Now that the dust from Valorant Champions 2022 has settled, all eyes are looking ahead to the VCT 2023 season and Riot Games’ impending announcement on which teams have actually secured partnership status in one of the international leagues.
The three international leagues represent an elite club. With just 10 teams in each league, Riot had to make hard choices about which organizations would make it through.
Several favorites would inevitably be left out in the cold, particularly in the Americas league, which combines teams in North America and the Latin American region.
Early reports have also suggested that the final list would come as a shock for fans — some of the biggest organizations have been denied franchising, despite fielding the best rosters all year.
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OpTic Gaming, G2 Esports among organizations rejected from franchising
One of the biggest bombshells comes in the form of news that Champions 2022 runner-up OpTic has been denied partnership, according to Sports Business Journal’s Kevin Hitt.
OpTic has been one of the most consistent teams all year, placing within the top three at every international LAN they have attended this year and even winning Masters Reykjavik.
Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker is also arguably the best player in the world by a mile, topping the leaderboard in most statistics and truly showing why they call him El Diablo.
This means that the championship-winning OpTic roster could potentially be splitting up. Some of its players still have contracts with the organization, which may prevent the team from being picked up as five.
Elsewhere, TSM has reportedly also not made the cut, a surprising disappointment for one of North America’s most prominent esports organizations. TSM had been interested in buying OpTic’s roster, but that looks to be off the table now.
Unlike OpTic, TSM has struggled to crack the Tier 1 of North American Valorant all year, despite big roster moves.
Over in the EMEA region, G2 Esports is reportedly out of the picture for a partnership spot as well, according to 1PV’s neLendirekt and Hitt. The organization had applied for a spot in both the Americas and EMEA leagues.
However, G2 had apparently secured a spot in the Americas region, but had that slot suddenly revoked in the wake of the recent controversy involving CEO Carlos “ocelote” Rodríguez. Ocelote posted a video of himself partying with Andrew Tate, then doubled down on the clip, saying that no one should be able to “police his friendships.”
Despite his apology, Riot held an emergency meeting and has decided not to include G2 after all, according to neLendirekt. With a slot opening up, this appears to have paved the way for Argentinian organization Leviatán to enter the league.
VCT 2023 Americas league partnered teams
At the moment, this is what the Americas league is expected to look like:
- 100 Thieves
- Cloud9
- Evil Geniuses
- Sentinels
- NRG Esports
- KRU Esports
- FURIA Esports
- LOUD
- MIBR
- Leviatán
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