I heard hes at least 50 actually

ye I expect theyll get poached apart, so theyll be playing in spain regardless, but stuff like this is always "fun"

Guys actually got owned so hard.
Wtf is this. Spain already doesnt have a split 3, why tf is there a 3 day deadline to find a TO (aka sell your soul and get scammed for the entire next year because you dont have time to actually negotiate)

https://x.com/celogVAL/status/1838260041155010954

Yes and so did Turkey. This was never a permanent thing and was basically to buy Riot time in EMEA while they planned a system.
They were never considered a standalone t1 region and were never planned to have favorable treatment compared to any other t2 league in emea.

Going into 2022, as Riot established infrastructure for the eminent Partnership system (find every league a suitable TO and set up t2 leagues), they were added into the pool just like the other emea regions.

Feel free to check out the 2022 System if you want to see how Riot envisioned CIS to be integrated (or just think of current t2 but add a CIS league)
https://www.vlr.gg/event/876/valorant-regional-league-cis-milestone/playoffs
https://www.vlr.gg/event/885/champions-tour-stage-1-emea-promotion

And how they could enforce the import rules in EMEA? Not 100% sure what you mean here. We already have the rule if thats what the question is about.
Different subregion (but still from EMEA)? -> Counts as Import (-> Played last 2 splits in new subregion -> No longer import)

https://www.vlr.gg/389747/valorant-off-season-2024-events-announced
full list from "official" offseason tourneys

additionally split 3 for most t2 regions will be starting in a couple of weeks

tons more local, console and just more recent tourneys gonna take place though
https://liquipedia.net/valorant/Portal:Tournaments does pretty well to keep track of a lot of stuff that VLR just refuses to show (youll have to use the tabs to sort for tier to see upcoming ones)

Doesnt make sense to merge all of Russia with CN
The majority of people living in russia dont have a playable ping to the CN servers.

I talked about it before but I do think the only realistic (yet very messy) solution would be to split Russia into regions (if you dont give them their own t2 league back).
Yes it'd probably get abused but the country is just too large to be slapped onto existing regions (ping wise).

Dang, Map 2 and 3 just werent a competition anymore; very convincing wins.
GGs to DSG

100%, idk how theyre supposed to stop a crazed JohnOlsen running at them with their current form, but prep is good and the players are pretty disciplined

miracle run is still on

Wait I wasnt paying attention, is he actually?
Dude I want RVNT to win the whole thing now, that'd be class

Spin helps Apeks -> they win
BigTime helps RVNT -> they win

DSG have a huge advantage in firepower, but their strats are (imo) shit (tbf meta does suit braindead aggro playstyle as all 3 other t2 regions have proven so far, but I still think the strats are shit)
RVNT have some really nice defaults and manipulate the map very well for a t2 team

I wouldnt favor RVNT, but it should be incredibly close (and ye am cheering for RVNT 2-1 DSG too)

Offseason it really wasnt clear if they truly did
Benjy, miniboo and boo all looked shaky (tbf boo was pretty good for an IGL, but nowhere near what we saw when the season started)

But ye, my point isnt at all that Apeks will be the next TH^^ Just that on paper pickups != actual roster

The roster would look pretty shit on paper

Our best team of the year (TH) was one that looked horrible on paper too; on paper is not the end of rosters.
And its not like we are looking at Apeks on paper. We already know its a team where the pieces work together. Definitely not anywhere to the level of TH (rn), but they work.

Being skeptical of their chances is fine (offseason teams are looking scary af atm), but you cant treat an existing team like new signings.
(Also we dont even know if they keep this roster or if they end up making changes)

o wait yea youre right actually, the initial rumors of milan joining fnatic got started via trial screenshots (where he was just sitting in them on his main)

not sure what he meant with that they start next week then, probs took a break or something? but ye still got a ton of people left (he said they were still going to do 10 mans) so some misinformation on my part, but result is the same

yup, not the most in t2, but the "rumor" is that they pay more than some t1 orgs
We dont know exactly where fnatic falls in compared to others, but they do have a reputation of attracting players with the teams culture rather than money

Milan said they will start trials next week so not much to share yet

Demon1 currently 7-3 (end of round 4), bro is the goat
Nitro on the other hand is only 3-3, but what can you do against the new kids

Grand Finals is live atm
As title said its console, so youre not gonna get the highest level of gameplay yet, but for those interested to see how things are progressing over there
https://www.twitch.tv/gagod

map 2 currently

They pay decently
I dont have concrete info on what range buyouts they are in though

but we know that DACH buyouts have been a problem (deepmans ridiculous 200k buyout while he was on Wave denying him his opportunity at fnatic for example) and CGN have spend very good money on the roster (reportedly paid buyout for DaviH)

rather speculative for sure, but no one has paid any of CGNs buyouts yet and theyre not known for being one of the orgs thats underpaying their roster

al0rante going to koi confirmed ;3

nah but no clue who they have lined up.
Decent chunk of FA sentinels atm so Im not too worried (Alo and Fizzy the 2 big ones from Dach)

hes on cgn, so unless his contract expires hes gonna be very expensive (no clue about how long his contract is)

at least I didnt write Vitality, could be worse

yup, me me can read xD was too busy looking at the rest of the roster and rumors to see what other player I want em to pick up

Thats a good one, really loving what KC M8 is building rn

ye a lot of those leaks come exactly from there

Im not in the loop with current reporters (aka Anonimotum) so idk exactly how they operate nowerdays, but in the past one of the best and most reliable methods for getting and confirming leaks was talking to other players who were in the trials

players who feel cheated out of a spot can be quite willing to talk

all the leaks we get are based on trials (most of the times from players who didnt end up making it tbh)
but ye liquid are in early stages so its not worth leaking since theyre essentially playing 10 mans atm for trials

fnc gonna do 10 mans too, so looking forward to their leaks once screenshots get out

oh ye I meant t1, mb didnt read properly
they 100% should get a t2 again eventually

O I was referring to a much more immediate solution of just saying "x region in Russia" is allowed to play in China/Apac (but cant in EMEA) without counting as an import, but ye giving them a whole t1 would be very nice too.
I dont think they got enough players for it to make sense though and political situations make it hard regardless

Limiting imports in t2 is only going to harm players since it affects system outside of your intended case.
We really havent seen imports (as in actual imports from other t1 regions) be an issue anywhere. Yes china has a good amount however I see this as hugely beneficial for the region to catch up (they have enough players that once the level is similar to other regions the local players will simply drown out the imports due to language issues).

Increasing imports for t1 is meh. Like I dont see this being an issue right now either, but if a region actually properly pulls ahead its going to be fatal for pro play, making it even harder for anyone to catch back up as imports eat up the other regions slots.

Given your criticism is directly related to kr1stals situation, why not tackle the actual problem? Russia being way too big to just be slapped onto EMEA, with ping in large parts of the country being unplayable.
Would splitting it up make sense? probably not either (logistical nightmare thats gonna get abused sooner or later and just be unfair) but it'd do a lot less harm than fundamentally changing how the entirety of t1/t2 work for a very small minority of players.

Theyre getting anti'd AND getting run over by neon
yeeeea Milan and Sliggy talked about it a bit, but they'd profit a ton from just changing it up a bit.

(sry was busy for a bit)
But thats sorta the point of my criticism. That t1 teams in EMEA operate under the old G2 Pipson assumption: "I can turn anyone into an IGL". And ye sure you can get someone to call, but not everyone is made out to be a proper IGL.

We dont really know if our t2 has good IGLs since no one ever gets the chance.

Players who were IGL'ing in t2 right before getting picked up in 2023 and 2024:
Enzo
beyAz (won ascension)
SouhcNi (technically in t1 in the past, but only 1 tourney with FF)

and maybe:
pAura (t1 in the past, but played in t2 right before getting picked up)

Might be missing someone? List is a bit shorter than I thought but just looking through the rosters I dont see anyone else who was IGL in t2 and then got a shot in t1.

But ye its criminally short considering we have 10/11 teams in t1 atm. When emea is constantly struggling with lack of IGLs you'd think they'd start looking at the lower tiers, but alas.

oh ye its definitely fair to give him more time - point wasnt about him being bad, but rather about how beneficial it is to just pick up a player who has years of experience calling, because they already have this backlog of strats for once the playbook runs dry.

Nats is a hard af worker so im sure he'll grow well if they keep him on IGL^^

now thats a big W

I pray he doesnt (didnt particularly enjoy TLs calling during the second split, it lacked a lot of creativity a dedicated and experienced IGL can bring), but ye, based on the trials (or lack thereof for IGLs) Ive seen, I think youre right

IGL's aint getting trials in general this offseason so it is what it is
At least we get 1

Great pickup
Was expecting/hoping he'd go to TL, but the m8 roster has some real potential now

Idk, after watching WillChobra's introduction series, I was rating Boom very highly
The 2 matches I watched in prep also had them look super good

So I dont think anyone was underrating them? But ye looking good af atm, the later matches between the top teams are gonna be exciting

No, if this happens, it is a long term thing and will come with other options game devs can use to ensure a secure environment for their games to run.
The proposed ideas would replace/invalidate a lot of security measures the global economy quite simply relies on so they wont be taken lightly or happen quickly.

It should also be noted that the only source they provide (the microsoft blogpost) does not mention that microsoft has any intend to remove kernel level anticheat (or software in general) and instead only talks about additional methods.

The blog post in its current form is just misinformation. Maybe they have sources they cant publicly state, however there was no media present at the summit and (as mentioned above) the official communication does not support what is being claimed.

This isnt actually what was changed (well it was changed a bit, but thats not the rule the screenshot is from). The line above is from what is now 2.2.4 which was changed to:

[...]
Between Seasons only, a Dual Citizen may request to change their Declared Resident Country if (a) they qualify to be considered a Resident of such country in accordance with Section 2.2.2 above AND (b) one or more of the following applies: (i) the country that the Dual Citizen wishes to switch residency to is in the same League Territory as the Dual Citizen's current Declared Resident Country; or (ii) the Dual Citizen was, during the most recent split (or most recent Season if there are not multiple splits), on the Starting Roster of a Team that belongs to the same League Territory that the country the Dual Citizen wishes to switch residency to falls within, for at least fifty percent (50%) of the average number of regular season matches played by Teams in the applicable League. [...]

Yea for anyone wondering, the rule referred to here is from the 2022 rulebook
the 2025 has very different wording

for anyone interested you can find the global, as well as emeas, rulebooks at https://www.emea-competitiveops.com/

ye tweet is gone now
The line he was referring to was in the 2022 rulebook so I assume he was just linking to the old one, the 2025 has VERY different wording

yes
tons of experienced 2 coaches FA right now and its the fucking NA COACH THEY GO FOR
im sure hes good, but come on, I wanna watch our coaches in our own region rather than having to look at other regions after they sign them

The player is not Sayf, Alive or Fitinho

My disappointment Is immeasurable and my day is ruined
Hes not gonna get stuck in t2 again... right.... even with no buyout this time around.... riiiiight?!

welp im salty

Well that wasnt even close
ggs 2G ngl, somehow made that insanity look clean

look at it this way: we know magnum + enzo + shadow (based on people talking mainly the first 2) was able to create a great igl'ing core back in Apeks
IF they can reproduce that combination then theres no reason to not keep magnum

gotta trust that KC have a plan, they overcame everyones big role worries last year too (and then got wrecked with comps anyways but ya know, in theory solved that issue)

I mean if youre offering that we get to claim him as EMEA......

edit: yall are desperate for him lmao xD

yes, hes incredible

theres like 3 players who really need to get t1 from that region (avez, moh and akai) and its LONG overdue for one of em to make it
pretty much every t1 coach knows them but (probably buyouts?) they just never quite make the cut

Hes gonna be really good

FINALLY
about time, hes so good

MENA representation at last, lfg

yea probs true
Alive has been around long enough (and has been getting trials on various top t2 teams, only to never be bought out) that he maybe knows him, but def not one of the super big names

wasnt Alive also pretty far in trials with KOI but couldnt sign because of buyout, or am I misremembering last years' roster rumors?

Only source we have is ardiis himself and hes... well.... unreliable at times, but he said he turned down 2/3 trial offers and was going to turn down the last one too.

So sounds like hes done for now and is gonna stream