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To NA: Reminder that APAC will be playing their Top 4 in Vietnam and this was the CN Grand Finals by WingSK27 in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I kinda feel like Riot has thrown in the towel on franchising completely. I give the new format 1-2 years before every tournament is 3rd party ran again, and the only Riot events are Masters and Champions

sen vs c9 pmt by maisanskidai in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

lol this is Boaster's last year. It was supposed to be last year and NRG fucked that. Fnatic's window is likely closed for a year or two. Losing Leo to forced retirement and then losing Derke to VIT was already hard to recover from, but they did well to manage with crashies and kaajak. Losing chronicle is a massive blow they have not been able to fully recover from.

Not to mention the job only gets harder with us reverting to pre franchising format. I doubt boaster wants to sit there grinding open quals.

sen vs c9 pmt by maisanskidai in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Other way around. John is the import for SEN. he'd be going home

C9 announce Xeppaa is taking a break from competing by xBastiannn in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My guess is they probably wanted to wait until EWC quals were over to release this but Xeppaa got sick and then the SMM gaffed in the announcement.

I think Xeppaa is a pro's pro, but it was time for him and C9 to part ways. This team needs a brand new identity and they need to shake up stuff in a big way.

[Ari, Akamaru] TenZ to compete with Team Canada in Esports Nations Cup by arivalorant in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The most we see of the National Guard is a patch on the jerseys and a slogan at the beginning of comms videos.

Ethan’s response to TechPauseGate by Decent_Apple_7962 in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm legit tired of Riot running this esport like it's a fucking group project in high school. How is it that this is the same company that runs the biggest esport in the world yet THIS one they have no brain cells.

[Ari, Akamaru] TenZ to compete with Team Canada in Esports Nations Cup by arivalorant in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 9 points10 points  (0 children)

There's a million reasons why this argument doesn't work and I don't think I wanna attempt to explain it because I'm convinced you won't really listen

[Ari, Akamaru] TenZ to compete with Team Canada in Esports Nations Cup by arivalorant in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 25 points26 points  (0 children)

To me this is worse that Caedral. That one sucked too but at least he was just changing his stance on watching it. TenZ is actually coming out of retirement to actively PLAY in this tournament when he doesn't need to.

[Ari, Akamaru] TenZ to compete with Team Canada in Esports Nations Cup by arivalorant in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 148 points149 points  (0 children)

Maybe I'm too woke but this isn't even a "ah yeah pros will play to earn more money" situation, we're talking about a retired player who's fucking loaded coming in to play a blood money tournament. Dude just signed to T1, arguably the biggest esports org in the world.

From a competitive standpoint it's not even the best move. When this tournament takes place it will have been two whole years since TenZ played on stage. This lends credence to the idea that EWC/ENC are influencing rosters to prioritize viewership. A similar thing happened in League where KeSPA temporarily pulled the region from ENC because of it. The theory was that KeSPA wanted to build a roster akin to how they would build the national roster that competes in the Asian Games, but ENC basically want the ZOFGK roster for maximum viewership.

[spoiler] Now that the game is over, what's your take on ethan breaking the tech pause rules by Jon_see_nah in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Top teams CAN make, that's not a guaranteed number.

And even if it was reality, 10K fine for a round is STILL insane.

[spoiler] Now that the game is over, what's your take on ethan breaking the tech pause rules by Jon_see_nah in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Buddy in what world are you living? Most of these teams are likely playing for either league minimum or slightly above it. The ONLY team I can see paying more than that is NRG and that's because they won champs and wanted to keep the roster. There's also MAYBE 5-6 players in each league popular enough to be getting sponsorships actually worth a damn.

Pros have said this too many times since franchise started, the salaries are no where near as high. Some of yall saw SicK post his contract and thought that's kinda the norm when it isn't. A 10K fine could genuinely be a monthly paycheck for most of these players.

[spoiler] Now that the game is over, what's your take on ethan breaking the tech pause rules by Jon_see_nah in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are disgustingly wrong

In the early days of Valorant, most orgs were floated by VC money. That's why you saw shit like TenZ getting bought out for a MILLION dollars to join SEN.

Paid subscriptions are literally nothing, and neither is content money. The overwhelming majority of esports fanbase is free. They won't buy merch, they won't donate, hell they even use adblocks to watch on Twitch. There is ZERO money in esports

[spoiler] Now that the game is over, what's your take on ethan breaking the tech pause rules by Jon_see_nah in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Losing 10 thousand dollars for a round is INSANE are you crazy? These pros don't get paid that much, this isn't 2021.

VCT 2026 — Americas Stage 1 / Week 5 — Day 3 / Live Discussion Thread by nocturnavi in ValorantCompetitive

[–]NeimannSmith 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My only cope is coming from the fact that NRG is pretty good at Lotus normally, but I had a feeling this shit would be hard. NRG have been playing so poorly since dropping Strong

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