Probably a logistics thing really. Lot easier to get Visa's and the infrastructure is already there from running league of legends lan based leagues there already

I'd say its fair outside of babybay moving to flex. I'd say its more likely we see babybay jett and dicey over to flex. I think it just makes a bit more sense from a style perspective. Dicey has always been reasonably safe and controlled and low resource where as babybay is very well adapted to playing in a system built for him to make plays which will be more condusive to him playing main jett. I could see dicey running jett at some points if they want to run something like neon jett with neon opening opertunities and a more safe jett op holding angles.

Yeah Carpe is that good. He's easily the most accomplished ow player to transition (there is an argument for Sinatraa but unfortunately we never really saw Sinatraa on a compatible role other than 2018 tracer where Carpe was in contention for top position in the top 3 with sbb and profit and Sinatraa looked like he really needed time to acclimate to the discipline of pro play). He's had some the the best longevity of all ow pros, he's a lan tested veteran who spent a whole year strait popping off on lan in 2018. His only really struggled in a tank meta and couldn't pull a starting position away from the cracked out (highly coordinated from a long time playing together) duo of mn3 and zest who are good that Philly is rebuilding their whole team around that duo. He didn't fall off, people finally caught up.

He was a main dps for like 4 strait seasons, from 2018-2021 he was the clear main hitscan for the Fusion. Carrying them kicking and screaming through season 1, unlucky goats meta moment in season 2, top tier in season 3, high quality in season 4 (rip the visa issues) and only got caught up with the newest generation of rookies and to be fair mn3 and zest are really the players that help proper build a case that this year's rookies are built different. Carpe was anything but mediocre.

I never said there wasn't tallent I said there wasn't the depth of other regions. There is tallent there but it's 90% players who aint on supportive roles 80% already signed there is a whole 4 or so free agents worth looking at that are all about the same level of risk.

Also who mentioned OCE and where on earth did I say dep and tenn were Korean (just that they came from overwatch)

You love to see it
Plus it's probably a pretty smart move, the Korean tallent pool really isn't that deep in Val and transferring over cracked overwatch players has been a proven strategy (see dep, Tenn, babybay and saya for reference) and for that transfer to be a veteran who thrived in the grueling constant lan environment that OWL's old format created and then continue to impress over a 5 year tenure (only really stepping back for the newest generation of cracked out rookies) add on to that an established brand to an upstart project and you got a very worthwhile pickup

But also it's probably a pretty smart move, the Korean tallent pool really isn't that deep in Val and transferring over cracked overwatch players has been a proven strategy (see dep, Tenn, babybay and saya for reference) and for that transfer to be a veteran who thrived in the grueling constant lan environment that OWL's old format created and then continue to impress over a 5 year tenure (only really stepping back for the newest generation of cracked out rookies) add on to that an established brand to an upstart project and you got a very worthwhile pickup

Big rip with Carpe comes the curse, T1 will now forever come second place. On the bright side the Fusion can now win an Overwatch title

I reckon the only reason it looks a bit weird is because old liquid were off the good swapping roles all the time. I'd assume it will end up with
safe on jett/chamber/duelist
Nats on sentinal/secondary smokes flex
Redgar on smokes/sova occasionally
Jampi on the fade/sova
Soulcas on flex (that kind of raze, Skye, kayo role)

Don't play musical chairs to much and it should be all good

Going to be weird seeing numberonescreamfan without a liquid flair

But the real question is where the fuck is engh?

I'll be honest from his perspective probably does make sense. And he does make a few decent points.

• 1st zombs does have the clout required to sustain from a content creation point of view. So it's a completely fair financial way of looking at it. I mean end of the day, it's still a job.
• In terms of his financial assessment his probably about right for t1 vs t2. In T1 he probably wouldn't fetch a huge salary among the partnered teams who would be bargaining from a a position of power whereas an ascension team looking to big a big team to try push for promotion would likely be trying to say big tallent to them and need to offer big money for big names, especially a player like zombs who would also carry a brand

The travel bit is probably more of a personal thing and I mean guy played overwatch I can understand hesitation at franchised leagues

Kind of sadge but Ghostbusters is kind of a W name

To be fair there is a pretty good president for top OW tallent that transition becoming key players for the teams the represent.
Babybay, Corey, Bunny, Zumba, Bazzi, Sayaplayer, Sinatraa
Specifically it was shown best with cracked out star tallents that had really good awareness and communication skills.
There is definitely huge potential for players like Striker, Rascal, Birdring, deim, GodsB, Stitch, BQB, Erster, Nenne, ect making great solid transitions across. Even away from duelest roles that OW transfers tend to gravitate towards

Even if they could afford Trent I find it unlikely he would leave the guard given they've shown they're an org willing to invest (as seen across multiple titles) and arguably have a much better winning formula

Idk I still have a sweet spot for the idiot and the egg from my Overwatch days

Mate you should see the Swiss flag, honestly it's a big plus

Good to see order finally running a bracket that doesn't involve getting thrown in a group with prx.

Real talk, this aint no franchising L. This a we aint made the big event so it's not financially sensible to hold onto a roster when we don't get any screen time to bring in investment kind of L

I think you'll find Wronski is in order....

Sorry just had to nothing like a good pun

OCE moment, think I might make the same call

Top predictions
NA: Faze, get babybay and dicey to lan. Chambers still busted easy for dicey

EU: M3C or Guild but my heart says M3C. "Anytime emea does something it's a CIS time"

SA: Kru, they don't lose to Brazil to they're through. As for the 2nd team my heart says Vivo Keyd but logic says NIP.

East Asia: honestly having watched underground Chinese Valorant for a while now. These kids are all cracked out, it's like watching Valorant on crack.

APAC: just checked the passport, Order will be taking this one ez dubs. The cinderella story of a life time begins here

No, all the matches from this point have crowds I believe

Mostly visa related, It's also helps because it's pretty easily accessible from pretty much all the European countries so getting fans to the event isn't super difficult.
Same with Turkey, very visa related. Getting Russians into Turkey isn't the hardest thing in the world and they can also pull from Turkey's huge valorant fan base

All these people thinking they are on the hopium for apac LCQ. You guys don't even know real hopium, it's for some home grown true blue Order hopium. Up the boys

Kind of sad to Zumba go, always the sad eventuality that all Korean players at some point will have to disappear to do their military service.

I mean depends on the fps really, China has produced some big stars in some fps games. 2021 OWL MVP Leave for instance.

So like is trexx going to be able to get a visa?

So in the world where M3C make it, are they even going to be able to play Copenhagen. It's pretty unlikely right?

I feel like kone and nter are the only 2 teams in china that have really got their head around the chamber meta.

Pretty much, the ruling basically is that one org can't have multiple teams competing in vct (with an exclusion for team with a male and female team). As China is not yet integrated into the vct system they are perfectly fine both having a Chinese team and an emea team

I believe aswell in emea Rix had rCk for a while and some angry titans players like phatt, Epzz, Jona, brussen and Afoxx. Some brazil guys like addicted and coach mowzassa. Gambit coach engh was a player team winstrike in overwatch. Tviq who played for OG. Bromas on heretics. Lateks coach of giants. And probably more Apac players but the ones I can remember are samuraiD, Persia, signed.
And some other ones just looking down the players list on liquipedia; sharyk, grego, buds, leodeddz dafran.
So yeah quite a few tbh

Shout out to Pati. The move back to Overwatch seems to be going pretty well for him, just took home his 1st stage title with the Gladiators.

Just to add on I believe they also have a similar operational deal with the Seattle surge in CDL to manage that team. Which honestly with big orgs getting behind franchising is probably a very profitable and much less risky way of running an esports organisation

Another prominent reason for this move is the financial situation regarding LG and their parents company. They are pretty in the hole right now from a financial stand point are are likely looking to cut costs where possible and focus there resources on other ventuers (e.g. the role the have managing the operation of the Vancouver titans in OWL where they don't pay the wages instead they're payed to manage the franchise). It's highly likely in an unstable new market like valorant with a consistently middling team the risk to reward ratio wasn't in a place worth justifying the amount the roster contributed to there falling financial situation

I mean, sign a short term contract to have them play under your org for LCQ is probably not the worst. Gives you a free entry to arguably the most important NA event of the year (assuming they try again for lan) with very little commitment or investment. Honestly for some orgs it's probably not the worst decision they could make if they want to get a slice of valorant hype before franchising hits

Geez mate, your really going to make me narrow it down.

There's the divinity of a Bunning snag
The flavour explosion of fairy bread
The greatest combo of a chocky oak and a servo pie
But I reckon it has to go to the solution to all of lifes problems. A KFC zinger box

Right now, kind of torn between my love for cone and my love for watching whz just farm stats, guy has an average all time acs of like 280. Would love to see him on a proper stage.

Riot need to hurry up and release the game in China tbh

I mean the underground Chinese valorant scene does have some stuff to work on. Mainly getting the game released there tbh

You gotta shout out gumba though, single best esports tallent scout going around. The number of gems he discovered for immortals (and I guess his history of excellent coaching in OW) his name has to go in the ring

Volvo, it's a Swedish word meaning unbreakable and a synonym for tank

Hmmm if only there was a Nordic team unsigned, perhaps some players from denmark. But I guess who cars at the end of the day 😉

Babybay went +44. Easily babybay

Just babybay things

To be fair, Fpx did qualify and also pretty handedly ran over the rest of EMEA

EZ for bonkers

Fair effort from zeta, their improvement from the start to end of the event really should be commemorated

You aint out here trying to say no one knew sayaplayer, kid was a fucking star player and well known for being a hard carry hitscan player for Florida Mayhem and huge impact with Meta Athena.

Saya was absolutely not a no name

This really is the 100 thieves problem. It's a roster with a bunch of really good players. Problem is they have a bunch of good tallent. Issue is 3 of them probably fit best on the flex role. At some point you gotta pick favourites and if you had to build around one of them asuna is probably the best option (because the asuna Jett is good enough to keep you going in NA but the asuna flex is certifiably able to hang with the best in the world)

Sadge, it's gone :.(