https://x.com/ethanarnold/status/1874197807617409402?s=46
counter strike has fpl which allows only top 30 team players to queue so valorant could have players from all partnered teams + playoff challenger teams + teams that qualified to gcc. they could also have some exceptions for players like s1mple in fpl and tenz in valorant
Could be alright
I’d suggest; tier 1 + tier 2 official VCT/VCL contracted players only
No streamer mode and only allowed to register on their main acc (people will have to take accountability, they can’t hide behind an anonymous account)
Maybe limit it to 1 or 2 servers so queue times aren’t super long
Also you could create a whitelist allow some big trusted streamers to participate
Also prizes and actual incentives other than a cosmetic would be nice
I don't think the FPL would translate the same, because there just aren't the same avenues to pro in valorant as there is in CS (way less teams invested in Val), so ranked is like pretty huge way for players to get their chance/get noticed. I think allowing only radiants would work, but only allowing contracted pros (not even all of them by your suggestions), deserving up and comers wouldn't be able to get their chance like primmie, karon, demon1, etc.
How can talent rise if you have to be apart of the VCT ecosystem to be able to get into a "high" level queue? You'd be playing against nobodies, the reason ranked right now can signify talent is because all the top pros are who you're playing against lol. Realistically too, very little pros (especially top ones) would play regular ranked if such a queue became a thing. Didn't tarik run something similar and like the radiant ranked q's became barren? Idk, I think having a radiant requirement would be good, but a pro requirement just defeats the purpose of climbing the leaderboards.
The thing is most pros already don’t take ranked super serious, yeah they’re not ‘trolling’ as some would say, but they certainly don’t have any real drive to climb (when comparing to those who want to prove them selves to get picked up), there are plenty of players who farm in ranked but can’t make it as pro players, they require fundamentally different skill sets
Plus the examples you listed earlier were of players going from ranked straight to tier 1, which is just very rare. It should become even rarer now that Premier provides a direct path in to tier 2
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