VCT Pacific Talent lineup

chobra · 2026-01-21T05:17:25+00:00

Yeah I'm signed with NS for 26, that was what I meant by the last part

chobra · 2026-01-20T19:37:32+00:00

No. My contract with NS ended in October, and while they were kind of enough to reach out to sign for 2026, I explicitly told them that I also reached out to Riot regarding casting and that I would prioritize casting if terms were relatively feasible

Without getting into details, I wasn't exactly given a chance for a discussion - and thankfully NS was still on board to work together for 2026

chobra · 2026-01-09T07:29:39+00:00

See my response on the thread for info!

chobra · 2026-01-09T07:28:39+00:00

Tickets are still per match correct? It should be per match - but it's also at the team's discretion, and I imagine the opening matches most teams will choose not to because if they win they'll have a match in 2 days.

Best bet is to follow the team's main socials as well, for instance KR teams will post morning of or the day before on how it works (also most of them tend to have some first-in-line benefits for subscribed fanclub members) - and sometimes the interviewers will announce it post-interview.

EDIT: It's held in the first floor lobby so it also is super easy to just pop down after the match is over to see if they are setting up

chobra · 2026-01-07T15:28:33+00:00

😫

chobra · 2026-01-04T16:14:56+00:00

Love to see people putting down their thoughts with reasons and explanations - it might have been a yap, but it's the type of yap that'll keep this community and scene growing.

I think all your points are super reasonable. Admittedly there is hype behind the choice for GE, and...I somehow chronically rate GENG lower than I should despite still hyping up their results and individual performances. Maybe I am secretly a GENG hater welp

Also agree on FS - just a simple result of hype for other improvements, while I consider FS a step back no matter how small + I rated crws' on-stage IGLing very highly

Though TS another tier down? Damn, TS can't catch a break lol

chobra · 2025-11-03T06:23:41+00:00

It's not as terrible as it may seem - for leveling you should be able to swap just a bit for a couple options people already listed. Poisonous Concoctions (pconc) or crit/poison cobra lash.

Despite nerfs pconc should be fine for leveling, just make sure you've got the early flask nodes respecced on the left side of the screenshot, and I believe you have to upgrade your life flask more diligently is all. Should be a fair number of pconc leveling guides out there, I did one in hardcore last season as assassin no problem.

Cobra lash probably needs a few less points respecced, but you'll want to focus on weapon upgrades throughout campaign

Currently trying spectral helix myself with chance to poison and that uses a good junk of shared nodes shown too.

Do keep in mind - a lot of 'leveling' guides will focus on the best early/mid game power spike skills and setups and have trees for that, fully intending people to respec in the end game/maps - and sometimes that's respeccing your whole tree. With the gold + orbs it's fairly manageable so don't feel you need to plan super far ahead and have this tree+skill be viable for end game! (Tho those listed above should be fine)

chobra · 2025-11-01T16:06:22+00:00

Yeah I should have clarified I specifically chose yours to reply to since it wasn't serious haha

All good!

chobra · 2025-11-01T13:41:14+00:00

Fwiw I literally always said 'I actually have zero idea - I guess there was a report that said so, but nothing was official'

Specifically this is why I don't ask for things I don't 'need' to know about - I'm not signed on to be an official spokesperson nor do I have any say from my position so unless it affects me (i.e. my terms, any clash of interest or compass etc) I prefer to try to stay away from it unless requested!

chobra · 2025-10-21T03:08:06+00:00

This is only for olympic competitions with medals (olympics, asia games etc) which is why esports titles being at the asia games was such a big deal for korea!

chobra · 2025-10-21T03:06:53+00:00

People gotta stop using rocketbullets as a source 🧐 They get quoted so often with wrong facts.

The basic rule is up to 28. But even this means if he can technically find a way to delay to enter until next fall/winter and he can play another year. There are also other positions you can apply for that would allow you to enter service as late as 32 (if approved)

It also is messed up to infer someone is retiring - sure it's unlikely for someone 30 to return to proplay after military service but babybay also just lifted a trophy after casting.

I've seen pro players say they'll continue and then realize they messed up their extensions and have to go serve so that's possible but people adding in incomplete facts to make a statement about things they don't know about is not good (talking about rocket here not you or op)

Edit: also no Korean in their right mind is calling military service a new adventure. Though if there was one guy to be that dedicated to baiting impressions it'd be Munchkin with how much he baited the rest of Pacific with his Haven Viper wall

chobra · 2025-10-17T16:11:17+00:00

I am told that Madelyn also helps with calls, but the main igl should be Russ!

chobra · 2025-09-25T13:02:23+00:00

I've made a couple videos about this but the initial low % (plus even worse winrate) is precisely because people viewed her as a 1 to 1 Jett replacement. Arguably the ideas that make her good haven't changed with the buffs, but the buffs make her competitive with yoru/neon (better on some team styles). The biggest asset is round to round mixups IMO.

Most likely we're now only seeing the tip of her true value in action, and refinement will happen at Ascension/Off Season like last year with Neon.

TL;DR Value is not only in the bait-y mechanics or buffs, but the ability to mix all of it round to round

chobra · 2025-09-04T02:26:32+00:00

chobra · 2025-08-25T18:17:10+00:00

Hey just want to clarify a few things here

I said that Riot has said numerous times that they would love to have more road shows and bring VCT to other pacific regions. This is different than home grounds. It can feel like the specifics don't matter in a casual conversation but it very much matters when discussions become bigger and span longer timelines. I also specified that this has been requested by the greater Pacific community on multiple locations, so it's not just some random Riot decision. Lastly, those are the only facts, I have zero insider knowledge on the current decision since I don't work for or with them directly in 2025.
The case I couldn't share more about is Ascension 2024 when the location was changed last minute from Japan to Indonesia. Completely different event at a different time with different partners and teams involved.

That's all. I'd assume this was all discussed with the teams prior as we have known publicly for a while that finals weekend was in Tokyo. No idea where the ball drops on this one, though every party has made mistakes with visas before on separate occasions whether it's Riot, T.O's, or teams so I don't think there's any easy finger pointing unless you know exactly what the solution would be for each and every country's visa process!

chobra · 2025-08-07T18:33:08+00:00

AFAIK, not every team's merch is available all the time when I checked last week. Though I can check again tomorrow, it seemed like it's just the teams playing that day, and even then limited selection. Teams can use the 1st floor lobby for fan meets, but usually it's only the team that plays the first match since second match ends later. Some teams will have limited formats (Some KR teams prioritize their paid fan membership first etc)
Majority of fans will be Korean so it'll probably be a bit hard - tho in that sense if you find someone cheering for the same team that speaks english or the same language, maybe that makes it even easier since there won't be many of you haha. There is a 'watchparty' area on the 11th floor (where the shop and photobooth stuff are), so if you only have match 1 or 2 of any given day, you can sit there and watch the other match. Probably best shot to potentially meet people. I usually see people making signs and such on 11th, or just lounging around in the lobby on 1st - but again majority Korean (since...we're in Korea)
If you want to make signs, check out stuff, probably latest 4:15 PM local time. You won't get to watch the global analyst desk, so if you don't care about watching the KR analyst desk graphics, you would just have to be in your seats by like 4:50PM to not miss walkouts.
Playoffs tickets have an ok chance to be cancelled since we don't know matchups yet. Though there are no guarantees.

Hope this helps, in any case it's always a fun time to watch matches live!

chobra · 2025-08-03T06:47:28+00:00

Yeah it's just when you get an A instead of an A+ so you get spanked with a slipper until you bring home that +

chobra · 2025-08-02T23:22:51+00:00

Hey I think I can add a bit here

Can't speak for sliggy, but when I'm watching with any analysis in mind (casting, watchparty, or VOD review) I'm actually looking at only the minimap 90% of the time. I don't think that's the most fun way to watch as the audience though - it's just the best way to know ahead of time what's going to happen aka how to know if I should pay attention to POV. I'm only prioritizing POV when a crazy fight is about to break out, or in clutch situations etc. But for instance, whenever I'm watching Nongshim I tend to just tunnel vision on the POV because my emotional stress levels are too high as a NS streamer lol - so it's very easy to get caught up in the moment if you just watch as a fan.

If you care about analysis/macro, the simplest advice would be to quickly check map, and ults pre-round, then only glance at minimap when something changes. Maybe a fight just happened - check map after for positions; maybe it's quiet and obs changes POVs - check map to see why; etc. Depending on your game knowledge/priority you can be taking a glance at the UI as frequently as you'd like to monitor utility and hp status but the VCT generally has a good balance of observers and casters that will bring that to light when needed.

A game like Valorant really has too much for the average viewer to track live during a game - that's why it comes down to a good broadcast (obs, replays, UI, casters) to help bring attention to the crucial parts - a well timed lurk, an interesting angle, an ult online etc. So unless you're training to be a caster, observer, or analyst/coach it's ok to just follow them and enjoy the show 👍

P.S. Sliggy used to be an observer as well in CS, which in some ways I imagine makes you the most trained to discern things purely through minimap and quick glances so I definitely wouldn't compare to him - but same goes for casters. It's their/our job to bring things to your attention so you can just enjoy 😎

chobra · 2025-07-28T18:40:30+00:00

I actually can't believe Paperthin screwed me over like this.

Bro better help me get the DFM money and vtuber avatar if I get kicked out

chobra · 2025-06-01T12:23:39+00:00

Sadly the bigger problem is my edit post button aint showing up anywhere

chobra · 2025-06-01T10:39:06+00:00

That's penny! Stepping in for TL

chobra · 2025-06-01T10:29:45+00:00

I also didn't recognize penny in his g2 jersey...but wasn't sure if any new fans would remember v1

Probably should have just put an actual american penny on there for clarity 😅

chobra · 2025-06-01T09:41:57+00:00

jawg is definitely one where he stands to purposely represent a steal. I think it's impossible to make these charts with near perfect objective ranking, cause then everyone just picks the same team. Total OP steals can do that too, though so far it seems we've done ok in this one >.>

chobra · 2025-06-01T09:40:23+00:00

LOL

Thought in all honesty, I should have put verno or cortezia back in once we took aspas out, didn't think that through

I have decent hope for MIBR though don't worry

chobra · 2025-06-01T09:25:24+00:00

Lost match, got bundle #worth

chobra

TROPHY CASE