Message from the VRML:

Welcome back to the Breachers VRML! After a short hiatus, we’re back with our weekly briefings for season 3! With just four weeks to go in the regular season, the pressure is now on for our teams to push themselves for the sake of their position on the leaderboard! Below, you’ll find standings, roster updates, and opinions from our teams and casters after their week eight action. Stay tuned!

Week Eight Standings:

It’s been a bit since we’ve covered our leaderboard, but make no mistake- these standings matter now more than ever! Let’s find out who’s in the top spots after week eight!

In another week of dominance, AESIR (Those Who Know), AESIR EU, and 7DS continue to maintain their spots as the number one teams in their region. Notably in North America, ivi NA has once again broken into the top 5- albeit not yet to the extent they have in previous seasons. Europe’s order, while shuffling slightly, has stayed mostly persistent throughout the past few weeks. Shockingly though, the number two APAC team, Hybrid Era, disbanded midway through the season. As the only master team left in the Asia/Oceania region, will 7DS’s reign over the top spot remain uncontested? Find out in the coming weeks!

Roster Report:

Roster Report continues once again to deliver the most dramatic changes throughout the week! As always, here is the key for any special changes made:

O = Indicates the player has joined Ringer/League Substitutes

Yellow text = Indicates the change occurred in either the EU/APAC regions

Yellow bold text = Indicates that the change has affected a top/former champion team

X = Indicates an entire team has disbanded

From the Teams:

This week, we’ve gone ahead and asked the top teams in each region the following questions:

• How are you feeling as a team after your week eight match/matches? 
• What changes would you want to see in the current meta of Breachers, if any?

NA:

Formula 3- Angel: “As a team I think we’re still feeling strong. We’re still working out a few kinks in terms of availability, but I know that when the time comes in finals we’ll be ready. A current meta change that I’ve recently been pushing is a cloak nerf. At first I didn’t think the cloaks were that bad, but after a lighting rework on some of the maps, it seemed to have inadvertently broken the cloaks; so if anything should be changed, I think that should be the number one priority from Triangle Factory.”

ivi NA- BigLunch: “We’re feeling great after week eight! After a tough losing streak, we used our week push on Brug to give us time for a much-needed training arc, and it paid off. Winning against RE.LOAD and Brug got us back into master rank, and with our new roster, we finally found the chemistry we needed to make it happen. Not necessarily a meta change, but I’d love to see custom weapon charms for the top 2-3 teams in future seasons. I noticed a teased charm with a small teddy bear on a chain, and it’d be amazing to have charms featuring logos from teams like ivi, AESIR, or Formula 3. It’d add a unique touch for top players and teams.”

EU:

AESIR EU- Ryze: “After week eight, spirits are high. Coming off the back of an EU LAN victory, we couldn’t be more confident in ourselves, and this showed in our matchup vs Berserk. Map two was a lot closer than we would have wanted, but we know where we went wrong and can easily fix this for our next matchup. The meta has been the same for a long time now. I would really like to see the inclusion of the Marui and the Auril to become more useful.”

SunsetRavens- JediMilo: “We are feeling pretty good after our weekly match. Last week we had a bit of an oopsie, but this week we reclaimed the spot we’ve been at all season. [There are] not really many meta changes I’d be interested in other than maybe some more utility options.”

Nyffin- Asorya: “Honestly, we're really happy. After a difficult match against AESIR where we were crushed, we managed to come back and win against Formula 3 EU. This was the team that took our place in the playoffs last season. A change that I think could be cool would be to be able to anticipate the explosion of the grenade. Basically we would activate the grenade in our hand and the timer would start at that moment. Then, when you feel it, you throw the grenade at the enemy and it can explode at the desired moment. You just have to be careful not to get caught.”

APAC:

¥oung Mafia- MARSH: “I personally played well against 7DS, but it was just me and the performance of my team members has not improved. I feel that we need to improve our physicality, as well as our cooperation. (In response to the second question) Don't lean your body when in close contact!!”

Meta Changes?  -Opinion by Gibular_Bob

Of all the updates we’ve seen for Breachers, the one that I have wanted to see for the longest time was meta changes. The core gameplay of Breachers has not changed for the better part of a year, bar a few small changes to various utility or weapon recoil here and there. Apart from this, though, the overall meta is… fine, but the method in which money is spent has remained the same for so long that it’s evident some players are not happy with it anymore. Luckily for us, though, Triangle Factory has been listening, and we can anticipate an exciting new patch that could very well redefine the way in which Breachers is played competitively. Today, I wanted to talk about some changes that I think would be really cool to see in a league match environment. These are some ideas that I myself have wanted, and I took some inspiration from some other people I have talked to as well. Today we’ll talk about the first big change I want to see: SMG kill-bonuses.

Submachine guns find themselves in a strange spot currently in the meta. Obviously you have the cheap burster that is the Omen, but it’s only broken into the meta recently as league players have finally discovered its hidden value as an effective save round weapon. That said, we still have two SMGs, the Viper and the RCP, that are rarely ever used in VRML matches. The reason for this can be attributed to one overarching factor: cost. Both weapons are often too expensive to buy, and purchasing them while ecoing often has the negative effect of lowering your ability to buy a Vezin in the next round. 

As it stands, these two guns are not sustainable in the current meta. For an effective solution, I remember a great discussion I had with my fellow caster YellowHat while preparing for VRML Con 2024. YellowHat used Counter Strike 2 as an example of how SMG eco should work. In CS, SMGs reward the player for purchasing them by increasing the money multiplier on kills, allowing the player to rake in the profits if they use an SMG well. Bringing this concept to Breachers, and incrementally increasing the multiplier depending on which gun you’re using could do wonders for the eco game. This is something I really hope to see implemented in the future.

Wrapping up Week Eight:

Another week, another exciting weekly update! As we get back into gear and watch the teams’ progress in these coming weeks, we’ll begin to see which teams will be granted the ability to skip the infamous Challenger Cup, and which teams will be forced to face off in the ultimate Breaches VRML brawl. Until then, remember to buy breaching foam, and we’ll see you next week!

Before you go, check out these other cool events:

Breachers VRML Official YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@Breachers_VRML