In 2027 we will see all of the VCT contracts come to an end and will likely (hopefully) see changes to VCT and I would love to Blast and ESL get involved in val, they have always ran incredible solid events in CS and Fortnite (probably more I just don't watch other esports than those) and as much as I enjoy watching masters and champs events they are way more few and far between in comparison to CS and it makes the scene often take a backseat to CS for those who follow both scenes and having more tournament organizers is great for the esport as a whole, the esports world cup went well so hopefully they continue the trend of adding more tournaments because who doesn't want more val esports.

Chronicle is in the GOAT conversation and plays flex, Alfa is incredible but out of these 4 players he's getting the boot

2025/2024/2021/2022/2023

This isn't even the FNC fan in me talking, Vitality and MIBR should be taken with a grain of salt, throwing a bunch of talent doesn't always work, but on paper Vitality is better than FNC

Yes, I reranked the teams using this years rules ie: top 4 teams get a bye instead of top 4 conference champs and top 5 conference champs get in

1.Oregon (B1G champ)
2.UGA (SEC champ)
3.UT
4.PSU
5.ND
6.OSU
7.Tennessee
8.IU
9.BSU (MWC champ)
10.SMU
11.ASU (Big 12 champ)
12.Clemson (ACC champ)

Bracket
ND-Clemson- ND-PSU - ND-OSU - UGA-OSU - UGA
OSU-ASU - OSU-UT - UGA-Oregon
Utenn-SMU - UGA-Utenn
IU-BSU - Oregon-IU

(Extremely biased Michigan fan)
(had to make Tennessee, Utenn because it made the bracket look weird)

Bro was unintentionally right

What did I say

It's the off-season these results mean almost nothing, all things considered, projecting because your team lost ETERNAL FIRE is hilarious

Even as a Derke and Chroncile enjoyer was giggling like a school girl when they lost

Hehe

I love Chronicle and Derke but join Vitality does this to you

True but calling the faker of val means he had accomplished a similar amount to faker which he hasn't and is still miles behind in terms of accomplishments

In terms of majors he never won any, I'm assuming they are referring to his lan wins which are not equivalent in the slightest to a major

Faker is miles ahead of Ethan atp, faker has 4 more rings and 2 more MVPs, 6 less finals appearances, 2 MSI trophies (Masters equivalent), 4 less MSI finals, 1 less EWC and EWC finals appearances and 10 less regional titles and 11 less regional finals appearances than faker along with not being the best individual player in his esport

Even with FNC losing Chron they are still miles ahead of TH rn and the only team teams I see really being competitive in EMEA right now are VIT assuming they live up to the hype and FNC
Also I agree GX should be higher like 3

Totally agree, loses mean virtually nothing until the lower Bracket as you could literaly win the tournament with 3 loses if you include the Swiss Stage

I prefaced that I don't think will actually do this at the bottom of the post, I think the format is horrendous but i thought it would be interesting to make a prediction using the format

Americas: G2 1st, NRG 2nd, MIBR 3rd
EMEA: FNC 1st, GX 2nd, VIT 3rd
Pacific: DRX 1st, RRQ 2nd, GENG 3rd
China: BLG 1st, XLG 2nd, DRG 3rd

Swiss Stage:
2-0: NRG, GENG
2-1: MIBR, VIT
1-2: GX, RRQ (9th-10th)
0-2 XLG, DRG (11th-12th)

Upper Bracket:
G2-GENG - G2-DRX - DRX-FNC - FNC-DRX - FNC
DRX-NRG - FNC-VIT
FNC-MIBR
VIT-BLG

Middle Bracket;
NRG-GENG - NRG-G2 - NRG-VIT -DRX-NRG- DRX-NRG
MIBR-BLG - VIT-MIBR

Lower Bracket:
GENG-BLG - G2-GENG - G2-VIT - NRG-G2
G2-MIBR

1st: FNC
2nd: DRX
3rd: NRG
4th: G2
5th: VIT
6th GENG
7th-8th: MIBR-BLG

(Winning team goes first)
(I don't think they will actually do this format)
(PRX - Patmen = Bad PRX)

boaster's calling is incredible but his performances similar to karrigan can singlehandedly lose matches when it's bad, the one's the people mainly point to are the Toronto and Paris finals where in those finals he was closer to -7 PER MAP, but there's a reason they are even in these finals, at some point he will retire and we will see if this team will truly get better but until then, FNC will never let go of him so he's here to stay until he hangs it up

They have been year in year out one of the favorites, 2025: PRX, 2024: GENG, 2023:(FNC was favorite but PRX looked strong after 3rd with a content creator sub)
2022: (PRX along with FPX were the favorites) and they haven't won it yet. They have always had the talent never the will

SLT is legit, they placed first in ascension with 2 decent VCT teams, yes DRX placed third at champs but I expect this game to be closer than we expect

There is no way Lakia wasn't calling in some way on that 2024 GenG team because he was ASS (I love him don't get me wrong) and that team was so successful, hopefully they can find that success again with him.

On a real note, there really isn't a better org than them in Pacific tier-2 so they are going to get the call right back up this time likely permanently, if I had a nickel everytime boom esports got saved by an org not paying players on time, I would have 2 nickels but it's still weird it happened twice

Can they not sign those players, legit question, I would if I'm zeta's management

Teams Attending:
Americas: G2 1st, NRG 2nd, MIBR 3rd
EMEA: FNC 1st, VIT 2nd, GX 3rd
Pacific: PRX 1st, DRX 2nd, ZETA 3rd
China: BLG 1st, XLG 2nd, DRG 3rd

Swiss Stage:
2-0: NRG, DRX
2-1: MIBR, ZETA
1-2: VIT, GX (9th-10th)
0-2 XLG, DRG (11th-12th)

Playoff Bracket:
FNC-ZETA - FNC-DRX - FNC-G2 - FNC-G2 - FNC
BLG-DRX - NRG-G2
PRX-NRG
G2-MIBR

ZETA-BLG - ZETA-DRX - ZETA-NRG - ZETA-G2
PRX-MIBR - PRX-NRG

FNC - 1st
G2- 2nd
ZETA- 3rd
NRG- 4th
DRX-PRX - 5th-6th
BLG-MIBR - 7th-8th

This assumes the format is 12 teams
There always seems to be some Cinderella run in every tournament and fucks sakes my gut says ZETA is gonna shock the world

Chronicle: 3 trophies, 7 international finals, better individually and capable of playing more roles.
Ethan: 2 Champs (more valuable), 3 finals, not as good individually as Chronicle but GOAT support player (it's not close) and IGL/Secondary caller for his career.

It just depends on what you what you value, obviously I am biased so I think it's Chronicle but both have great arguments and it could go either way.

It's not really fair to compare him to chronicle but honestly as with Kajaak replacing Derke I have a feeling this will be a great move for this team in the long run, this core still went to 3 global finals in a row, so even if this team has a dip they should still be competing for trophies

I second this

(note I am the same person who wrote this list)
I heavily value accomplishments and everyone i put above him has either accomplished more or is one of the best players of all time, also the past 2 years for him have been pretty stinky and 2 years in Valorant at this point is a while

(note I am the same person who wrote this list)
There are so many players who deserve a spot but I had to choose just 15 but I agree Jawg should be in the there. Munchkin deserves a spot imo, he does not get enough credit for his individual play and GenG was insane last year, any of those players IE: Karon, Texture or Munchkin have solid arguments to be in the top 15 as well

(Note I am the same person who wrote this list)
Leo is insane obviously some people are going to agree but look at some of his matches this FNC team probably wins at least 1 of those finals if Leo is in instead of Crashies

Chron is tied for 1 with Aspas but as I said its what you value and he isn't any lower than 2

Boaster has gotta be up there, there isn't really any consistent way to rank players other than accomplishments and boaster has done it all, he is an incredible IGL and frankly I couldn't justify putting him any lower by what I value

(Note I am the same person who wrote this list)
Crashies has been incredible all things considered great individually but also 6 finals is unreal and honestly I completely forgot about less, it was unintentional disrespect dude is probably 8-10th

(Note I am the same person who wrote this list)
There are several players that people have pointed out that I forgot about and frankly I have no clue as to where I'd put him, probably 10th as his individual skills considering the fact of him IGLing is incredible but outside of 2021 hasn't had anywhere close to that level International dominance

Completely agree BerLIN is the top 15

Creamydreamy, honestly the best player to replace Chronicle if fills all the roles and we all know he's not even close to the same level of player but we said that about Kajaak and Crashies for replacing Leo and Derke and look where this team got to this year, am I coping, 100% but in Cojo we trust

Brodie acting like he on the team

I would've had y'all at least in the final if W strippler was still there o7

Bro had to stepped away so FNC has a chance so humble stripper

Teams Attending:
Americas: G2 1st, NRG 2nd, C9 3rd
EMEA: FNC 1st, GX 2nd, TL 3rd
Pacific: PRX 1st, RRQ 2nd, DRX 3rd
China: BLG 1st, XLG 2nd, DRG 3rd

Swiss Stage:
2-0: GX, DRX
2-1: C9, TL
1-2: NRG, RRQ (9th-10th)
0-2 XLG, DRG (11th-12th)

Playoff Bracket:
FNC-C9 - FNC-PRX - FNC-DRX- FNC-DRX - FNC
PRX-TL - DRX-GX
G2-DRX
BLG-GX

C9-TL - TL-PRX - PRX-G2 - PRX-DRX
G2-BLG - G2-GX

FNC - 1st
DRX - 2nd
PRX - 3rd
G2 - 4th
GX-TL - 5th-6th
BLG-C9 - 7th-8th

Did I cook?

Considering you posted this 3 weeks ago you got absurdly close

DRG vs RA 2023 China Ascension

https://www.vlr.gg/292033/rare-atom-vs-dragon-ranger-gaming-champions-tour-2023-china-ascension-gf/?game=152136&tab=overview

If you had or told me at the start of the year this is what I was getting out of Fnatic this year, 3 finals, an EMEA title, boaster's antics I would have been so happy, I am so proud of these boys, I am so excited for next year, GGWP NRG

I've seen people discussing who is the GOAT and honestly after today i think it has to be Chronicle, he has 3 trophies (might be 4 tomorrow), 7 GRAND FINALS, individually incredible, is he the best individual player no, that's Aspas but that's not the debate so Chronicle is the GOAT imo.

2022 worlds ahh prediction

Heretics won EWC and people acting like this was their comeback like what LOL

When playoff pickems open what will y'all's brackets look like?

Paper Rex AND G2 being on our side of the bracket and DRX in the quarterfinal sucks but I honestly believe we can get to the upper final.