tbf they only subbed him in after they already qualified, so who tf knows what theyre thinking

have you been watching (drx imo,) loud and fnatic this season?

we dont know yet afaik but ye most likely^

thing is if youre looking to win the event afterwards giving up the strats youve saved the entire season now is gonna be super detrimental
as said I don't doubt they're gonna be fixing the map control (and probably doing a good bit of anti), but Id be shocked if they bring out their big strats, especially after they didnt vs t1

I doubt DRX are gonna be bringing any new strats today either, and we saw how dominant prx was vs the old strats

dont think its gonna be a 3-0 since a lot of the fixes are just based on map control, for which DRX don't need to show anything new, but I do expect prx to win this convincingly

I have some bad news about the who cars flair x.x
its doing a polaris and died after not being able to afford food for over a year

hes about to end his season playing killjoy, so unfortunately hes gonna go down as trash this year

hes on the best team in t2 Korea atm so hard to say
its like looking at leos recent ACS compared to his time on Guild - its under 200 - and coming to the conclusion that hes in a slump atm

Purely per eye test Lakia is doing fine atm; he isnt a star player anymore but he also doesnt have to be so its fine imo

ey, a kills a kill

same can very much be said for something with prx
prx were 2-2 when he joined and have not lost a series since

main perk of sliggy is you'll get ~1-2 big breakdowns per map, pointers on what you should be looking out for with each comp at the start and reminders in rounds when there's a play bout to happen and you have pros/coaches show up in chat semi regularly to talk about stuff

he def doesnt provide reactions so if thats what you enjoy I can see why youd get bored pretty quickly. As mentioned above TMV is somewhat the middle ground for that, with some tactial insight, good stats from time to time and insane reactions

I personally just watched the main stream before since I found watch parties too distracting from the game so sliggy being a calm watchparty just sorta replaced that for me

First paragraph is purely based off memory since I cant find any receipts, so take it with a semi large grain of salt

I sadly cant remember where its from, but Leo Faria stated that they had to do visas at the start of the season with teams filing who they want visas for (he gave an exact time when they did it and why, but I cant find the clip so I dont wanna say wrong stuff) - some pro/coach, whos name I cant remember either, in sliggys chat said that they apparently had limited player "slots" (i'd assume this was a cost saving measure since riot has to get visas for 30 teams)

EG only subbed in Demon1 after that deadline so he doesn't have said visa and getting one on short notice isn't possible (at least based on what has publicly been said. Hopefully if eg qualify riot can make something work but I wouldn't count on it atm)
Demon1 has confirmed it a couple of times on his stream that he doesn't think he'd be able to go

if by chances you mean chance, being a singular game as a standin for Acend and a map on M3C, then yes he got given chances

he ended the split with 240 ACS (the highest ACS currently), so i don't think theres much of a reason to kick him atm

they had proper replays yesterday so think the leagues are all pretty close again (finally)

o7

yeeea no, you dont go around impulsively kicking coaches in the already most chaotic t1 team and then get to act surprised that your igl isnt happy

At least no 13-0
but also... WHAT

I wanna see all tech pauses be cupstacks from now on, so we can compare players

Heretics?
You tripping

id assume its because vamonos vs hsdirr wont be played (which was originally scheduled for this slot)

o7
just gonna leave this here for anyone wondering
https://twitter.com/Bo_Hoogland/status/1653820853883228161

Updated with todays news
Genuinely sucks seeing another player having to step away after being unsigned for over a year, despite doing well in the VCL.

For those who don't wanna scroll up:
And here we have another player having to move away from t2! WhoCars' AKIMB0 is stepping away from Polaris due to burnout https://twitter.com/WhoCars_Val/status/1653701189752455175

also check out yesterdays Rendevous Podcast, featuring a BoDork being very unhappy with this whole Situation (and discussing it with Bangovic and Commend)
https://youtu.be/ncJWRb4rjJM?t=4244

exactly why they need to go

I dont think so? Polaris is in a super different spot (even when removing the financial issues) in terms of viewers. Theres always 3+ other games to watch and there's more t1 representation (in the sense that there's players on more teams)
Basically there's no reason to watch Polaris for the region itself.

That being said Japan is the ideal state of a t2 league so ofc you can and should strive to reach their level of Production and fan interaction. Especially the twitter clips you mentioned are where Polaris falls SO short imo. You got dealt the best hand in terms of team quality (though its sadly been decreasing a bit every Split), create some flipping hype on twitter, provide us clips to make it easier to share on platforms like vlr, etc. Hire someone from the League who actually interacts with the community. BoDork is literally 70% of Polaris' advertisement atm.

Yea combining the regions is probably the easiest solution which would (hopefully) fix lack of org interest in Polaris and help with competition being pretty bad towards the bottom end in most regions.

The problem of slot distribution would be a headache though, since you'd have to remove Slots from existing French teams to assign them to Polaris, without upsetting the existing scene (which unlike Polaris at least somewhat seems to sustain itself).

I was gonna wait till there was an official statement from the VCL, however it seems we're not getting one

On the 25th of April the 3rd best team from last Split, one of the longest standing t2 teams in EMEA, HSDIRR, disbanded mid season - leaving all player without a team, 2 of them (Ale & lyNxi) outright retiring after 3 years of t2 play.
This was not worth a comment from the League. Again.

Just to count: that's Bonk, Human Tripwires, HSDIRR (and part of VAMONOS mid season) within the timeframe of a split. Not to mention the constant talent drain into other VCLs. The amount of veteran t2 players Polaris is bleeding atm is insane.
They survived 2 years of EMEA having hardly any t2 tournaments and the RIOT SANCTIONED league with a guaranteed schedule is where there's the least chance of making ends meet?
Clearly whatever Riots plan was for supporting t2, being generous and assuming there was one, isn't working

Polaris is a mess; only 50% of games being streamed, no views, no advertising efforts, lacking production value and most importantly no stability & pay for quite a few players.
Competition in Polaris is pretty much dead at this point too, with the 3 new teams having pretty much no shot at making it to playoffs based on what they've been able to show so far.

But ey, at least we have franchising right Riot?

https://twitter.com/HSDIRRval/status/1650827711051448323
https://www.dexerto.com/valorant/valorants-brutal-tier-2-in-emea-claims-another-victim-as-hsdirr-quits-2125971/

Edit:
And here we have another player having to move away from t2! WhoCars' AKIMB0 is stepping away from Polaris due to burnout https://twitter.com/WhoCars_Val/status/1653701189752455175

also check out yesterdays Rendevous Podcast, featuring a BoDork being very unhappy with this whole Situation (and discussing it with Bangovic and Commend)
https://youtu.be/ncJWRb4rjJM?t=4244

Idk... its hard to deny that the EG team was expected to be, and then turned out, pretty bad
However how do you as an org allow a 10 man roster, knowing full well that its gonna be the slowest type of team to develop since you dont have the money to sign existing star players, and then only stick with it for one season?
Either you believe that these players can develop and stick with the 10 man roster to have 5+ new t1 players next year, or you dont go for a 10 man roster

I'm also not a fan of Potter losing her head over this, considering that she has shown amazing potential in the anti-strat department
You dont just beat Loud 13-3 with a t1.5 team (or Optic in a BO3 last split)
Only punishing the players for what is potentially her mistake, being unable to properly convince the Org of the plan, wouldn't feel right either though

To be fair to scream, the new roles are also a big part on why theyre doing better now
Its still a night and day difference though

Theyve been impressive; was expecting there to be a decent gap between them and the mid of the pack teams but theyre pretty dang close

so yea, with a bit more polish they could have def won 1-2 more games and had a serious shot at making it

look at KC and ask that question again

The sheriffs are just the best guns this game
The amount of insta 1 taps would make even scream jealous

Yea theyre def a top team on paper
I'm not convinced they'll do well in the rapid fire international games, since Rhyme is just so new to calling, but im also more than willing to be proven wrong if they make it to Tokyo

so what youre saying is c9 is paying the media to cover up for mCe?!

The fact that this is a(nother) drama is wild to me
We know from multiple coaches explicitly that they were strict with their players and no one gave and will continue to give a crap. Do you see people going after coaches like Sliggy, mCe, Onur?

To quote jakee from yesterdays interview
"Also his sternness as a coach, when you make a mistake he just yells at you, straight up, and you know when you made that mistake and you know when you're about to get yelled at and you know you wanna fix it next time, and that super super important in a coach"

Sliggy went into it afterwards: "Stern? Yea you got to be. Like every time I would shout at the players, our next [...] day, would always be incredible [...]" continuing " [...] That's the problem, if you shout and everyone listens and they improve then its like, well you got to carry on doing that"
He finished by saying "You have to have someone in the team who has to be the bad person, especially when you're working with a lot of young people that haven't had other jobs, I guess."

So it isn't any of these people being toxic, or trying to create an unhealthy environment, its them trying to enable players to properly develop. And looking at it like that Sacys response is more than reasonable. If he believes its what is required to help the (previous) team win, I see no reason to backtrack.

not sure if thats meant to be a compliment or if youre being stupid xD
you can check their profiles; 4 out of 5 of them have twitters which they actively post to, including selfies

now this is the kind of banter thats fun

its hard to tell what is crowd and what is just pure chance, however we do know from past lans that players have commented on the crowd being audible through the mics
they are a potential concern

ye idk, OG being so butthurt with Ec1s is weird, but we dont know what went on beforehand to lead to it + it aint exactly the first time Imports into pacific had a rough time

if I had to pick a single game it'd have to be Minecraft
just combines so many different genres
not the best at anything (except maybe being an art program in game form) but good at pretty much everything

3 13-0s in a row seems normal

Easily was Guild
the 2 of us that existed lasted with them despite them never winning a tourney ;3

that joke aside Id go for BBL, theyve been able to maintain a consistence fanbase in valorant despite never doing well outside of turkey
and it might have been a couple years ago now, but the EU vs Turkey war during the first official EMEA tourney was vicious

very different type of scouting imo
Mini has pretty much always had to look for players to fit straight into a top 2/3 team in EMEA, where as mCe is mainly looking for players who can develop

treating it exclusively as a 1st split thing current c9 is pretty bad compared to the absolute highs we saw out of fnatic (after for example enzo getting picked up)
However looking at it long term there is def gonna be more improvement on c9

more of a general question: in your opinion how should fat jokes be handled? are they different to other jokes on peoples flaws?

regarding the constant fat "jokes" on here:
like as with any jokes about personal flaws, its weird af to do it with people you don't know. Joke with people whos boundaries you know instead of strangers; they'll at least give it back from time to time.
Doesn't help when people are too lazy to come up with new jokes either and its just the same jokes over and over again.

that epilepsy warning at the start of the stream wasnt kidding

ey ey ey table tennis is the best prep there is
Fnatic just won an international event with Boaster giving us regular table tennis updates regarding his rivalry with leo

Loud know its the easiest way to win

this^
like I did enjoy the memes and all but I do hope he's fine mentally
stepping down like this mid season (on a team with essentially no sub) shouldn't ever be necessary

the Vam roster is such a shame
the original roster could have done some serious damage, but now...

new players looked good aim wise at least so lets see if the team can develop

India buff is real, somehow adding 2 new players made the other 4 synergize together better
actually a really good performance from GE

adding on to the above:
LF is decent too as we saw this game
and Bazzi plays a really good raze, but similar situation to Monyet

idk I was expecting bazzi to carry tbh since he was the most well rounded duelist of the bunch

after the roles were shown you're right though, and its been a super pleasant surprise to see those 2 doing so consistently well