Hi Denjisideals :)

I'm guessing they'll be released after Bangkok (Like Clove for Madrid) or just before the season starts

Yeah I agree, I addressed that in #11 (and tbf I should've mentioned it in #21, but that wasn't really the point of this post at all)

I see where you're coming from. But I think another Masters would have some significant drawbacks (mainly that if you squeeze in an extra Masters it eats in to the time of the regular season + it is very expensive it probably just isn't worth the investment if you're in Riots shoes). I think an extra full round robin split as I suggested in #4 is the perfect compromise. Yes you will see more of teams that maybe you don't like, but you will also see the teams that you do like. Sure they may not be the best but mibr and furia are still orgs that need to pay their players, more time to play will let them get sponsors to stay afloat, and who knows maybe down the line that money can be used to develop talent/buy better players.

I think 8 in Playoffs is fine. For a single elim bracket 10-12 won't work (mathematically), and seeding is probably not a great idea if it's single elim since you're basically awarding a match win which is too far imo.
As others have suggested maybe swiss for 16 teams could be cool for groups

See #4

also we will never see a lower bracket run ever

Also actually read what I wrote, I'm not suggesting to change it for masters.

I would fw swiss for champs but then maybe I'd make Masters GSL style just to make it different.
Also Masters 1 defo should be 12 teams imo it should be consistent

full round robin split before Masters 2 and Champs

it's the same as it is now, except for being half groups it'd be a full round robin.
You could move back split 1 and move kick off to become LCQ if you really want but I'm indifferent ab that.

Wdym? This wouldn't effect Masters 2

I have a separate suggestion regarding that. Use the time from the shorter off season + the shorter hypothetical Champs I'm proposing to do a full round robin split before Masters 2 and Champs (If you insist on keeping kickoff)

(allat + opinion warning)
I've been watching Worlds recently and the format got me thinking: Single elim Bo5 all the way through playoffs is better for Champs than Double elim Bo3 until the last 2 games.
It's worked for League, it's worked for CS.
The only full lower bracket run we've seen was FPX but that was at a Masters (which I think should stay double elim, I'm talking about Champs here to be clear)

Would:

• Eliminate 7 games
• Allow Riot to move to an Arena for more Playoff games (big topic this year)
• Not change too much, 2/3 years we got a rematch of the upper final, and the one time we didn't the winner of the Upper final (which by the way is a Bo3) won anyways
• Make Champs fundamentally different as a tournament outside just of branding and prize pools

I know people tend to hate change but imo this is worth it. The main critique is that it will lower the chances of the 'best team' winning but esports at its core is built for viewership and I think this would lead to us being better off. What do you guys think? Absolutely not? Maybe? Yeah?

edit: See #4 on how I would deal with the issue of having too few games

Homeland

Fnatic
I was loosely following the scene when the game first came out and SUMN FC caught my eye as the only F/A to make it through playoffs. They were mostly British too. I've just been supporting them since. Until Masters 2 Reykjavik I didn't really have a favourite between FNC and TL but ever since then I've supported FNC more

My second favourite was(is?) Liquid, pretty much for the same reasons, but I was more a fan of the roster (Scream, Kryptix, ec1s, soulcas and l1nk). Probably because they had some of the best content at the time

jumpscare warning

mmr

its not perfect but look at both of your tracker scores (both overall and for this game) and it should roughly correlate

maybe neon for jett might work but idk about kayo for breach (or fade for sova)

early 2025 is optimistic imo, if it was that close I'd think they would've updated us more.
imo it's probably going to be around Champs/just after Champs

as for UE5 I have no idea, I'd assume they're already somewhat deep in to it so I think it'll be before the replay system (also as me and someone mentioned above it should make developing the replay system easier if they switch to UE5 first)

idk where I saw it but I heard someone say that UE5 will make the replay system easier to develop

For people who know about this kind of stuff, how long should we expect the move to UE5 to take?
I saw this video and it reminded me

4/8
had me until the second sentence

😭🤯

He's fake flagging, he didn't have the English flag before
(to be fair our reputation is already in tatters, it's not like he makes a difference)

apparently it's been buggy recently. I saw somewhere that someone got banned for just having a connection issue
idk if in this case if it was that or if they were actually cheating but who knows

The team THE OFFICE has been permanently banned from LIGA CB for playing with Torment, a player banned by Vanguard Anti-Cheat.

damn that's crazy I've never seen that before on vlr

On paper I agree but you haven't accounted for team chemistry (among other things)
like for example think of the times Demon1 trash talked which caused a morale boost for the team. I just don't see yay doing something like that to nearly the same extent

yeah unfortunately not much we on vlr can really do but make threads and discuss it with the hope that one day John Riot reads it and becomes inspired

I have no idea, what I do know is that t1 League is franchised and it's caused some headaches with orgs holding too much power. That's why they used the partner system in tier 1 val to have leverage over the orgs. Imo giving leverage over tier 2 to orgs is the best tradeoff they can hope for right now which is why I think a franchise would work better than partnership

yoo I had no idea we had one of those
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV2Ih726cOI
looks cool

yeah pretty much, I think they could make it tie in to premier too, giving F/A teams an opportunity to get picked up by a t2 org

franchise tier 2. franchise, not partner
with selling slots and stuff, the whole shebang

It will cost money for sure but it's the only surefire way to fix tier 2 imo. The whole concept of tier 2 only works if there's smooth relegation/promotion (and there clearly isn't, and making it otherwise will ruin the stability of tier 1, so the solution is imo is just to extent the tier 1 treatment down to tier 2 (with some caveats))

It is expensive yes but they 100% have the money we know how much viewership China has brought in for the scene so it shouldn't be a difficult sell to any investor

hey

1 metre in CS ≠ 1 metre in Valorant

movement in CS is faster (as someone who's played both)

probably around tomorrow morning

#evilyay2025

https://x.com/yay/status/1848759586980762054

fraps? I haven't heard of that since the ice age

could be wrong but this is what I've heard:
LEV don't want to start him but his salary is so high that keeping him on the bench will eat in to their wallet so they might let him go for cheaper (presumably to mibr, where they'll let aspas build his own team)

to an extent I agree
like I remember watching a guess the rank video ages ago and half the pros didn't even know iron was a rank
but on the other hand (at least for pros) it's their job to know about things like teamplay and utility (which people on vlr don't talk about as much). Stuff like formats and the overall scene is less important to them day by day than say scrimming for example

Yeah ik, I meant 'left' as in that's what the end result was.
It would be a bit of a mean thing to say he got booted when congratulating him on a new team

I like what BBL is cooking

wait did mibr finally decide to use their money in valorant

uh oh

holy shit what I just saw this is a HenBabyH post. W rare sane post

Honestly yeah I like this
imo losing Meteor is a blow, but Lakias replacement (no shade) makes up the difference
so on paper I'd think this roster could be just as successful

time to log off and go sleep
(after brushing my teeth...)

kaajak revitalises the whole team (everyone needs to pull a bit of extra weight to help the rookie adjust) and we see a FNC akin to the 2023 era
they win 1 trophy

(schizo + cope)

dort????
cooking??????
someone wake me up

1. I use they if I remember, she otherwise. Hell sometimes I'll even use he (for any agent tbh, to me it's comparable to saying 'hey guys' which is technically gendered, but people understand it to be neutral with the context)

2. I think there's a certain extent to it. If someone doesn't use them I don't think it's worth it to try and correct them, imo it's not that deep, telling someone will result in (best case scenario) them remembering once or twice and just forgetting and going back to she. (This obviously is different for real people). Basically the people who do care will call them them and the people who don't won't.

3. I don't support it but I'm not necessarily against it either. I'd say I'm neutral.

edit to 3., what z12 said above actually caught my eye, I wanted to add: if it's overly sexualised then I'd say I'm definitely against it, otherwise my opinion is still the same.

The WAN show
(by choice of the YT algorithm)

Oh wow straight to the main event nonetheless

I wonder what rank he is if he played
idk if he's played though since it's possible him showing up at Champs was because one of his children plays