We had an early release for the Valorant Challengers EMEA Stage 3 groups and oh, the reactions are something else! Players are losing it over these matches. There was a release with the tagline “One last shot at Ascension,” and the replies went mad.
At first sight, almost everyone is calling rigged for the group draw. There were comments outright stating, “this sht is just rigged,” “they’re cheating.” The sentiment going around is that some teams were outright screwed by the random draw, especially Group A, which people are calling a “fck you” to the teams. Oli from MDR went on record stating, “they hate us,” which is melodramatic but welcome to esports.
The main drama stems from Mandatory (MDR) alleged to have gotten considered by the players as the absolute worst draw. They face what everyone seems to regard as the top teams from day one. A comment translated from French says, “They’re dead they must top 1 the group and they’re up against thanos + demon gorgo,” and that is pretty intense if you ask me. Another: “Y a pas pire comme tirage,” which yields the literal translation, “there’s no worse draw.”
But, what was I saying? Ah, so it seems some other teams like Joblife are super happy with their draw? One of their players stood up saying, “Am I crazy, or did we get one of the best possible draws?” So you have this weird mix of some teams celebrating while others feel completely shafted.
Then there’s seeding, which is another whole thing- or rather, no seeding at all. Almost all comments question the absence of a seeding system, one calling it “a damn mess,” another saying it’s “such a bad decision from riot.” People are genuinely questioning why groups aren’t based upon previous performance or something.
And there’s the academy team problem: “What happens if an academy team promotes, and it has to play against the main team: Would that be match-fixing?” Which, actually, is a pretty damn good question I had never thought about. Then, I think it’s more than certain academies can’t go to VCT through ascension anyway; hence, it might be a moot point, but still.
The French scene is raging-the comment section is flooded with rage, so I had to translate some of them. One of the commenters stated, “Pourquoi on doit affronter les 2 meilleures équipes ? Quel tirage est-ce que ça ? Dis juste si tu ne veux pas Mandatory dans la VCT !”
Almost despite all the contentious back-and-forth, a certain spark of hype is already generated. There is talk about last year’s revenge matches, teams saying they’ll prove themselves as “VCT ready,” with players intending to catch that analysis stream later today. Some cast member said that at 3 PM, they will go live to break down teams and “talk properly” about the situation.
The entire thing felt like a perfect storm of esports drama: random draws, perceived unfairness, conspiracy theories, and teams either hyperventilating from excitement or sorrow-laden. And this was just the group announcement! Imagine how hectic it’s going to be at game start.
What is insane is that people are already invested just for the group stage draw. That’s how much EMEA Valorant felt about this last chance to big league through Ascension. Every match matters, every draw matters, and seemingly, every random group selection can stir a huge controversy.
Well, at the end of the day, likely the teams deserving of winning will end up winning regardless of the groups. But you rarely hear complaints when people do have strong opinions on how the thing was set up. That’s the energy that makes me love esports-sometimes this madness is oozed with passion. Can’t wait for all sorts of mumbo jumbo-to-water-out when Stage 3 finally kicks off.
