tbf that was over in like 20 minutes, so idk if we can call that a game

org: 2 champs
player: 3 master

oh yea, I just assume he's not looking for a team rn, cause after that performance he's got to have some decent offers

dont think hes trying to compete rn, no?

We had him as 9th in the "Top 10 greatest players of all time" community ranking (4th greatest duelist if you count tenz) so I think he might just be a tad overrated compared to your own rating

personally think thats somewhat fair regardless, since he's the best individual player in china stat wise, and we gotta acknowledge them someday

Jesus destroys f0rsaken in assists though

It also counts people who forgot to do pickems week 1 and only did week 2+ as 0 points

oh ofc
I wanna be very clear that Im cheering for him

Dach needs the representation and he was our best player stats (rar) wise for 2 splits in a row

Vocal and very good flash timings

... now lets not look at his current role too closely

not sure this is the time to post this xD kovaq just had a rooooooough showing util wise

but ye, he's got the talent that you can easily develop him, so interesting take

you know its bad when vlr forgets about how much they hate Pipson

not wrong though this map

he felt bad for what happened to Click and decided to give Kovaq a good opening game to boost the confidence

he loyal to his DACH boys

hard disagree with the conclusion
they unfortunately have the lowest firepower in the league, yet ALWAYS look good on at least 1 map where its clear they prepped

you wont find a team where its easier to see the coaches impact week for week

Id blame the lack of strats on the fact that this is a roster constantly in flux and that gets farmed on 1-2 maps per week
They have to keep trying to "fix" their entire map pool, since it has to be significantly better than their opponents for them to win
So youre correct in that aspect; it is a failing, yet one I personally dont think any coach could solve in a split (or year for that matter)

I dont think its fair to hold it against them, when their positive impact is SO visible

3€

is it?
team picked apart due to only being able to offer 1 year contracts
batu arriving late and now having to swap duelist due to external factors (twice)

like dont get it wrong, they wouldnt be anywhere close to a good team, but theyve also gotten screwed at every stage

German team probs needs a slight rework to be competitive
also if you keep the same roster then change stvaros to stavinci to make it searchable on vlr

-stvaros +musashi (individual beast and IGL for SGE)
-luckerrr +Kovaq (if we're allowed to steal him) || +Leosen otherwise || +Unfair if you wanna have fun (streamer who farms every time he plays, but doesnt play too many splits)

2-4th in france
staple of france, but the org is cursed to never make t1

ey ey that aint on us
we have the complete meltdowns

tech pauses are still your guys' thing

I do think building around Russ would have been possible with how amazing his split 1 was
and then either LF or Blazeking based on who was more important for the calling structure

wasnt by choice after 2023 tbf
but yea idk why they dont start building a core to iterate on already

Well gotta play both sides here since I agree with the point, but disagree with the outcome
double the post length

Sen will be fine, no question about that imo.

For NRG the concern on map pool could come into effect though
Bringing in a new IGL is exactly why I think its an actual concern, since they dont have a good map pool to fall back on yet
So theyre playing catchup on the new maps while also still developing their "core" strat book on the old maps

However I am also very much reps pilled so I agree that them getting more officials in is a good thing for the team. Regional play gets so muddy that fundamentals are king.
I think that it doesnt quite work as well as in the offseason though (if there are issues you cant see in scrims they dont really have time to fix them), but its better than not getting reps in

The main reason I think it will work for NRG specifically is that their schedule works out well. Also Bonkar is the truth.

well yes its how he acts xD he baits a ton, it gets reactions and he clearly finds it funny af

doesnt stop you from separating his points and the bait though
the actual point he made isnt hard to disagree with either (sideshow for example gave the 2 biggest counter points in the nrg segment), so you can go after that, but dont get hung up on the intentionally over the top things since theres no substance to engage with there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-XdLzHyvco&t=9613s
dont take it seriously when hes intentionally baiting for fun

that being said his main reason (which he doesnt explicitly repeat in the nrg segment) is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-XdLzHyvco&t=9510s

did you watch it though?
cause after the babyrage he does bring up points which are perfectly valid as an analyst

like separate him intentionally ragebaiting ("reason number 1: its funny to see Sen and NRG fans crashout") from his actual concerns

wtf, why is GX doing amazing social media stuff now

wdym? todays (and yesterdays) matches should be showing

vlr wasnt showing t2/gc games while ewc was going on
so its only the post ewc games that show

ewc privileges that no event has ever gotten, or realistically will get again

you gotta finish that thought though
champs is just a glorified qualifiers for the next years regional

so regionals > champs > master
and since we already know ewc > regionals

ewc > regionals > champs > master

no confirmation afaik
however we know that they offered the comp val reddit money to allow ewc coverage (and got denied)
they then went here to advertise their new reddit (vlr just so happened to be fine with that advertisement)

and then "mysteriously" all non NA t2 / GC games stopped showing up while ewc was going on
just compare https://liquipedia.net/valorant/Liquipedia:Matches (swap to completed) to the vlr match history tab

so "no", but yes

Since VLR isnt doing their job... AGAIN

NorthEast is live with their Upper Swiss stage (https://www.vlr.gg/event/2540/challengers-2025-north-east-samsung-odyssey-split-3/upper-swiss-phase)
Schedule for today:
3:00 PM CEST (in 30 mins): https://www.vlr.gg/512241/enterprise-esports-vs-d-ti-ulice-challengers-2025-north-east-samsung-odyssey-split-3-r1
4:00 PM CEST: https://www.vlr.gg/512242/input-lag-enjoyers-vs-extreme-gaming-challengers-2025-north-east-samsung-odyssey-split-3-r1
5:00 PM CEST: https://www.vlr.gg/512243/bitfix-gaming-vs-metizport-challengers-2025-north-east-samsung-odyssey-split-3-r1
6:00 PM CEST: https://www.vlr.gg/512244/bonk-vs-twisted-saints-esports-challengers-2025-north-east-samsung-odyssey-split-3-r1

wont be around when it starts so early post
idek why this is necessary for an official t2 league, but here we are

and you made a post complaining about a misinterpretation of peoples issues?

https://www.vlr.gg/513191/the-issues-with-ewc-summarized

Bro youre just intentionally misunderstanding what people are saying at this point lmao

The criticism isnt that players dont take it seriously, but that ewc doesnt create an environment where they can preform to their max level and fucks up its production.

For an extreme example: You could host the biggest football event of the year, invite the best teams and set the biggest prizepool ever. If you then decide that their playing field is gonna be a swimming pool, your event wont be taken seriously as the next big thing in football.

THAT is what people are complaining about.
It was built top down instead of bottom up. Event sounds great on paper but once you look inside it somehow manages to have more issues than the understaffed and underfunded t2 leagues.

no, if its to be on the level of a vct event (or for my comparison RBHG) then the quals matter

If Riot just decided to invite 10 of the 16 teams at champs it would be a micky mouse event
as such looking at how the teams got there is essential for determining if it is a good format

Teams with Subs/Trials that didnt end up getting signed
I excluded players which were playing on rosters before they were announced. Ya can do that work yourself if you care.
AG
XLG (x2)
BLG
JDG
Trace
PRX
KRÜ
2G
G2
FUR
APK

go look at the qualifiers^^

prizepool does not matter whatsoever to make a good event
"Youre a horrible person"
"Who cares, look at my car!"

and did you watch the qualifiers? youre only sliiiiiightly off with 2 teams

online
scheduling nightmare
inconsistent and badly designed formats
tons of teams playing without full rosters + multiple teams using it to trial players
different patch to the ones teams are scrimming on
not part of vct

Basically the only reason you get to claim this is on the same level of VCT is if you also consider Red Bull Home Ground to be worth a masters.

Gosh dang, how much are they paying?

This is not the example you need to show that bo1s are good. Its quite the opposite since it doesnt even attempt to understand why bo1s are useful.
We've had PLENTY better implementations in t2 already and people have still disliked them.

The reason you would do bo1's is to speed up aspects of large group stages. Either to increase the amount of teams that can participate (1) or to use it to increase accuracy of the format in a shorter time frame (2) that cant fit a full bo3 round robin

(1) Look at https://www.vlr.gg/event/2540/challengers-2025-north-east-samsung-odyssey-split-3/lower-swiss-phase for example.
This is how you use bo1s in an eliminating format. 3 wins/losses, only qualifying/eliminating games are bo3.
The bo1 allow for far more teams to partake, while choosing (pseudo) swiss as the format (isnt punished as badly by the inaccuracies of bo1s).

(2) You can also do full bo1 round robin group stages where the idea is to maximize the amount of games in a shorter split. This allows the format to reward the consistent teams without being influence by a lucky group draw (see this years vct format for a bad example).
https://www.vlr.gg/event/2389/challengers-2025-t-rkiye-birlik-split-2/league-phase

EWC just fails at all the positives I talked about. It doesnt understand what bo1s can do. It (very on brand with the rest of the event tbh) just wants to go for the biggest numbers possible, without giving 2 shits about the competitive design of their event.

this is our split for sure :)

from what angle are you approaching it though?

Pure fragging, round to round impact, team impact, (each of them except only internationally,) or something else?
cause each of them will lead you to VERY different top 10 lists

The big case for F0rsaken is that hes a glue player that will fill any role the team needs him to, while putting up the best stats of his team and being one of their most vocal players (possibly qualifying as igl nowerdays?)
Combine this with the fact that PRX have attended the most internationals and you have yourself a reasonable candidate for top 5, or even top 3

Itll just come down to your personal weighting of various factors

the last time* we had a bo1 tourney xms ended up as the best player in t2

(*I dont actually know if it was the last time and cba to check)

even vlr's only Guild supporter isnt around anymore https://www.vlr.gg/user/Minte :(
rigged by clout

idk
I think it is since he has aspas level stats (post franchising) and has been in t1 since 2020

but Guild just wasnt successful enough to make internationals, so his only success is from his short stay with fnc
theres just so many options that Im not sure if Id have him on my own list in a week ngl

edit: o saw whos 9th and 8th, ok I think its insane

youre looking at Rating2.0 instead of watching arent you?

Rewatch TL vs GX Fracture for example
Game with mid af stats but one of the best smokes impacts we had in EMEA all tourney

(If you prefer using "objective" methods like stats, then add Rar into your evaluation too though - captures impact a lot better than Rating2.0, but since its blackbox its harder to understand its biases)

also nowhere near as bad as people "remember" in t1
split 1 2024 was great, kickoff 2024 was good and kickoff 2025 was very comparable to peoples favorites like Xeus

problem is Stage 1 2025 and Stage 2 2024 happened so unlucky

50% of the time, hes great every time

Tier 2 games don't get updated on time (especially Turkish games and Turkish 3rd party tournaments)

Slow updates are fine imo. Thats an api thing and you cant expect a human to take care of it all the time. Ofc faster would be better, but its not the end of the world.

However we very regularly have t2 games not show at all and (except for some NA) t3 never does
For example North//East had its Stage 3 start start today. Yea they didnt show up here. Official T2.

This NEEDS to be fixed

Ranking system's been shit since launch

Worst part is VLR has been informed by multiple teams over the years how the broken ranking is causing harm to t2.
Its completely worthless as is, so why keep something that makes getting signed for t2 teams harder?

And lastly a subjective opinion, the site just looks bad. maybe make a visual update

Idk probs just biased in the opposite direction but I dont mind the "older" look
Its functional and doesnt take away from the content hosted on here
Thats 10/10 nowadays

Sideshow had a nice spreadsheet for it

If you include pre fanchising EMEA still farms everyone
But post franchising its Americas >= Pacific >> EMEA > China in terms of average placements at internationals

wouldnt overall (so all of vct) performance be better for greatest player though?

teams dont spawn into those internationals and f0rsaken making more than double the amount t3xture has should be notable imo
overall stats start to tell that story