The Ascension tournament too 💀

Facts, I think Loud will gain more steam as the tourney goes on and I can't wait to see Lev too. Best region EZ, lets fucking gooooo

Yeah... Like I get it, Zombs and Dapr are kind of assholes and they talked some real BM on the whole region when they had been on SEN. Just makes me a little sad because I bet those two dreamed of playing in their country in front of their friends, family, and people. Then they might not get the reception they deserve, specially after doing so much for the Brazilian scene last year. I hope I'm wrong though, because I would really love to see more mixed NA/SA lineups for Americas League teams.

I'd hope that Brazil would support Americas teams as a whole when not facing like NA vs BR teams, but that old time rivalry is honestly probably never going to go away. Pretty sure NA and South America have always been roasting and bantering with each other since the dawn of online video games loool.

if MIBR loses this then DRX loses to C9 just for that F take from Mako. I was excited for our Brazilian fam to get some W's today and keep that American League supremacy alive.

that would require a braincell. I'm here to watch people get shit on in valorant and the random cute cosplayer girl. That being said I remember that one time someone snuck a dildo into a LAN in CS and got Olafmeister to high five it.

https://twitter.com/donhaci/status/1120376903406358528?lang=en

honestly... yeah. I fucking love Scream, but FNS has that giga brain and there really shouldn't be any firepower difference between the two teams. If there is it's probably towards NRG.

Same, I just couldn't doubt C9 even after proving grounds. Like on paper that team is just stupid good. For me it was actually NRG vs loud that made me hesitate.... but if there is a team that is louds kryptonite it's NRG.

The doubt fam, the doubt. I have 3 NA teams and Lev making it out of the groups

The only one cringe here is this EU copium counting on LAN stats from 2 years ago

it's more then likely the top 2 NA teams are over there too, so the top EMEA teams don't really mean much if their scrim practice has been against these bums we've been shitting on in this group. IDK about SEN... but there is no way that 100T isn't cracked AF with cryo, and every single time we've seen them, they've been getting better and better.

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/a6c52d09

Damn right I have a full Americas league final.

These people acting like 100T and SEN haven't been considered top 3 NA this whole time lol. That SEN vs Fnatic match is going to be crazy, but people are sleeping on 100T they might be the best NA team we have... and if they aren't now, with how young they all are, they will be sometime this year.

So proud of my boys, you love to see it.

I was VERY interested to see what potter was cooking, and when I heard she was getting Ethan and BCJ to work with.... well. Now I'm really excited to see if this 10 man roster idea might actually be way better then people thought. Who knows.

Oh yeah, unfortunately for EMEA and APAC is that the Americas league will more then likely continue to pull away because of how competitive it is between North and South American teams. I was PISSED when NA only got 5 teams, but now it's looking like overall this refinement of rosters is going to help both regions of the Americas create not only the best league to watch, but out of that competitive pressure, the best players in the world in the long run.

I wouldn't say that... Just because Liquid, Fnatic, and NaVi should be real good. If EMEA ends up getting shit on by Americas teams this whole tournament I'm going to throw a party fr. EU fans would mald so bad.

I hope so, I really love the fact that APAC last year stayed competitive with EMEA/Americas regions. It's why I enjoy watching valorant so much since you never really see that in CS.

I had Fnatic beating out SEN, mostly because of those micky mouse LANs... but seeing c9 come back as strong as they did after red bulls. With Brazil crowd buff. I think it might be the match of the tournament regardless. That being said, poor APAC... they've been getting fucking smashed this tournament outside of DRX so far.

I'm hoping BCJ puts up another masters performance if I'm being honest, I think he was criminally underrated when franchising started. Other then that it'll be interesting to see if jawg isn't an onliner, and ethan back on LAN.

It's been a hot min since I've seen Ethan at LAN, but if we are getting BCJ at masters, and Jawg isn't an onliner. Then I think EG will surprise a ton of people. That being said the only person on TH I actually know is Mixwell so I'm sure it'll be a good match regardless.

Sometimes like that for sure. People care too much about the opinion of others and their approval, other times... life is hard, it's depressing, and you realize you got sold on this dream of being an adult that isn't real... and you know that smoking is going to take years off your life, and kill you. The truly sad thing is, is that you do it anyway, and a lot of the time it's because you know it's bad, but you'd rather die in your 40's or 50's then live to 90 and see people continue to suffer. At least it is for me, not that I'm really sad or depressed anymore, but at 30 I've seen enough of life to know how truly fucked up it can be, and I don't blame people for their vices to make this journey of ours more bearable. Food, drugs, smoke, whatever.

Is what it is fam, it is, what it is... til it ain't. Some of us just ain't strong, and that's ok... just wish the world took better care of the weak instead of eating them alive, or letting them wither away.

who cares bro, literally go play and watch competitive card games or some other soft shit. We're here fucking killing each others virtual avatars in a game with guns and the ability to bag on your enemies after their dead. Yeah, yeah, sportsmanship and all that, it's great and if you are on that good guy shit then props to you for it. But don't hate the anti-heroes for just being better sometimes, this is fps culture, always has been, always will be.

Not your fault man, I think a lot of people took the taric ludwig inv too serious in terms of how good SEN and C9 might actually be coming into this tourney... of course they aren't going to try hard and hand out free vods a month before a major international LAN lol. Still it's easy to get lost in the results.

This is extremely incorrect for the most part, I'm not saying that fast food serving sizes and the culture around quick and fast shit isn't a problem. It is, but the obesity rate in America disproportionately impacts the poor here, which is sadly a big chunk of the country. I believe the UN report on American poverty highlighted that not only is America the highest inequality gap of all western countries, not to mention a lot of other fucked shit.

"The Stanford Center on Inequality and Poverty ranks the most well-off countries in terms of labor markets, poverty, safety net, wealth inequality, and economic mobility. The US comes in last of the top 10 most well-off countries, and 18th amongst the top 21."

"In terms of access to water and sanitation the US ranks 36th in the world." In some cities and states it's literally more healthy for you to drink fucking soda then it is the local water supply.

Now, with that information and picture painted, you also have to attribute a lot of this to capitalism unfortunately. We have the highest infant mortality rate in the developed world, and we spend double the amount per capita on healthcare out of all OECD countries. So we make money off of people being sick, it's a known fact that Americans today can expect to live short and sicker lives because of our health sector and food industry. The amount of chemicals and sugar we put in every day food is mental, this is even worse for food that is supplied to food pantries for the truly poor. Combine that to the fact that "healthy food" isn't accessible to rural areas, and some cities, or the education to be healthier in general.

With all that being said it's a complex topic, with many layers, and even all of the things I'm talking about is really only some of what is contributing to American Obesity. People are fat, people make fun of fat people, and for me personally I think it's probably healthier to make fun of it then stew in depression or anger at a government that openly preys on it's people and make them heavily sick and dependent on the government to survive. That goes for most things in life, I'd rather find the humor in it then cry about it. But to state something like the OP as the leading cause to a major issue in such a fucking simple way just isn't it fam. Gotta stop being willfully ignorant about the world and educate yourself about the complexity of our reality, nothing is as simple as we wish it was.

People put bias on legacy too much, I feel like 100T has been better every time we've seen them, and because their the youngest NA team, will more then likely have a pretty insane peak... Their skill ceiling as players is pretty crazy. That being said NRG might become a better optic, and I'm interested to see if Sen works out with the BR/NA mix

Bro, they have one of the youngest lineups and had only been a team for 5 months or so when they went to champs, that's impressive. It's OK to be scared of the NA young guns, they coming next year.

One can hope, EG is still a big ? for me. Jawg do be nasty, I think it's more of a question of will Ethan and BCJ fit well with this team and potter as coach.

Whelp, didn't think they'd get 2-0'd, vit's map pool needs work

Because that's the stats? lol, ascent is their worst map.

Optic are my boys, but let's be honest, as soon as marved knew he didn't want to play in franchise his performance at champs was... not great. Spot on about FNS, maybe Ardis, xset did beat fpx.

hard to say, need to see Optic with Ardis, and SEN with the BR power. 100t def has the most potential to be a really really good team over the next few years, their all young. Wouldn't be surprised if they have an era at some point if they stick together.

This core of 100t has 38% winrate on ascent, every other map is way above that. I really haven't said much this tournament on here because anyone thinking this shows anything other then teams trying stuff out is braindead. There is really nothing on the line besides LAN practice.

100000%, but I do suspect that riot is getting tired of visa issues tied to that area recently. Hopefully when things calm down over there CIS league will be back.

Kru beat FKS on the head to head matchup, winning the tie breaker.

shoulda put prx instead of c9 on my list, I really hope they have a great year!

c9 vs liquid, 2-1 liquid wins, or 2-1 c9 wins, don't matter, 100T winning this event.

100t vs vit, 2-1 100T to finals.

1.100T (young guns, second favorite org outside of optic)
2.Fnatic (Fav EU team to watch)
3.Sentinals (Want to see if NA and BR mixed team works)
4.NRG/Navi (Want to see how both of these cores do with new stars)

5. C9 (Honestly just want to see if yay falls off or goes nutty on jett or whatever he ends up playing)

I don't really follow APAC, but I'm looking forward to whoever ends up becoming top dogs in that region. I think the full SA teams are not going to do that hot in the america's circuit, but I'm happy to be wrong.

not wrong, RIP optic, rip xset.

I'll wait and see, the only lineup worth anything as is is 100T, maybe Sen if they are actually taking shit serious again.

100T, not that I hate Sen or anything, but I've known Nadeshot and the Optic guys for most of my life.

Yeah, you're not wrong. I got tired with CS because it's not truly an international esport, and I've been looking forward to each international event. I'd even say franchising wasn't that bad of an idea for me until well, they rewarded optic as a team, the most consistent, and arguable the best valorant team to ever exist, with being forced to split after an amazing year.

I've gone from anger to just sad. I just don't get how they could pick EG up and do that to Optic... even if it was an org being denied, they should of forced EG to sign the whole team. I'll never see those 5 on the server together again, and knowing how much they liked playing for Optic, and Optic's history, I can only assume that Riot was playing favorites or holding some OLD ass shit over that org.

Sure did, your moms thick pussy lips. Tell her to shower more for me.

I mean I'd want them never to franchise and doing riot supported, or contracted LAN circuits like CSGO. It's the biggest FPS esport for a reason. And there is a reason why OW, Halo, and CoD don't have even close to it's number. If they had announced franchising before the esport scene had started for val, I would of at least been able to simply not get invested into the scene. Or have my heart broken when the team I love and follow has to split up over stupid fucking business decisions.

Why wouldn't it of been considered that they go the CSGO route with tournament organizers and Riot sponsored events? Every single FPS franchise league in esports sucks ass and is pretty much dead, OW, CoD, Halo. It's never successful. I'll agree that riot at least has a better format for franchise then they do but there is no guarantee that these super teams will even be made, or that all the players are deserving of a spot. Just like riot has favoritism, the team could simply reject more then qualified candidates based on beef, or that it would replace a favored son of an org.

Nah, I get to cry. I followed a team for a whole year of my life, every single match. Fell in love with them in and out of the server, and to watch them forced to split because of this stupid shit. It makes me hate riot so much I feel like I'm torn between supporting the players I cared so much about on their new teams, or supporting this shitty fucking mega corporation. Yeah I'm crying, big sadge, broken heart. They didn't deserve this fate.

If it's all going to be online, with low production and b tier casters and no watch parties... it's not going to be getting that much viewership. That being said the format for ascension is at least fair and skill based, so for the sake of young players and unknowns I hope it is a good experience and actually fun for viewers to occasionally tune into.

It seems more honest then using so many players and orgs to grow your scene, then drop them all for franchising.

Also when has franchising in any esport scene, ever been good. People are saying I'm coping... yet I've never seen a successful franchise rival CSGO or Dota. You could maybe say League? But the LCS viewership has stagnated and been going downhill the last time I checked.

You do have a point that the orgs probably did know, but that still doesn't justify riot using players that dedicated so much to the scene and game. Also they easily made a profit? What are you talking about money burner? Bruh each org got paid so much money from the champs bundle it's actually nutty. They could of done the same thing, champ bundles, and then org skins. Reward skill, dedication, good staffing, and the players. Not some board of shareholders with a fucking esport emblem on their lambo because they cried to riot that if their team can't make it to masters or champs they are losing money.

Not true, champions skin bundle.... Look at CS with sticker, or Dota. Riot is never going to put a flat sum down that's going to be bigger then what can be earned from community support.

Idk why franchising = more LAN events... literally they could of hosted the leagues this year at LAN, for whatever reason riot didn't want to. CSGO has a super healthy LAN scene from multiple organizers so it's not like Riot couldn't of contracted it out if it was too much work for them too. Now we get melted down scenes, that had nothing to do with actual skill, just whatever orgs riot are buddy buddy with. While also having no promise that the best are going to be selected for these teams that made it.

Orgs could set stupid buyout prices over spite for contracted players... then what happens when players stop trying or fall off? Riot made it clear you can't poach ascension teams, and the ascension league is the only part of the whole new VCT that's only skill based, and not clout based. Franchising is ass, no esport has had good franchising.