INDIA is a country with more than 1.4 Billion people too

Well, it's Hong Kong organization, not Thai, so may be...

I prefer EMEA and Americas' stages to look modern, rather than Pacific's stage that is copied from previous years' events

DRX
T1
Gen.G

Due to FIFA code:
IDN=Indonesia
IND=India

Official name is "Valorant Masters Tokyo" but be held in Chiba.
"VALORANT MASTERS CHIBA" ?

Not loud, but not quiet.
At least Japanese fans are not in a hurry to go home after the game
Looking forward to the Masters Tokyo

Actually this year there is only a split of season, meaning top 3 of League will qualify for both Masters and Champions directly. Not need to win the Masters.

There are 16 slots in Champions.
10 slots are decided, for each region 3 slots directly via League, and 1 slot for Pacific LCQ winner.
6 slots remaining, I think Riot will divide for:

• 1 slot for EMEA LCQ winner
• 1 slot for Americas LCQ winner
• 2 slots for China (really don't like it, but that's possible. Riot loves China, therefore had given them 2 slots in Masters)
• 2 for an event, like as a global LCQ with 4 teams compete in:
  • 3 from 4th place of EMEA, Americas, Pacific
  • 1 from 3rd place of China (that's right, because Riot loves China).

LET GO FNATICCCCCCCCCCC

Can be 3-0 for Fnatic?

Yeah I said it: everything have a reason. And reason is Riot based on result of last year (2021) to decide slots in the next year (2022), And no one can predict the future what happend to Vietnam in next year. Will be good or bad? Can not know it. If I know what happend to future I would like to buy a lottery ticket than go to work every weekdays.
Now they are bad in this year, and not have money like GE, they not make franchising. That's normal. Nothing to hate Vietnam because that was not their fault.
P/S: at least Vietnam is better South Asia. Especially GE, who couldn't win Vietnamese team in this year, now made franchising.

I don't know why you hate Vietnam in this time but everything have a reason
In 2021 stage 3, Vietnam had 2 teams BAAM with CES qualified for playoff (I remembered in playoff with 8 teams, VN and ID were only regions had 2 teams each, while TH SGMY PH TWHK each reagion had 1). Especially BAAM had qualified at first place from a group with Boom and X10 (Xerxia now)
In knockout, BAAM won Full Sense (the team later qualified for Champions via LCQ). They also played very impressive against Bren (the winner of this stage), although lost this match in OT.
So I think result of BAAM in 2021 that helped Vietnam to have 3 spots in next year (2022). That was normal if base on previous result. And no one can predict the future that SEA will merge with OCE and South Asia, and what happend to Vietnam in next year.

Actually finance or money are never the strengths of any Vietnamese organizations.
Look at VCS from LoL, although at the top 6/12 leagues in MSI/Worlds but still be the only league has promotion/relegation after season, due to can not be held as a franchise league as same as almost leagues. The problem is easy to understand: no have enough money.

"because EDG (or if it wasn't EDG) qualified from the East Asia LCQ, they're gonna be classified as EA." => nah that's not true if a KR or JP team was qualified.
example: if Northeption was qualified, their region name would be JP, not EA.
and now Furia qualified from the South America LCQ but their region name is still BR not SA.

If Notheption or OnSla2er was qualified for Champions via East Asia LCQ, sure their region name is JP/KR instead of EA like EDG.

And the injustice is a NATION like Japan is not worthy for a direct slot as a REGION in masters and champion. Turkey deserve more but is considered as SUB-REGION of EMEA.
Japan should be a SUB-REGION of APAC with SEA/South Asia/Oceania. Don't worry about ping, Riot can host a LAN event in Singapore where all players can go to compete.

I think Riot had own format for Master Reykjavík. This is just my suggestion to a Master competition with 12 teams in 15 days (April 10-24).
3 stages: Play-in group, Main group, Knockout
Seeds are based on last Champions' result: EU>LATAM>SEA (now APAC)>NA>KR>BR>JP

Play-in seed

• pool 1: KR#1- EU#3 - APAC#2 - EU#2
• pool 2: BR#1 - BR/LATAM#2 - JP#1 - NA#2
  Main seed
• EU#1 - APAC#1 - LATAM#1 - NA#1

Play-in group stage (10 matches in 5 days)

• 8 teams are drawn in 2 groups
• Double elimination, all matches are Bo3 (5 matches each group)
• Two teams each group qualify for Main group

Break in 1 day

Main group stage (10 matches in 5 days)

• 8 teams are drawn in 2 group
• Double elimination, all matches are Bo3 (5 matches each group)
• Two teams each group qualify for Knock out

Break in 1 day

Knockout stage (3 matches in 3 days)

• 4 teams
• 1st place plays against 2nd place from other group in semifinals
• Single elimination, all matches are Bo5

Based on result of last SEA Chanllengers (2021 stage 3), both CES and BAAM had qualified for playoff.

SEA a shared region with 6 countries-like minor regions: Indonesia, Malaysia+Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan+Hong Kong, Vietnam, and must play against each other but only have 1-2 slots of SEA for Master an Champions. I'm glad if Japan become the 7th minor region of SEA due to their weakness and not worthy for their own slot. This slot should be given to SEA for increased opportunities for non-participating countries in Master/Champions such as Indonesia, Taiwan+Hong Kong and Vietnam. I believe they are better than Japan and deserve fairer competition.