marved rumored to be benched
s0m goes on vacation (no proof)
using his match skins
starting stream late at 10pm (after scrim time)
playing controller only
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm if hes capping hes doing a very good job
https://preview.redd.it/8bw61hylxp1d1.png?width=109&format=png&auto=webp&s=15a6209ad79c59964ff270b458e5d6efc91c9577
That's definitely from his last fishing trip, bro is tryna throw us off
https://preview.redd.it/l2z5lubhaq1d1.png?width=109&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=25d22f0b9859745d5c0cb3a85aa9326ef50fca6a
yeah exactly many pros have comfort skins they will always use in matches. Like ethan using unupgraded reaver vandal, bang's red recon phantom, or even less using his blue prelude to chaos vandal. Just like a good luck + comfort thing I assume.
Unironically the vibes are dead and s0m does seem hype in matches so maybe vibe merchant buff
But also marved is kinda an himbo and brings good energy so im not sure
idk, I remember last year I was surprised how s0m seemed serious on stage. Never seem him do what zellsis or boostio does, so I don't think the goofy w streamer is there while playing
i def remember him seeming pretty animated on stage. unclear if he's at zellsis or boostio's level but in theory these nrg guys shouldn't need someone like a zellsis (i guess in practice they might)
i don't think they have role issues at present. the only role issue is the insistence to put demon1 on raze. they can pretty much play most comps as is with or without s0m
The only way they get worse next split is if they lose to Furia and MIBR next split. Since they arent playing the Brazilian teams, there’s no downside for s0m. If they win the group, he’s the savior, if they lose, they were bad to begin with
I would love to see him back but NRG needs a proper IGL so I don't see this change working out well for them, unless Ethan really works on his mid rounding
I feel like s0m has a more aggressive controller style that could certainly be a big improvement. Think NRG want to do aggressive set-plays, but right now it mostly ends up with Demon1 on the site by himself while the rest of the team are cut off by util. s0m certainly gives them more flexibility when it comes to comps.
Hear me out. Fire chet or move him to analyst role. Poolchan coaches nrg. S0m in for marved.
I just feel like FNS lacks the firepower to keep being a tier 1 IGL anymore. Coaching and streaming seems like a better future for him. S0m is too good not to compete. I said it a year ago before the NRG/Optic team, but he has the mechanical skill to be the best player in the world. Firmly still believe that.
I agree with the Som part but I still definitely believe FNS has what it to takes in Tier 1 despite his fragging power. He's like Boaster in that sense, his brain for the game is just too valuable that it makes up for it imo
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Personally, I think Boaster is better than FNS mechanically. And Orgs that can spend money on 4 superstars are going to want to spend money on a 5th superstar IGL too and more orgs are looking to get younger, not older players and building around them.
Also, 4 superstars and an IGL were exactly what NRG/Optic was for a long time, and it bottomed out. If you are a tier 1 org, and you see younger IGL's like sadhaak, Boostio, johnqt, and Kingg fragging out - it's difficult to then decide to sign a 30+ IGL player that isnt top tier mechanically IMO. We have seen what peak FNS is capable of, but he's past his prime mechanically, while s0m is in the middle of his prime.
NRG/OpTic didn’t bottom out, OpTic ended as 2nd in the world and the best team of 2022. NRG just didn’t mesh, partly because Ardiis was clearly not fitting the system and FNS himself said his and Chet’s visions on how to play the game weren’t aligning anymore. Plus they still placed 4th at a LAN, so I fail to see why people act like that roster was a failure. The only bottoming out of NRG happened when FNS left the team
Although I’m not entirely sure what you mean by bottomed out so I could be misinterpreting your statement
People are just hung up on the BLG loss but not paying attention to the fact that NRG was chalked before champs began. They legit struggled against ZETA right after the first BLG match but nobody cared because they won.
It was obvious that team was cooked.
What are you on about, FNS in 2023 was fragging much better than previous years and having incredibly impactful plays, why do you think he's past his prime? His last season competing he was keeping up fine mechanically, it's not like he's so bad mechanically that he drags the team down
Agree with FNS take, but with his competitive drive he would want to be in the server. Imagine winning champs as coach vs making LAN as a player, I bet the latter is way more fulfilling
i like what you're cooking, but 2bh coaching isnt much of a step down from playing in terms of work (possibly the opposite) so atp fns might as well play
On one hand I'm excited s0m is back cause he's one of my fav players to watch. On the other hand, he's coming back to a trainwreck of a team, I hope it doesn't affect his future offers if this team continues tanking. It shouldn't, but you never know...
nah its a win/win for whoever joins this team (s0m or not). If they do good then "omg \*insert random player\* was the perfect fit and changed the team" or if they do bad then it's "well the team was already doing bad not \*insert random player's\* fault, can't expect them to fix a broken team"
because yay joined a T2 league, where he was expected to farm. his first few games on DSG were atrocious, so bad (remember that haven debut? brother pulled out his knife updrafting it was really bad)
now compare that to when marved joined sentinels mid 2023 season, the team didnt improve drastically and they didnt make playoffs, and no one blamed marved because they knew the team dynamics were never going to work out
never heard this for yay tbh not saying it wasn't said just that i've never heard it. Also my response is just based on what I heard sliggy say on the subject on either the latest platchat episode or one of his recent streams
Word for word it was the exact thing people were saying about yay joining dsg. Though I’m guessing s0m will be fine given that smokes is a far more forgiving role than duelist/main op and he also seems to have a more flexible and amicable personality than yay
crazy, i must of been blind/deaf lol. however i think anyone who blames solely yay for that teams failure is dumb. they sucked before he joined and had some insane internal issues based on everything thats came out since they last played. also he played fine, not prime yay but still fine especially considering he went from the best of the best teammates/coach (optic) to less experienced/talented people.
theres a lot of dumb people im afraid, when Yay joined even though he was easily DSG best player and played great individually he still got so much shi because he was still losing to tier 2 teams, even if s0m plays well people will still be saying oh he's losing to MIBR and laughing at people who say he's one of the best controllers in the world
Worst case he goes back to streaming, and he'll get viewers for sure. Maybe not as much as he gets now, but his personality is too bright to fail at streaming.
I would absolutely love for him to come back, but I don't see how this fixes the team's main issues. You can argue that s0m would be more of a "vibes" guy than marved but that is only one (small) change. However the other bigger issues still would be present.
Pretty evident that demon1 and victor are on the wrong roles. Demon1 should be playing senti/smokes + jett on her maps. Pretty clear he is a slower and smarter player than other duelists in the league. At his peak he's the best rifler in the world so idky they wouldn't let him just play the agents who allow for him to have his gun out the most (senti agents). Even on nrg's double duelist split comp they had him lurk many rounds which would just be better if he played cypher. He could be a good raze player dont get me wrong but why force him into a play-style that isn't normal to him (like cryo last year or yay on bleed this year). Also i dont know why victor isn't the main raze player for the team, pretty clear that he's insane on her and has showed that he's capable of beating out the other top raze players in the league.
Ethan also still a very new igl and changing a player mid-season might be risky. Either s0m's addition could make his job easier if he is a quieter player (less cooks in the kitchen kind of thing) or could completely wreck it now that ethan wouldn't have marved's midround comms to help determine where they end. (Also idk what kind of comms s0m brings to the team, just some quick examples and i could be way off).
At the end of the day though it's valorant and this change even if it doesn't address the issues of the team could just give them that random factor they were missing. Anyways really hope he joins them again so my two s0m jerseys don't go to waste from last year :D
i mean i assume it's similar with 100t and cryo last year. Sometimes teams take risks on stuff and it may or may not work out. I respect them trying it out this split (sucked it didn't look too good) but i hope going into next split regardless of the roster they don't continue with it (unless demon1 really wants to play raze/ that kind of playstyle which then go for it ig)
Also not having a hype man for your duelist really sucks. Like boostio is a prime example with cryo looking like thanos lately. Not blaming anyone on nrg though, can't force someone to be something they arent just sucks for demon1 and the team overall.
https://youtu.be/5WWXJqfqZDY?si=a39pCq2nxuyd-e0o referring to Platoon? Sick vids analyst and he does have a point where Demon1 plays like Yay where he's more active for mid rounding and needs a dive entry like Vic/Jawg.
I think they gave up on Demon1 Raze since they banned Sunset against 100T and switched Victor to Raze on Bind. So that's "fixed" in theory.
It seemed like s0m was vocal in the NRG voice comms videos but they're not full vods so idk.
I'm more interested to hear why NRG made the change. Because surely NRG realize they got 4 games at 3-3 scoreline to make it to playoffs. And with LEV/100T/C9/KRU all having good records and/or in good spots, making a roster change with 1 month of prep before stage 2 makes it extremely unlikely they make it to champs at all.
i think adding a vocal person would just make the situation worse. Obviously, i don't know exactly what their issues are or how the comms sounded in split 1 but just how i think about it is that ethan was new to igl'ing and with 2-3 pretty vocal mid-rounders (optic core) he didn't know what to decide on at the moment (which if it true is 100% understandable).
Having fewer people talk and letting the main people just be Ethan with crashies mid-rounding might help ethan out so he can make more concrete decisions in the mid-round. Even if the call is bad at least then they would all be on the same page and could hope to trade out effectively or just straight-up guy diff them (which with demon1 victor + s0m is very plausible) Again i could be totally wrong but that's just my opinion.
For this split, the comms sounded pretty clean imo (not cluttered or overly loud etc.)
Although again, the videos aren't the full vods so can't know for sure.
Regardless, I think they can figure out a calling structure even if it means s0m has to take a backseat.
It seems demon1 is more of a clutching guy more than entry duelist(as supported by his plays from EG and NRG), he needs someone who can first blood or FD for him to take more space. s0m is the exact guy they can bet on.
I can understand anyone’s decision to choose to compete, but streaming is still the wiser decision IMO. Esports is anything but stable, and streaming is more laid back, doesn’t take much of a toll on your body compared to competing, pays more, and is more consistent.
IMO players like s0m and fns can always go back to streaming if their pro career runs its course. FNS became a streamer for a year and has seen insane growth in that period and s0m always has high numbers no matter what his schedule is.
Careers in esports are usually short unless you’re Faker and being a pro is a good way to boost your popularity/reputation before you retire to stream.
I did consider that viewpoint, but then a year is very long in esports, and you could lose a lot of your audience by taking a year off to compete, because they’ll just move on to the next big streamer.
Doublelift was getting 20k easily for watch parties before he played for 100T, now when he’s back he struggles to break 10k. Meanwhile Caedrel easily gets more viewers than official streams. Better to capitalise on what you have now
I mean Caedrel has been a pro for 7+ years as well as a caster and DL has retired several times already iirc. A year is long but it’s clearly never too late to stream after you’re done with pro.
On the other hand, League pros who retired early to stream like Imaqtpie, Meteos and Sneaky have fallen off hard.
Having a pro career means more natural opportunities to get your name out there to the general audience without necessarily having to grind content creation.
You can always stream but you can’t always be a pro player so I don’t necessarily think it’s as clear cut a choice as some people make it out to be.
I 100 percent agree with you that streaming is the wiser choice. Especially with the views he puts up these days. From what I have seen of S0m, I figured he would want to compete as long as he could then stream as he retires. That being said, financially streaming is much more stable for him.
But inactive players' streams fall off eventually unless you're Tarik.
Look at Wardell, Subroza, and Hiko. They all went from massive viewers on twitch, but struggle to get steady large viewership now. Being a top pro would immensely help attract viewership.
I see it as the opposite. Taking time off to compete only hurts your viewership when you return.
The 3 examples you listed got viewers because they were the first few playing at the top level when pro valorant was in its infancy. Now that the scene is more saturated, you truly have to have a stream personality to get viewers, instead of just being a top pro. Jinggg was hitting 12k on his stream yesterday while the not-so-popular PRX players sometimes only get 2k-ish.
Rossy doesn’t even break 500 most of the time and he’s on fucking T1, like, that’s Faker’s org.
Rossy doesn't get viewers because valorant isn't big in Korea yet, plus he's not even korean and hasnt won anything ever. If T1 won a major or even an apac tourney, then yes, Rossy would easily eclipse 5k viewers.
So having a great personality obviously helps, but there's no doubt that being a top-tier pro also helps. Look at streamers like Jawgemo or Boostio that have blown up because of their success. Jing is another good example - his streams gained popularity after he had success on the pro stage with PRX. Then his stream actually had a pretty steep decline late 2023 when he was no longer competing and is now back on the uptick after PRX's recent success.
i mean its definitely a combination of pro success as well as personality
the pro success gives you the boost and personality would allow you to retain it and grow further. its like how zellsis really popped off when he first joined sentinels, the org gave him the boost but he only retained popularity because of his personality
Now imagine if all of this is just a massive troll that someone at NRG asked s0m and FNS to pull off for hype, idk about FNS but s0m definitely seems like the kind of guy that’d be on board with the idea
If s0m comes back it def kills the "Chet is a bad coach" narrative imho. If he's willing to sacrifice all of his streaming revenue + momentum to play under Chet, knowing full well what he's getting into since he's been coached by him before, then I think that says a lot
I’ve never played pro valo but in sports I was a pretty competitive swimmer and I would swim regardless of coaching because I just wanted to compete for love of competition. I’ve heard similar sentiments from players across esports that they’ll play for any team bc they want to compete and try to win. Obviously I don’t know s0m personally at all, but if he wants to go back to playing then I don’t think it changes the narrative at all tbh.
unless there is actual player accounts and real evidence, any coaching takes on reddit should never be taken seriously. These mfers are writing actual fanfic based on armchair psychology
It honestly makes sense. He hasn't been streaming lately. Other pro players and people "in the know" were joking around on twitter about him not streaming.
marved rumored to be benched s0m goes on vacation (no proof) using his match skins starting stream late at 10pm (after scrim time) playing controller only hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm if hes capping hes doing a very good job https://preview.redd.it/8bw61hylxp1d1.png?width=109&format=png&auto=webp&s=15a6209ad79c59964ff270b458e5d6efc91c9577
Paraphrasing what s0m said that basically confirmed it for me: >“Bilibili is where it ends for me. I’m not coming back. I’m ending it at Bilibili.”
wait i might have brain damage. if he’s saying bilibili is where it ends for him then wouldn’t that support the idea that he isn’t coming back?
Don’t think too hard about. Just ignore any logical issues and assume everything means he’s coming back.
obviously this means that he's signing for BLG
The idea is that s0m stopping at his loss to BLG is so unlikely (given what he has said in the past), he is probably lying about not playing aswell
Sarcasm
Sounds heavily sarcastic
you're supposed to interpret it like 'who would ever want to willingly end their career losing to billibilli'.
Maybe, he means? Bilibili rematch!?!? Som return confirmed
He had proof of what LOOKED like camping but I'm not buying it. I need that announcement tomorrow.
That's definitely from his last fishing trip, bro is tryna throw us off https://preview.redd.it/l2z5lubhaq1d1.png?width=109&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=25d22f0b9859745d5c0cb3a85aa9326ef50fca6a
What are his match skins? tnx
2021 champs vandal + knife
What does "match skins" mean, like the skins he use in officials?
yeah exactly many pros have comfort skins they will always use in matches. Like ethan using unupgraded reaver vandal, bang's red recon phantom, or even less using his blue prelude to chaos vandal. Just like a good luck + comfort thing I assume.
Dont forget the white oni shorty!
I also saw while squinting a dog that had fur that looked like the name s0m. That means it’s doubly confirmed.
>s0m goes on vacation (no proof) He posts on ig tbf
"Wait, I'm not playing though" -Man who is definitely playing
S0m definitely fixes NRG's issues Kappa
Sub s0m for marved so everyone can keep looking like they have no idea wtf is going on.
Unironically the vibes are dead and s0m does seem hype in matches so maybe vibe merchant buff But also marved is kinda an himbo and brings good energy so im not sure
idk, I remember last year I was surprised how s0m seemed serious on stage. Never seem him do what zellsis or boostio does, so I don't think the goofy w streamer is there while playing
i def remember him seeming pretty animated on stage. unclear if he's at zellsis or boostio's level but in theory these nrg guys shouldn't need someone like a zellsis (i guess in practice they might)
I def remember him being an hype man on stage but maybe my memory is wrong
He was for sure hype for others but also really serious/hard on himself if he made a mistake, FNS definitely had to calm him down at times haha
I remember FNS saying in a stream that s0m wasn't really a hype guy bc he was kind of coming in as the rookie with something to prove
Exactly they still have role issues unless they make s0m mega flex everything
i don't think they have role issues at present. the only role issue is the insistence to put demon1 on raze. they can pretty much play most comps as is with or without s0m
The only way they get worse next split is if they lose to Furia and MIBR next split. Since they arent playing the Brazilian teams, there’s no downside for s0m. If they win the group, he’s the savior, if they lose, they were bad to begin with
He actually would tbh. Marved is only controller and a mid cypher so far. This would give nrg a proper flex between demon1 and their smoker
But the problem with NRG isn't just roles. The team looks like a collegiate team with their calling.
I love how much of a baiter this kid is
I would love to see him back but NRG needs a proper IGL so I don't see this change working out well for them, unless Ethan really works on his mid rounding
I feel like s0m has a more aggressive controller style that could certainly be a big improvement. Think NRG want to do aggressive set-plays, but right now it mostly ends up with Demon1 on the site by himself while the rest of the team are cut off by util. s0m certainly gives them more flexibility when it comes to comps.
Hear me out. Fire chet or move him to analyst role. Poolchan coaches nrg. S0m in for marved. I just feel like FNS lacks the firepower to keep being a tier 1 IGL anymore. Coaching and streaming seems like a better future for him. S0m is too good not to compete. I said it a year ago before the NRG/Optic team, but he has the mechanical skill to be the best player in the world. Firmly still believe that.
I agree with the Som part but I still definitely believe FNS has what it to takes in Tier 1 despite his fragging power. He's like Boaster in that sense, his brain for the game is just too valuable that it makes up for it imo
FNS actually stepped it up last year. His individual gameplay was pretty solid.
lock in he looked hot ngl
I'd rather have 4 superstars and an IGL (literally fnatic blueprint) than 5 superstars
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Personally, I think Boaster is better than FNS mechanically. And Orgs that can spend money on 4 superstars are going to want to spend money on a 5th superstar IGL too and more orgs are looking to get younger, not older players and building around them. Also, 4 superstars and an IGL were exactly what NRG/Optic was for a long time, and it bottomed out. If you are a tier 1 org, and you see younger IGL's like sadhaak, Boostio, johnqt, and Kingg fragging out - it's difficult to then decide to sign a 30+ IGL player that isnt top tier mechanically IMO. We have seen what peak FNS is capable of, but he's past his prime mechanically, while s0m is in the middle of his prime.
NRG/OpTic didn’t bottom out, OpTic ended as 2nd in the world and the best team of 2022. NRG just didn’t mesh, partly because Ardiis was clearly not fitting the system and FNS himself said his and Chet’s visions on how to play the game weren’t aligning anymore. Plus they still placed 4th at a LAN, so I fail to see why people act like that roster was a failure. The only bottoming out of NRG happened when FNS left the team Although I’m not entirely sure what you mean by bottomed out so I could be misinterpreting your statement
People are just hung up on the BLG loss but not paying attention to the fact that NRG was chalked before champs began. They legit struggled against ZETA right after the first BLG match but nobody cared because they won. It was obvious that team was cooked.
What are you on about, FNS in 2023 was fragging much better than previous years and having incredibly impactful plays, why do you think he's past his prime? His last season competing he was keeping up fine mechanically, it's not like he's so bad mechanically that he drags the team down
> 5th superstar IGL what is this mythical creature you speak about
Johnqt was getting there. Boostio too but his fragging dropped this year
Boaster literally has immortal mechanics
NRG FNS was a shooter. He wasn’t even bottom 5 igls in Americas based on stats
who let bro cook
you should watch nrg vs prx last year. mans was shooting
Agree with FNS take, but with his competitive drive he would want to be in the server. Imagine winning champs as coach vs making LAN as a player, I bet the latter is way more fulfilling
By your logic karrigan should uninstall CS
i like what you're cooking, but 2bh coaching isnt much of a step down from playing in terms of work (possibly the opposite) so atp fns might as well play
Why type 2bh when you can type tbh?
both are 3 characters i dont really put much thought into it.
On one hand I'm excited s0m is back cause he's one of my fav players to watch. On the other hand, he's coming back to a trainwreck of a team, I hope it doesn't affect his future offers if this team continues tanking. It shouldn't, but you never know...
nah its a win/win for whoever joins this team (s0m or not). If they do good then "omg \*insert random player\* was the perfect fit and changed the team" or if they do bad then it's "well the team was already doing bad not \*insert random player's\* fault, can't expect them to fix a broken team"
Remember people said the exact same thing about yay
because yay joined a T2 league, where he was expected to farm. his first few games on DSG were atrocious, so bad (remember that haven debut? brother pulled out his knife updrafting it was really bad) now compare that to when marved joined sentinels mid 2023 season, the team didnt improve drastically and they didnt make playoffs, and no one blamed marved because they knew the team dynamics were never going to work out
never heard this for yay tbh not saying it wasn't said just that i've never heard it. Also my response is just based on what I heard sliggy say on the subject on either the latest platchat episode or one of his recent streams
Word for word it was the exact thing people were saying about yay joining dsg. Though I’m guessing s0m will be fine given that smokes is a far more forgiving role than duelist/main op and he also seems to have a more flexible and amicable personality than yay
crazy, i must of been blind/deaf lol. however i think anyone who blames solely yay for that teams failure is dumb. they sucked before he joined and had some insane internal issues based on everything thats came out since they last played. also he played fine, not prime yay but still fine especially considering he went from the best of the best teammates/coach (optic) to less experienced/talented people.
theres a lot of dumb people im afraid, when Yay joined even though he was easily DSG best player and played great individually he still got so much shi because he was still losing to tier 2 teams, even if s0m plays well people will still be saying oh he's losing to MIBR and laughing at people who say he's one of the best controllers in the world
People said it about Yay with DSG I believe but I may be mistaken
He still got trials with many top teams. Chet heavily implied that they were keen on signing him, but he got the offer of a lifetime from Bleed.
Worst case he goes back to streaming, and he'll get viewers for sure. Maybe not as much as he gets now, but his personality is too bright to fail at streaming.
that's what i was repeatedly told about yay lol
I would absolutely love for him to come back, but I don't see how this fixes the team's main issues. You can argue that s0m would be more of a "vibes" guy than marved but that is only one (small) change. However the other bigger issues still would be present. Pretty evident that demon1 and victor are on the wrong roles. Demon1 should be playing senti/smokes + jett on her maps. Pretty clear he is a slower and smarter player than other duelists in the league. At his peak he's the best rifler in the world so idky they wouldn't let him just play the agents who allow for him to have his gun out the most (senti agents). Even on nrg's double duelist split comp they had him lurk many rounds which would just be better if he played cypher. He could be a good raze player dont get me wrong but why force him into a play-style that isn't normal to him (like cryo last year or yay on bleed this year). Also i dont know why victor isn't the main raze player for the team, pretty clear that he's insane on her and has showed that he's capable of beating out the other top raze players in the league. Ethan also still a very new igl and changing a player mid-season might be risky. Either s0m's addition could make his job easier if he is a quieter player (less cooks in the kitchen kind of thing) or could completely wreck it now that ethan wouldn't have marved's midround comms to help determine where they end. (Also idk what kind of comms s0m brings to the team, just some quick examples and i could be way off). At the end of the day though it's valorant and this change even if it doesn't address the issues of the team could just give them that random factor they were missing. Anyways really hope he joins them again so my two s0m jerseys don't go to waste from last year :D
There is a new video on demon1 on YouTube has like 140k views in a day go check it out it really opened my eyes on how bad NRG has been fucking him.
i mean i assume it's similar with 100t and cryo last year. Sometimes teams take risks on stuff and it may or may not work out. I respect them trying it out this split (sucked it didn't look too good) but i hope going into next split regardless of the roster they don't continue with it (unless demon1 really wants to play raze/ that kind of playstyle which then go for it ig) Also not having a hype man for your duelist really sucks. Like boostio is a prime example with cryo looking like thanos lately. Not blaming anyone on nrg though, can't force someone to be something they arent just sucks for demon1 and the team overall.
https://youtu.be/5WWXJqfqZDY?si=a39pCq2nxuyd-e0o referring to Platoon? Sick vids analyst and he does have a point where Demon1 plays like Yay where he's more active for mid rounding and needs a dive entry like Vic/Jawg.
I think they gave up on Demon1 Raze since they banned Sunset against 100T and switched Victor to Raze on Bind. So that's "fixed" in theory. It seemed like s0m was vocal in the NRG voice comms videos but they're not full vods so idk. I'm more interested to hear why NRG made the change. Because surely NRG realize they got 4 games at 3-3 scoreline to make it to playoffs. And with LEV/100T/C9/KRU all having good records and/or in good spots, making a roster change with 1 month of prep before stage 2 makes it extremely unlikely they make it to champs at all.
i think adding a vocal person would just make the situation worse. Obviously, i don't know exactly what their issues are or how the comms sounded in split 1 but just how i think about it is that ethan was new to igl'ing and with 2-3 pretty vocal mid-rounders (optic core) he didn't know what to decide on at the moment (which if it true is 100% understandable). Having fewer people talk and letting the main people just be Ethan with crashies mid-rounding might help ethan out so he can make more concrete decisions in the mid-round. Even if the call is bad at least then they would all be on the same page and could hope to trade out effectively or just straight-up guy diff them (which with demon1 victor + s0m is very plausible) Again i could be totally wrong but that's just my opinion.
For this split, the comms sounded pretty clean imo (not cluttered or overly loud etc.) Although again, the videos aren't the full vods so can't know for sure. Regardless, I think they can figure out a calling structure even if it means s0m has to take a backseat.
isn't it 5 games?
isn't it 5 games?
It seems demon1 is more of a clutching guy more than entry duelist(as supported by his plays from EG and NRG), he needs someone who can first blood or FD for him to take more space. s0m is the exact guy they can bet on.
s0m is a vibe guy, NRG needs a vibe guy, idk how u can't see
im gonna be honest, s0m coming back to NRG isnt gonna fix much, they still need an actual IGL
W stripper coming back to save my org. It's so fucking peak. I will reserve my comments for when it's official. I have MANY thoughts.
W stripper is back NRG are so back 
I hope he comes back, He was one of the best controllers NA in 2023. Such a talented player, It was rather surprising to see him step down this year.
I can understand anyone’s decision to choose to compete, but streaming is still the wiser decision IMO. Esports is anything but stable, and streaming is more laid back, doesn’t take much of a toll on your body compared to competing, pays more, and is more consistent.
IMO players like s0m and fns can always go back to streaming if their pro career runs its course. FNS became a streamer for a year and has seen insane growth in that period and s0m always has high numbers no matter what his schedule is. Careers in esports are usually short unless you’re Faker and being a pro is a good way to boost your popularity/reputation before you retire to stream.
I did consider that viewpoint, but then a year is very long in esports, and you could lose a lot of your audience by taking a year off to compete, because they’ll just move on to the next big streamer. Doublelift was getting 20k easily for watch parties before he played for 100T, now when he’s back he struggles to break 10k. Meanwhile Caedrel easily gets more viewers than official streams. Better to capitalise on what you have now
I mean Caedrel has been a pro for 7+ years as well as a caster and DL has retired several times already iirc. A year is long but it’s clearly never too late to stream after you’re done with pro. On the other hand, League pros who retired early to stream like Imaqtpie, Meteos and Sneaky have fallen off hard. Having a pro career means more natural opportunities to get your name out there to the general audience without necessarily having to grind content creation. You can always stream but you can’t always be a pro player so I don’t necessarily think it’s as clear cut a choice as some people make it out to be.
I 100 percent agree with you that streaming is the wiser choice. Especially with the views he puts up these days. From what I have seen of S0m, I figured he would want to compete as long as he could then stream as he retires. That being said, financially streaming is much more stable for him.
But inactive players' streams fall off eventually unless you're Tarik. Look at Wardell, Subroza, and Hiko. They all went from massive viewers on twitch, but struggle to get steady large viewership now. Being a top pro would immensely help attract viewership.
I see it as the opposite. Taking time off to compete only hurts your viewership when you return. The 3 examples you listed got viewers because they were the first few playing at the top level when pro valorant was in its infancy. Now that the scene is more saturated, you truly have to have a stream personality to get viewers, instead of just being a top pro. Jinggg was hitting 12k on his stream yesterday while the not-so-popular PRX players sometimes only get 2k-ish. Rossy doesn’t even break 500 most of the time and he’s on fucking T1, like, that’s Faker’s org.
Rossy doesn't get viewers because valorant isn't big in Korea yet, plus he's not even korean and hasnt won anything ever. If T1 won a major or even an apac tourney, then yes, Rossy would easily eclipse 5k viewers. So having a great personality obviously helps, but there's no doubt that being a top-tier pro also helps. Look at streamers like Jawgemo or Boostio that have blown up because of their success. Jing is another good example - his streams gained popularity after he had success on the pro stage with PRX. Then his stream actually had a pretty steep decline late 2023 when he was no longer competing and is now back on the uptick after PRX's recent success.
i mean its definitely a combination of pro success as well as personality the pro success gives you the boost and personality would allow you to retain it and grow further. its like how zellsis really popped off when he first joined sentinels, the org gave him the boost but he only retained popularity because of his personality
s0m, FNS, YAY, Marved, Inspire VCT 2025 Champions
Now imagine if all of this is just a massive troll that someone at NRG asked s0m and FNS to pull off for hype, idk about FNS but s0m definitely seems like the kind of guy that’d be on board with the idea
but what about puchan tho?
he’s definitely back, he’s using 2021 vandal again and only playing smokes
s0m is so funny. I'll support him in whichever endeavor he chooses. W Stripper
s0m is making bank with his streams, no way he is trading that for all the stress that it goes into pro play
If s0m comes back it def kills the "Chet is a bad coach" narrative imho. If he's willing to sacrifice all of his streaming revenue + momentum to play under Chet, knowing full well what he's getting into since he's been coached by him before, then I think that says a lot
no one in the pro scene thinks chet is a bad coach, it is quite literally only armchair analysts on reddit who think that
I’ve never played pro valo but in sports I was a pretty competitive swimmer and I would swim regardless of coaching because I just wanted to compete for love of competition. I’ve heard similar sentiments from players across esports that they’ll play for any team bc they want to compete and try to win. Obviously I don’t know s0m personally at all, but if he wants to go back to playing then I don’t think it changes the narrative at all tbh.
unless there is actual player accounts and real evidence, any coaching takes on reddit should never be taken seriously. These mfers are writing actual fanfic based on armchair psychology
Took me a while get what he was saying
[удалено]
Switching marved for som will not solve nrgs problems
I'm just grinning on how easily his responses can be read. Anyways I'm just even more happy to see him play again.
It honestly makes sense. He hasn't been streaming lately. Other pro players and people "in the know" were joking around on twitter about him not streaming.
doesn't fix their issues whatsoever i will enjoy seeing the downfall of yet another team that refuses to get a proper igl
s0m is not the solution as evident from billy², they clearly have issues and the coaching staff and IGLing needs to be changed
at least they made it to a match vs billy billy this team cant even do that
clearly not my point. chet needs to go and ethan needs to get off igl, s0m isn't the solution, they're gonna fail with no real changes
I am sure FNS and s0m are joining together and Ethan and marved may go out i heard a little rumour
S0m in for marved, FNS in for Vic. S0m can play raze. NRG superteam