The bracket is treating us well, 2-1 for Formulation; should be a close one

the second match today is gonna be a shock for ya ngl

also, monke

I have mixed feeling about the recent times and its sorta sad that they depart with a good chunk of the community still upset with them

Lets start with the last question first: was he really a good journalist
Without a doubt yes. They might be hard to find since theres a lot of "simple" reporting to fill the time between them, but ds_santos did write good and in depth articles from time to time. The most recent one I can remember for example is https://www.vlr.gg/282631/running-a-riot-games-esports-broadcast-is-a-lot-of-work-heres-how-much which is a nice insight into the production side of things
Of course other (older) (e)sports like cs have way better coverage than valorant. But considering Valorant was released after the decline of written media (gotta fit stuff in a tweet or people wont read it) and theres hardly any funding for Journalists over here, people like ds_santos (and now the new "generation" of vlr writers) have done an amazing job keeping us informed.

And then the drama... its stupid that it escalated to this extend. A simple clarification from ds_santos on either of the dramas would have reduced it to a "I think youre stupid" instead of whatever tf this is. However it is ironic that we as vlr users are the ones demanding accountability, when there's plenty of prominent users over the years, who have said some bat-shit crazy stuff and we forget it happened after a week or so.
(Its just an observation of different standards, dont misinterpret this as me saying I dont want him to clarify his opinions on either of the dramas and apologize should it be needed. As mentioned in the original post, especially the journalism one lead to some really interesting discussions with other writers on vlr so I would love if he did a post talking about it)

I think its a good time for him to leave. I just dont believe theres much of a ladder to climb when it comes to written content in valorant and he definitely has done enough on here for his resume.
Shame that its with a tarnished reputation, but I do wish him luck with his new journey at E2TECHpt.

rough for HTW, lets hope they bounce back next week

Apeks worked on their fundamentals compared to their offseason form though, so thats nice to see

Metizport 2-0
HearthBeat getting ready to win a trophy in his 3rd vcl

edit: ok there were some cream related issues map 1

Polaris been a talent export for a while now... the first split of polaris was just something else
1st, 3rd and 4th best t2 team coming out from vct quals https://www.vlr.gg/event/795/champions-tour-europe-stage-1-challengers-2/closed-qualifier + Tundra who were cracked af and a solid kova
So yea the leagues been continually getting weaker as the best talent finds teams in other regions/"ascending"... and Fokus leaving this year was a big hit

But I do agree its fine. Theres still Apeks. And Metizport has the potential to do damage at ascension by the end of the year.
No I dont think any of the "t3" based teams will get to ascension level but a year of talent development is vital for the league right now imo, and ngl some of the teams were already quite impressive for an open quals (at least compared to what I was expecting after the liquid opens)

The new social media presence has been amazing too so im interested if Polaris can gain traction throughout the season - some of those open qual clips already got a ton of views so Im hopeful

Also good tier list going into the year

I dont think its relevant

Just looking at public reception the audience has never payed attention to what casters are the most knowledgeable. Did anyone ever say that Mitchman was the best caster? Because imo in 2022, Mitch+Tom were the best when it came to reading what teams were doing and telling the viewer before it happened.
coincidentally https://www.vlr.gg/player/9265/mitchman was analyst of THE t2 team of early 2021
Why is Ryan now completely out of t1 casting despite coaching a successful GC team?

I just feel like as long as the casters have a decent understanding and arent completely clueless people dont pay enough attention for it to truly matter. And our current "big" casters all spend a ton of time with valorant and have a better understanding than 99% of viewers, and thats enough imo.
I dont need Hypoc to be top 3 in ranked when he can already pop into a twitch chat and nerd out about the game he just casted, or randomly appear as a guest in an analysis video on youtube.

Winning both pistols and then still losing is rough
but kpi just arent willing to lose that - insider such a beast during that round 23 clutch

this being bo1 is such a tease

Now thats an upset and a half, well played to Z10

those Ludwig x Tarik Invitationals coming in clutch
sen affiliates with mxm and pancada is the new 2 way player

I can see the vlr/twitter shitstorm already... it'd be beautiful

unfortunate thats an issue for a lot of quals/tourneys outside of NA
a mod usually has to make them appear there from what I can tell, so they hopefully see this or another thread

Events tab is more useful in a lot of cases during the off season (although not for quals like this sadly)

good chance theyre just preparing a video to announce it so its taking a bit longer
they bout to release 4 pngs just to spite me

edit: they werent, they were just slow af

Theres a good chance he was just trying to start small talk in one of the most awkward ways. (e.g. he likes chinese food, sees your asian and so thinks you like it too: had you said yes -> what was it -> oh I love that, do you like xy -> and so on)

Quite the all in strat though, if that was what he was trying to do, but even if not, I really wouldn't attribute malice to it at this point.

It would have been so poetic xD I was ready for foxie to go wild on twitter
still think the old case was better but oh well, at least this is a decent step 1

Onur fearing for his job buff

grats to apina, interested in how they develop
shame for iantos' dogs not to make it, but the run was amazing nonetheless

glad to see Jady back finally
the amount of top tier 2 players (ok I blame foxie) who have praised his mechanics is insane and idk how being on NaVi and m3 isnt enough reps to get into a good team (over the past year)
hope they do well

Its really not THAT good
its an amazing concept, like the pokemon mods in arc or pixelmon in minecraft and I love it for that... but especially when comparing it to the latter its still lackluster

If youre looking for actual pokemon games, fangames and traditional monster tamers like cassette beasts are miles ahead

It is a nice addition to the action monster tamer genre, which has been sorta neglected in recent years. Brings me back to games like spectrobes or rune factory so a huge plus for that

Lets just pray the AI allegations arent true, otherwise thats gonna be a heavy blow to gaming as a whole

france is playing rn and afaik they havent been announced https://www.vlr.gg/event/1942/challengers-league-2024-france-revolution-split-1/regular-season

Will be live on https://www.twitch.tv/ryancentral

Will be live on https://www.twitch.tv/yinsu and https://www.twitch.tv/kairocasts

yea everything very short notice this year (due to the TO switch) so everyone who could looked for teams in other regions + 8 players from polaris joining t1 thins the talent pool a bit
and the open qual was rough this season, a ton of the "favorites" got knocked out

I wouldnt underestimate the teams in the qual though, while none of them would have a shot at making it to ascension right now imo, its not like they're horrible teams either
this was a mix vs mix game https://www.vlr.gg/294768/bratan-mix-vs-iantos-dogs-challengers-league-2024-northern-europe-polaris-split-1-open-qualifier for example

your info was correct
confirmed now https://twitter.com/FOKUSValorant/status/1748323671662346344

https://www.vlr.gg/event/1943/challengers-league-2024-northern-europe-polaris-split-1/closed-qualifier is live today. Its max 4 matches per day so it wont spam the matches tab either
"Official" co-streams are also announced, meaning there will be coverage for every day. https://twitter.com/valleague_ne/status/1748002581396205798

Its gonna depend on the event tbh
When it comes to t2-3 events like A1 or THE POKAL I love to use them as an easy way to just get an overview of what upcoming players there are - unlike t2 players pretty much no one knows shit about whos currently in t3 waiting for a shot in t2.

However I assume youre mainly talking about the tier 1/2 offseason events
For those I tend to look for positives with each team (theory being that they still have time to fix the negatives)
So I dont put much weight behind the results at all, but I do think is important that teams show something to get exited about (assuming they already had practice for a couple of weeks, otherwise it doesnt matter). If theres nothing good to talk about I feel like its gonna be rough for their early season since its too much to work on then.

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