Bonkar, Saadhak and Frz
Followed the paladins boys to greener pastures back in 2020, and ill keep supporting them for as long as they stay pros

Dang that sucks
Was fully expecting harsh cuts based on the rocket league fuckup, but was sorta hoping the valo team wouldnt be effected

Actual decent change Mena makes it out of groups, which would be huge for them in terms of getting recognition
Turkey is guaranteed to get out too unless they HARD mess up. This should help them with their habit of under-preforming in multi-regional tourneys, by giving them time to get used to how other regions play in officials in an (imo) more forgiving environment

And ye gl to anyone in group A
I wouldnt even be able to decide on a top 3 in that group, much less a top 2

when entrying 3/10 (Got insane kills but then he just overheated SO much, putting his team at a disadvantage constantly)
postplants/holding offangles 8/10 (clean kills, patient and pretty much never got caught out from what I remember)

Total I gotta agree with the 6/10. Won important rounds, got a lot of kills, but just had too many rounds where he screwed the team

DRX is at a disadvantage for sure

but it was pretty obvious fnatic were gonna take them to Lotus so Id expect a lot of anti

fpx winning the trophy confirmed

Im surprised we never got proper reporting on that whole situation
was known for years, but no one felt like talking about how multiple orgs were doing that shit

well thats the neat part
GE did play him on duelist and he was mid af

GenG are just a great team where the culture fits the players so everyone excels

Sen is the 4th seed (which imo makes a much better case for a 4th seed doing well anyways)
but even there in the 1 match we saw there was no world where they win, which was sorta the point

regardless of how good your region is the 4th seed should be losing the first match since its 1st vs 4th seed

thats the TS way

Every regions 4th seed has looked ass this far
but ye its def still a problem in apac; itll get better with time, especially with now GenG bringing some more competition to the regional stage (3 top teams instead of the past 2)

Thank you so much for posting & summarizing these
Its been such a pain to find some of the old ones

watch ardiis stream
Ive never wanted Fnc to lose so much before

theyre more extreme cases since theyve always been in japan, but ye very similar
lots of peeps whove been in other regions since 2022 (so since the start of emea t2)

no, east is just the biggest export region in t2
lots of players who have been in other regions for years -> frees up space in own league to develop talent -> best players then get picked up by other regions again
After 2 splits they no longer count as imports so they often then stay in the league

Basically any league which has orgs is gonna be "swamped" with imports from Russia (obviously), east and polaris who all lack(ed) proper org support

Getting better in east with the TO doing an amazing job this year though

ye just unlucky that Dachs (probably) best team is in play-ins
kpi still have the insane potential and Im sure that a bit of a rough loss is gonna help them coming into split 3 (1?) to improve on the gameplans

huge threat next year for sure if they stick together

Schneefeuer did a super interesting analysis of all imports/exports for regions a bit ago (idk why they never posted on vlr, was waiting to comment on it ngl)
https://x.com/Schneefeuer11/status/1811158313540689979

but ye spain is doing a lot of importing
just competitive league with money so what can ya do

well the problem is east is the biggest exporter of talent in t2 atm
too much talent and too few orgs, so no reason to import

The day TR gets another MrFaliN its so over for t2
Turkish talent + "proper" gameplans/style is a scary af combo

Most people will be referring to the tiers like this

VCT = t1
CL = t2
And then you have some regions with actual t3 (e.g. https://www.vlr.gg/event/2116/project-v-2024-division-1-split-2-stage-1), or stuff like the knights tourneys in the past

But since theres no hard set lines splitting CL into multiple tiers isnt exactly wrong either
just unusual since that makes it way harder to compare regions (NA only having two t2 teams vs emea having 20)

(that was irony)

and dach has the most proper orgs
we have less scams orgs (1 less, but less is less...)
dont take em from uuuuuusssss

ey dont steal our polaris and pair it with the french D:

Contact gaming network didnt earn that name for nothing
Who needs info

genuinely insane seeing him rise from the VAMONOS disaster team to this level within a year
gonna be a staple player in t2 for a while (if he doesnt get a chance in t1 ofc)

but his igling is also very... sub-optimal...
well or rather the teams he was on always had rough decision making and midrounding. Obviously we dont know what is him/coaches/players

Get him on a team like koi or KC who dont have an experienced igl asap to help out while the main igl learns
Helps you bridge the gap and youre left with a cracked player after

B1sk so desperate for the stats hes even killing his own teammates smh

Map 2 is chaos, 10/10 would watch again

He was the best player in the world in Reykjavik without a doubt
His playstyle doesnt hold up to modern standards, but his offangle + duel focused aproached worked incredibly well at the time
Hes sorta comparable to current Aspas (obviously a whole lot worse before people get triggered, its 2021) and it worked super well with how contact heavy Sen were playing

He was still good for the rest of 2021 for sure (easily still their best player during berlin), although his poor agent pool started to become more and more of an issue with sen looking sorta deflated/uninspired after Reykjavik

This just leads to the same arguments as the cs gambling
Fact is kids already gamble an unreal amount of money on his stuff. Where they get it from doesnt exactly matter, the money is being made from the kids regardless. However kids gambling is especially problematic since theyll be more likely to be addicted by the time they have their own income.

This would be morally deplorable yes but fine at the end of the day (sorta... not really imo, but at least its still a moral problem). However if the allegations in the video are true its just outright breaking/bypassing gambling laws and manipulating people (children) to a degree not even casinos are allowed to do.
If casinos are (allegedly) exhibiting better morals than you then you got a problem.

And 100% gambling is everywhere, but that doesnt mean you have to ignore it. Youre talking about the youtuber with probably the best mainstream reputation here.
Assuming this catches on, the debate following regarding how we deal with the extreme monetization on youtube channels aimed at children is going to be really important. So we'll see what happens ig.

And while we cant go into this due to forum rules, your way of apologizing this behavior is just not valid at all. Like whatsoever. This is SUCH a dangerous way to dismiss criticism. This is how some of the worst religious/charity abuses get away with their shit. We have to hold youtubers to a higher standard.
Also just for the sake of mentioning it: this stuff is tax deductible. Youre not gonna be ignoring Elon Musks or Jeff Bezos' bs just because they donate billions to charity.

Im in love with the production ngl
Seeing it (respectfully) on some more high level games compared to regular polaris season is super nice and it holds up so well

And ye not too many upsets
Had Dia getting out of their group as first... unlucky ig
Group b going as expected (im a mena hater apparently, but I wasnt gonna have Polaris go out winless)
And group c (at least atm, unless Novo do some crazy stuff now) is going as expected

So hyped to have these inter regional matches more often next year

but thats just been kpi the entire year no?
(just that they were winning more aim duels back then compared to nowerdays, but thats expected as other teams get better)

100%, a flash/stun would have saved both teammates there by delaying the push so idk why that didnt happen

its t2 at the end of the day, always lots of stuff for teams to improve on
(and tbh I think the coach is gonna be angry at his team for some more major things with how that series went xD)

watch your clip again in slomo xD you can see the raze jump behind the box, throw nade and then pull out gun right away
we see the gun is still in its animation when the camera swaps after omen is dead
ya cant do anything bout that. Its "unlucky" but throwing nade is the better play most of the time so you can fault them

and idk bout the aim, not in his mind and where he was expecting the enemies to have pushed to

fun game
ggs to DIA

also gotta simp for the production, but facecams in t2 are a must for all regions going forward

raze was also blinded, had knife out to run behind the box and was only pulling the gun out
so he couldnt swing before

well they already dont since the season is over (with other regions now going into split 3 if I understand correctly)
but ye technically its they wont

https://x.com/valesports_emea/status/1805602253174169612

They dont

eyo why you doing ads for the opponent

you cant just ruin the polaris dach rivalry like this

Fun game, ggs to SNS

1 more game for HearthBeat to do it again

This is regarding the labor laws in germany (since host for emea) and only per memory:
When saying minor here im refering to 15-18 year olds

Labor laws in germany are problematic for how val esports operates atm

• Work permits are always a pain to get for minors so that'd already be annoying (but probably doable)
• Minors are generally not allowed to work after 20:00 (theres a ton of exceptions and riot could theoretically try to apply using some of the exceptions surrounding television productions, but thats gonna be a huge headache and anything but guaranteed to work)
• Limit on work times (40 hours per week, 5 days max, only max 2 saturdays per month, 12 hours free time after every shift) - this is just gonna turn into a war of what part of a pros work are part of the contract and what parts are just them doing it in their "free time", we'd def see more ranked streams though ;3

And then theres a ton more eyes on companies which regularly employ minors, which would cause a ton more work for the orgs and riot

wouldnt mind it
theyre nice guys and their analyst zescht is super fun when he joins random twitch chats

dach doing well would be a nice change if only for t1 teams to start picking up some of the talent thats currently in our region (even if its not a german player)
cause dang people be sleeping on some of the kids

bro not even us dach watchers think dach is doing shit xD

but ye I can see dach being good in scrims. In terms of current talent dach will be probably top 3 with spain and turkey due to us importing all the stars from other leagues

shame our teams look ass in officials

thats not what I way saying at all
the second part of the second sentence is the point^^
people who havent been in tier 1 yet, who you can properly mold however you want to fit the team/coach
soulcas is already an established player (a good one mind you in the sense that he has been a glue player for liquid which increases his value a ton imo, but I just think teams would prefer to take the chance and try to and recreate an EG or Heretics)

I dont think so sadly
with how the season in t1 went the focus is gonna be on younger players that the coach can still shape however they want

so unless an org blows up their roster completely and is looking for a more veteran player I just cant see him getting a slot, despite looking t1 ready all year

well its a bit more than just sportwashing, but yes youll find most problems people have with the olympic games also handled under that term (so it should server you very well if thats a term youre already familiar with)

Purely focusing on the political issues and ignoring ethical problems they cause inside the host countries:

Olympics have always, and will always, be a political tool. They are a great way for a country to celebrate themselves, change (inter-)national perception, and are generally one of the very best ways to sportwash ones image.

For the best documented case there are a ton of great articles/books on the 1936 olympics in germany. If youre remotely interested in sportwashing then thats one of the best places to start.
Its generally held relatively black and white ('tis the way history goes after losing a war) which makes it a lot easier to grasp the critiques using concrete examples compared more nuanced modern articles.

There are also detailed write-ups that I know of for China and Russia (and im sure for a toooooon of western countries too, who ofc will also be abusing the olympics for their own gain).

Heck even this years are already surrounded in political controversy with the snap election.

Then theres boycotts galore for political reasons. People accusing their political enemies of cheating etc.

Its a mess, deeply intertwined with political bs, that misuses sports. And now esports.

If you want a lighter critique try and see if you can find an online version of "Asterix at the Olympics Games", that ones at least fun to read, even if its messages are a bit more veiled.

ye we're fucked
sorta glad fps dodged the bullet for now, but wont be long till were fully integrated in the sports politics web too

like we knew we were screwed for a while now with Saudi so not that new, but this feels like a death blow, especially with how many people react to this positively - seemingly completely unaware of just how messed up the olympics are

if they actually asked for that much then thats the point
but this is an ardiis clip were using as a source so I was talking about the concept, since we have no idea what the actual numbers are/were