I honestly think the system should’ve been that any team that wins a Masters event other than Kickoff automatically qualifies for Champions.
LEV were clearly just using this event to prepare for Champions, just like PRX, so I feel really bad for them. A team winning Masters — and not even Kickoff like NS, but the most recent Masters before Champions — and still not qualifying for Champions has to be the dumbest format ever.
Nah you gotta work hard the entire year. LEV performed poorly in Kickoff.
There's no point in playing regional tournaments if winning masters = going to champs.
60% of the time a team plays bad in kickoff theres atleast 1 or 2 roster changes by stage 2, and we already saw with eg in 2023 what just one roster changes can do
i mean you cant be playing "bad" and then wonder why you dont qualify
Like its impressive what they did at london but this is present the past doesnt matter anymore you cant just win masters play ass and think you qualify
same with fnc who cares if they once were the greatest and b2b winners rn they are ass and prob one of the worst teams in emea
who's spot do they take though?
it would be slightly ridiculous to punish the other 11 teams in their region for being the "strongest"
the "weakest" region is subjective (kinda) - do you use lowest average placement, worst "best finish" for a team in a region, most teams eliminated before X point?
i dont think theres a real way to do this without damaging regional parity which is imo one of the better things about this esport
Slots given based on regional performance is the only way to do it. Similar to CS majors. Dependent upon how many teams qualify to playoffs, that’s how many spots are given each masters to the given region. Hard system to implement with only one major championship per year though.
I personally don't think that would/should work in VCT, the concept of a team from any region having a reasonable shot at winning is one of the major selling points since that isn't really a thing in most games
plus it would either 1) require them to downsize VCT CN (never happening) or 2) further kill the viewership in EMEA which would both be pretty bad for the health of the esport
neon's birthday actually screwed their season lmfao
most hilarious and tragic way to go out
bro where did this come from, hell no meta's change mappools change a team that wins a master doesnt always stay good. you alrdy have the advantage with points thats all you get.
they probably werent able to get quality scrims but they shouldnt have trolled map vetos
lev was horrible in kickoff, failed to qualify for santiago, got 2nd in stage 2 and then had a nice london run, but champions is the year-long culmination of the best teams in the world, one good tournament run shouldn't guarantee you a spot; year-long success should guarantee you a spot, which lev was far from achieving.
people have been saying that since they didn't have neon for kickoff this iteration of lev deserves a champions spot, but masters is different from champions, masters is the one-off tournament that anyone can qualify and win if you get hot at the right team, champions is what i said earlier, the culmination of the year, you can't just 'streak' your way into a locked in spot, if you didn't have a good, consistent year, you have to count on the grand finals to secure your ticket.
LEV were unlucky; they did not have Neon for the whole year. But they should have really tried to get the 1st seed in Stage 1 and go further in Stage 2.
Your point on the "culmination of the year" and "you can't just 'streak your way' into a locked-in spot" fails as soon as you see KC basically auto-qualify after being on 0 points for the rest of the season. Literal bottom of the league, straight to winning Stage 2. I see your point that it should be the best teams of the year who adapted to the meta. But at the same time, it is more about the teams who are rising to the occasion and the best at the end of the year who matter more.
LEV definitely should have played their veto better. The ideal situation was LEV, 100T, NRG and LOUD since LOUD are rising and to win at Sao Paulo for them would be full-circle sweet redemption.
i wouldn't say the grand final spots are a 'locked-in' or 'guaranteed' spot in the way im using them, to me that means you don't really have to do much and still manage to make champs like what g2 did this stage, getting hot at the right time can get you a grand finals spot like what 100t and kc did this stage, but that's the hardest path, if lev wanted to secure a spot, they should've started their rise earlier, or beat g2 a single time when facing elimination
Again, Neon's impact is significant. They literally rounded off their team and could play exactly how they wanted to the point that they won a Masters (though this could be argued down to PRX handing them a trophy). G2 are regional dominators and have only started to fall off their pedestal by a significant step. LEV should have tried to beat G2, but it is what it is now. This LOUD roster is exciting and the Brazilian crowd is amazing for them.
On the one hand, I get what you're saying and this was actually the system pre-franchise. Masters teams were auto-invited to the Champs events. If the number of teams was bumped up to 20 or 24, it would make it a little bit more entertaining. However, that would be a logistical nightmare.
On the other hand, the best teams of the stage should be rewarded more since they are rising at the right moment. For example, KC was on 0 and literally auto-qualified as the top seed. If LEV really wanted to be at Champs, they should have beat G2 and sandbagged after. They messed up their map veto and got exposed on two maps that they were not prepped amazingly on.
Nah, keep NRG for the Champs back-to-back narrative. JI TU slipped in like they have their hat in the ring. This team is a regional farmer and now they are so underwhelming.
I think the best team at the time should play not who was the best 3 months ago
BRO SAID “London is just Mickey”? Stupid fuck. At least learn some English you fuckin donkey. 😂😂
The fact that masters winners don’t qualify automatically is what makes it fun. If you are good for one split and suck ass for the others, what gives you the right to take spots from teams who make mid season changes and peak later in the year. EWC does a similar thing where the winner of last ewc automatically qualifies for the next, and it’s already resulted in undeserving teams making it to a tournament they had no business attending
how come every other masters winning team has had no problem making champs that year? there's nothing wrong with the format lev were just cocky
Just think that Prx already qualified for champs when they were at London and people complained that they don’t have anything to play for in stage 2.. they can literally troll or not do anything.
Imagine if a team wins masters and is guaranteed direct qualification for champs they wouldn’t care at all about regionals as there is no incentive to try and that’s what riot doesn’t want.
Everything would be solved if we go to 5 region with a split of PAcific (KR, JP, OCE) and Asia (SEA, IN and maybe mena or part of CIS), region would be way more balanced that way.
But not fully sure it's a good thing to directly qualify...
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