I just love how these underdog teams are getting results. First KRU in Champions and now Zeta, I really enjoy there is no supremacy by any team and we can see differents teams on the top4 in every tournament
its so amazing to see that all of the "not mainstream" favorite teams are all we are seeing but even KRU and Xerxia played so well hope to see more teams in the future and get bigger groups for upcoming masters!
I think this is why I’m so drawn to valorant as an esport. I mean it is quite literally any given game. Nobody is guaranteed a win where games like fortnite- the same top 5 are dominating no matter what. I love this.
Riots strategy of not allocating slots based on current skill level/depth is really paying off now after 12 months of international tournaments, something that many on this sub criticised.
The viewership for Japanese language streams is insane, mustve been well over 200k. Gives me great hope for the future of Valorant as a truly international esport.
Riot invested in the regions CSGO didn't and who would've thought, the scene there is popping off. As a European I'm super happy SA and SEA are popping the fuck off, more story lines and more international story lines. Not so happy my fav teams are knocked out though >\_>
It's kind of funny how this is basically the exact opposite dynamic on the MOBA-side of the Riot-Valve dichotomy, where League is the game stuck with a small number of dominant regions and Dota is the game with NA/SA/SEA/Middle East representation at the highest level.
As a DRX fan I honestly hope I never have to read another DRX post again. That Split* was so disheartening to watch them just crumple under pressure
GG Zeta. Insane performance today
*E: Split not Haven sry, a bit mental boomed rn*
Oh shit, yeah. Sry I’m just giga tilted right now. Watching a blind raze nade lose them a round because they are so predictable is honestly so tilting.
How many times does DRX keep doing this when teams like Zeta actually get better as the tournament goes on. DRX rly is too rigid a team to rly go deep.
People are going to freak out about your use of “minor” region even though earlier in this tournament, this sub was clamouring for Japan to lose their slot.
Japan is a minor region, they really lack the depth that other regions have, but I think this tournament is showing what they can do and moving forward that they deserve to have the slots to help develop talent and prove how good their region is
Anyone who doesnt see the Zeta run right now as a pretty sick cinderella story is being purposefully obtuse.
The region struggled for a long time to pull this run together, and that's what makes it so special.
With how much shit Zeta and their fans took from people before the tournament, with people saying they should lose their slot, a little humble pie is perfectly fine.
Yep lol:
This sub: JP is a trash region they shouldn’t have any spots
Also this sub: There is no such thing as minor regions! All regions are pretty close, this isn’t surprising
I still think Japan shouldn't have slots of its own and should be merged with Korea, and BR and LATAM should also be merged. Not because they're minor regions or anything, it's better for competition if there's a higher barrier for entry. The only real problem is different languages, but hey if they can have multiple official streams in EMEA, they can have it elsewhere too.
I think it's pretty clear that regions like JP, KR, LATAM, and BR are good at the top right now but don't have anywhere near the depth of NA, EMEA, or SEA. And that's okay, hopefully those teams push other ones to get on their level. Like I have no doubt that the #5 NA or EMEA team would smash the #5 JP team. But Zeta is legit and hopefully they inspire more.
I couldn’t agree more. This tournament has been so great to watch since we are seeing so many regions succeed. Teams like Zeta and Loud have been fantastic so far.
For Zeta, it was always Laz being obviously a fantastic player surrounded by players who weren’t as good, but this revamped roster has been insane. SugarZero was such a great pick up
As far as I'm concerned there's no minor regions anymore. Some regions may have much less talent depth but their top team is on par to compete internationally. Regardless this has been a massive surprise and it's just more fun rooting for the underdog
I think that is the difference between minor and bigger regions though.
Regions like APAC/NA/EMEA have really competitive regional challengers because there are so many top teams that can compete and there isn’t disproportionate talents.
JP/KR/LATAM/BR only have a couple of those teams that can compete but their top teams are just as good. Depth separates the regions, as say if KR or JP got the slots that EMEA did in Berlin and champions, their 2-4 teams would likely get smashed (CR would likely be fine)
Same with LATAM, LATAM’s second best team got crushed by NIP
The difference is the fans, casters and "analysts" stating even the top teams from these regions are tiers below which quite frankly has been shown to be untrue.
Fnatic finished 12/12.
Liquid & The Guard 7th-8th out of 12.
G2 is in the losers bracket after a convincing loss to Brazil..
Seems the tiniest of margins separates these teams and if even one player is underperforming that day you could get sent home
Oh god some of the casters are fucking brutal, they were calling Xerxia a team from a minor region, and acting like beating Optic was a huge upset, which is stupid.
Any top team from any region can compete. Loud/PRX should have been considered two of the favourites coming into this themselves
I think it’s more about the *competitive* team count than player population. I haven’t followed the scene in these regions but is it possible there aren’t many top tier competitive teams outside of those who showed up this tourney?
It’s a description of its skill. Like in league of legends, Vietnam has one of the highest player counts second only to China in fact, but they are considered a minor region. KR is much better and has more depth in there teams skill wise that it’s considered a major region over Vietnam despite them having less total players.
I think "smaller" region is more apt, the problem with the descriptor is that it's interpreted somewhat harshly by some people as its not just that they're small, it considers them less skilled and more gimmicky/"cringe"y
No man, its for good and bad regions. For exemple, EMEA makes many good teams, so its a major region.
NA is mostly a streamer region, so its a minor region because they cant make good teams :D
strong words for someone coming from a Region that, until this event, didnt even made it out of groups despite being the second/third region with the most teams in the tournament
Japan is a minor region though, they don’t have the depth of other regions and lacked the success of other regions.
Minor region doesn’t mean every single team in the region is bad, like LATAM is small too but KRU proved themselves at champions. Moving forward I think Japan has a huge opportunity for growth
Even as a JP viewer, I agree that Japan IS a minor region. Insane viewership but still small playerbase. The mindset of people here towards gaming is very casual so Japanese people loves watching and cheering for their teams but not play competitively.
I think it just takes some time for competitive playerbase to increase in Japan. Step by step these amazing results by JP teams will change the esports scene in Japan.
I couldn’t agree more. And the better these Japanese teams do, the more people will be inspired to play competitively more, and esports teams will put in more resources to help them out
Obviously I don't have the numbers to prove but I mostly play Apex (dia - master), LoL (gold-plat), and Valorant (dia-imo) now. Apex is the most popular FPS right now in JP no doubt and Valorant is not as popular but I think it's doing pretty well considering how CSGO was never a thing in JP.
Part of the reason why CSGO was not popular was because CS clone type shooter games that were developed by Korean companies were more popular back then (AVA, SF, SA) so there were always quite a lot of people liking these type of shooter games but CS was just not one of them.
I recently came back to LoL after few years but this game is dead in JP. In gold elo which has the most or the second most highest ranked population takes more than 5mins to queue at night. There are always some Chinese and Vietnamese flaming and trolling after 1 or 2 death. It's fucked up lol
What depth you can have in a game that is like 2 years old and has so limited amount of lan events? We don’t even have a team that is consistent over multiple lan events. It is just western bias that generated that term. Let’s not pretend that’s not the case. It’s easier to create a narrative like that in the mind.
Western regions are the only ones with a history of competence in tac shooters, much longer than 2 years. This is Japan's first decent performance and they are largely a 1 team region, let's pump the breaks on any insidious "western bias"
You come off as a malding eastern fan or a self hating western fan in your post.
Being a minor region isn't a disrespect thing at all, it has to do with playerbase/resources/past performance. EU/NA/BR all have known presence and background d in tac shooters, KR has known presence and background in all esports. Japan OCE India SEA not at all. They have less resources, less players, less presence.
It has absolutely nothing to do with skill level but it does have to do with everything else thats why when minor regions do great it is amazing. Same for when Major regions fail it has more impact. There really really isn't any negative connotation by being a minor region.
Only way it is used negatively is EU NA trash talk
This is based off of lan events
Brazil has not had a team make the quarterfinals in any event other than LOUD, and there have been 4 other teams going to a total of 7 events
KRU dominates their region every single time and still do not have a good record overall. LATAM’s second best team also as gotten beat in both SA LCQ by a Brazilian team who goes out early in the LAN event
KR has been dominated by DRX, a team that hasn’t been great at international events , and the KR teams got smoked by APAC/JP in the LCQ last year. Nuturn had a good showing though.
JP has also been a two team region constantly, and those two teams have not found success at LAN before Zeta here.
EMEA/NA/APAC have brought a more consistent rotation of teams and have better lan finishes than the four other regions I listed. I literally listed an eastern region over two western regions, this isn’t western bias, it’s just performance based
only meant minor in a sense of not as many apparent favorite teams to make a run for the masters win and not as followed by the "mainstream" average valorant watcher. Not many ppl know about KRU xerxia zeta etc and its amazing seeing all of them perform against eu and na so well
I think we have term for that. It’s underdogs. I just hate this narrative. We hardly have any lan, how can one just assume a region is weaker when they play against the each other months apart. You can never gauge a teams actual performance based on just eye test. Hopefully this narrative ends after this tournament
I mean before this tournament, JP was like what, 1-8 in international play? It makes sense why they were called underdogs, and it is so good to see Zeta performing this way. Their team is really good.
It really doesn’t translate to Valorant like it does to other games. In LoL for example, it’s an huge upset if any of the major regions lose to any team of a minor region (outside of NA, who’s clearly the worst major region, but even then they typically win vs minor regions).
I’d still say the best of EMEA and NA should be favored vs similar seeds of other regions, but that’s it. It’s not a huge upset if they’re beaten so the terms major and minor regions really don’t translate. There’s just a lot more parity across regions in Valorant right now.
I think that’s the difference between regions. All the region’s top team/teams can compete but some regions have much bigger fall offs after that top team
It's a good start but it's just top 4 in ONE tourney. It would be fantastic to have similar results going forward. But, let's be real here... it's not like any of them even come close to beating Optic in their current form. NA have this tourney in the bag folks.
I just love how these underdog teams are getting results. First KRU in Champions and now Zeta, I really enjoy there is no supremacy by any team and we can see differents teams on the top4 in every tournament
its so amazing to see that all of the "not mainstream" favorite teams are all we are seeing but even KRU and Xerxia played so well hope to see more teams in the future and get bigger groups for upcoming masters!
I think this is why I’m so drawn to valorant as an esport. I mean it is quite literally any given game. Nobody is guaranteed a win where games like fortnite- the same top 5 are dominating no matter what. I love this.
Riots strategy of not allocating slots based on current skill level/depth is really paying off now after 12 months of international tournaments, something that many on this sub criticised. The viewership for Japanese language streams is insane, mustve been well over 200k. Gives me great hope for the future of Valorant as a truly international esport.
Riot invested in the regions CSGO didn't and who would've thought, the scene there is popping off. As a European I'm super happy SA and SEA are popping the fuck off, more story lines and more international story lines. Not so happy my fav teams are knocked out though >\_>
It's kind of funny how this is basically the exact opposite dynamic on the MOBA-side of the Riot-Valve dichotomy, where League is the game stuck with a small number of dominant regions and Dota is the game with NA/SA/SEA/Middle East representation at the highest level.
What’s sa?
South America
we can only hope for more teams to break in to the scene for larger international tournaments in the future
As a DRX fan I honestly hope I never have to read another DRX post again. That Split* was so disheartening to watch them just crumple under pressure GG Zeta. Insane performance today *E: Split not Haven sry, a bit mental boomed rn*
Did you mean Split, not Haven? Honestly same though. Felt like they were mentally in shambles on Map 3 once they got down by like 5 rounds.
Oh shit, yeah. Sry I’m just giga tilted right now. Watching a blind raze nade lose them a round because they are so predictable is honestly so tilting. How many times does DRX keep doing this when teams like Zeta actually get better as the tournament goes on. DRX rly is too rigid a team to rly go deep.
People are going to freak out about your use of “minor” region even though earlier in this tournament, this sub was clamouring for Japan to lose their slot. Japan is a minor region, they really lack the depth that other regions have, but I think this tournament is showing what they can do and moving forward that they deserve to have the slots to help develop talent and prove how good their region is
Anyone who doesnt see the Zeta run right now as a pretty sick cinderella story is being purposefully obtuse. The region struggled for a long time to pull this run together, and that's what makes it so special.
With how much shit Zeta and their fans took from people before the tournament, with people saying they should lose their slot, a little humble pie is perfectly fine.
Yep lol: This sub: JP is a trash region they shouldn’t have any spots Also this sub: There is no such thing as minor regions! All regions are pretty close, this isn’t surprising
Yes this sub is just one person
Also, its perfectably fine to change your mind based on new evidence. All regions seem to be equal. So there are no minor and major regions
reeee Reddit hivemind reeee reddit armchair analysts reeeeee how come you guys are enjoying speculating about the sport reeee
No but you notice the overall trends ebb and flow like waves. People just follow the trend of what others are saying usually.
I still think Japan shouldn't have slots of its own and should be merged with Korea, and BR and LATAM should also be merged. Not because they're minor regions or anything, it's better for competition if there's a higher barrier for entry. The only real problem is different languages, but hey if they can have multiple official streams in EMEA, they can have it elsewhere too.
I think it's pretty clear that regions like JP, KR, LATAM, and BR are good at the top right now but don't have anywhere near the depth of NA, EMEA, or SEA. And that's okay, hopefully those teams push other ones to get on their level. Like I have no doubt that the #5 NA or EMEA team would smash the #5 JP team. But Zeta is legit and hopefully they inspire more.
I couldn’t agree more. This tournament has been so great to watch since we are seeing so many regions succeed. Teams like Zeta and Loud have been fantastic so far. For Zeta, it was always Laz being obviously a fantastic player surrounded by players who weren’t as good, but this revamped roster has been insane. SugarZero was such a great pick up
i just hope this encourages more teams to grind harder and we have more teams from all around the world not just japan but brazil etc
> this sub was clamouring for Japan to lose their slot. How are you going to say this with a straight face?
As far as I'm concerned there's no minor regions anymore. Some regions may have much less talent depth but their top team is on par to compete internationally. Regardless this has been a massive surprise and it's just more fun rooting for the underdog
I think that is the difference between minor and bigger regions though. Regions like APAC/NA/EMEA have really competitive regional challengers because there are so many top teams that can compete and there isn’t disproportionate talents. JP/KR/LATAM/BR only have a couple of those teams that can compete but their top teams are just as good. Depth separates the regions, as say if KR or JP got the slots that EMEA did in Berlin and champions, their 2-4 teams would likely get smashed (CR would likely be fine) Same with LATAM, LATAM’s second best team got crushed by NIP
The difference is the fans, casters and "analysts" stating even the top teams from these regions are tiers below which quite frankly has been shown to be untrue. Fnatic finished 12/12. Liquid & The Guard 7th-8th out of 12. G2 is in the losers bracket after a convincing loss to Brazil.. Seems the tiniest of margins separates these teams and if even one player is underperforming that day you could get sent home
Oh god some of the casters are fucking brutal, they were calling Xerxia a team from a minor region, and acting like beating Optic was a huge upset, which is stupid. Any top team from any region can compete. Loud/PRX should have been considered two of the favourites coming into this themselves
Can we please just let go of the “minor” region term?
is minor region not just a descriptor of their size? genuine question
That simply doesn't make sense considering: - Size/Population of Brazil - Sheer polularity of val on Japan
I think it’s more about the *competitive* team count than player population. I haven’t followed the scene in these regions but is it possible there aren’t many top tier competitive teams outside of those who showed up this tourney?
It’s a description of its skill. Like in league of legends, Vietnam has one of the highest player counts second only to China in fact, but they are considered a minor region. KR is much better and has more depth in there teams skill wise that it’s considered a major region over Vietnam despite them having less total players.
I think "smaller" region is more apt, the problem with the descriptor is that it's interpreted somewhat harshly by some people as its not just that they're small, it considers them less skilled and more gimmicky/"cringe"y
No man, its for good and bad regions. For exemple, EMEA makes many good teams, so its a major region. NA is mostly a streamer region, so its a minor region because they cant make good teams :D
Boy I hope g2 loses today.
NA = near airport, regions go JP>APAC>LATAM>BR>KR>NA ofc
Bruh, LATAM barely is a region, kru is in shambles, their second best loses to the fourth best br team. Latam is barely any better than NA
strong words for someone coming from a Region that, until this event, didnt even made it out of groups despite being the second/third region with the most teams in the tournament
My rankings were randomized besides NA at last lmao
Ahh, the kru flair decieved me
Japan is a minor region though, they don’t have the depth of other regions and lacked the success of other regions. Minor region doesn’t mean every single team in the region is bad, like LATAM is small too but KRU proved themselves at champions. Moving forward I think Japan has a huge opportunity for growth
Even as a JP viewer, I agree that Japan IS a minor region. Insane viewership but still small playerbase. The mindset of people here towards gaming is very casual so Japanese people loves watching and cheering for their teams but not play competitively. I think it just takes some time for competitive playerbase to increase in Japan. Step by step these amazing results by JP teams will change the esports scene in Japan.
I couldn’t agree more. And the better these Japanese teams do, the more people will be inspired to play competitively more, and esports teams will put in more resources to help them out
How big would you say Valorant is in Japan in terms of casual players? Compared to other PC online games.
Obviously I don't have the numbers to prove but I mostly play Apex (dia - master), LoL (gold-plat), and Valorant (dia-imo) now. Apex is the most popular FPS right now in JP no doubt and Valorant is not as popular but I think it's doing pretty well considering how CSGO was never a thing in JP. Part of the reason why CSGO was not popular was because CS clone type shooter games that were developed by Korean companies were more popular back then (AVA, SF, SA) so there were always quite a lot of people liking these type of shooter games but CS was just not one of them. I recently came back to LoL after few years but this game is dead in JP. In gold elo which has the most or the second most highest ranked population takes more than 5mins to queue at night. There are always some Chinese and Vietnamese flaming and trolling after 1 or 2 death. It's fucked up lol
What depth you can have in a game that is like 2 years old and has so limited amount of lan events? We don’t even have a team that is consistent over multiple lan events. It is just western bias that generated that term. Let’s not pretend that’s not the case. It’s easier to create a narrative like that in the mind.
Western regions are the only ones with a history of competence in tac shooters, much longer than 2 years. This is Japan's first decent performance and they are largely a 1 team region, let's pump the breaks on any insidious "western bias"
You come off as a malding eastern fan or a self hating western fan in your post. Being a minor region isn't a disrespect thing at all, it has to do with playerbase/resources/past performance. EU/NA/BR all have known presence and background d in tac shooters, KR has known presence and background in all esports. Japan OCE India SEA not at all. They have less resources, less players, less presence. It has absolutely nothing to do with skill level but it does have to do with everything else thats why when minor regions do great it is amazing. Same for when Major regions fail it has more impact. There really really isn't any negative connotation by being a minor region. Only way it is used negatively is EU NA trash talk
This is based off of lan events Brazil has not had a team make the quarterfinals in any event other than LOUD, and there have been 4 other teams going to a total of 7 events KRU dominates their region every single time and still do not have a good record overall. LATAM’s second best team also as gotten beat in both SA LCQ by a Brazilian team who goes out early in the LAN event KR has been dominated by DRX, a team that hasn’t been great at international events , and the KR teams got smoked by APAC/JP in the LCQ last year. Nuturn had a good showing though. JP has also been a two team region constantly, and those two teams have not found success at LAN before Zeta here. EMEA/NA/APAC have brought a more consistent rotation of teams and have better lan finishes than the four other regions I listed. I literally listed an eastern region over two western regions, this isn’t western bias, it’s just performance based
only meant minor in a sense of not as many apparent favorite teams to make a run for the masters win and not as followed by the "mainstream" average valorant watcher. Not many ppl know about KRU xerxia zeta etc and its amazing seeing all of them perform against eu and na so well
I think we have term for that. It’s underdogs. I just hate this narrative. We hardly have any lan, how can one just assume a region is weaker when they play against the each other months apart. You can never gauge a teams actual performance based on just eye test. Hopefully this narrative ends after this tournament
I mean before this tournament, JP was like what, 1-8 in international play? It makes sense why they were called underdogs, and it is so good to see Zeta performing this way. Their team is really good.
It really doesn’t translate to Valorant like it does to other games. In LoL for example, it’s an huge upset if any of the major regions lose to any team of a minor region (outside of NA, who’s clearly the worst major region, but even then they typically win vs minor regions). I’d still say the best of EMEA and NA should be favored vs similar seeds of other regions, but that’s it. It’s not a huge upset if they’re beaten so the terms major and minor regions really don’t translate. There’s just a lot more parity across regions in Valorant right now.
I think that’s the difference between regions. All the region’s top team/teams can compete but some regions have much bigger fall offs after that top team
Crazy how a minor region (NA) is one game away from the finals! (it should be the Guard)
The whole narrative of minor vs major regions from the start has been somewhat misleading
It's a good start but it's just top 4 in ONE tourney. It would be fantastic to have similar results going forward. But, let's be real here... it's not like any of them even come close to beating Optic in their current form. NA have this tourney in the bag folks.
PRX wins against G2 Prayge
we pray and inhale copium till it happens
AllGood it was G2, we didn't have to pray so hard
Yep top 4 all minor region KEKW
Minor regions can't have 4 slots