In the last hour, I've seen so many posts about how Riot is stupid for giving Japan 2 slots, and how undeserving they are.
First of all, ZETA Division - the best Japanese team - hasn't played yet, so i don't think 1 Japanese team is indicative to the second Japanese team, therefore 1≠ 2 if I learnt my math correctly. So watch them play against KRU tomorrow before having kneejerk reactions. Maybe they'll pummel KRU, maybe they'll get pummeled by KRU, who knows?
Second of all, yes CR got absolutely DEMOLISHED by Gambit, but it was to be expected that CR would lose? This badly? Maybe not, but come on, it is the EMEA #1 seed. They won their qualifiers for God's sake. They beat top EMEA teams to have this group, oh but it was "seeding matches" sO iT dOesN't maTTeR rIghT? CR is touted as a bottom 3 team in Berlin but the fact they made it here again is worth a lot.
Lastly, the viewership in Japan is INSANE. I remember watching the Japanese finals and they got more viewers than VS vs F4Q finals, a difference of almost 10K viewers. Valorant is a new game, being compared to CSGO in terms of viewership and how relatively mediocre it is. The Japanese viewers rack in a lot of the net amount of viewers from all platforms, so why kill the only thing that keeps Japan invested in Valorant by merging SEA/KR together? If no JP teams make it, that essentially decreases the viewership a lot. Riot is playing this smart by giving regions with bigger viewerships slots.
So is it worth giving Japan 1 slot, or merging regions together? No, because this is a growing game, and Japan needs more respect.
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