😭😭😭😭

Any team would look washed in their first game if they played against China tbf

They've got a very solid roster, that's for sure. Chile will be a tough opponent but I believe they can escape this group and make a run regardless

Haha will do 🫡

(Though tbh I think Boaster and benjy are already too much for the UK to handle LOL)

Oh, I've already locked in rosters, I'm not changing anything. Was just curious 👍

Also yeah for a simulation ideally you just pick the five highest rated players. But where's the fun in that? :)

Are there any notable Welsh players other than YaBoiLewis? He's the only one I know

(If you're missing context, please feel free reference the original VALORANT World Cup project thread: https://www.vlr.gg/493514/valorant-world-cup-simulation/)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The VALORANT World Cup is underway! 4 matches were played yesterday—the first set of matches in groups A and B.

Group A
🇨🇳 China vs. Canada 🇨🇦
🇹🇼 Taiwan vs. Portugal 🇵🇹

Group B
🇮🇩 Indonesia vs. Japan 🇯🇵
🇬🇧 United Kingdom vs. Egypt 🇪🇬

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

🇨🇳 China 2-0 Canada 🇨🇦

Match page: https://i.imgur.com/fDJCTtM.png

Map 1: Icebox
🇨🇳 19-17 🇨🇦
Timeline: https://i.imgur.com/BoTcbya.png
Stats: https://i.imgur.com/ga4092h.png

Map 2: Icebox
🇨🇳 13-6 🇨🇦
Timeline: https://i.imgur.com/5ICmT8A.png
Stats: https://i.imgur.com/Mk0gVfS.png

This was a match much closer than the scorelines suggest. The majority of the rounds came down to 1 or 2 players left standing, and either side could've taken this series.

The first map of the tournament was back and forth, and came down to OT, where China looked to take the map 14-12. Canada decided to hit A and ran into ZmjjKK's op (https://i.imgur.com/6o3zVgY.png). It looked like it was over... until JonahP pulled off the improbable 1v5 clutch to hold off a retake on B (https://i.imgur.com/bguobW6.png). The overtime went on for another 10 rounds before China took it. (We do NOT talk about mada's KD this game, by the way)

Map 2 wasn't nearly as close as map 1. ZmjjKK hit the ground running with two 4Ks in the first 5 rounds, and China took that momentum (with help from an ace from Kangkang later in the first half) and converted a 13-6 to win the series 2-0.

Match MVP: 🇨🇳 ZmjjKK

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

🇹🇼 Taiwan 2-1 Portugal 🇵🇹

Match page: https://i.imgur.com/iDYxs9S.png

Map 1: Ascent
🇹🇼 13-8 🇵🇹
Timeline: https://i.imgur.com/SmVJycc.png
Stats: https://i.imgur.com/sqfUqXx.png

Map 2: Icebox
🇹🇼 11-13 🇵🇹
Timeline: https://i.imgur.com/KBUseY7.png
Stats: https://i.imgur.com/I63ioeW.png

Map 3: Split
🇹🇼 13-5 🇵🇹
Timeline: https://i.imgur.com/7FMBe7R.png
Stats: https://i.imgur.com/rLOKWur.png

This match should've been much more in Taiwan's favour, but no one can deny Portugal put up a good fight.

Ascent wasn't too eventful. A mirror match in terms of the composition, and no real notable performances other than happywei on the Cypher, logging a 4K and 3 different 3Ks.

Map 2 came about, and instantly things improved for Portugal. They kept opting into gamble stacking a site to counter the hit-a-site-and-play-postplant metagame of Icebox (https://i.imgur.com/InySECW.png). On other defensive rounds, they put starkk alone in different parts of the map, and I guess all he needed was some space, because he did damn well to stop hits, getting multiple multikills and even an ace (https://i.imgur.com/K2A4hWU.png). Taiwan almost brought it back in the second half, but the Portuguese had already done enough to level the match.

Split was the decider, and it looked as if map 2 had never happened. Taiwan had all the momentum in this game, and Spring's fragging in tangent BerLIN and happywei's lurks made sure Taiwan was able to wrap the series up cleanly.

Match MVP: 🇹🇼 Spring

(Thank you to saebr and yukky for casting Icebox and Split, by the way! I was able to stream the majority of this series and quite a few people turned up to watch, which was amazing. I appreciate everyone who's invested in this little project 🤍)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

🇮🇩 Indonesia 2-0 Japan 🇯🇵

Match page: https://i.imgur.com/gGQyHQn.png

Map 1: Ascent
🇮🇩 13-7 🇯🇵
Timeline: https://i.imgur.com/ftYbjUy.png
Stats: https://i.imgur.com/2E3heA5.png

Map 2: Icebox
🇮🇩 13-9 🇯🇵
Timeline: https://i.imgur.com/3onxfnz.png
Stats: https://i.imgur.com/LERUTmw.png

Japan was one of the teams with the most to prove coming into this tournament, and in their first match, they'd have to face the biggest dark horse of them all, Indonesia.

Map 1 was, again, plain old Ascent, with a mirror comp on both sides (only difference being xffero on Cypher and SyouTa on Killjoy). In fact, rounds 1 through 18 weren't memorable whatsoever. In round 19, however, Monyet was defending A and pulled off a s0m-2023-esque ace on Japan as they were coming through the choke (https://i.imgur.com/ZjuGVVK.png), putting Indonesia at map point. Meiy did everything he could to keep Japan in the map, getting 4 picks, but Famouz said no, converting a 1v5 against a lost-looking Japanese side to take Ascent 13-7 (https://i.imgur.com/1XccHwh.png).

Icebox to Japan was similar to what it was for Portugal; they seemed to find their footing a lot more. A thrifty on round 2 helped them end the first half up 7-5. Indonesia, though, took back the reins of the match and won 8 of the next 12 rounds to steal Icebox away and take a comfortable 2-0 victory in the series. Monyet proved stellar this map, as he went 29/12 on Viper (though he didn't really lurk much, to be honest... it was mostly running in after Famouz on site execs).

Match MVP: 🇮🇩 Monyet

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

🇬🇧 United Kingdom 2-1 Egypt 🇪🇬

Match page: https://i.imgur.com/CWFAIaX.png

Map 1: Sunset
🇬🇧 9-13 🇪🇬
Timeline: https://i.imgur.com/iMCIlst.png
Stats: https://i.imgur.com/Wl1oXDC.png

Map 2: Haven
🇬🇧 13-6 🇪🇬
Timeline: https://i.imgur.com/h20Z3Q7.png
Stats: https://i.imgur.com/gKLwIxs.png

Map 3: Pearl
🇬🇧 13-5 🇪🇬
Timeline: https://i.imgur.com/sPLNjgO.png
Stats: https://i.imgur.com/hF7aKgC.png

The final match of the day brought surprises from both teams.

Sunset was first off, and Avez set a statement right off the rip. After a questionable pistol conversion from Egypt, he aces with the Spectre to keep the UK from getting a thrifty (https://i.imgur.com/EuCUgUI.png). But he wasn't done; just two rounds later, he secures round 4 for Egypt by getting a 1v4 ace clutch (https://i.imgur.com/RBwEn3J.png). This put him at 2 aces in the span of 3 rounds, and Egypt carried this momentum through the first half. The UK weren't playing particularly well either, losing three consecutive attack rounds on time. Avez ended the first half with what could've very easily been a third ace (https://i.imgur.com/UIAmeeB.png), and despite a late streak of rounds from the British, Egypt would take map 1 13-9. Avez's KD was 33/15... no one else on Egypt was positive, and only two others even hit double digits.

The following two maps proved two things: Egypt is overly reliant on Avez's Raze, and the UK have a lot of fight in them. These maps weren't as eventful as Sunset, with both being blowouts for the UK. Haven was an easy map for them, with everyone shooting well and Avez going double negative on Jett. Pearl was a bit more notable... Egypt went up 4-1 before the UK won 12 of the next 13 rounds to take the map 15-13. Egypt's double flash duelist comp should've boded well against Britain's double controller, but Boaster and Keiko on the Viper and Harbor made sure that didn't happen, going 22/8 and 20/11 respectively.

Match MVP: 🇪🇬 Avez

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

That was all for Matchday 1!

Here's how the table stands after the first 4 matches: https://i.imgur.com/I11NyEb.png

Not sure how many games I'll get through today, but here are the matches I can confirm will happen on Matchday 2:

Group C
🇹🇷 Türkiye vs. Sweden 🇸🇪
🇦🇷 Argentina vs. Mexico 🇲🇽

Group D
🇨🇱 Chile vs. Philippines 🇵🇭
🇱🇹 Lithuania vs. Spain 🇪🇸

If you want to check the other groups for future matchups, everything is listed in this thread: https://www.vlr.gg/493814/vwc-group-stage-draw

Hope you're enjoying this tournament so far! 🫡

You should say أنا جاي in an Egyptian accent. It means "I'm straight"

No worries 🫡

LOL

Bump!

Games to be played on Matchday 1 (will cover these in the next thread):

Group A
🇨🇳 v 🇨🇦
🇹🇼 v 🇵🇹
Group B
🇮🇩 v 🇯🇵
🇬🇧 v 🇪🇬
Group C
🇹🇷 v 🇸🇪
🇦🇷 v 🇲🇽
Group D
🇨🇱 v 🇵🇭
🇱🇹 v 🇪🇸
Group E
🇷🇺 v 🇫🇮
🇹🇭 v 🇸🇦
Group F
🇺🇸 v 🇵🇱
🇫🇷 v 🇮🇳
Group G
🇰🇷 v 🇸🇬
🇨🇿 v 🇧🇾
Group H
🇧🇷 v 🇭🇰
🇦🇺 v 🇩🇪

I've heard enough, mickey mouse tournament

I'd put Sacy over cauanzin if I could, but he's retired (see roster rules in the original thread, link is at the top of this post)

😭😭😭😭 dude imagine Hong Kong was also in this group

I'm inclined to agree, but honestly China's one of those teams that'd make it deep regardless of their group

Someone puts effort into a post and this is what happens 💔 no wonder people ragebait instead

(If you're missing context, please feel free reference the original VALORANT World Cup project thread: https://www.vlr.gg/493514/valorant-world-cup-simulation/)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In the original thread, which I put up two days ago, I shared mainly two things: the concept of this simulated tournament, and the teams I originally created. Thanks to help from many of you, we were able to finalize the teams and move on to the next phase: the group stage draw.

To reiterate, the group stage will be identical to a FIFA World Cup group stage—8 groups of 4 teams, to be drawn via a pot system. The way the pot system works is by sorting teams into 4 different pots based on projected team strength/quality, and then drawing one team from each pot into each of the groups. This helps keeps groups relatively balanced while avoiding completely free groups (as well as groups of death containing, say, 4 of the teams expected to make the top 8).

Well, how do we sort the teams? The easy thing to do is just handpick the pots, but people may call that out for bias. So I decided to give each participating player a personal OVR (using things such as lifetime VLR rating and number of months in tier 1). All player ratings use the same formula, and it took me a while to figure out a decent baseline, so I won't take any objection to player ratings (especially since it'd mean I'd have to redo this entire process, including the draw itself).

The player ratings are too long for me to put them in this post. You can find them here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sDC_AhdGUWWN-IHT8Uti5pLBCO3n9WfF-oldj0VuR_I/

Once that was done, I simply took the average rating of each nation and used that value to assign them into pots. I'm honestly really happy with how this all turned out, as I do believe the teams are (mostly) accurately placed.

Here are the pots:

Pot 1 — 🇷🇺 🇰🇷 🇺🇸 🇮🇩 🇧🇷 🇹🇷 🇨🇳 🇨🇱
Pot 2 — 🇨🇦 🇵🇱 🇸🇬 🇸🇪 🇵🇭 🇭🇰 🇫🇮 🇯🇵
Pot 3 — 🇱🇹 🇨🇿 🇬🇧 🇦🇺 🇹🇼 🇫🇷 🇹🇭 🇦🇷
Pot 4 — 🇩🇪 🇪🇬 🇵🇹 🇧🇾 🇪🇸 🇸🇦 🇲🇽 🇮🇳

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

With all the prerequisite work done and dusted, I held the live draw on Discord about an hour ago. As a result, these are the groups for the VALORANT World Cup simulation:

Group A
🇨🇳 ZmjjKK, Kai, slowly*, Smoggy, CHICHOO
🇨🇦 mada, eeiu, TenZ, Zander*, JonahP
🇹🇼 Spring, Nicc*, S1Mon, BerLIN, happywei
🇵🇹 tomaszy, Addicted*, Fragger, starkk, Fizzy

Group B
🇮🇩 Famouz, Kushy, f0rsakeN*, Monyet, xffero
🇯🇵 Meiy, Xdll, CLZ*, gyen, SyouTa
🇬🇧 Keiko, Lime, aNguiSt, Boaster*, benjyfishy
🇪🇬 Avez, Shniider, Depyro, chrollo*, Sand

Group C
🇹🇷 Wo0t, MrFaliN*, RieNs, Ruxic, Alfajer
🇸🇪 Zyppan, Leo, Creamydreamy, Sayf*, Meddo
🇦🇷 Dantedeu5, nzr, rubkkoide, Cebando, Saadhak*
🇲🇽 Mephisto, Peloncito*, otaQ, solution, seven

Group D
🇨🇱 keznit, erde, Mazino, kiNgg*, Shyy
🇵🇭 Jremy, JessieVash*, PatMen, Papi, invy
🇱🇹 MiniBoo, Destrian, Boo*, ceNder, vakk
🇪🇸 Fit1nho, kyrrz*, Guardy, lowel, Saiz

Group E
🇷🇺 Jemkin, Shao, Chronicle, vo0kashu, nAts*
🇫🇮 Derke, Famsii, H1ber, Jamppi*, hoody
🇹🇭 Primmie, Killua, seph1roth, JitBoyS, Laz*
🇸🇦 ExiT, Titan, KHaaLiD*, str1keR, Moh

Group F
🇺🇸 zekken, trent, N4RRATE, valyn*, leaf
🇵🇱 kaajak, kamyk, MOLSI*, PROFEK, westside
🇫🇷 TakaS, nataNk, CyvOph, sh1n, K4DAVRA*
🇮🇳 Venka, r1seN*, Kohliii, Lightningfast, Yuvi

Group G
🇰🇷 t3xture, iZu, Munchkin*, MaKo, Meteor
🇸🇬 Jinggg, grumble, nephh*, Juicy, Deryeon
🇨🇿 marteen, Ambi, MAGNUM, Jesse, Minny*
🇧🇾 SimonD4rk, zeddy*, 7ssk7, Winteryrook, diseased

Group H
🇧🇷 aspas, cauanzin, artziN*, pANcada, Less
🇭🇰 riya, coconut, SiuFatBB*, YOU, heybay
🇦🇺 SWERL, Maple, pl1xx, Minimise, Autumn*
🇩🇪 Click, tex, xanarchy, Felix*, al0rante

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The group stage will follow a FIFA World Cup style format (yes, I'm a big fan of the tournament, how could you tell?), with each team playing every other team. The top two teams from each group (based on map differential, followed by round differential if necessary). More details will come on the knockout stages as we get closer to them.

Well, that's all for now! The first set of matches will be simulated a day or two from now—I'll make a new thread with the results from those matches when they've been decided. 🫡

https://www.vlr.gg/488539/furia-announces-restricted-free-agency-release-for-five
https://www.vlr.gg/482399/nrg-release-mikes-ahead-of-stage-2
https://www.vlr.gg/410266/100-thieves-release-bang
https://www.vlr.gg/408168/g2-esports-release-icy

release*

Ok hear me out

Money

Ambrosia is a premier team. They qualified directly into Stage 3 of 2024

Oh my bad

valyn

This is true, I am one of these accounts

Very very cool, man. 'Grats 🫡

I can see Titan tbh, thanks for the tip

Thoughts:

• On Pearl you could run T1's Neon + Yoru idea and have Asuna run in and make space instead of forcing an off-meta agent simply to try to make roles work
• If you want to lean into Cryo's op then I don't see why you can't run solo smokes on Lotus and let Cryo play Chamber
• I think their Icebox comp is good as it is tbh

I mostly agree otherwise 👍

Final bump!

Full changelog (yesterday to today):

• 🇪🇸 Spain to replace 🇲🇳 Mongolia (thanks to Mortadelo) ✔️
• 🇪🇬 Egypt to replace 🇮🇹 Italy (thanks to theiceman) ✔️
• 🇹🇷 Alfajer to replace yetujey (thanks to many people) ✔️
• 🇰🇷 iZu to replace stax (thanks to archetype) ✔️
• 🇨🇱 erde to replace suther (thanks to Layne) ✔️
• 🇸🇬 grumble to replace STYRON (thanks to archetype) ✔️
• 🇮🇩 xffero to replace Lmemore (thanks to Pedri_isTheGoat) ✔️
• 🇸🇦 str1keR to replace Elixllo ✔️
• 🇮🇳 India roster to be rebuilt (thanks to Invic_Deep)

Working on polishing the data and finalizing rosters right now, please let me know if you have any more suggestions! I'll be doing the group stage draw sometime later today or tomorrow. 🫡

I can see erde over suther, thanks for the tip 🫡

Yeah he counts 👍

I'll think abt it :)

Do I go iZu or Ivy?

Glad you think so! Definitely one of the rosters I spent the most time tinkering with

I'll leave it up to you tbh, you seem to know a lot more abt this than I do

Fair enough, I just really like stax, I guess

Would you go for Rb, Zest, or iZu?

I thought you were saying d3ffo would be better for a second 😭

Thank you :D

Ok I get what you're saying

Do you think it'd be better if I have MaKo igl, stax play flash ini, and put someone else on recon?

I agree with what you're saying but I have stax on recon and not flex so we should be fine 👍

We're hating on colours now 💔

I hope so too! Not just Egypt, of course, but MENA in its entirety :)

Sand is a must for me if Egypt has a roster tbh, other than ZE1SH and Avez he is the most accomplished Egyptian in professional VALORANT

Bump!

Changes to be made shortly:

• 🇪🇸 Spain to replace 🇲🇳 Mongolia (thanks Mortadelo)
• 🇪🇬 Egypt to potenitally replace 🇮🇹 Italy (thanks theiceman)
• 🇹🇷 Alfajer to replace yetujey (thanks... uh... basically everyone tbh)
• 🇮🇩 deLb/xffero to potentially replace Lmemore (thanks Pedri_isTheGoat)
• 🇮🇳 India roster to be rebuilt (thanks Invic_Deep)

I'd coach LOUD tbh, if that's an option. Very good flexible players and very low expectations? Hell yeah, sign me up

You say that as if you know any of Yassien Shniider Depyro

Makes sense, I'll see about that change 👍

Also go back to your main bud

Bump! ❤️‍🔥

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It makes things more fun when making rosters, at the very least

If double duelist, then ZmjjKK Kai double duelist
If double controller, then Smoggy CHICHOO double controller with Kai sentinel
If double sentinel, then CHICHOO Kai double sentinel (or CHICHOO ZmjjKK with ZmjjKK on Chamber)

In all cases, slowly is solo initiator (most likely recon, but maybe they run solo Breach on a map or two idk I haven't made comps yet)

It definitely makes things a bit harder for myself, but the way I see it, since players can choose their own flags on VLR, it's kinda like how in international football dual/multi nationals can choose which country they play for (for example, jawgemo choosing to play for Cambodia instead of USA is kinda like Erling Haaland playing for Norway instead of England)

I like the roster but I can't use koalanoob or Enzo (see roster rule #3)

Thank you btw :)

Definitely very cool. I have my own rating system in place but I love the idea of user input so I'm gonna wait a few days for more people to trial and test and then input those new ratings as part of the formula I'm using 🤍