#also like it would be great if they didnt take feedback from reddit but like i get it

[purple-nightfall-writes]

what if we all went on reddit and talked about how we're so excited for whatever the hermits/lifers make and we trust their ability to make something super fun no matter what and also it's really fun to watch them hang out with their friends. and what if we were all really nice to them and stuff.

[losangelesvalorant]

interesting things from tactical crouch’s interview w toronto assistant coach/analyst barroi on 1/19

barroi talks about why the team failed last year, the atmosphere/coaching of the new team, beast and nevix and why he believes in them, and the meta. [link to the full podcast]

on why the team failed last year

team atmosphere was biggest problem which lead to stellar retiring, tried to "better" atmosphere by trading envy to shanghai. going mixed roster didnt improve atmosphere and it just spiraled

Said toronto was beating everyone in scrims in stage 1, barroi thought they were a 4th place team and just got unlucky w getting shock in playoffs. Emphasized this several times during the podcast

team wasnt built for atmosphere, "long-term sustainability," was built to perform well but exploded "sooner than expected" and they HAD to make changes which was where they made bad decisions and it spiraled.

biggest thing he learned was coaching was all abt psychology, keeping morale up, small things to do to keep everything working, learned its HUGELY important

last season toronto's structure wasnt as great as it is this year

barroi was part of the roster building, thinks building a roster the way they did will always fail

implied toronto scrimmed way way too much last year and burned everybody out

noted specifically that ivy was nervous onstage even in later games

on the new team’s atmosphere/chemistry:

new team made for morale and high team atmosphere, all personalities will mesh well. that was the most important thing and its been working insanely well. everyones not best friends but its working well. 

happy with the players and environment they have, thinks adding an extra element might disturb that not in current plans to add anyone else. they are thinking abt contingency plans tho, have plans in case of emergencies

some competitiveness in the roster, but not a high level. Doesnt like the idea of an a and b roster bc every day is a high pressure environment where the better squad will start

Toronto scrims 2 blocks a day 6 days a week. do 3 blocks sometimes but not every day. def lower than highest hours of scrims in the league since some teams do 3 blocks a day.

when asked if fefe drives the coaches/players differently responded with "YES." 

fefe is rly good at motivating people, rly knows how to "get to people." may not be the biggest brain but knows his stuff and knows how to create a good environment. "hell of a difference" compared to last season (sounds like drama w bishop to me!)

everyone in coaching staff has their own role, like a venn diagram, bc of how specific their structure is. everything is really efficient

there's never been any discipline things on toronto yet, theres rules for scrims but no ones broken any of them yet

doesnt think toronto is gonna be a top 5 team. thinks maintaining a top roster + taking team psychology into account is very difficult

its possible that toronto could hit a really high high, but its a low possibility

last season barroi was worried abt pressure on stage bc everyone was silent, atmosphere was different, is not at all worried now. thinks the team drives itself very well, points to kariv and beast as motivators and nevix and logix as people who will never perform bad under pressure

on beast and nevix

beast is a huge motivator and a really fun guy for the team, keeping the team atmosphere up. has a huge competitive drive, learns REALLY fast and takes any and all feedback. theyre putting more and more emphasis on beast's role and more responsiblities bc theyre really satisfied w how he performs and learns. thinks beast is a very good pick for them

people on roster were chosen for specific reasons, beast was chosen bc he's super competitive. 

beast is kind of person where having a backup mt would motivate him even more, he wouldnt shut down if he was benched he would fight for the starting spot

nevix is "not the best player in the world" (in response to reddit saying he is the best player in the world). has been a good asset to the team, goes to the coaches/teammates most w questions. rly wants to prove himself

on the meta

in scrims sometimes offtank plays orisa now since mt is playing something else

"2 big archetypes" everyone is running in scrims. poke and rush comps. rush is reaper/mei/orisa/rein/lucio moira/bap. poke is mei hanzo, dif flex sups, orisa, no lucio. variation within those comps but its only those 2. the comps play very differently despite having similar heroes bc of dif win conditions and styles. poke is map dependant, wins over rush when speedboost cant close gap fast enough. theres not a core meta comp thats as ridiculous as goats, tho rush is similar to goats. 

teams playing junk, widow, probably double sniper, more diverse than past but again 2 archetypes of comps. running one or the other is very team/style dependant, for instance shock is probably sticking to rush and nyxl is probably sticking to poke based on their histories. wont talk abt what toronto runs

dive is map dependant, not smth you want to do all the time bc the other two comps are very good, rush is a natural counter to dive. doesnt sound like hes scrimmed dive comps often. sees dive having a place and being good at times but thinks its very team and map dependant. map and team both have to be good for it for it to work. dive is not the third archetype. if you have a good sombra vs poke, dive could work but was kinda like /shrug

havent scrimmed any teams in asia, which makes sense

thinks this season is exciting bc of scrim bubbles, nobody knows whats happening on other regions. each bubble conforms to one thing, may be different may not be, one may be superior but nobodys gonna know til they play each other.

yiska thinks theres gonna be some wild meta diversity since some teams have long breaks and can afford to grind out new comps, also bc there will be patches

misc things i thought were worth including

theres a german player coming to owl who hasnt been announced

apparently not a lot of other teams have that kind of good structure. Also mentioned that toronto’s scrimming outlaws

yiska brought up the csgo(?) team moscow 5 as an example of how the best teams can crumble completely and become bad under the stress of travel

roky is the person who grinds ranked most on the team, nevix is 2nd

barroi thinks defiant will place better than 13 (in response to tactical crouch thinking theyll place 13th), things would have to go “seriously wrong” for them to place lower. Thinks theyll have a strong first half and is sure if they do that the 2nd half will be even better. Convinced theyll at least make playins

barroi thinks chengdu will do fairly well especially w the scrim bubbles. Thinks they’ll be one place below defiant maybe. 

difference between coaching completely mixed roster and a 1 language roster, dont have to put as much emphasis on making sure everyone understands each other. depends mainly on the philosophy of the head coach, which changed so its different. probably the same without the head coach factor tho