At EWC:
How is EWC mickey??
FNS (ur guys' favorite streamer) agrees with this btw.
duhh cause its not in the vct circuit but it still has vct teams (all teams in all qualifiers vct)
Every single player and talent should be calling EWC mickey. Why would you harm your reputation as a player/talent by publicly supporting a blood money tournament?
However, that doesn't change the fact that objectively, EWC is not mickey.
Presenting your claim as fact when you don't have first-hand accounts to support your claim is disingenuous and fraudulent.
teams will subconsciously care less since there's no champ points available, even if they say otherwise
although I'd agree with you that the format makes it somewhat competitive, especially compared to last years
cs and valorant are not the same lol, if you think it being bo1s in cs and val has the same impact you are braindead
first, EWC 2026 doesn't have bo1s
second, EWC 2025 only had bo1s for opening group matches. All winner/loser/decider matches were bo3. No elimination or playoffs qualification was decided by a bo1.
damn a team coming out of a recent masters event vs teams with way more prep. not to mention the tech issues, holy not mickey event
PRX and LEV made the decision to prioritze London > EWC.
https://www.vlr.gg/681337/leviat-n-vs-nrg-esports-world-cup-2026-americas-qualifier-stage-2-lr2
NRG prioritized EWC > London. NRG will win more money and will be rewarded for that decision.
The teams decide what they want to value more. We can't be calling an event mickey because some teams have different priorities.
Here we go with this stupid argument again based on the claimant's personal interpretation without any backing of concrete evidence.
NRG could've just insta bombed out instead of trying in the EWC qualifiers. I am sure they would do better at London with that extra prep time. It is common sense / good logic that NRG prioritized EWC over London.
No it's not because you don't know what happened specifically to NRG at London and just making claims as an outsider with no real connection to the team. Outsider claims should be backed by publicly available statements to have any bit of rigor.
qualifiers is in between stage 1 and london which doesnt allow teams to fully prepare for it as they have to choose between it or london, the qualifiers are also online
"choose between it or london,"
so you would call both London and EWC mickey?
no because the qualifiers for london were first, when you are thrown into qualifiers knowing you have to prepare for a tournament in a week, the better teams are less inclinced to try to prepare for london instead of ewc
this is also why we see teams that obviously dont deserve to make it like rrq and 100t
people also called London Mickey but it ddid turn up to be interesting.
u really cant be taking ppl on this site seriously
they're not trying nearly as much as an actual event, all of these teams probably barely prepped
it's a real tournament. But it's an off season tournament like it or not.
it doesn't happen during the actual circuit
Riot does not give out the trophy, saudi arabia does.
there is no real risk to losing EWC whereas in VCT you've got to perform very well or be relegated and/or not go to masters/champs.
Yes it's 2mill, yes that's a lot of money, yes that's money worth trying for no matter where it came from, but it's not a masters trophy, it's not a Champs trophy, It's an off season trophy.
It's not a mickey, good teams are there, but it's an off season tournament, just like SEN city classic, SEN invitational, Ludwig/Tarik, and EMEA clash just with more money and teams. Winning/Losing this doesn't decide your fate as an org, Winning/Losing this doesn't decide what players are good and what players are bad. Because you get more fame, more recognition, more favor with riot which means more than that 2mill over time, by winning a masters/Champs. It doesn't MATTER. It's a cracked tournament with amazing players and teams, but theres nothing really on the line here aside from a big prize pool.
How good/bad a team does here does not show how they will perform against teams in the actual VCT circuit. Because like it or not theres a reason to not try as hard since this tournament is not correlated with riot whatsoever aside from the game itself. That's why you see EDG throwing signed into the tournament, or using a full team of academy players. That's why G2 let shackkk play for leaf instead of finding an actual sub, because win or lose nothing happens to your org. Theres no RISK here.
You leapt from crumbling bridges, watching cityscapes turn to dust
Filming helicopters crashing in the ocean from way above
Its not mickey i just think I and many others dont really care about tournaments that arent a part of the vct circuit
https://x.com/wendlertv/status/2072771337001574872
shittier security than any riot tournament and it doesn’t provide champs points which is to be expected since it’s not part of the vct circuit
ewc environment is conducive to psychological unrest due to fear of harm
this is not an equitable playing condition for teams
mickey confirmed
Me personally, I’m not a fan of the timing of the event; teams focused on the second masters often completely disregard qualifying (ex: Onur wasn’t HC during Lev’s qualifiers instead it was Jhien) and I feel like for an event that’s supposed to be big, coaches just would rather prepare for the event that’s supposed to be a smaller scale, which is a pretty big point against the tournament.
Another problem I have against the EWC is the quality of production during qualifiers. Not being able to see a majority of the games makes the phase less of an actual tournament and more of people continuously refreshing twitter/vlr for results. I remember last year when Flor left Apecks I actually was curious how the team would perform, but I couldn’t watch their gameplay, and S1mondark ended up almost dropping 30. I think that the players being able to stream is good for them, but it shouldn’t ever happen, there should be observers actually being in the game. This overall makes the qualifying part very irrelevant and not worth actually viewing.
Finally, a top eight single elimination format just is a stupid idea. There is zero time for development because you win just one game, and somehow you are top 4 in the tournament? I get a 16 team elimination game, but an eight team elimination game just feels so stupid.
Do I think the tournament can improve? Ofc, but right now it doesn’t feel like a real tournament, blood money or not
2026 Karmine corp and 100T are in attendance
This would not happen at a real event
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