A fun bracket would be a snake-style, bracket draft rather than a random draw.
how that would work :
Top 4 regions from the last lan get seeded as 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then they each draft from the remaining 12 teams to put in their bracket.
1st seed gets to pick their first opponent. Then the rest do it in order 2-4. Then 4th gets to select the first team for the other side of their bracket. this then goes 3, 2 1, then 1 again for the last team in their bracket, then 2, 3, 4.
Why?
- Some teams may think other teams are worse / better than others either against their playstyle or on Lan. For example, if you know you can beat a team in your region, put them in your bracket. Or, if you are VERY confident you can stack your bracket to take out stronger teams early.
- This allows SOOOOOOOOO much more shit talk, rivalries, cinderella stories, upsets, and overall storylines based on selection.
- Gives a viable 16 man bracket that either guarantees a series of banger games or lets a lot a potent, and strong teams through.
Examples :
Lets use champs as an example with these 16 teams, and the masters 1 finishers.
OpTic, Xset, Sentinals (SHROUD), Fnatic, FPX, M3C, Loud, Kru, NIP, Levitan, DRX, Zeta, Edward Gaming (china, cause hypothetical fuck it), PRX, Xerxia, and Team Secret.
MASTERS 1 PLACEMENTS
- NA - Top seed : OpTic
- Brazil - Top seed : Loud
- Japan - Top seed : Zeta
- APAC - Top seed : PRX
Now, Optic is able to pick anyone, not in bold, for their opponent. Let's go with a simple opponent : Team Secret.
Then it's Loud. They do their best pick as well, in Kru.
Zeta then picks Edward Gaming, in revenge for them beating the Japanese team in the East Asia LCQ finals.
Paper Rex decide to take their father home in a round 1 deathmatch against DRX.
From here we see different approaches. OpTic picked one of the weakest teams there. Loud and Zeta selected a grudge match : one based on LCQ and the other based on regional rivalry. Finally, Paper Rex was confident and decided to remove a problem and a heavy hitter from their bracket : DRX.
In a snake draft, 4th place gets the first pick of the second round. So for the far side, Paper Rex choses little old NIP. Zeta chose another 'easier' team in Levitan, where as Loud grabs a surprise in FPX. Optic then can pick their second bracket straight on with the last pick of round 2 and the first of round 3. They decide to trap Xerxia against XSET, as they believe either is a good second round win to get them heated up for playoffs. Loud set off their plan to grab M3C to battle FPX. Though very risky to grab a strong team in round 2, they want an experienced team in M3C or a very strong team in FPX out. They are also confident that they can beat M3C, whether it's in the uppers or lowers. For Zeta, two teams remain, one will take on their Levitan while the other fights NIP. Zeta drafts the weaker of the two : Fnatic. Leaving Paper Rex to be in the same bracket as Sentinels and Lord Shroud.
So based on this hypothetical, some things can be drawn out to increase the tension and storylines of each selection. Of course, M3C and FPX want revenge on loud for pitting a region against each other. Storyline. Paper Rex are dealt to slay their father in DRX and then face everyone's daddy in Shroud - who was the last pick and most feared team. Storyline. Zeta face Edward in an easier bracket, yet they are still stuck with Fnatic, a huge titan of a team. Optic draft an easier bracket, but contain both XSET and Xerxia, longtime rivals and reignited Storylines. This not only allows stark competition and strategy even before Champions starts, but it give an obvious advantage to top placements.
So if your a fan of high quality Valorant , or love a deep drive of a storyline, that'll be there in this format.
Plus, they could make it a live draft even and that would be so hype with reactions and such.
It's not perfect, but it's funny and entertaining and better than a fucking random draw that will produce marginally less storylines.
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