Oh okay, thx. So it's extended to sort of "legacy players" rule? As in if you've played in the region you're elligible?

I've been out of the loop for a while and now I'm confused.

Is the 3/5th core from the region rule no longer in place? How are R8 allowed to play with Ru-Blr squad?

Sounds alright, but it also effectively klills every 3rd party sub-VCL system we had like PLE in Europe East region since they can't be connected to VCL themselves anymore

OH CANADA

Same format as EMEA expected

dammit greentext looks awful on this site

switch game
win GC Worlds
leave
what a chad move lmao

It genuinely lacks someone who audience respects to put the boot in

Like TaZ did in 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvNsJdyWhXU

So regarding Boaster...

ESL Impact circuit is unfortunately pretty much ignored by HLTV besides LAN finals so that hurts them a lot I feel like

Better put coverage for the 20th same looking RandomBetingCompany Cup up instead lol

Best viewership for any women's esports event ever?

W

They had full Swedish line up for years and that was the reason, once they stepped away from it they don't care

i know rn they also have roeJ and nicodoz but I doubt any sentiments towards Scandinavia played part in their signings

Yes but no, UK is in the Polaris region but FNC I doubt they'll actually invest in the talent from the region besides UK players

They've had their Rocket League team in NA for years and afaik they also have a Halo team that's NA based

also lack of G2 obviously hurts as I've followed the org in CS/LOL/RL since 2017 but Vitality got in so I still have a team to cheer for anyway.

tbh if it was BIG instead of Giants and something from Scandinavia (Heroic/Alliance) it'd be perfect*

*obviously I'd love for there to be an org from Central-East Europe, but there's just no realistic prospects here anyway. If Team Kinguin didn't die over the years they could be one but unfortunately they're pretty much dead after rebranding to DV1

I've been following Vitality since the Waterboys roster in CS:GO, their twitter is 90% in English

The only "forced" contact with French I had with them was when I had to message the merch shop support and they mailed me back in French even though I wrote to them in English lmao

Mouz?

mate the UK might be in the Polaris region but it's not Scandinavia lmao

I'm not all too worried since Spanish orgs aren't exactly known for being too keen on using domestic talent and rather go for international rosters, but still

If you look at VRL divide, there's at least some orgs from Northern Europe (Fnatic UK, Liquid Spain)

DACH, EAST and MENA have none.
Turkey, CIS get one.
France gets 2.
Spain get 3 out of nothing.

Shit knows who gets the last spot but the distribution looks pretty bad already

1 CIS team (Na'Vi), no team from East region (which doesn't surprise me much, we don't really have any capable orgs here besides maybe AGO who are not interested in Valorant anyway and Entropiq in Czechia and that's pretty much all that I could think of), NO org from DACH which is just wtf and 3 orgs from Spain

idk, Rito does some weird things here

If they don't force the KR orgs to pick up SEA talent this is gonna be a joke.

It's a kinda different PR impact keeping a player that was already signed on team vs signing a new one

Why's that?

wait why do Soniqs have Australian flag when there's 1 (one) Aussie in the team lmao

Maybe bring in Renegades to the APAC league, since they've already an estabilished fanbase in OCE? Win both for the scene and for the org imo

W, I was scared it's gonna turn into a LOL-like closed ecosystem, good they're taking a different path

Sadge, great run from Vita though and the FUT guys definitely deserved it.

You replied to the wrong comment or something mate? xD

Just curious, do Turks nowadays consider themselves more EU or ME?

uwu

I'm not even sure why not just finish the season off with zeek

According to leaks they don't even consider Acend who are current WCs, so I don't think any team winning Worlds would change their mind if they're not thinking about including them in the first place.

Editorial suggestion: would you consider adding a newline between the players and the coaching staff in the roster changes related articles? Would improve readability imo, especially if there's multiple people in the latter

Just realized there's 2 LCQ spots for SA... i'm so confused at the distribution

I didn't watch much this season outside of EU so I'm just gonna paste who I'm gonna cheer for to make it

NA = LG
EMEA = G2/Acend (but my guess is that Guild will quali)
APAC = Secret
SA = KRU & NiP
EA = idc Crazy Racoon or EDG for more diversity on Champs

Could happen at any time tbh. Each event is different because the game is still in it's early stages, even if it's already 2 years since release

Ukraine isn't CIS

I know there's a real possibility Acend are not making franchise but it'll feel weird leaving the first ever World Champion org out, lol

There isn't a single org from East-From-Central Europe (besides maybe NAVI) making it. I don't think they care at all for regional representation

Obligatory f... franchising comment

I feel like there NEED to be some big Open format tournaments next year (for both partnered and non-partnered teams), alongside the main circuit, else there's absolutely nothing to grind for T2 players team-wise

Sure you'll have things like VRL Finals, but if there's nothing more than one tournament per split then what will matter for players is not building a successful squad, but flashing yourself out to be picked. Which will kill off competitiveness both in T1 and T2

I hate how LOL system looks and Riot at first said they won't replicate it in Valorant (first they talked about keeping Open Circuit for the first 4-5 years of the game - well, they lied), then that franchising will work different in Valo... so far another lie, tbh

Because the org has a spot in Spain and you only need either 2 players from the region, or for the org and 1 player to be from the region to compete

Top 3 teams from previous split, World Champions and a team that looked deadly in relegations in the same group

Bro, if that isn't the definition of group of death I don't now what is

so ez for Vitality

Their fanbase is annoying, but still the move is good for the scene

I hate franchises, loved the fact they had full on promotion-relegation system this year.

It'll get stale and boring just like League.

OpTic's on the other hand are nice but would be 10x better if not for the big-ass red sponsor on one of the sleeves, it stands out so much

But OpTic as a brand always had cool shirts