That was one exiting game. Group was stacked with 3 solid teams and only 2 slots, so one had to go. GG

Honestly, it can stay franchised and implement something like that. Like a big Last Chance tournament for lower half of franchised teams and champions of ascention for couple of slots, then everybody goes back to playing whenever they are. Still much more opportunities for franchised teams to get in as a result.

I mean, he asked about "GC equivalent", and that's closest there is atm. And that's better than what was before it - just some occasional tourneys in the same place as some kind of main one, and I glad that covid killed that format now, since Impact was created. Although right after covid it looked like a death of female scene with nothing to play.

While true, it is vastly different formats. One is a year-round point-based circuit, the other is just a bunch of tourneys put in a around half a year league, with last one being a battle of top-3 placements of regional tournaments, one per region.

There are ESL Impact tournaments for female teams. But all the "male competition" tournaments actually are not separate, it's just that no female team can qualify through open qualifiers or lower tier tournaments (or even to lower tier tournament for that matter unless given special slot specifically for female team usually).

Female teams can play anything: Majors, Blasts, IEMs, EPLs, you name it, there's no rule that says "only guys can play here, sorry". It's just that they don't make it.

I think that head to head should show matchups between cores instead of an orgs. Especially now after so many teams and players ended up in different organizations. Because it's not like current Na'Vi have almost anything to do with previous one. Or Giants, or plenty of other teams.

The thought came to me after I saw h2h for this match
https://www.vlr.gg/159029/natus-vincere-vs-team-vitality-g-loot-valorant-clash-grand-finals-sf

Well, that's a late response, sorry to all the people for bumping this thread. I don't think it's mostly skill based, more of a "do you have all the characters for competitive comp", sure, you need to know how exactly they work, but still. Not even mentioning cheating problem. But that's a useless argument, to each their own.

Tbf, I kept Genshin interesting for me by not investing heavily in only 2 comps for clearing abyss, not a single character I have is even crowned. Because since the beginning I understood that grinding the same domain for a possibility that random will give you slightly better artifact to increase my "damage per screenshot" is not for me. Instead it's a playground of unique interactions between abilities, some even deemed useless by the meta players (hell, I used Kequing and Ember combo at one point by doing Ember ultimate and teleporting inside for overloads, which also deemed a useless reaction, but it was fun), so I would never understand the point of view of people who only played the game by grinding artifacts for their "Rational" and "Double hydro Hutao" or something and saw nothing more in game.

BUT, I do understand that people who wanted MMO or co-op from Genshin finally found the game that does it, even if it's a very poorly made game by a very greedy publisher. I do understand that some people find lack of powercreep in Genshin frustrating because they don't find a reason to pull for new units since they're "not definitely unarguably better than what I already have" because those players want numbers, not characters, and that's normal as well, to each their own. I just hope that one day ToF will either be fixed, polished, annoying time gates will be removed, cheating problem resolved (because being teleported out of arena to death is not fun, you know) or a really good game takes the niche of "multiplayer Genshin" in the future.

It's probably an unpopular opinion, but I hate the "endgame content" the way ToF and some other gacha games do it. PvP arenas and rewards dependent on position on some kind of leaderboard in games where money can, and for whales will, buy you all the means you need to be on top if you choose so, while others just have to face how much better the payers are in PvP and they also get more rewards.

Sure, I know that it's "balanced" since all the characters are same level or some shit, but some characters are just way better, if the game will go the way how it is in China, some character and/or combinations WILL be infinitely better than others, it's really like only 1-2 comps are competitive at the same time as far as I know. But I guess everything gets added to standard banner after like 4 months of being limited, so that could negate it a bit, unless someone even more OP shows up at that time.

Don't forget that they have to make money. And if they give you all the SSR in the first 2 weeks or so of playing - that's a red flag, because most likely they will be powecrept, because they need to make players spend.

So they're trying this "project blueprint" thing again in different game? We'll still to see results in CS (although they're definitely playing better than with Stewie rn).

To me it feels like an elaborate way to call an academy team tbh. At least that's how I see EG.B and EG.W in CS, where one experienced washed up player shares experience with youngsters (Rush, stanislaw in Black) and other is just weird tier-2 NA CS team, but it's cool if they want to cover more tournaments with their brand.

I expect something similar here, either "main team and academy" or "main team and lower tier team for more exposure"

I like these kinds of topics where the most downvoted comments probably the ones to actually be true since they show amount salty fans. At the same time, the most upvoted probably wrong, since it show that people don't think those players are particularly good. Sure, some downvoted are baits, but upvoted in these kind of posts simply cannot be true.

Also it seems like people here don't understand that some utility in CS needs to be pixel perfect and sometimes that includes movement, jumping, crouching and any combination of those as well, even the most common ones on high level like Mirage windows smoke from T spawn, or how some people throw utility on Dust 2 B site from little holes on the ceiling in tunnel, wall of smokes on Nuke outside, which requires 3 very accurate smokes if you don't want to be seen, smoke on the ledge on Dust 2 short. If we include maps that are not in the competitive map pool now then NiP smokes on Cbble, Train utility was pretty crazy in general considering how little space was there to work with for Ts, some stuff on Cache was flying like halfway across the map.

Will be supporting the old dog Ange1 till the day he decides to end his career most likely.
In short, FPX

With Turkey? There's like 0 problems with Turkey (or at least very close to 0). But since Ukraine is at war and Ange1 is between 18 and 60, there might be problems with him leaving the country. He still has his visa though, it's in FPX article here on vlr.

Just in case. As far as I know, Ange1 might be a bit late, but still in time for the games, just later than the rest of the team.

Oshi no Ko

Yeah, I know. The point is that Renegades dropped CS as a game, while Order didn't. And now Order looks to sell the whole org. If we're thinking Renegades buying the whole thing, then there's a question if they want to keep CS roster or they will only buy part of the org and either drop these guys again or try to sell them to someone.

IF Order will be looking at selling rosters to different orgs and not itself as whole, then Renegades could buy only Val roster if they're interested. But as of now, Order trying to sell itself as a whole.

Well, probably no on that one. Because it's not only Valorant team that struggles, but an org as a whole. And just last year Renegades dropped CSGO and 4/5 went to ORDER, so at the very least if Renegades are up for this, they won't buy all rosters I believe.

Edit: if you're talking only Valorant team, then it's a possibility, but rn they're trying to sell org as a whole as far as I understand.

We don't know that for sure tbh.
Maybe there were some local chinese LANs that we just never heard of.

Actually could kind of work

He achieved major quarters with players so inconsistent that 2 major runs is basically all they have, because outside of that they were losing a bunch of qualifiers to tier 2 tournaments, because the only consistently good player was roeJ. Jabbi, Zyphon and nicoodoz could all decide not to show up sometimes.

So I guess we'll if his system have given birth to that inconsistency and major runs just kind of lucky (or the only thing those players cared for) or players were shit.

Kind of true. Even Cloud9 gave up on NA players. FaZe didn't even tried with NA players (aside from Twistzz, of course, and he is relatively new to the roster, so). Optic gave up on NA in 2018 and later CS as a whole. And EG is a joke.

Oh yeah, there was also a 100Thieves team. That disbanded before playing any official match, but that was SA as far as I remember. Aussies did OK under that banner.

Is BIG bigger than MOUZ right now? If Riot is looking for history in e-sport and sustainability - MOUZ should be out there. But if they decided to stay in regional and not going into franchising than I guess BIG is second by a long shot.

While true, but so did Ange1 (that one is on new at the time CEO imo, but fact is still there, still wasn't a title contender after like Astana Dragons tbh, but bringing several teams to consistent top 15 is still an achievement), Scream, TenZ. Also like half of top NA that were tier 2 in NA CS really and who knows, maybe they would have continued the grind if ESIC didn't announced NA ESEA matchfixing investigation, still no results on that one, but damage was done.

It really depends on if player was any decent in CS to begin with. We definitely don't want any new 1mpalas, who just thought that any CS experience will instantly bring him to the top, but new Ange1s, Screams or TenZes? Why not?

Guy lived in his own world. Meaning that it feels like winning the only NA Major and Liquid's IGS run probably got to his head. But he also had his failures in SK/MiBR and jumped back in Liquid. But that EG one was so catastrophic, especially considering EVY interview, that I wouldn't be surprised that his ego was crushed.

If they have enough publicity that is. Don't forget that franchising comes in 2023 as well, so they can't just jump into a mix, showoff a bit and get the offer if they're not someone big.

I understand that, but I also don't see any non region locked team dropping their entire roster rn from that list. Maybe Excel. Less likely Heretics and Giants, but those not being French and Iberian is weird to me but they somehow already are.

So FPX org to China, but out of these orgs, if you are correct, who's gonna pick up roster? No way those players, same goes for players in Acend, won't make it. If Heroic picks up M3C, that means only Rogue here are without roster or region, or did I miss someone? And we have 2 rosters to pick up.

Yeah. Interesting thing about this one is that Gambit had 2 rosters in Dota simultaneously. One was AS Monaco Gambit and other was just Gambit.

Not only that, but as time passes people accumulate a lot of experience, while their aim and reaction times usually get slower, but they become better at reading opponents, not micromoments like in clutch situations, but as a macro.

PRX remind me of 2014-2015 fnatic in a sense. Just running in and outshooting everyone, although pronax did occasionally counter strat his opponents tbf. Sadly for them it was working for fnatic 7 years ago. It could have worked, but it looks like they underestimated just how much experience can give. They actually started adapting in the last 2 maps I would say, so they will return stronger, but not as "fun" as previously.

I mean, if he streams 8 hours a day and for example has scrims that he's not streaming, and let's assume he also has some kind of life and needs to do some daily chores and also get good sleep, I would say he doesn't do that or dedicates really small amount of time to that. Probably dumped it out on coach or analyst completely.

Don't remind me of that. I'm still fucking furious at Magician for what he's done. Destroyed CS team to focus on Dota, changed the amazing logo for those angry eyebrows. And after Dota team didn't make it to International from last chance qualifier, where they lost in lower to Spirit I believe, reigning champions, he just fucking left.

Didn't help Acend according to rumors at least.

Have been supporting the old man Ange1 since 2015.

You see, if you wanna run'n'gun, you go play CoD DM, Quake or something like that. Doesn't always work in games where you have to control territory, but should be good in those.

No worries, that will be their lesson if they lose the whole thing, but if they're not adapting now I'm afraid that if they win they'll might become even more aggressive, thinking that not enough aggression lost them those maps.

Tournament organizer in that case. And since it's Major that means they had Valve backup here. Also a third-party platform for competitive play.

Still have to die first though.

Wait, people actually like Zeta logo?

I mean, I can see the influence of some high fashion logos in that one, but I don't really like those either.

Tbf, I don't know of any NA league in sport that isn't franchised. That's just how they operate.

Also probably they were paying way too much in hopes of making it return after getting franchised. Looks like they had no backup plan maybe.

He was entrying with a rifle while IGLing for most his career. Let the man do what he knows how to do. If he dies he just gives all the info he got from going in first and coordinates.

Also that means he often has to face OPs/AWPs (you know, since he did so in CS as well) or multiple opponents, so that's where it comes from.

I will be very surprised if they or any of the FaZe, TSM, Cloud9, Optic and NRG won't make it. There's just no way they don't if the idea behind it is to bring in fans of big esport orgs to watch.

If you gonna win, you should be ready to win everyone. You can be unlucky if someone goes nuts against you. But you can't get "unlucky matchups" if you want to win event.

That's a crowdfunding mistake though. It has these crazy numbers because players give it them for this purpose. And they kinda can't go back now to revive the scene.

CS did it better with sticker capsules where money from buying those goes to all the teams/players included there. Although that's basically a sticker lootbox. But long history before that probably also helps a lot.

I mean, it's good if you're as a company that runs tournaments chasing viewers and not the highest level of play and healthy scene.

I really hope there's promotion/relegation system or some kind of benefit for different event organizers except Riot themselves to be in this. Otherwise it's gonna be same players in different orgs for years and if something from tier-2 stays it's gonna be a shitshow where players only want to show their individual skill so "big boy" orgs pick them up one day maybe.

Also I can only hope that it doesn't lead into a cycle of "we didn't promote this season to have a chance at making it at this season's Masters, disband and reorganize every half a year until we do so", that's just not interesting to me. I prefer to follow either players or specific cores, not orgs where the only story in that case will be "finally they picked up the right combination of players".

valorant esports has now matured past the explosive growth phase and we can finally expect some sustainability

Well damn, somebody tell that to CS, they didn't mature in like 25 years now. Yes, there are franchised leagues, even 2 in fact and third one died. All of those by third parties and 2 alive still has either regional qualifiers or promotion system. But the main circuit is still completely open, there's even no invites unless you did something last time.

Have to add some stuff about franchising in CS. Assuming you're talking BLAST and EPL here. The thing with those is that they still offer couple of slots for the teams that qualify from lower tier tournaments or local qualifiers, so in the end there are teams who make it in and even some Cinderella stories still happen (Movistar Riders at last EPL) in those.

While the the most important tournaments - Majors, are still open for all, no "pay to play", no invites, much like Champions right now, with circuit points per regions and all that. That keeps lower tiers alive as well, since teams can breakthrough to the top tournament.

All of that, and a fuckton of smaller tournaments keeps the scene very healthy. Hell, CS right now even has specific Academy League ran by one of the event organizers.

So I really hope that Riot don't fuck it up and close the access for those who cannot pay completely. They should somehow still find a way to attract tournament organizers. Otherwise it could end up like Dota some years ago, when nobody cared about anything except qualifying for The International and disbanding after a year if they couldn't achieve it, sometimes disbanding even after a half a year if they didn't qualify for Major (basically Masters in Valorant). And that happened there with open format as well, so it's not panacea in any means. At least there are some other tournaments now, but disband circle still present.

Also would like for Champions to remain open, but that's probably just wishful thinking.

Because their coach or IGL at the time didn't put them in the right roles. Ardiis is an op now, wasn't the case in G2. koldamenta was initiator, now he's controller. Zeek continues to play what fits best.

So long story short - bench pipsoN, bench mixwell, maybe bench some kind of team manager if they have a power in role distribution process and what players to pick or kick.

I understand that my flair checks out and all that, but some Fnatic fans should probably learn that nothing is eternal and one day this winstreak against FPX will end. Will it be this match, one at Champions or some other one? Who knows, that's a fun part of rivalries.

Because that's how double elimination brackets work in every sport. It switches up in lower after the first round so there won't be any rematches until last round of lower bracket before finals.