it's a big hodgepodge for now because riot rushed franchising. the big idea was that the franchise league WAS supposed to be the tier 1 league, but obviously as you said there's a huge grey area between some teams in VCL and some teams in VCT (i wouldn't be surprised if The Union would demolish MIBR as is, for example). i'd say give it time. hopefully in a year or so with the transfer windows and such the different tiers will become a bit more defined

disbanded, i remember seeing an ec1s tweet about it some time earlier last month

unfortunately i fear DSG's run ends here. that being said, i hope toast keeps the team and continues to pour support into them. if they do, they'll be back in t2 next year.

if EMEA has a team that's more T2 than T1, it's KC/KOI unfortunately. VIT/GIA are underwhelming but are still T1

apple cider >> orange juice > apple juice

VCT -- tier 1
VCL -- tier 2
anything below that -- tier 3+

of course, since this is the first year of franchising and all that, T1 and T2 have a bit of a grey area where you wonder why a team is in T1 (i.e., DFM) and you also wonder why another team isn't in T1 (i.e. M80, MxM, Union, Apeks)

in a couple of years the tiers will become more defined

a streamer of Toast's size easily makes hundreds of thousands if not millions USD a year

i already play tennis. also, #17

my big concern is whether MxM can bounce back from a loss. they've clearly improved from split one and look VERY strong, but there's something making me feel like if they lose to M80 in the upper finals, they'll then crash out against Guard in the lower finals (assuming Guard makes it there, which i find very likely). i obviously wanna see them succeed but idk, that's just the feeling i have about it

the thing for me is how easy it is to hit a wall with character building. once you find a solid comp you just kinda steamroll through the game with little effort. i was lucky to get seele e1 in HSR and i have childe and yoimiya in genshin and i can literally just auto everything that isn't the Abyss/Simulated Universe as long as i have the levels for it. it's why i'm not really enticed to return to Genshin -- i was AR 56 and had two teams with max everything that will let me just walk through the game with zero challenge :/

but yeah, the chinese base have always been chads about these games. i was in a couple of discord servers where all they did was give advice and it was great

deadass? unironically going to buy it today then, thanks for the heads up!

he's not the person you should look at for actual political opinions -- he and i share views a lot but he's just too over the top and sometimes insufferable about it. if you watch him for the content/with a grain of salt, then sure. just don't base your every opinion off of what he says PLEASE

i played Genshin every day since release for about 1.5 years and haven't touched it again since the first itto banner, and HSR was a good time sink for 15-ish hours but it's not as enticing to return. you're absolutely right on the soundtracks though i listen to that shit unironically

i played both spiderman ps4 and spiderman miles morales when i borrowed a friend's ps4! unfortunately i don't have it anymore so GoW is not on the cards

this is the first time i've heard of this game, seems awesome!

elden ring i've already made a commitment to buying, the question is whether my computer will run it haha. thanks for the reminder of inscryption too, i'll probably check that one out too

i'm slowly grinding that game out already :) i'll be a chimps demon by year's end hopefully

i play SV with my girlfriend a lot, i adore it :>

DRG, Hades, Celeste, Stardew >>>>>

i'll take note of the other games -- always wanted to check out subnautica and neon chrome in particular!

not a basketball player sadly. i do play sand volleyball a lot though, would also recommend

i've already been rec'd P5R a lot elsewhere, it's pretty tempting :D

the whole point of DM isn't to practice angle holding though, it's to practice dueling. if i really wanted to practice angle holding (which in the end is literally just crosshair placement), i'd play swiftplay or a custom

o shit, i forgot how beloved this game was on release. might go for a witcher 3/rdr2 binge ngl

celeste is part of my Holy Trinity alongside hollow knight and cuphead :) i love that game to bits

i'll take note of ultrakill and ender lillies -- guilty gear i tried once and didn't like much, but i know that many love it so i won't knock it down for anything

i like league, but i'm someone that only plays unranked blind pick with a stack of friends. it's actually fun when you don't play to win. unfortunately i'm not really in a league mood atm either

i don't touch dm because of this exact reason. i'm asc 1 and any time i log into a DM i end up encountering these silvers that play DM like it's ranked, holding corners, shiftwalking, and prefiring every time they hear something in a general direction. i play dm just to aim and sometimes i play without sound, i shouldn't be punished for sprinting...

i already have it! :)

i'm experiencing some major fps burnout, honestly. i'm tired of val, i'm tired of overwatch, i'm tired of csgo. i just don't want to touch an fps game for a while

what games would y'all recommend? steam summer sale is in two weeks and i wanna try something new. assume $50-60 USD budget to start. any recs of any kind are welcome, only request is that it's not an fps for obvious reasons

i would much rather them give me a wall of text clarifying everything rather than a two-sentence tweet that'd have everyone speculating for weeks

I love MxM, but their run of form likely ends here.

2-1 M80, grand finals will be M80 vs Guard

edit: lmao, all these downvotes for what? based on how MxM looked on that fracture i fear i may be right

edit 2: :)

1/2 so far, god i fucking love being right

shame that TT didn't get a buyer, i know they're also on relegation watch but the juicer money would've helped a little at least

based on the match that literally just ended, NiSMO would be a direct upgrade for a lot of teams for ini/raze

this is true, but a portion of VLR were delusional in thinking g2 would sweep playoffs kek

damn, we have almost the exact same pick em. only difference is that FaZe beats TSM and Guard wins the MxM rematch.

https://www.vlr.gg/pickem/713e02cd

9+10

i'm doing an internship rn, earning $18/hour + $800/month housing stipend

sadly the faze val team would still choke out of playoffs

the only thing i disagree with is EMEA having the most firepower. Honestly in terms of raw firepower all of the major regions are fairly equal -- they have their absolute superstars that could maybe make a claim of GOAT and also some players that really make me ask how they were hired.

everything else i honestly 100% agree on

that might be the move honestly, funny i didn't consider it. i've managed to get myself to listen to podcasts, so audiobooks are probably the next logical step

who/what? (genuine question)

i was referring to later. i think they 2-0 them now (maybe 2-1), but Guard get a rematch in the lower finals and win 3-1 to make ascension

unironically i think SEN has the right pieces in place at this moment (more so than they had since 2021 Masters), they just have to capitalize on them. also, the other teams just don't seem like they can beat C9 even if they play at their absolute peak apart from maybe LEV, but as i mentioned in the post i don't trust they'll perform unless they fix their inconsistency. C9 is still the absolute favorite, i just think SEN has the next best chance

gabi belle's video on spotify's shuffle algorithm is probably top 5 favorite videos ever for me

i believe that, but i do still fear that they may struggle from new kid pressure (ie runi and jakee not performing as well since champs is on the line). hopefully i'm proven wrong, i'd love to see them

if DFM win APAC LCQ i'll buy their jersey

Masters hasn't even started yet but fuck it, LCQ predictions

Americas: C9 or SEN (FURIA is currently imploding apparently, LEV super inconsistent apart from kiNgg, 100T lacking structure with mikes as the only coach. C9 is the favorite but if SEN beats them in the bracket then SEN may be going)

EMEA: whoever of the 4 teams at masters don't qualify for champs outright (the bottom team is sent to LCQ). probably gonna be FUT, but i still believe they'll make Champs. the bottom 6 in EMEA i don't really trust to do well

APAC: GenG (if they fix whatever mental issues they had during the second half of the split) or Team Secret. strangely enough i also feel RRQ will also show up and perform well, but i'm not sure if they qualify

who cars if he's a val fan? let him cheer for who he wants

edit: just realized this thread is 9 hours old. so sorry for the unintentional revive

99% of 100t fans know that with mikes as the sole coach they aren't gonna do much :<

SEN theoretically has all the pieces they need, they just need to capitalize on it

Mark Rober easy

also isaacwhy if i want to laugh