Valorant Format

How would you change the current format for the better?

Me personally, I would introduce a last chance qualifier where the losers of kickoff or split 1 would battle it out and the top two would make it to the next master. This would give the teams that made masters, time to rest and to strategize for the masters, while also allowing other strong teams who didn't make it to the grand finals have another chance. It would also help take up time in the season so that people don't have to wait 1-1 1/2 weeks for every match and have a long time between events(minus China because they went really quickly with their matches).

make masters 16 teams and champions 24 teams

wtf is even the point of a 8 team event 90% of teams arent gonna qualify

also add more international LANs, CS will have their 3rd big event in february 14th, valorant has 3 big events in a year lmao

I think kickoff is a really fun and cool idea, but with how we have two masters I just think it's just not optimal.
imo the method of qualifying for each Masters should be the same, it makes it so in principle each masters trophy carries similar weight.

What I would prefer: Stage 1 Full round robin -> Playoffs -> Top 3 teams to Masters 1 -> Mid season break -> Stage 2 Full RR -> Playoffs -> Top 3 teams to Masters 2 -> LCQ (2 slots) -> Champs

Full round robins might be ambitious so I'd be willing to say change that to half round robins.
Also wIthin the break or any significant gaps I'd like to see some Tier 1 + Tier 2 mixed tournaments, or just tournaments in general in which the teams who don't qualify for the internationals can play in (It doesn't even have to be run by riot, all riot have to do is allow it to happen)

Think of it this way. Kickoff and LCQ are basically the same tournament, only difference is placement in the calendar, and two less teams. The main complaint of LCQ was that teams that go out of LCQ quickly will end their year early.
But in theory what we have now with kickoff is just as bad, it doesn't fix the problem. If teams go out now they have to wait 2 months before Stage 1.

One last small thing I wanted to mention is the groups at international events, I think Masters should be GSL style, and Champs should be swiss. Swiss works best with more teams.

12 team swiss in kickoff into 6 teams qualifying
top 2 in swiss gets bye and top 2 in playoffs quals master 1

and keep everything else, maybe add an lcq as well but lcqs are mickey mouse so prolly not

i really liked lcq, dont think it would hurt if they could find a way to bring it back

maybe champs placement works like:

1. split 2 playoffs
2. split 2 playoffs
3. champs points
4. lcq

this way if you did really well in kickoff, masters 1, and pre playoffs split 1, but sucked rest of the year champs points wouldnt carry you as much as they do now. maybe have it so that lcq happens right after lower/grand finals, the 9 teams that didnt get selected go to a seeded bracket and the winners sees champs

introduce an open circuit run by a third-party organizer (like ESL or Dreamhack) separate from the VCT with international LANs open to all VCT and challengers teams that runs throughout the year (off-season works too, i just wanna see whole open circuits with qualifiers that isn't just a stand-alone tournament)

First kickoff, I dislike the current format, because of the round of bye for the looser, so we kinda have either to go to round swisss, by for exemple giving a by to the top 4 for first round, meaning after 4 round we have :

• 2 teams in 3-0
• 5 teams in 2-1
• 4 teams in 1-2
• 1 team in 0-3
  Play a fast single elim BO1 tournament for the 4 team that are in 1-2 (3 games), the winner join the 5 other, then do 1 round swiss more, so you have 1 team in 4-0 that is in final and 4 team in 3-1that will fight each other in BO3 to access to the final.

But at some point since they are so many format that is a multiple of 3, so I think we will have no choice to find a way to make an efficient format that can make 3 team compete against each other that will be better than the boring format we had in 2024, and I have a proposition that I call the "Tri Fractionned Format" (The Tri-F). And this is kinda a preview for my next video <3

That is basically a full round robin with 3 teams, and 3 BO3, where each game are play de in a specific order to ensure the competitive integrity. So how does that work ? You make the 3 pick and bans at the start of the day, that, you play the 3 first game of each BO3, then the 2nd game of each BO3 in a specific order that will ensure suspense and preserve competition integrity (1st vs 3rd, 1st vs 2nd, 2nd vs 3rd), and then if 2 team are still tied after this 6 games, we play the decider match for this 2 team, in 7 games this is over, versus the actual 9 games, and competition integrity is preserved, not as what we had in the classical round-robin with 3 teams. (You can do whatever you want if the 3 team are tied, many possibilities are okayish and none are perfect)

(This is not 6 BO1, this is 3 BO3 with all the draft made in BO3 format, but the game are played in a different order

Personally I blame m4.

Either they adjust the first masters, or we change it into a Supercup where its fitting, the 2 best teams from each region play while the rest of the teams now play in something similar to the CN Evolution Series in the meantime. I'm not gonna lie having 3 Majors per year kind of meh for me and if they want to stick with having this dogshit kickoff every year into an 8 team international event then fuck it, but let's not call it a Masters. It cheapens the prestige imo and having something like a Supercup makes more sense since it's mostly an event condensed of the best teams from each the different regions. Like a gathering of super teams if it makes any sense.

Also make Masters 12 or 16 teams but no byes into the playoffs. That's boring as fuck. If there is any reward for qualifying, its better scheduling plus high seeding facing the worst teams of other regions qualifying into the event. Then into playoffs and boom, double elim bracket and we're set. We can have all the weirdness with picking teams if they want like have at it, just don't make it stupid.

Make each split a round robin. I'm sick of these half round robins per split. It sucks, it's boring for me. It ends so quickly. 7-9 matches to qualify is just what.. I'm watching LCK teams play like 18 games per split to get to playoffs where they try to qualify for MSI & Worlds. It's more drawn out, it feels more like a season and not just a passing fad. Bring back LCQ for Champs. Make it semi open.

Champs 20-24 teams, Ascension winners(maybe with runner ups..) join LCQ and there they duke it out to qualify for Champs. There they get a cut of the money VCT teams get and honestly this will heal the tier 2 scene a little and provide motivation. Like people have been complaining about how bleak tier 2 is so this could be a shining light for them.

give me best of the rest after kickoff and lcq