I meant it broke the record keeping, not the actual record

It broke the round records, there's no graphic for more than 50 rounds

Pretty sure it broke vlr, the site doesn't have a graphic for more than 50 rounds

We go another

Did they even program VLR for 3 rows worth of rounds?

Surely we hit line 3 of the VLR map summary

Maybe old mates just getting a few offers in then telling Geng to price match the highest bidder.

Then again maybe Gen-g just have enough confidence in their talent scouting/development after Karon that they think they can do it again. Given munchkin was a FA for all of about 7 hours it seems likely he's back on Geng so maybe a core around Solo, Munchkin, Karon and Texture to build up some new rookies on sentinel and initiator.

So basically this was the rough end date of what were 1 year contracts (or a 2 year last year for meteor) and odds are they're probably going to sign back unless someone else is offering them a chunk more money which seems unlikely since Drx is banking ok rookies, T1 is signing what ever they can get from DRX and SPG definitely don't have the money so this might be at minimum -munchkin and meteor +munchkin and meteor

Vitality doesn't have to be outbid for the statements to be true. If they're all bellow the buyout it's probably up to mutual agreement (so both fnatic and Derke) to decide which offer can be accepted. So if Fnatic put pressure on saying they're willing to except lower offers from teams who aren't vitality its basically just there to put pressure on to Vit pay sticker price putting the power back in their hands to see who compromises first Vitality's accountants or Derke's preference

But are they offering more than the actual buyout amount written in the contact. There's worlds where both the rumor's and Cojo's statement are true. If no one has offered the full buy out amount which is possible if it's set an unattainable level (which is possible if your selling a 2 time lan winner with huge amounts of longevity) then Vitality could still be the largest bid, but not meet the buyout.

Then to cover people saying they have accepted other offers, yeah they can probably do that. I could very much believe that there's a clause allowing them to accept lower buyout if the org is willing and they might only be willing to accept lower buyouts if the org's looking to buy aren't vitality.

Being poor and being willing to throw money at a buy out that they can possibly try reduce.
If your Vitality and have confidence Derke will refuse any offer other than yours why wouldn't you try lowball Fnatic for a bit until either it's later in the off season and they're more open to sell lower or until later in the off season when you just pay full price and it's the same as if you didn't try get a better deal.

Is the art of Facebook marketplace not something taught outside of Aus?

does MIBR give a shit about any esports. Like they're owned by Immortals and some of the contract / decision making shit immortals has done makes EG holding onto player contracts look like a player positive organization.

Any star player from South America's Tier 2 that can't get a spot on KRU and doesn't win ascension

Ok hear me out, now that Virtus Pro have moved operations to Armenia from being in Russia that likely contributed to them not getting a spot previously surely they're a solid shot if some teams don't make it past review in EMEA.

They have money
They have the fanbase
They have the history
They seem pretty stable
Seem pretty ethical in how they treat their players, I mean the payed a roster to compete in CS when they couldn't even use their name.

Really depends on what Aspas cost them to hold onto though, if a big part of his contract was re-share related to him then it's possible the base salary is still small enough to ride the bench in the content world if he doesn't want to play. If your weighing up the maths on capital losses does less buyout with more potential market loss (lower expected placing if you sell him to someone decent who would be competing with you, lower digital goods revenue) weigh up to be less than 1 year of Aspas base salary since the rev share stuff from rumors is only Aspas based revenue anyway (brazilian market)

Can any teams justify the cost though. Aspas had a super team star player contract. That comes with a massive fucking buyout. Enough of a buy out that rumors on the street was it was enough to cover the massive fucking buyout NRG had on Demon1 (baring in mind Demon1 also signed a super team star player contract which probably had the buyout to suit)

The reason it was Bleed Aspas is Bleed were the only ones who could buy out a contract that big (well at least they said they could....)

Sounds partially like vitality just gave them a shit offer compared to other teams. If your Fnatic you own the contract and have a buyout clause for him. Granted you don't know what else might be in that contract. There's the possibility the buyout it a flat cost + a financial compensation equivalent to a percentage of what a team buying them would play Derke (this was actually the written rules in OWL for T2 buyouts so there is precedence) and the NA orgs are willing to pay more. It could be they have massive buyout they can't afford and Vitality has offered a 'Trade' deal to try and reduce the buyout cost. Yes there's a chance it's a right of refusal clause in the interest of a non-compete.

Contract jail it isn't, this is just the financial part of the financial upside to replacing Derke with a rookie taking effect. At the end of the day it's a business and complaining about orgs doing business things doesn't really make sense in a league about financial stability.

Premier to Pacific is one hell of a story

I mean I agree EG seems like a miss.
C9 had history of playing in franchise leagues and managing their finances well.
Sen needed money in 2023 after they were already in franchising, in 2022 when they got partnered they were (and outside of china still are) the biggest org in terms of pulling viewership so even if they were broke I still think having Sen would have been a net positive for the league.
NRG telling chet to take a pay cut is probably just them not valuing him as much as the rest of the optic core they signed and not feeling he was worth the buyout.
100t have been pretty stable as an org and as a brand, starting an esports org from nothing is pretty much impossible in this day and age. You need to spend money to get the exposure and brand that you can convert into revenue for the org.

Personally I would have been way more concerned with MIBR given immortal's questionable history in franchise leagues (cough cough dropping their roster 2 weeks before play and moving to china)

Which 5 do you mean. Like EG sure, C9 or MIBR kinda. But also a lot of these decisions were made during an esports growth period where a lot of capital was being handing out to anyone with a brand and an idea of how to grow it. Then when the money slowed down some orgs didn't adapt well.

Bro they came from Overwatch, they have negative money

What a story, what a game, what an ending
Truly peak Valorant

Please call the article premier to pacific a SPG story

what a clutch

my god what an end

Most are pretty young. All of them would be 18 by the start of kickoff. Persia is like 26 though

Might have to open up the pockets I reckon these guys might already have a spot at this point

It's amazing the difference the cypher makes to slow the Neon value compared to the Sin Prisa's against full sense

I mean he's 18 in April, So odds are he would be eligible from stage 1 onwards. That's not exactly a long wait. I mean heretics did the same amount of waiting for woot this year. If your options are T1 salary ride the sentinels bench and farm clout for your brand to debut in stage 1 or risk playing tier 2 and decreasing your name value before hand(likely on a team that is either non-competitive or carries a buyout). An academy team from Sen seems unlikely, at best I could maybe see a 2 way contract with a T2 partner team.

That or he's playing for sentinels in an event and being able to rebrand as a Sen player is about the best thing you can do for your brand/clout.

Why are people so worried about 2G ascending because they're a small org. Sin Prisa in Pacific who are looking like favorites are also a small org (I mean they came out of Overwatch, they got negative money) but people don't seem as concerned. We don't really know what the TPA terms signed by either the partnership or ascension teams are. It's reasonably likely Riot planned around orgs with less financial stability ascending and likely have covered enough in org stipe ends to cover operating costs for the a partnership team.

Aint no way after last years precedent with The Gaurd they would prefer to undermine their system than financially support a smaller org.

Kids not eligible until June unfortunately

Choking ascension 2 years in a row 🤝

1 down 3 or so wins to go

Or are we going to have to wait for riddle sin prisa after JFT finish the Vietnam any% speed run

Oce just goated

honestly really not a fan of some of their painters

Pretty sure it's just Ikana repping Vietnam. These other guys are going home

Nah, you want the oce biased casting. It just makes it better imo

EZ for JFT

Just pay for derke tbh. Guys used to getting micro managed should be a decent fit

You ever get that feeling of deja vu

Really depends what you class as a tier 2 org.
If you mean a start up one e.g. Disguised. Realistically if your goal is partnership your only option is ascension.

If you have some money to throw around then your best option is partnership/title sponsorship with an org that's already in ascension e.g. Giant X or if you have fuck you money to throw around than buy out a partnered team entirely. e.g. if EG went into proper broke mode and you bought all of EG you probably get to keep their partnership spot.

At the end of the day, if you want to get in their needs to be a spot available and unless another org breaks contract in some way. Their probably won't be any spots available any time soon

Edit: T2 orgs being proactive would inevitably result in a huge economic loss for any team involved without the chance of returns, so why risk it. Go put those resources into new emerging titles or hold onto it and reinvest in your current games that you have a foothold in.

You can't be trying to say the best team of the year is one that got grouped domestically and missed 1/3 lans.

NA fans really trying to ignore that sen got grouped in stage 1 and only made champs by points when trying to justify putting them over Gen g who made more finals. Won a bigger lan and won their domestic competition.

Seems a bit like cope

Today Edward was really gaming

Isn't dfm's Valorant spot being run by crazy racoons anyway?

Probably co-streaming. Maybe talent if he's got some showmanship in him.

If not I guess there's always coaching

Why would the TO have to let you in. If you sign a roster and they qualify through premier or promotion relegation. Surely they would have to let them play. Short of the team not being eligable to asscend into the VCT (Because otherwise one org would have 2 teams at T1) and not being able to have more than 1 academy team, excluding GC (Because otherwise one org would have 2 teams at T2). There's no real reason why you couldn't unless there's a rule saying you can't.

Just another very EMEA specific issue. Say for example I'm the GM at Fnatic (a UK org) and I think to myself damn all these T2 players I can find in Polaris are trash. I want to put my money into pulling talent out of the say Turkey (it's worked for them in the past with hiro and alfajer). Can I make the Fnatic academy team in VCL Turkey. If so can everyone make an academy team in VCL Turkey, even ones outside of VCT EMEA?. In this hypothetical world could every team in VCL Turkey be a VCT academy team and no one gets to go to ascension?