If the leaked roster is real, are they even a Latam team at this point?
depends, do you consider KC french?
It all depends whether you use the players as the representation or where the org is from.
I do see it as LATAM even though the majority of players aren't from LATAM, their HQ are in latam, most fans are from latam, owner is latam and their socials are in spanish for the most part.
sure but in terms of language and culture it kinda does, we just like when latinos get in the top spots and its not bad at all to be like that, if we make it to the top because people from other places is mixed on our teams we dont feel the same, ofc its still good but could be better yk? personally i consider lev to always be a latam org, but the roster aint latin american tho, the kru hype came because we had success before with other players individually on other esports but its the first time a team full of latin americans on the roster made it that far and we want to feel that once again and we want our region to build a legacy on valorant because its the closest we´ve ever been to do so, now that lev one of the 2 teams of franchising decided to go international a lot of people took it as if they betrayed the region (not me, i just dont like the team for what they did to nzr and i personally dont like any of the players or staff, i dont hate them either but they trashtalk kru so i talk shit back at them)
I will agree with you that Lev imo should focus on at least having a majority latam team considering their purpose "should" be to represent South America , But I think some of NA orgs should also try bringing in some latam players (obv the ones that speak english well at least) to truly be considered an "Americas" league it cant just be a one sided affair were all the SA orgs just end up getting NA players especially when there is clear talent in latam that can compete in Americas compared to some NA players that are still on the leage based on Nepotism ( fuck C9)
I too thought about this. People wanting LEV to get LATAM players but currently who would they bring from LATAM to replace Mazino and aspas without being MASSIVE downgrades? There's just not great options out there, and the good LATAM players LEV had were literally snatched by KRU bc they just couldn't find new great talent in Tier 2 either.
Adverso was on LEV previously
Melser was on LEV too
Shyy came out of LEVs academy but KRU too him too
Mazino got signed back by KRU again with a big offer
The only T2 talent that they picked up was mta, which didn't even work and is most likely getting benched, so there isn't many amazing talent out there as some many make it out to be. Let's be real, with the exception of saadhak and kiNgg KRU is already taking the best players LATAM(if we don't count BR ofc) has to offer, LEV would be handicapping themselves and taking the scraps if they chose to get a full LATAM roster.
I truly doubt there's this big of a deficit in the LATAM playerbase. I mean they could even look for ranked demons. Also mta is fine and has potential, he just had like no time to cook on KRÜ
The fact is that LEV just really wants to sweat their way to a trophy with proven players and that's fine. It just seems kinda disingenuous to act like they have no choice just because they don't want to take a risk with new players.