I swear I just read the exact same message on the polaris hub discord
but yea I got no clue either, everyone just keeps dangling the "he got a team" in front of me without ever telling me I swear no one actually knows

Mena scream would be nice from a viewership standpoint though, the region could use a boost

well yea polaris doesnt have orgs, everyones FA over there ;3
huge pickup for both teams so works out nicely

This is gonna be such a great rivalry as the season continues. Looking forward to the rematch
(also l1nk to spain wasnt on my bingo card going into this offseason)

Polaris is still a big question mark, but https://www.vlr.gg/player/9583/nille is always worth looking out for
Dach has lots of team with potential, but only a few proven cores, so i'd expect it to be the most exiting in terms of how many upsets there will be as teams improve
France looks boring ngl, but they still have some good teams. DVM has some really promising players, so imma try to watch a good chunk of their games personally
Look at the messages above for spain^ they stacked this year (case ucam is live right now, and that could end up being the big rivalry this year)

And then turkey is still turkey. People hit heads over there. Probably the best league in EMEA when it comes to pure talent atm

Most of the time the links get posted on twitter (i.e https://twitter.com/projectvgg/status/1745493274549244309 and https://twitter.com/valleague_ne/status/1742561455537586543 for the 2 ongoing ones)
Id recommend looking for an active esports server in your region, both for finding teams/pugs and just since people tend to link signups there
I havent been active in the actual pro part of valorant for a while now so idk if it changed/what servers are popular atm so youd just have to ask around

and now ctrl... I have officially gone 0/4 in polaris predictions
at least I still have a chance in dach ig

k10 wizards and now bratan, this qualifiers been brutal

and they got eliminated sadly... https://twitter.com/Foxie_GG/status/1746509511966253418
im sure we'll see the players joining other t2 teams as the season goes on though, theyre insane talent wise

Open quals are live again
Polaris: https://www.twitch.tv/hazzajc_
Dach: https://www.twitch.tv/valorantleague_dach

qualification matches in Dach today and top 16 in Polaris

reformed from his judge only ways

dont disrespect polaris' main stream like that :(
well except "random" dach streamers somehow getting the most viewers for the league games last year

For the peeps who want to burn the 40 mins (+ all the tech delays that we're gonna end up getting) until Superdome, Polaris and Dach have open quals live atm
Polaris: https://www.twitch.tv/hazzajc_
Dach: https://www.twitch.tv/valorantleague_dach

https://liquipedia.net/valorant/VCL/2024/Northern_Europe/Split_1/Open_Qualifier
https://liquipedia.net/valorant/VCL/2024/DACH/Split_1/Open_Qualifier

Polaris has had well known players dimasick, braveaf and foxie playing right now (apparently haven't scrimmed though, so theyre were a true mix)

I just dont think thats possible tbh.
I dont know nearly enough about current life in Russia to comment specifically on their current situation (and that would probs count as politics), but in general sports are very very powerful when it comes to keeping your population happy and spreading your ideology
Its impossible to separate something like sports from politics since it can and will be abused when convenient. (You can check out the 1936 Summer Olympics in Germany for a well documented example.)
(And to be clear just straight up "banning" Russia from competing like most international sports have done, does also inadvertently have political impact, so this isnt a non-political solution either. Just the one where hopefully governments have the least way to directly manipulate it to their favor.)

+1
the t2 team that immediately made it to international events right after "ascending" (only technically since ascension wasnt a thing last year) goes hard

We already saw sen vs oxg and mxm so cant say I mind. Nrg or Lev would have been hype though

I love the fact that its still 50% tier 1 vs tier 2, we need more stuff like this during the regular season too
I dont think 100t is gonna have much prepared yet (and c9 is c9 so who tf can predict their results) so the t2 teams bout to do damage

Love the replacements
2 new high caliber rosters who we've never seen (properly in BBLs case) play

bo2 have the advantage of always being exactly 2 maps long (so great for the organizer who can then make a set schedule and sell a guaranteed amount of sponsor spots), with the disadvantage of draws being possible
bo3s have flexible map count (2 or 3) but there are no draws

so bo4 would have both disadvantages (variable map count 3 or 4, and the possibility to draw)

I dont think an industry as big as the football/soccer one really cares about morality anymore
gotta go print the investors money somehow - and fifa being.... interesting... is no secret either

the comparison on what country are committing what atrocities probably isnt suited for vlr so imma ignore that aspect

the big difference why its not seen as a problem is because to my knowledge we have no reason to believe the Chinese government is investing large sums into esports to try and sports-wash their image
theres a couple of reports of investment but theyre all focused on on operations within china rather than trying to make an impact globally (again to my knowledge, feel free to link me articles showing something else!)
however as sideshow mentioned near the start of the video should we have other countries also take such an offensive approach they'd have to be called out too
In my personal opinion paying attention to how countries interact with esports is a good idea anyways due to how powerful sports are for influencing ones population

france is a bit confusing in general this offseason
there were serious considerations of going back to 8 teams earlier in the offseason (looks like thats not happening) and as I linked above there seems to be new teams aiming to get into the leauge (who I highly doubt will get a slot assigned to them through normal means, since its a small org thats only played a single offseason tourney in val so far)

so in all honesty anythings possible till we get some more info

late edit since somehow this thread is still alive: https://liquipedia.net/valorant/VCL/2024/France/Split_1 seems to have gotten info on it being 8 teams (revision 5 days ago to change it from 10 to 8 teams)

well theres gonna be a qualifier for france afaik
https://twitter.com/TIMPPAZIVLR/status/1732777578954391704 are trying to qualify for example

but yea his project was also rumored to be in polaris (very) briefly and they also have a ton of unannounced rosters, so either of those regions seem reasonable

Its one of the bigger fumbles in the long run imo just because it will end up stifling growth in one of EMEAs most profitable regions, but from my understanding diversity in regions was not really a consideration.
And if you then just look at the fanbases in Valo all of the EMEA teams have a bigger following.
Its a shame but its not like it actually changes much - a german team wouldnt have been able to compete at international levels so BIG would have been a mixed roster with max 2 german players anyways and at that point its just as easy to cheer for any other team

omg youre right

pacific is the only exception

so did Fokus Fut and m8
its just a funny trend (mainly for emea, since cn has a sample size of 1)

In both EMEA (counting Promotion and VRL Finals) and now CN ascension the favorite has yet to win

clearly rigged format

The iso to decide if you make it into t1
we really challenging the odds today arent we RA

scrims have apparently been (really) rough for them... luckily they tend to not translate directly

id expect them to be a good chunk worse than liquid since I think that roster is an upgrade over Apeks (who were already consistently better than m8)
but they should beat the rookie teams early on since they're already a proven roster
I also rate their coach Ex6TenZ highly, so I think they'll adapt well into the weekly league play

-> Bottom half but no way they end up as the worst team

hard to say imo
last year was a lot better than results let on and they probably looked like one of best team during the off-season so far (sample size of exactly 3 maps so gg), just playing good standard valorant
on the other hand we also saw how easy it is to fall to mediocrity and I dont think its controversial to say that we dont know if Ardiis will actually be an upgrade over cned yet

id consider them to be like the EMEA NRG, where the players' 2022 performance is why people are really exited about the team (though at least nrg is an actually new team so the comparison doesnt translate THAT well)

remember you play all rounds in scrims
really really good but it isnt like a 35 in an official

bonus point: Russ dropped 37 during scrims so GE is finishing top 4 this season ;3

sorta?
Rn its definitely horrible for NA specifically since you had to condense a competitive region into so few slots
Just look at that lcq https://www.vlr.gg/event/1130/champions-tour-north-america-last-chance-qualifier/main-event right before franchising, all teams were at least somewhat competitive for the 3rd slot.
But as franchise continues the team slots do increase, so I don't actually see this being a problem in the long term
using the snapshot of NA t2 from last year only really TGD and M80 were really t1 ready, so the proper team count isnt too far off and this should get better over time
... that is as long as t2 stays healthy, and t1 can actually be the place for the established and proven talent - Americas t1 does not have space to develop talent outside of tier 2.

EMEA is in a bit of a different spot where you actually have the slots to make a team of 3 t2 players who youre gonna try and develop for future season (but luckily to balance things out we have our own t2 problems due to an (imo) absolute trash format)
And Pacific is just weird? Language just makes stuff hard for them. So while I think theres a ton of spots up for grabs for t2 talent, the pool of t2 talent to actually fill said slots is limited per team, thanks to not every team/player being comfortable with the same language. And for the fun of it they also have a (imo) bad t2 system.

GAL feel like such a weird team atm
player wise they look amazing: DESTRUCT1VEE is in contention for turkeys best smokes, ip0TT has been fragging out of his mind this tourney, both glovee and Jlerst are veteran t2 players who've always looked good and KROSTALY looked fine this tourney

but they just look kinda off when playing... its early days with a major overhaul of the roster so I do hope they figure stuff out by the time the regular season rolls around

https://twitter.com/fokusclangg/status/1734915320496664953
in german, but its just announcing that they'll return to DACH

Isnt that currently only a rumor?
Afaik the only one to report on it is ImMine and they have a tendency to report on speculation

he's quite literally scream 2.0
amazing individual talent that never really achieves anything despite often being called the best player itw
gets to build a team and fumbles the bag

igl arc when?

(though im pretty sure furia will be fine, they have enough fragging power, just a very off tourney imo)

thats assuming they dont have to replay any more rounds

insane orgs but the rosters are looking meh since talent is way more split
regular season is gonna be fun (though bo2s x.x) with a lot of competition but I dont think any of the rumored rosters are really top competitors for ascension
gonna come down to how cgn develop ig since they probably have the best roster

also fokus and SK have to go through qualifier, if either of them dont make it people are gonna riot xD

Vlr showing sunset as a 1 hour 50 game despite being only 18 rounds is just funny af

yea im a tad surprised, I thought he'd just say screw it and int eventually xD
he still takes a crap ton of fights so its not like hes a passive sentinel, but its a balanced playstyle atm

I actually think its a good change
meteor has insane skill but was honestly... quite... meh last year since he couldnt stop overheating
I feel like having him play the aggressive sentinel like alfa, even if it doesnt end up being permanent, could help

them finding what looks to be an actual competent TO is a miracle and im so in for it
its a shame so many orgs already pulled out due to the uncertainty surrounding polaris but I hope they'll be able to rebuild it

looking forward to watching 'em next year

now I wanna know the lockdown numbers, those must have been something else then

Id assume games like this one https://www.vlr.gg/281031/cloud9-vs-furia-superdome-2023-colombia-lbf
and then the GF vs lev was actually decent https://www.vlr.gg/281029/leviat-n-vs-furia-superdome-2023-colombia-gf
offseason so 0 guarantee theyll end up doing well in the more structured and strat heavy regular season, but they have a really good core this year with a ton of firepower

id expect them to keep the form
their player quality is just SO high, which is why them flopping last year was so a disappointment
this time round they already look like a good team going into the year and instead of having to catch up they just dont need to fall behind

only potential worry is that the offseason events arent that heavy in the anti-strat department and we've never really got to see sen (well ig Kaplan) just hard outstrat people last year
But I think theyll be fine, they have a good igl and its not like this is the first team for the coaches

https://twitter.com/WhoCars_Val/status/1733871695084056993
with who cars competing in polaris again next split, can we have the flair back?

ye there were people more adamant about them splitting but I cant find those tweets anymore
so ig its a rumor for now

there were speculations of them "splitting" right after the shit hit the fan with EG and their paycuts
https://twitter.com/Bo_Hoogland/status/1709126988529647863

with how that 8th round went I dont think a timeout would help
clearly the world just doesnt want them to make it close(r)

wait till you see his raze

lothar tweet incoming

yup, theyre going with a circuit points system this year
https://www.oneesports.gg/valorant/vct-2024-season-format-explained/