nice, I think you could make it further tbh your duelist games are looking pretty good overall, I'm starting uni soon so I can kiss my free time goodbye 😭😭

wow with those stats you'll be out of bronze in no time

Man, I was there. The best thing you can do is keep on top of it as you get it but I get that work can pile up. I would first break it down into chunks, organise your backlog with priority and difficulty, try and start, and only start the hard/important projects first, you'll find once you've started it, it gets way easier to keep on going, imo the hardest part is starting, I've found 80% of the battle to getting work done is just starting. Say it doesn't work for you, move on to an easier task, hopefully you can try starting that instead, but only leave that as a last resort.

did you start in iron/bronze? what rank are you now?

I started iron in episode 1 act 2/3 and I peaked ascendant in episode 5 act 3, I hadn't really played much since then* and I placed gold 3 last act, but I grinded my way back to asc. I was wondering if there are any others like me who started super low but built their way up

*= I did actually play on and off but it was super unserious with no regard for my rank, I was mostly playing to pass time instead of actually ranking up

here's my tracker for anyone wondering: https://tracker.gg/valorant/profile/riot/Aayan%232005/overview
hopefully I can find more time in the future, I want to get immo 3 at some point since I've never really been a high rank in any video game, and VAL has lasted long enough for me to try

wow, we're in the days where this clip is considered ancient 😭😭

he's like a discount trembo and I love it

It's unrealistic yeah but I think their playstyles would match each other so nicely

I don't think franchising is why the format you suggested is suboptimal. I think the only thing that franchising really restricts is the teams which play, but theoretically the teams that play have nothing to do with crafting the format, which is why I thought the tier 2 suggestion was good.

This is what Riot are doing in 2025, and to be honest I think it's the ideal format if you don't account for tier 2. We have a full kickoff bracket as you suggested for Masters 1 to sort of kick things into gear, then with two full independent splits where each team seems to play every other team (twice in total, meaning a minimum of 22 matches), that solves the main issue of teams not playing enough from this year, and it makes qualification for international events more structured. I think an interesting thing to note is that this is basically just the 2023 format if we were to not have LOCK//IN, where LCQ(ish tournament) and Split 1 are swapped around. I think this approach has the least drawbacks, and the main issues aren't even to do with the format. For example I don't think Masters 1 should be 8 teams at all, it should definitely be 12 but in theory that is a very easy fix. I think 4 international events is a good idea but it will only work if the off season is condensed even more.

Honestly the tier 1 format is pretty good, I think the main discussion we should be having is on how to fix the tier 2 system, so it can actually be justifiable for orgs to invest in, as the current promise of a 'roughly 1/20 place for a tier 1 spot for a year minimum' is very lacklustre.

😭😭😭

I like the idea of letting tier 2 teams play, but with this it seems that the teams who already don't play much (i.e. those who aren't good) will play even less, now you could chalk that up to being a skill issue, but its a series problem since if an org doesn't play games as less companies will be willing to sponsor them. In this current system we already have the issue of too few games, so I think this would just make the inequality between the top teams and the lower teams worse

what has he said in the past?, I'm unfamiliar

wow that's a nice piece
have you applied for a vlr writer position? I think you could make it
https://www.vlr.gg/362584/vlr-gg-writers-wanted

me

Yeah exactly, that's what I tried to point out near the end of my paragraph

It has it's issues 100% I agree but outside of taking gambling money which riot refuses to do I don't think there's another way to make it sustainable. I like how it's not a complete franchising system and more of a 'partner' system, this also has cons but I like how it means the orgs don't get too much power

idk its hard to tell, the only way would be to see if he's good or bad is to have someone else do the job and compare it to them. But that could turn out badly if he actually ends up being decent. On one hand I like how he's been receptive, he's somewhat listened to the community; for example when people were complaining about the off season being too long (both in tier 1 and tier 2) he actually did something to address it, when pros were complaining about the PC's he fixed the issue. On the other hand I think he's really struggled convincing orgs to stick to tier 2, and by extension he's failed to create a 'carrot' for tier 2 orgs

dort should be the first user limited to 3 stars
and yes W shout for cloudberry

What I'm curious of is if they've given out any more titles/buddies for masters/champs winners accidentally now that we know that its even a possibility

KOI Demon1 is happening bro, you just aren't ready

even better go read this: https://www.vlr.gg/380895/i-showed-a-cned-to-a-girl-at-work

CS vs Val 'beef' is the most 1st world shit I've ever seen, there are better things to get pressed about
I play Val more but still play some CS, and honestly just play whichever one you enjoy more 😭😭

wtf thats crazy

if xeus and kaajak aren't on the table it might be a shout
he'd probably have until June to prove him self over comeback

I'm slightly hesitant to say it because of how KC performed at the end of 2024 but I think magnum gets a lot more flack than he deserves, considering he was put in to the igl role I think he's done a pretty good job
ofc engh is present but I think magnum gets more hate than deserved

play a bit more consistently (better to play 3 games a day than 6 games every other day)
maybe a few more dms, normally hs% is irrelevant but try to get at least 25% just so you know its for sure not an issue

yeah this pretty much (assuming you want to actually play duelist to play the role, and not just to frag only). I would commit to learning 2 of the 3 and that should cover all maps

Isn't crossfire super popular in china

wow interesting, can't wait to see it

gotta be boaster

uh oh

chronicle
mako (igl)
aspas
johnqt
chichoo

have faith in demon1 (KOI)

bro is the allat warrior

wait its a real team? I thought it was just some randoms

https://i.imgur.com/LYMWlsv.png

I have been validated

americas then pacific would be the most optimised route

we got ping spoofing in valorant before gta VI

yeah you're right. The purpose of that was to just get the point across that if they want money they probably can get money (to invest)

let's say 8 franchised and 4 Premier then, yeah 20 is a lot I only meant to use it as an example for the 1:3 ratio

rumours are aspas is looking to leave LEV. Whenever LEV was playing bad aspas was still doing pretty good, so the general thought is that if LEV have a bad game, they won't have aspas to save them. Now ofc aspas leaving single handily won't make LEV bad but he was certainly a big part of their success this year

considering how much his buyout is, and seeing as how liquid don't seem to want him I think NA is most likely. (if he doesn't stay on FNC(cope))

EDG
FPX

TH
FNC
(yeah boring picks for EMEA ik)

DRX
TLN (home crowd hopium)

G2
KRU

fr send me a bil while they're at it

imo mixed but mostly franchised.
Say 20 teams in a region 5 are non franchise slots (i.e. its a Premier team who's slot expires, an org outside of the franchised ones could pick them up, but there would be limitations, just as there is with ascension teams in t1 right now)

https://i.imgur.com/b3QHMBf.png somewhere from here is ideal

imo

1. Get money somehow
2. Create a franchised (not partnered) league, having buying and selling slots and allat.
3. Tier 2 orgs can make money by developing tier 2 players and selling them to tier 1 teams.
4. Make orgs pick up teams from a pool of qualified Premier teams, they cannot make changes for an X amount of time

You can still have ascension, but this would mean that it's not the only incentive for orgs.
Give them 3 LANs, two mid season LANs (with decent prize pools) and Ascension. The regular season can still be online.
This is basically kicking the can down the road, but I think with how nicely they've handled tier 3 (premier) this is actually feasible.

The main drawback to this is representation of regions, but I think at some points you just have to make sacrifices, the current system is just too decentralised and doesn't work imo.

'young' might be misleading mb
what I mean is fresh talent, cracked players straight from tier 2

some of these might contradict each other, and if one happened maybe some others couldn't happen but I still wanted to see them

• M3C win against liquid in 22 LCQ, might've meant they'd stick together (unlikely due to franchising now that I think about it). At the very least would've seen that core play more
• OPTC win against loud at champs GF, I like loud but I gotta see yay with and FNS with a champs trophy at some point, and FNS ain't getting any younger
• FNC win against SEN in Reykjavik, no fraudnatic allegations from 2021-2022
• FNC beat LOUD in the champs rematch (maybe go on to win the whole thing if they don't recycle strats)
• FNC don't draw GENG in Shanghai
• FPX having no visa issues for Masters 1 Reykjavik
• OPTC and ACE making franchising
• TenZ and Sacy winning champs in their last year of competitive play
• NRG don't choke 12-5 against C9, make a deep run in playoffs and hopefully qualify
• PRX win Champs 23 (or Copenhagen)
• TH win Champs 24 (tbh I don't mind this one as much since I'm pretty happy with EDG winning)

what do you wish went differently?

Yeah that's exactly why, I think he has the potential to be pretty good. I would even go as far as to say have him not do mid rounding or igling at all, if he's focusing on aiming I think he's decent

oh wait its in the poll too im blind
if NAVI go for a younger team hiro
if they go for an experienced team suygetsu

but I think they're going for a young team so I'll say hiro