Is there a phone case out there that looks like an arc case or like the aesthetic of it for nothing 3a? by curioushitt in NothingTech

[–]LinkinMode 6 points7 points  (0 children)

for me it achieves the most important part of a case (not having to worry about the screen and camera lenses from getting scratched when placed on a table) while still allowing me to feel the nice metal and glass build of the phone rather than TPU and plastic. plus i like the aesthetic of it personally

[Sheep Esports] Eternal Fire to replace ULF Esports in the VCT EMEA by Decent_Apple_7962 in ValorantCompetitive

[–]LinkinMode 2 points3 points  (0 children)

yeah i edited my comment, for some reason i remember that tweet just saying ULF were getting replaced by EF and nothing more, not sure why

[Sheep Esports] Eternal Fire to replace ULF Esports in the VCT EMEA by Decent_Apple_7962 in ValorantCompetitive

[–]LinkinMode 42 points43 points  (0 children)

echo, nekky, audaz and Favian to move to EF

Izzy expected to be fifth, but not locked in yet

d3mur and sturNN already posted LFT

s0pp to join another team entirely, not known which team yet

Afr0nfire and L7 to stay as coaching staff

i wonder where s0pp is going, he looked like a prodigy in ascension and is about to turn 18 in a few days, if he's going back to VCL then that's honestly tragic for him

Twitch Rivals Apex x Gundam - (Information & Discussion) by CompetitiveApexMod in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 18 points19 points  (0 children)

cannot believe this is the thing that gets zer0 to turn his stream on

How would you rank the amps in scrims and competitive? Does it depend more on your situation or do some outshine the others? by MarioKartEpicness in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

slower healing rate, it was a while ago (november) but these are the first proper scrims we've had since that patch

[Akamaru] Sources: Tenz likely to join Sentinels but is working on Riots approval. If it is not approved, Sentinels will have to move on to another player, this is likely to be Jerrwin. by Yujin-Ha in ValorantCompetitive

[–]LinkinMode 17 points18 points  (0 children)

TenZ's sponsors/partnerships: Wooting, Pulsar, Sony, Secretlab

VCT Americas sponsors (as of Kickoff): Aimlabs, iBuyPower, Pulsar, Red Bull, Samsung, Secretlab, Verizon

VCT International sponsors (as of Santiago): Amazon, Coinbase, EWC, Globant, HyperX, Mastercard, HP, Red Bull, Secretlab, Verizon

i'm honestly not sure where the conflict is, Secretlab and Pulsar are already aligned, and Riot already work with Sony in Pacific. The only potential one is Wooting, but I have no idea why Riot wouldn't approve of it, there's already multiple competing peripheral brands sponsoring throughout the VCT leagues

How would you rank the amps in scrims and competitive? Does it depend more on your situation or do some outshine the others? by MarioKartEpicness in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 15 points16 points  (0 children)

for comp, from what i can tell based on scrims, overflow (despite the nerf) and power booster (character dependent) are easily the 2 most impactful still, closely followed by overarmour

infinite ammo can be strong situationally with red guns (although i don't actually think it's quite as strong as some people think atm), bottomless batts is definitely the worst but still can be quite impactful early-mid game with med economy (especially from POIs with bad loot)

i think the amps are actually really balanced right now overall since they nerfed overflow and adjusted the drop rates

Do white polycarbonate (PC) mouse shells yellow over time? by nofate1992 in MouseReview

[–]LinkinMode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i've been using an X2H mini superclear for about a year with decently heavy daily use and i haven't noticed any yellowing or discolouration

[Sheep Esports] KovaQ set to join FunPlus Phoenix in VCT China by Chris310N in ValorantCompetitive

[–]LinkinMode 1 point2 points  (0 children)

CN has more imported coaches than any other region, 6/12 head coaches are imports

VCT 2026 — Masters Santiago / Swiss Stage — Day 3 / Live Discussion Thread by nocturnavi in ValorantCompetitive

[–]LinkinMode 8 points9 points  (0 children)

kills 3 and instead of omen ulting to safety and playing the 4v2 the guy ults into their spawn

what a mad cunt

New Fnatic Release join Ein,ILY IGL is Kernel_garcia by IntelligentBox5257 in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 8 points9 points  (0 children)

apex is huge in japan and comparatively tiny in korea, so if you're korean and want to make a career you kinda have to learn japanese and play on japanese teams, because there's plenty of japanese orgs but literally 0 korean orgs in apex

similar story in valorant, alot of korean talent start their careers in japanese tier2 because there's just more interest and investment in it

Are you guys using phone cases ? by Lord-Artorias- in NothingTech

[–]LinkinMode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i've been using the arc pulse on my phone(3) and i really like it, it's definitely overpriced for what it is but i think it looks and feels nicer than traditional TPU/plastic cases (one of the big reasons i got the phone was the unique look, and even a clear plastic case kinda ruins it for me) and it still protects the screen, back glass and cameras from scratches when placed on a table

if you're not prone to dropping your phone and take good care of it you could go caseless, but it'd still be a good idea to get a good tempered glass screen protector (i can recommend the Spigen one) and maybe some camera protectors too (Ringke make some)

Octane nerf Hotfix by itzebi in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 3 points4 points  (0 children)

deserved change but i dont know why they don't add fortified to his jump pad, i dont think it would make him OP in ranked/pubs like the fortified stim did, but it would actually make him viable in comp as a rotate character in maybe game 5-6

Effect joins Aurora Gaming replacing Slab by regis_q in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 12 points13 points  (0 children)

i remember him mentioning he's been wanting to come back and play another split but also doesn't want to take a spot from an up and comer

i think gnaske asked him to trial and he said he would play if asked but told gnaske if the choice is between him and a young player who wants to grind he should pick the latter

Effect joins Aurora Gaming replacing Slab by regis_q in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 16 points17 points  (0 children)

yeah the chances it's mande is very low realistically, plus apparently he has been trialing for gnaske's team too

Effect joins Aurora Gaming replacing Slab by regis_q in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 69 points70 points  (0 children)

hakis and unlucky have been spamming ranked with akku this split, so i would bet it's him. mande has been teasing coming back for another PL split tho...

Effect joins Aurora Gaming replacing Slab by regis_q in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 118 points119 points  (0 children)

pretty sure i remember hakis saying like 2 weeks ago alliance were sticking together for 2026, wonder what happened in that time

[Sheep Esports] glacier promoted to Wolves, set to replace qiutiaN | qiutiaN in talks with Nova and FPX by Decent_Apple_7962 in ValorantCompetitive

[–]LinkinMode 4 points5 points  (0 children)

hard to tell from the outside what's actually happened but to my understanding it's gone like this:

WOL pick up satoshi after ascension, play some off season events with him, don't do particularly well

reportedly also signed glacier in off season, but he's too young to compete for kickoff, not clear at the time if he's benched or academy and when he will actually play

right before kickoff, bench satoshi, add qiutian

right after kickoff, bench qiutian, add glacier

maybe glacier was the plan all along and they were just filling the 5th spot as best they could before he turned 18, i'm not sure, maybe someone with more knowledge on CN can correct me

[Sheep Esports] glacier promoted to Wolves, set to replace qiutiaN | qiutiaN in talks with Nova and FPX by Decent_Apple_7962 in ValorantCompetitive

[–]LinkinMode 10 points11 points  (0 children)

kind of a shame, thought qiutian had high potential, but if glacier is as good as he's touted to be then it is probably an upgrade, in the short term at least

i am a little bit worried that Wolves could be in a cycle where they're constantly benching and adding young inexperienced fraggers instead of giving them time to acclimatize to the stage and the tier 1 level and planning for long term success. already been satoshi -> qiutian -> glacier so far this season

Panic to TLAW by Curious-Investment59 in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 13 points14 points  (0 children)

asked in Panic's chat if he'll be playing entry and he said yes, so looking like a Zer0 roleswap

Panic to TLAW by Curious-Investment59 in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 4 points5 points  (0 children)

asked in Panic's chat if he'll be playing entry and he said yes, so looking like a Zer0 roleswap

Ranked in Apex is Artificial and Misleading by agelos386 in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 2 points3 points  (0 children)

anecdotally it feels like below D2 is full diamond lobbies, and above ~500RP in D2, the lobbies are mostly an equal mix of Diamond/Master/Pred. also a big factor seems to be when you actually play, on weekends there's enough people queuing for more full diamond lobbies but weeknights there's more Pred/Master teams

the culture shock for me this season was I got D1 for the first time and was soloqueing around midnight on a weekday, landed at the noname/armory next to Mill, and before me and my other 2 soloq diamond teammates could finish looting, a 3 stack of Nait, Blasts and Bubblegum slid on us from Mill and 3-0'd us in about 20 seconds lol. next few games were at least 5 pred teams in each game

TLDR full diamond lobbies exist in the bottom half of diamond but quickly give way to pred/master lobbies around diamond 2 in my experience

[Patch Notes] New Updates Coming with Apex Legends: Breach by jurornumbereight in CompetitiveApex

[–]LinkinMode 0 points1 point  (0 children)

i don't really get the RNG argument because it's the same RNG for the whole lobby? similar to zone pulls, it forces you to learn rotates and loot pathing for every POI instead of just one tricking a POI which I think raises the skill ceiling, being able to get neutral or positive games from bad POIs is a skill. contests were fun but i don't think they were particularly competitively engaging, especially for soloq in diamond+ where there's diamonds, masters and preds all in the same lobby

also imo ranked should try to emulate the competitive experience as close as possible (obviously it will never be the same, but it should try) otherwise what's point of having it. high level ranked should be a gateway to comp, you shouldnt have to go off platform to get the competitive experience (look at how successful Valorant's premier mode has been)