Opinion: Is North America ahead of Europe?

The rivalry between Europe and North America is not new; but the context of the global pandemic means that these two regions cannot confront each other. Because of this, the regions are generating different game styles, and until we have face to face events again, we will not know which is the most effective.

One of the biggest differences between the two regions was the speed with which the organizations decided to invest in VALORANT rosters. In North America, numerous rosters from well-known organizations emerged quickly. Immortals, TSM, Sentinels, and 100 Thieves are just some of the many organizations that invested in VALORANT when they saw the momentum it had. In Europe the situation is quite different: although G2 Esports did manage to get a team quite fast, most European organizations are taking their time to sign their rosters. This created the impression to many people that the North American scene was more professional than the European one.

The differences can also be seen in a difference in composition. On the North American side, we were seeing compositions with a double duelist; their core is Cypher and Sova with Omen as the main Smoker usually. This leaves two spots for the duelists, Jett and Phoenix. This composition leaves out Sage, losing the ability to control certain spaces on the map, but in exchange they have a very explosive potential to attack sites. The teamwork we saw between Jett and Phoenix in teams like TSM and Sentinels was very effective, taking advantage, for example, of using the Cloudburst along with the Curveball to gain map positions and an advantage in clashes.

On the other side of the ocean, Cypher, Omen, Sage, and Sova is the core we see being repeated more. Sage remains an essential element in Europe, used by the strongest teams in the region, such as G2 Esports and Team Liquid, in almost all their games. This shows us a play style focused on controlling certain parts of the map, safe rotations or defending the bomb sites. Jett and Raze compete for a single spot in these lineups, which makes their pick rate difference not so great. In this region, Phoenix is left out by almost all teams. Breach is an agent that was much more popular in Europe than in North America and although he is still more used in the old continent, he does not have the relevance in the compositions that he had when the game was launched.

Personally I think that comparing two regions that are not playing each other is extremely complicated, it will be very interesting to see what will happen the moment they meet. What things will one region take from the other? Will we have one region far superior to the other? Will Ocelote be right and will G2 Esports beat the North American teams? We can only wait to see the results of these questions, while in the meantime we see two styles developing autonomously and both proving to be very interesting.