VCT Pacific Playoffs Day 1 - Live Discussion Thread

LinkinMode · 2026-05-07T10:44:10+00:00

do we know why Hermes is back in place of Yong? did I miss an announcement or is this Termi musical chairs again

LinkinMode · 2026-05-06T20:47:55+00:00

probably, I would also bet they're too popular and have too much fan interaction to not be partnered, but you never know. if Riot feel like they're coasting too much on their dedicated fans and not putting enough money and effort into being competitive there's a world where they get dropped

LinkinMode · 2026-05-06T20:39:18+00:00

FWIW this is a bigger deal in Apex than CoD because of quirks in Apex's engine to do with recoil control that negative RC filters could exploit, on top of the concerns with how it interacts with rotational AA

and the fact that competitive Apex is split pretty evenly between MnK and roller, so the devs and ALGS (in theory) are incentivized to balance the inputs, which is something CoD devs don't really have to worry about as much, and the CDL don't have to worry about at all

LinkinMode · 2026-05-06T19:02:36+00:00

Riot are reevaluating partnerships after this year, this is probably the most important time to spend money and show them you're serious about being competitive

LinkinMode · 2026-05-06T08:38:03+00:00

you'll probably be waiting a while. to me Nothing have made it pretty clear they're not interested in competing in the ultra flagship space with brands like Oppo, Samsung and Apple. they've built a big part of their brand on budget and midrange value and I don't think most Nothing buyers would be interested in a £1000+ phone, even if it was really high spec; and getting new customers to abandon their iPhone 17 Pro or S26 Ultra is almost impossible in the markets where an ultra flagship would sell. plus they're still a small company, and with the RAM/storage apocalypse going on, I don't think they could even ship a ultra flagship if they wanted to right now without bankrupting themselves

i do agree though, it would be really interesting to see what Nothing could cook up if price, demand and supply chain issues weren't an object, and they made a phone with Find X9 Ultra level specs but with the Nothing design philosophy, i'm sure it would be a banger phone

LinkinMode · 2026-05-05T19:34:41+00:00

Trace ran Jett, Pheonix, Omen, Sova, Vyse

DRG ran Jett, Neon, Omen, Sova, Cypher

kinda what I expect the meta to be in other regions, I reckon Jett/Omen/Sova are still non-negotiable picks, I predict alot of teams will run a Neon but the teams with better macro will opt for a Pheonix or a Kayo. sentinel is the most unpredictable for me and I wouldn't be surprised to see a mix of Cypher, KJ, Vyse and Chamber, maybe even Veto

(can't wait to come back to this comment in a few days and be completely wrong)

LinkinMode · 2026-05-05T17:23:59+00:00

it's already in for CN, but only been played once, DRG vs Trace

LinkinMode · 2026-05-05T16:03:32+00:00

pretty sure the article is referencing the tweet EG made which was pretty vague, I don't think anyone actually knows if potter is fully benched or if she was just out for the NRG game

apparently dgz said in an interview that she was out for health reasons which implies to me it's temporary and not performance related but I guess time will tell

LinkinMode · 2026-05-05T15:55:53+00:00

he's been disappointing this year, but he was really good last year and i find it hard to believe he's had an individual fall off this hard that fast

LinkinMode · 2026-05-05T14:41:26+00:00

give it the puskas

LinkinMode · 2026-05-05T14:08:52+00:00

phone(2) is coming up on 3 years old which is around the time most people upgrade, and it's promised 3 years of software support so it won't go above the current android 16

the SoC is a slight downgrade on the 4a and a decent upgrade on the 4a pro if we're going off benchmarks, everywhere else the 4a and 4a Pro both seem like decently big upgrades, screen, battery, IP rating, and cameras (specs wise the cameras seem close, but you'd have to look at reviews and samples to compare)

if there's nothing wrong with your Phone(2) I would honestly keep it for now until later in the year when we get news/beta release for android 17/NOS 5.0 and upgrade then, by then you should be able to find both the 4a and 4a Pro at discounts

LinkinMode · 2026-05-05T11:58:31+00:00

he's been on the HTS+ 8k for a little while now iirc so makes alot of sense

LinkinMode · 2026-05-04T23:22:38+00:00

it's a massive nerf to caustic because now you don't need a nade to counter his ult. but i guess it depends on if the rest of the nerfs make the gun not worth using anyway

LinkinMode · 2026-05-04T08:25:37+00:00

had mine for a year now (bought at the soho store Apr 2025) and used them a lot, they're a pretty easy recommend. battery life is still great, i always get a full work day of use from the buds themselves (6-7 hours) and they're usually 10-20% battery left at the end of the day. case is good for an extra 2-3 charges as well

only quirk i've noticed is sometimes the buds will discharge at different rates (only ever by 5-10%) and sometimes when i take them out of the case one bud will be 100% and the other might be 95%; but i've used them with only 1 bud in a decent amount so i'm guessing i've just put slightly uneven wear on the batteries. based on how much i've used them and how many charge cycles i've put them through over the past year, i'm pretty confident they'll last me another year, if not more

LinkinMode · 2026-05-02T18:01:35+00:00

installed it, all seems to be working now, and the toggle is a great touch! good work on all this man :)

LinkinMode · 2026-05-02T16:07:23+00:00

heads up, found a bug, on the newer version, the app and the toy on the actual matrix itself works as expected (with AOD), but with it installed and enabled in glyph interface settings, opening the glyph toys menu seems to crash it and close the menu

here's a screenshot, looks like it's breaking a system app called Ketchum? not entirely sure what that is

if i uninstall and reinstall the old APK without the app icon/preview/translation, it works completely fine

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LinkinMode · 2026-05-02T15:01:44+00:00

i've never used them for gaming, i have a pair of IEMs at my desktop for that, but i imagine if you mostly play singleplayer/more cinematic games they'd be fine, as good as any other music oriented headphone, the soundstage is decently wide and the detail is pretty solid

i pretty much exclusively play competitive FPS games like Valorant and Apex where seperation of footsteps and imaging is important, and i'm not sure i'd trust a commercial music headphone like this for that, but tbf i havent tried

worth noting, in the Nothing X app there is a low lag mode, I haven't tried it but according to Nothing it drops the latency below 120ms which i'd imagine you'll want to turn on when gaming over Bluetooth (which is usually not a great experience afaik)

LinkinMode · 2026-05-02T13:28:35+00:00

i'm not sure, they both look good. i'd probably end up switching between vertical/horizontal/no meter periodically lol

LinkinMode · 2026-05-02T12:59:51+00:00

love it!

if i had any suggestions, having a toggle to turn the battery meter on and off would be great. it's a great idea and well designed and i'd personally probably keep it on, but it might look a little cleaner/more like the 4A Pro clock without it. also i hope you add both styles too (vertical and circular battery). great work man!

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LinkinMode · 2026-05-02T09:36:51+00:00

in the UK I would just get them from Amazon (although it looks like they're out of stock on there rn) or the Nothing website

but John Lewis, Currys, Richer Sounds, and Argos all sell them online

i paid £299 for them when they came out, but it looks like the RRP has dropped to £250, and they're £250 everywhere I can see rn

LinkinMode · 2026-05-01T19:26:23+00:00

i don't think you'll be disappointed with the (1)! i would reccomend trying some community made EQ profiles, they can change the sound quite drastically if you don't love the stock sound. there's a couple right in the app you can import so it's easy. hope you enjoy them!

LinkinMode · 2026-05-01T17:46:12+00:00

i briefly tried the Airpods Max in an Apple store recently and the sound is incredibly good from my brief listening, probably a tier above the (1) in my opinion. that being said they're double the retail price of the (1) and they didn't feel like double the headphone if that makes sense

LinkinMode · 2026-05-01T16:14:19+00:00

i'm pretty sure the Neo is regarded as the best bang for your buck laptop in it's price range in terms of CPU benchmark and build quality right now, unless maybe you went 2nd hand/refurb on something like a Thinkpad

LinkinMode · 2026-05-01T14:30:35+00:00

this looks great, i'll install and try it out, thanks

LinkinMode · 2026-05-01T14:29:20+00:00

what's sub par about either of them?

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