The quality of preparation which koreans get is much better (scrimming with chinese teams) definitely helps them a lot.
The difference starts showing now
They still need more time. But you can honestly see the improvement in cn scene. Nova xlg the new teams and talents look really promising. Cn just needs good coaches and igls. Also not getting their own region and official game halted the talent development there a lot as well. And trace tbh trolled their map veto this event. Had one of the best bind itw and didn't play it once. Also I think trace with a single change like edg will improve a lot.
also people need to know that literally every CN team has/is trying to set up a talent pipeline. once the orgs actually understand how to build and scout valorant talent like they did for LoL then we'll see a whole new wave of players and personalities take over the CN league. people forget that China is still sitting on the "old guard" of players that have been getting recycled since 2022
nah a lot of the CN teams are getting better a lot in the more fundamental aspects of the game. NOVA, XLG, BLG, and TE are all teams that are improving rapidly at this, even if Trace's performance didn't show it a whole lot. Just because they're not immediately succeeding doesn't mean the gap isn't closing faster than ppl might initially think