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The Guard will be looking to release its entire Valorant roster after losing its VCT Americas 2024 slot. Although the team saw moderate success during the 2023 season in the Ascension series, they won't be participating in the upcoming competitive season. This information comes after Riot Games revealed that the organization had failed to meet the Team Participation Agreement.
It's unfortunate to see everything culminate in such a situation because The Guard has a talented roster of Valorant professionals. Riot Games further revealed that the VCT Americas 2024 league will continue with ten teams only.
The Guard to pay termination buyouts to all Valorant pros on their roster
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Considering that their entire Valorant roster won't be able to participate in the tournament if they're still associated with The Guard, the organization will be paying termination buyouts to their roster. This is done so the players have no issues transitioning to other teams.
Their head coach, Josh Lee, took to Twitter to express their disappointment. He said he would be a free agent and was open to offers. Other players from the roster also reacted to the information in a similar fashion. However, how they reacted indicates that the organization didn't inform the roster of this decision. Instead, they found out about the same on Twitter.
The Guard was slated to participate in the VCT 2024 competitive season after performing very well in the Ascension series during the 2023 season. It's no surprise to see the players disappointed that they don't get to participate in the upcoming tournament despite having qualified for it. This entire situation is being associated with The Guard's financial standing at this point.
It is believed that the team was having difficulty making ends meet, so they fired staff members earlier this year. Not just The Guard, a couple of weeks back, even the Sentinels went down the crowdfunding route to ensure their Valorant roster got paid.
This incident raises a lot of questions concerning how the tournament functions. First of all, considering that the players have already qualified, will they be allowed to retain their spot if they collectively join some other organization at this point?
Secondly, if this is the fallout of bad financial planning, why does the contract not have any clauses that prevent the teams from going overboard with their budget? Thirdly, why does the Team Participation Agreement have clauses that teams would not be willing to agree to?
Riot has yet to answer these questions for now, but then again, if they want to ensure that the franchise league functions well, then they should start addressing these concerns quickly.
