China will never merge with pacific. Never. Not even worth discussing.

Probably not. I imagine they would only consider doing something like that after several years of extreme domination. Just like in league of legends, china/korea had the same number of teams at worlds as EU/NA for the longest time despite being on a clearly higher level.

Pretty sure that isn't true. Optic faced Xset in the first round of playoffs at Copenhagen and this is the same format.

Group stage demons in LoL? Said by someone who has literally never watched league of legends.

NRG

Yes, because US expats have never ever lived in asia.

This is already outdated lol. Riot put out a statement delaying the LCS by two weeks and saying "lol no" to pretty much all the LCSPA's demands. They said they hoped to resolve the situation in the next two weeks but if they couldn't, summer split would be cancelled and there would be no NA teams qualifying to the world championship this year.

https://lolesports.com/article/an-update-on-the-2023-lcs-summer-season/blt175d929f90a4804d

So it seems the LCSPA is fucked. Which really isn't surprising to anyone who's observed riot's actions over the last decade. They do what they want, whenever they want to, however they want to and make sure that anything regarding the esports scenes of their games is within their control, even if said control is detrimental to the health of the scene.

termi said in an interview a day before finals they had 3 days practice with zest

:eg; :nrg; :loud;

edit: This looks really strange to anyone not using this add-on lol

Yup. No matter who wins tokyo, I won't be that surprised. Gotta love global parity.

IDK man. Feels like they handed their opponents 2 free map wins. Lotus, their permaban; if they were cooking something at all, it would have been with fox9. And bind, a map that returned during the regular season which means they wouldn't have had scrim time on it with zest. I seriously didn't start sweating even when PRX were down 0-2 because of these two maps.

I'm not assuming anything. Termi said they had 3 days practice with zest.

Sorry but that isn't enough of a reason to bench a player you've been playing with for 9 weeks. They literally only had 3 days practice with zest.

Don't get me wrong. I'm extremely happy PRX won because I was rooting for them. But DRX? WTF?

How the fuck are you gonna bench your star duelist that you've played the entirety of the regular season after getting clapped in a single series? How? Why? Make it make sense.

Oh well for them. GG

Absolutely not. Randoms in his ranked games were literally calling him boosted right after winning iceland. And not without reason.

Money and trophy yes. There are no circuit points. Top 4 are locked for tokyo and top 3 at tokyo go to champs.

How is it irrelevant? This is only an issue emea has because of the extra slot they got with fnatic's lock-in win. The other regions don't have this problem.

NRG won't be at group stage tho

I see someone is no longer Swedish.

C9 fucked NA valorant you mean. I'm happy for EG/Potter but after watching C9's last two series, pretty sure they choked away that match against EG. Not saying EG couldn't have still won but I think if C9 had been playing at their usual level, they would have won. Hopefully EG keeps improving and puts on a good showing at champions at the very least.

How exactly are you gonna call it "exposed" when they'll be missing their star player? Doesn't make sense.

No

If it was closer, you might have an argument

He was using a U.S. flag like a week ago

why are you changing flags?

Tell me, what does simple google say about the certificate of eligibility for a work visa. Last time i checked, that can take months.

Also you're pulling shit out your ass with the passport time. An expedited one takes 7-9 weeks.

Filing for visas for all the teams in case they qualify is exactly what they do.

This guy has no idea what he is talking about. Its either he doesn't have a passport and subsequently no time to acquire passport or he doesn't have enough time to acquire a work visa. Or its both.

Pretty sure that isn't a thing

edit: As in his parents being russian making it harder to acquire a visa

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

This is the one laugh thread i will actually take part in.

I dont understand how ppl are suggesting changes atm when it's all working so well. Like are you stupid?

Spoken by someone who knows nothing about work visas.

No, it's not that easy. And demon1 has already said he won't be able to play in tokyo if they qualify.

C9 2-0 EG.

Rooting for EG but just don't think they can do it. Ironically enough, being an anti-strat heavy team, NRG was the best opponent EG could've matched with in round 1. They were their last opponent in regular season and essentially had been prepping for this team since May 13th. They had the first match loss to cook more and fix issues. Against C9, they have a single day.

As a potter fan, I'll be happy to be proved wrong though.

edit: I was wrong, EG have unlocked super saiyan IV

You're delusional if you actually think that's true. It's a combination obviously. Even if you put demon1 on the roster week 1, they'd still be dogshit to start. The team has improved immensely in many ways. And some of that is definitely potter.

Nah

Yup, until the end of playoffs.

They announced the broadcast would start an hour later for playoffs on the last day of regular season. For some reason VLR has just had the wrong time listed since then. It's been right on liquipedia the entire time.

Yea but that still isnt enough of a reason to change the format when 2/3 don't imo. Honestly I wouldn't worry about it too much. The format will literally have to change year after year until we get to the 14 intended teams in each international league. Maybe they'll be doing 8 team playoffs by then.

A regular season where 8/10 teams qualify? Not that i've never seen it before but it feels strange outside of certain circumstances. Also 4/6 are only qualifying because of the extra slot that fnatic earned at lock-in.

Anyone notice that the Americas matches are missing from the matches page? Also, the times in the Americas event page itself are all off. They said on broadcast playoff days would start 1 hour later than their usual start time. I'm guessing this is to help people wanting to watch EMEA games too.

No, I think japan just needs a bigger pc gaming market.

According to wyatt, this team just has mikes with other people coming in occasionally to help with analysis. All the other teams have 2-3 people consistently for coaching/analysis. So yea, it seems like a coaching staff issue.

its tokyo where he wont, not playoffs

lol. It's tokyo where he won't be able to play, not playoffs. Why would someone be required to have a visa to play in their own country? Use your common sense please.

The issue is the rapid rise and decline of most esports. Someone that is currently 12 wont be able to go pro for 5-6 years. And they most likely aren't gonna be able to gain the goat title in anything less than 4 years. Do you have confidence valorant will be doing well a decade from now?

Uhh, a little too young id say. 14-15 is a better guess imo

Another korean team losing two series across two different game titles.

Sadge for Zeus, Oner, Faker, Gumayusi, Keria, Sayaplayer, Carpe, Xeta, Ban, and Munchkin

4 way tie breakers decided by first map diff, then round diff. Loud, C9, NRG, Furia, and Lev are already qualified. Last spot will be decided by tomorrow's game. If 100T win, they're in, if they lose EG is.

This is incorrect, LEV are locked in at 4th or 5th. Opponent will be 100T if they qual and furia if not.

No difference for LEV, they play 100T if they qualify and play furia if they dont.