np it's a long(er) series but the most recent seasons have been really good

also it's all on crunchyroll which is great

Osamu Mikumo's goal from what I've gathered in the three seasons of the anime that I've watched is to rise up in the ranks of Border (the military-like agency responsible for keeping the general public safe from invaders) and aid various people that he ends up meeting in finding people that have been taken away by the neighbors (specifically one person's sibling). Missions to other bordering countries take a lot of resources so Border can only send one team of their best people out

World Trigger is actually hard to describe because it's got a unique power system (kind of like HxH I suppose) but it's in a sci-fi setting that reminds me of 86 but without mechs or the underlying themes of one race of people using another for their benefit being the main focus of combat. The way Gintama set up the amanto in the end (when their true intentions to invade Edo were revealed) reminds me somewhat of World Trigger as well.

Maybe there's a comparison to Tower of God if you've seen the anime or read the webtoon but apart from that there's maybe a Star Wars comparison but that's only for the sci-fi theme. There's a lot of mental outplay that goes into how the teams approach each fight that isn't fully apparent in the big action sequences, but eventually the show slows things down to explain why certain characters took those actions which I find really neat

Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni)
Golden Kamuy
Grand Blue (Grand Blue Dreaming)
Terror in Resonance (Zankyou no Terror)
Vinland Saga
World Trigger (kind of a hard sell since it takes some time to get good)

I must make sure to post in this legendary 100000th thread

Congrats!

The mostly Lithuanian (OG LDN UTD) roster is playing in a different league than the (French) OG that were mentioned in News Almost Missed. One is playing in EMEA VCT while the other is playing in the French Regional League to my knowledge

There aren't any indicators that the CIS VRL will return, so it just makes sense that they'd look for opportunities elsewhere

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/76668107
top pickem after day 1, let's see if it'll hold up going forward

Thanks for letting me know. I edited it out

The one originally reported by frs?

Not familiar with Dota2's system but Fortnite is a completely different esports format so I don't think it's comparable to Valorant. CSGO might be comparable but like Valorant the players are in a constant state of going to different teams to get a leg up on each other to get to Tier 1.

Maybe I'm overthinking things though.

I agree that's a major point of concern. Maybe I'm just a bit too happy that it's not a format like OWL or the LCS but there's going to naturally be a divide between T1 and T2. I also agree that making the T2 scene sustainable is important, but I can't really think of any examples of games that have a T2 scene that you can call 'sustainable' today.

Part of me thinks it's ultimately not possible to make a T2 scene that sustainable because that's just how esports is, but if there's frequent enough (T2) competitions being held with good enough prizes, then things could reach a point where it just might be possible in theory.

From what I've gathered it's a good thing to know that Riot haven't forced all competition under their own umbrella like with Overwatch's esports ecosystem. A certain time of the year for third party tournaments also means that we can see teams play at events like Dreamhack if they were to host a Valorant event.

Allowing non-VCT tournament organizers like NSG and Knights to continue to operate gives up and coming teams something to grind in and get better while still allowing the better teams to compete in their own elite skill bracket (the VCT). I'm not entirely sure what other tournament circuits there are in other parts of the world outside of NSG/Knights in NA and The Esports Club in South Asia but ensuring there is something for different regions is critical for Valorant as a whole going forward.

We're working on upping the number of team that we report on in NA and other regions, but it's just inevitable that we're going to miss some teams. When announcements from other parts of the world (like OCE, JP, APAC, etc) drop and people aren't around or just busy with other things then it just doesn't get covered unfortunately. It's a process that we're working on improving, but it's no means perfect.

I do my best every Friday to make sure News Almost Missed covers as much of the stuff that might warrant a full article as well as teams that are notable in other regions but don't qualify for their own article so that their stories don't just go unseen to audiences for other regions. Appreciate the feedback though!

thanks for pointing that out! it should be fixed now

W

VK was one of the teams I was considering putting in the title but I put XSET, SMB, and Gen.G in the title because they're notable NA & EMEA orgs and thus a bit more likely to attract readers (since our primary coverage is on NA and EU).

I couldn't care less what teams you feel are "more important" than others, regardless of what it may mean for the team. I just cover what happened to give these stories a place since otherwise they'd be completely forgotten about. There's only room for 3 teams in the headline each week, and VK didn't get chosen. Maybe next week they'll be included if they're in the news again.

As for v1xen's comment about mwzera, it's not relevant to the bottom line of what happened. So it will not be included.

It could potentially mean that they adopt Rise's circuit points by acquiring enough players

no you're not I'm the one tripping

good catch

Assuming this is a serious question given how many -frags you have already, these articles are meant to be introductions to the teams at the event for readers that may not be familiar with the teams if it's a team from a lesser followed region like SEA, LATAM, or JP (when compared to the viewership of NA or EMEA at least) and give some sort of storyline as to what's at stake for the team.

For some people this might be their first tournament they've watched or kept up with, so at least giving them some sort of idea of who's who is why we do these articles. Building some sort of hype for teams competing in the first of three international tournaments in the year only helps in making the event more interesting, regardless of who you think is going to win.

The best that you can really do is demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the topic with good writing fundamentals. I can't tell you how many papers I wrote while I was in college that were about topics that didn't interest me in the slightest but if you at least display those things then you can at least rest easy after you turn in the paper.

I'm confused why the others would be included in the announcement though

I'll cover it in this upcoming week's edition of News Almost Missed

Interesting if true. There haven't been any announcements in official channels the last time I checked, but considering that there's been a big shuffle of players in LATAM I'd expect that announcement to be on the horizon

Dcop and xander would be really exciting additions plus whoever Fusion would bring in as their fifth

ratio

For those wondering, there are 45 roster changes that were covered

I also tried flushing out the results section to include more coverage of GC and VRL happenings, which I think I might keep going forward

Thanks for pointing that out. Changed

Hello readers and commenters of News Almost Missed! For a while now, a select few tournaments (namely The Esports Club Gauntlet and Knights Monthly Gauntlet) have dominated the Results and Matches to Watch sections. This section was originally meant to showcase third party tournaments that notable teams and up-and-coming talents would play in. However, with VRLs and league style formats becoming more prevalent, would you guys be interested in a section detailing who is on top in the different leagues instead of that?

Happy Birthday!

solid read :)

W

I will only be writing about the predetermined storylines set in the script. There is unfortunately nothing I can do about it.

Also thanks!

I always upfrag common VLR writer W comments :)

Yes

Unfortunately we couldn't bring everyone that applied onto the writing team, so to answer your question, yes, we have chosen our new writers.

If you'd still like to do written Valorant content in the future, please continue to hone your skills! I've been doing written content for over five years and I'd say now my efforts are just starting to pay off.

Navi is a Ukranian org

I personally don't mind it since in both instances the art quality improved, but others might have a different opinion

Wind Breaker could also fall into that "too long" category since it's nearing 400 chapters, but I agree that it should be something that you read after you've read a few manhwa

Obligatory Tower of God recommendation post since I've been binging it for the past few weeks

I actually had to restart it from the very beginning since I got a bit lost on where things were going after 350 something chapters but I'm getting back to where I was and it's amazing. I'm in the hell train arc right now at about chapter 255 and would highly recommend it for any Hunter x Hunter fans

Also +1 for Wind Breaker more chapters are being released and I am HYPED

I thought I was missing an announcement

added

I think this might be the most jam-packed edition of News Almost Missed I’ve ever put out…

Also huge shoutout to Eutalyx for helping me with this

an official post was made from the Valorant Esports EMEA Twitter, and so instead of making a whole new article, we just decided to move our previous one up to the front of coverage

Technically it takes the entire week haha

But yeah I'm working on this for a big chunk of the day and when I'm going between 15+ different web tabs for announcements plus trying to keep the announcements organized, things can get a bit chaotic

oops typo in the editor

should be fixed now

Oops. Should be complete now.

yessir top 3 favorite shows I've watched

https://myanimelist.net/profile/Hudsen
I've seen a few shows

Good luck to those who have applied :)

as a MikesHD fan I want him to be signed