In theory this looks fine (I think Riot might give NA another slot) but I would take China's 2nd slot and give it to KR, they had a bad showing at Champs but they have the talent and have at least performed decently. We haven't even seen CN teams and apparently they are still far behind in meta.

would probably just give EU another slot, or maybe France on its own because they are now having a separate league?

I didn't take away any slots you guys just didn't add any when it got extrapolated to 24.

I would agree if it was a 16 team LAN, but I'm pretty sure the rumor is an expanded 24 team format. Maybe EU 4 NA 4 and OCE 1 instead of 2 would make sense

Not from what I have seen, they are trialing with other T1 teams and I doubt Soar Crude is asking for the bag given the size of the org

I thought Mixwell IGL'd no? Isn't that why he played a non duelist role?

They had a shot, and could have possibly upset a team or two, but the best team in the region (Soniqs) went to NA and couldn't make it out of T2 by a fair margin. Hopefully the region shows improvement and gets a slot, or if Riot expands to 24 teams they will probably get one.

I mean an upgrade relative to Nitr0 not ec1s.
Also Koldamenta is a Sova (the last thing NA lacks are Sova's lol) and I don't think he IGL'd for G2 which is what 100T needs.
I don't think ec1s is the move for 100T and would rather them try and get some of the better T2 talent that can be F/A's (Zander and Cryo?)

erkaSt has good potential

try finding an upgrade for Nitr0 lol

If Riot is going to expand next year for 2022 and have a 24 team tournament, what do you think the slot distribution should be like? I split EMEA into EU/CIS/TR since that is what is rumored. IMO:
NA: 4
EU: 3
CIS: 2
TR: 1
BR: 2
LATAM: 2
SEA: 3
JP: 1
KR: 2
SA: 1 (new)
OCE/AUS: 2 (new)
CN: 1 (new)

shroud hate boner post #567843

Actual good move since they don't have massive buyout and are proven in NA T2. Still think they need to drop Hiko but its better than importing an IGL.

NA has always been behind in EU whether it was PC FPS or MOBAs. Being able to realize what has historically gone wrong despite having similar talent allows us to do better. Yeah Valorant has been closer, but if CS has shown us anything, for how long?

Yes in that it has "casual" gamers and more people know about it but it isn't on the same level as COD, which is the benchmark in my opinion. Nothing else is really "mainstream" (FN doesnt count). VAL could be that if it markets itself right and tries to bring in the casual audience to make it more widely accepted.

British people having the gall to criticize what is and isn't food... I've seen it all

Never really though about the last part too, but it definitely makes sense (for US not Canada). The US is the greatest 3rd world country, in that if you make it you can make it big but if you are complacent you can be fucked and no one will help you or pity you.

That's what I was kinda getting at the "mainstream" part. Lots of people in NA can recognize Optic and FaZe from COD, but if you ask them about Team Liquid or NRG you might as well be speaking gibberish. Most people still look down on esports as a whole too.

I was kinda speaking to the history of NA is esports as a whole, less so about VAL particularly

Tried thinking about why NA falls behind EU and came to some conclusions:

NA mindset, generally, is all about making money. Less people are trying to make it as a "pro" in CS as very few are going to make enough money relative to just getting a regular job there. As long as you graduate high school and apply yourself you will most likely have a better salary/hours worked than someone grinding T2 24/7. Not the same case in parts of the EU/BR/CIS etc. This is why there is such a focus on "content creation" as it is the bigger payday compared to grinding CS/VAL/etc. NA literally has an entire Valorant fanbase on Tiktok because on content. This, in my opinion, is the core issue.
NA also does not have access to the gambling sponsors that EU/CIS/BR/others do. Less cash means less desire, feeds into the above point. If this changes you might see a better T2 scene.

PC Gaming does not have the same impact that console gaming does in the US. Everyone memes on COD yet it is the only "mainstream" NA esport and it is dominated by NA players. The only other game that comes close was Fortnite at its peak, and even while I hate that game and don't consider it an esport NA dominated that too. While NA may have a comparable population, the amount actually PC gaming relative to EU is lower, and definitely not mainstream. Given that COD has fallen off hard since BO2 this may start to change in the future if VAL markets itself right.

Ego is somewhat of an issue. We often do not prepare well enough, and think that just because we are better mechanically than other regions (besides EU) we can ego-peek and win 9 times out of 10. The poor prep is just the icing on the cake.

Am I wrong? retarded? The next Socrates? Lmk

Snuck in BR like we wouldn't notice

Zeek Slander 👎

yay
Asuna
Crashies
dapr
Vanity (IGL)

VK got MW and still couldn't deliver. FURIA took a map off Sentinels but never really looked like they were in control in any of the games they played vs SEN/KRU. Vikings got the easiest path out of any of the teams and couldn't win.
Don't see how any of this overtakes what KR did (Top 4 in Masters 2, VS out to Winners of Masters 3) or LATAM (KRU made it out of groups twice, beat SEN); Brazil never did anything across the three tournaments.
And if you are playing the "potential" card, then while LATAM really is dependant on KRU the Korean roster shuffle next year will produce a bunch of good teams with more orgs joining, so I doubt that NiP going to Brazil overweights it.

BR being above LATAM and KR based on potential is crazy when they haven't done anything in 3 tournaments despite having more slots than them both

Forgot Australs tanked I will revise LOL

1. EMEA (if you want to split it then EU #1, CIS #2)
   GAP
   2/3 NA & SEA (Rank TBD depending on Playoffs)
   4 LATAM (one team region)
   5 KR (one team region, probably better then LATAM but they need to show up next year)
   6/7 BR & JP

Haven't played in years so I don't really disagree but its an FPS nonetheless and by far the most popular in NA. Wish CS/Val had even a quarter of the playerbase

I'm sorry if BR are counting R6 NA can count dominating COD for an entire decade LOL

Ironic coming from a region that has cried more than any other yet has never made it out of groups across three International events

The rumors were that he was going to EG with Stew if anything, I still think its on the cards given T1 hasn't announced their departures as Saya is 100% gone

so curry on viper/smokes and thwifo sentinel? Their duelists have to be pretty agressive if steel is gonna be the initiator

Still won't do shit with DD8 at the helm
Also both him, Thwifo, and Curry all have primarily played Sentinel so idk how roles are gonna work...

They always go "dont generalize" when they have a repetitive history of being an overemotional hivemind

Becuase of the perpetual victim complex and any sort of banter is immediately viewed as an attack on the entire country. Your community/region throw a shitfit whenever anything doesn't go your way and you spam death threats to anyone even remotely involved with whatever you are mad about. You make the toxicity of Turkish and Chinese fans look like nothing. It's been like this for years and yet no major figures in your community try and stop it, they even encourage it (Gaules during Chaos incident). NA and EMEA banter each other but its a good time, can't say the same when you all get involved.
I don't hate Brazilians in general, but your esports community fucking sucks.

Hope Furia can save space for Vikings and VK before groups end!

As co-CEO of @FURIA esports and Brazilian I truly would like to see this kind of behavior be punished accordingly. It can not happen! Esports is about respect, passion, love. Disrepect 220 million people, a lot of them living in poverty is unaceptable.

True JAMAICA #1!!!!!! 🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲

https://twitter.com/aakkari/status/1467359955204423682
Crying to Riot to get Zombs banned. What a fucking pathetic region/community. I have never seen such a collective bunch of whiny victims.

I don't care about the shitty twitter beef or whatever, but seeing the Brazilians crying to Riot to have Zombs banned/DQ'd for talking shit is so weak. Why dish it out (which is fine) when you can't take it?

I would understand them getting a ban forfeit next game but to DQ their win is stupid... FNS will avenge Brazil

Fnatic LAN Animals they are the opposite of onliners

Yes but playing it in ranked and playing it at an extremely high level in matches are two very different things. Not saying he can't but he hasn't shown it yet which makes me hesitant about how far the roster can go.

Yes but I assumed he would play Sentinel since Subroza only has experience at Controller and Levi is on Sova/Viper/Sage

Good luck to TSM but I don't see how this roster makes Top 8 NA given they don't have a strong Astra player at Controller....

Corey and Subroza have very similar agent overlap, proving once again that they should have kept Hazed and released Subroza. You're gonna put Subroza on Controller and move Rossy to Sentinel? Or waste Corey in a non duelist role in order to keep your content creator happy? I know Subroza has played Omen but Astra is meta and he doesn't play her.
I fail to see how the roles work out with this roster to the point that they will challenge for Top 5, even Top 8.
Rossy IGL is fine, but they could have benefitted from Hazed co-calling but I know TSM is balancing more things than just trying to put out a roster that would win.

There is but if they can make ANDROID flexing to Sentinel work then Tex can fit role-wise (KAYO/Reyna/(Pheonix?)) if they move s0m to Jett. Just think its better to have Android stay on 2nd duelist and pick up Steel as IGL/Sentinel since both s0m and Hazed never wanted to IGL but had to.

unless he massively underperforms (which I doubt will happen) he is nowhere near the next person to go

-tex
-wedid
+Hazed
+Steel (igl)
NRG becomes Top 5 NA

Stupid move. Should have built around him & Zach (maybe Corey too) and gone from there.