Valve introduces MENA EU sub-region in latest VRS model update

The developer has made significant changes to the ranking model, which may affect the region to which certain teams are assigned.

Valve has released an update to the Valve Regional Standings model, notably introducing a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) sub-region in Europe.

One of the notable countries in this new sub-region is Israel, which was previously assigned to Asia. This change effectively makes Liquid a EU-majority roster, even though the team was already classified as European following the June 16 VRS model update that addressed multi-region representation.

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Valve removes multi-region representation in VRS model update

Another team impacted by this change is JiJieHao, who will now be classified as a European team. Ranked sixth in Asia, they will find themselves 29th in the EU regional ranking.

Below you can find the full list of countries that have been assigned to the MENA sub-region:

Another significant change with the latest model update is how players from African countries that are not in the MENA sub-region are assigned. Rather than simply counting as Asian, these players now count towards the lowest priority region on a team's roster.

This means that Wildcard will be assigned to the Americas sub-region, rather than Europe, as Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek counts towards the lowest priority region on the team, the Americas.