I think I take pride in the fact that Valorant is one of those games where so many teams win and are good every year. It's not a League or CS situation where 5-8 teams are only good and only a certain region dominates every other. It's a good thing, it keeps tournaments interesting. That being said it's so sad how people actually perceive it. Some see new teams winning as a bad thing or are so adamant on denying the growth of new teams. Maybe it is true in a viewership point of view where teams like Sentinels and PRX not making to an international it makes the viewership goes down but that's all it does. It doesn't actually decrease the value or the watchability of the international. Unpredictability is one of the best things about valorant esports.
Then you have the people blaming new teams for not winning on their debut tournament at internationals, saying "oh this team would have won it and you are an embarrassment" which I find very funny because the teams who make it to an international defeat the same teams to make it.
I think people should appreciate new teams and enjoy their growth instead of being nitpicky about everything. You are okay to support your own team, just don't be an ass to new teams just because they are new and you want to see the fan favourites.
The state of Valorant underdog conversations
I think it's more of people not having a large sample size yet. Because of this, they slander all the strong teams that lose to underdogs cuz its funny. It's not like they will continue to look down on the new teams if the new teams continue to be good. Look at geng before 2024. They were nothing, but when geng won kickoff in 2024 and was grand finalists in madrid, everyone stopped looking down and realised they are actually good and not a one off thing
All thanks to riot giving every region equal international region spot. Its not like CS where if you're from asia you pre much have to learn mandarin/mongolian to have any future or move to japan to become a fortnite pro. When partnership began 5 NA and 5 South America is good balance. Treat everyone equally and everyone get fair chance.
tbh the way I view it is that with how streaky valorant has shown it can be, newer teams I will inherently trust a lot less than established ones until they give me a repertoire past 1 or 2 tournaments. We've seen one hit wonders before like 2021 Zeta Division who reach the pinnacle of success for an event and then come back down to earth. Now obviously if teams start to show more consistent performances I will start to trust them more, but in the beginning stages when a team shows a dominant stretch but its only for one split or on one patch, I am inherently less trusting in them. Me thinking that G2 are a better team than Furia isn't because I'm clouted brained or something, it's because nobody on Furia outside of like Artzin and eeiu really have a catalog of past performances at Masters/Champs level events for me to look back to. Contrast that with G2, whose players all have significant experience playing at the highest level of valorant, you can't really blame me for liking them over newcomers
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