Take it with a huge amount of salt. Reminder that BLEED needed a thorough amount of investigation for the decision to out them (despite them being an Ascension team) ends up happening in the first place.

The new Partnership cycle won't be in full effect until 2027, so 2026 is more of a 'last spurt' moment for any organizations to make their case either staying in the IL or potentially replacing the previous partner teams.

Not saying there's no chance it might even happen, but there's a lot of working gears behind the scenes for this to be even considered.

I could definitely be wrong but there's still some conflicting sources on my end so we'll have to wait.

It'll be based on the Championship Points placement, then the stage placement I believe, but someone could correct me on that.

No, it's still objectively. Essentially you know the background checks every Ascension winner go through? China did them early to the qualified teams so they can be sure that the orgs won't pull a BLEED or worse. After that, the winner goes through the same checks again.

Currently we're close to the National Competition Finals (essentially the end of year main Tier 2 campaign), then there will be a small break for Riot/TJ Esports to conduct qualification assessment and worthiness for teams who made it to Ascension in order for the team to be able to play in Ascension and beyond.

He has a fever, you can literally see his compress on his forehead

More stable infrastructure for a prolonged league play, the center of their esports operation, especially with their experience handling LCK.

Might be a bug, let me check

Edit: fixed

This is probably the one minor issue I agree. Talon had no hope even being a high mid-table team because both T1 and PRX have already farmed so many points from Masters and practically leaving everyone in the dust.

On top of that, TLN only were able to farm 1 point off Kickoff and an additional 3 from Stage 1 because they fell out of Playoffs early.

As brutal as it is (probably could need some reworking), Talon couldn't maintain form. That's that.

REMONTADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

usually there's a sound/music cue (the drums) but it never stopped LMAO

It was run by ZETA/Riot/Clutch-Fi and it was filled with JP's biggest Valorant streamers, it's that hype

Laz lost in the JP Showmatch Qualifiers.

https://www.vlr.gg/event/2585/devil-clutch-cup-hi-3

Working on it

This is DRG's academy players. Under Evo Series rules, all teams that qualify for an international event must play an alternate lineup.

Most CN academies are proper academies that serves to build up players. Most of the times if they play in the NatComp (China's T2), they'll play under a different banner, but still complied/connected to said academies.

Also NatComps are usually sometimes hard to track if we don't get enough information, so most of the time you'd better off go to https://haojiao.cc for them.

When they kept misspelling crws as cwrs it's so stupidly fake, surely.

Pretty good considering his aptitude for being a pure Duelist and nothing else. Sharp aim, good instinct when needed, there were a few times where he was flexing to Tejo during that meta but he still frags the same.

Explosive player, I don't know how I feel if he was forced to flex.

Usually, teams who qualified for the upcoming international events are required to run a non-starter lineup (see XLG, TE, EDG in past Evos).

It's only EA, Krafton, and Ubisoft titles.

No, that's not a misinformation. It was from an interview Fadezis did with Valo2Asia. It can be taken out of context, so I urge you to read through it. https://valo2asia.com/ex-scarz-coach-fadezis-opens-up-problems-about-challengers-jp-japan-is-way-too-comfortable-from-the-start/

Would be viable if the parent org wants to but I don't know how much cash either org has tho (in context of their esports division)

Galatasaray already has a team, so does Fenerbahce

AE disbanded, two teams (Nemesis and Todak) this Split 3 fell in the Promotion/Relegation stage, and other than that, Indo's going through a rough regeneration stage

Are you mad? At the very least before BOOM fell off a cliff-showed their peak; NS showed that they can hung out with the best of the best and they at least survive to compete in Ascension. NEVER SHITTALK OUR TIER 2 EVER.

*Challengers

Good night, sweet prince.

The API lookup was bugged. Now fixed.

Nope, their points are still below the qualification threshold. Most likely they'll have to confirm Top 2 regardless

Free entry, there will be a registration detail announced soon.

For now the deal will continue for next year, although it's not clear if the exclusivity will continue. The reason why SEA ran on YT for Split 3 is that there were considerable pushback from the Indonesian community to have SOOP loosen it. We're seeing it crack, bit by bit even if it only starts with the ID stream.

I'm tired.

Read this.
https://www.vlr.gg/post/5268436/ge-org-hate-makes-no-sense

You're mad. Vietnam, without having any team or not, have a good chunk of fans in the region. See their previous VCL Vietnam events, even their grassroot tournaments.

They never had an interregional event in their turf because people always pushed them aside. And now they have their chance to show their passion.

People will show up. Learn your history.

Because both teams (RRQ and Talon) have 3 points from the regular season, and 3rd place gets 4 points regardless.

Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau players are a two-way street, they can both play in Pacific and China. Mongolia plays in the Pacific region thanks to Kobolds' and The Mongolz' eligibilty last year.

Seconded Taiwan. The LCP (LoL Pacific League) studio is there, and they've hosted Riot events before. My second recommendation outside of Korea would be Japan, then Thailand (practically PAC's second home), and Vietnam.

TW/HK is probably the smallest out of the subregions and other than the fact at any time, they can also participate in CN events meant their teams are spread out between two circuits.

There had been a lot of Taiwanese teams that are Asia-Pacific capable (2021-2023) like ONE Team, and Five Ace Esports back then, but they've since pulled out.

Funnily enough, their collegiate scene are actually healthy.

They still can, they just need top 2 either way

TW/HK was always part of Pacific/SEA since the League days.

It happened before, in League. It was called the LCS Academy. It was honestly, not good.

https://www.vlr.gg/event/pickem/2498/vct-2025-emea-stage-2

You're comparing the different cultural values and upbringing between two vastly different regions. Yes, that doesn't excuse the willingness to learn and etc, but the societal values are way different between us both.

Not saying it's the same for all Japanese, but still.

I mean I'm surprised they JUST kept Melo because Astell did have something up so he had to leave iirc. If anything I thought they would've brought a third mind to help NLights because it's clear the ideas were there, but execution is horrible.

I don't mind if they had kept NLights

all good tho you're angry at the staff and I'm kinda too

NorthernLights is a carryover from CR. He was with Astell, and not because of Melo. If anything, get Melofovia out bc NLights needs a better support for him because he's so young.

we shall sink and rise again o7

currently, yes.

Because it's compensating for the original 6 (now 5 thanks to flexible slots) regions that got combined.

ID
PH
VN
TH
MY/SG
PH

So basically a Play-In scenario happens when only one team from Americas gets relegated to Ascension or out of it entirely (in this case, 2G). In this case, the #3 seed from LATAM, NA, and Brazil gets invited to play in a single round robin group.

If there's only one Ascension team, then only the winner of Play-In moves on to the Swiss Stage. If there's no Ascension teams, then the top 2 moves on.

https://valorantesports.com/en-US/news/introducing-ascension-americas-2025
https://www.vlr.gg/event/2534/vct-2025-americas-ascension

Hwat the fuck is this man

Certain words, especially for someone that's bilingual can always jumble someone's perception of the language.

Mixing languages and words aren't a novel thing, especially when there's a lot of borrowed words and someone using it in a second or third language.