Maybe rather than putting the agent bans at the beginning you can put them in the middle. Like each team picks 2, bans 2, then picks the next 2. That way you can still get the Jett's, Chambers, or other picks valorant relies on, but still get some say in the agent pool.

I think they struggle with pace. EMEA teams typically don't hit the jets and usually play the utility game. LOUD besides being mechanically gifted, play faster pace than most EU teams. PRX has the W key glued down and you can't convince me otherwise.
It's the same reason the Guard lost to PRX imo, EMEA and NA don't prepare you for that pace.

Every other region came in here to topple the EMEA giant as well. Korea, Brazil, and Japan made super teams. NA teams started to compete at a level at which you couldn't just coast to internationals anymore. And APAC is doing whatever the hell APAC is doing. Gonna be honest PRX, you're weirder than Team Liquid.

We have a few days to relax until masters continues. What moment of the past week was your favorite? Mine has to be Sacy knifing Avova. Shit was hilarious.

Also who's your mvp thus far? If I had to pick, I'd choose SugarZ3ro, but there are cases to make for a lot of the players remaining.

Says may 5th on the page for it. APAC starts the 27th.

Most begin around May 5th. A lot of it depends on format, as each region has slightly different formats. EMEA is set for group stage, while NA begins closed quals on the 5th. Brazil is pretty much set too. APAC begins earlier just because of the sheer amount of tourneys they have to do to get to the main one.

NA went through a huge restructuring process tbh after M3 and Champs last season. It's not like Optic or the Guard absolutely dominated NA either. Up until playoffs Version1 and Cloud9 were the obvious best teams in North America. XSET was also a beast in their own right. Competition breeds excellence and this is no more clear than EMEA, but NA is on track to being able to have 6+ internationally capable teams.

Fixed

My bad, I keep forgetting they swapped the top and bottom brackets for this round.

Outside of the production quality, (So many tech pauses and UI bugs), I think this has already been the best masters yet. Last year was either EMEA or NA domination all season, the latter half being heavily skewed towards EMEA. We really only had a couple of teams outside these regions get close to a trophy. (KRU being the closest). This masters, everyone who came in had some potential of making a deep run, and there are really no bad teams. Even now, 6 different teams, 6 different regions, and we honestly have no clue is gonna win it, because all teams have had flashes of brilliance.

Who you got today. I'm hoping Zeta gets their revenge arc complete over DRX after that terrible game 1. I like DRX though, as they have been solid throughout. I really like the G2 and PRX matchup just because how no fucks given PRX is. Hoping for a PRX victory.

Also who was your original Final 4 prediction? I had Optic, LOUD, G2, and The Guard, so at least I was half right. (Albeit I had Optic making it here in Lowers.

Optic is also VERY experienced. Most experienced team left

Vivo Keyd deserved playoffs last season. The cypher cam is hardly any worse than any other bug that has been used in VCT. (The amount of KJ bugs I've seen is hilarious)

I don't see how anyone can hate yay, he's so good that he could trash talk anyone if he wanted, but he's genuinely the nicest guy. And he's always willing to take the blame for losses, even though he almost never bottom frags. All this while having to live under Sentinels and Tenz's shadow last year.

DRX is still in the tourney, imagine dropping your team after 1 loss when they've dominated up to this point.

As long as Brazil has LOUD, they probably only need 1 slot

Aspas vs. Yay gonna be a fire matchup. I want Optic to win because yay deserves at least one trophy for how consistent he's been, but would love LOUD to win it for their region, and to finish the arc that there is no such thing as "minor region" anymore.

The way Brazil lost last year was tragic. Too bad you can't take your revenge against Sen or Acend as a region.

I'm a NA fan, but I follow EMEA, Latam, and Brazil as well. Been a fun experience following LOUD prove all the doubters wrong.

LOUD now goes 16-0 since their inception (34-3 record for their map picks).

Bonus question: who's been around since Pancada e Amigos?

The reason it is LLL is because they like handing out Ls

I don't think any team was gonna beat gambit in M3 tbf.

Worry about DRX first.

Even if DRX bows out this next round, they played incredible from the start. Bright future for the team. I'm still betting they make finals though.

Don't count out LOUD. Those kids are studs too. IDK who I want to win though, all the teams remaining are very likeable. Guess I'll just root for NA in the meantime.

FNS is easily the best IGL in NA, maybe the whole world. Optic looked calm the whole game, even after the bad start.

DRX just has studs all the way around, but zest was the one keeping them in a lot of rounds in that last game for sure

Brazil easily the worst region in the world. Their spot should go to one of NA's 6 slots.

Can we just take a break from the trash talk to appreciate how good that series was. Both these teams playing at the highest level of the tourney yet. I think Optic won because they forced DRX to take scrappy fights, and it definitely made them uncomfortable. But GGs to DRX, If they don't at least make the finals it's a shame.

I would agree except Sentinels absolutely dominated. Can you say they got a favorable run? Yes. They still had the most dominant masters performance to date though.

Sentinels was easily the best back then, but going towards Berlin they didn't have the competition to adapt to the new meta, and by the time Champions rolled around it hit NA in the face.

Even if he was, he can't play due to travel restrictions.

I would disagree. This was very important. If they win they get to play LG first round, and get a much easier path to MASTERS. Now they have to play Guard round 1, which I don't even think they'll win, and have to play V1 and C9 after that most likely.