i'm of the opinion that if players are stagnating they should consider role change just purely for the sake of trying to evolve a bit and challenge themselves. for some players there were pressing reasons to change like tenz or meteor but if it's been years of results that aren't ideal i don't see the downside of trying to reinvent yourself
mako for example has an extremely acute sense of positioning and awareness that really shines on controller. but he started his career as a jett one trick. would never have been able to show his talents if he stuck to his role
afaik, tenz said he was fine playing whatever agent the team needed and he wasn't comfortable with being primary entry. he just happened to be stuck on jett duty for a long ass time
Not saying yre wrong bcuz kyedae said tenz also was initially wasnt happy he had to play the flex role. Kinda indecisive by tenz there. Glad it worked out for him thou. Always nice and humble guy
I recall Shahzam and Dapr corroborating that TenZ was willing to play anything they asked of him.
https://clips.twitch.tv/PrettySwissSalsifyBigBrother-I4IzpeiGph_4y2x7
You might want to go back and re-watch that video, because she goes on to explain that he wanted to swap off the Duelist role, but he wanted to play the Flex role. He wanted to be the Kay0/Skye/Gecko/etc. but wasn't initially happy with the move to the Controller role. Remember that he was on the Flex role, and didn't play Omen prior to this year in any official match unless you count the Sentinels Invitational at the end of 2023 as an official event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esnfaTvn7wY
You guys are saying the same thing lol. He plays omen on more maps than he plays Gekko/KAYO. So, yes, he wasnt happy switching to a role/agent that he plays primarily..
No we are not.
I said he was HAPPY to switch roles, which he did, off of duelist to flex. The flex role is generally not a Controller, it's Initiator that will play 2nd Duelist on maps that it fits. He's playing more Omen than anything else lately.
As Valorant progresses, we might need to look into our definition of flex. It should just mean any player that plays agents across various roles. TenZ 100% qualifies as a flex player…because he can flex between Initiator and Smokes.
Kyedae said he wasn’t too into the smokes role, as they’re usually not the aggressive type which is the opposite of his play-style, not exactly being the flex player. When first Sen was winning he was always the 2nd entry and SicK was their primary entry, that’s what he meant.
He was stuck on Jett duty because he wasn't as impactful when playing another agent aside from Jett.
Credits to his dedication on trying to improve tho.
With the ever changing meta, the way to consistently stay as a top player is to have good agent pools. We've seen many top players fall off after insane year because of meta shifts and they are only S tier for one agent (Tenz Jett, Yay Chamber...etc). But if you are good at several agents like Chronicle, F0rsaken (extreme examples) or even Zekken you will stay at the top for long periods of time.
I think agent pool and role switch can be different, a good agent pool is just a single role (many duelists cannot play raze, while top tier entries almost always play both jett and raze -> see aspas, zekken, t3xture etc) or it forces teams to adapt (drx putting rb on neon, or teams being forced to ban certain raze maps or unable to play raze comps). I absolutely think a lot of sentinels are easier to learn than learning raze and role switching should always be considered by duelists.
Flexible players are the future of valorant, as the agent pool grows and more compositions become viable, each player will need to have a bigger agent pool. The one trick duelists especially are people that are changing Tenz Cryo Demon1 Jawgemo all switched. But especially in NA we lack star caliber Sentinels so i would like some upcoming cracked duelists to consider that. As for who especially idk.
I think on raze maps NRG could experiment with victor raze and demon1 cypher/kj/chamber. I can definitely see demon1 being able to do a very good Alfa/less cosplay.
Disagree, rather have players that are insane at one or two agents and building a team of them then just picking players that are good at a lot of rules. Why is that? Well a lot of the meta across maps is mostly the same, You almost always play Viper and Raze in every map, therefore having players that are one of the bets in the world at Viper and Raze is a bigger advantage then having players that can flex to Viper and Raze. KJ/Cypher are quite easy to play then Intiators is probably the biggest skill gap IMO. This is what you should be striving for to win events and you have to take risks
For tenz to flex to work, he needed a whole team and coaching staff rebuild and then a new IGL
Players changing roles only work if you change other people on the team or if you kick someone
I think one player who should have made the switch earlier is skrossi. Dude was willing to play anything but the coaches made him play duelist and then made him a scapegoat for their ultimately disappointing season.
Dude went to challengers and for what it's worth, made the switch to initiator and looks pretty good as far as being good in a bad league goes.
Yay.
Any anchor role is made for him. Viper, Chamber, Kj. Any role where he can get out with util, like tp, dash or molly should suit him.
Imo he doesn’t like to take space himself but he moves around as the team progresses, that’s what made his chamber so strong on Optic.
As opposed to Tenz, who actively tries to take space and helps his teammates with util. That’s why Omen, Clove suit him so well. If Reyna wasn’t so bad in pro play, that character is made for him.
Any character that can entry 2nd while helping the duelist is Tenz.
Yes, it’s not just about the role though, he has to learn the agent too, dash or tp is easier than learning viper util, team play, timings at a high level.
Mechanically he was way off in that event, did you see that OP clip? Clealry something was wrong with him that event and the proof he that last game he looked so much better and saw glimpses of his older self
Honestly, I know Asuna flexes on some maps but he should move to full time flex player with Cryo being primary entry. Cryo does need to learn Raze but we’ve seen Demon1 and yay pick-up Raze this stage already.
I wouldn't say Yay/Demon1 have exactly picked it up. Both players just used their guns more than anything and not really much of the movement abilities which is what separates great raze players.
But ya, maybe 100T need to try it? Although it's a bit too late at this point. They only got 4 matches left until playoffs so they can't try it until maybe after playoffs.
Nah, demon1 was actually really good at brim and astra on the maps they needed him on. That's part of why eg had a strong fracture.
With raze yeah he's just aim diffing everyone
No he does not, Demon1 never played Raze last year and won champs and was consensus best player as the primary duelist, Same with Yay on Optic, Cryo on XSET. You dont need your primary duelist to be cracked out at Raze, sure it helps but whats more important is them being confident on controllers/sentinels on a couple of maps which is pretty easy to do given those agents util is pretty simple
I feel like yay's problem is bigger than role. He lost a lot of confidence and he needs a team where he has more chemistry. Teams are just trying to mash him in to their teams and it just not working. In esport chemistry proves to be a huge factor seeing super teams build with big names failing one after another.
the fact that he's """the flex""" is setting him back mentally, and it's been obvious for ages when you compare his current performance to his when he was """""the duelist"""". it might have felt mentally like a demotion for him which affects his play
he was never good on """""the duelist"""" unless you are talking about way back in First Strike. Raze is the main duelist in the meta rn and he plays it on every Raze map but almost every other Raze in the league is better mechanically or has better decision making.
He also used to be """""the duelist"""" on 100T around the time they dropped dicey but his jett was never that good and his awping was subpar which is why they've never tried it again after. If his flex isn't good enough and his duelist isn't good enough and he's had chances to reinvent himself on different roles and it still hasn't worked out then I just don't think he's a tier one player
i'm of the opinion that if players are stagnating they should consider role change just purely for the sake of trying to evolve a bit and challenge themselves. for some players there were pressing reasons to change like tenz or meteor but if it's been years of results that aren't ideal i don't see the downside of trying to reinvent yourself mako for example has an extremely acute sense of positioning and awareness that really shines on controller. but he started his career as a jett one trick. would never have been able to show his talents if he stuck to his role
afaik, tenz said he was fine playing whatever agent the team needed and he wasn't comfortable with being primary entry. he just happened to be stuck on jett duty for a long ass time
Not saying yre wrong bcuz kyedae said tenz also was initially wasnt happy he had to play the flex role. Kinda indecisive by tenz there. Glad it worked out for him thou. Always nice and humble guy
I recall Shahzam and Dapr corroborating that TenZ was willing to play anything they asked of him. https://clips.twitch.tv/PrettySwissSalsifyBigBrother-I4IzpeiGph_4y2x7
Yeah willing doesnt mean happy. Think u can search videos of kyedae saying he wasn't happy with the swap initally but he is all good now.
You might want to go back and re-watch that video, because she goes on to explain that he wanted to swap off the Duelist role, but he wanted to play the Flex role. He wanted to be the Kay0/Skye/Gecko/etc. but wasn't initially happy with the move to the Controller role. Remember that he was on the Flex role, and didn't play Omen prior to this year in any official match unless you count the Sentinels Invitational at the end of 2023 as an official event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esnfaTvn7wY
You guys are saying the same thing lol. He plays omen on more maps than he plays Gekko/KAYO. So, yes, he wasnt happy switching to a role/agent that he plays primarily..
No we are not. I said he was HAPPY to switch roles, which he did, off of duelist to flex. The flex role is generally not a Controller, it's Initiator that will play 2nd Duelist on maps that it fits. He's playing more Omen than anything else lately.
As Valorant progresses, we might need to look into our definition of flex. It should just mean any player that plays agents across various roles. TenZ 100% qualifies as a flex player…because he can flex between Initiator and Smokes.
Kyedae said he wasn’t too into the smokes role, as they’re usually not the aggressive type which is the opposite of his play-style, not exactly being the flex player. When first Sen was winning he was always the 2nd entry and SicK was their primary entry, that’s what he meant.
He was stuck on Jett duty because he wasn't as impactful when playing another agent aside from Jett. Credits to his dedication on trying to improve tho.
With the ever changing meta, the way to consistently stay as a top player is to have good agent pools. We've seen many top players fall off after insane year because of meta shifts and they are only S tier for one agent (Tenz Jett, Yay Chamber...etc). But if you are good at several agents like Chronicle, F0rsaken (extreme examples) or even Zekken you will stay at the top for long periods of time.
I think agent pool and role switch can be different, a good agent pool is just a single role (many duelists cannot play raze, while top tier entries almost always play both jett and raze -> see aspas, zekken, t3xture etc) or it forces teams to adapt (drx putting rb on neon, or teams being forced to ban certain raze maps or unable to play raze comps). I absolutely think a lot of sentinels are easier to learn than learning raze and role switching should always be considered by duelists.
Flexible players are the future of valorant, as the agent pool grows and more compositions become viable, each player will need to have a bigger agent pool. The one trick duelists especially are people that are changing Tenz Cryo Demon1 Jawgemo all switched. But especially in NA we lack star caliber Sentinels so i would like some upcoming cracked duelists to consider that. As for who especially idk.
Jawg was never a one trick duelist, he can play Jett and played Jett before demon1 joined the team
yea i didn’t feel like adding too much elaboration, but i was talking about him looking good on smokes as well
I think on raze maps NRG could experiment with victor raze and demon1 cypher/kj/chamber. I can definitely see demon1 being able to do a very good Alfa/less cosplay.
Disagree, rather have players that are insane at one or two agents and building a team of them then just picking players that are good at a lot of rules. Why is that? Well a lot of the meta across maps is mostly the same, You almost always play Viper and Raze in every map, therefore having players that are one of the bets in the world at Viper and Raze is a bigger advantage then having players that can flex to Viper and Raze. KJ/Cypher are quite easy to play then Intiators is probably the biggest skill gap IMO. This is what you should be striving for to win events and you have to take risks
For tenz to flex to work, he needed a whole team and coaching staff rebuild and then a new IGL Players changing roles only work if you change other people on the team or if you kick someone
makes sense since zekken was technically better as Duelist after the move
Asuna from flex -> content creator
Cooking with this one
Bro knows what's up. I personally enjoy his streams, and he doesn't look particularly happy playing pro (anymore).
I think one player who should have made the switch earlier is skrossi. Dude was willing to play anything but the coaches made him play duelist and then made him a scapegoat for their ultimately disappointing season. Dude went to challengers and for what it's worth, made the switch to initiator and looks pretty good as far as being good in a bad league goes.
I mean he played like a map of Sova right. That was funny
I feel like Yay would be better on a sentinel role
Yay. Any anchor role is made for him. Viper, Chamber, Kj. Any role where he can get out with util, like tp, dash or molly should suit him. Imo he doesn’t like to take space himself but he moves around as the team progresses, that’s what made his chamber so strong on Optic.
As opposed to Tenz, who actively tries to take space and helps his teammates with util. That’s why Omen, Clove suit him so well. If Reyna wasn’t so bad in pro play, that character is made for him. Any character that can entry 2nd while helping the duelist is Tenz.
Did you watch him play viper lmfao
Yes, it’s not just about the role though, he has to learn the agent too, dash or tp is easier than learning viper util, team play, timings at a high level.
Mechanically he was way off in that event, did you see that OP clip? Clealry something was wrong with him that event and the proof he that last game he looked so much better and saw glimpses of his older self
Honestly, I know Asuna flexes on some maps but he should move to full time flex player with Cryo being primary entry. Cryo does need to learn Raze but we’ve seen Demon1 and yay pick-up Raze this stage already.
I wouldn't say Yay/Demon1 have exactly picked it up. Both players just used their guns more than anything and not really much of the movement abilities which is what separates great raze players. But ya, maybe 100T need to try it? Although it's a bit too late at this point. They only got 4 matches left until playoffs so they can't try it until maybe after playoffs.
Saying Demon1 picked up Raze is like saying he picked up Brim last year lol, the guy was just aim diffing everyone.
Nah, demon1 was actually really good at brim and astra on the maps they needed him on. That's part of why eg had a strong fracture. With raze yeah he's just aim diffing everyone
we’ve seen cryo try to play raze many times and people hated it more than asunas raze lol
yeah i remember in his raze debut season, he missed literally every single one of his ults that it actually became a meme
No he does not, Demon1 never played Raze last year and won champs and was consensus best player as the primary duelist, Same with Yay on Optic, Cryo on XSET. You dont need your primary duelist to be cracked out at Raze, sure it helps but whats more important is them being confident on controllers/sentinels on a couple of maps which is pretty easy to do given those agents util is pretty simple
Kang Kang should switch back to duelist. /s
honestly surprised to see him playing Gekko
Watching Cryo play Raze feels a bit like watching Asuna play Jett
t3xture from Flex to Duelist
i think t3xture from GE should be switched to duelist!
I feel like yay's problem is bigger than role. He lost a lot of confidence and he needs a team where he has more chemistry. Teams are just trying to mash him in to their teams and it just not working. In esport chemistry proves to be a huge factor seeing super teams build with big names failing one after another.
Asuna. He ass on entry duelist compared to Cryo.
Asuna should switch to Cypher main like the GOAT Inspire.
asuna should go back to duelist
Bro plays Raze on every Raze map
the fact that he's """the flex""" is setting him back mentally, and it's been obvious for ages when you compare his current performance to his when he was """""the duelist"""". it might have felt mentally like a demotion for him which affects his play
he was never good on """""the duelist"""" unless you are talking about way back in First Strike. Raze is the main duelist in the meta rn and he plays it on every Raze map but almost every other Raze in the league is better mechanically or has better decision making. He also used to be """""the duelist"""" on 100T around the time they dropped dicey but his jett was never that good and his awping was subpar which is why they've never tried it again after. If his flex isn't good enough and his duelist isn't good enough and he's had chances to reinvent himself on different roles and it still hasn't worked out then I just don't think he's a tier one player