those being public is actually amazing

I think Sean Gares had a pretty good take on it during the last Daring Minds episode - https://youtu.be/g9B6k_WrT7I?t=1157

Im not exactly an analyst so idek
you can antistrat tendencies so ig that's the main point you'd go to vs prx, but im just wildly guessing

imma leave that up to the teams in champs when prx have their full roster, we'll see what they prepare

thats true^ but we also had com videos from the time and they also had everyone calling midround so its very similar to prx
sliggy also ranted mentioned that he had to take over all the IGL duties when it comes to pre-match preparation so I dont think its that different to the prx structure

and they also didn't do bad? like we have higher expectations of prx, but 4th, 3-4th in 2021 (and 7-8th, 7-8th in 2022) isnt that bad for international events - there's better results but its really not bad

Regarding the firepower: I definitely agree (hence why I also mentioned it as a major factor for prx) but liquid also cooked a tooooon xD they had some of the wildest comps and strats - they only went to Reykjavik in 2021 due to inventing the post plant meta, they got destroyed the qualifier before

liquid managed to be a pretty good for ages team without an IGL, so theres some precedent that it can work, and their playstyle also fits the team structure
so... probably forever? we'll have to see if they're able to adapt after a loss/hard antistrat, but realistically they should be able to

obviously they'll still be super dependent on individual skill, but that hasn't stopped them so far

the main worry imo is that they themselves will struggle to antistrat, which is a huge damper on actually winning an international event

Both teams get a lot better as you get into the tournament with more and more vods being available to anti
So while based on how both of them looked in their last game I'd doubt it, I do have a lot of hope to see them step up

And if they get back to old dominance then there's pretty much no way around El Classico

I don't disagree with the second part, but if you make a reactionary ranking you do have to consider that Loud just looked worse than fut

with a long time being 1 split

the problem is that they are 2-2 in matchups over the past 2 splits
basically, while I agree that EDG look way way better via eye test, the results really aren't convincing for EDG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxI_UiiMkVE&t=6859s

Seems like its just beef about semantics and Mortadelo & his sources making false assumptions in Zeeks opinion
think its safe to say this will just end up being a nothing burger if Zeek makes a public statement since they're not actually contradictory

https://www.vlr.gg/222215/zeek-let-go-from-heretics/#26

vakk is definitely one of the best FA players out there atm,
ended his Polaris run with a 500 acs map for a reason

he doesn't exactly fit the roles though, so we'd have to see him flex again which is a bit of a shame for a t2 player going into t1

thats a shame, EMEAs replays were the best by a decent bit

Pacific had good replays too though, so I'm not too worried that they'll be able to make it work

destruct1vee (https://www.vlr.gg/player/6559/destruct1vee) if he makes it to t1
hes been the best smokes player in turkey (imo, since FF doesn't agree and dropped him for Jlerst [whos admittedly also super good]) for 2 splits now

https://twitter.com/WhoCars_Val/status/1662058687400226818

there are no more cars

10 secs too late, ignore xD

one team, https://www.vlr.gg/team/7403/who-cars, had to forfeit since they couldn't get visas
so the format is a short notice adjustment to make it work with 3 teams, without being unfair , as far as I can tell

flipping ninja turtles keep sneaking in

lmao the timing xD

https://twitter.com/d3ffo111/status/1654495095461232644 was the last statement we have regarding visa
https://twitter.com/GKVAL_/status/1659470959387217920 from his team a bit later (and again no updates since)

would be amazing if he managed to get it in time, but he hasn't posted anything about it yet sadly so it seems more and more unlikely

they wont be, it wouldnt make sense to punish teams for preforming well by putting them in a "better" Pool where the opposition is tougher

most likely the post details the first matches and the teams in the same pool cant meet until playoffs or lower bracket

tbf he was also in the team when they looked completly lost xD
but ye the roster looks amazing atm, and he is def part of that

nice for him to finally get to prove himself since hes had such a rough go of coaching before and lets see how far they can take it

idk he didnt stand out as particularly bad that game imo (mainly cause the entire team looked horrible), but it is true that buzz looked better today than foxy9 did in the last game (majorly helped by the 2 maps they won)

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