Vanity - IGLing, Leadership, Metas, Calling, LCQ Prep w/ Cloud9 | ddk podcast #23

In this episode, I talk with Vanity, the in-game leader for Cloud9 Blue's VALORANT team. The Last Chance Qualifier is around the corner and C9B is going in as one of the favorites. We discuss prep, being an IGL, a leader, the meta, performance, psychology, and a host of topical pieces such as steel leaving 100t, jdm coaching FaZe, and much more! I hope you enjoy it.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
0:48 Podcast starts
1:20 LCQ and tournament preparation
7:30 Meta shifts
11:05 Storytelling in VALORANT commentary
15:18 Being an IGL
19:50 Vanity's approach to IGLing
24:30 Players: More hours in the game vs more hours outside of the game
28:06 Goal oriented mindset, awareness of your own performances
31:10 Building the platform for success - The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh
32:55 Being the best and chasing the best
34:30 What are pro VALORANT players missing?
39:35 Esports orgs - are the Coaches and GMs really helping?
41:26 Orgs overvalue experience
42:33 Steel
49:06 jdm joins FaZe as coach
51:05 Fracture
55:55 Eras and metas (with some talk about Astralis)
57:30 Is there too much change in VALORANT to ever be dominant long term
1:00:10 What does Vanity enjoy the most about competing professionally?
1:01:03 Rock Paper Scissors when IGLing - outsmarting your opponent
1:06:02 "The threat is greater than the action - devilwalk"
1:08:05 Conditioning / defaulting vs gambling as the attacking team
1:12:20 CS:GO's krieg meta
1:19:28 Reducing your opponent's options makes them easier to predict
1:22:00 Difference of VALORANT on LAN vs online
1:24:30 Dealing with pressure of LAN / how to perform best on LAN
1:27:25 Liquid on Iceland / putting too much pressure on yourself
1:31:50 Elige knows if he's in his A-game B-game or C-game within 15 minutes
1:34:40 What does Vanity do to unwind when not competing
1:39:17 Who are the toughest opponents at LCQ
1:40:10 Wrap up

References:
The Score Takes Care of Itself - Bill Walsh


---------------------
If you enjoy my content and want to discuss it with other like-minded individuals, check out my public discord channel: https://discord.gg/DMfPGMh.

You can support me by sharing my content, subscribing, or following me on any of my platforms!

My podcast also goes live on Apple iTunes, Spotify, and the majority of Android podcast apps. Just search, "The ddk Podcast", and you should be good to go!

I hope you enjoy my content, as always, feedback is much appreciated!

www.twitter.com/ddkesports
www.instagram.com/ddkesports
www.twitch.tv/ddktv

Cheers!

---------------------

CREDITS
Creator & Executive Producer | Daniel "ddk" Kapadia | @ddkesports
Executive Producer | Britt "BriRivers" Rivera | @itsbririvers
Video Editor | Djordje "zeroql" Simonovic |  @flukkz media