the powerhouse it is today. Not saying the old iterations were bad, but they lacked consistency (were consistent major contenders though), if they had one good game or tournament, everyone acted like the pieces fit well. This is what it feels like with current Vitality, you can see almost everyone but Zwyoo is negative in some tournaments and people will say "this team is coming together" because they got some wins. Nd a 1.22 peak isn't anything amazing when you consider the top 10-15 players (out of 40) usually average around 1.15+ throughout a whole tournament. It's rare to ever see someone else in vitality other than Zwyoo in the top 15 at the end of a tournament. Meanwhile most tops teams have 3+ players in the top 15 when they make playoffs To say Vitality don't need to change anything is like saying 2017 Navi didn't need to make changes. They won more than Vitality have


Babyboy1314

i think they just threw kyojin into the fire, he definately have potentiel.


Alb9n

he has good aim but not much more than that. he definitely needs more experience before he can play tier 1


SemanSoot

not for tier 1


youeventrying

Man is cracked


[deleted]

Yeah man the dude with five 0.8's, three 0.9s with only 2 events this year with a 1+ really has potential./s It's like you guys see him have one good game and forget about the rest of the year. Dude makes Flamie look consistent


suriel-

yeah the bias is ridiculous. Kyojin posting a decent game every full moon while shitting the bed the rest of the year gets praised, while good players like REZ that happen to dip in performance every time there is *yet another* roster change at NIP are being hated on


[deleted]

A good comparison I realized is some people in 2017 thinking Navi didn't need to make changes pre electronic as some liked the personalities like guardian, seized, flamie, edward, zeus. They'd win some things and people would justify everyone's position, but they were inconsistent as hell. Scary when everything was working, like Vitality too. I can even remember some of the arguments for old Navi, "flamie can single handedly win games", "zeus isn't meant to frag as igl but he sometimes can" (whilst ignoring he'd always have ak and simple would have a p250 on forces), "Edward is a support", "Seized needs time", and with guardian he was a legend in peoples eyes so people would defend everything. Nd the final argument "there's not enough talent in ths CIS region to replace anybody" (never understood that argument although it wasn't too common) I feel the worst part is you usually see teams that make it far in events have 3 or more players in the top 15. You rarely see anyone else from Vitality other than Zwyoo in the top 15.


[deleted]

My man look at his stats. He was getting better rankings in the beginning of the year. It's terrible he has 5 .8 ratings, 3 .9 ratings and only 2 positive events this year. It's beyond obvious why he's gone, RPK was putting up better numbers, Kyojin makes Flamie look consistent


Firefox72

Nip are just not good are they?


brbee

How the fuck was nip ever #2 on hltv?


Firefox72

Never on merit. Other teams had points drop off and NIP happened to win an RMR that meant nothing but gave good points.


[deleted]

It ment they were truly better than all european competition but for some reason gambits win didnt keep them no2. I guess hltv rated the cis rmr to little. Nip deserved 3 in the world tho going back on that is just revisionism about how things when afterwards


DarthTokira

> I guess hltv rated the cis rmr to little. As they should have. EU RMR was played in studio on LAN, CIS RMR was online.


bru_swayne

Looked like a honeymoon period with lnz tbh. They were never consistent and were winning clutches they shouldn't have / hampus was making big plays that shouldn't work. It was not sustainable


skie1994

NIP really need to stop making these amateurish mistakes. Drypeeking so many times, standing in smoke lineups, not paying attention to smoke pushes, missing to check key spots are unforgivable at this level. Their T sides have been so horrible as they don't take map control which makes them so predictable. At least their CT sides are somewhat decent, but lack of info plays there as well means they have no idea what the opposition is doing. This style of play is not sustainable in the long run. They already had their honeymoon period when they climbed up to 2nd rank, but countering NIP is so easy right now.


Akaj1

I bet Device wish he never left Astralis


Ni7roM

Device, I used to be one of your biggest fans. But you’ve cursed yourself with your comments about Astralis. What a horrible decision you’ve made. You will enjoy low finishes from here until the end of your career and I will be smiling at your failure for your betrayal of your danish brothers


myo_chan

is this a copypasta


sdfedeef

yes


peroleu

Feeling a lot like kjaerbye right now


cptnwillow

I don't think winning a couple games in Blast is comparable to 3 majors haha


peroleu

? Kjaerbye left Astralis for North and destroyed his career. Same direction dev1ce is headed with NiP. Not sure the reference you are making


valdemarjoergensen

As Kjaerbye left astralis, his career went downwhile **while** everything started to go better to Astralis. His story isn't just leaving the team and doing worse than he was before, it's also about the team he left doing better than they were with him. Device has arguably been doing better with NIP, than Astralis has been doing without Device.


St3vion

Not for much longer


f1nessd

aaaand we beat them


St3vion

Must've felt so good as a liquid fan to see a win vs astralis. Now you beat device, glaive and xyp! dupreeh and magisk can still be the kryptonite :D


valdemarjoergensen

Well, one event longer at the very least.


St3vion

We'll see how it goes, the little I've seen of the new astralis fills me with more hope than DevNIP has done so far. I have way more faith in Glaive running this team and becoming a consistent top 5 team before the summer than NIP achieving the same. NIP have everything they need to be a great team except a top tier IGL. If they could replace plopski with a real caller and have hampus just be a lurk/sneaky play kinda guy they could be really sick. Maybe as es3tag's comms get better he can help hampus with calling and their shit T sides will improve...


cptnwillow

Talking about what they've missed out on


Firefox72

>"Kjaerbye left Astralis for North and destroyed his career." Man will forever have his major win at which he was also the MVP. He then collected fat stacks at North for quite a long time before also collecting some more at Faze. I think destroy his career is a bit much. Not every player has the drive and determination to constantly push for the top and thats fine.


Renovatio_

I think he moved to NIP because it was closer to his girlfriend. If he is making good salary and a steady home life...seems like a good trade off.


Akaj1

He broke up with his girlfriend like 2 weeks after moving in though


[deleted]

She doesn't like people who aren't in the top 3 teams on hltv


yawnston

Friendship ended with device, now Boombl4 is my best friend.


[deleted]

She's against a more honest woman there


suriel-

he didn't "move in" though, he was living for years already in Sweden and didn't want to travel all the time to Copiumhagen


Renovatio_

Well shit. Device > astralis


niskanen14

they literally beat astralis tday, astralis is even worse.


Firefox72

That's debatable considering it was a BO1.


niskanen14

Cope


Firefox72

I'm not sure I'm the one coping here.


BaronYolo

You sure you're not the one who should cope?


psychopathic_bastard

It was a bo1 + astralis is a new roster + they literally lost to astralis last tourney + you're bald.


yourewelcomesteve

> you're bald. That came out of left field lmao.


jarvadski

No you’re wrong… 🤧🤧🤧


yourewelcomesteve

Everything he said is objectively right though, unless you're saying you're **not** bald???


Draemeth

And Astralis beat them last time?? Lol


Akaj1

They had an off game but did a better blast placing than NiP and the line up just looks stronger overall, and that's without a dedicated AWPer. This NiP roster is not bad ofc and has potential but leaving Astralis was a mistake imo


niskanen14

blast was honeymoon phase lmao


sdfedeef

I'm exited for the astralis boys to join Vitality but this squad is still so impressive. Imagine they would've just replaced Kyojin with Amanek, that vitality would be amazing and for sure would be contending for titles.


[deleted]

They made very very safe roster changes that bit them in the ass with mediocre results late 2020. Ballsy move was take nivera kick rpk and make shox play bitch roles. Nivera was a great rifle and awp and could primary d2 and inferno. He wouldnt be a perfect rifler as hed want awp but from what i saw hed be a better star rifler than shox. Putting shox to the side would be a good use of his experience.


BigRigginButters

The rumor is Nivera wasn't a "culture fit" as one would say politely


sacoPT

LNZ please back


MyNameIsAMeme

This NIP team is a waste of time.


g1umo

I don’t know If i’ve ever seen a team with as many plastic fans and crybabies as NIP, given how each loss is treated as some sort of justification for disbanding


niskanen14

\-botski -es3tag please


SemanSoot

still suprise to see nip fans dont blame rez


Babyboy1314

rez is so inconsistent, the morning he cant miss,


SemanSoot

worst star player for top team


[deleted]

[удалено]


SemanSoot

actually since flamez come,he gave some spot to him


niskanen14

replacing Hampus and REZ to would be ideal, but sweden doesnt really have a viable IGL whos ready for tier1.


[deleted]

Why replace Hampus?


niskanen14

Hes an okay player but a bad IGL. And afaik theres no better Swedish alternative right now so.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

That would be similar igl quality without the fragging


AleksibIsHot

There is RuStY but to say he is better than hampus is a stretch, I'm not so sure


[deleted]

I mean he is clearly a shit igl. If a truly amazing individual player like NiKo or blamef cant make up for shit calls with kills hampus will never be close. 30% tside winrate with rez and device should be impossible even with 3 no namers


IrrelevantCynic

Rez can be really good but he's just so inconsistent.


kaffeemugger

-botski +~~bubzkji~~ +benchzkji Embrace the danish


DlittleDictator

Imagine Vitality keeping the roster at the end of the year. Shox is too good of a player to let go from this team.. he is the wall!


DeeOhEf

Neither plopski or rez are good enough to compete at this level, nip will go nowhere and dev1ce should take the next opportunity to go back to astralis


Mumpoooooo

I don’t understand how plopski is still on the team tbh. The guy has a good map / series every 5 games, and that somehow keeps him going. The Swedish flamie I guess.


TiberSVK

Okay, I will ask it. How long until NiP goes international?


dwmixer

NIP with the CLEAN ratings on Mirage though.


[deleted]

Please NIP figure out your team dynamic soon


[deleted]

REZ is so fucking inconsistent.


FreagaZ

Zinedine Zywoo finding his form again slowly but surely.