EG and DRX might turn up, but the 3 above are the lore canon, imo. They've all dominated their respective leagues, and came into franchise as the poster child of their regions.

Feels bad for the CIS folks. Could've gotten a team or two into franchising, if not for the war. Hope they get their shot elsewhere. I'm glad APAC orgs are picking them up from T2/T3.

Except the next 2 maps are their best maps yet. It's joever.

Masturbate.

I love both of these teams man. I can't watch this shit any longer. Ping me when it's over boys.

Not underrated at all. Most people would agree, he's the best Valorant player in Asia rn.

Alright, it's a bonus round, but I'll give him this one. Another one and I'll edit the thread.

He's decent when they're ahead, but cannot carry his weight in competitive games. He botfragged against EDG as well.

Holy shit he's been choking all tournament long. Truly the T2 merchant. Ideally he cools the fuck down.

EDIT: He really showed the fuck up. I'll never doubt him anymore.

You get paid in respect, yes.

At this point, it seems more than possible. Of course, we've only seen the selected maps, but Na'vi certainly has the potential to.

Neither will make it there.

As I've said, winning is a matter of form. Say, NRG's shit form for example, flung them out of group, and C9, flushed by KRU during LCQ (probably the weakest team sent to Champs, btw).

I'd say Asia performed decently thus far. Reminder that before Loud won Champs last year, people were still whining about how shit SA was to be given so many slots.

I have no doubt Loud can do it again, but I wouldn't celebrate just yet. Loud's map wins have been too close for comfort lately.

They can't all choke, because they'll play against one another. One or two will go deep, then it's a toss up on the day.

They are not "good enough" to win, they are literally, better.

Your mom's the deepest by far, who, I have no doubt, is also American-sized.

They'll probably choke during playoffs. Again. The usual DRX experience.

Bold statement given DRX just swept both Loud and Na'vi, and PRX is even better.

BLG's win over NRG should tell you something about the power level of EDG, I'd hope.

Different games, different smokes, different maps, different mobility. The XM if ported to Val will also be broken.

You have delusional standards for an esport. Low-tier traditional sports are sustainable because the simple act of going to watch it in person is the very anti-thesis to going online, which people seem to be 24/7 nowadays. Not to mention the traditional sports themselves being embedded in the educational system, and promoted in the natal phases of youth development. Not to mention decades-long tribalism that spur people to support their local sporting efforts.

T2 Valorant will never have such privileges, and before trying to make orgs "sustainable", let's try to make them at least incentivised.

Well, yes, Brazil is part of Americas as well. Same reason I'd still classify Korean teams in a class of their own as well. They very rarely import foreign players.

They almost exclusively field rosters with mono-nationality players, so fair enough.

Grease burger, talk about footie much?

1 EU
1 TR
1 APAC
0 JP
1 KR
1 NA
1 BR
0 LATAM
2 CN

It's doomed. It's their first year even playing this game.

Well, I'd still say every other PO team bar FUT beats EDG, so it's not like the region parity is entirely fucked.

The judge is OP, but only on players with abundant gamesense and teams that can enable them. We've seen Giants/NRG being shit on it today, meanwhile FNC/PRX/EDG/BLG absolutely thive on the pick.

If you're talking top flight, it's APAC. DRX + PRX are both top tier, borderline contenders. Of course, the rest of APAC is kinda shit, but well.

Why Fut? Why not feet? Feet like Fut no like.

Probably because historically, every BR roster had been strictly Brazilian-only. Same goes for CN, KR, TUR and most APAC teams, btw.

No. They are just shit.

CN has great PC esport infrastructure. India is simply more interested in mobile games.

Of course, if Singapore can do it, then there's no excuse.

That's literally what I said. PRX plays a bizarre game, and they win based off of that. They are evidently the pinnacle of coordination, I have thus referenced their hivemind nature.

True and tested means default. There isn't anything "special" about EDG's comp, no Yoru, no Gekko, no Reyna, no Phoenix, no intentional "trolling". They can make brash, aggressive calls when empowered, but their gameplay follow the usual cadence. PRX, on the other hand, has rounds that end in literal 10 seconds.

You have a sensible take, I don't think TS or C9 would have done much better.

People are simply casting EMEA the slot waster because of how underwhelming franchising had been. Many expected EU to feature a superior depth of talents, but that's unfounded imo. The main demographic that played CSGO has aged considerably, washed CS pros are simply not good enough for T1 anymore, and the new kids are not necessarily better than their foreign counterparts.

In fact, even in hindsight, I'd rather no other team at Champions. Na'vi put on a show, and Giants were at least better than PAC's 4th. FUT is there for the Turk fans, and Liquid might have turned up.

Not really, PRX plays like a crazed hivemind, jumping around with shorties and winning (& throwing) bizarre rounds for their antics.

EDG is worse mechanically, but they play with true and tested gameplans, albeit with lots of luck and heroics involved.

EDG will for sure get dismantled by FNC, for example, but PRX will stand a chance.

With recent developments as outlined by the outrage over Leo's series of tonedeaf tweets, EMEA T2 is looking doomed (and by extension, most other regions as well). It's abundantly clear now washed CSGO players are no longer good for T1 play. In Vietnam, for instance, T2 is completely dead. There's literally 1.5 org clinging on, others are makeshift bands of unemployed enthusiasts.

While EMEA is clearly blessed with a developed FPS scene, this is not a good timing for Valorant to leech off that grizzled, disenchanted 30+ y.o playerbase. Unlike Starcraft and Dota, or Dota and LoL, CS and Valorant are just released too far apart. Lifetimes have elapsed since.

The clear move for Riot now, imo, is to ease sponsors into holding third-party tournaments in the off-season. That said, any qualified megacorp (i.e Intel) would probably not take the chance on T2 events.

Wdyt?

It's like shithousing when you are being scored against. It's not offensive, but it's for sure cringe.

What the fuck is up with that? His monitor is barely inclined.

You can't be a real DRX fan if you're not acknowledging their grievances with PRX.

All died of heart attack yesterday.

Just because you are born of the same ethnicity does not mean you could click pixels better on a virtual screen. And I thought we've grown beyond such tribalism.

Delight in the region parity while it lasts. I don't give a shit about tonight's results, but if Valorant has taught us anything regarding sports; it's always nice to see one so equally loved throughout the world.

I do your mom

Why did we not see Keznit on it first half? That's right, only competent Raze can play it, and only on this map. That's probably like 5-6 in the whole world.

Pubstomping is another story though.

Cry is free.

NA NOOBS GET BILIBILIED

It's more like Twitch Gaming. Weibo would be like Facebook Gaming, and Jindong would be Amazon Gaming. So it's weird, yes, but it's exactly like how esport teams should be sustained: self-contained PR divisions for megacorporations.

Improbable. FPX is much worse than the other 2 teams.

It's a separate region. Depending on performance, they might get the full 4 slots next year.

Besides, Pacifics is held in Seoul, so top Asian teams will scrim regardless. I worry about the Western side of the sport, hopefully they keep up the level of commitment to the title. If you count the sheer potential for talents, they surely ain't winning.

"sampv6"

290k viewers. This is probably not "heat", but real viewers. An outrageous number for a game that's barely released, regardless. I fear for the future of Valorant, once CN revs up the pipeline.

Not really. NAVI's Valorant roster is just not terribly likeable. Their IGL is a Tier 3 strat terrorist and they have serially choked every major game thus far. Not to mention, their carry is an obese Turk, and their other players have wet farts for personalities.

I wouldn't really be worried. They lost the match but has the better round tally. However, TL and LOUD are both dangerous teams, if they ever decide to wake up, that is.