Citing the team got almost no support from Riot and the complicated pathway into the International Leagues literally only Full sense remaining at this point

Yeah that is the elephant in the room here, EWC entirely run during July-August which immediately overlaps with Split 2
unless they find a way to cramp those in

In one of the countdown's on the Saudi EWC website they had two countdowns sitting one hour next to each other, this double countdown has happened before only once with Mobile Legends having 2 events announced next to each other.

There's been apparently a leaked slide on Chinese forum that indicates 2 VALORANT entries in EWC (one normal and one GC) however it's accuracy is unclear

Since the CN API is a different one run domestically, its why both VLR (and LP) were unable to do the same depths as the usual matches. As there hasn't been a way to reach out for access of these easily (I'd assume domestic sites is easier to approach, hence the existence of Haojiao)

In the Top 10 most played games in CN net cafes, which is the first time ever CrossFire is beaten by a game of the same kind, CS managed only once in 1.6 and never again

a Draft of all sports discipline to be ran at 2025 SEA Games in Thailand next December had just come out

within the Esports section (33) theres a slot for a "FPS/TPS game" which isnt revealed yet which game they are picking.

Citing the lack of recent performance, they chose to drop out of Split 3 and rebuild for 2025

Now that's 3/4? Teams that dropped out of the additional Split 3, Several in TH due to they prefer an off//season event and this one due to poor results

To start with, SOOP is formerly AfreecaTV, the whole company decides to rebrand themselves order to take the global market

They do this by gutting the multilingual service for old AfreecaTV and creating an entirely new website with nothing carrying over since June 12th so this site is up for already Four Months

BUT they didnt do that for the Korean Version site. They just rename the old AfreecaTV site and keep everything intact so creators dont need to start building everything new, followers etc etc lol

so Global had to start fresh from 0
KR just changing name

It is the "East Asia Tri Cup" that was mentioned in the OFFSEASON announcement so this is the other offseason events for CN

a Special 8 China & Pacific Off-Season event called Asia Invitational

8 China and Pacific at Chengdu's Quantum Esports Center, the venue previously held an international PUBGM tournament featuring China, Mongolia and SEA Teams

Edit: At least EDG TE PRX will be there + 5

There's a way: Host in Thailand
but have production team from Indonesian work cross-country

cuz that's what happen with ASC last year, held in Thailand
but didnt hired any Thai Prod. House to work for it.
Thailand is there just to host but they hired someone from another country to do it

That's the reason behind what happens in Day 1

This map possibly a wake up call that we're only good in Mobile Games and FIFA

a lot of Obscure Asian-F2P shooters in the Mid 2000s where only just Asia competing, basically around the CrossFire era Korea made so many Shooters in a similar aspect

for example games like Special Force (Soldier Front), SF2 (SKILL), Point Blank (Project Blackout) and also CrossFire (CF is a korean dev game,not chinese) alongside things like movement-based games such as GunZ, S4 League and of course CS-Online. (Special shoutout to A.V.A.)

but to be specific in the Tac FPS area, Korea is all about one single game Sudden Attack released in 2005 and it's just few years ago where VALORANT finally beat them in PC Cafe numbers, the game hangs onto Top 10 all these years

and then of course you have Overwatch as well as the standard CS and PUBG games

To commemorate EDG's World Champion win, exclusive to Chinese Server a bundle of returning skins to be sold on CN Server handpicked by each of the EDG player

The process goes that each player designated 1 group of weapon types, each player nominates 2 skins of that group and then Everyone in China Servers with at least LV20 game account has to vote to determine which one

This is the results of the EDG Bundle

Riot had a series of event in relation with the College Basketball league, including around 100 College & Universities where Riot CN hosted a event that unifies College Basketball and VALORANT into a single event

There will be a separate influencer event at Optics Valley Center where VCT Pros, Streamers and Basketball players compete in a series of 5v5 and 1v1 matches, and KennyS being in the 1v1 matchdays lol

The increasingly hostile ecosystem has simply made it untenable to responsibly run a team (part of the announcement text)

a New public beta starts today and with NDA lifted for the first time meant users can now make contents and stream it

Several Huya/Douyu streamers now start streaming the public beta and here's a look at the party screen

Huya has already created a game section for VALM: https://www.huya.com/g/62639

Servers will be opened in China on 9AM local September 12 and will be up all day until the end of the test

On top of the NDA being lifted starting the same day so those with access can start sharing content and streaming it. Tencent went from not even mentioning VALORANT during the Beta, kept the game in secrecy for years and then turned into full-on public test within 2 weeks

There were some EDG LoL players saying on stream (maybe he's joking) that Riot might not run Esports but that could be because they're totally bad at Mobile esports (exhibit A: Wild Rift)

and they could let Tencent do things on their own (Tencent had even esports for their own Fall Guys Clone with a 60y old Grandma competing in China, competitive VALM will be absolutely normal day for Tencent)

I could see Riot just hand over to Tencent to do Mobile for them. They werent experience in both sides anyway so they would just Ditch Console and then have Tencent do Mobile for them winwin

^

I think the chunk of NA/EMEA will be there but not a lot, NA will most likely be an overlap with the Pro CODM audience while in EU Countries the ones that really "with open arms" on mobile esports are just a selected variety of Spain, Turkey, MENA and the CIS. Less about things like WEU/The UK/France/DACH etc etc

Some of the smaller orgs in China start posting recruitment for players to their VALORANT Mobile division

This is a very common practice in China Specially if it's a Riot or Tencent title and ESPECIALLY if the game already got approval from the govt. Back when VALORANT PC got the China Approval in December 2022 we've seen significant increase in Orgs posting recruitment right after that. This is no different

Right now only All Gamers being the VCT CN team that have been spotted recruiting players. But TBH every single team in VCT CN except TYLOO already have a Mobile Division in other Riot/Tencent titles in China (CrossFire, PUBG, HoK, Wild Rift) so its not too surprising

There are also possibilities of a Major National Championship for VALM in China during the middle of 2025 as well

there still mentions of "EpicGames" within the package name for VALM Beta Test tho

Worth noting the player card seems like a condensed VCT setup

They had it in a playable alpha test last week, which will re-open again around Mid September

Additionally the VALORANT Mobile Companion app now opens additional signups for the beta as well without any extra requirements outside playing the CN server for at least 1hr

No because I'm currently signed with Liquipedia/TL

I actually do more mobile contents at my twitter of the same name

no sus can confirm

After the previous test that I posted earlier, apparently the test already ended earlier today

Then this website surfaced, revealing the codename "Code Alpha Test" which will be an Alpha test with File Deletion. This also marks the first time any sort of official website name for VALORANT Mobile had surfaced with the Chinese Sv. site name being valm.qq.com

In all of previous test for VALORANT Mobile, Tencent actually not saying the name of the game directly but always called it as PROJECT C (just like A being VALORANT PC, and L being the LoL Fighting game, C is VAL Mobile)

Key takeaway is Tencent went from a private test and avoiding mentioning the actual name of the game
to putting up a website for signup meant the game is really close to getting at least some public reveal.

The Website (doesnt work on PC, unless you make the window small) : https://valm.qq.com/act/a20240814recruit/index.html

I found my comrades, Broke Gang W

Here's a quick look at the main menu of the Mobile Version

The upcoming CN server test starts later tonight with users who signed up can download the game from their Tencent app

CN seemingly having a unique name of the game. It's currently being called as "VALORANT: Operation Energy/Operation Primal" instead of just VALORANT Mobile

while the website itself was also discovered with a short name valm - https://valm.qq.com (site currently 403 forbidden)

As part of EDG's celebration, the Chinese server will provided a Special Bundle that allows a select set of skins curated by all EDG Players to be sold again on the CN Server

Today they've revealed the whole process including allowing the Fans in CN Server to help voting for them, here's how it worked

Only skins that released in CN Server between 7/12/2023 to 8/31/2024

• Each player picks 2 skins from each group (Sidearms, SMG/Shotgun, Guardian/Bulldog, Phantom/Vandal and Sniper/MG) to enter FAN VOTE STAGE

• All players in CN server with Level 20 or above can take part in the event page, and Vote which one of the selected two in each group to be included in the bundle

• At total, the most voted from each group + a Specially selected set by the MVP forms EDG Return Gift Pack that can be bought separately or full set on discount - Only for the CN Servers

• Pack goes live with E9A3, they cited no regions have done this before so the process will take time.

maybe they get it as a Premier spot first, then qualifier can happen from the 2024 split 1 maybe?

Huge W, Mongolia has suffer the region weirdness twice and were given happy ending twice

in PUBG Mobile: They forced to be part of "Wildcard region" or regions of all countries thats being excluded from the ecosystem, then went on to almost beat China and convinced Tencent to invite them to South Asia, 3 years after that MN is PUBGM World Champions and is now permanently unified with South Asia as Central+South Asia

now in VALORANT they are permanent resident of SEA. That will be fun

China got its first LoL and VALORANT world champion in the same city of Incheon, IG in 2018 and EDG in 2024 both winning over an EU Team

The next champions is in Paris, Where CN gets its 2nd LoL win by FPX, over an EU team again

oh no

back when IG won China's first League Worlds in '18 it does skyrocket the game's popularity then it just gets cranked into unimaginable level with FPX and EDG winning. They are the most played games in PC Cafes as of Today, only CrossFire came close

I'd assume this will help propel CN VAL massively, amidst CrossFire's decaying Esports scene and the situation with CN CS2 that they cannot pulled a top team domestically

Even if Heretics win today this helps the growth already, Winning just sent it

Just like Worlds 2021, they go unhinged on Raffles and Giveaways/Events after they won Champions

Let's take a look at the goodies CN server is gonna get.

Part 1-2
Part 01: From 8/30 to 9/27: "CN 1st Championship Exclusive Pass"
Complete tasks in game to get several cosmetic items and 20 R Points

Part 02: From 8/30 to 9/27: VCT CN 1st Championship Commemorative Card, TItle and Banner.
Distributed once finished designing

Part 3-4
Part 03: from 8/30 to 9/13: "VCT CN 1st Championship Commemorative Poster"
Looks like a poster or something, if you already owned EDG skin you can get it by the event page, you get it by auto if you just bought EDG Classic

Part 04: 8/30 to 9/27: Login to enter lucky draw, several game items/QQ Coins even T-Shirts

Part 5-7
Part 05: RETURNING SKINS TO BE SOLD ON CN SERVER
with each set Handpicked by each of the winning players

Part 06: 200 Champions Bundle giveaway
Part 07: 100 EDG Bundle giveaway

Hopefully it gives us a close region battle later on. NA was on top at the start of CODM and CN eventually took the top crown over a year after

oh man I wish SEA puts up good fight. If they at least can be good at CODM level (top of SEA) that might put up some fight

China is the only region to have private playtest for VALORANT Mobile for the past 2 years a look at the menu and we know rumors that Tencent wants competitive scene for the game (or they might just do one on their own).

If today's EDG win is CN being few years late to the party

Isn't that gonna be already GG for us where they are now few years ahead in terms of having the game?

(ICYMI: they're having another beta test starting next week)

.

The link isn't weibo, I made a screencap because I know that

3 Different entry in the Trending section on Weibo right now, the number is clicks/comments I believe so thats 11-12M+ combined already

(the first hashtag is about the national swimming championship or something)

this might actually be a fair trade

European wins VALORANT in Asian soil

Asian wins LoL in European soil

At least this might gets balanced out with an LCK or LPL winning worlds right in the UK instead

The west takes shooting game
The east takes moba

balanced

OW were quite fortunate they were roped in by ESL/EWC post-OWL by going back to open structure, otherwise some might already jumped over

might be blessing theres no LoL equivalent for vlr

^ this

it is Heat Index so not raww viewership

but then 40 Million as Heat alone is also very incredibly high

a regular LPL playoffs match is around this, and you know how big deal LPL and Chinese LoL is

thats why I put the disclaimer out there, because I had no idea what metric they're using

for example "EDG goes to Finals" hashtag shows only Reading Volume, that one was around 9M which was another different metric

Their CN server weibo puts up 100 Champions bundle as giveaway lol

They were trending at around 4 Mil comments/posts(?) on weibo (unclear the metric that weibo uses)
Edit: afaik its Clicks&Comments, so not far from that