Fragadelphia’s October LAN, Frag x BLOCK2, has sold out in a matter of minutes, with several prominent orgs snapping up tickets to the Philadelphia LAN, many of whom are EU teams.
In the VRS system, all LANs benefit from a modifier called “LAN factor.” This metric makes LAN wins hugely valuable to the ranking system, resulting in EPIC.LAN 45 attracting FUT, Iberian Soul, The Last Resort and others, and Fragadelphia x LVL UP EXPO 2025 attracting eventual winners NiP.
However, Frag x BLOCK 2 has garnered yet more interest from orgs because of its timing in the CS calendar. The LAN ends just one day prior to the October 6 invite cut-off for the StarLadder Budapest 2025 Major, making it the last chance for teams to earn those precious VRS points before Major invites are handed out.
As such, the event has eyes on it from all over the Counter-Strike world, with organisations such as Fnatic, NiP, Complexity, BIG, ENCE, SAW, and OG having signed up for the LAN in the hopes of getting those final scraps of VRS points before Major spots are decided.
The tournament has been jokingly called an RMR, with Frag’s own website calling it “NA RMR” as a tongue-in-cheek statement.
However, it’s also been called an EU RMR, and that is perhaps more accurate. EU teams take 16 of the 32 slots at the event, with NA teams making up only 12. The remainder are South American rosters, with 9Z, BESTIA and Sharks all within touching distance of Major qualification.
The open tournament has no restrictions on who may attend, operating on a first-come, first-served basis. While VRS-ranked tournaments cannot target specific teams to come, they can discriminate by region, meaning Frag could theoretically have been an NA-only tournament.
Instead, they have opened their doors to all, and in doing so, attracted some of Counter-Strike’s most historic orgs. That decision has caused a mixed reaction amongst the NA community on social media, with some welcoming the EU challengers, and some lamenting the lack of opportunity for NA teams.
NA players react to EU predominance at Fragadelphia
While EPIC 45 was able to attract EU teams without losing its community focus, the EU takeover of Frag x BLOCK 2 does raise questions over whether the VRS could harm the nature of local LAN events or whether increased interest in the tournament will help its scene in the long run and improve the playerbase through exposure to better players.
One player who expressed his distaste on social media for the path Frag was taking was Kyle ‘Wolffe’ Greenfield whose team Life’s A Game (commonly referred to as LAG) missed out on tickets to the event.
The NA player sarcastically posted the following: “Unfortunately, we failed to sign up instantly. Leaving us out of the tournament. Very glad all these teams decided to make the trip across the ocean and ‘help’ NA CS grow stronger!”, adding in another comment, “Nobody is going to learn anything from this tournament. They will all leave instantly. They only see FREE VRS, what a joke.”
The former Bluejays rifler lamented the loss of the local feeling of the LAN, adding, “This was the one tournament in NA where you’d see everyone and hang out. The magic is gone. Long live VRS.”
While Wolffe and others have criticised the prominence of EU teams, others have welcomed their attendance with open arms in the hopes that it will improve the NA region.
One such member of the NA community was recently retired former Nouns, Strife and MIGHT played Bobby ‘stamina’ Eitrem, who stated, “We should absolutely love the opportunity to play cs European teams. It’s the only way our region can ever catch up.”
While positive about the attendance of top teams, the NA scene veteran criticised Fragadelphia for not expanding the event to 64 teams, saying, “knowing the importance of this event and not making it 64 teams does a massive disservice to NA”, adding that the lack of spots “leaves local NA players rightfully sour.”
Caster, and former coach, Anthony ‘ynoT’ Vitale, shared his thoughts, putting forward the case that the increased attention on Frag would help the TO grow and reinvest in the NA scene, despite this one occasion some NA teams missing out. The ex-Fisher College coach said, “I don’t see how this can’t just end up acting as a net plus in the medium to long-term for EVERYONE”
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.
