Wow, apparently liquid are God's because OpTic are are up 1 round rn on bind.

ITS NOT LIKE BIND IS ONE OF THE MOST DEFENSIVE SIDED FUCKING MAPS IN THE GAME. ITS NOT LIKE OPTIC WENT 10-2 VS BOOM ON DEFENSE, NO THIS IS SUPER CLOSE GUYS OPTIC GONNA LOSE GUESS THEIR WASHED SCREAMS A GOD
AÀAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

That was a good attack side for Optic.
That was good.
OpTic are absolutely terrible on Breeze, somewhat because they always start attack while being one of the best defensive teams in the world.

We either have :
5 N+S America
2 EMEA
1 Asian

Or

4 N + S America
3 EMEA
1 Asian

For the team spread. Just whether 100T show up vs Fnatic. Kru vs FPX is 100% a done deal I'll see FPX back in the finals once they get their shit together a little more.

Just think, EMEA had to ALL get lower bracket spots. All of them lost to North or South American teams, not even either of the two best North and South American teams. And all those north and south American teams are going to be fighting for a proboble 4 fucking slots after franchising. That's crazy. Asia barely fills their top 4, EMEA will at least have some competition with teams 1-5/6.

If Brazil just had some fucking viewers, then we'd have 4 large regions. Sadly not.

Short and sweet. In 2023 there will be 3 seperate Valorant leagues which will most likely sent 4 teams each (for 12 teams) to an international setting. Where is the problem?

(These next discussions most retain to rosters rather than the team I mention, pure convince.)

Asia - Asia got the duty of sending 6 whole squads to masters : Drx, Prx, Edward Gaming, Zeta Division, Boom, and Xerxia. At this point, a maximum of 3 Asian teams will make top 8 with Prx and Zeta fighting in the lower bracket while Drx has already gotten a spot. Edward, Boom, and Xerxia all went winless.

EMEA - EMEA got to send a measly 3 teams to Champs, Fpx, Fnatic, and Liquid. All 3 are in the lower bracket, so they can still ALL make it into playoffs.

That's the background info, here's my problem.

The America's - NA, Brazil, and LATAM got the duty (as a group) to send 7 whole teams. That's OpTic, XSET, 100T, Loud, Furia, Levi, and Kru.

Furia went 0-2.
There are 3 teams in the lowers (100T, Loud, and Kru)
There are 3 teams who claimed top seed (OpTic, XSET, Levi)

All three of these regions will be forming 10 team leagues after Champs. Having a clear top 3 is nice from Asia, EMEA is of course deeper rosterwise with former Gambit being free agents to plug into already good teams.

The America's already have 6 teams competing for those (suspected) 4 slots. Of course all those teams won't make franchising, but their rosters sure as hell will. I don't care how these next games go in the lowers, or really who wins Champs for this argument. Converting half your teams as a top seed, and potentially having a whole 6 teams? if all 6 make it, we'd only see 1 emea team or 2 asian rosters vs the America's.

If Brazil just got a little more views then there would have been 4 leagues. Maybe one day.

Edit: Yeah, this is a short post from me.

Sentinels are already the biggest team in Valorant, so grabbing the biggest individual as well makes sense.

Group A is balenced with a clear favourite in PRX, a secondary option in Leviathan, and two teams with great upset potential with liquid (who always fizzle out in playoffs) and Edward Gaming (who are a top tier fracture team and may be able to pull more maps)

BTW by top tier fracture team, I mean against all of East Asia they dropped 10 rounds total (3, 3, 4) on Fracture.

Group B is WILD. Top seed NA, top seed Brazil, top seed Japan and boom is there I guess. OpTic and Loud SHOULD get out, but I can see a Zeta comeback if they play at their peak. Reminder that Zeta have a sub for Champs, since tenn took a break (I'm pretty sure on that). Boom is there I guess.

Group C is a thing? FPX, Kru, Xset, and Xerxia. I do not know how to feel about this one. FPX clearly dogs the whole group and makes it to playoffs without a map drop. But the other 3? It's a weird situation imo. I believe Kru, Xset, and Xerxia are decent teams all around the same level. Those games will probably be very entertaining, not because the teams are the best of the best, but that they are all close in skill.

I hate Group D so much. DRX and Fnatic are the high seeds against furia and 100T. This 100T roster is young and (other than asuna and coaches) has no lan experience. Furia is the worst team in Champs. Drx gets another east run into playoffs along with Fnatic. Fnatic probably take top seed, as long as none of them gets covid this time.

So, A is a very well built group, B is fucking stacked, C is odd but will be fun to watch, and D is a blowout group. All my opinion. I have big EDG hopes cause of how damn good their fracture is.

My best games of Groups :

Loud vs OpTic (bro it's Loud vs OpTic)
PRX vs EDG (EDG plays the most similar to PRX out of any team)
XSET vs Xerxia (I think this will be a 3 map absolutely BRUTAL fight, I'm ready)

Final note : It's funny that OpTic flew to Poland to boot camp, just to face no EMEA in groups but instead just face Loud again.

Fair

Team Vietnam, aka Rise, finally have a representative in an International Tournament.

From getting second in the last LCQ.
Beating Optic.
And Disbanding into FaZe, 100T, and whatever ANDBOX became.

Rise Nation has Derrek at Champions.

He's always been a hottie in that case.

I didn't even see LOUD holy shit that's based AF

3 of top 4 EMEA too? Damn, no opinion.

If OpTic get's over their fear of EU teams (AKA FNS gets a read on Ange1) then they are the only team that can beat FPX. Only team that can control the pace while having a great defense to back it. Plus FNS will be the first IGL to say "Stop fucking pushing them" unlike any other team.

Tl ; Dr - Yay on Yoru solo's your whole region while using his big toes to play

I better be able to stop phoenix abilities with the water.

Imagine those lasting longer and being at a better strategic position, not sectioning off a small area so you can go brrrrrrr

You gotta be in my walls, that's my entire life story.

Simply, I hope it's a Wall Oriented Controller, with more aggressive options

Basically a version of Viper meant for a more aggressive approach like Omen. I think it'd be great to introduce a real alternative to Viper on maps like Breeze and Icebox. I'm also hoping that it's more a settable wall like Astra, but not nearly as long, just a normal wall (~45-60m). Keep Viper there as a great lurker, but add in an aggressive alternative so we can continue to see variance in play and keeping different playstyles engaged.

Also, I'm so excited for the Chamber nerf in the competitive scene so we can all see the Yay Yoru.

I have no builds for a character. Might make one though.

I can rule that one out, I have shit aim.

I'm excited for any non-EALCQ watchers to rank them in a 13-16 spot when they have a truly top tier Fracture, and can make top 8 depending on the seeding.

I seriously wouldn't be surprised if they take at least a map off a high tier team. Through LCQ they proved they were absolutely lethal on Fracture, so against any non-fracture god, Edg could take that at least. Depending on their seeding, I'd put them in top 8. Of course, we can't truly know until Champs.

Idk man, I am two trying to figure that out.

I'm a common VLR shitter who only posts 2-5 paragraph messes of information, hard facts, and personal opinions on a large variance of topics. I'm just bored as shit at 3 am.

I figured China would be good, but I didn't do enough research to check if they were good. I'm all for China being crazy at Val. That's a large demographic of viewers that Val can get if it becomes big. Like, it's the third biggest viewed LoL league. I'm all for viewership.

Best match of East Asia LCQ finna happen

If big Ed wins, like, WINS against NTH I'd be surprised, same if NTH did it.

I'd expect within a 2-5 round different max.

But seriously id Ed slaps NTH then they should be put in the top 8 at champs.

I have no stakes in either team except I like Meteor he's chill, but I'm for the game. I hope everyone has a pleasurable viewing experience.

I'm all for clowning G2 fans, but Korea is quite literally the worst region at this point bro.

honestly fair

That's why I put a tldr for anyone who didn't want to read my word vomit

Tl ; Dr - I think Riot is scared due to Europe and Korea (biggest LoL viewers) having significantly lower views in Valorant. Due to this they have significantly less leagues (3 rather than 12) with significantly less total teams (30 rather than 117). Meanwhile NA and Japan have become big hits for Valorant, and because of this the America's league and Asian League have a large amount of both teams to bring in the views and spread fans. NA, Japan, and Turkey are the cornerstone of views in their regions while Europe, Korea, and Brazil will be the main focus of bringing in more fans of into Valorant from their big LoL viewer base.

I'll tell you know, this is a long thread. Lot's of stats and shit. So, in short, I'm using current metrics to figure out the goal of franchising for Riot. Covering a ton of questions that I've seen on VLR in the past few days, and I'll try to answer them.

NOTE : This is using outside facts and what makes sense to me as an individual. I'm not covering snuffed teams and shit for franchising, but I'm trying to figure out why this is an approach Riot is taking.

Question 1 - Why is Riot making 3, 10 team Regional Leagues?

As we all know, Riot has said there will be 3 separate regional leagues : The America's (LATAM, Brazil, North America), EMEA (Europe, CIS), and Asian Pacific (Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, etc.). The big problem here, in my opinion, is the 10 team limit in each league. That is a limit of 30 international teams. So, at this point, I'm getting into my stats. I took a look at Riot's other large game with International leagues, League of Legends. Lol was release in 2009 and received a birth to competitive leagues three years later in 2012. Valorant has gotten a slightly similar start, being released in 2020 and now getting Riot leagues in 2023. From my findings, and swiftly passing by LoL as a whole, I could find that 2 leagues kinda started in 2012, Korea and Brazil. Later on, in 2013, NA, Europe, and China all got league stuffs as well.

At this point, almost 10 years later, there are 12 main leagues and 117 teams participating. So, Valorant has 30 teams in 3 leagues while LoL has 117 in 12 leagues. Well, that's fair since League gets way more viewers, right? LoL does get more views, but not way more views, especially for some 10 year old leagues. There are just two mainview leaders : Korea and Europe. Before I talk about those two, I'm gonna talk about some of the closer Regions of Valorant vs LoL viewership.

This is taking an Approximated average of Lol in the last 3 years while taking the Stage 2 stats for Valorant.

LATAM - LoL and Valorant are at a similar point, Valorant is just a bit more popular having an average viewership of around 10k more (36K vs ~24k) while having almost the same peak, hovering around 90k in Val and 80k in LoL

Brazil - LoL in Brazil is around 3x of what it's viewership in Valorant is. Consistent for the peaks (140k in Val vs around 300k in lol) and the average viewership (40k in Val vs 120k in LoL)

Asian Pacific and Vietnam - In Lol they have separate leagues but in Valorant they were both represented in the APAC region. In Asia Pacific (LoL), average viewership is from 15k to 20k, peaking from 55k to 95k. Vietnam does like 35k - 45k average, and peaks all the way from 120K to 230K. APAC in Valorant averages 33k, and can peak around 70k to 100K.

Now, let's talk about the LoL giants of South Korea and EMEA and how fucking sad their Valorant view ship is in comparison. Each region lowballs peak view ship of 700K and can reach peaks of 1.0 million (230k - 300k average) in Europe, and South Korea is the BIGGEST getting peaks of 1.3 million views. EMEA is less sad in Valorant, where that can do peaks of 150K more recently when BBL plays while in Stage 1 they could hit over 200k peaks. Over the two stages, stage 1 averaged around 95k while Stage 2 dropped to 69k.

Now Korea. averaging from 200k to 250k per match while being able to deliver the biggest peaks in LoL when T1 plays. They must be HUGE in Valorant as well, right? Peaking at 36k viewers in both stages and having around 14k average viewers for their matches. That is a huge shell of their production in LoL.

So why do I talk about these two huge regions in such a critical light? Because they carry LoL, I feel like Riot expects more from these regions in order to feel success in a competitive scene. I didn't talk about China, but they are around the 3rd biggest viewership in the world, but have no feats in Valorant. Like, the Chinese Valorant stream had 56 viewers last night while K1 was playing. Regardless, the fact that the two largest regions for Lol are the 3rd and least viewed regions for Valorant is a major concern for Riot's confidence. Maybe Korea will wake up one day and Valorant in the region will spike. Who knows. But, until that day, I doubt Riot will have enough confidence to have the regional leagues in Valorant to the degree of LoL.

Some wide eyed readers maybe notice how there are some LoL leagues I didn't mention. CIS I didn't mention since it overlaps with EMEA's Valorant league and, well, I couldn't find it on the viewership site that I'm using. Same think with the Oceania league, which roles into APAC. Finally is Turkey, which seems decently popular with around a 60k peak. But, roles into EMEA. Just REALLY makes the EMEA Valorant viewership look even more sad.

But here are the big two, North America Valorant and the LCS, along with Japanese Valorant and the LJL. LCS, the fourth largest league in LoL and the LJL, which is around Latin America in terms of viewership. I saved these two since NA and Japan have now shown to be the two largest regions for Valorant. The two biggest in Stage 2 as well as NA in LCQ who is averaging around 200k viewership in NON Sentinel games, while Sentinels can pull 450k and 625k viewers for domestic games against small orgs. Japan has also been the most rapidly improving region, but that's another talk. These two teams are the hope of Valorant, and if they can grow further it'll progress how wide Riot can spread leagues.

So what was the point of the whole section : I think Riot is still a little scared the Valorant won't become a big (top 5) esport. I think the reason Riot is keeping this to 3 leagues stems from a few factors in which the lack of European and Korean involvement is the largest. It's like when you go through progression in your life, whether it's a new job or moving to a different city, and your support pillars don't assist you. It's scary to not have what you had thought was guaranteed assistance is not there.

So, Riot got two new regions to support them in NA and Japan, and from that they decided to pursue smaller leagues than what is good for the professional ecosystem and favoring one to grow the sport's reach. Now, what do I mean with this? I think the reason Riot is only having 30 teams under them, as well as choosing good overall orgs rather than consistent Valorant orgs is to grow the esport's play and viewership through external means. For example, T1 is likely going to get a Korean spot instead of continuing in North America. As they are one of the biggest Korean LoL teams, this may bring in LoL fans that cheer for Korea. My point with it being 10 team leagues is to continue to draw in viewers of other esport's like LoL, Overwatch or CS:GO through the display of these larger orgs. The other side of a 10 team region also builds fandom of teams outside of just someone's home region. What I mean by that is the large group of Japanese fans and North American fans will see a lot more games from teams in other regions. Then if franchising ever brakes into smaller regional areas, like back to East Asia and Asian Pacific, Japanese viewers that liked maybe Bleed for example, will watch more APAC games. Also, committing to just 30 teams allows Riot to give each team way more broadcasting, exposure, and pure funds to make the game bigger.

In all reality, I don't really get why Riot is limiting the teams. This is the best way I could rationalize it. I feel like the EMEA region will depend even more on stealing away more CS:GO fans due to any ill-will from the other regions just getting less showing then EMEA always has. Like, Turkey is EMEA's biggest sub-region, and from what I've heard they're only getting 1 spot. Anyways, I've ran out of words for this post. If you've read this far, thanks. Have a great day.

From what I'm hearing from other area's franchising, it's very surprising to me that Sen will make it. From what I understand, Riot don't give a shit about the orgs commitment to Valorant. I saw that in APAC, Paper Rex (aka the most global Asian team) didn't make it. Same guy said a franchise with NO Valorant connections / commitment made it. So for a team built off Valorant, Sen making it is surprising, despite how they carry viewership. I expect at least a few global orgs to hop out of the America's to regain a Korean spot.

In all reality, the single most locked team internationally is 100T due to their deep connection with Riot as an Org, mostly in Valorant, but also due to them being a very trendy and up-and-coming brand.

Fair.

Yesterday I got timed out in Valorant chat, and I thought it was for saying Trump. I was wrong, it was fuck. SWEARING IN CHAT IS NOT ALLOWED IN A SHOOTER. FOR A GAME WITH SWEARING IN AGENT VOICELINES.

Why am I mad now? There was one of the terrible post map songs that riot gets. So, quick recap. You can't swear on the cast. You can't swear in the chat. But ya know what Riot is fine with? A song with the whole ass N word.

THEY ALLOW THE NWORD BUT DRAW THE LINE AT FUCK. GOOD SHIT RIOT.

Also, not against swears in songs. Just against Riot being mentally inept.

People are dogging you for saying EDG is up there, but holy shit. It takes a special group to 13-3 and 13-7 a top 3 team of any sized region. Very impressive by them but I do think they gotta be in contention if they keep up the pace.

I think it's more Faze being better than 100T being worse. Of course, Will ain't a Chamber. I'd rather him on Kay/o, Asuna on sage, and stellar on a K/J for Ascent. But on Map 1, Supamen,(daddy) was 22 - 9 - 10. He went lethal, then slowed down. But map 2 and 3, Babybay CARRIED going for 24 and 27 kills respectively. That's why Faze can just be better than teams. Supamen, Dicey, and Babybay have some of the highest raw ability in the region. They can each popoff and act as a superstar, and it just let's them skill diff. Then, Flyah and POISED are both very good role players.

Tl Dr : Faze can skill diff anyone in NA, not just 100T.

Mother fucker I just got timed out for 600 seconds in the Valorant chat cause I saw a fuck ton of DRX shit so I just said they don't have a true superstar like Yay, Jinggg or Suygetsu who can just win your team a whole map by themselves. Thats why they fall behind in close international games. Instantly booted. Idk might have been having swears in there? It's not like it's a shooter and have voicelines with swears.

Edit : I said Trump card. DID I GET BANNED FOR TRUMP?

supamen is my guy. I'm a former RISE flair. He's insane.

I wrote this whole thing then accidently closed the tab I'm dead inside

ANYWAYS

LCQ. We all have loved the fucking closeness of the NA LCQ and I've spent a LOT of time watching the APAC LCQ as well. Of course, I'll be watching the EMEA LCQ starting later today (and then in like 20 hours East Asia is going on too). I hope to the Valorant Gods that the EMEA LCQ is even half as close as the NA or APAC LCQ. So, here's some of what I'm talking about.

These are the NA LCQ scores.
19-17 = 1
17-15 = 2
15-13 = 3
13-11 = 4
13-10 = 2
13-9 = 1
13-8 = 1
13-7 = 1

I did the math. 10 out of the 15 total maps have been a two round game at the end, with 6 being overtime games. The average total rounds of each map is 25.9333 / or 26 rounds per game. That's an average of an overtime game. That is insane. Every single match has had at least one map that ended with the two teams within 2 rounds of one another. It's so cool that a region can have team #3 and team #10 on the same level. Every match is a nail biter, a coinflip. Any round thrown is LETHAL.

For APAC, I took the top 6 as they were notably closer than having the whole LCQ / all 12 teams. APAC LCQ has been great btw. Any other degen's just chilling at times like these, watch APAC. It's more patient than NA (NOT PAPER REX THEY THEIR OWN SHIT) but not as boring and defaulty as EMEA. Anyways, top 6 has been close. Note : two 13 - 5's happened in the same series of Order vs Team Secret. Here are the stats of top 6 (Upper semi's + Lower round 3, and further)

19-17 = 1
14-12 = 2
13-11 = 9
13-10 = 4
13-7 = 1
13-6 = 1
13-5 = 3

That's an average of 23 rounds aka a 13-10. Regardless, 12 of the 21 maps were within 2 rounds. VERY CLOSE GAMES.

So, that's what I want from EMEA, and East Asia too. That's it. I just love how there have been so many close games and with APAC finishing up [currently 12-11 for Boom (2 maps) vs Onic (1 map)] I need to keep these constant thrillers in my life.

Anyways Boom just won. GG to them. A little blip on them, I was big on them in stage 1 with how they were a "super team" and they didn't deliver then. Same with Stage 2. So, I lost hope in them. I'm glad they won, they really deserve it. Especially after another 13 - 11 thriller. Thanks' for reading, have a great rest of your day.

He's been my favorite player for months, but I've been just too scared to get hate for throwing him up in a tier with Marved. After that series, I think my opinion can be truly let out there.

608k peak viewers for Sentinels vs Guard.

PRX vs FPX peaked at 783k, so decent lead.
#2 at Copenhagen was 596K by PRX vs Optic.

Sentinels are actually different, viewership wise. This has also led me to believe a Sentinels vs Zeta Division game would be the largest game in Valorant history, by FAR.

Bro has the lamest Util in NA

There were posts yesterday about viewership and the common answer was 150k. I want to prove bozo's wrong when I called a 210k minimum.

It's up to 185k for those 5 streams just 2 minutes later.

From 5 streams - Valorant (YouTube and Twitch), Shroud, Tarik, and Kyedae - Tally up to 170k viewers. That's not counting every single other smaller stream. That's already more than any Stage 1 EMEA game.

Real Answer?

OpTic vs Xerxia

Content Answer?

Liquid vs Playing more than 2 good games

Correct Answer?

Zombs and his watches vs Brazil and that damn scooter

I think it's that the largest global enjoyer of Valorant, the NA viewers, are kinda gatekept from watching APAC due to it being at our like 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM for the first game (personally it's my 9:00 PM). That leads into a lack of recognizable names and orgs since we haven't been able to get into as much as EMEA. Timing stops a large viewer base from gaining an emotional entry outside of getting in through Paper Rex and Xerxia. It's not a game that lacks, but is different. It isn't the big dick aim duels of NA. It isn't the no movement until 20 seconds left of EMEA. It's the set-look aggression and funneling of APAC.

Tl ; Dr - NA doesn't want to stay up real late to watch teams that they don't know, so they don't learn the game and clown it.

like it's 3 am for me, I got into APAC watching (and missing a lot of) Paper Rex games.

A working Faze owns SR.
A working C9 owns SR.
If Shroud is a 'B' level controller^, then Sentinels own SR.

^(think supamen or bang, lower than "marved" level [A] but above "hazed" level [C]. A for star players, B for Star moments, C for Consistent play)

Have people seen the Data on Sen views? At minimum, 220k peak. Maximum 310k. Like, they did 216k in Stage 2, now they have Shroud and are the spotlight team of NA. Anyone saying less than 200K is actually a joker.

Sen have provided the most viewership outside of Japan. That's when they were bad. They were the most viewed in Stage 1. Sen = views.

Um my pick 'em is fucked. Not that I got game 1 wrong, it's that I kinda didn't have a way to get it right (Notice, 2 griffins)

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/b9979006

To be fair I'm pretty sure I had ORDER losing.

The true Waifu of every season is Robin, and it always will be.

How the fuck does the nerf affect pro? like oH No OuR eCO iS soOooO bAD nOw.

Just buy OP, Kill someone, TP. Same thing, just less free.

This is 7 hours late, but watch parties are counted for stats. It's not just main channel, it's every sub Valorant channel (different languages) and every external channel too (like Tarik counts).