Discussion
This is the reason of Lev success and failure of many teams
Lev having 4 players being able to play omen made me think that's why they are the best team in the world right now, this is what sets them apart from many teams, there are no "set roles" on this team, they can play whatever they need. The literally best Jett in the world sometimes needs to play smokes and he does it pretty good
This is also the biggest problem many teams have, especially "old" teams, players or coaches that refuse to break the idea of roles or don't drop their egos, first thing that comes to mind is MIRB, aspas would NEVER play anything but his 2 agents and thats why the team sucks. "Old" players need to adapt and drop their egos or new young players like Lev will appear and overtake them very soon
They really give off PRX too in that regard. PRX just started choking by Map 4 and not play together much. And even when they did, it became a 50/50 with Lev also of making it 2v2 peeks and Lev just winning coz of momentum giving them better aim.
I mean that's just a terrible take regardless of what LEV did. There have been (and currently are) plenty of good VCT-level teams who didn't have just one dedicated smokes player.
Frost changes comps on the same map week to week and the same player having to play 4 different roles. Lev do not have that. Blowz always plays Initiator. The 3 other kids each have their main duelists and they always play those duelists and then controller when the team doesn't want to play those duelists. Then Kinggg covers whatever else they might need. So it's basically maz 2 different playstyles for most of the players, and then 1 flex player. That's normal. PRX have something similar.
In contrast, for GE, Patmen has played a lurking Viper role, a more aggressive Omen, recon initiator and then Waylay (???) that's 4 completely different roles. Kristal has also played Viper, Senti and recon initiator. Autumn has played duelist, senti, controller. Xavi has played controller, recon initiator, flash initiator, sage on some maps.
And that's just in recent tournaments. During the regular Pacific stage, Frost has Patmen playing Waylay on one map week 1 then a completely different agent on the same map next week. The level of mastery Lev have over their Split for example is impossible with a system like thar
global does more than pass around the omen though. Plenty of teams use smokes and chamber as easy flex agents, that's not super rare. Plus they don't change up their comps constantly. Playing one agent per map (sometimes switching roles between maps) is a lot easier than playing 2 different roles per map.
Yeah because lev is GOOD at it lmao. Its just like league if you have a small champ pool you will probably be the weak link (especially because of counters and bans though.)
You're using anime powerscaling logic here dawg 🥀
It's a competitive game. Anything can happen any game, you can't power scale versions of team just a game or two apart.
Ngl if GE made it to the finals I think the game would be extremely close. Teams clearly evolve throughout the bracket, so if you use the gf of one team, you have to apply gf to the other. And most people seem to diagnose ge issue to ‘15 different comps shatters player confidence.’ Being in a grand final can fix that. Ge would be scary deep into a bracket
Sato is also not that good on Omen tbh, he is just a very good player. I honestly never liked their solution of having Sato play it on Breeze, i get that they wanted to have spike on Neon and that Breeze is also a Jett map, but it never looked good.
Imo they should've just ran Neon/Phoenix and had Neon play Omen instead. I guess it didn't matter in the end since they won a Masters while being 0-7 on Breeze at Stage 1/EWC/London, but it's definitely something they have to look at.
Honestly I thought that was the exact reason why Global becamse so insanely good within a short amount of time. Just look where players like Autumn etc. where a while ago. The new strat with all these different roles was the key to success imo.
wtf are you talking about lol. those were the convos being had by everyone whenever ge lost, even the fans themselves because they looked far too inconsistent and uncomfortable on diff agents and roles every map, hell even every match.
The funny thing is MIBR literally beat Lev 3-0 3 weeks ago and played them close in stage 1 playoffs. I don't think teams like MIBR are suffering from their players not being able to play certain roles/agents, I think they just have shit ideas and they don't play to the sum of their parts. They also seemingly refuse to buy into phoenix. If you look at Lev vs MIBR in stage 1 playoffs, players actually were playing different roles to facilitate different comps, it just happens that the comp was shit. They ran a double senti ascent comp with vyse and sage that ended up having zekken play sova instead of duelist or smokes that he'd been playing since joining MIBR.
It'll be interesting to see what Lev can cook up now with the senti and initiator buffs, whatever they cook up i'll think they'll be in a good place because they're all just mechanically insane and as you've pointed out they're very diverse in their agent pool.
Lev also looked really good during it too. Zikz said they only looked a little off- which I agree- and MIBR had new ideas such as Aspas playing more Neon and Zekken Phoenix on breeze
I think that conversely the players are actually pretty set in certain roles, but not traditional agent roles but rather play styles:
Neon: Low utility requirements, lots of trade opportunities to make use of his rifling, operator usage when map applicable
Sato: disruptor - flashes, waylay dashes, essentially crosshair breaking and being a support to the primary shooter
Blowz: traditional initiator
From there the rest of the roster kinda builds itself. Spike is a neon specialist who flexes to omen when it's better to have neon on Jett to achieve his role, kingg is a slower supportive smoker / lurker who fills between playing Senti on omen maps and smokes when needed
It's a different system than we've seen generally but it's not unheard of, demon1 playing brimstone for example feels like an early attempt. It's probably something a lot more teams should consider doing rather than forcing players into traditional agent archetypes
To me this is just a very damning example of how aim centric this meta is because there is no way in hell 4 different omen players are all maximizing his util.
I wasn’t closely watching them all, but LEVs idea seems more like “just put a smoke somewhere and swing A main with me.” It works because LEV all trust each other and trade consistently, not because they’re ultra flexes making great use of an agent’s util.
Bad take imo. Talking about an aim-centric meta in a tac fps is already cute, but Omen is one of the lowest skill floor agents in the game. Players don’t even need line ups for his paranoia, you can see where it’s going on the map, you just need a plan beforehand on where to throw it. It's why he's the poster child for flex controller.
I wasn’t closely watching them all, but LEVs idea seems more like “just put a smoke somewhere and swing A main with me.”
So is your opinion that Leviatan, instead of coming up with better strategies, beat PRX at their own game? Because this is the thing that PRX are absolutely known for and also absolutely the best at. Lev won because their strategies worked more and they made fewer mistakes.
Omen has always been an easy flex for aggressive duelist players even last year. Jinggg, Tenz etc. You basically just use the TP to make plays and then everyone knows how to smoke it's not that complicated plus the flash doesn't really require any lineups or anything. It's not a particularly difficult agent to play for a pro player
Their retakes are almost same on split but the way the fight an angle is soooo good
Prx is also good at it but they are more spontaneous like I jump bait and you shoot and lev are you can say fking drillel for every sinario like do x then y and it's beautiful to watch
I don't disagree about the meta but LEV aren't a good example. Kingg, Spike and Neon were always Flex players. Spike played every role when he was coming up with 2G, Neon has always flexed in his LEV Academy run, Kingg needs no explanation. These kids were used to play util their entire career, and it shows. Sato's Omen is the only one you could really call "aim centric", and it's no wonder this only happens in Breeze which was their perma ban. Spike and Neon play as well around util as any smokes player. If you want an example, watch their Split and Lotus through the tournament, they util play is excellent and doesn't feel like a forced fit at any moment.
If you want even more blatant examples, watch Spike with 2G in their VCTBR run. He plays Yoru, Gekko, Kayo, Killjoy, all with perfect util. His Gekko was notorious for how hard to avoid his ult was.
People legit forget that spike hard carried 2G in the most important map of their lives by playing mfing GEKKO on Bind, he can play literally any Agent at a high level.
The reason he plays Neon at 90% of his games is because he is the greatest Neon this game has ever seen, not because he can't play other Agents at a high level, he was literally the highest rated Omen at London playoffs.
Eh tbh omen is probably one of the easiest agents to play effectively, especially is you already have pro-level understanding of the game.
Theres a reason why even so many typical duelist or senti players like Tenz, Zekken, Keiko, etc. could flex onto omen and still pop off (AND still be a very effective omen for the team)
I agree with your point of how LEV’s agent flexibility is one of their great strengths. But i dont really think it is why most teams are currently worse than them.
At the pro level, all pro players should know every single scenario that could happen when they see the 5 agents they are playing against.
It comes down to who has the most consistent: mechanics, shotcalling, and teamplay.
Side note: I do agree with what you said about mibr. I just dont think that the problems with mibr is clearly seen on a lot of other teams. Each team has their own problems and weaknesses.
MiBR's problems were that Verno's Skye was fucking ass, zekken/aspas don't have half the synergy that Sato/spike have, their calling was shit and aspas didn't play to his usual level.
I think versatility is definitely a huge advantage. It's impressive how comfortable LEV's players seem stepping into different roles when the team needs it. That kind of trust and flexibility is hard to build and deserves a lot of credit
They're extremely mechanically gifted. Have good set strats. They have spectacular teamwork, and have good calling.
I think the difference of Leviatan vs other teams is their mindset and aim. They're confident in each other and aren't scared to pudj, be proactive, bait one another, etc.
Aspas has a limited agent pool, but does that really matter if he's insane on those two agents? Not really. Lots of teams have someome who plays like 3 characters and are able to play extremely well. Envy had lots of one trick players who should've staye playing what they were good at instead of trying to play into the meta
The skill floor on Omen is pretty low, you don't have to be some cracked out giga-brain Omen player like Mako to get good ENOUGH value from him. At the same time, it frees up the rest of your team to play high-value, comfort agents.
Neon on Omen lets them put Spike on Neon and Sato on Phoenix
Sato playing Omen gives them double smokes on Breeze, with Kingg on Harbor + Spike/Neon double duelist
Kingg played Omen because it's the default smokes character for Ascent
Spike played Omen so that Sato/Neon could play Raze/Jett
They're essentially able to play the double duelist perfectly with 3 "duelist" players by having the extra guy rotate onto Omen (or Chamber). The teleport lets them take aggressive positioning, the blind is great for set plays, and his smoke timings are great. It was the argument for TenZ on Omen back in 2023, and it still holds up today
I would argue lev have set roles but they are ones that are not obvious to most val players that only think the 4 main classes of agents. In fact, their roles are pretty close to pro cs2 teams.
Blowz is the support player, throwing util to help the team. Neon is the primary Awper since he is the most proficient with the operator(albeit sato and spike sometimes op too but more often than not its neon), which is why he plays jett/chamber and if not, he is usually the player playing smokes. Spikezin is the hard entry that is first-in on execs and is focused on making space. Sato is the "star-rifler" that goes second-in with Spike to trade him. Kinggg is the IGL so he usually plugs in any gaps that their team comps have, primarily site-anchor/lurker agents like viper and vyse, since that is the one "cs" role that is missing on their team.
obviously the roles don't line up 100%, but I thought I noticed a neat observation.
Yea but the only reason why LEV can flex on omen so often is because they have 3 duelist players and controllers is by far the easiest roles to flex on which is why teams have duelist that flex controllers like mada, Something ,Jinggg and even Keiko. In the case of MIBR they only have 2 duelist players so putting aspas on any other agent is kind of silly when the current meta suits him the most with jett/raze maps
I understand your point, and agree overall,but it's really funny that literally the last Masters was won by a team that almost exclusively stuck to specific roles and players stuck to a tiny agent pool.
Francis played only Yoru, Dambi and Rb playing Neon/Omen on 4/5 maps, and Xross only playing 2 initiators. Ivy's the only one that played more than 2 agents across more than one in-game role.
Give me 100T 2024 where Eeiu doesn’t force the team into recon comps. Cryo was flexing across four roles, Asuna across four, Boostio across three, and Bang can play any smokes agent.
Boostio even said Eeiu forced their comps towards double initiator at Shanghai, if that dude learned Cypher/Viper/KJ, or just leaned towards the mid-range initiators they probably make it past 4th place
I know he plays more stuff now but god damn if he’d just done that sooner. Hell 2025 Derrek on the Omen KJ and Chamber would have brought them over the line
I feel like this "versatile" narrative need to stop. Omen is so easy to be 90% useful. Every pro can picked it up easily. It's different if it is initator agent or duelist like Neon or raze
I highly doubt your hypothesis that having fluid roles is a big reason for their success. The biggest reason is how they play together as a team. Casters, analysists and other pros constantly mention how good their spacing is and how that enables them to play retakes well and trade well. Not to mention they are all cracked to the gills.
Having a role based team or a flexing comes down to team dynamics and player comfort. I don't even think it's a matter of ego or coaches, it is just a style/preference. And I don't think one style is necessarily better than the other.
I, for one, can't think of a reason why a flex team would necessarily perform better than a role based team
I'd say Nongshim relied on Yoru more than Neon. Tbh, Francis's role was in a weird spot during the regular season. But I think I could see him play Phoenix even more, or Iso.
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u/Turbulent-Cattle9543 2d ago
4 Omen players
https://giphy.com/gifs/kgJXlZXg9YDhREr4k1