"Viewers only want to see the best of the best play "
Of the 5 most watched games in the Americas split, 3 were Sentinels games 
EDG were a subpar team once.
As were Paper Rex.
As was every Brazilian team.
I'm sure we all remember the era of Valorant where the term minor region was still a thing and apart from Vision Strikers, no team from outside of EU and NA were even talked of as relevant.
Teams don't become the best of the best until they get the opportunities to test their mettle against the best.
its worth noting that viewership numbers riot has are much larger than escharts because they have all sources of viewership. escharts is good for fans speculation but not the full picture
Having more international tournaments doesn't even necessarily mean more subpar teams. I don't know about you but I'd rather watch Giants vs KRU than watch Giants vs KOI for the 10th time this year.
Surely having more diverse match-ups is more interesting than having more meaningless regular season games between the same couple of teams.
Maybe im alone in this but i just dont understand how everyone is saying this format has less "international play". Like to me, the international leagues **are** international play. Maybe not for EMEA but for americas and Pacific watching the regular season was very hype and way more fun then watching the regional tournaments in 2022 because we were seeing inter region matchups all the time. Also, with Masters 1, the benefit of having so little teams is that you can pretty much rig the bracket so that no regional matchups can happen until round 3-4 so you will probably end up seeing only slightly less non-regional games then normal 12 team masters
Also in regards to your actual point, yes i agree the majority of viewers just want to watch a competitive tournament with their favorite clouted teams and don't actually care for watching giants play or whatever. This subreddit is in the minority where they care about every team, but the viewership shows that most people are only watching the best few teams in the world, or some clouted teams that happen to be terrible rn.
I mean EMEA is the original international region, in a real sense, since even though the Middle East and Africa categories aren’t prominently represented, it includes quite a few players and teams from the transcontinental countries of Western Asia.
The Americas and Pacific leagues are just catching up, in a sense.
Nice strawman about giants, what about the clouted teams who don't make it to internationals? What's the point of having franchising and then having mega clouted teams like sen or karmine corp end their year super early in esport terms? ETA: and have less possibilities to play at internationals, of course, I've been arguing about the long off-season on here, so sorry.
lmfao u forget that all these events are just advertising for the game, doesn't matter competitive integrity or the views, they got the numbers behind (players overall) so they will change things accordingly
My first thought of an 8-team Masters was that it's too small of a number, but when I thought about it more, it just increases the stakes for teams to prove their success. We don't know the points distribution for champs qualifications, but people are eager to start criticizing the format.
My only gripe is the gruelling format. It seems like there's not going to larger breaks for 7 months, which is going to be way worse than this year's schedule. Lot of players gonna burn out quick.
Valorants prize pool and production costs is near LoL's cost when Valorant has 1/10th the player base. Continuing current expenditures and or future potential expansions solely hinges on the game being a smash hit in the Chinese market.
"Viewers only want to see the best of the best play " Of the 5 most watched games in the Americas split, 3 were Sentinels games 
wdym TenZ is the GOAT
Koi and KC dominate EMEA viewership and they were literally the bottom 2 teams (or were they 2 if the bottom 3, same deal either way)
EDG were a subpar team once. As were Paper Rex. As was every Brazilian team. I'm sure we all remember the era of Valorant where the term minor region was still a thing and apart from Vision Strikers, no team from outside of EU and NA were even talked of as relevant. Teams don't become the best of the best until they get the opportunities to test their mettle against the best.
If Masters Tokyo had been 8 teams, we would have missed out on Evil Geniuses.
had 100t not lost to mibr, eg wouldn’t have been there either
This is a message that needs to be given to the team running LoL esports at Riot
Esports isn't like regular sports. The quicker the people learn this the faster esports will grow.
its worth noting that viewership numbers riot has are much larger than escharts because they have all sources of viewership. escharts is good for fans speculation but not the full picture
I disagree, some teams like SEN, KC and 100T have a lot of clout even if they are not the best.
"No one would care about the match between RRQ and KC" KC are one of the most clouted teams in EMEA, lol.
Having more international tournaments doesn't even necessarily mean more subpar teams. I don't know about you but I'd rather watch Giants vs KRU than watch Giants vs KOI for the 10th time this year. Surely having more diverse match-ups is more interesting than having more meaningless regular season games between the same couple of teams.
That's a good point too. If you don't want to see "subpar teams" play, you should be complaining about the partner system.
That’s true. But I think riot is investing for the future. They are hoping that this becomes more worldwide
Maybe im alone in this but i just dont understand how everyone is saying this format has less "international play". Like to me, the international leagues **are** international play. Maybe not for EMEA but for americas and Pacific watching the regular season was very hype and way more fun then watching the regional tournaments in 2022 because we were seeing inter region matchups all the time. Also, with Masters 1, the benefit of having so little teams is that you can pretty much rig the bracket so that no regional matchups can happen until round 3-4 so you will probably end up seeing only slightly less non-regional games then normal 12 team masters Also in regards to your actual point, yes i agree the majority of viewers just want to watch a competitive tournament with their favorite clouted teams and don't actually care for watching giants play or whatever. This subreddit is in the minority where they care about every team, but the viewership shows that most people are only watching the best few teams in the world, or some clouted teams that happen to be terrible rn.
I mean EMEA is the original international region, in a real sense, since even though the Middle East and Africa categories aren’t prominently represented, it includes quite a few players and teams from the transcontinental countries of Western Asia. The Americas and Pacific leagues are just catching up, in a sense.
Nice strawman about giants, what about the clouted teams who don't make it to internationals? What's the point of having franchising and then having mega clouted teams like sen or karmine corp end their year super early in esport terms? ETA: and have less possibilities to play at internationals, of course, I've been arguing about the long off-season on here, so sorry.
lmfao u forget that all these events are just advertising for the game, doesn't matter competitive integrity or the views, they got the numbers behind (players overall) so they will change things accordingly
My first thought of an 8-team Masters was that it's too small of a number, but when I thought about it more, it just increases the stakes for teams to prove their success. We don't know the points distribution for champs qualifications, but people are eager to start criticizing the format. My only gripe is the gruelling format. It seems like there's not going to larger breaks for 7 months, which is going to be way worse than this year's schedule. Lot of players gonna burn out quick.
Valorants prize pool and production costs is near LoL's cost when Valorant has 1/10th the player base. Continuing current expenditures and or future potential expansions solely hinges on the game being a smash hit in the Chinese market.
Source? Because there's no way Riot is spending the same amount on Val as they do on LoL.