felt bored so i started writing a rant. this is pretty much just me blurting out a scramble of thoughts. if you dont feel like reading allat then i put a condensed tl;dr at the bottom. thanks for reading :)
i think everyone can agree that theres been too much randomness recently and it feels like anyone can beat anyone on a given day, which has lead to less interesting storylines.
i mean, look at 2023, where there was a clear top 4 teams throughout the year, that all made each international, and seemed to be on a similar level nearing the end of the year, making for a super exciting champs top 4. amazing storylines and super entertaining event. then look at now, where only a single team has been consistently good at both masters, the masters 1 winner wasn't even in the second and the masters 2 winners aren't even at champs, and out of the top 2 of each region, only one of them have even done anything internationally this year. the only storyline worth noting is how prx choked 2 finals and how much of regional farmers g2 are.
heres what i think has caused this and how it can be fixed
the most obvious thing is the frequent meta changes. in the past 2 years especially, it felt like riot completely shook up the meta between masters. last year with tejo meta and this year with yoru meta. while i think most people would say the solution to this would be to not make such drastic changes, i don't think this is the only answer. the problem with a lack of huge changes is the effect it has on casual play. a player who doesn't watch vct doesn't wanna be stuck in the same general meta for a whole year just for something they don't care for. but there is an alternative, that being shorter seasons. the entirety of vct 2023 took place from mid febuary to mid august, only 6 months. during this time, no huge change was made to the game besides a new map and a new agent, but it was fine for casual play because it was only 6 months. the current season started in early january and doesn't end until mid october, over 9 months total. staying in the yoru meta for this entire time would have been a nightmare. my concept for a shorter season would be to start in early january and end in late june, which gives the second half of the year for gc, ewc, enc, and more off season events. ik most people will say longer season = more entertainment, but honestly, i would take more entertaining yet shorter seasons over boring seasons that are more stretched out. in fact, i'd say right now it feels like each season is 3 mini seasons with how disconnected they are.
secondly, the kickoff format needs to go. most people thought the reason the first master seemed like a fluke in 2024 and 2025 was because it was 8 teams, but this year proved it wasn't because of that. instead, i think its the quick kickoff format, where the amount of wins needed to win the first masters is incredibly low. this allows any team to come in with an unexpected play style that no one knows how to counter and win the first masters, then they fall off once people get a read on them. preventing this is also super easy, just go back to a similar format to 2022, start the year with stage 1 qualifying to masters 1, then a similar stage 2 for masters 2, and then the top teams from the year qual to champs and a short lcq decides the rest of the teams. with this, the top teams in masters 1 and masters 2 should be more similar, also leading to similar teams for champs.
with these ideas in place, here's how i think the format of the season should go:
November - Qualifiers for Stage 1
January - Stage 1
Febuary - Masters 1 + Qualifiers for Stage 2
March - Stage 2
April - Masters 2 + Qualifiers for LCQ
May - LCQ
June - Champs
additional thoughts - this should also fix problems with teams "giving up" in stage 2 once they qualify for champs through points, since now the teams that are qualified to champs won't play in lcq. not a huge problem but had prx, edg, or g2 needed more wins to make champs the teams the ended up winning stage 2 this year may have been different.
also a shorter year may discourage teams from picking up players who turn 18 mid season, which did make some teams (vit, lev) only competitive after kickoff (this may not even be an issue because of the new open circuit rules anyway, but wtv)
tl;dr: Make the season shorter like it was in 2023 and 2024 so there aren't as many meta changes, and revert to a full stage 1 before masters 1 instead of kickoff to prevent teams from starting the year with an unpredictable play style to fluke a masters 1 win.
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