As many regular users may know, I'm a big advocate for Asia Pride.
5 slots is objectively a huge W. We're probably the only region that has made major exports to other major regions (Sayaplayer and Xeta to NA, Munchkin, Medusa, Meteor, Allow, Foxy9, Suggest, HSK, JoXJo, Hate, Bazzi, iNTRO, Seoldam, Astell, and more to JP)
However, I can't help but feel that 5 slots is too much. We definitely have the potential to field more than one good team. We know DRX playerwise is not a superteam; MaKo was not the best controller player in KR when he was picked up - he was a Jett player at first. BuZz used to play Sentinel and Omen for Rio Company.
Don't forget that we have achieved a podium finish 2 years in a row with 2 different rosters.
But to take away important slots from SEA, and especially JAPAN, which has lowkey carried the viewership side of Valorant in Asia, feels like betrayal.
Even EMEA could not have 5 teams capable of contending for a trophy. There were max 3-4 EMEA teams that could realistically win a Masters at any one point in time (4/4 EMEA teams in playoffs at Champs 2021)
GMB
ACE
FNC
TL
Definitely the most out of any region we've seen so far, but this goes to show it's absurd to get 5 slots. The historically strongest Valorant region (not only region, but several different regions - EMEA is more than 1 continent) probably couldn't have 5 title contending teams.
I lowkey feel we don't deserve it. 3 teams is the best possible outcome for us. 4 would be a dream. 5 is lunacy.
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