Riot Games revealed that The Guard will not participate in VCT Americas 2024 season. According to the statement by Riot Games, The Guard “failed to meet the deadline to agree to the Team Participation Agreement of VCT Americas.”
The organization competed through the Challengers League to participate in VCT Americas 2024. The recent reports also stated that the organization is also letting go of its entire roster and coach, and the players will become free agents. The Guard is also looking to sell Overwatch and Call of Duty League slots soon.
Riot Games also stated that no promoted team will compete in VCT Americas for the 2024 season. This decision angered most of the fanbase since the slot will remain empty. Head of Valorant esports Leo Faria revealed the reason for this choice and stated "To address this particular situation, we considered three different options: allow these 5 players to be picked up by a new organization, promote the Ascension runner-up, or not promote any team. Here’s context on why we chose the latter."
"With the way our path-to-pro is designed, it’s fair to assume that a free-agent team might eventually get to Challengers and even win Ascension. We want to see five friends and dream making it all the way to the top, and we are prepared for that occasion. In case a free agent team makes it to an International League, the players would have an opportunity to find an organization that would support them in the International League. This particular situation is different, since this team played through Challengers and Ascension under The Guard banner, and became free agents after the fact. Allowing an acquisition by a different organization now opens the door for slots in the VCT to be sold, which we do not allow."
"The second solution we considered was promoting the runner-up M80, however, that would also create questionable precedents. The point of Ascension is to reward performance, and as great and talented as M80 is, qualifying a team that didn’t win the tournament defeats that purpose. Promotion is earned in-game, not out of it."
"We’re very disappointed on behalf of the players who competed the whole season and won’t be able to qualify as a team due to circumstances beyond their control."
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