The vibes wouldn't mesh. The teams have diametrically opposed chemistry

I love Dre, but holy moly, I'd have to spontaneously fall into a coma and awaken in another universe for LG to win an LCQ

Discipline and fundamentals don't go with C9 right now. Just hero plays that still lose them the rounds LUL

Derrek OverWatch is insane, plain and simple

So interesting. Thanks for the stats overview of the 3 LCQs.

Hopefully Brim gets a buff soon. I really do enjoy playing him (if I have to fill smokes) and don't prefer any of the other smokers. Fingers crossed he continues to get ignored by the pros >:)

You got me. I laughed lol. Thanks

Probably cuz sponsors come and go and they're basically ads in a name. Freely promoting said sponsors isn't ideal since they don't have deals/contracts with vlr.gg, liquipedia, Riot, etc to do so. That'd be like us saying "prime gaming flawless" after a flawless round which nobody does except people at official riot productions (or streamers for jokes).

It would be ridiculous to "redo" full tournament matches

ayee, I think i got like 20

What? that's SOOOOO boring though. there's no way someone would nolife a pickems bracket, I can't believe it

And the non-csgo players and other FPS players who're at the top? Such a silly statement. There's a reason gamers are usually very good across the genres that they play

Wait, so what is Soar's team? Their roster's hyperlink looks like it has 3 players. Are stella and geeza they played with just filling in maybe? big win for the team tho!

Did you learn the word LAN when Valorant came out lol?

#1. The problem before the tourney was that OCE teams were disqualified cuz not enough time for travel, throwing 9 months of hard work for an entire region in the gutter.

#2. The problem on day 1 is that a LAN was played online. Like how was an online LAN an acceptable main condition for a tourney?? If they couldn't do a LAN, they shouldn't have tried to force it. LANs already have a host of technical issues that can pop up at any time. Unless it's already been proven to work before in a less important/minor tournament, then using a remote server, in-person, and with a bunch of non-personalized equipment is just increasing the risks of failures in a HUGE tournament which we saw on crucial rounds that day.

#3. I believe the problem on day 2 & 3 is false positives with the rapid antigen testing that they have to do daily per LA county health guidelines. Players are actually re-testing negative (even multiple times sometimes) with repeat testing but LA protocols are still affecting their ability to play because even a false positive = quarantine. EVEN though Riot said they wanted to play online because if someone was positive, they could still play, on day 2, people did test false-positive and this "online LAN" they tried to plan for STILL didn't work out as a contingency. So day 1's excuse for the lag looks VERY bad right now.

In conclusion, Riot planned so poorly for this LCQ that it'd be insane if someone didn't get fired for this.

Well well well.. this happened pretty quickly... But they couldn't sign mike in 3 months?

I wonder then if they ever really intended on keeping him long-term. They could've just wanted a fill-coach until they found someone they actually wanted even though Mikes helped bring them their most recent results.

These teams haven't played in months. A lot's changed (hopefully for the better). There's a lot of upset potential at this tourney (just look at map 1. genG played pretty decent)

oh, so slaze didn't get banned without an official ruling first? I thought they only made a broadcast about it because she made a fuss on social media about not knowing why she got suspended. I'm a bit iffy on that timeline since I wasn't following it closely at all. Idk if riot would bother to announce in huge blog posts every ruling they make on individual minor players

hmm, interesting. I always thought the ratings were best after a long series of tournaments though. They're never good to use mid-tourney especially after teams have had time to improve or fall in shambles

"It gets really tedious. And there's a huge gap between when teams play" wait what?

But was complaining earlier this year about going straight into masters 2 qualies right after winning masters 1? That's one of the reasons they got bye's into the ro3 of the masters 3 qualies.

Then crashies says Sen "deserve to at least just skip an open qualifier or something." That would mean they play less and have an even bigger gap between when teams play.

So people are complaining about both sides of the same issue. It kind of sounds like they want Valorant franchised already and don't find enough value playing with rising teams in opens even if there could be an upset as we saw many times.

Maybe there is some tedious middle ground Riot can come up with that's not full franchising in 2022, but I think careful what you wish for. Whatever they have next, people will surely find a way to complain about that too.

glad some of the ez5 players are getting the attention they deserve!

VLR becoming the one-stop-shop for all things Valorant? ya'll are doing amazing work

Yeah, Envy's news was really out of left field. how did they let this happen??

I wonder if they took action because Riot did. Remember Slaze was suspended before everything blew up. I think Riot only made a blog post about it because she was so insanely denying it, they had to bring out the numbers and even then she's still like "why are people being rude to me?"

It's possible the zeta and CR guys got suspended by Riot for 3 months. but took it quietly and told their orgs they couldn't play and then were also suspended from the orgs

haha, yeah the week+ of Berlin did not do me favors for my attendance record in grad school.

I don't think you need to literally split it into regions with a header. Since you already have the flags, it should just be enough to "order" them by regions so you have a list of eu eu eu na na na sea sea kr kr etc. for example

Because you have links to the announcements or the teams, I don't think dates are necessary. This quick info format works really well when it's not packed with hard data. If we want more info, we should click the hyperlinks imo.

I don't have an opinion about having newest stories at the bottom. I suppose if any story was "big" enough, it would've had its own article, so I guess it would be harmless if you wanted to do it this way.

All this to say, I have no idea what a traditional media company or someone with background in media would suggest. I'm just an avid reader

between the 11-3 comeback with gambit and the 12-7 with acend, 100T knows how to give their fans heart attacks lol

Nah, 2-0. He came from the wrong future.

Just watch it while you're in class/work if you're a real fan duh!

It's not 0 and 1, throw or give everything you got. There's strategy and finesse to these things. All Sen did was try to win on the same 2 maps using the same tactics as before without exposing their new strats to their playoff competitors. It's not rocket science.

So props to G2 for being able to beat Sen while they used their B strats the 2nd time around, showing that G2 is a legit top tier team now and should be feared if you don't try something new.

I hope they beat sen this time around. It'll make NA way more interesting of a region. Even if they lose the finals. The "what if" opinions in the vlr forums and reddit would be hilarious

Facts, I'm from the future.

100T 3-2 Vision Strikers

fascinating. especially the first article

811k* according to esports charts

wow, that'd be pretty creative. doubt it'll happen since it's a little tacky to change formats mid-tourney.

Yeah, based on what dapr said to platchat, they'll basically be using their B strats to the best of their abilities. Basically trying to force a win not with new stuff but what already worked in the past.

I know it's tacky to change a format mid-tourney but it's already scuffed to begin with lol. This was always the less desirable option because of the 15-team group format, but I really don't like how completely pointless (besides just being a showmatch for viewers) this last f4q v sen game is going to be.

I like your take ritdro2211

Everyone's already saying that G2 secured 1st seed since they won a 2-0 against Sen, so head-to-head, they've already decided the seeding. This match isn't for seeding or for determining who gets out of groups. it's literally just extra chances for people to watch sentinels who said in interviews that they'll be running the same strats so as to not reveal anything new to playoff competitors. Plus, the 2nd seed works out for them too since they have a 67% chance of facing an NA team in quarters which they're really good at beating.

Well, they could just revert back to the old schedule which had 1 quarterfinal game on Thurs after the last 2 groups then on Friday, 3 matches instead of the fat stack they have right now for Friday of 4 full matches

Exactly.. I know it was the lesser choice since they did it at first because of the Bren Esports visa thing, but it's served its purpose now.. these teams need rest and should be playing the least amount against each other before the playoffs so there are no advantages/disadvantages from watching them play as frequently as they do. Even G2 talked about how hard they counterstratted sen for Split the 2nd time after just 1 match.

Nope. This is the first Esports I've gotten enthusiastic about. Still, tradition shouldn't supercede logic and we don't have to repeat stuff that don't work. A double round robin was clearly the lesser choice, and it also made it so that there are 4 matches on Friday which is insane lol

No, I'm saying teams DO practice, but they do so in private, not in front of their future competitors!

I heard chats saying that the round diff is head to head only which does seem nonsensical to me. Still, even if this is true (<3 round for f4q), Sen has already made it clear through interviews that they want 2nd seed to potentially play an NA team first before they go against strong international teams and can show their new stuff in semi's instead of quarters

There's no room for public practice in an international event. That's why scrims are very tightly disclosed in the most general terms. Antistratting and prep is huge with teams who are near the same level

As far as i understand, this match isn't even for seeding apparently. Is this true? If so, why continue with the format if the group stage objective has been reached? Is there even a point to this match because it only disadvantages Sentinels who play 4 matches while other teams play 2 or 3.

Unless somehow the F4Q game can still affect seeding, since this format was forced on us because of the Bren Esports situation, it should be perfectly reasonable to modify this format again if it has finished serving its purpose..

Sources? I'm tired of "I heard" posts about lakia

I hope they do a hybrid franchising which is like a kind of regional league/open system.. like open in the sense that anyone can technically make it into worlds through grueling competition, kinda like an LCQ but for tier 1.5/2 teams through a lengthy series of competition. Then say the top 1 or 2 there get to go to worlds while teams who bought in as tier 1 get a pass into direct vct competitions for the titles through the regular seasons.

I haven't thought too deeply on how the details would work, but it should be possible.

Same thing gambit fans did when their team lost

And barely made a win out of split, their 2nd best map.