Jas farms*

EMEA is just so hard to call before we see the first international
All regions stepped up this year on paper, so the list of "favorites" is like 10 teams long

The vlr match pages are/were great^^

Stream tags (so that the twitch search does something) and Stream together (sadly capped to 5 other people iirc + requires manual setup) for official co-streams could help for navigation on twitch (without needing to rely on people checking vlr... cause I know I kept forgetting x.x)

Grats to EP on making it to EMEA

I was expecting MZP to tear through lowers, but this is a tad easy no?!
Nice showing by both map 2

Yea basically xD
Everyones got their asterisks as to why the format sucks

The big problem I think is just how little time there is between splits now
But cant really complain since its only that tightly packed in order to allow for our t2 to get "internationals"

Yus it is (sorta) common. Ive just never seen it in league play where the amount of teams are far more controlled (Speeding things up for a qual makes perfect sense). It worked so cant complain.

And yea I gotta agree with the pyramid. I like the "lifeline" it provides (you cant get relegated in one split if you made it to uppers). Its just... harder to understand than the group/single swiss stages.
Makes it harder to create hype/storylines around the lower games.

My thing is only addressing group stage (since every region has their own relegation)

But mb, idk how I forgot about 4th also playing the bo5 for playoffs when I originally had an entire paragraph about how I liked that relegation was decoupled from the 2 groups x.x
ill fix it, so thx for the correction

Depends on what parts you watched
Upper -> Playoff is fine

The mix of bo1 and bo3 is unusual, but it worked out well imo.

But theres also lower, lcq and open qual
Its a lot of systems, each being shown on different broadcasts (main stream showing parts of the "stage", various costreamers popping in and out each week depending on their schedules)
It felt like work to watch everything (excluding when there were 2+ games at the same time)

Im just not sure you can ever fix the point distribution

If a team gets relegated and a new team comes into the league they start at 0 points
That means they are basically guaranteed to get relegated again next split unless they make it to like top 4 in playoffs
Thats really rough for a t3 team

That point system is... interesting.
Im not even sure if I like it in an ideal world where orgs stay the same over years, and rosters are consistent.

On the other hand the system other regions have is too far the other way, where it is SO easy to get relegated.
For example in Dach if you lose 2 bo3s and then the "relegation bo5" youre gone. You dont have time to fix your team if things go wrong (see PXU after beating BBL in the offseason)
So i do wonder where the correct middle ground is with such short splits (for Spain the normal relegation system would work since they got to play so many maps imo)

However I do have to defend the format. Spains format is the best in all the emea t2 regions. Everyone got to play 18 maps in groups, with main broadcast showing 6 per day (missing 4). Thats miles better than anyone else.

• NE is a confusing mess and couldnt broadcast everything due to its size (they have the best playoffs though tbf and the format is decent...ish if youre fine with bo1s)
• Dach had a swiss system where 2 wins/losses meant you were done (so max 3 bo3s)
• France was decent with everyone playing 3 bo3s + playins bo5 for 3rd/4th place teams
• And Turkey did a bo1 format, with split groups and only 8 maps played. Aka horrible. At least do a full group stage if youre gonna do bo1s.
• Havent watched Mena so cant comment on them

Kajaak was thruthful at the time cojo said it

Fnatic did not pay the buyout (which was the rumor at the time) and were still waiting for the contract to run out.

They had no guarantee whatsoever that he was joining; he was signed to an org they had not made any deal with.
There were multiple teams who still wanted to sign him at the time of the statement.

until we get some other leaks about it, imma assume it is bait
but also, this tweet would be gold if they get kicked and cant play for the entire year

that'd feed the vlr drama for months

nope
theres basically 2 systems that allow t1 teams to have a team in t2

Partner team (independent org) -> they ascend and partnership is ended
Academy -> they cant go to ascension and the runner up takes their slot

Wouldnt be the first time

He lost his contract with NiP because he stood up for Yacine (and then proceeded to make a team leagues better than anything NiP was ever able to... even after they stole Sayf from them)
Yacine and Draken then returned the favor, getting themselves benched when Guild decided to kick Bonkar.

But nah actual reason, that hes getting benched from the coach slot, is because hes swapping with Fns and is their new igl

Enjoy the analysis here

And perfect summary for map 5 ngl

well teams like g2 are now doing what he asked them to do in the tweet, so I would assume hes fine with the current version

"Not only that, LEV didnt have to use a single utility piece to win this round which saves shitton of cash, and didnt have to rebuy any shields.
If you wanted to troll this round, G2, at least do it properly and jump off after your opponents planted, so you would waste more time and make them use util."

Thats easy af

Bonk, Ucam, Case, Giants, Team Cheese
Only stopped by the fact that I couldnt remember who else was in spain back in 2022 and if they had actually beaten rebels

phew, saved our reputation by diffing aspas
we back

They had their chance for the gentle treatment https://www.vlr.gg/429386/team-heretics-vs-gentle-mates-champions-tour-2025-emea-kickoff-ubqf
Big brother is here to take revenge now

aspas? not good with raze

He went from a team focused on developing talent where he was the star player to a team where hes a glue player

So like ya cant be expecting the same numbers as back that being said... apparently yes, cause these last 2 games have been rough

TL.A impressive af (overcame the sliggy curse too)
Beat both of the favorites (?) now, so well earned spot

Lowers is gonna be brutal now though, oml

Well that was dominant
SM is the truth apparently

Rough to do this after the offseason
Bro just got the lose-lose job joining after the 2023 season and its unfortunate how much the roster struggled to rediscover themselves post meta shift under him.

Hope he lands on his feet and that fnatic can find the right person to get em back to the top
(crashies coaching arc incoming)

well yea, generally speaking you dont want him to call too much stuff in these clips

A lot of the calls we hear from them have to do with their util/timing swings with another player (so non igl stuff)

While theyre generally cut out (since the clips start right in the action), you can hear a couple (iirc 2?) positioning calls from Sayf, where hes trying to read the opposing team

So I think its just the way they edited it and Sayf not overcalling with such a vocal roster (but ofc we dont know)

well obviously hes useful for calling
he learned under the goat godkar

ye am talking more high level; game was unreal at low ranks (helped by not knowing anything about it yet tbf)

And when comparing games its the best nowerdays for sure, hence I compared heights
paladins is a dead game without mm, ow is the definition of stale and TF2 is older than some users on this site

but... unless youre playing wolverine the only truly broken characters atm are the supports (and ig moonknight in the correct comp due to his ult being bugged - accidental savior of the meta right there)
and idk about you but I find the support loop extremely underwhelming compared to other titles - just spam you 0cd heals, dont die and youre doing your job (Ive been in Luna jail for like 30 games now xD)
So at least for me the "broken = fun" has been heavily overshadowed by boring characters being the broken ones atm

Meh
Playing the shit out of it atm, but the game is underwhelming at best

Balance is way off, map design (gameplay wise) is boring and the game has fundamental design issues rn that lead it to horrible metas like ow (tripple support atm).

When comparing the peaks of the "recent" 4 big hero shooters (OW, TF2, Paladins and now Marvel) it is by far the worst. They still have a lot of time to figure out where they wanna take the game though, so its fine.

Rn its a fun game because its still fresh.
If you want to play a Hero shooter than its the best we have atm, and im 99% sure youll enjoy your time initially.

Faster and more consistent schedule
EMEA has a very tight schedule this year since all regions need to finish before our internationals (https://liquipedia.net/valorant/VCL/2025/EMEA/Stage_1)

Spain got the best format out of all the emea t2 regions by far (though they dont broadcast everything on main... not sure how I feel about it, but at least theres more than 2 games for the best teams)

Partner team -> they ascend and partnership is ended
Academy -> they cant go to ascension and the runner up takes their slot

Cubert is the latter

ffs why isnt sliggy live
cant have MZP go on a rampage in the lower too early x.x

edit: 100% winstreak when sliggy isnt watching continues
rigged

Insanely fun game

hes an old lady, leave her alone

Who would you replace them with though?
You need experienced, super flexible, english speaking players (from pacific)
Add to that that the ban replacements philosophy needs to be compatible with Frost's (since we keep hearing again and again how important he is for mentoring the younger players on the roster).

I wouldnt mind if they cut down on the roles a bit to make it easier to find replacements, but at that point its more of a discussion about Frost's comp philosophy

Basically I think its borderline impossible to get an actual (not just on the stats sheet) 2 for 2 improvement rn
Do it when the team struggles, not when theyre improving as quickly as they were towards the end of 2024

Ngl I feel like staying up might have been a mistake xD

marginally less at most
and only because theres a larger userbase in those regions
region war would still lead to all other regions using him as their ragebait

its like boaster for emea
half truths make for great bait

china would probs avoid a lot of the bait since theres no one to argue with

ye true
single elim could be fun when combined with a longer swiss group stage

sadly was still bo5 so it doesnt really fix that many issues (though its a lot fairer than double elim currently)

Ngl I still find it weird af that Riot have never experimented with the finals format
Most important games of the year are in a different format than the ones to get the teams there

Idk if other formats would be more fun or fairer, but someone (even if its offseason) could at least try

+ we dont have that movement between t1 and t2 the other regions have

way harder to gain fans for a region when the majority of viewers arent exposed to any of the players

(Numbers in non k)
NE: 2 673 peak, 540 average (irregular broadcast gonna tank those stats ngl)

France and Dach 2025 split 1 doesnt have stats atm
DACH is sitting at 1k average generally (and like 4k when Bucher streams)

But 2024 split 2 stats for anyone who cares

we need a heart rate monitor on stream next time ngl

ngl, glad g2 is this good atm
means we get a nap before pacific

The failed Tejo ult sage has been one of the most entertaining things to watch this kickoff

But yea amazing game and I look forward to how DRX does into t1s (currently) less polished style

Thank ya for posting them on here too^^
Having some engagement from analysts on here is a nice change

If its regarding the k2 then ye ig. Downsides werent noticeable for me (had all the software features I used + I already fucked my latency on the wooting by changing the pre-travel.... apparently im a troll while touchtyping and keep activating the wrong keys with the default settings xD)
The better sound profile of the k2 does matter to me though (and "saving" a bit of money is nice too) so it was just better for me.

If its regarding the q6 max then nah. That keyboard is unreal. Perfectly fine if you prefer HE switches, but I dont. The typing feel (outside the switches) is just plain better (though you do obviously pay for it considering its also 200€ with non HE switches).

eeeeeh
amazing for gaming, mid for everything else

Typing feel is mediocre; Wooting does try to do modding, but at least the 60HE+ is very lackluster in terms of stabilization and sound dampening
You could mod it yourself, but limited compatibility made it very daunting for me in Germany (its super hard to get any custom parts over here without paying double for importing them)

HE switches are super nice and Wooting are probably the best in that regard (Keychrons HE keyboard feels a bit better, but theyre still playing catchup with software features and default latency is a tad higher)
A big pain point for me was that the variety in HE switches (especially ones that are compatible with everyone having their own design) is lacking. Wooting does have hot-swap afaik, but its a lot harder to find the switch you like if the default ones arent for you.

At 200€ youre now competing with premium keyboards. Wooting 60HE+ isnt a premium keyboard. Its a 100€ keyboard with expensive switches and amazing software. Theyre good, but overpriced.

I personally ended up selling my wooting 60HE+and "sticking" with the much cheaper Keychron K2 HE... although I eventually gave it to my brother and got a normal q6 max instead since I preferred the feel of mechanical switches for typing

suygetsu chose violence that game
walked out mid and sent them back to EMEA jail on his own

Guys remember its not who is better
Its who gets the better rating in their next match

Yay plays againt MIBR
Flashback plays against GenG

Super fun game, ggs