After only four minutes, the 32 slots for Fragadelphia x The Block 2 in Philadelphia had sold out. Metizport were among the lucky teams to secure a spot in the tournament.

The $10,000 LAN tournament in the United States gained a lot of attention even before the tickets were open for sale. This is because the tournament ends on October 5th, one day before the VRS-ranking cutoff date for the Budapest Major on October 6. With match victories weighing significantly more on LAN than online, many teams wanted to attend the tournament to boost their ranking enough to get a spot in the $1,250,000 tournament in November. When the tickets went up for sale, it took three minutes for them all to sell out.

Even for teams that are nowhere near the rank in Europe or America to make the Major, the $10,000 LAN event is of big interest. After the introduction of the Valve Ranking System that now decides if a team gets invited to the bigger tournaments, and with open LAN events even with smaller prize pools eligible for the “Ranked” status (matches count towards the VRS-ranking) organizers saw a massive spike in interest towards their events.

One of the first highlighted cases of a team flying across half the earth to attend a smaller VRS event, was Ninjas in Pyjamas attending Fragadelphia x LVL UP EXPO 2025 in Las Vegas earlier this year. The tournament was of the same caliber as Frahadelphia x The Block 2 – the tournament Metizport has now secured a spot in – and NiP climbed around 50 places on the ranking simply for winning the event.

As we now look at the team list for the Philadelphia event, we can see many notable squads about to pull up in the States in October. NiP returns to North America for another attempt at winning on American soil, but we also see ENCE, BIG, 9INE, OG, Complexity, Fnatic, and many many more.

For Metizport, the goal for the rest of the year is to attend as many LANs as possible. With several other events announced or in planning the upcoming months, it will be a busy time filled with great experiences. And hopefully a lot of entertainment!

More news will be coming soon about the Philadelphia event.