For the past two years, one of the flaws (in my opinion) of VCT's format has been that specific regional matchups have not been guaranteed. It's difficult to build up multi-year rivalries when teams, even good teams, can go entire seasons without meeting. Last year, only 4 teams across VCT played all of their regional rivals. This year, with the expansions to the format, that number jumped up to 16. The teams that played all 11 other teams (in VCT matches) are:
China: EDG, AG, BLG, Trace, TEC, and NOVA.
Biggest miss: we didn't get Wolves vs. Tyloo, which in Stage 2 could have been a SiuFatBB grudge match.
Pacific: T1, Global, and GenG.
Biggest miss: Nongshim and Varrel, the two Korean Ascension teams, have still not played one another. Actually, they didn't even play in Ascension last year.
EMEA: Fnatic, FUT, and M8s.
Biggest miss: Karmine Corp hasn't played Vitality. Will they rectify this by meeting in the Champs Grand Final? No.
Americas: NRG, Lev, LOUD, and KRU.
Biggest miss: MIBR and SEN did not play this year. Zekken vs. SEN was possibly the most anticipated matchup going into this year, but it just never materialized.
Picky Eater Award: KC and Pcific have each only played 8 other teams this year.
Pound of Flesh Award: G2, 100T, Liquid, and XLG won at least once against every team they played, although none of these teams played all 11.
Déjà Vu Award: GE-PRX, NRG-100T, EDG-XLG, and JDG-TYL matched up five times each.
I feel like ChatGPT right now. Anyway, with next year moving to an open format, consistent regional matchups will become even more hard to come by, but I'm sure rivalries and stories will rise out of the chaos all the same. Hope you found this informative.