Sorry but you're kinda wrong. Toast only had the idea to build a roster to try to get into challengers in October, but the core of XXif and Exalt were already playing together on the former knights team since near the beginning of 2021. Gengsta then also joined them near the beginning of 2022. So while Ocean was scouting the players individually, saying that the team was built from scratch is ridiculous.

edit: spelling

lol, not that easy. If I put you and 4 other randoms on salary, would it make sense that I expect the lot you to qualify to ascension? Obviously, that isn't what toast did but regardless, there are plenty of org-less teams going into this with plenty of talent/skill and just as much prep/practice time as salaried/org teams.

It's unfortunate that C9 didn't have the resources to keep the roster together. I personally really wanted to see them stick it out and find redemption at next year's game changers championship. But they do not belong anywhere near franchising. That's a brain dead take. They would literally lose every single one of their matches.

Atheist

Ascent has been Shopify's perma ban. Not too surprising they're getting destroyed.

They will. Rosters change. That's e-sports. Of course they'll lose fans but plenty will remain.

I'm sorry but those of us that are rational and not trying to push a narrative aren't going to just accept that. Until winning champions is actually significantly harder than winning other international tournaments, (which hasn't been the case so far) no one's perception of overall regional strength, or at least strength of top teams from participating regions, which is what is really being tested, is going to change with one tournament win.

Why does that matter? Happens often enough in esports.

Of the the 6 international tournaments that have taken place so far, they've attended 5 and the optic roster's placements are 2nd, groups, 1st, 3rd, top 3. Even if they lose tomorrow, no one else has a resume to contest that.

History of valorant is so short. They're undoubtedly the greatest thus far. Can't really argue for anyone else.

give me panpoc on everything

1. Pansy Hypoc
2. Mitch bald guy
3. Bren Sideshow

who was saying stupid shit? xd

No. If he just took random money and didn't pass on a percentage, he wouldn't be talking about it in the first place.

Yes, next Saturday. Arcane.

There were major server issues during play

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/78868f42

Strong start.

Most likely one of FPX, EDG, RNG or DWG

I'll go with FPX

Technically if Sentinels 2-0 F4Q with a scoreline of 13-1 13-1 they can take first place. But of course that highly improbable. Nonetheless, they'll still have them play the game. Can't just cancel it because it's nearly impossible for it to affect seeding.

Terrible format. At least make every match in the 4 team playoff a bo5 if they're not doing double elim there.

Yep

Fnatic and Gambit are already ahead of Liquid in circuit points. Under normal circumstances, the top two circuit point teams qualify for champions directly. That is no longer possible for liquid as it stands. So Gambit would need to win Berlin to get the direct spot to champions(Fnatic is out of contention for Berlin already) and then Liquid along with Fnatic can qualify to champions directly through points. Like the above comment said, Acend need to completely bomb out in 16th place and Blaze/Giants/G2 to not get top 4 in Berlin to prevent them from surpassing the 300 points Liquid currently has.

Lol, if they make it single elim, that would literally be the stupidest decision ever for an international lan. This isn't league of legends, and that format is dogshit even in that game too.

Competitive integrity. You can't move around other teams pre-scheduled games simply because these teams had issues and had to postpone their matches. This might not seem fair but changing things around also wouldn't be fair to Guild/Fireflux/Navi/Giants.

A fluke implies that if we go back in time and have them replay those challenger playoffs several times, them qualifying to Iceland is something that happens rarely. I don't think that's the case at all. They were very good in the meta leading up to and during Iceland. They figured it out faster than others in NA and the players were individually firing on all cylinders. And most of the other top teams in NA weren't. But clearly that time has past. Doesn't mean their Iceland run was a fluke.

Sorry. What are you talking about? Are you talking about them auto locking a spot for champions off of points? Yes, that most likely isn't possible anymore but he wasn't asking about that.

I think this is a you problem. Completely fine while I was watching which was all of Map 2 and some of Map 1.

Huynh single-handedly throws map 1. Impressive.

Map 3 is the dumbest I've seen a team play in VCT ever. EVER.

Definitely not.

This isn't surprising to anyone who's closely been following league of legends for a long time(and been paying attention to their interaction with individuals and journalists). Riot have a history of doing draconian shit and basically trying to ruin those that get in their way or are highly critical of them. They're way more tempered with how they go about it nowadays but they still do it. It's just the culture of that company.

With that said, riot also really know how to make and support games suited for e-sports. It's honestly one of their only redeeming qualities.

edit: typo

Does that matter? He played terribly today. So yes, he might be an upgrade. But he effectively wasn't for the purposes of the 2 series that were played today. V1 would have been better off with zellsis. Which obviously wasn't possible cause of the suspension so w/e

Just saw the comp Rise locked in for map 3. Basically a solo smoker astra on bind. Terrible idea. Pretty sure they just auto lose.

He'll be back

Not an upgrade when said "upgrade" plays like trash, which is what happened today unfortunately. All of V1 looked off today. Wouldn't be surprised if not having zellsis has something to do with it.

Bind?? Not banned by V1?? You're obviously from a different reality then

No estoy de acuerdo. Las consecuencias son importantes para disuadir a las personas de la explotación.

Man, such a terrible performance from branted on pheonix during map 1. Losing duels all day

Wtf? Using post-plant utility to deny a bomb defuse is not equivalent to exploiting, nor will it ever be considered such. Maybe the sova darts should be looked at if that's true. The rest of your post is nonsense.

Not saying that this match was match fixed but you should really do some research. People will and do match-fix literally anything and everything they can when it comes to sports, especially in some eastern countries. Was watching this podcast a couple months ago with Richard Lewis and Declan Hill, this well know academic/journalist that's worked cases and written books on the subject and is considered the world's foremost expert on match-fixing in sports. He mentioned he's seen match-fixers even fixing soccer matches between like random teams of 13/14 year old children and that as time passed we would inevitably see it more and more in esports. which we kind of already have. Been plenty of it in CSGO and not too long ago we saw china's LDL(secondary league of legends pro league) shutdown temporarily to investigate some match-fixing that had been taking place.

Once again, not saying that the immortal/EG match was an example of this(I highly doubt it was actually). But yea, it's definitely always a possibility. And more so with those competing at lower levels as they're the ones more in need and likely to be willing to fix for $$$.