Enc are mixes so I doubt they cost any more stamina than a focused scrim.

Still an upgrade over a ton of t1 duelists atm though, so im sure we'll see him on a top team next year

You are attributing claims to Ari that they never made.
Aris claim is black and white.

Was it Platoon and Patmen that wanted Frost gone?
Either they did and Ari's source is correct, or they didnt and Ari has spread misinformation.

Ari has not made claims as to why they wanted him removed.

tragic end
cant fault Misa for having some clutch af players though, ggs

Fks really tried to throw this one
Ucam gonna be gutted to lose this ngl

we need more Pa1ze vs B1sk like on the last map though

she bro

they are a separate tier
but since they also qualify for t2 (like premier), and said premier teams teams are competitive (negative winrate ngl) against the GC teams, I think its fair to group them as t3 in Riots current system

8/8

just cause their roster didnt get leaked afaik

tf you mean underrated
they are favorites

Yes! Martux and Cintyx (and lamelly) made it to EMEA stage 2 last year
They got owned, but they did make it
https://www.vlr.gg/487773/bitfix-gaming-vs-ulf-esports-challengers-league-2025-emea-2-d2 (this was before ULF was good though)

Idk bro this rosters standouts, Martux and Cintyx, looked mid in t2
But nah youre not wrong

The biggest factor imo is gonna be how much teams get to prac anyways
And while other teams are gonna be limited in scrims (since their players are signed to orgs that are still competing), Norway can go full out on this event

Id expect we have a lot of these "lower expectation" teams upset some of the t2/t1 mixes, like you would usually see during open qualifiers.

Germany is generally considered one of the worst countries for expats, since housing and finance is a pain + the bureaucracy that comes with our government is particularly harsh (double so if you dont speak German).

However most of these issues dont really apply to the pro players (since their org deals with those issues), so I think its more the area.
But hard to properly pin down when youre trying to summaries the grievances of multiple people who were forced to leave their home country by one of the most stressful jobs.

Generally speaking Berlin should be one of the more suitable cities, since its incredibly international (though ig the complain is that theyre in the middle of nowhere, not in Berlin).

Im not sure since theres so much going wrong atm (and its hard to tell from the outside why things are falling apart), but I cant imagine it helped xD

Given how much worse they looked for the first couple weeks after KovaQ left: yes.

Man this one stings
After the JL game I cant even call it unlucky

Welp ggs, and hope they bounce back in lcq

oh, I misunderstood the above post to be from an earlier stage of planning where there would be 4 teams for emea total (so including all sub regions)
then my list would be halfway decent (cause no way you could give turkey 0)

FNC, TL, NaVi, KC/M8

Both KC and M8 pull numbers and invest in the scene so I genuinely couldnt decide between them

Problem is then turkey have 0 slots and you lose one of the 2 big french orgs

Losing TH and Vit would be a shame, but neither are interested in supporting the scene outside of t1 (fnc too, but they have too much legacy) so I cant justify them above the others
BBL as an org can burn
And Fut and GX are fine, but ultimately feel like filler orgs

Are you talking about the viewing experience as a whole or the level of competition?

and the post above is about as good as we can do inside the vlr rules^

To remain vague and hopefully stay inside the rules: America is currently one of the biggest, if not the biggest, ally to Saudi when it comes to their video game/esport investment strategy.
Considering how recently the EA deal was, it'd be stupid to jeopardize the momentum by trying to be "fair" towards (for their investments) irrelevant countries/regions.

comparatively 100%
I wouldnt call Vit fans chill, but yea... nothing compared to DVM

france t2 already had ultras assaulting other people, so youd be surprised at what some idiots can do

with the temperature they have over there atm, I doubt there's gonna be anything left to burn

(Only regarding EMEA, havent watched other regions t2)

I doubt it. Theres a ton of competent t2 teams this year, who could compete in t1, but theres no clear standouts.
Combine that with the system being way too rigged for the t1 teams and I just dont see it happening.

We are gonna have t1 players get hard diffed by random t2 kids though, so still gonna be fun af

if he hasnt been on your list since like... well 2022, then your list might need some work ngl

rough group draw ngl

theres still hope CGN or JL fall apart at least for yall

Idk if theres any unusual viewbotting happening rn (havent heard any concrete allegations), but its so much more common than you think

Id be shocked if theres a major esports in the age of co streaming, that doesnt significantly benefit from viewbotting

plus the last time they did implement something aggressive it got SO much backlash (it was VERY aggressive tbf)

Heck when you have one of the biggest talent agency on twitch (Night Media) publicly calling for streamers to view bot, then you know twitch is way past caring.

From https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-time-start-viewbotting-reed-duchscher-zv2nc:
"I would never explicitly say you should bot your views on Twitch, other than in the title of this article. But the reality is, if you’re not viewbotting and everyone else is, you’re at a disadvantage."

Yes, esport charts counts co-streams too

Youll have to pay if you want more detailed breakdowns of where views come from though

Less of make up, than break
Swiss is designed to be a non eliminating format, that efficiently ranks ALL teams.

You will notice that Valorant's Swiss' are always eliminating.
This in turn makes it more efficient in finding (for 8 team swiss) the top 4 (since it doesnt matter for this format who the 3-0 and 0-3 teams are).
This leaves us with a format that is essentially just a double elim again (with the main difference being that seeding is less impactful, and random chance instead does the matchups),

A multi stream lock in event (so they can do a full swiss stage) would be great yea
But money so wont happen (plus next years format doesnt fit a huge event like that either sadly)

yes, orgs are not bound by this
the dispute is about ENC not EWC

(plus it wouldnt matter here, since they allege interference in the roster construction and orgs have rosters already)

I havent seen any more recent news after the falling out end of April
If ya have an article id love a link^^

Korea as a country wont compete
ENC is gonna try and pay their way past Kespa, by approaching players directly, but it wont be a good look for anyone who competes

Even if they do they are not allowed to be a national team, since Korean Sport and Olympic Committee has publicly condemned both the interference in player selection, as well as their attempts to bypass Kespa.

Edit: https://www.sheepesports.com/en/all/articles/south-korea-set-to-withdraw-from-enc-2026-amid-selection-dispute/en most recent article Ive read on this issue

trying to make next years format look good by rigging the lower viewership matchups

.... but like think about what these tournaments actually are
Its already a 48 team tournament

Just how CS splits their major into (for this event) 4 stages, this is 4 stages
6*8 round robin -> 8*4 double elim -> 8 swiss -> 8 double elim
compared to (using current major)
16 swiss -> 16 swiss -> 16 swiss -> 8 single elim

the main difference is that CS majors try to be more self contained due to the insane quantity of events

And im not sure thats a good thing
but it is fun

just no one left for Jamelinho to bully sadly

The game is amazing, borderline a masterpiece, but ultimately something thats impossible to recommend buying.
If youre interested theres a ton of videos discussing the treatment of the original writers by the publishers ZA/UM; but tldr is that if you buy the game youre supporting a greedy and immoral company, instead of the people who actually made the game.

The high seas are morally correct for this game.

.... ok and and how would I set up my HE switches (which again, are per design required to be linear for the advantages of HE to work) to emulate clicky switches?

(Note I had the Wooting 60HE+, but my comment is generalized towards HE switches and not Wooting)

Its worth it for Valorant/Competitive games if that is your primary use case for the computer. HE do genuinely feel better to use for that.
Wooting is more expensive than other offerings, but is ultimately the golden standard in HE. I personally preferred Keychrons (Lemokey) HE offering, but Wooting is guaranteed to come with cutting edge software, that is easy to use.

I hated HE switches for productivity and ended up getting rid of my HE keyboard in favor of "traditional" clicky switches.
The core difference is that HE is linear to a fault. Its their biggest advantage that you can freely set the actuation point for gaming (and that it immediately releases the key as soon as it moves upwards), but thats also leads to a mushy feel when typing.
With traditional switches theres a lot more physical feedback that HE switches just arent designed to provide.

If you plan on using them for productivity then id heavily recommend going to a tech store and trying the feel of HE switches first (or getting a HE switch tester... but since Wooting doesnt offer one of them youd be testing switches that are incompatible with your keyboard).

Also this probably doesnt matter to 99% of people, but theres multiple popular standards in HE switches, so a lot of them arent compatible with each other; if youre one of the few people who really enjoy swapping out your switches then the feel of your keyboard is even more limited.

where you act like a functioning adult or smth like that

How are these calculated?
(Timeframe, how tied placements are handled, how extra spots are handled, and anything else that was specifically taken into consideration)

Sorta?
FNC has always been the most cutthroat team in Valorant. Thats sorta their thing. 5-0 in groups isnt enough if they think they can upgrade you.

Theres been plenty examples, but -Magnum is on a similar level (also 5-0 in groups + they even qualified to the international)... we just know how it turned out so youd be stupid not to get rid of him.

Cojo (I think it was him?) said they did interviews to discuss what went wrong this stage, and unfortunately for milan it looks like he got the short end of the stick this time.
He'll find a home on another team. He's one of the most talented and dedicated analysts in Valorant, so even if no ones looking for a HC atm, it'd be stupid not to get him after his amazing showing on FNC.

Im actually not sure (and im not 100% orgs know either, given that some orgs have said their year is over)

Hopefully we'll get proper details on its format soon

Yall figured it out above but just to sum it up

There will not be another regional stage. Qualification to EMEA stage 3 is via points https://liquipedia.net/valorant/VCL/2026/EMEA/Circuit_Points .
All teams are already locked (since 1 point in stage 2 is enough to qualify... rip WIP though)

There will be another EMEA stage for the qualified teams https://liquipedia.net/valorant/VCL/2026/EMEA/Stage_3
Additionally there will be https://liquipedia.net/valorant/VCL/2026/EMEA/Last_Chance_Qualifier for teams that failed to qualify in or to EMEA stage 3

These qualify (3 teams from stage 3, 1 team from LCQ) to https://liquipedia.net/valorant/VCT/2026/EMEA_League/Stage_2

only cause their main competition in groups decided to sub their best player (and have him get eaten alive in EWC x.x)
cause that game was not convincing at all

sad part is they have better internet than the majority of europe
and that isnt a compliment for Norway

He is unreal, but im worried that they just dont have the time or resources to invest into developing ANOTHER t2 player

Given that you just reinstall the OS thats gonna slow a cheater down an hour max after a fix is implemented.
It is nice since it now means that the cheat devs have a lot of work to get around the detection again. It also intentionally preys on the users who are technically inept which is at least some part of the cheaters.
I just dont understand what is different this time compared to the last 300 ban waves, given that they use the exact same method, that would make them decide to use this way of "banning".

But also... how tf do you come to the conclusion that "linux users" are weird after seeing this misuse of a kernel driver? (Mind you this shit doesnt affect linux so all the people terrified in the comments are normal windows users)
This is a huge overstep and just plain illegal.

Im just praying for Riot that it doesnt get a single false positive, cause we are crossing SO MANY ethics lines here. Vanguard is outright worse than the majority of malware now.

instead we have entire t3 leagues in the majority of sub regions?

From yaotziN (https://www.vlr.gg/post/6495985/click):

"He wasn't really having fun in Esport. Even after our time in SK he wasn't sure if he wanna continue his career. I was trying to convince him to try going to VCT and see if this will change! :)

Afaik he is doing well now, studying and enjoying life :) "