thoughts on -Foxy9 +yoman (as igl)

if they got yoman then he would b playing the same roles as stax

+yoman -Foxy9

Flashback is just more consistent then Foxy9 and they play the same roles. BeYN is a good leader but I think this team would benefit from an experienced and proven IGL.

zeta next year:

Duel: Dep
Init: CLZ
Senti: Laz
Contr: SyouTa
Flex: Aace
Coach: Vorz

then they start making internationals

Jremy
invy
PapiChulo
marky
kellyS

:)

:(

Whole vet year schedule is actually terrible; how is it that regional teams might only be playing each other as little as once a year?

Was thinking this could be a good format:

Week 1-8: OFF SEASON

Week 9-20: Split 1 (~6 Bo3s per week)
Week 21: Dead Week, Prep for Playoffs
Week 22: Playoffs 1
Week 25-26: Masters

<< Week 27: Start of New Episode, Map Pool Change >>

Week 27-30: BREAK, Prep for Split 2

Week 31-42: Split 2 (~6 Bo3s per week)
Week 43: Dead Week, Prep for Playoffs
Week 44: Playoffs 2
Week 47-50: Champions

<< Week 51: Start of New Episode, Map Pool Change >>

Week 51-52: OFF SEASON

**Note: VCT map pools could have 7 maps at a time, rotating every 6 months, while ranked/competitive map pools could have 9 maps, rotating every 2 months. (2 maps in, 2 maps out for both pools)

thoughts?

regionally fs but the way they’re lookin rn i think internationally they get stomped again :(

i was thinking suzu plays senti, she played the role last year and looked p gud.

also there’s been this trend where u put ur most stable aimers on senti/viper recently.

is there a way to get the combined stats in (i’m assuming the split stats are only from pre-tech pause)

no hate but i hope ur joking abt surf

c9 2-1 kru

oxy drops 90

lev c9 and eg qual for shanghai (in seeding order)

lev 2-0 eg

g2 2-0 c9

eg 2-1 kru

based

smg 3-2 g2

dont they kind of have to bench iZu tho?

from the tweet we kno that rossy and xcurrate are starting, and between them theyll probs b playing smokes and flex. Judging by xeta's tweets and how he's so gud on initiator he's probs starting as well. Carpe's definitely out im not sure he has hands. That just leaves k1Ng, Saya, and iZu. Saya's in conversation for best korean duelist, and same goes for k1Ng on sentinel. That only leaves iZu, who played duelist in jp challengers (where he did well but honestly its jp), and was decent on smokes.

stew and Sylvan need to be brought back to kr

like imagine:
DRX - Sayaplayer, stax, Zest, MaKo, Rb
T1 - stew, xeta, k1Ng, exy, BuZz
GenG - Meteor, Lakia, t3xture, Sylvan, Munchkin

ik BuZz is pretty integral to DRX, but lowkey hes kind of a flex player and they need a higher-peaking duelist like saya to make them a contender
Lakia was pretty inconsisten in 2022 and still slightly shaky in 2023 kr challengers, so maybe give a proven up-and-comer like JoxJo or LuZ a chance (and they both play initiator). But yea this would put pretty much the top 3 kr players in every role into the pacific league.

stew and Sylvan need to be brought back to kr

like imagine:
DRX - Sayaplayer, stax, Zest, MaKo, Rb
T1 - stew, xeta, k1Ng, exy, BuZz
GenG - Meteor, Lakia, t3xture, Sylvan, Munchkin

ik BuZz is pretty integral to DRX, but lowkey hes kind of a flex player and they need a higher-peaking duelist like saya to make them a contender
Lakia was pretty inconsisten in 2022 and still slightly shaky in 2023 kr challengers, so maybe give a proven up-and-comer like JoxJo or LuZ a chance (and they both play initiator). But yea this would put pretty much the top 3 kr players in every role into the pacific league.

bro i love sugarzero man but fk mannnn

he needs a bit of aimlabs

very recently yea in the off season, but for all challengers 2023 he was smokes

I think ppl are overhyping ZETA, they're definitely going to be even better, but I just don't see them reliably beating teams like drx, prx, bleed, or even the new t1 roster. Its just that they've replaced TENNN who was extremely inconsistent and lacks proper game sense, and crow, who doesn't even have hands.

Hiroronn is solid and seems like he has a flexible agent pool. He played mostly sentinel on fennel and is adapting well to initiator.

imo Zeta should have ideally 1) saved Anthem from DFM: he’s got pretty nice aim and good game sense, by far the standout player on DFM, could do really well with a good system. 2) Move hiroronn onto more of a flex role like I mentioned earlier, and then 3) Drop Sugarzero and then pour in the resources to get SyouTa from fennel: he’s a duelist player turned smokes player and was by FAR the best and most consistent Japanese player from all of 2023 challengers. And then ofc get proper coaching staff, maybe Carlao will give them better structure.

so ideally:

• Dep (Dueiist)
• Anthem (Initiator)
• Laz (Sentinel)
• SyouTa (Controller)
• hiroronn (Flex)

pls let anthem go

if zeta can get him and another good player, ideally SyouTa but hiroronn if not ig, they could be a regional contender for at around top 3 and make it to more lans

fnatic are 100% looking like the best team in the world rn, but tbh im kinda disappointed they won cuz the other eu teams look like they need work. NAVI and FUT are way less competitive and the only one team thats still left in the dicussion would be VIT, but now they cant compete (rip twisten). in all seriousness i think that 5 americas teams would be better or maybe even an extra chinese team idk,

seems like less is playing better this year
cauanzin is rly consistent so imo he can probs be considered an upgrade over sacy
but tuyz is too inconsistent, pANcada was a better fit tbh

I have to agree with this one though. It doesn't take a legacy to improve. It takes effort and willingness to go out there and learn. Zeta and the rest of Japan have had over two years to try to improve their region's gameplay, and there is simply no improvement. They continue to show lackluster tactics and adaptation, and as a byproduct displaying what is probably going to be the most boring series of LOCK//IN. There are s many regions that have managed to improve so much despite more humble beginnings. LATAM placed dead last along with Japan in the first ever Masters event and while have showed inconsistent results rank wise, they seem to be showing so much more tactical depth even in their losses. Meanwhile Japan continues to play their reactive style of every round with no signs of adaptation. The only way they are getting rounds is either due to small mistakes from their opposing teams, or the mechanical talent that they clearly have, as opposed to creating opportunities on their own. (example of this today against LEV, t side pearl)

Zeta, Detonation, and all of Japan, need to step it up strategically, or else Masters Tokyo is going to have a really silent crowd.

LEV's firepower is rly good, but I'd argue that that's the one thing Zeta really have going for them. Their shitty plays were very often saved by insane displays of mechanical skill.

Even so, they've had years of time to try to make progress. And I ate to see it, but even when they get decent results they look shaky. Regions like LATAM that started out at the bottom, while haven't consistently having success, are showing more depth to their plays even in their losses.

Japan as a region is just falling further and further behind, and tbh, I don't see a world where a Japanese team ends up playing on the main stage in Tokyo. It doesn't seem like they have enough time, or are willing to put in the effort to improve.

I've been on JP hopium for so long, but unfortunately I gotta agree.

Yea CR are def improving which I love to see, but for example the game between SG and FL just made me want to throw something. How bad do these PAID players have to be to be losing when they have a Russian import going PLUS FUCKING 62.

Sad, just sad.

I am definitely over exaggerating, but there are many instances (especially on attack) where it seems like they don't know what they're doing and they're wasting time putting no pressure anywhere on the map. On Pearl against LEV, they would constantly run down the clock making no progress and then just pray that one of their players hits a couple of heads; which did happen sometime bc their players are mechanically capable.

And then the lack of change, how is that allowed to happen almost every single rifle round for an entire half?

After watching the whole series; i can confidently say that Zeta Division is just plain awful. There is zero adaptation, zero map control, zero awareness, and zero confidence. From 2020 I really wanted Japan to get good at esports: their market is huge and they have so many fans, they should be putting in the hours and the effort to get better. Not to mention some extra personal bias towards them bc i just like japanese culture ig. But despite all of that no, they just continue to disappoint year after year, event after event. In Masters 2, there were flashes of what I thought was Zeta finally learning from their mistakes; which they definitely were, but one common there from their success then, and event now, is that they rely WAY too much on the opponent making mistakes. They are not creating their own opportunities, which makes it trivially easy for any half decent team to just completely annihilate them. What's even sadder, is that it's clear they they have serious talent on their roster. Their players have (for the most part) insane mechanical skill, which is what has allowed them not to get 13-0d on every map.

All of Japan it seems is suffering as well. DNG has so far put on one of the more consistently trash performances I've ever seen, and the Japan Challengers League is full of cracked Russian imports carrying clouted but washed Japanese (who are frankly much worse than what we've seen so far from Japan on the international stage).

In essence, Zeta (and all of Japan) need more brain. They have the aim, but their strats and ability to adapt are criminally lackluster from what should be expected from a top-tier team. Maybe the coaching staff needs to change. Maybe they need to switch out some players. Maybe they need to practice more internationally. I don't know. But they need to change something, or else Masters Tokyo is going to have a really silent crowd.

Damn ok, well i do agree that they need an igl. Then ig dropping stew for empty would make sense, but tbh I think LuZ is more consistent than other sentinel players, although Banger is rly gud. Also I wonder if there are better alternatives to empty for igl; exy has been doing pretty well for DK, even though he's inconsistent aim wise, but that's pretty common among igls and there aren't that many top tier smokes players (this is why I thought maybe stew could try to learn smokes, it seems like hes played many different roles before despite maining duelists recently).

So maybe:

• HANN (duelist)
• LuZ (sentinel)
• yoman (flex)
• Lakia (initiator)
• empty/exy (controller) {IGL}

They still use DK as their acronym tho. They're "DPlus Kia"

There are some players in the Korean Challengers League that I'm surprised aren't in franchising (names like HANN and Lakia), and some new talent that are showing a lot of promise (stew, Banger, etc...). I'd say that right now, the chances of a Korean team winning the Pacific Ascension Tournament are already pretty decent, just looking at some of the competition: only CR from Japan, and APAC teams that have been said to have promise aren't performing up to standards tbh (looking at BLEED), but MiTH looking pretty clean. If an org that is willing to invest, idk maybe DK, and pickup 5 of the best players for the next split, I think that they would have an almost guaranteed spot for franchising next year. Judging from what I've seen from the matches so far, I think that an ideal lineup would be:

• HANN (duelist)
• stew (flex)
• yoman (controller, flex)
• LuZ (sentinel, flex)
• Lakia (initiator)

Thoughts?

aight thanks for the info man, this has genuinely answered a lot of my questions.

cheers!

2 things

Thanks for the info abt what happened on the LoL side, and yea if Riot are hoping to avoid a similar situation, yea this makes a lot of sense. The thing is that it seems like this East Asia grouping has been pulled off before in the form of the 2022 East Asia LCQ, so if they were able to sort things out between themselves, that would be great. But looking at the LoL scene ig China would prefer to keep their players and games on home soil. big sad

Although I feel like maybe the Americas could still be split into the 2 regions; my fear is that Brazil is looking like a 1-teams region (sorry) and LATAM like a 0.5 team region (half the time LEV or KRU do great, or no one does). They will be completely dominated by the NA teams and their supposed best team is being pushed to the limits by GEN.G (admittedly they do look pretty good tho). Similarly, we will probably have to wait at least a year after LOCK//IN before we see Japan on the global stage again. I rly enjoyed the ZETA run from last year, and maybe with split back in the map pool they could do well again, but I don't have that much confidence tbh.

Also there are a bunch of orgs missing from franchising that should be in there in all honesty: many of the T2 Americas league orgs (G2, TSM, GUARD), some prominent korean and APAC orgs (NONGSHIM, BLEED, BOOM, X10(?)), and some BR and LATAM orgs (not so familiar with these im afraid)

Sad that it seems like lots of these things wont be possible either due to politics or financial interest tho.

Thanks for the response :DDD

Fair point honestly, just hope that eventually the weaker regions will eventually have the chance to make it internationally. Thanks :D

Two main issues I've had with franchising so far is the distribution of regions and how China is going to fit into the mix.

After looking at the games and results so far from LOCK//IN, there are 3 observations I've made (feel free to disagree)

• So many NA teams are looking extremely dominant, with EG being the supposed "worst NA team", and doing amazing against TH, even though they don't look particular good tbh
• The Korean region seem to best of the Pacific League, with DRX beating BBL, who looked like they had lots of potential, and then GEN.G playing extremely well and pushing the Championship-winning core of LOUD (notably LOUD no longer have Sacy and Pancada but cauanzin is looking unpolished but extremely talented)
• Chinese Valorant seems to have the potential to get close, if not to the level of Korean Valorant; although the FPX v KCORP game is not a good one to reference (both teams looked extremely shaky) Looking at the new FGC circuit, there are a lot of new teams entering the scene, with some real talents who were not seen in 2022. Some of these include "You", who returned this year with TOTORO GAMING, and "whz" who has seen to be playing in 2022, but at time too undisciplined and otherwise held back by honestly lackluster teammates (and/or teamplay)

So, even through franchising has just begun, I think a possible solution from a viewer's perspective, maybe (definetely) not from riot's perspectve, would to re-split the regions into 5 groups: the ones that were used during LCQ of 2022.

• North America
• South America (LATAM + Brazil)
• EMEA
• East Asia (Korea + China + Japan)
• South East Asia (including SA and Oceania)

Masters events would feature 2 teams from each region to total up to 10 teams, or alternatively 2 more teams could come from the 2 top performing regions (realistically NA and EMEA, sorry to BR fans), bringing the total up to 12 teams.

Champions would then feature 3 teams from each region, plus the winner of the last masters event before champs, totaling up to 16 teams.

Thoughts?

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/03c8617a
hopefully not too many repeating matchups and not all emea and na playoffs

JUST WATCHED THIS LIVE HOLYYYYY

'//,

apac playoffs format legit gunna be better than tha actual masters events

i gotchu :D

oh yea forgot abt that

ah ur right thats tru, i can edit

thats true, tbh i rly just didnt know where to put the extra slot

in which part?

also theres an extra br/latam slot so its probs fine