I honestly would be very surprised if they were in tier 1 next year

zeka is not confirmed yet is it?

Maybe I'm dumb but if he were holding the angle he wouldn't be moving his mouse much either no? Or he could be defusing moving the mouse aswell? Don't seem like a very effective strategy xD

Funny enough, they achieved much less than the Boo brothers

Having to keep 3 players is not something that can be enforced. If the players wanna leave they wanna leave you can't imprison them xD

Well guess we'll find out because it's happening in LOL, either KC or TH will have 2 teams in LEC

Not even an idea anymore, it's a reality, either TH or KC will have 2 teams in LEC's first split next year. I don't know what they're thinking

https://x.com/sheep_esports/status/1981062774085054687?s=46https://x.com/sheep_esports/status/1981062774085054687?s=46

Yes it definitely would create a conflict of interest, but apparently Riot says they can put measures in place to avoid it? Not sure how tf that's possible.

It's actually not a hypothetical, EMEA Masters finals is KC Blue vs Los Heretics. Which means either TH or KC will have 2 teams competing on next years first LEC Split.

In LOL Riot has recently started experimenting with an ascension like system. But there is a twist, it's technically been reported that Riot WILL allow Academies to play in tier 1 if they earn it. Could this be a direction they take in Valorant too? I mean it would fix situations like the current BBL one. But I think it's a terrible idea

Honestly whatever happens it's a mess

I belive he gets to choose. But once he plays in a region as a non import he can't change back. I believe only tier 1 counts tho, not 100% sure

Are we sure? Because it's a cost of like 1 or 2 millions for what might be a 1 year thing. Risky investment

No, echo and S0pp don't turn 18 until February/March, they would need 2 stand ins for Kickoff

I'm a little disconnected. Do they have enough resources to move to Berlin? How about retain players?

fair enough, Mini is one of my favorite players but it's time for a change

Why is it bad that they're trialing people? I'd be more worried if they didn't, at the very least, try people.

Also I can't think of almost ANY team that went a year with 0 changes and performed better the second year, let alone the third.

I ain't trusting what Leo Faria says. If it's too big of an opportunity don't kick them. Either way I guess it's more on KOI's side if they wanna swallow their pride.

What about the terrible precedent of allowing a team to continously break partnership agreement conditions? For Riots position that is much worse than a harmed relationship with a single partner.

Nah bro, KOI's contract was never formally updated when Ibai stepped down (contract breach) but KOI had meetings with KOI and they actively proposed and implemented solutions. KOI thought those solutions were enough for Riot for months until they got kicked. The costreamings were never the issue, just the tool. I guess what I'm trying to say here is there was never an bad intentionality in the contract breach, that doesn't set a bad precedent like not putting out content or something, it's a completely different situation. Exploiting that "loophole" is a way bigger breach of trust between partners

That is indeed true, M8 did have a disadvantage however they overcame it pretty well. I'm not inside of M8 but I don't imagine who they signed were very low on their priority list. Shows competence in management and incompetence building rosters xD

But you know KOI was a massive mess for 3 years on the management side and didnt do anything good performance wise. That is another good reason to think less of them.

I would agree, but then why didn't they kick them while all of issues were happening instead of when they manage to actually figure them all out?

Also that would be valid if Riot didn't know for a fact that those issues were resolved and that KOI's management is now very competent as they have access to it in LOL (They've been working with MAD for years and been highly successful and everything's gone really well since the merger too)

All of this will be forgotten once we're in an open circuit in 2027 anyway. Koi will probably be back then.

Maybe, I'm honestly not sure tho. Does KOI still want to be in VCT? Does Riot want them back.

But i think what you said isnt wrong. Doesnt mean that riot is in the wrong for doing it.

I think it makes a lot of sense in the short term for sure and they have the right to make it but it does come with big downsides. 1. Terrible precedent if a big org like M8 can send an ultimatum and get away with it ("If we lose our spot we're leaving Valorant") 2. Terrible way to treat a partner like KOI, if I'm another team I'm loosing trust. 3. What if GX and TH start to suck next year? Now you're stuck with 2 bad teams whose spanish fanbases combined are half of KOI's

Probably yes, if G2 lost their spot (highly unlikely by their performance all year) I'm pretty sure they would have tried the same thing yes. I don't know if anyone is breaking contract to allow Riot to do what they did but I imagine kicking someone like EG wouldn't have been too hard

Sure my friend sure. Giving KOI 48h notice don't sound like they're trying to maintain due process to me. Riot has handled this terribly at minimum towards the public. It just is what it is

You're half correct. Costreaming was the tool they used to void the contract. The real reason was they needed a spot for M8 and KOI was the only team breaking the contract terms. It's also especially obvious because even without "meeting the terms" they had a much bigger watchparties that many other teams, so costreaming was not the reason, just the tool. Wrong place wrong time for KOI basically

That's not true, KOI's very first roster was pretty much ranked by everyone as the clear top 4/3 of EMEA before the season began

Also KOI has been in VCT for 3 years and sucked all 3, but M8 has been there for 2 and sucked just as much. The difference is not as big as people make it seem. It's about viewers not perfromance

Great, then just say that. As you say it's obvious so no need to treat the public like they're idiots

Bro said extensive

I disagree but what's done it's done. It's M8 and it's always been M8, that's okay but there's no need to lie bro, just get it over with

He ain't fooling anyone bro, just be straight forward at least

Then why is a lot of people saying aspas is the goat with less trophies? There is definitely an amount of carry job big enough for Alfajer to surpass without trophies

You gotta give it to them, elite ign

using ACS and kd has just as many flaws

it may seem like that now but in the not so distant future people will remember they made playoffs not how they lost. Also shows you your flaws for the off season

TL finally has a competent coach after so many years and you wanna nuke him?

you do see how that's literally what I said right xD

pablo el matematico yes. I guess TH's waterboy is indeed spanish my bad xD

Pero mucho, nos han tenido que nerfear porque KOI iba de camino a playoffs de champs también y Riot no podía permitirlo

2 teams in playoffs superior region

(Not even the water boy is actually from Spain)

Yes but Riens is the constant, Woot is who fluctuates, obviously if you have 2 carries is always gonna be better than 1

Riens has been carrying heretics for 2 years now

someone bring shack back

Never on his channel, he does join Knekro's stream fairly often. But then again, he also joined SergioFerra's stream fairly often aswell

No, the costreams are not on his channel anymore, they are on Knekro's who gets similar numbers between 50 and 80k.
Ibai joins the stream whenever he feels like it but never opens stream in his channel

#16

KOI had one of the highest investments in the scene the first year, more than M8 this year. After that they have had serious internal issues and carried those massive contracts which didn’t allow them to properly build.

Those issues were resolved and KOI was ready to make a massive push now. And Riot knows first hand KOI is very much competent because they are their current LEC champs. It was exceptional circumstances not coasting at all

Maybe in the short term they did. But 1 they just set an awful precedent for everyone else giving in to M8 demands and 2 Really upset KOI who they’re forced to keep doing business with because they are a massive part of LEC

Brother half of EMEA's teams don't have a costream above 5k viewers. KOI had one of 10/20k. The costreaming was never the issue.

Warnings about Ibai not being the one streaming, he was off on a mental break. The issue comes after that, KOI offered a solution which Riot seemed to agree with, according to this they were never told "the solution was not good enough" and that is because the solution was indeed good enough Riot just used it becuause they needed to make a spot for M8 and they couldn't break any other teams contract

So they're competent in one game and retarded in the other? KOI have had many many issues with their mergers that have resulted in many weird rosters, but all those issues are resolved now, and no I do not believe M8 are more competent to make a roster for next year, KOI was legit getting ready to make a huge push this year spending a lot of money.

You're being deluisional because you want koi in the league and I understand that but Riot are not doing ts just for the fun and giggles, they have good reasons to assume that m8s are a better org in valorant than koi

Ofc they do, I've said many times I agree, but it's not because they're more competent, it's because M8 are arguably the most popular org in EMEA. I'm just saying 2 things. 1. If Riot could they would have chosen someone different than KOI, but they couldn't and 2. The reason has nothing to do with results or competence but with M8's numbers

In January 2025, Riot reportedly sent the first real warning to the organization, notifying KOI of its contractual breaches. A few months later, in May, Riot met with Fernando Piquer, Chief Strategy Officer of OverActive, in Berlin to once again discuss these issues. Piquer then outlined the projects and processes the team had implemented to address the situation. From KOI’s perspective, no further warnings came after that meeting. On the contrary, the organization says it had been working actively with Riot on the 2026 bundle, which gave them the impression that their place in the league was no longer in jeopardy

https://www.sheepesports.com/en/articles/valorant-vct-emea-koi-the-reasons-behind-the-exclusion/en

Next thing they heard after this was a random meeting being called telling them you're out and we anounce it tomorrow

That is factually incorrect and Riot knows it. KOI are the current LEC champions and Riot knows they're very much competent, also they're forced to keep working with KOI even if they don't want to. M8 just has more viewers and out of all of the VCT teams they could only find a loophole on KOI's contract to terminate it. I can guarantee if they could they would have chosen someone else

It's a dynamic thing, it happens a lot in traditional sports. I'm sure you know a team where every player they sign plays like ass and when they leave they're actually good, I can think of many but maybe the most clear one is Manchester United.

It's not a coach thing, it's not a player thing, it's like a team dynamic thing, when things don't work, they just fucking don't