Last year's champions, all 4 EMEA teams were 1st Seed in their groups, and now no EMEA team is first seed. However, I don't think EMEA got worse, I think the Americas got way better.
Champs has proven to me that the Americas Franchise is gonna go crazy next year. LEV, Optic, and XSet went 2-0 in groups, 100T, Kru, and LOUD are currently 1-1, and Furia played incredibly respectably against 2 well-established teams on LAN. I don't know what happened this year, but NA and SA both stepped up their game DRAMATICALLY. Better coaches, better strats, more dedication, and good team chemistry. This should be a testament to how fast this game evolves. There's been no dominance among 1 singular region since release, there's only been better and better teams emerging from nothing.
I'm excited to see the future of competitive Valorant. It's looking pretty bright.