Valorant Franchise League set for February 2023 with teams getting a stipend of around $600k

The Valorant franchise league has been stirring up a lot of hype in the community. A total of three international leagues will be held in the coming year, with the event starting in February 2023 and concluding in September 2023.

As per information from Riot Games, the winners of these three leagues will earn a shot at participating in the top-tier global events. It's also believed that the teams participating in the Valorant franchise league will receive a stipend of around $600,000.

The three international leagues will be somewhat regional. The American league will include North America, Latin America, and Brazil teams. The European league will consist of teams from Europe, the MENA region, Russia and Turkey. Finally, the Asian league will include teams from Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, Oceania and South Asia.

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Riot Games in talks with several teams eager to participate in Valorant franchise league

Many teams have either already been interviewed by Riot Games or are being interviewed by the company before they are allowed to participate in the Valorant franchise league.

The company is expected to take a call on the participating team by September this year. Once the confirmation is done, the teams will have a few months to prepare and sign players during the transfer window before the leagues begin.

As mentioned above, the teams are set to receive around $600,000 in stipend for participating in the league. This stipend is also broken down into subparts. Teams will receive a base stipend of $300,000.

The remaining $300,000 is expected to come from the sales of team-based skins. Teams have a chance of earning another $400,000 in stipend if they perform exceptionally and complete all their deliverables.

Since there's a lot of money involved in the entire process, Riot Games has put very stringent deliverables in place. Moreover, since the first league is expected to start in February, the months from October to February are dubbed the designated transfer window. Overall, this Valorant franchise league is inspired by the LoL franchise league known as the League Championship Series (LCS).

While most community members have heralded this endeavor, some have pointed out its issues. Members of the community believe that the league will hinder the community's growth. This move will hinder the growth of the underdog teams in the circuit. Many also believe this move won't create an equal playing field in the market.

That said, the Valorant franchise league is yet to kick off. A couple of months before the first league takes place, there's a chance that Riot Games will look into the matter and consider the community's concerns moving forward.

While it's understandable that Riot Games would want to follow a formula similar to the LCS, there's always a chance that they might want to do things a bit differently for this league.