ye i have mixed feelings bout Riots gambling ban in regards to the amount of tourneys cs can host

Morally completely on board; aint something I wanna do, or associate myself with
But dang it would be nice if hosting non VCT events was profitable over here too

We'd never get anywhere close the the CS tourney rates (preparing for valorant just takes more times while the game is still young and no one knows wtf theyre doing) but seeing more non-official tourneys with t1 vs t2 would be nice

CS is living the dream atm

As someone who is way more into t2, open circuit was a dream for me
Getting to watch teams like Alliance play (and sometimes upset) some of the big org was wonderful. I also really enjoyed how fluid the tiers were for players, with a lot of up and down movement (though thats more due the game being newer realistically).

But those 2 years were based off the promise to ascension, so idk how it would have looked without the early years gold rush

100% prefer open circuit though

Yes, definitely and without a doubt

He is very vocal, shares the teams thoughts when possible and has no problem taking the blame for stuff the community either doesnt, or doesnt wish to understand, as well as stupid financial decisions that the esports side of the team for sure doesnt support.

He is fulfilling this role to an incredible mastery (whether or not fully intentional doesnt matter here imo) and I hope he has it in him to stay for a lot more years.

Godkar can lead anyone to victory
ez champs trophy already

The assessment that its the higher risk causing imports is just false. There is no country where your parents will encourage you to go into esports and in all of them you end up fucking yourself over for many years if you try.

The reason you get imports is because your tier 2 is still shit. And that's fine, it will get better.
Imports accelerate that improvement, by driving the average level of play in t2 higher.
Given your insane population, solid player-base, and riots rules being SUPER in favor of developing your local talent (you guys are a standalone region. The 2 split rule other Challenger Leagues have doesnt apply to you guys, since all imports are non residents to the region as a whole rather than imports to only the Challengers League -> it is actually capped to 2 per team), I dont see a world where imports will ever be able to drown out local talent and development.

The amount of imports will get better as your scene establishes itself in Valorant, dont worry. Rn your t2 is easily the weakest, by the end of 2026 I wouldnt put money on (for example) Malaysia/Singapore beating you.

Tldr: Imports are good for making your region catch up faster. Rules protect your region from ever being overwhelmed by imports. Chinas player-base is big enough that t2 will outgrow imports being the center piece of every team.

ye the interview with one of the players (postplant, cant remember what game) supports that rumor

Not much you can do when you cant properly adapt to your opponents in the series that ends up mattering (vs CGN).

Theres 5 teams that I could see winning it all based on what they showed (Apk, PCF, CGN, GN and JL) if things/the format had worked out just a bit different, so thats just the theme of this ascension.
But ye GN were great and I expect we see at least one of them in t1 next year.

we see from Acend leaving the Tier 2 system due to (I assume) concerns with money

They are an east team. They are in one of the most fucked leagues, both in terms of viewership, org involvement as, as well as sponsors (due to the viewerbase being very split between countries and just low)
There also seems to be a bigger problem brewing in East atm that we arent aware of as the public yet. I sadly havent been able to track down anyone whos more involved with east yet whos willing to answer some questions about wtf is going on.
So this has close to nothing to do with the issues of t2 as a whole (since we see other regions compressing to combat this).
Starting a discussion because of it is great, however its definitely being taken out of context.

With what happened with the Guard, we are going to eventually end up seeing orgs just stay out of Valorant until there is a proven roster, then buy that org for a tournament or two in the hope that they might win, then remove their investment. Now that we got the ruling that players who do not have an org can choose an org themselves to represent them, (G2 taking the place of TGRD), there is LITERALLY no reason for teams to invest in a team in Tier 2 before the 2nd stage of Valorant Tier 2, after we see what teams are actually good (see DarkZero/TTR).

Why would any org (except guard who already had the roster when their owner lost any and all interest in esports) buy a roster and then drop it right when they get the biggest reward you can find in esports? That seems counter intuitive. Guard did a gamble and (allegedly) tried to sell their roster, playing chicken with riot. They lost. I highly doubt we'll ever see anything like that again.

The concern here should be much more about orgs that dont meet the criteria to ascend into t1 and have to drop their roster because of it.
That being said to quote Leo Faria (https://twitter.com/lhfaria/status/1830985817193410775) "there's no question that orgs in Challengers are the first in line whenever slots open up."

2. If a team from Premier ends up winning Ascension, then an org will have effectively "bought" their spot into Tier 1 Valorant, rendering this entire system useless
3. Teams immediately dropping rosters after they fail (OXG), and letting the rosters play without a salary before coming back into the scene to try to swoop up a spot.

Oxg is a horrible example since they were just dropping a ton of teams in all esports, presumably due to financial struggles in general (as foreshadowed by the RL drama).

But yes this is correct and should be one of the big concerns. A combination of systems seems to address this pretty well though.
First off you will notice when looking to emea that most leagues require a team to find an org to join. So it is exceedingly rare for a team to be able to pick up an existing roster mid season.
Then combine this with the new 3 split format (idk how each region will implement the points, but teams that play the entire year will be heavily favored) incentivize that you dont just fill a relegation spot in split 3 and make it to ascension from that.

Obviously there will be exceptions and maybe teams will try to abuse them, however thats for the TO to figure out and implement a system to create a healthy scene. Especially in NA where there are SO many orgs this shouldnt become and issue in the long term.

(I should note that if NA mandates orgs for t2, the salary will obviously drop even lower which will suck for players, so its not as simple as just saying "eyyyy yeeea we only want orgs from now on". This was more to give ideas how others are currently solving the concerns)

There is a loooooot of work to be done by both TOs and Riot to make sure the scene becomes sustainable and Polaris last year, and (presumably) East next year should serve as a grim warning to Riot that they do need to put effort into this.
But the changes coming in 2025 look like significant improvements and I think people need to really engage and think about them.

The one thing I do want Riot to focus on is to mandate that every region has a t3 curcuit. Theyre dirt cheap to run since you dont need streams or shit like that, but just make sure you fund a small TO that can run regular tournaments and provide an alternative to premier into t2.
Premier is great but it cant replace t3 otherwise you will never grow any grassroots.

Imma post my thing from https://www.vlr.gg/404737/acend-exits-val here too

Yea somethings brewing in East atm
Orgs are leaving (rather than joining), the TO is struggling, TO is losing talent and even split 3 is uncertain.

If someone whos actually familiar with East can share whats happening I'd much appreciate it since its hard to properly understand whats going on via bad google translate walls of text.

Anyways sucks to lose Acend, they were a staple of valorant. GL to em in other games.
And may east somehow survive whatever is going on with them this year

joining east?
cause from what I can tell (using badly translated text) theyre going full meltdown atm

Yea somethings brewing in East atm
Orgs are leaving (rather than joining), the TO is struggling, TO is losing talent and even split 3 is uncertain.

If someone whos actually familiar with East can share whats happening I'd much appreciate it since its hard to properly understand whats going on via bad google translate walls of text.

Anyways sucks to lose Acend, they were a staple of valorant. GL to em in other games.
And may east somehow survive whatever is going on with them this year

logaN

from what I can tell ye
Reta is confirmed out (-2 in maps) and then AK would be worse

https://liquipedia.net/commons/images/a/ab/VCT_Ascension_Ascension_Americas_2024_Ruleset.pdf 14.7.2.

(2) Total Split/Event map differential
(3) Total Split/Event round differential
(4) Bo1 match is held for tie-breaker

they win 2-0 (so +0 maps)
All Knights lose 0-2 (so -1 maps)

otherwise they gotta go into rounds from what I can tell and then theyre sorta screwed with -25

edit: o im blind, forgot 2G is playing atm, but them losing 0-2 and TSM winning would also let tsm through (-2 for 2G) and (at worst -1 for tsm)
Aaaamd edit 2: ye this is wrong, I didnt bother reading on and they have a specific rule for ties with more than 3 teams, gj me

theres been 4 "ascension" tournaments in emea, and turkey won one of them, idk how thats mikey mouse

Doesnt matter, vlr isnt using the proper tiebreakers anyways (are the rules even public?)
Use liquipedia for actual standings, or wait for the last games to finish so vlr can copy the correct table

https://www.vlr.gg/121829/team-vitality-vs-fut-esports-valorant-regional-leagues-2022-finals-playoffs-gf

ggs, well deserved
best of luck in t1 apeks

The most well deserved win possible. 2 great years and most importantly great sportsmanship to our less fortunate teams.
May this be the start of the new spring for Polaris.

Best of luck to yall in t1^^

BUT ALSO TO QUOTE SOME CS: "FUCK YOU APEX". WTF WAS THAT MAP 3 YALL CANT JUST DO THAT TO MY HEART. I THOUGHT IT WAS OVER... AGAIN. FUCKING HELL.
IDK IF THAT'S AN ACCOMPLISHMENT, BUT GJ YOU'VE OFFICIALLY MADE ME THE MOST ANXIOUS IVE EVER BEEN WATCHING VALORANT. OML PLEASE NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.

the rosters didnt and dont matter for the selection of orgs

like dont get me wrong im totally on your side here, I was shocked that they didnt give one of each CL an org in t1 and would love to see a Dach, Portuguese, Italian, Eastern or Mena org join, but that just wasnt a goal

holy crap
ye thats fair, Im very train pilled since thats just super cheap for me (got a perma train ticket for my job anyways) that I didnt even think of flights

nah like all the orgs are fine in isolation
like cant really complain about KOI getting in, theyre huge, same with the other 2

its just that they didnt consider spreading fanbases at all

bring it to france tbh, then spain and germany can go (if only spain and france werent so stupidly large that its like an entire day journey per train)

Id also add to this that the release from microsoft (press wasnt present so this is the only public info we have) doesnt even mention the idea.
The panic is based on solutions/speculations made BEFORE the summit.

I am not a security researcher (will be very clear based on my horrible wording) and im coming simply from someone who studied IT and finished a couple Security based lectures. Aka im talking out of my ass. Just a slightly more informed ass than the average one.

Nah this article doesnt cover anything of the like.
Crowdstrike was a failing by the company through and through and not the fault of microsoft. One of the worst cases of gross negligence we've ever seen from a security firm of that size.

The main takeaway from this article should be: "In the short term, we discussed several opportunities to improve how we support the safety and resiliency of our mutual customers."
Main point of the following paragraphs is having the present companies discuss ways of "sharing data, tools and documented processes".

Microsoft is not going to remove drivers. Windows doesnt work without them. And as such kernel level software will still be allowed.

The other big point is "Here, our conversation explored new platform capabilities Microsoft plans to make available in Windows, building on the security investments we have made in Windows 11."
Basically offering alternatives to running stuff in kernel mode. Kernel mode is scary since if it breaks, it can brick everything. Lots of stuff currently being done in kernel mode doesnt have to be kernel, but theres no proper alternatives if you want a secure environment/need a biiiit more access.
This will (maybe already has, idk my lectures were based on windows95 architecture) hopefully change, if this article is anything to go off.

ye but that is after they added a whole region
max amount of slots increased from the planned 42 to 48 so its sorta understandable

Yea I would prefer having it be more open for sure, 2022 split 1 Emea format was borderline perfect (https://www.vlr.gg/event/854/champions-tour-stage-1-emea-challengers/group-stage into https://www.vlr.gg/event/885/champions-tour-europe-stage-1-promotion)
BUT Riot has been very clear with their goals. Franchise does achieve them. The big problem is that it screws over t2 and makes it very hard to incentivize orgs to partake in that.

I am worried what will happen after 2027 (after the revaluation of teams is done and theres another long break where ascension is the only way to get into t1), but the current improvements we've been getting in EMEA t2 have filled me with optimism that Riot will keep listening to the concerns of the orgs and TOs, and change stuff accordingly.

Removing this entry into t1 completely is a bad idea imo.

We will see ig. Just keep calling out issues as they happen and things will work out in the long(er) run

Im a bit confused what your problem is.
We have 220+ player currently fully pro in valorant. ~25 people currently being let go of their teams really aint that much.

We've had way more roster shuffles pre franchising as orgs joined and left the scene, trying to get past the open qualifiers into t1.
You could write a whole book about the amount of players NiP had for example and how/why they got dropped.
This isnt franchising this is esports.

And lets also not kid ourselves and pretend that Franchising isnt exactly what creates all these jobs. Because valorant isnt cs. We dont have the infinite gambling money glitch.
We have no grassroots. We have close to no sustainability anywhere. There is no way we could grow a scene that supports multiple thousands of pros if Riot wasnt pumping money into it.

Franchising has its problems (a lot of them tbh) but roster shuffles really isnt one of them.

Wait wtf, no
.... thats.... well ouch for Sen ngl

after such a good year too

Idk emea production has been more of a reason to not have riot host ascension and instead let one of the TOs do it, so balances out imo

Riot Berlin Crew > MistGames production during playings >>>>> Pre Lan Ascension Riot production

welp unfortunate, though predictable given that anti was the main weakness of pcf
gl to em in the finals and better luck next year cgn^^

Maple is a known shit starter
probs shit talked him the entire game, got what he wanted with dima tilting (was a VERY tilt-worthy game tbh) and is now playing it off as surprising

its nothing
nothing happened
nothing will happen

we will see
Polaris (or more specifically beacon) is building up a t3 scene for console atm, with the Console Cup 2 starting tomorrow (allows for Polaris, Dach, France, Benelux and Iberia to join)

Theres definitely interest on players but based on what ive seen so far its going to take a while till that scene properly establishes itself.

There havent been many successful console esports, so idk if Riot will really commit to another project of this size. Theyre already pushing the limits by trying to make their scene global.

Havent had any really good showing so far, that sets anyone truly apart. Imports just farming way too much.

Midnight was pretty good today ig?

hud should be back asap

Production special this one xD poor peeps who have no clue about valorant and now get introduced to it without overlay

You missed the name change from OnlyFins, they sadly got renamed to MostlyFins after Ale infiltrated their ranks.

thats emea not eu (which was the point I think)

KaweNtw and NoMan also played in EMEA

this is incorrect
While we dont know exact numbers for either, but Fokus was spending the big money to get their roster. Theres a reason they had the best t2 roster (on paper) going into the seasons (just "external" factors happened to force them to move regions, forcing changes to comply with region lock)
There is very little competition in polaris that would drive roster prices up.

Apeks still deserves it more for sure just because theyve shown far more goodwill towards their region than any other org, helping out the FA team whenever needed.

o dang lmao, I just scrolled down thinking they all be at the bottom, thats mb

all the emea stuff is missing too so I didnt think much of it

Imma be real, I think all of em are good enough for t1 skill wise
Just gonna depend on what slots open up and how they mesh with the existing players on that roster

think that'll get added once a format gets anounced
only NA has their split 3 up yet since we have some proper info on them

I actually hate that promition/relegation doesnt show up for any region (except NA) consistently
those are some of the most important series the entire year and theres a good chance no one on vlr will ever know of em x.x

lmao thats actually class

Its a t3 event, sadly only t3 events from NA get shown

I wish theyd finally create a simple tagging system so you could filter for tiers. That would allow them to add t3 events without the matches tab being flooded

idk, good chance its also a misunderstanding (or Riot being slow... because it IS riot and theyve been horrible with their rulebooks this year)

I have gotten someone directly working directly for riot (doing stuff for t3) to semi confirm offrecord that they are looking into possibly changing this in the future (that was about half a year ago so there would have been time) however I have not heard any confirmation that it has actually been changed or is going to change for the 2025 season from anywhere

This rule currently does not exist.
People have been talking about this rule for around half a year now but as of August 21. 2024 this rule is not part of the rulebook.

If this is actually a planned change then Riot need to hurry tf up and update the rules to remove any uncertainty. EMEA ascension is about to end in 2 days Americas in 8 and Apac in 16.

You can find the Valorant rulebook under https://www.emea-competitiveops.com/ and im referring to the "VCT Global Competition Policy", specifically the "VCT25 Roster Construction Rules"

yea the dach thing wasnt a split, just (as you said) an offseason event
had some good teams but was also the place for people to try out roster moves, role changes and stuff like that

couple coaches that can match him, Kapio from cgn for example got 3/4 wins since CGN made it to t1, and then obviously someone like mowzassa from Saw (4/4) is unbeatable (just the 2 off the top of my head, might be some more peeps)

one of the most consistent in t2 for sure, gonna be fun to see what he can do

dont really have a take right now
fully out of the loop of whos on what team atm and whos duoing with who

trying to catch up with the 3000 teams going into pacific ascension been rough

ye roster is super scary already
Lots of talent floating around for the other rosters so gonna be a good season (though theyre eating up our duelists smh) for us viewers if the other orgs dont fumble