Have a free time, I just suggest for second era. Of course, Riot never do it.
Let 2 or 3-years instead of 5-years
- 5 years is too long. We saw lots of problems happened about partner teams but Riot couldn't do anything to fix it due to contracts.
Make 6 regional leagues instead of 4. There are:
- NA: play in LA
- LATAM+Brazil: play in Sao Paulo
- EMEA: play in Berlin.
- China: self-decided location. If available, team's can make home studio/stadium like LPL
- East Asia (KR+JP+TW/HK, included Mongolian players): play in Japan (best in Tokyo).
- SEA (included OCE + South Asia): play in Bangkok
Each regions will be 10 teams, 6 partner and 4 ascension. Total 60 teams all regions.
Reasons:
- Avoid visa issues. There have been cases where visa issues had a significant impact on teams. For example, FURIA in Kick off this year. PRX Patmen also had visa issue and missed 2 matches in stage 1.
- Increase diversity and opportunities for players from other countries.
- Minimize unworthy or underperforming partner teams.
- Why Japan instead of Korea for East Asia: although Seoul now is a venue has good facilities but
- Except for matches of Korean teams, there were still plenty of empty seats.
- Whenever the camera pointed at Korean fans, they just shyly hid behind their cheering boards. Personally, I prefer seeing fans wave, give a friendly smile, or do a fun hand sign like a finger heart. I believe Japanese fans can do it.
- The Korean community in Japan is much larger than the Japanese community in Korea, so Korean teams wouldn’t have to worry about a lack of live audience, while Japanese teams would also have more fans go to watch them.
- In Japan, there are many support services available in Korean, so language wouldn’t be an issue. In fact, I’ve even heard that Koreans is easier to learn Japanese compared to people from other countries due to the similarities in grammar. And a lot of Korean are playing in Japanese teams. Visa and life in Japan for Korean is not a big problem.
- Why Bangkok for SEA:
- The fact that Thailand has been chosen to host several international VCT tournaments shows that it is quite a suitable location. Up to now, we’ve already had Ascension Pacific 2023, Game Changers Pacific 2024, Masters Bangkok, and we will have Ascension and Game Changers Pacific 2025. I believe Thailand also can host Champions.
- Visa in Thailand is not difficult. For fans, not only SEA people but also Indian and Oceanian, Thailand doesn't required visa.
Suggestion of partner's slots division (6 slots):
- NA, EMEA, China: I have no idea.
- LATAM+Brazil: 3 BR + 3 LATAM
- East Asia: 3 KR + 2 JP + 1 TW/HK (hope that will be CFO, or PSG Talon)
- SEA: 1 Thailand, 1 Indonesia, 1 MYSG (PRX), 1 Philippines, 1 Vietnam, 1 Oceania
- Why not have India: in the fact, Riot did a lot to attract Indian players and viewers (made Lotus, Harbor, took partner with Global Esports), but result was so bad. Currently, GE has to play without any Indian players. And there’s an unfortunate truth that Indian has to accept: they has never had a single player who played in a Masters/Champions.
Global events formats:
Masters with 8 teamsFirst Stand (or "Conquerors")
(I think it shouldn't be called as "Masters". Due to be teams are decided by regional Kick Off - a quick split season with Double Emilination format. The scale of the first Masters is always smaller than the second one, so grouping them under the same name as "Masters" doesn’t sound good. Temporarily use name from LOL. If it were up to me, I would call this tournament as "Valorant Conquerors")- 6 teams (only regional winner), drawn in 2 groups, bo3 single round robin. If h2h score is 1-1 for 3 teams, team which have most difference of games and rounds auto-qualify as 1st-place, while remain 2 teams will be decide 2nd-place by a bo1 tie-break.
- Top 4 teams in play-off with single elimination, all bo5 (don't worry, Lock/in Sao Paulo semifinals were played in bo5).
- Playing days: Mon-Tue-Wed for groups (2 bo3 matches each, tie-break in late of Wed), Fri-Sat-Sun for playoffs (1 bo5 match each). Thu is break day.
- Masters
- 12 teams (regional winner + runner-up)
- Seed #1 from top 4 regions in First Stand will start in playoff stage. Remain 8 teams will start in play-in stage.
- Format is same current Masters 2.
- Champions
- 18 teams (regional winner + runner-up + champions points)
- Seed #3 from bottom 4 regions in Masters will start in play-in stage with Double Elimination. 2 teams will qualify for group stage with remain 14 teams. 16 teams will play with format same current Champions
Discord