I'm really hyped for Ascention this year.

I think M80 stays the favorite in NA but i'm not 100% convinced they will win.
Apeks is also a huge favorite, but it's hard to judge a good team in a kinda weak region, and we can't really now what region like France, Spain or Dash can produce this year.
If I have to bet on one team I would bet on Full Sense, they have 2 really experienced ex-TLN player seeking for revenge, 2 players that make threw champions in S1, and one really young talented player that was top2 fragger while playing smokes while being in a bad team. Together they really rollstomp Thailand (Only 4 map loose while winning 21) wish is historically one of the best region of APAC. (I think it's the only APAC region that managed to send 2 team in an international event beside S1M3 where JP and KR have 2 spot guarantees, and TH managed to qual almost every international event before the franchised era), KR have already all their talent in T1, and only JP seem the real contender here, I don't think they are any experienced Japanese team that used to play with a big crowd, while ex TLN/FS may have a little bit more experience of pressure.

We need info about China T2

I hope next year a tournament will hold after split 1, the winner would be guarantied to play ascension in split 2, so we can drop championship point, and qualify only the top 1 of every region in split 2 (Winner of split 1), and see a little bit more of exciting T2 crossregion Valorant. It's a shame in some region split 1 doesn't matter, and in some region you can win split 2 and still not qualify even if you didn't lose a single map. A system like this would make everything easier. Split 1 qualify for pre-ascention, while split 2 qualify for ascension.

I also hope ascension hold after September/Octeber's split, so the most important split of T2 region will be during the pause of T1 tournament instead of during the most important part of T1 event.

That would be the equivalent of C3 if Riot send the team that end 5~8

Aren't they a part of Middle East ?

It's EMEA not Europa right ?

That's the reverse scenario of last year :

• Losing every game in regular season
• Winning LCQ
• Get grouped

This year seems it's :

• Winning regular season
• Losing playoff 1 and 2
• Get qual through championship point
• Win group

Hold on, is that why Leo gives us 5 mouth of offseason ?

Probably what may be happened in the future if China's population continue on the declining trend, Asean team will get more slot, and East Asia region will be created with Japan and Korea

For the moment India level is sadfully too low, and I think you don't have enough players.

If the hype around Valorant grow like in China, I think in maybe like... 10 years, your market will be enough big to have a full "continental" league, like Americas, Europe, Pacific and China, but that will depend a lot of you.

note : 1.0G = 1 000 000 000 people

Today we have :

• Europa : 0.9G people (Excluded MENA)
• Americas : 1.0G people
• Pacific : 1.0G people (Excluding India)
• China : 1.4G pelple
  That's 4 places that has enough development and where Valorant has enough player to make some continent

To me they are 3 market that Riot can consider for a future "continental" league, and that can become a full T1 league if riot succeed to conquer this market, and the country that form this market is enough developped :

• India : 1.4G
• MENA (from Pakistan to Morocco) : 2025 : 0.9G --> 2050 : 1.2G --> 2100 : 1.5G
• Subsaharia : 2025 : 1.2G --> 2050 : 2.1G --> 2100 : 3.4G (It's so big that if Valorant is still popular in 2050 and the countinent is fully developped it could break into Cedeo and Bantu)

Subsaharia is way too early to think about that, the continent isn't well enough developped, but India and MENA have almost achieved their demographical transition, and level of life is way better than in the past, but let's be honest, Valorant isn't enough popular in those places yet, they are probably not enough player, and so not enough level, so it's too early to add some teams, (And I'm not that sure GE make more view than PRX or any JP team), India can be happy, they have GE, MENA doesn't have any team for exemple.

I still hope in 10 years India will be more developped, more people will play val (Valorant mobile may be a way to bring Indian market on the main game) maybe even a new server in Kolkata, Dehli and one in Dravidian region, have their own T1 continent, and some team representing the diverse part and language of this big country. (Give me Dravidian Esport vs Bengal United, and GE vs Pondicherry Revolution), Let's be honnest India isn't a part of Pacific, they are just here because they are no other places to put them, and Riot want to test India audience with GE, if they succeed I don't see Riot dump any team, the repartition of slot in the region is almost perfect (Thus I would want OCE have one slot), having a Pacific region with 2 or 3 team of Inidia wouldn't really make any sense. If GE suceed doing something great, I really want India got their own region, but before that they will at least need to win one ascension tournament, or have a mush bigger fanbase supporting GE.

2 map differential, not 8 round diff.

I think Valorant dev team are the only balance team in the world that would make a nerf on a agent, even player that don't play the agent would hate T.T

I really like Fracture, I would love it to come back, but to be fair, Pearl didn't stay long in the mapool, it's probably the map that gonna get back, if Riot favor the favorite map instead of the most recent one, it will be Haven. As sad as I think, I don't think Fracture will come back next mouth.

I would really want to know if Fracture will be played without a vision if the map come back, because this kinda disappear recently.

I don't think Clove will be balanced, but maybe mapool chage will favor Clove if they rotate out some wide maps

More map arent popular, sooner they rotate out, Ascent is still here Haven was last to rotate out, Icebox and breeze get rotate out really early compared to their release date, Pearl was flawed and get rotate out early.

How so ? Clove potentiallly... But Iso ?!

Hmmm it may be because of the mapool but right now he is kinda the best vision of the agent to me :/

Can't wait to see that new map

Wait thats 8 maps XD

But the map wasn't as popular as lotus

How Lotus could go out so soon ? It's one of the most popular map, and one of the 2 last that was release. I don't get how with the lore update you arrive at this conclusion.

I'm kinda agreed for Ascent and Breeze, to me they seem like the 2 front-runners.

The only way to be sure if he his performing poorly is part of because of is environment or because himself, Potter would at least make us know the truth about him.

He would probably not be that expansive, so it's affordable for EG, it may be a win-win situation.

If the problem is only money I think they can find some solution :

• closing Italia, Portugal,
• Fuze Indonesia and MYSG that struggle a lot, (Beside BME, BLD, DSG and AE, it's a desert, a fusion where thoose 4 structure would be together would be sane for the region, plus it would be easier to create a team if you can take player from this 3 country like PRX did)
• Solve the question of "Wheres does Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar player can have a residency", by reunite TH and VN doing a "Mainland Southeast Asia region"
• Not doing a LAN for Europe since we are close enouth from each other
• Organize this tournament in Japan because they might have enough crowd to not loose that mush money
• For Americas : No choice, it has to be a LAN. It would be fair to organize it in Brazil since they lose a lot from the fusion with NA, plus maybe Brazilian fan can be enough to not lose that mush money.

After T2 Split, it should have a mini tournament with every team that won a T2 Split 1, the winner (And potentially the 2nd) would be directly qualified to the real Ascension tournament.
(And only winner of Split 2 should qualify in ascention, I really hate point system, it's weird to win split 2 in some region and still not qualify, some region found a good compromise by doing a mini-toornament with the top 4 point team, but it deflates Split 2 stakes :/)

Hard nerfing Viper 1 mouth before making out her two best map would be absolutely wild, makes no sense at all, but it's not impossible XD

Why do you think they didn't ? They have also another tournament to prepare :/

Maybe, maybe not, my point here isnt "The best team didn't qualified", but more "This team deserved to participate to promotion"

That the problem of having 7 bracket in NAE, a busy team like SR didn't have time to farm the point and are not qualified even if they won bracket.

Every team that win a bracket in contenders should have been qualified to promo. I really hope Invite tier will solve that problem.

https://x.com/VALORANTLeaksEN/status/1785747301887013298

• New Map
• New Map Rotation
• Duelists Changes
• June 9

5 week waiting will be long but finally some new map, thanks Riot.

Now they are many question we need an answer :

• Will the new rotation will be available for stage 2 ? (Please yes)
• What are the 2 map that rotate out (Might be 1 or 3, but usually it's only 2) ?
• What map will rotate in ?
• Will it be release the 11th ?

Vlr nation, what is your though on those questions ?

What ? No why ? I'm more on Astra and Jett this act

I think if Viper got killed, we will go back to the double initiator meta we had for almost 3 years :/

What if your duelist don't entry on your smokes ?

I'm not sure losing the versatility in your duo, is worth the marginal gain picking double controller instead of something else. (Especially if you have to sacrifice your info initiator)

I'm sad they are no ares in it, maybe that because of unluck but everytime a good battlepass is release ares seem to not be a part of it :/
But except that it's an ok battlepass (Sometime I think the best battlepass where the first one, with Tronlike skins)

She is OP on 2 maps out of the 10 maps (Because those maps are bad and need a rework, Viper is a symptom of this), and unplayable on every other because she need another controller to be usefull, and you won't have 2 controllers in your ranked game. (If you have 1 controller, it's already a miracle)

Thats everytime the problem with agent's balance team. They don't target the rank where they need a nerf. They balance for the proplay by doing nerf that will affect soloQ but may not affect proplay, I can't believe how dumb this is.

The worst example of that was then infamous 5.07 patchnote. We were in a situation where initiator flasher were unplayable in soloQ, and strong as fuck in proplay, while it was the contrary for duelflash... And what they did ? They gave "More identity" to agent by nerfing the possibility for an initiator to pick on their own flash making them even more impossible to play in soloQ, while they up duelflash making them event stronger in soloQ...
The solution would have been "Make every flash equal" or "nerfing initiator in pro only, and uping duelist in pro only" so no flasher is unplayable in ranked or in proplay and vice versa, but they made the oposite.

"IT BASICALLY KILLS VIPER AS A SOLO CONTROLLER ON MOST MAPS, while not really affecting her ability to work as a secondary controller"

If that is true that mean even more double controller on the game. But the change has been made to nerf double controller. Pretty ironic.
That remind me when Raze nerf as almost killed Neon on Fracture

The funniest thing would be to do the opposite 2023 run :

• Win every game of stage 1 regular
• Loose every playoff game
• Win every game of stage 2 regular
• Still loosing playoffs
• Still qualify threw the point system with 12 points
• Win every group stage game
• Loose every playoff game

It should have change.
Mapool was changing every 4 mounth, and on the worst mapool ever... nope : It's 6 month.
The next rotation will probably be in 2 months, it may or may not be available for next champions.

Reveal content 1 mouth before it release ? Riot never do that... we are lucky if they make announce 2 week before. But that not unpossible, especially if they release the map midact (And make the 2 weeks of the soloNewMapQueue during the 2 last week of act instead of during the 2 first week of a new act)

Maybe thats the reason they are a teaser for a new map in this battlepass, they want to release the map midact, but I start having some doubt :/

It's been 8 mouth, but it won't be release tomorrow, it will be release in 2 months

This impression is because it get release riiiight after Shanghai and we had 5 mouth with nothing, so it's recent.

No change and that make me mad...
Especially after teasing a new map in the battlepass.
10 FUCKING mouth, without a new map... How that's possible Riot ?! 6 month on the worst mapool ever if we used to stay 4 months on the same mapool ?

Considering the timing it makes no sense at all, they could have released the map now, pro would have 6 week to train it on stage 2, and it wouldn't be that weird to have pro. Now... When are they gonna release it ? If they release it next act, in July, that would mean pro will probably have to play the same mapool on stage 2 and even on champions (changing right before champ would be dum) on the same horrible mapool, it will be the first time in Valorant history that we keep the same mapool during a full VCT season... ON THE WORST MAPOOL

I hope they release it midact like Clove, but I really don't believe it might happen.

I can't wait S4 this season is exausting by some weird choice (At least this year we have suspens)

You don't get point for regular saison, you gain point for seed #4 at champ

I agree it's not THAT bad that people think, the format got really some great idea, the Stage 1 / Stage 2 was a really elegant solution for make a single round robin and a master in the middle, every game in stage 1 count for the whole year and thats really nice, (Compared to LoL where the spring doesnt count that mush), and the fact stage 2 is a full round-robin is totally fair.

But format has some problem that Riot can solve next year, the fact it's possible to not go to to master after doing 5-1 is a problem, sure other team performed better, but a distant fight is less entertaining, and less fair than a direct fight, maybe your only loss was just be for calendar reason (you get beaten by a team that was trash early in the tournament but litterally explodes at the end, and sadly you played them last), but that could be easily solve by starting with intra group first. Kickoff format was also a huge joke.

By dream format for the future would be :

• 16 teams
• Kickoff easy to do with 16 teams : It could be either doble elim bracket or swiss round, where the team that win 4 games in a row got to master, while the 4 team that end in 3-1 go in a bracket.
• Stage 1 with 2 group of 8 intra group, so basically the same format than 2022 Split 1 and 2
• Stage 2 complete the round-robin
• 2 last non franchised team get relegated (Or have to participate in a playoff tournament)

With that kind of format, you can even consider relegate non-franchised team at the end of every T2 tournament

Can Kru make the reverse scenario of last year ? Not loosing a single game in regular season, then loose every single game in playoffs, But still qualify to champions because of point and winning it ?

It is, and that's may mean how bad NA team are good to detect promising rookie :/

Sorry bro I prefer intraword than crossword It's more balanced for the state of words

Can we please just take in account the card are reshuffled in almost every region, and it's nearly impossible to know who is the best team or region right now ? We can bark on every team or region right now, but the true it's for... Maybe the first time in Valorant history, they are something like... 20 teams that can win Champion. EMEA got fucking 9 teams with 1 win gap, Am is also really stacked especially alpha, and top 3 in omega may be strong when they play intragroup, and APAC got at least 3 teams that are consistent and that was in the past not that far winning an international event, even China, they still look shaky but on LoL they progressed really fast (But I think it's too early for this year... Except if everyone is washed, as a lot of people seems to think). Can we please enjoy that and just admit we know nothing, being excited about every event and game making us mush closer from the truth.

This year is already amazing, please enjoy it.

In that case he have to pick him, you cant not pick an agent just because your star player is afraid to play his main. Now it make start to feel he is as dumb as me not playing my favorite agent (Viper) because I'm afraid to loose with her and not keeping my positive ratio on her in normal game (I don't do ranked)

If that's true what he need now is a mental coach, he cant perform with that low esteem of himself

Really ? Thats kinda interesting, why ?

• Be Yay
• Being best Chamber ever
• Not being allowed to play Chamber on your own map (Or not wanting to)
• See opponent pick Chamber
• Loose your own map against opponent with Chamber
• Win their map where none has peak Chamber
• Decider map, you aren't still allowed to pick Chamber (Or not wanting to)
• They peak Chamber
• They steamroll you

If they really loose Lotus, this guy has all the right in the world to do the biggest mental breakdown in the world...

Erratum on the fact he might be the reason why Chamber isnt picked

What is fun is that even if they win everything now, 4-1 might not be enough to qualify in playoffs, :/

Please Riot, start with intra group next year to solve that kind of problem

What would be the funniest ? GenG breaking Apac curse in Shanghai in front of mad Chinese that had censor them, or China winning in Shangai (And winning a trophy before Apac) ?

It's a de facto state, but even Taiwan government doesn't consider themself as independent state (They just consider they own all mainland China IIRC)