Pop Flash Breakdown: The Most Competitive Tournament of 2020
This tournament is rigged to have some amazing matches at every stage. If there’s any Valorant tournament to watch from start to finish this is going to be it. Being invite only means that there are a lot of good teams that are left out of this tournament. A few that come to mind are FaZe Clan, Complexity, and Renegades. But let’s be real, every top team, every great team capable of taking a title in North America is going to be playing in this tournament.
In my opinion TSM locked down the #1 spot in North America again with their win at the FaZe Clan Invitational. There they proved that they are more than capable of beating the Sentinels, doing so in bracket play, and in the grand finals of the tournament. More recently they won another title where the Sentinels weren’t in attendence, the Knights Invitational Gauntlet. TSM only dropped one map to Gen.G but ended up beating them in the finals without too much trouble. Even though the Sentinels were absent from the Knights Invitational, there were plenty of other top teams in attendance that TSM was able to dispatch such as Immortals and C9. In a recent Forbes interview, Wardell stated that in regards to the Sentinels “It’s not even close”, he believes TSM is above and beyond the Sentinels and he’ll get the chance to prove that this tournament.
As a team, the TSM squad was starting to look sloppy before the FaZe Clan Invitational. They couldn’t seem to beat Sentinels who looked to be just a step above them at every level. You see a lot more confidence in the way the team has been playing in recent tournaments. I hope Tailored their coach is doing good work with them in the background. There’s plenty of time for teams like Sentinels to review TSM VOD’s, make adjustments, and come out strong for the early stages in Popflash but I have confidence TSM won’t take this tournament lightly and should top their group.
They’ll face strong teams like Gen.G and Cloud9 in this early stage. Gen.G who sent TSM to lower brackets in the previous Knights Invitational, and Cloud 9 who eliminated them from the Pulse Invitational back on July 10th. This won’t be an easy road for TSM, even though they’re avoiding, in my opinion, the #2 and #3 teams in Sentinels and Immortals who were placed in Group B. With TSM you can almost always expect Wardell to have a solid contribution to his team in the fragging and pressure department. When Drone is performing along with their role players like Cutler and Subroza, the team is second to none. If TSM is smart with their map control and progressions onto sites they shouldn’t drop a series in Group A.
I keep expecting Gen.G to fall off a cliff in play and results and they never seem to falter. I think this is the tournament I have to stop doubting them, even though it might be their toughest shot at getting out of a group stage thus far. They played extremely well in the Knights Invitational tournament and looked good in the FaZe Clan invitational as well, getting out of groups and placing 4th overall in the tournament behind TSM, Sentinels, and Immortals. They’re the 4th best team in North America and they’ve earned that title with a string of solid performances. The last tournament they won was the Pulse Invitational on July 10th so they have to be itching for another win.
If there’s anyone that can spoil Gen.G’s advancement from the group stage it’s Cloud9. If Cloud9 is performing well they can match up with Gen.G and take a series. If they drop to Cloud9 in the group stages it will require them to play better than TSM which is a tall order for any team right now. gMd might be one of the best duelists in North America right now besides Drone. With their recent team compositions, you’ve seen a lot of huynh and MkaeL creating space for gMd to shine. I think if we see improvement in effys form they can be a true top team. If TenZ is on and getting support from the rest of his squad he might send his fellow Canadian countrymen home early. Still, I expect Gen.G to keep on trucking at this event and get through with the #2 spot under TSM. They’ve slid behind Immortals in more rankings than mine already, getting out of groups is a requirement to keep them in the conversation for the 3rd best team in North America. gMd on Breach is something special, and he can really turn the tide in a game with his play alone. He’ll be a great player to watch throughout the tournament.
Cloud9 should be able to transcend to a Top 3 team with the pieces they have. TenZ is a special talent in Valorant and has consistently performed great in most tournaments. Statistically, he’s one of the best if not the best player in North America, but as a squad Cloud9 still has some weak spots. They have good role players and a solid in-game leader in Shinobi, which is really the recipe for a winning team. Cloud9 needs to be more structured and better prepared than other teams to take a series. Counting on TenZ to frag out isn’t what brings them success, the structured site takes and re-takes are the reason why Cloud9 is capable of winning big rounds and big matches.
In order for Cloud9 to start making it to some grand finals, Relyks and mitch will have to step up their play to another level. Relyks plays Omen extremely well, especially in Shinobi’s system with key flashes and smokes in a lot of their executes. Statistically speaking though, Vice often comes up behind TenZ. When you consider the fact that they often have him on agents like Cypher and Omen, that’s a sign of the other team member’s lacking necessary fire-power or fragging ability. I’ve said this previously, I wish I could’ve seen Vice on some duelists as he has a lot of potential as a straight entry fragger.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t have faith in players like Relyks to improve and take Cloud9 to the next level, but the clock starts ticking at Popflash for them. I see Cloud9 running without a Cypher putting Vice on Agents like Omen/Breach, and while I prefer to see him on Breach it limits them to less than ideal compositions. If we see the meta develop into a less Cypher centric one and Vice gets to play Agents that allow him more freedom/movement we’ll see a Cloud9 with more threats than TenZ and taking more titles.
Dephh, psalm, supamen, and Poised finally found a home in Dignitas. Dignitas (ex Homeless) has been playing above expectations in recent tournaments and has been in good form placing 5-6th in the Knights Invitational and 3rd-4th in the PAX Arena Invitational. These are great results considering they’ve been distracted by building a roster and looking for a stable organization to pick them up. Still, when you look at the teams that are placing above them in previous tournaments you’ll notice they’re all in this tournament and in their group.
They have some real talents on their team in supamen and Poised who consistently impress me with their play, but I don’t think they have enough to get out of the groups in this tournament. They still haven’t officially announced their fifth at the time of writing this and I’m not sure who will be their last player playing with them in this tournament.
I definitely think they’re capable of upsets. Should any team take them lightly or make too many mistakes in a game I can easily see Dignitas pulling out a win. Still, it’s not a confident thing to have your fate rely on the mishaps of others. That puts Dignitas in a tough spot for getting out of groups. I’m excited to see if they confirm a fifth and how they play with the new backing of Dignitas, a legendary organization. I just don’t see them getting out of the group stages or advancing too far in this tournament.
The Sentinels are coming off of some tough losses in the FaZe Clan Invitational to TSM, so I expect them to be coming in hot to this tournament. On Twitter, their players shook off losses handed to them by rivals TSM, but this is the first chance we’ll get to see if they truly did put those losses in the back of their mind. I expect the Sentinels to be more prepared for this tournament and I’m excited to see what new looks they give us once they get into the playoff stages. I don’t think there’s a chance they don’t breeze through the group stage, the only team that should give them trouble is Immortals. This roster and their roles have always made sense and you can see how all the puzzle pieces fit together when they play matches. All of their recent losses to TSM were really tight games that could’ve gone in their favor had a couple of key players performed up to their typical standards.
I think there is another stiff competitor in their group in Envy, and the very slight possibility that T1 can upset if they somehow manage to get their act together in time for this tournament so maybe they won’t “breeze” through their group stage like I previously stated. I can’t imagine that Sentinels drop too many games here though and should get out of groups with the top spot.
If there’s any team that can break the constant #1 and #2 swapping we have between TSM and Sentinels it’s the Immortals team. They have one of the most stacked rosters with Asuna, Genghsta, jcStani, diceyzx, and KOLER. It looks like KOLER is improving his Agent pool with the roster changes, and diceyzx looked solid in his debut with the roster from the 30Bomb: Summer Cup - 2020 until now.
Now that they have a few tournaments under their belt they should be upset with anything other than a win this tournament. While TSM and the Sentinels are the clear favorites I believe Immortals have a strong shot at getting to the Grand Finals. They should be more than capable of dispatching Envy and T1 to get out of the group stages. Sentinels have looked great even in their losses. So the Immortals will have to take these group stage matches as a learning experience and gain some advantages and insights on the Sentinels going into the playoffs if they want to have a real shot at winning the whole shebang. You can count on KOLER and jcStani to be essential role players, and as soon as diceyzx, Asuna, and Genghsta start clicking and getting into a rhythm there’s not much hope for the other team.
Envy has a lot of upset potential in this group. Kaboose, c4lypso, and mummAy make up an insane core for their roster that can take over games. You can see that FNS is building out a system for them to follow and as they get more and more comfortable within that system their results improve. Envy reminds me of Immortals with their level of firepower but their results aren’t as comparable. We’ve seen better from them recently with a 5th-6th place finish in the FaZe Clan Invitational and a 4th place finish in the Knights Invitational.
Envy will be favored in their T1 match-up and they need to cement that victory in order to have any shot of making it out of groups. Then it will be up to their core to perform and upset one of the favorites in Immortals or Sentinels. I don’t think they do it this tournament, but it would be awesome to witness the team ascend to another level here.
T1 has been a huge disappointment recently. There’s a huge air of frustration coming from their better-performing players as the squad struggles to see any real results. They seem to be moving in a very down direction, but the team itself has so much talent on it it’s sort of hard to believe. When the roster was assembled I assumed we would be seeing them fight for the top spot with a team like Sentinels, and not TSM. Still it’s not like the talent disappeared overnight, they’re are definitely going through a tough spot.
This tournament will be the bright light on whether or not T1 has what it takes to climb out of the hole they dug for themselves and start to perform up to expectations. With a roster that has Brax, Food, Crashies, Skadoodle, and AZK you would expect a lot more tournament wins. fRoD filled has filled in for Skadoodle and performed above expectations. It seems like a lot of angst and criticism has been aimed at Ska recently and it’s not completely unwarranted. Either way, if the team doesn’t improve right here and now, and surprise me and everyone else I can’t imagine they don’t make a change soon. I don’t see them getting out of groups with the way the other teams in Group B have been playing.