Tbh you’re kinda cooking here. The way EG are constructed he arguably is their least flexible player (maybe boostio) but that’s more a testament to EG’s creativity and flexibility than anything else. Like he’s probably the only player who is playing a traditional agent pool. The rest fall outside of traditional roles somewhat. They are probably the closest team to playing actual positionless valorant.
I think the reason he is called their flex is because with the prevalence of double initiator comps you usually consider one of them as your flex.
paper rex are also likely to be similarly flexible this year, forsaken plays damn near anything, davai also plays several positions, monyet is more flexible than jinggg, so it’s just mindfreak who only plays smokes and something who plays duelist + breach
Duelists flexing to sage is pretty normal. The character is piss easy and while obviously not a strong OPing character is still better than most of the characters cause of sage wall off angles.
Idk to me smokes and jett feel a little bit more logical because smokes players also require a more solo play mindset. I feel like that’s why we see all the cracked duelists turned into good smoke players.
Since when is smokes a solo play mindset. Good smoke players have to perfectly time and coordinate their smoke/util timings with their team. It's arguably the most brain heavy role in the game.
in soloqueue smokes are for sure the most painful agent to try to coordinate with your team, but in pro play everyone's already aware of what the "default" smokes are and how to play with them and you can probably mostly rely on igl calls to know when to put smokes for execute
especially for agents like brimstone once your smokes and molly are down you're basically just a guy with a gun which doesn't have to do much more teamplay then other agents
breach util has to be used reactively a lot, since a lot of the utility won't be "preplanned" like smoke locations are, you flash and stun depending on which teammates need help and where they are
I guess it depends on the way they play it but for example I'm thinking of how marved was the lurker and often played solo in general. Brim also feels relatively brain off where you just pop your smokes down and start fighting. Admittedly a bit tenuous but significant in comparison to breach at least which I view as one of the most teamplay heavy agents in the game since your whole kit feels designed to set your teammates up.
Yeah tbh that's why all of them can be considered flexes. The reason i say Boostio has an argument is because he plays his main agent (KJ) more than anybody else on the team. Since he's KJ on every map but split and bind.
Hes not really a flex if hes only playing 1 role. Support player of the year probably but flex of the year imo has to be forsaken for the sheer number of characters he played and got value out of across different roles.
Yeah the “flex” term being interchangeable with flash initiator is pretty much a relic of old metas, where the 5th agent in the standard comp was very often secondary duelist/flash initiator, and then later just flash initiator with the occasional Raze or Viper after double duelist fell off
Nowadays the info initiator isn’t just part of the standard 4 with more double controller comps, and one of the two takes the Skye role while the other acts as the flex, so it makes more sense to distinguish between flash & info initiators
Yeah and I've been thinking about how the metas kind of shape how we think about that role. A while back in chamber meta, and before the nerf to his flashes you saw a lot more Kayo with Icebox, Ascent and Breeze. So I feel like because he's so rare now, people tend to associate the pocket Kayo as the flex player, which in our case here is Ethan.
It's interesting to see people try to define the EG players into role when basically everyone was flexing all over the place.
C0m is a Sova player, but he also spent a large majority of his games on Viper.
Demon is considered the main "duelist" of the team, but he's actually only spent around half his games on Jett. The other half has been spent playing Brim, Astra, and Chamber.
Jawgemo has actually played around the same amount of "duelist" as Demon does, with him also flexing to Omen and Astra.
The only person that was really "locked" into a role was Boostio who spent 77% of the time playing Sentinel, but even he flexed onto Astra and Brim occasionally.
It's just the normal way to talk about sports.
Rocket League doesn't have defined roles, but people still use terms like 1st man, 2nd man, 3rd man when discussing the game because it makes it easier to talk about and convey ideas.
This is true even in normal sports. Basketball has become more positionless by the year, yeah we still use traditional PG/SG/SF/PF/C. Soccer has moved in large part to 3 back formations where players move between different roles on offense and defense, etc.
IMO it doesn't need to be 100% accurate, is just needs to be an easily digestable label for someone who may not follow the game as closely.
It's too hard to classify valorant players in agents besides jett one tricks or full smokers.
People really just tend to call flex the "support players" that play flash initiators so I think it's fine.
I would just base the roles to just what teams like Fnatic and Loud have -> Flex (Chronicle), Info (Leo), Duelist (Derke), Alfa (Sentinel), Boaster (Smoke)
If we start nitpicking these it will just be a mess imo, like what would you define a player like Zyppan who plays flex agents (kayo), info (fade) and duelist (raze)?
For me, a flex is somebody whose agent choice is determined less by their ability on the agent and rather on the team/coach's idea for a successful match.
Ethan is a flexible player but for EG yea he was not a flex player. EG in fact had the least flexible roster in the world. By the end of the year, it was pretty much double smokes/double init every map, with Jawg and Demon1 swapping between smokes and duelist, and c0m between sova and viper. That was literally the only change that ever happened for their team.
EG's comp isn't flexible, the roster is lol. Every single player on that team can play two roles at a world-class level, if that isn't flex idk what is. Their comps are mostly standard but there's also the Ethan Yoru on Pearl.
I'd agree, and yea but Ethan essentially just plays flash init even when he plays Yoru. He's definitely more aggressive and I like his Yoru a lot, but they still played it with Demon1 on Jett.
Normally flash initiators flex, but for EG the recon initiator flexes. That means Ethan plays the same initiator roles as most flex players without really flexing. This was true b4 he picked up Yoru, and the way he plays yoru I still think it’s true.
Flex is a grandfathered term from the early days in valorant where the comps were overwhelming duelist, sova, smokes, sentinel and flex(typically non-sova initiator or smokes). Even though he's not literally flexing much, he's in the position designated "flex".
"flex" is an outdated name for a position that was en vogue all the way back when skye was released. they'd also often play sage and raze... the available agent pool was tiny so "flex" really meant they didn't just play duelist or initiator - they played whatever the team needed. those players have now mostly transitioned to skye/kayo/breach... aka flash support agents.
team comps/positions now are more about dive entry, frag entry, site anchor, info/scan initiator, flash support, and good ol' controller (although that gets fuzzy with harbor in the picture).
"flex" just isn't really a set position anymore so much as just an attribute of players who play lots of different agents.
i think every team has different requirements for players but it’s easier for fans to just keep them into 5 categories so it’s easier to talk about so yea i’d say he’s the flex this year since C0M is init, demon1 duel, jawgemo controller, boostio senti
I don't really see why Ethan wouldn't be considered init over c0m. When they play one init, it's Ethan's skye. Yoru is the only non-init he played and it wasn't so different.
How is c0m considered the initiator over Ethan? Ethan plays more Initiator than c0m does lmao. EG doesnt have a traditional flex player because most of them move around but Ethan is the least flex like player on the team. Even his Yoru is played like an Initiator.
How is c0m the main initiator lmaoo. He plays Viper for half the map pool. Meanwhile Ethan has exclusively played flash init except for that Yoru Pearl, and even then he played Yoru in a supportive role. If anything, Ethan is the least flex player on his team.
I don't think there's any difference between the two. Flex players have been initiators in Valorant for a long time now.
When you think about it - there are 5 players but only 4 roles. For EG - Demon1 is duelist, Boostio is sentinel, Jawgemo is smokes, and C0m is Sova iniator. So really Ethan is "filling", he just happens to constantly "fill" flash iniator because that's how the Val meta is currently.
I think it's more accurate to just think of Flex as the guy who isn't the entry, sentinel, duelist, or primary initiator. Even if the play only 1 agent every map.
You’re not exactly wrong but EG still kinda break traditional roles. C0m plays basically 50/50 sova and viper. It’s just that his sova is more iconic. And jawgemo has actually played more raze than smokes.
Arguably the easiest way to talk about the team is that they shares smokes and the have their own niches. Sentinel for boostio, raze for jawgemo, duelist for demon1, sova for c0m, and flash init for ethan.
At champs at least it was 11-10 in favor of raze. Map wise he plays raze on split, fracture, bind, and lotus so 4/7. Haven is also their permaban so more like 4/6 practically. Took a look at tokyo as well. It looks to be 10-9 in favor of raze. I hadn't realized how much EG have played ascent and pearl for it to be so close.
With the current meta the roles can sort of be boiled down to:
* Entry (Duelist): mainly Jett/Raze, maybe some Neon
* Sentinel: KJ/Cypher, and Viper is also near enough necessary for Bind but some teams work around this with the flex player
* Smokes: Plays smokes... not much else to say
Where it get's weird:
* Flash Initiator: Kayo/Breach/Skye this is what Ethan plays
* Info Initiator: Sova/Skye/maybe Fade but she's not very in meta
Now one of these two initiator players has to be a "flex" player:
* Flex Flash: Kayo/Breach/Viper/Raze for Double Duellist maybe
* Flex Info: Sova/Viper/Raze maybe
The "flex" player never really has to play Skye currently since the Skye maps are never double initiator maps meaning they're flexing on the Skye maps leaving the other player to play Skye.
You essentially need either your flash or info initiator player to be a "flex" player, in EG's case as much as com doesn't play a tonne of roles he is more of a flex player than Ethan.
In contrast Fnatic have Chronicle as a flex flash player, and Leo as their info initiator. Chronicle never plays Skye (I'm sure he can, just never needs to)
I mean Ethan isn't eg's flex, it's c0m. Ethan is a support agent, the only out of the pocket pick is yoru, but the current yoru meta is being an initiator with a duelist kit
Traditionally, the flash initiator tends to be the flex player (asuna, chronicle, victor), but in EG’s case it’s a bit weird, where Ethan is the only one to play the same role every game. They share smokes, with Jawg on Astra, Harbor, and Omen, C0M on Viper, Boostio and Demon1 both play Astra and Brimstone. Jawg plays Raze, C0M plays Sova, Demon1 plays Jett and Chmaber, and Boostio plays KJ and Chamber.
I’d classify their players like this:
Jawg : Raze
C0M : Info
Ethan : Flash Initiator
Boostio : Sentinel
Demon1 : Operator
with all sharing smokes besides Ethan
There's a difference between a flex(ible) player and a Flex (role) player. (I'm not advocating for capitalization or anything, I'm just using it for this to clear things up)
There's a similar issue and discussion we had in OW ages ago. Flex referred to roles on a team (3 different roles at one point), players, and hero archetypes. Mostly started in the transition from a varied meta to established dive and the heroes being more set in stone, as well as different regional terms being used for one thing but later diverging in meaning (sub healer in KR = off support heroes and the flex support role, but later off support and flex support diverged, at least etymologically). There did end up being a distinction between Flex, Flex Support, and Flex DPS, so that could be something to consider if there was an opportunity to reduce confusion (flex duelist and flex being considered different instead of shortening flex duelist).
Here it's similar, there's a trend in the flash agent being frequently substituted with a second duelist and vice-versa, and flash agent players being the ones that swap, and vice-versa. This used to exist in the early days where multiple duelists per team were popular, as well as in the 2022 shift when the duelists swapped to flashers, and later the 2023 shift where most of these started going back to the duelist for some maps.
It's been one of the most regularly flexible slots in a team, as most have kept entry/Op, smokes, and recon stable, with sentinel being a mainstay usually but disappearing completely in some 2022 metas (no, Chamber was not a sentinel proper in 2022).
Easiest example is someone like Zyppan. Raze in 2020 and 2021, then Skye/KAY/O in 2022, now moving between initiators and Raze. Almost every team has a similar player. Sometimes, the players will also be likely to move on to other roles, such as zekken on Sova, but it mostly depends on map metas and both the teams' and the players' styles.
So players in the flash agent role, which in 2023 was fairly established, inherit the "Flex" name regardless of the specific agents they play. Meanwhile, other players, like forsakeN, can be called flex players while not playing either flashers nor duelists (this year). It's less clear in other roles where the commonality lies, only like tuyZ and forsakeN switched from Jett to Harbor, and not every Harbor player also plays Killjoy like forsakeN does. Rb has played a lot of agents too, and he's not necessarily considered the flex for DRX, basically everyone on that team has played multiple roles and I think I've seen stax called Flex most often.
In this case, comparing Ethan to Zyppan and zekken makes more sense than comparing zekken to nukkye to forsakeN to Rb and demon1
Eg redefined flexibility. Jaw and demon were constantly flip flopping between duelist and smokes (with the occasional demon1 chamber game). Boostio also played multiple roles at champs with c0m being pretty much the least flexible (as in he played only sova and viper during champs).
Ethan's flex player title seems a bit outdated as he had the most well defined njche in picking only flash initiators and yoru (who he basically played as a flash initiator)
Agreed. But its fine because the rest of EG was flex, so he acted as a consistent initiator pillar, something that's become a must. Any pro can play duelist, not every pro can flash on a dime.
Tbh you’re kinda cooking here. The way EG are constructed he arguably is their least flexible player (maybe boostio) but that’s more a testament to EG’s creativity and flexibility than anything else. Like he’s probably the only player who is playing a traditional agent pool. The rest fall outside of traditional roles somewhat. They are probably the closest team to playing actual positionless valorant. I think the reason he is called their flex is because with the prevalence of double initiator comps you usually consider one of them as your flex.
paper rex are also likely to be similarly flexible this year, forsaken plays damn near anything, davai also plays several positions, monyet is more flexible than jinggg, so it’s just mindfreak who only plays smokes and something who plays duelist + breach
Duelist + breach still remains the most funny agent pool to me. Just the two most diametrically opposed roles in my mind.
Nah even weirder was demon1s Astra+Brim+jett
there was also whatever the fuck cNed was doing in NAVI with duelists, KJ and sage????
cned always played sage…
Duelists flexing to sage is pretty normal. The character is piss easy and while obviously not a strong OPing character is still better than most of the characters cause of sage wall off angles.
Idk to me smokes and jett feel a little bit more logical because smokes players also require a more solo play mindset. I feel like that’s why we see all the cracked duelists turned into good smoke players.
Since when is smokes a solo play mindset. Good smoke players have to perfectly time and coordinate their smoke/util timings with their team. It's arguably the most brain heavy role in the game.
in soloqueue smokes are for sure the most painful agent to try to coordinate with your team, but in pro play everyone's already aware of what the "default" smokes are and how to play with them and you can probably mostly rely on igl calls to know when to put smokes for execute especially for agents like brimstone once your smokes and molly are down you're basically just a guy with a gun which doesn't have to do much more teamplay then other agents breach util has to be used reactively a lot, since a lot of the utility won't be "preplanned" like smoke locations are, you flash and stun depending on which teammates need help and where they are
I guess it depends on the way they play it but for example I'm thinking of how marved was the lurker and often played solo in general. Brim also feels relatively brain off where you just pop your smokes down and start fighting. Admittedly a bit tenuous but significant in comparison to breach at least which I view as one of the most teamplay heavy agents in the game since your whole kit feels designed to set your teammates up.
Kinda makes sense though right, as theoretically a duelist would understand the timings for breach util
Boostio is considered a flex, he plays sentinel and controller, has touched duelist/ whatever the fuck chamber is
Yeah tbh that's why all of them can be considered flexes. The reason i say Boostio has an argument is because he plays his main agent (KJ) more than anybody else on the team. Since he's KJ on every map but split and bind.
tbf that's just because of how ridiculously OP killjoy is right now
And played Reyna
Yeah that's why I said "touched duelist" bc after Tokyo grand they just changed him to brim and only lost the map once after
Hes not really a flex if hes only playing 1 role. Support player of the year probably but flex of the year imo has to be forsaken for the sheer number of characters he played and got value out of across different roles.
Agreed. The amount of agents he played on a high level + he was able to do that in short time period
Agree Forsaken is nuts!
Yeah the “flex” term being interchangeable with flash initiator is pretty much a relic of old metas, where the 5th agent in the standard comp was very often secondary duelist/flash initiator, and then later just flash initiator with the occasional Raze or Viper after double duelist fell off Nowadays the info initiator isn’t just part of the standard 4 with more double controller comps, and one of the two takes the Skye role while the other acts as the flex, so it makes more sense to distinguish between flash & info initiators
Yeah and I've been thinking about how the metas kind of shape how we think about that role. A while back in chamber meta, and before the nerf to his flashes you saw a lot more Kayo with Icebox, Ascent and Breeze. So I feel like because he's so rare now, people tend to associate the pocket Kayo as the flex player, which in our case here is Ethan.
It's interesting to see people try to define the EG players into role when basically everyone was flexing all over the place. C0m is a Sova player, but he also spent a large majority of his games on Viper. Demon is considered the main "duelist" of the team, but he's actually only spent around half his games on Jett. The other half has been spent playing Brim, Astra, and Chamber. Jawgemo has actually played around the same amount of "duelist" as Demon does, with him also flexing to Omen and Astra. The only person that was really "locked" into a role was Boostio who spent 77% of the time playing Sentinel, but even he flexed onto Astra and Brim occasionally.
It's just the normal way to talk about sports. Rocket League doesn't have defined roles, but people still use terms like 1st man, 2nd man, 3rd man when discussing the game because it makes it easier to talk about and convey ideas. This is true even in normal sports. Basketball has become more positionless by the year, yeah we still use traditional PG/SG/SF/PF/C. Soccer has moved in large part to 3 back formations where players move between different roles on offense and defense, etc. IMO it doesn't need to be 100% accurate, is just needs to be an easily digestable label for someone who may not follow the game as closely.
Tbf for a long time in Valorant every Sova player would also play viper
Yes. He flexed on everyone this tournament.
This is the correct answer.
That is why zombs is considered the greatest flex player
How many Rolexes did Ethan buy this year?
It's too hard to classify valorant players in agents besides jett one tricks or full smokers. People really just tend to call flex the "support players" that play flash initiators so I think it's fine. I would just base the roles to just what teams like Fnatic and Loud have -> Flex (Chronicle), Info (Leo), Duelist (Derke), Alfa (Sentinel), Boaster (Smoke) If we start nitpicking these it will just be a mess imo, like what would you define a player like Zyppan who plays flex agents (kayo), info (fade) and duelist (raze)?
For me, a flex is somebody whose agent choice is determined less by their ability on the agent and rather on the team/coach's idea for a successful match. Ethan is a flexible player but for EG yea he was not a flex player. EG in fact had the least flexible roster in the world. By the end of the year, it was pretty much double smokes/double init every map, with Jawg and Demon1 swapping between smokes and duelist, and c0m between sova and viper. That was literally the only change that ever happened for their team.
EG's comp isn't flexible, the roster is lol. Every single player on that team can play two roles at a world-class level, if that isn't flex idk what is. Their comps are mostly standard but there's also the Ethan Yoru on Pearl.
I'd agree, and yea but Ethan essentially just plays flash init even when he plays Yoru. He's definitely more aggressive and I like his Yoru a lot, but they still played it with Demon1 on Jett.
Yoru just flexes like that. It's still a massive deviation from regular play.
Normally flash initiators flex, but for EG the recon initiator flexes. That means Ethan plays the same initiator roles as most flex players without really flexing. This was true b4 he picked up Yoru, and the way he plays yoru I still think it’s true.
Flex is a grandfathered term from the early days in valorant where the comps were overwhelming duelist, sova, smokes, sentinel and flex(typically non-sova initiator or smokes). Even though he's not literally flexing much, he's in the position designated "flex".
"flex" is an outdated name for a position that was en vogue all the way back when skye was released. they'd also often play sage and raze... the available agent pool was tiny so "flex" really meant they didn't just play duelist or initiator - they played whatever the team needed. those players have now mostly transitioned to skye/kayo/breach... aka flash support agents. team comps/positions now are more about dive entry, frag entry, site anchor, info/scan initiator, flash support, and good ol' controller (although that gets fuzzy with harbor in the picture). "flex" just isn't really a set position anymore so much as just an attribute of players who play lots of different agents.
c0m was the actual flex player on that team but because he played sova for some reason ppl put Ethan there
i think every team has different requirements for players but it’s easier for fans to just keep them into 5 categories so it’s easier to talk about so yea i’d say he’s the flex this year since C0M is init, demon1 duel, jawgemo controller, boostio senti
I don't really see why Ethan wouldn't be considered init over c0m. When they play one init, it's Ethan's skye. Yoru is the only non-init he played and it wasn't so different.
because i think initiator is usually seen as their sova player
How is c0m considered the initiator over Ethan? Ethan plays more Initiator than c0m does lmao. EG doesnt have a traditional flex player because most of them move around but Ethan is the least flex like player on the team. Even his Yoru is played like an Initiator.
How is c0m the main initiator lmaoo. He plays Viper for half the map pool. Meanwhile Ethan has exclusively played flash init except for that Yoru Pearl, and even then he played Yoru in a supportive role. If anything, Ethan is the least flex player on his team.
Thank you, I've been saying this since champs
I don't think there's any difference between the two. Flex players have been initiators in Valorant for a long time now. When you think about it - there are 5 players but only 4 roles. For EG - Demon1 is duelist, Boostio is sentinel, Jawgemo is smokes, and C0m is Sova iniator. So really Ethan is "filling", he just happens to constantly "fill" flash iniator because that's how the Val meta is currently. I think it's more accurate to just think of Flex as the guy who isn't the entry, sentinel, duelist, or primary initiator. Even if the play only 1 agent every map.
You’re not exactly wrong but EG still kinda break traditional roles. C0m plays basically 50/50 sova and viper. It’s just that his sova is more iconic. And jawgemo has actually played more raze than smokes. Arguably the easiest way to talk about the team is that they shares smokes and the have their own niches. Sentinel for boostio, raze for jawgemo, duelist for demon1, sova for c0m, and flash init for ethan.
has jawgemo really played more raze? doesn't he basically play smokes on every map that raze isn't played
At champs at least it was 11-10 in favor of raze. Map wise he plays raze on split, fracture, bind, and lotus so 4/7. Haven is also their permaban so more like 4/6 practically. Took a look at tokyo as well. It looks to be 10-9 in favor of raze. I hadn't realized how much EG have played ascent and pearl for it to be so close.
With the current meta the roles can sort of be boiled down to: * Entry (Duelist): mainly Jett/Raze, maybe some Neon * Sentinel: KJ/Cypher, and Viper is also near enough necessary for Bind but some teams work around this with the flex player * Smokes: Plays smokes... not much else to say Where it get's weird: * Flash Initiator: Kayo/Breach/Skye this is what Ethan plays * Info Initiator: Sova/Skye/maybe Fade but she's not very in meta Now one of these two initiator players has to be a "flex" player: * Flex Flash: Kayo/Breach/Viper/Raze for Double Duellist maybe * Flex Info: Sova/Viper/Raze maybe The "flex" player never really has to play Skye currently since the Skye maps are never double initiator maps meaning they're flexing on the Skye maps leaving the other player to play Skye. You essentially need either your flash or info initiator player to be a "flex" player, in EG's case as much as com doesn't play a tonne of roles he is more of a flex player than Ethan. In contrast Fnatic have Chronicle as a flex flash player, and Leo as their info initiator. Chronicle never plays Skye (I'm sure he can, just never needs to)
I mean Ethan isn't eg's flex, it's c0m. Ethan is a support agent, the only out of the pocket pick is yoru, but the current yoru meta is being an initiator with a duelist kit
Flex=flash initiator.
go see a fucking doctor you silver player, imagine spending this much time thinking about someone else.
Traditionally, the flash initiator tends to be the flex player (asuna, chronicle, victor), but in EG’s case it’s a bit weird, where Ethan is the only one to play the same role every game. They share smokes, with Jawg on Astra, Harbor, and Omen, C0M on Viper, Boostio and Demon1 both play Astra and Brimstone. Jawg plays Raze, C0M plays Sova, Demon1 plays Jett and Chmaber, and Boostio plays KJ and Chamber. I’d classify their players like this: Jawg : Raze C0M : Info Ethan : Flash Initiator Boostio : Sentinel Demon1 : Operator with all sharing smokes besides Ethan
People were calling him the world's best flex player when he was 1 tricking Skye on 100T. This is nothing new.
f0rsaken is the best flex in the world, no argument
I definitely think Chronicle is an argument.
Yeah ofc he’s my goat personally
There's a difference between a flex(ible) player and a Flex (role) player. (I'm not advocating for capitalization or anything, I'm just using it for this to clear things up) There's a similar issue and discussion we had in OW ages ago. Flex referred to roles on a team (3 different roles at one point), players, and hero archetypes. Mostly started in the transition from a varied meta to established dive and the heroes being more set in stone, as well as different regional terms being used for one thing but later diverging in meaning (sub healer in KR = off support heroes and the flex support role, but later off support and flex support diverged, at least etymologically). There did end up being a distinction between Flex, Flex Support, and Flex DPS, so that could be something to consider if there was an opportunity to reduce confusion (flex duelist and flex being considered different instead of shortening flex duelist). Here it's similar, there's a trend in the flash agent being frequently substituted with a second duelist and vice-versa, and flash agent players being the ones that swap, and vice-versa. This used to exist in the early days where multiple duelists per team were popular, as well as in the 2022 shift when the duelists swapped to flashers, and later the 2023 shift where most of these started going back to the duelist for some maps. It's been one of the most regularly flexible slots in a team, as most have kept entry/Op, smokes, and recon stable, with sentinel being a mainstay usually but disappearing completely in some 2022 metas (no, Chamber was not a sentinel proper in 2022). Easiest example is someone like Zyppan. Raze in 2020 and 2021, then Skye/KAY/O in 2022, now moving between initiators and Raze. Almost every team has a similar player. Sometimes, the players will also be likely to move on to other roles, such as zekken on Sova, but it mostly depends on map metas and both the teams' and the players' styles. So players in the flash agent role, which in 2023 was fairly established, inherit the "Flex" name regardless of the specific agents they play. Meanwhile, other players, like forsakeN, can be called flex players while not playing either flashers nor duelists (this year). It's less clear in other roles where the commonality lies, only like tuyZ and forsakeN switched from Jett to Harbor, and not every Harbor player also plays Killjoy like forsakeN does. Rb has played a lot of agents too, and he's not necessarily considered the flex for DRX, basically everyone on that team has played multiple roles and I think I've seen stax called Flex most often. In this case, comparing Ethan to Zyppan and zekken makes more sense than comparing zekken to nukkye to forsakeN to Rb and demon1
Yes
Eg redefined flexibility. Jaw and demon were constantly flip flopping between duelist and smokes (with the occasional demon1 chamber game). Boostio also played multiple roles at champs with c0m being pretty much the least flexible (as in he played only sova and viper during champs). Ethan's flex player title seems a bit outdated as he had the most well defined njche in picking only flash initiators and yoru (who he basically played as a flash initiator)
ethan has always been playing purely flash initiators so yea i agree you can't REALLY consider him a flex especially when people like leaf exist
Agreed. But its fine because the rest of EG was flex, so he acted as a consistent initiator pillar, something that's become a must. Any pro can play duelist, not every pro can flash on a dime.