VCT Americas to Begin with 10 Teams Following The Guard Dropout from the Valorant T1 Scene

The Guard Organization who were going to ascend into the T1 scene of Valorant competitive have unexpectedly pulled back on the decision much to the dismay of fans, players, and creators everywhere.

The Valorant Franchising system announced a new change last year where going forward, T2 teams would have to compete in their respective regional tournaments and win to qualify for Ascension Tournaments with T1 teams. This prompted criticism because of how unfair it seemed for T2 organizations as compared to structures seen previously.

However, the T2 and T3 teams can still manage to qualify granted they make it through regional tournaments and Ascension. The Guard, a prominent organization that has been in the eyes of the public for being a formidable NA team, did just that, by winning the Ascension League and rising to T1. But the opportunity for The Guard players to compete in the T1 league deservingly was taken away by their own organization. Let us see why.

VCT Americas Drops One Slot in An Astonishing Manner

The Valorant Franchising system took a lot of time for everyone to understand. First, 10 VCT-partnered teams start out and then each year one team gets added to each region following Ascension Tournaments. Each region i.e. Pacific, EU, and Americas, gets one slot. The winners for EU and Pacific were Gentle Mates and Bleed Esports respectively, who claimed their spots. The winner for the Americas was The Guard, who failed to do so.

The Guard Team, consisting of players who could have competed in T1 teams from the start, joined the T2 organization in hopes of rising to T1 together. VCT has to feature 11 teams, 10 partnered and one from Ascension. The one from Ascension stays for two years until they have a chance to fight for T1 again.

The Guard went through a gruesome fight, facing Esports giants like FaZe, G2 Esports, TSM, and Oxygen Esports to qualify for Ascension. They beat M80 in the finals of the Ascension Tournament to qualify for T1. But now, the hard work of those players is all in vain. The Guard failed to sign the Team Participation Agreement ahead of VCT 2024. In addition, we also got the news that no team will be up for promotion following this fiasco.

This means that the VCT Americas league for 2024 will only have ten teams as opposed to the usual 11 teams per region after an Ascension tournament.

The Guard’s Response and Leo Faria’s “Solution”

The Guard provided a response to not participating in the Valorant Americas League 2024. The message and the reasoning, however, came in a little unclear as people had no idea what to make of this situation. There was no reasonable explanation as to why they were not competing in the tournament. However, we do have a reason to believe why the organization refused to sign the contract. Take a look at the Tweet below.

Remember, this is just a speculatory reason as to why The Guard did not sign the Valorant contract. The official reason is unknown and won’t be out in the open unless the organization themselves address the situation to the fans. However, we also saw Leo Faria, the Head of Valorant Esports, come up with a partial solution. Check it out.

Riot considered three different solutions to this particular problem. One was to let the players get an organization and let them compete through that. The second was to let M80 advance and the third was to not promote any team.

The Riot team went with the last option due to a variety of reasons as explained by Leo himself. The first reason didn’t work out because this meant that allowing an organization to acquire players that won the tournament would mean selling slots to VCT. The second reason, as Leo stated, would create “questionable precedents,” which is why it was eliminated.

The third option, according to Leo, was taken to protect the integrity of the sport. But that raises the question of why M80 wasn’t given a spot in the league.

Why isn’t M80 Considered for the Open Slot in VCT Americas?

This was a message from the CEO of M80 who tagged Leo Faria in their post. M80 is one of the best teams to come out of the Americas’ T2 scene because of the caliber of players. The team has former members of Ghost Gaming, NRG, and V1. The players in this team have a chance to upset the Americas region and be one of the best.

Because M80 was in the finals with The Guard in the Ascension Tournament, it makes sense for them to be the next team that is up for Ascension. But Riot did not consider that as we highlighted in the previous section. It seems like, for now, at least, VCT Americas 2024 will start with 10 teams as opposed to 11 due to The Guard’s conflict with Riot’s terms.

For more Valorant content about The Guard and VCT Teams, click here and stay tuned at The SportsRush.