How does Valorant Franchising works and how will it affect Competitive Valorant?

A few weeks ago Riot decided to revamp the VCT 2023 circuit. “A new era of VALORANT is coming in 2023.”

Following the footsteps of League of Legends Riot has decided to implement a partnership model or a franchising model for VCTs, hence creating a closed system for players similar to Overwatch and Call of Duty leagues Riot is introducing three new international leagues where the world’s best players and Esports teams will compete on LAN in front of a live audience.

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The Model:

Riot says they won’t be charging any franchising fees for participating in these international leagues. They’re eager to support select teams by providing them stipends. “Players have benefited from larger salaries and more robust support systems, while teams have been able to plan multiple years into the future,” said Riot.

The three international leagues will be the American, European and Asian leagues. The American League will club the North American, Latin American, and Brazilian regions. The European League will comprise European, MENA, Turkey and Russian regions. The Asian League will be formed by Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, Oceania and South Asian regions. Riot will be selecting teams from each league and will carry out a selection process for the same in 2022.

Backlash:

This bold move by Riot was not received well by fans. A Reddit user commented “Idk but this is going to make the competitive scene more boring in my opinion. No more underdog teams who showed up out of nowhere and beats everyone, or a miracle run by a T2 or T3 team. I don’t really want to see the same team in every tournament.” This user is referring to how The Guard, an underdog team brought a huge change in the VALORANT Competitive scene in NA. Another user commented, ” I don’t understand why they don’t just follow the counter strike model. Way better for viewing/hype.”

Aram, a North America LCS Player Association executive went to Twitter after Riot’s announcements. He tweeted “This is painfully ignorant of the power disparity they are creating again.” He further mentions that the new format translates to zero trade protection, team claiming IP blanket rights of players and many more drawbacks.

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