Riot Games is preparing to revamp Valorant Esports for the 2023 season by transitioning the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) to a completely franchised system. Riot Games organizes the VCT, a competitive global tournament series. The competitive landscape for Riot's shooter has been stable for a while, but it is set to change drastically. All 30 partnering organizations have now confirmed their participation in three distinct regional leagues for next year, which include both familiar and wholly new names.
What is Valorant Franchising?
The franchising method allows numerous teams to participate in a single tournament throughout the year. Instead of competition prizes, teams earn a stipend and money from skin sales. In this league, there are no eliminations. Teams will keep competing unless they do anything outside of the contract that breaches the terms and necessitates ejection. Instead of seven, there will be three collective zones.
These are the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The Americas will be divided into regions such as NA, LATAM North, South, and Brazil. EMEA encompasses European regions, including France, Turkey, Austria, and Switzerland. South Asia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Korea, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Oceania comprise the Asia Pacific region.
Is there Promotion and Demotion in Valorant’s franchise-like system?
The VALORANT franchise-style system lacks a downgrading procedure for paired teams. Teams will stay in the league until Riot removes the squad for violating the developer's criteria. Teams who are not affiliated with Riot will be unable to enter the competition unless they qualify through the amateur circuit.
The Challengers model will return, culminating in a new global circuit called "Ascension" that will feature the strongest Challenger teams from each region. The winners of the Ascension events will be qualified for the international league next year. However, after two years, these teams will be immediately removed and relegated to the Challengers.
Who are the teams that have made Franchising?
The VCT 2023 circuit is divided into three areas, which combine numerous regions to form three super leagues. For instance, the North American / Brazilian regional rivalry is expected to become a domestic rivalry as teams like 100T battle in the Americas league against the likes of Loud. As previously stated, ten teams from each zone will compete at first. These are the teams:
The Americas
Sentinels
100 Thieves
NRG
Cloud9
FURIA
Evil Geniuses
LOUD
KRÜ Esports
MIBR
Leviatán.
EMEA
Team Vitality
Fnatic
Karmine Corp
Team Liquid
Team Heretics
KOI
Giants
FUT Esports
Na’Vi
BBL Esports.
Asia/Pacific
ZETA DIVISION
Gen.G
DetonatioN Gaming
T1
Team Secret
DRX
Global Esports
Paper Rex
Qeon Talon Esports
Rex Regum
FAQs
Q. What does franchising mean in esports?
A. Teams would recruit and train their own players before entering various leagues and tournaments after paying entry fees.
Q. How do esports franchises make money?
A. Esports covers profits obtained via organizations' competitive teams: revenue splits with esports leagues, event winnings, and team-wide brand collaborations.
