title, a few months ago he was on XERXIA and he was playing pretty well

https://www.vlr.gg/167848/thailand-attitude-vs-xerxia-esports-challengers-league-thailand-split-1-w6 this was the last official match he played and he went +23 over 3 maps with 291 ACS and a 1.31 rating

https://twitter.com/XERXIAESPORTS/status/1641696835491250178 they released him over a month later with no explanation

does anyone know what happened to him?

saying team A only won because team B choked takes away from team A's accomplishment is my point

NRG earned their win over TL, just like FNC earned their 3-0 sweep over EG

i clearly never said FNC wouldn't have won, I just said by his exact same logic the only reason FNC won 3-0 was because EG choked

yeah EG choked and wouldn't have gotten 3-0'd because EG was up 12-7 on bind in third map after which they lost 7 rounds in a row.

didn't EG 13-2 TL

so the only reason FNC closed out the series 3-0 was because EG choked then right? just want to make sure we're on the same page

Before anyone comments about it, yes I purposely excluded VIT from this conversation. They were a solid team this year and the Twisten situation is a tragedy, may he rest in peace. But since VIT has withdrawn from the EMEA LCQ, and I'm mostly talking about the extra LCQ slot specifically, there isn't really a point in discussing them.

EMEA as a region is not strong and it's not good for the quality of competition at Champs that EMEA is getting the extra LCQ slot

how did EMEA perform at Tokyo?
FNC went 4-0 (champions, 1st place)
NAVI went 0-2 (11th-12th place)
FUT went 1-2 (9th-10th place)
TL went 1-2 (5th-6th place)
for a total of 6-6 and a 50% winrate. other than FNC, the rest of EMEA went 2-6 and their only wins came against China (FUT 2-1 ASE, TL 2-1 EDG)

i'm going to start with an NA comparison and then extend it to include BR/LATAM as well, i'm only doing this because a lot of the trash talking and comparisons are between EMEA and NA specifically, not between EMEA and Americas as a whole
how did NA perform at Tokyo?
EG went 5-2 (runner-up, 2nd place)
NRG went 4-2 (4th place)
for a total of 9-3 and a 75% winrate.
even including LOUD going 0-2 (7th-8th place), Americas as a whole went 9-5 with a ~64% winrate.

how did Pacific perform at Tokyo?
PRX went 3-2 (3rd place)
DRX went 2-3 (7th-8th place)
T1 went 1-2 (9th-10th place)
for a total of 6-7 and a ~46% winrate.

how did China perform at Tokyo?
EDG went 3-3 (5th-6th place)
ASE went 0-2 (11th-12th place)
for a total of 3-5 and a 37.5% winrate.

while FNC is undoubtedly the strongest team in the world at the moment and they rightfully deserve the Masters trophy, I think that EMEA honestly doesn't deserve them. if you're going to have a team that wins to give your region an extra slot you would expect a lot more from the rest of the region, at least a better performance than 2-6 from the other 3 teams.

looking at the quality of competition in the LCQ too, EMEA's seems to honestly be the least competitive. NAVI is clearly the favorite (despite flopping at Tokyo), and GIA is probably the favorite to take home the second spot, but not necessarily because GIA is really that good but because the rest of the region just kind of... sucks? KCORP, KOI, and TH have been some of the biggest jokes in the franchising league so far, and while BBL has impressed at times there's a reason they only managed to go 3-6. and... that's it? that covers the entirety of the EMEA LCQ competition, NAVI is almost guaranteed to take a spot while the other spot will almost certainly go to GIA or MAYBE BBL if they can somehow pull off the upset

the bottom of the other regions is obviously not great either, DFM and KRU are 0-18 combined and MIBR managed to look even worse than KRU for most of the season, but I honestly think they are pretty comparable to KOI/KC/TH. sure those teams might have 2 wins each, but when you match two trashcans against each other someone has to win right?

looking at the favorites for each region, the clear favorite in Americas is C9, the clear favorite in EMEA is NAVI, and in PAC it's not really clear at all but based on playoff results it would probably be Gen.G. but what would the other regions have had to offer with the EXTRA LCQ slot, OTHER than the favorite?

Americas has LEV/FUR to offer as decently solid teams with potential, with SEN/100T being possible sleepers (if they get their shit together).
Pacific has TS/ZETA as pretty solid teams as well, and other than DFM all of the other teams have shown some potential too, even 9th place TLN started to heat up near the end of league play.
EMEA has Giants i guess? and... BBL as a somewhat okay sleeper?
(remember I'm excluding the favorites to win LCQ from these lists since this is referring to the second LCQ slot)
I might be biased but I would definitely take LEV/FUR or TS/ZETA over GIA/BBL.

TL;DR: FNC is an amazing team and I'm glad to see them succeed, it's just kind of disappointing that they're earning their region extra spots when the rest of their region frankly just seems undeserving of them and doesn't seem like they're up to the level of the other regions

couple corrections:
lotus was 13-3, not 13-2
article says Derke's best map was Lotus where he dropped seven kills, should say first kills instead

the Americas LCQ spots will go to C9 and 100T

EDWARD IS GAMING TONIGHT

it's kind of the opposite actually, when he played duelist frequently he would overheat and play way too aggressive, switching to a more supportive role has helped keep him in check

he said himself in a press conference that on duelist he would kind of just turn his brain off and shoot people, and now he's forced to think more and play smarter

for Life:

You are the only member on your team that has played Valorant at an international LAN before; how is your team handling the nerves of their first international competition and do you think that your prior experience is helping your preparation?

for ANGE1 and/or doombros:

NaVi have been playing with a variety of different compositions throughout the split, and more recently you have been playing Yoru on multiple maps, an agent that most teams tend to avoid. Two questions: 1) Have the repeated composition adjustments been purposeful to try to surprise or throw opponents off guard, or were they more experimental to try and innovate and evolve their play as the season progressed? 2) What has drawn NaVi to integrating Yoru into your compositions recently, and how do you feel about the team's overall play with the Yoru pick as well as cNed's comfort on the agent?

the end of the article still lists zeek as part of their current roster

I READ ALLAT!

with seeding for tokyo finalized, we know which teams will be in the group stage:

Americas: NRG and EG
EMEA: FUT and NaVi
Pacific: DRX and T1
China: ASE and EDG

what are your guys' power rankings of these 8 teams? which 4 do you think will make it to playoffs? my current guess would be NRG, NaVi, DRX, and T1, but it would depend on how the groups are drawn

BuZz

-Bstrdd +BuZz

4-way ties do not go by H2H according to the tiebreaker listed in the post

this would also mess up some of the BBL scenarios: you said that with a BBL loss, they can still qualify with a TH and GIA win, but the scenario I mentioned above has that exact scenario and has TH moving through to playoffs in 6th over BBL

I could be wrong, but I don't think KC needs to beat Giants for TH to make playoffs. All they need is for it to be a 4 or more way tie right? In that case, in addition to TH and FUT winning, wouldn't having either KC or KOI winning create the 4-way tie, allowing TH to make playoffs?

ex: TH 2-0 VIT, FUT 2-0 BBL, KOI 2-0 TL, GIA 2-0 KC
TH 3-6 (-3)
KOI 3-6 (-5)
VIT 3-6 (-6)
BBL 3-6 (-6)

even with KC losing to Giants, TH can still qualify in this scenario right?

I double-checked and his listed scenarios are wrong. I'll disprove one of them to show it.

It says that if SEN beats FUR, EG beats NRG, and LOUD beats LEV, then nothing else is required. So then even if 100T beats MIBR, SEN should qualify right? Wrong.

With this tie, we get:
LOUD/C9/NRG/EG/100T get top 5 spots with 5-4 or better records
SEN/FUR/LEV tied for 6th place at 4-5

Since SEN beat FUR, FUR beat LEV, and LEV beat SEN, no team has a H2H advantage against each other, so the next tiebreaker is map differential. LEV is guaranteed to have the highest map differential of the 3 teams, so they would win the tiebreaker, and SEN would not qualify.

the sheet he uses says that it does not evaluate ties past match H2H

In the recent VLR article about EMEA playoffs eutalyx clarified that according to VIT coach Strong 4+-way tiebreaks do not use H2H tiebreakers and instead go directly to overall map/round differential. In my previous post I made about NA playoff scenarios, I was not aware of this since it was not officially published anywhere else to my knowledge. This does somewhat simplify things, so here are the new playoff scenarios. (unfortunately it seems like it is not possible for all of NA to make playoffs with these tiebreaker rules).

LOUD and Cloud9
LOUD and C9 have secured top 2 seeds and therefore first-round byes. LOUD will finish with the 1st seed with either of the following results:

• LOUD win vs. LEV

OR

• Cloud9 loss vs. KRÜ

With a LOUD loss and a C9 win, C9 will take the 1st seed while LOUD drops to the 2nd seed.

NRG Esports
At 5-3, NRG has secured a playoff berth, and can finish between 3rd and 5th place. A win vs. EG will secure them the 3rd seed.

NRG is guaranteed to fall to 4th/5th place with the following results:

• EG win vs. NRG
• MIBR win vs. 100T
• SEN win vs. FUR

In this scenario, a LEV win vs. LOUD will send NRG to 5th place, while a LOUD win will keep NRG in 4th.

There are other scenarios in which NRG can fall to 4th place via a 4+-way tiebreaker. This requires:

• EG win vs. NRG
• LEV win vs. LOUD
• 100T win vs. MIBR and/or FUR win vs. SEN

Depending on the scores of the NRG vs. EG and LEV vs. LOUD matches, LEV could win the map/round differential tiebreaker over NRG, sending NRG to 4th. Otherwise, NRG will place 3rd.

Leviatán, 100 Thieves, FURIA, Evil Geniuses
All 4 of these teams are currently sitting at 4-4, and most will LIKELY secure a playoff birth with a win and a 5-4 record. However, in the scenario where all 4 of these teams win their match, there will be a 5-way tie for the 4 remaining playoff spots, and one team will be left out.

According to the tiebreaker rules, map differential is used first for 4+-way ties, but they also say that if ties reduce to 2-3 teams, "utilize appropriate tie-breakers above", likely referring to the 2 and 3-way tiebreakers. NRG and LEV will be the first two teams to advance, since they are both guaranteed to have higher map differentials than the other 3 teams.

Even though 100T is guaranteed to have the worst map differential of the 5 teams, if they are not automatically eliminated because of this, then in the following 3-way tie between 100T, EG, and FUR, the first tiebreaker is H2H amongst the tied teams, which would advance 100T (2-1 H2H) and FUR (1-1 H2H) while eliminating EG (0-2 H2H).

I believe that in the case of a 5-way tie, EG would be eliminated, but if I happen to be wrong about the tiebreaker process, 100T could be eliminated due to map differential in the 5-way tie. For any following scenarios, I will assume that 4+-way ties do indeed default to the 2 or 3-way H2H tiebreaker once ties are reduced after teams advance.

Therefore, Leviatán, FURIA, and 100T can secure playoff berths with a win against their respective opponents, whereas EG will secure a playoff berth with a win vs. NRG and a loss by at least one of LEV, FUR, or 100T.

Any of these teams can still secure a playoff berth even with a loss, but will need some help from other teams. I might edit this post later with these scenarios.

Sentinels
Sentinels must win against FURIA to keep their chances at a playoff berth alive, but will also need some help. They are currently in 8th, and cannot fall further, but can climb up to 5th.

Sentinels can clinch a playoff berth with:

• SEN win vs. FUR

AND one of the three scenarios below:

• EG win vs. NRG + 100T loss vs. MIBR
• EG loss vs. NRG + 100T win vs. MIBR, but SEN must win 2-0 and EG must lose 0-2
• EG loss vs. NRG + 100T loss vs. MIBR, but SEN must win 2-0 and/or EG must lose 1-2*

SEN will receive the 6th seed in most of these scenarios. The only way they can secure the 5th seed is with the 3rd scenario, but only if SEN wins 2-0 and EG loses 0-2. If none of these scenarios occur, then SEN will receive either the 7th or 8th seed.

*If EG loses 0-2 and SEN wins 2-1, FUR will win the 5th seed and SEN will lose the 3-way tie against EG/100T due to map differential. If SEN wins 2-1, EG must only lose 1-2 so that they win the 5th seed in the 4-way tie, and SEN would then win the 3-way tie against 100T/FUR due to H2H. If SEN wins 2-0, then they will either win the 5th or 6th seed through map differential, 5th if EG loses 0-2 and 6th if EG loses 1-2. There is technically a scenario where EG losing 1-2 is not enough for SEN to qualify, but this would require insane results in both the SEN-FUR and EG-NRG matchups that somehow lead to FUR overtaking EG in round differential, which is incredibly unlikely.

MIBR
At 2-6, MIBR is locked into 9th place. While they can tie at 3-6 with SEN if SEN loses vs. FUR and MIBR wins vs. 100T, SEN defeated MIBR and therefore has the H2H advantage.

KRÜ Esports
At 0-8, KRÜ Esports is locked into 10th place. Even with a win against Cloud9, which seems unlikely at this point, KRÜ has nothing to play for.

thank you!

also, you edited the scenarios for BBL to include a scenario where they can lose and qualify, but you left in the line "For BBL to reach the playoffs, they must win against FUT."

I haven't been able to find a source other than Liquipedia that shows tiebreaker rules, and Liquipedia only goes to 3-way ties. Where did you find the official tiebreaker rules?

yes, basically whenever I'm talking about H2H records for teams that are tied I'm referring to their record against all the other teams they're tied with

but imo
1st at masters + 2nd at champions + 3rd at masters > 1st at champions + 2nd at masters + 13-16th (tied for last place) at masters

you can't ignore OPTC's bronze medal at Copenhagen just because LOUD got grouped and ended in last place

YEAH LET ME GET CHATGPT TO SUMMARIZE MATH!

oh yeah it is highly unlikely to happen for sure, but that's the only way NA can send all 5 teams to playoffs so

EDIT: IT TURNS OUT ALL OF THIS IS WRONG, LIQUIPEDIA DID NOT LIST THE TIEBREAK RULES FOR 4+ WAY TIES SO I ASSUMED THAT THE 3-WAY TIE RULES WOULD APPLY. I'LL UPDATE THE REST OF THIS POST SHORTLY.

after the results from today (SEN 2-0 KRU, NRG 2-0 LOUD), this scenario is now more likely.

the results that still need to happen are:
LEV loss vs. C9
LEV loss vs. LOUD
100T loss vs. MIBR
SEN win vs. FUR
either EG win vs. NRG OR SEN 2-0 FUR

this set of results will send all 5 NA teams to the playoffs, eliminating FUR and LEV via tiebreaks.

ALL GOOD HAVE A GREAT DAY

i specifically put the explanation in a separate comment so people would at least read what needs to happen but i can't escape the allat

thanks for commenting it on the explanation and not the post, W

i'm a bored math major

BRO CAN'T READ 200 WORDS!

BRO CAN'T READ 200 WORDS!

EDIT: IT TURNS OUT ALL OF THIS MIGHT BE WRONG, LIQUIPEDIA DID NOT LIST THE TIEBREAK RULES FOR 4+ WAY TIES SO I ASSUMED THAT THE 3-WAY TIE RULES WOULD APPLY. ACCORDING TO THE RECENT POST ABOUT EMEA PLAYOFF SCENARIOS IT SEEMS THAT 4+ WAY TIES MIGHT BE JUST DECIDED BY OVERALL MAP/ROUND DIFFERENTIAL. LEAVING THESE POSTS UP JUST IN CASE.

while it's unlikely, the scenario isn't really that crazy if you think about it.

C9 and LOUD beating LEV and SEN beating KRU are probably the expected results as of now.
SEN having to beat FUR is a challenge but FUR looked very sloppy against 100T earlier so it's definitely possible.
NRG only needs to beat LOUD if they lose to EG. the expected result is likely NRG beating EG which would require SEN to beat FUR 2-0, which again is a tough challenge but not unrealistic.

the craziest thing that would need to happen is actually MIBR beating 100T which seems very unlikely at this point considering how badly MIBR just got stomped by EG.

EDIT: IT TURNS OUT ALL OF THIS MIGHT BE WRONG, LIQUIPEDIA DID NOT LIST THE TIEBREAK RULES FOR 4+ WAY TIES SO I ASSUMED THAT THE 3-WAY TIE RULES WOULD APPLY. ACCORDING TO THE RECENT POST ABOUT EMEA PLAYOFF SCENARIOS IT SEEMS THAT 4+ WAY TIES MIGHT BE JUST DECIDED BY OVERALL MAP/ROUND DIFFERENTIAL. LEAVING THESE POSTS UP JUST IN CASE.

LONG EXPLANATION + MATH INCOMING, FEEL FREE TO IGNORE!

the final standings for scenario 1 would be:
LOUD 8-1
C9 8-1 or 7-2
EG 5-4
NRG 5-4
SEN 4-5 (2-1 H2H)
100T 4-5 (2-1 H2H)
LEV 4-5 (1-2 H2H)
FUR 4-5 (1-2 H2H)
MIBR 3-6
KRU 0-9 or 1-8

this would be a 4-way tie for the 5th and 6th seeds, and the first tiebreaker would be H2H record which would send 100T and SEN through since they have 2-1 H2H records against LEV and FUR's 1-2 H2H records. the playoff seeding would be LOUD #1, C9 #2, EG #3, NRG #4, SEN #5, and 100T #6.

the reason that 100T has to lose to MIBR to fall into the tiebreaker because otherwise the 3-way tie between SEN, LEV, and FUR would go to map differential since they would all be 1-1 against each other, and LEV is guaranteed to have a higher map differential than SEN.

NRG also must win against LOUD in this scenario. EDIT: this has already happened! if NRG had lost vs. LOUD and ended up falling into the tiebreaker, then NRG would have expanded the tie to a 5-way tie, and that part of the standings would have looked like this:
NRG 4-5 (3-1 H2H)
100T/SEN/LEV 4-5 (2-2 H2H)
FUR 4-5 (1-3 H2H)

i believe that this would have put NRG into playoffs and eliminated FUR, leaving the last 2 spots to be determined by map differential between 100T, SEN, and LEV. however, LEV would be guaranteed to have a higher map differential than either of the other 2 teams, leaving either 100T or SEN to be eliminated, so that is why scenario 1 required NRG to beat LOUD to avoid falling into the tiebreaker, even though NRG themselves would have been fine either way.

the final standings for scenario 2 would be similar, but the tie would be between:
100T 4-5 (3-1 H2H)
EG 4-5 (2-2 H2H)
SEN 4-5 (2-2 H2H)
FUR 4-5 (2-2 H2H)
LEV 4-5 (1-3 H2H)

i believe that this would put 100T into playoffs and eliminate LEV, leaving the last 2 spots to be determined by map differential between SEN, EG, and FUR.

in this scenario, SEN, EG and FUR will all have a map differential of -2 or -1. this means that SEN has to beat FUR 2-0, since if they win 2-1 then FUR will have a -1 and SEN will have a -2, but if they win 2-0 then FUR will have a -2 while SEN has a -1.

edit: SEN won 2-0 vs. KRU eliminating the round differential scenario, so I've removed that from the explanation. if SEN beats FUR, one of the two teams will have a higher map differential than the other.

EG is also guaranteed to win either the map differential or round differential tiebreaker against FUR in this scenario (even if they lose 26-0 to NRG they will still have a higher round differential than FUR, since they would be at -6, and FUR's -8 can only go down if they have to lose 0-2 to SEN)

the playoff seeding for this scenario would be LOUD #1, C9 #2, NRG #3, 100T #4, and EG/SEN #5 and #6 (order TBD)

EDIT: IT TURNS OUT ALL OF THIS MIGHT BE WRONG, LIQUIPEDIA DID NOT LIST THE TIEBREAK RULES FOR 4+ WAY TIES SO I ASSUMED THAT THE 3-WAY TIE RULES WOULD APPLY. ACCORDING TO THE RECENT POST ABOUT EMEA PLAYOFF SCENARIOS IT SEEMS THAT 4+ WAY TIES MIGHT BE JUST DECIDED BY OVERALL MAP/ROUND DIFFERENTIAL. LEAVING THESE POSTS UP JUST IN CASE.

DISCLAIMER: I'M NOT SAYING THAT THIS WILL HAPPEN, IT'S JUST POSSIBLE

THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN:

SEN win vs. KRU (done)
SEN win vs. FUR
LEV loss vs. C9
LEV loss vs. LOUD
100T loss vs. MIBR (yes 100T has to LOSE, I could not find a scenario that sends all NA teams to playoffs unless this happens)
then there are 2 scenarios that work:
scenario 1: NRG win vs. LOUD (done) AND EG win vs. NRG
scenario 2: EG loss vs. NRG AND SEN wins 2-0 vs. FUR

edit: since NRG defeated LOUD, either result of EG vs NRG now works, with an EG win being preferable since an EG loss requires SEN to 2-0 FUR

IF THIS HAPPENS, then playoffs will consist of LOUD + all 5 NA teams.

LEAVING THE EXPLANATION + MATH IN A COMMENT BELOW SO PEOPLE DON'T SAY "ain't readin allat" EVEN THOUGH IT'LL HAPPEN ANYWAYS, IGNORE IT IF YOU DON'T CARE!

editing this as results happen

there's a very good chance for H2H ties though in multi-way ties (3 teams that are all 1-1 against each other) in which case it goes to map differential

so it'll end up being really important as to which teams LEV is tied with

they do have good map differential so they could win multi-way tiebreaks with other 4-5 record teams even if they lose both

H2H doesn't matter if the other team has more wins than you

7-2 < 8-1

n

there is 0 chance that 2 teams tied for the last spot will have the exact same map and round differential? the reason it's never happened is because it's very unlikely to happen, but with how many teams are near the middle of the pack rn it is definitely possible, i definitely still doubt it will happen but there's a chance

of course, it's definitely not likely but very possible

h2h matchup would be 3-3 for all 7 teams, tiebreakers would be map differential first and then round differential afterwards, with the possibility of a tiebreaker bo1 match if 2 teams were still tied for a final spot

never said it would, but it's not implausible

LOUD and C9 are both favored to win their last 2 matches, KRU is favored to lose their last 2 matches

the only other results that would need to happen would be 100T beats FUR, MIBR beats EG, SEN beats FUR, EG beats NRG