100% true statement

Sentinels at LCQ will be the only thing to rival Northeption viewership LOL. If Sen plays well and get to semi/winners finals, that will be the only thing stopping a Northeption top viewed team.

I looked and reviewed a few stage 1 stats, and Sentinels vs NRG was a 271k peak (then another at 266k and 259k), with Japan's highest being 227k. Sentinels were also 4 of the top 5 games in NA stage 1. They may be a team of streamers, but holy hell does that help them with viewership.

based on stats btw.
I'm putting: region - peak viewers the game - average viewers - top viewed team (just from top 5, i ain't paying for deep stats) + their place in region

anyways

1. Japan - 291, 787 Zeta vs Northeption : Grand Finals - 112, 410 - Zeta Division (4 of top 5 games) 2nd Place Japan
2. North America - 216,858 Sentinels vs LG : Week 1, Day 1 - 93, 599 - Sentinels (Top 3 games) Tied Last
3. EMEA - 159,693 BBL vs Team Liquid : Week 2, Day 1 - 69,521 - BBL (Top 3 games) Tied 8th
4. Brazil - 142,367 LOUD vs NIP : Grand Finals - 41,455 - LOUD (All top 5 games) 1st place Brazil
5. APAC - 107,100 Team Secret vs Xerxia : Losers Final - 33,257 - Xerxia (4 of top 5 games) 2nd Place APAC
6. LATAM - 89,633 KRU vs Leviatan : Grand Finals - 36,175 - KRU (Top 3 games) 2nd place LATAM
7. Korea - 37,556 DRX vs Maru Gaming : Grand Final - 14,246 - DRX (Top 4 games) 1st place Korea

So basically, Japan is fucking massive and NA is the only one close in viewership. I'd like to say I have APAC over LATAM due to a little bit of personal moderation. The top 5 of APAC are all above 80k, while the top 5 of LATAM is an 89k and 4 50k's. APAC had the most games while LATAM had the least. Also put Xerxia as the biggest team when team secret is arguable to be there, idk. Why did I do this? again, idk. It's 4:30 AM for me and I'm bored. Also, I put the places due to the fact most region best/better teams are the most watched except for BBL being surprisingly big and Sentinels still being the biggest org in NA regardless of their shit play. They also got Shroud now, and that's importance since people are watching because of shroud. My friend doesn't watch VCT. He's watching LCQ for shroud. The people on the brink of watching Valorant are being pulled by Shroud. It's kinda funny imo.

Thanks for reading, and remember : Japan is Valorant's biggest region now.

EDIT : From the top 3, EMEA is down bad after Stage 1, NA is down because Sentinels were shit this stage, and Japan is up like 50k.

I was thinking a ton about NA franchising today and I had a few thoughts I wanted to share. To preface, I've seen a lot of whispers and a couple pro opinions that have led me down this path.

The NA 8
I'm calling it that because I've heard that the America's division will have 8 NA teams then the rest is LATAM and Brazil. At this point, we as fans have very little news on teams that are favorable in Riot's eyes, but I've got a few personal Ideas based on who Riot rejected already. First off, I'm surprised by Shopify Rebellion's early out since they had big into the gamechangers aspect. It was crazy how effort in Gamechangers was not even a real factor, simply based on how early of an exit they had. Secondly, it's basically a given that any tier 2 level squad was not given serious thought, like Akrew, NYFU, and Complexity.

At this point I'd like to (possibly) jinx some teams by listing them as 'locks' for franchising. They are :
Sentinels (110%)
OpTic (99%)
100 Thieves (95%)
Cloud 9 (93%)

I'm going to stick to these 4 for a few reasons. C9 and OpTic are more so historical teams that have a legacy before Valorant on their side. They also hold huge legacy's inside of Valorant, one as NA's last hope and the other as NA's current hope. 100T have shown an unapparelled commitment to Valorant, has represented the region globally, and is currently one of (if not) the largest growing gaming organization. Then Sentinels bring in more views than any other team. They won the first international lan. They have the largest game wide meme associated with them. They have the thicccccest trio of players in Rawkass, Shroud, and Zellsis. THEY HAVE FUCKING SHROUD. I know he's leaving afterwards, but it still stands. To be honest, idk who the other 8 will be. But I want to move on to another thing with NA franchising that I realized more after a Yay clip.

"The Largest region into 8 teams"
NA is the largest region in terms of commitment to building talent, and now all those teams and players with so much talent are fighting for 40 player slots. This occurred to me today when thinking of Gen.G. They haven't gotten out of Val yet, but they are letting their roster go. the first thought is "of course, they're going out of Val now" but my second thought was this : What if they are preparing to build a brand new roster out of those let-go talents? Then Yay also kinda talked about this with how all those talents were being pushed into these tiny amount of real slots. Like, top tier rosters like Guard or Ghost may not make the cut. That's a working team that you can grab and go with.

Franchising Itself
Of course, not all teams will make it, and the large NA tier 2 scene will die with it. So, next is two ideas from myself to keep the NA scene alive. This mostly comes out of problems I don't want in the future for Valorant in NA. First is a real Academy league. Not International, but just a region wide academy league to run alongside the real league. with there being (I believe) 15 slots for all of NA, Brazil, and LATAM, that might create a problem with scrimming. Adding an extra 15 teams to the pool will allow much more scrim opportunities. Just as a base, not all teams have the same scrim hours so that alone closes off some available scrims. Adding an extra 15 teams gives more flexibility of hours and more availability during buy hours. then with the academy teams as well, that's an extra 75 slots to play with as an up-and-coming talent. The reason I'd like this to be a riot funded league is to both incentivize proper funding and development of these Academy teams, along with the monetary aspect of making a team able to afford having another team. This academy level would be different and allow 14 and up rather than the 16 and up in other Riot tournaments, simply due to being more focused on a largespread encouragement of talent rather than being the best team in the world.

Second is a more basic one of more third-party tournaments - which I think Riot has already committed to? Things like the Knights or Nerd Street tournaments. But, what I would like those franchised teams to themselves hold tournaments. Even if it's like a combo tournament held by 2 franchised teams, I feel like this is an easy and good way to continue to encourage a healthy tier 2 scene. Like, that'd be at least an extra 6-12 tournaments for teams to play in.

That's really it. I don't have really much to add, I just wanted to put out some thoughts on how franchising would be in my mind and how Riot can keep a healthy NA scene. I'm much MUCH more concerned about keeping APAC healthy. Like, DRX and PRX cant even play together. That region is so much more spread than the rest. Anyways, have a great rest of your day if you read this far.

Jinggg's showstopper is just so bad man. Check him PC that ult sucks for him consistently

Yay (Chamber / OP)
Babybay (Dive - Entry)
Xeppaa / Asuna (Initiator 1)
Bang (Smokes)
Vanity (Initiator 2 / IGL)

Vs

Tenz (Chamber / OP)
Koalanoob (Dive - Entry)
Eeiu / JohnaP (Initiator 1)
Marved (Smokes)
FNS (Inititor 2 /IGL)

Holy shit it was hard to find an IGL for America that would fit cause the other 4 positions drop off with a different IGL.

I like when funny man run in with Neon and his main hoe double blastpacks behind him while also his father is giving the entire other team a major concussion.

PRX better + have a regional title

"If you care about regions, you're a 5 year old"

• some random twitch comment guy, 2022

The fucking chat scrolls fast but I caught that

Whenever FNS aims I swear he gets tremors mid-aim

This is my new way of Rock-Paper-Scissors

It all depends on Suygetsu vs Yay. Yadda, yadda, yadda, they the stars, yadda, yadda. I don't care.

Impact

It comes down to which of them can hold sites and destroy the others game plan. I don't care if they match in kills. I don't care about the rest of either team. If Suygetsu can do more for FPX than Yay, then FPX will win. Vice-verse as well. Like, I know Marved and Shao can look INSANE. I know Ardis, Zyppan, Victor and Crashies can frag. I know FNS and Ange1 can outcall every other player.

I. Do. Not. Care.

If Yay outdoes Suygetsu, every other tool will follow. If Suygetsu outdoes Yay, every other player becomes more active. That's all that matter. That's it. Again, it's not who drops 30. It's not who diffs the other in 1v1's. It's who ruins the rest of the opponents team.

I'm pretty sure Suygetsu is nAts' skinnier cousin. They can very well coexist.

At least Optic got a map on Paper Rex.

2 EMEA teams. 0 maps.

NA Copium fuck EMEA shitters

Bro when will VLR users look at my damn Flair. I am a supplier of NA copium, not an enjoyer.

They were literally Optic's hardest game, just threw in Groups.

So between
OpTic
Paper Rex

Fnantic
FPX

I don't want to hear what you think will happen, I want to know : Was this your final 4? If not, What was your final 4? And, what did you rank these 4 teams going into masters (like out of the 12 teams)?

Personally, this was my final 4. Just switching PRX and Fnatic. yes, PRX is my favourite team. yes I put Fnatic above them. My rankings were Fnatic (#1), Optic (#3), FPX (#4), PRX (#5). Had LOUD at 2.

The strat to beat PRX

• Fucking hide and run away

No, not in the game IRL they all have covid they scary

Just looking at the stats, average viewership for Masters 2 is better than the current CSGO going on right now. Group stage matches got more viewers than most of the playoff games for the CSGO thing. Only 2 games that are ahead of the Masters 2 average is the semifinals and Grand Finals. Reminders, 2 year old game vs former face of Esports and a 200,000$ prize vs a 1,000,000$ prize.

Top 3 100%, DRX, FPX, PRX best final 3. Fight me.

Be grateful, you could be subjected with Guild or XSET and your complaining about a pretty good game.

It would quite be what's in the hand, but it would be? Example : You shoot an OP, instantly switch to a knife/pistol, and dash. It would be the 60%. But if you wait, let's say 0.5 seconds with the pistol THEN dash, it'd be the 100%. The idea is to make the Jett more vanurable, so that's an area I kinda overlooked but that is what I'd do.

Paper Rex is crazy man. I've shouted that they can beat these teams (also with DRX is the same kinda view).

PRX (and DRX) are good enough to beat and at least challenge the top 3 team going into the tournament in Fnatic, Optic, and FPX.

• Give back old dash, no queue just hit it

Dash goes normal distance with light weapons (sidearms, SMG)

Dash goes 80% distance with medium weapons (Rifles, Shotguns, Marshall)

Dash goes 60% distance with heavy weapons (Op, Odin, Ares)

• If you Dash and hit a wall, you become stunned for 2s because you've cuncussed yourself

Why?
--> Makes Defensive OP-ing
--> Makes a bad Dash punishable
--> forces Jett to hold safer angles, but still allows an off angle. But again, makes off angles with an OP worse.

Simple, fun. Imagine the clips, allows fun jet Dash kills and fun Jett dashing and getting killed for a bad Dash.

Edit : the dash is based on what gun has had it's animation come out fully. So if you switch to a pistol after an OP shot and it's not fully out, you get the 60%. If it fully comes out, then you get the 100%.

LETS GOOOO

I loved watching APAC and Korea all stage. It was like 3 am where I had to go to school at 8 am, and I'd stay awake to watch Korea play.

Since DRX beat OpTic pretty strong, how are they gonna perform against PRX? Map pool wise, it's very entertaining.

Bind goes to PRX
Breeze goes to DRX
Acsent is either equal, slight favour to PRX
Fracture is equal because of how good both are on it

Haven, Split, and Icebox are probably bans idk

Gonna be a GREAT game

Great narrative.

Optic faces against the team that dominates Xerxia, a long time Optic Kryptonite. PRX is fr just Xerxia+ and vs Optic they are going to ruin EVERY timing FNS tries.

Or

DRX, PRX father, faces the Signapore team YET AGAIN in a global lan. The two teams have faced so much for being different regions.

Team : exists and dominates region
Other team : beats them
VLR : Team is Overrated, Trash undeserved, useless, can't aim, can't play, fluke team, absolutely one of the worst teams at masters

The game : 13 - 11, 13 - 10

You can't tell me that PRX vs Fnatic wasn't a top 3 game so far in Masters. Love both if the squads btw. Just... flair diff.

Goodmorning

- Canadian Man, currently on VLR at 1:18 in the morning

Shit yeah, thought mystic was still hoping on Astra and shit. He's full flex. Thanks.

Better idea, when you pick an agent it stays for the whole map, BUT on the next map you get to re-select your whole lineup of agents!

I'm excited to see liquid have 2 good games then shit the bed like every other tournament they ever been in for Valorant.

I'm gonna be honest. I don't believe in them after losing to NRG. Also, not a tier 3 team just like third tier in terms of Ranking. If Asuna plays like that game, they have a chance. If he plays like he did the rest of the stage, they are tier 3.

I set an alarm during my holiday to wake up JUST for the game. F0rsaken vs Derke
Jinggg vs Alfajer
Benkai vs Enzo
Mindfreak vs Boaster
D4v41 vs Mystic (I guess, they don't fit, just what is left)

I don't know the context but I'm gonna take its as a common English L. People who speak English forget that other languages exist. Ya know they guy on tik tok rn who said itadakimasu (Thanks for the meal in Japanese, I believe) who is getting trolled cause he said it fast and it sounded like the Nword. English speakers are fucking brain dead, myself included.

If Online
Tier 1 : C9, Faze
Tier 2 : Sentinals, EG, NRG
Tier 3 : 100T, Shopify, Gaurd

If Lan
Tier 1 : Sentinals, Faze
Tier 2 : C9, EG, NRG
Tier 3 : 100T, Shopify, Gaurd

Yes, I think Tenz on lan absolutely aim diffs everyone in NA except for Dicey. Tenz barely aim diffs Dicey, but Dicey can beat Tenz. Also, Faze (Supamen) always have shit wifi. The T1 online is equal to Tier 2 on Lan. I don't think C9 gets better on Lan compared to the Sentinals and Faze rosters having actively bad wifi (all of sen in S2 were 40+ ping vs 2-20 ping which makes a difference at the level).

I've watched all week, but unfortunately I've been in a car ride all day with no wifi thus no games. How were they? I saw that Guild and Xset just lost - both in closer games than I thought from them. Will the Vods be worth watching later? I'll check this again in an hour for opinions.

Hopefully Guild didn't play super lame. GG to them and XSET regardless.

Excited to see Levi and especially FPX going forward :)
Thanks for any opinions that people drop here.

Better than guild. They a pile of lame anti-strat relying shitters. Loud are hype. Sacy knifed a guy in a 1v1 in M1. Love that guy.

Can any Guild fan factually say that the Optic they beat is the same quality of Optic that has faced Loud / Kru / XSET? No, they aren't. They had a bad game AND STILL almost beat Guild. I get that baiting that Guild fans have to do to believe in a bigger fraud team than the Guard. Lets take their PRX game. On fracture, they completely anti-stratted Paper Rex by sitting in spawn, running away from Mr. F0rsaken at every opportunity, and waiting around 2 and a half hours to push a site. They went as a very strat based team, and adapted constantly against the most explosive team in PRX. That said Paper Rex did the same thing for 12 defensive rounds with absolutely zero adaptation and still beat Guild.

What I'm trying to say is that Guild fucking sucks. Paper Rex was just so much better that they could run at a professional team with a complete and perfectly excecated plan, and Paper Rex still wins. Optic played like shit, and was still able to make it extremely competitive.

If they were fun to watch, I'd be fine with them. They are not fun to watch. Fuck Guild. I'd rather watch Grey's Anatomy than this fucking team.

I just saw that Guild face FPX. Thank god Guild is gone now. Suygetsu Solo's.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Ima a hardstuck silver can you not I feel enough pain for having absolutely shit aim no brain and sadness at a constant rate

We all agree that XSET bouta get guarded to such a high degree by OpTic with how fucking good FNS' reads have been this masters, right? He already knows them so his calls are going to blitz the set into oblivion. We all agree, right?

Shit man, Levi was impressive. They were almost as slow and boring as Guild.

Please direct your flame and memes to me and not the other Korean users.

I've probably contributed a lot to the reasons why people dislike DRX and Korean users on this forum recently, so I'll take full responsibility.

I hope you guys don't send hate to the truly wholesome users on this site like Vortexy or Sprouts.

Korea plays on Lan + (because of time zone's I haven't watched a full DRX game yet) but Buzz seems to be lower in production as a whole while the rest of the team is consistent to Korea. I just know from watching DRX games in Korea, that Buzz can maintain what Rb is doing currently while RB is doing that.

Deserves it with his boring ass strats

Rb is going great, plus if Buzz turns online? Uh oh, that's a top 4 team.

One day young one. One day.

also, it's only a casual 1024 episodes (1053 chapters) which is only AoT + HxH on top of watching Naruto, but the twist is that it's better than all 3 (4 ig with Naruto + Shippuden, don't get me started on Shippuden).

The comentators were talking about how Guild had such a good read and everything.

They sat in spawn, waited, pushed, ran away if they saw a single soul, repeated every round on fracture. I was watching just yelling

"HOLY SHIT, THESE GUYS ARE SO FUCKING LAME"

They were so fucking lame. You have sayf and trexx. Run at F0rsaken and if you kill him you deserve the round. If you don't kill him, you're shit and should FF now.

PRX never back down though. Run and kill em. Best team to watch.

Edit : Fnatic is also fun to watch. They are calculated, like Guild, but how they use their play and molding of the map is much more efficient and exciting to watch. Guild relies on the other team giving up space (by rotating because they're so bored) to gain space, while Fnatic pressure and mold the map around to where they want to hit.

I noticed you haven't watched One Piece yet...