(If you're missing context, please feel free reference the original VALORANT World Cup project thread: https://www.vlr.gg/493514/valorant-world-cup-simulation/)
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In the original thread, which I put up two days ago, I shared mainly two things: the concept of this simulated tournament, and the teams I originally created. Thanks to help from many of you, we were able to finalize the teams and move on to the next phase: the group stage draw.
To reiterate, the group stage will be identical to a FIFA World Cup group stage—8 groups of 4 teams, to be drawn via a pot system. The way the pot system works is by sorting teams into 4 different pots based on projected team strength/quality, and then drawing one team from each pot into each of the groups. This helps keeps groups relatively balanced while avoiding completely free groups (as well as groups of death containing, say, 4 of the teams expected to make the top 8).
Well, how do we sort the teams? The easy thing to do is just handpick the pots, but people may call that out for bias. So I decided to give each participating player a personal OVR (using things such as lifetime VLR rating and number of months in tier 1). All player ratings use the same formula, and it took me a while to figure out a decent baseline, so I won't take any objection to player ratings (especially since it'd mean I'd have to redo this entire process, including the draw itself).
The player ratings are too long for me to put them in this post. You can find them here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sDC_AhdGUWWN-IHT8Uti5pLBCO3n9WfF-oldj0VuR_I/
Once that was done, I simply took the average rating of each nation and used that value to assign them into pots. I'm honestly really happy with how this all turned out, as I do believe the teams are (mostly) accurately placed.
Here are the pots:
Pot 1 — 🇷🇺 🇰🇷 🇺🇸 🇮🇩 🇧🇷 🇹🇷 🇨🇳 🇨🇱
Pot 2 — 🇨🇦 🇵🇱 🇸🇬 🇸🇪 🇵🇭 🇭🇰 🇫🇮 🇯🇵
Pot 3 — 🇱🇹 🇨🇿 🇬🇧 🇦🇺 🇹🇼 🇫🇷 🇹🇭 🇦🇷
Pot 4 — 🇩🇪 🇪🇬 🇵🇹 🇧🇾 🇪🇸 🇸🇦 🇲🇽 🇮🇳
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With all the prerequisite work done and dusted, I held the live draw on Discord about an hour ago. As a result, these are the groups for the VALORANT World Cup simulation:
Group A
🇨🇳 ZmjjKK, Kai, slowly*, Smoggy, CHICHOO
🇨🇦 mada, eeiu, TenZ, Zander*, JonahP
🇹🇼 Spring, Nicc*, S1Mon, BerLIN, happywei
🇵🇹 tomaszy, Addicted*, Fragger, starkk, Fizzy
Group B
🇮🇩 Famouz, Kushy, f0rsakeN*, Monyet, xffero
🇯🇵 Meiy, Xdll, CLZ*, gyen, SyouTa
🇬🇧 Keiko, Lime, aNguiSt, Boaster*, benjyfishy
🇪🇬 Avez, Shniider, Depyro, chrollo*, Sand
Group C
🇹🇷 Wo0t, MrFaliN*, RieNs, Ruxic, Alfajer
🇸🇪 Zyppan, Leo, Creamydreamy, Sayf*, Meddo
🇦🇷 Dantedeu5, nzr, rubkkoide, Cebando, Saadhak*
🇲🇽 Mephisto, Peloncito*, otaQ, solution, seven
Group D
🇨🇱 keznit, erde, Mazino, kiNgg*, Shyy
🇵🇭 Jremy, JessieVash*, PatMen, Papi, invy
🇱🇹 MiniBoo, Destrian, Boo*, ceNder, vakk
🇪🇸 Fit1nho, kyrrz*, Guardy, lowel, Saiz
Group E
🇷🇺 Jemkin, Shao, Chronicle, vo0kashu, nAts*
🇫🇮 Derke, Famsii, H1ber, Jamppi*, hoody
🇹🇭 Primmie, Killua, seph1roth, JitBoyS, Laz*
🇸🇦 ExiT, Titan, KHaaLiD*, str1keR, Moh
Group F
🇺🇸 zekken, trent, N4RRATE, valyn*, leaf
🇵🇱 kaajak, kamyk, MOLSI*, PROFEK, westside
🇫🇷 TakaS, nataNk, CyvOph, sh1n, K4DAVRA*
🇮🇳 Venka, r1seN*, Kohliii, Lightningfast, Yuvi
Group G
🇰🇷 t3xture, iZu, Munchkin*, MaKo, Meteor
🇸🇬 Jinggg, grumble, nephh*, Juicy, Deryeon
🇨🇿 marteen, Ambi, MAGNUM, Jesse, Minny*
🇧🇾 SimonD4rk, zeddy*, 7ssk7, Winteryrook, diseased
Group H
🇧🇷 aspas, cauanzin, artziN*, pANcada, Less
🇭🇰 riya, coconut, SiuFatBB*, YOU, heybay
🇦🇺 SWERL, Maple, pl1xx, Minimise, Autumn*
🇩🇪 Click, tex, xanarchy, Felix*, al0rante
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The group stage will follow a FIFA World Cup style format (yes, I'm a big fan of the tournament, how could you tell?), with each team playing every other team. The top two teams from each group (based on map differential, followed by round differential if necessary). More details will come on the knockout stages as we get closer to them.
Well, that's all for now! The first set of matches will be simulated a day or two from now—I'll make a new thread with the results from those matches when they've been decided. 🫡
Discord