EMEA: Apeks
Americas: M80
Pacific: Fancy United Esports
Trust, I'm from the future, Fancy is gonna win Champs 2025
I'm really hyped for Ascention this year.
I think M80 stays the favorite in NA but i'm not 100% convinced they will win.
Apeks is also a huge favorite, but it's hard to judge a good team in a kinda weak region, and we can't really now what region like France, Spain or Dash can produce this year.
If I have to bet on one team I would bet on Full Sense, they have 2 really experienced ex-TLN player seeking for revenge, 2 players that make threw champions in S1, and one really young talented player that was top2 fragger while playing smokes while being in a bad team. Together they really rollstomp Thailand (Only 4 map loose while winning 21) wish is historically one of the best region of APAC. (I think it's the only APAC region that managed to send 2 team in an international event beside S1M3 where JP and KR have 2 spot guarantees, and TH managed to qual almost every international event before the franchised era), KR have already all their talent in T1, and only JP seem the real contender here, I don't think they are any experienced Japanese team that used to play with a big crowd, while ex TLN/FS may have a little bit more experience of pressure.
We need info about China T2
I hope next year a tournament will hold after split 1, the winner would be guarantied to play ascension in split 2, so we can drop championship point, and qualify only the top 1 of every region in split 2 (Winner of split 1), and see a little bit more of exciting T2 crossregion Valorant. It's a shame in some region split 1 doesn't matter, and in some region you can win split 2 and still not qualify even if you didn't lose a single map. A system like this would make everything easier. Split 1 qualify for pre-ascention, while split 2 qualify for ascension.
I also hope ascension hold after September/Octeber's split, so the most important split of T2 region will be during the pause of T1 tournament instead of during the most important part of T1 event.