FPX ardiis says EMEA teams have “stagnated” at Valorant Champions
Lance Skundrich/Riot GamesFunPlus Phoenix player Ardis ‘ardiis’ Svareniek said in a post-match press conference after getting eliminated from Valorant Champions 2021 that EMEA as a region has “stagnated” as other regions have improved.
FunPlus Phoenix left Valorant Champions as the final EMEA team in the tournament. The rest of the EMEA representatives fell out at fifth/ sixth and and seventh/ eighth. Previous international tournaments saw the region place highly with two EMEA battling it out for the Valorant Champions 2021 title.
“I think all the teams just got stronger,” ardiis said. “Like LATAM got bigger and better, DRX got got better like all these teams just improving. I feel like EMEA has kind of stagnated, like stayed the same level.”
Colin Young-Wolff/Riot GamesHe pointed to Team Liquid and Fnatic as two squads that have always been good and said that despite this people know they will never go on to win the entire event.
“I just feel like we haven’t really improved that much and other regions have just went leaps and bounds and gotten better and better,” ardiis said.
FPX leave Valorant Champions after a great year
FPX themselves have had one of the better years out of the teams that have competed from EMEA internationally. FPX qualified for Masters Iceland, but had to pull out due to travel restrictions, and won Masters Copenhagen then finished the year top four at Valorant Champions.
Outside of FPX, Fnatic and Team Liquid, the only other EMEA team to make an international event in 2022 was Guild Esports. Guild managed to make the Playoff Stage at Masters Copenhagen but bowed out in the first round.
The rest of the Valorant Champions field is diverse at this point in the tournament with Brazil’s LOUD, North America’s OpTic Gaming and South Korea’s DRX. Valorant Champions 2021 featured only EMEA teams at the same point with Acend, Gambit Esports and Team Liquid competing for the title.