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 :) "

Dach have always been a fine region (by nature of importing talent like crazy) xD
Last year was just an incredible under performance (with the format having a grudge against the best dach team, CGN, the entire year)

Not enough to make it out of groups (fix the dang format already smh), but a fun showing none the less
Although ngl, not sure how I feel about BJK going down with them

we gotta be past second at this point
bro IS him

none of those give us any insight into the existence (or lack thereof) of issues that would require him to step away

based on your assessment of a situation we have no insight into

Id just like to note that while idk how it is in Canada, mental health emergencies are treated as medical emergencies elsewhere.
In which case an employee may suddenly leave (sometimes for extended periods) without you, as his coworker, being owed an explanation^^

Im sorry if mental health emergencies dont get you on emergency leaves in Canada (I just dont know if you do), however you dont have to apply this (perceived or not) standard to other countries.

While I do not know Flashbacks situation, and if this was a situation where such a leave would have been appropriate, making this as a general statement (structured as a callout to someone who has "never worked a professional job") is just... incredibly naive.

Im glad theyre doing so well
Polaris eying its former throne as the best t2 region (in "internationals") again

And yea so excited to see GSR in t1 soon

idk he's somewhat memorable to me at least
he had some decent expectations going into every roster

At least Pa1ze stocks are still going strong
Shame the group format means we wont be seeing Fks or EP in playoffs despite everyone in this group being SO close together

think theyre more talking about the systematic "baiting" that aspas was known for (though I havent watched the segment so idk if they are!)

a common round would be take space -> hold angle -> catch reclear/rotate while team does other stuff around the map
we've barely seen any of that

every second split the 2 favorites are in the same group
I dont understand how they havent fixed it yet

at least open the stream lmao
we still on map 2

whiplash to fucking 6th grade talking about secondary schools
havent heard that phrase in years

oh thank god for this post
I completely forgot they were today

not showing the EMEA stages is ridiculously funny

Those are some lopsided groups holy shit
(Meta change gonna mix it up, so itll probs be fine though)

EMEA watched pacific this morning and decided to make up for their stomp
GGs TH

thats a good idea actually
Given how much the World of Warcraft team has stepped it up with visual clarity in the last 2 expansions I think that might actually come to D4 too down the line

o yea having someone whos also in love with the game def helps
but nice to hear peeps are still playing it^^ Gl with your rng

Oh I completely forgot D4 got a new expansion. Gotta fork over cash eventually ig
And yea insta kills are a Diablo special at this point; no clue how they'd end up fixing it without making the game slower though

blue prince is a great shout ngl
is it a "I played it and loved it so much that its my fav" game for you, or do you still find yourself returning to it after finishing it?

1. Baldurs Gate 3
2. Pokemon Reborn (though just poke in general would be 1.)
3. Terraria

(4. Minecraft)

Given that you currently have D4, do you enjoy the current D3 balance, or is this based on the old patches (just cause they feel like they have very different approaches)?

I think analysts know tbh, given that their defaults are still rather rough
but theyve been getting very little criticism for it so tf do I know

In the past they prioritized the wrong sites
atm a lot of the criticism I hear from sliggy is that teams arent proactive enough on defense
(though Vit are proactive, so idk if people also count them as a bad pearl team)

bro hasnt watched the last 2 prx gamess

^against said low quality region

not sure if thats the actual case
given what happened with Korea im much more inclined to believe that they just want the clout names

and marved will pull a lot more viewers than (for example) Zander