A major reason why regions like KR, JP, and LATAM all only have one team is that they only get one slot, so new teams aren't given a chance to get experience outside of their region and new orgs (other than in JP b/c of viewership) aren't willing to invest
Look at what BR was able to achieve because of getting more than one slot, they still have mostly mediocre teams but the region is alive due to a boom in org investment, possible due to not having to only play against a superteam like LOUD for a chance at a singular slot
I'd argue that if teams like ONS and Leviatan, who are at worst the same tier as NiP, were able to attend a LAN, both regions would improve massively in both skill and investment

If all 5 players could be consistently activated at one time, they would’ve easily won masters by now. Hell, if Rb could perform outside KR, they surely would have won Reykjavik

DRX’s Split is solid wdym, saying it’s ass is pretty reactionary as it’s always been one of their better maps

I’d put Boostio over Seven/Corey

OpTic and 100T

sunk-cost fallacy

Aproto is solid

C9 made no money in the deal

Where would you rank PRX globally right now? Do you think they are better than Zeta and DRX?

Lmfao, after every loss I see atleast one new SEN fan having the same exact epiphany

Cry

RNG 3-0 EG
T1 3-2 G2

I got my first prediction right, time to see how the second one goes

They should definitely keep him on Jett after watching that map

Pokémon Unite

NA is not the only region getting fucked

APAC will arguably get screwed over harder cause they are trying to include KR, JP, CN (?), VN, PH, HK/TW, TH, ID, MY/SG, OCE, and all of SA into one tiny league

At least in the Americas league, Riot can give good amounts of representation to all regions, but it’s just not physically possible for a region as massive as APAC

At the same time, EMEA has a much larger T2 seen than NA has ever had that will get completely thrown aside by franchising. If anything, NA is the region that franchising actually might have a chance to be effective in

Agreed, RNG are looking scary this event

Lmao, the G2 predict is possible if they regain form but I doubt EG even take a game

RNG 3-0 EG
T1 3-2 G2

Who knows though, Riot could just be reusing the 2019 script

100T and T1 both have higher chances at receiving a slot than NRG
100T participates in the LCS, has a massive fan base, has been invested for a while, been consistently good, and Nadeshot is super invested in Valorant
T1 would’ve moved to KR by now if they didn’t have a slot, participate in the LCK, and have deep ties to NSG

That could be cool

10 teams is actually brain dead, it should have been a minimum of 16 and upwards of 24 teams per region
Riot need to stop approaching an FPS like Valorant from the same perspective as LoL, we need more international events and teams

SK Gaming?

Things that I disagree with:
OpTic beats FPX, you aren’t giving them enough credit
Acend rolls current V1
Fokus beats Ghost

People also tend to make fun of wealthy corporate like orgs that spend so much money for bad results (like NYFU or T1) + people will naturally use the imports as a scapegoat

Seoul > Tokyo > HK >>>> SG
SG is by far the worst ranked experience in my opinion, servers are consistently full of racist dumbasses who do the most questionable shit you will ever see. Only good part about SG servers is that the players actually comm, but most games you have to mute at least one person

HK is about on par with the US West servers and Texas, so pretty mediocre in general, and Japanese servers are super wholesome but are kind of quiet and have a lot of baiters

I'm curious too though, how is it on Sydney and Mumbai servers?

Munchkin (Duelist)
Steel (Sentinel)
Xeta (Initiator)
Thwifo (Flex)
-pwny
+Zander (Smokes)

2 KR and 3 NA

At this point though, Xeta might be able to apply so he’s no longer considered an import, meaning that they could bring in another KR player

MaKo - I’ve improved a lot by watching his gameplay and he always comes in clutch for DRX

I would guess that it is most likely Invictus Gaming, given that they already have ties to MY/SG in other games

They’ve been falling apart after ever since their initial loss to PSG

Maybe Riot will have an Asian tournament planned at the end of 2022 since we don’t know much about what is going to happen during that period of time
Imagine seeing teams like DRX, PRX, XIA, ORDER, ZETA, VLT, ONIC G, TS, and EDG all in the same tournament, it’d be so hype (especially if it was on LAN)

We really just need more cross play between the regions

PRX, XIA, Secret, ORDER, ONIC G

A team with stax, t3xture, BuZz, MaKo, and Lakia might not work, but holy shit they would have a lot of firepower

Edit: Why would you pick neth over TENNN, neth is no where close to as good as him

When did I say that was the only reason? Obviously none of us have any clue what is actually happening behind the scene, but BuZz’s Chamber and Killjoy were both incredibly good pre-Reykjavik and they threw that completely out the window

It’s not that Astra was being played, it’s who was playing Astra for me. BuZz just didn’t look comfortable on the agent, especially on Split

Should be a DRX 2-0 unless Bazzi goes crazy

EMEA but it’s incredibly close
No more of this “EMEA challengers are harder than international events” after how G2 and Liquid to some extent played in Reykjavik, I think NA’s scene deserves just as much recognition and respect

https://escharts.com/tournaments/valorant/vct-2022-korea-stage-1-challengers
https://escharts.com/tournaments/valorant/vct-2022-philippines-stage-1-challengers

Korea has higher average and peak viewership than PH + you are only looking at the Korean Twitch stream, there is also an English Broadcast and YouTube stream

Apex is the only battle royale that I found enjoyable to watch, so I’d probably rank genres like: FPS, MOBA, Battle Royale (Apex), fighting games, and then whatever is left

Seoldam is genuinely a good player though? He put up numbers in the APAC LCQ, I don’t think he’s overrated

I know, but V1 payed a hefty price for him when they bought him from SoaR
I’m confident that they won’t be willing to transfer him to SEN for anything less than they bought him for

nt BENECIA, 8 hp away from the ace clutch :(

-It’s no longer early 2021, TenZ is not the most mechanically gifted player in the world
-Removing SicK will only make this team worse than it already is, he’s been one of their better players
-Adding Sinatraa won’t happen anytime soon, why do people keep saying this
-Zander won’t join Sentinels since his buyout will surely be six-figures, which they can’t afford, shown by how unwilling they were to buyout Rawkus from FaZe

And if you include Korea and Japan, Korea would be between SA/ID and PH, while Japan would obviously be on the top

I hope CNJ win, they’re a good up and coming team and their logo reminds me of Griffin

A large portion of APAC viewership is on YouTube

Loud and T1 are 100% getting franchise slots and I think Riot would choose a respectable org like NRG over FaZe in a heartbeat

I’m putting on the OG flair for this game, praying that the DRX match doesn’t overlap with this one

BR is genuinely the best example of a one team region at the moment in my opinion. Loud made it through their challengers without losing a single game and only dropping 2 maps in all, whereas teams like DRX, KRU, and OpTic at least lost a game or two to upcoming teams (ONS, Leviatan, Guard)
Loud are miles ahead of their own region, the skill gap is massive

It’s not going to be on LAN just like last time. Riot can’t even handle a 16 team LAN in Europe with millions of dollars of funding, yet alone a 24 team event in APAC with much less backing. Hopefully we’ll see more regional LANs when franchising happens next year, but i doubt even the LCQ tournaments will be on LAN this year