Too many Emea fans have been going around claiming that language barriers are not a valid argument, since "Fnatic has other nationalities".
Lets look at the stats
Swedish English Literacy = 86% ~
Finland English Literacy = 70% ~
Latvia English Literacy = 26% ~
Ukraine English Literacy = 23% ~
Turkish English Literacy = 16% ~
Russian English Literacy = 5.48%
So not only do the majority of European countries indeed have a higher familiarization with the english language overall, the only country that doesnt break 2 digits in percentage, is Russia, but if we evaluate the Valorant ecosystem specifically, what servers do we have?:
Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Warsaw, Stockholm, Paris, Istanbul
From the experiences of Youtubers, Pro-players and streamers, we can define that the majority of these servers communicate in English most of the time. Why? Because there are too many nationalities for a common experience to arise, therefore a "common" language is defined. ENGLISH
Its also important to mention that that depending on your location you can switch between these servers at will. You are Region Locked yes, but not server locked.
bUt ThAtS rAnKeD WhAt AbOuT tHe PrO sCeNe???
Well, considering that even before the EMEA Franchise League, there were still "international" leagues that granted spots at Masters/Champions, we can safely define AGAIN, that the multitude of Nationalities DEMANDS a common Language, with the exception of the French region and Turkish region, which cultivated enough talent to field a full team. However the French team in question is made, from players who were part of EMEA-Style International teams Anyway. Also the French English Literacy is 56%~.
But enough about Fraudmea, lets talk about the subjects of subjugation, LATAM and BR.
Now, lets see, what are the servers these regions have?
LATAM - Miami / Mexico City / Santiago
BR - São Paulo
But wait, 2/3 of the LATAM servers dont even reach LATAM properly? hell miami is in the US, and Mexico is Central America... which only leaves us with Santiago.
And BR only has São Paulo, are these regions Server Locked? yes, if your account was either made in Santiago or Sao Paulo, you cannot play in other servers.
Which means not only most BR and LaTAM players dont interact with english speaking countries, the languages spoken in game are the same as the country of server origin.
Hell, the LATAM and BR players barely interact, with the ocasional LATAM player with disgusting ping on a BR server.
But thats not all, lets look at events, Before VCT Americas, the Tournaments were separate, BR fought itself for a spot and LATAM fought itself for a spot. with LCQ being when these teams would face each other in a non-masters/champions event.
Now looking at Off-Season tournaments, not only are half of them either FULL BR or FULL LATAM, the other half simply Doesnt have english speaking teams.
The only one i could find is Superdome Latam 2023, THIS YEAR.
So, not only does LATAM and BR mostly only play themselves and each other, outsider teams simply did not express interest in interacting with national teams.
Most BR/LATAM teams will only interact with english speaking players ON INTERNATIONAL EVENTS AND BOOTCAMPS.
And im not even mentioning English Literacy (Average of under 3%, with Argentina being the only outliar), you can visit the biggest cities in these countries and find less than 10 people that actually speak the language of English.
In Conclusion; not only are the Ranked and Professional ecosystems COMPLETELY different, with EMEA having the requirement of english as a common language, and BR/LATAM not interacting with it at all. The Levels of literacy are also worse in the South American region, meaning the pool of players with english as a second language is incredibly smaller.
EMEA needs English, BR/LATAM doesnt.
A Helpful note is that usually EMEA players have different backgrounds, meaning, everyone communicates in a "broken english" or at the same level, there is fewer chances of power dynamics, while on a team like Sentinels, the majority of the team is fluently speaking, with 2 teammates who are learning as they go, even if not intended, the fluent players operate on a "higher placement" the Brazilians dont need to learn enough english to talk to other english speakers at the same level as them (EMEA team format), they need to learn while the other half of the team not only already knows english, they have been communicating in it since they were born, there are expressions, sounds and intonations that to a fluent english speaker are obvious, but to learning speakers are still new. You need to remember, they havent experienced the same culture you did, to expect them to think the same is asinine.
Summary of this Note: EMEA players are usually at the same "level" of english, while Sacy and Pancada are operating in a team were they are the only outsiders.
THIS IS NOT A SENTINELS SPECIFIC CASE, NZR HAD THE SAME ISSUE WHEN PLAYING WITH FURIA, HIS PERFORMANCE SKYROCKETED WHEN HE JOINED LEV, ALTHOUGH HIS DIFFICULTIES WERE NOT AT THE SAME LEVEL AS SACY AND PANCADA. SAADHAK IS AN OUTLIAR IN THIS RESEARCH
SOURCES
https://www.ef.edu/blog/language/why-learn-russian/yway
https://howwidelyspoken.com/how-widely-spoken-english-turkey/
https://howwidelyspoken.com/how-widely-spoken-english-sweden/
https://howwidelyspoken.com/is-engish-widely-spoken-finland/
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjGmPqC85SCAxWbH7kGHZ8zDWgQFnoECAgQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvisitukraine.today%2Fblog%2F2394%2Fenglish-speaking-ukraine-why-you-need-to-learn-english-now%23%3A~%3Atext%3DAccording%2520to%2520a%2520survey%2520conducted%2Cthe%2520household%2520or%2520professional%2520level).&usg=AOvVaw10V7rhHg5Ke9u7XRbkJkVg&opi=89978449
https://www.thelocal.fr/20191105/why-the-french-are-getting-a-bit-better-at-speaking-english#:~:text=An%20average%20of%2057.25%20percent,improvement%20is%20likely%20to%20continue.
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