Controversial Scheme Poses a Serious Threat to Valorant eSports’ Growing Popularity

Riot Games has attracted a wave of divided feedback regarding its new plan for Valorant eSports in 2023. While the competitive scene will witness more tournaments, courtesy of the new model, many teams may lose out on a chance to participate in official events. As a result, the new franchising model has triggered a major debate among fans.

Earlier this year, Riot announced Valorant’s entrance into the world of franchising from 2023. For the unaware, Riot will basically partner up with leading and successful organizations, allowing them an upper hand in official tournaments. The idea is to promote the Valorant eSports scene to the fullest.

By collaborating with established organizations, Riot can better plan events and fan experiences on a global scale. In addition, the model will help Riot Games keep organizations interested in Valorant eSports in the long run. However, fans have pointed out the franchising model’s bias, which may prove to be degrading for the future of budding teams.

In fact, many organizations have reportedly backed off from Valorant eSports altogether, because of the controversial change. Is the new model helping the scene or doing the opposite? As expected, fans are divided.

Franchising in Valorant: Yay or Nay?

An example of popular fan opinions regarding the situation would be the tweet below, which predicts Valorant’s future in eSports. Overwatch is a popular hero shooter which also hosts regional and global leagues, as a part of their eSports scene. However, Overwatch League featured a franchising model from its initial stages, with popular teams having to pay millions for an official partnership.

Overwatch League has suffered a noticeable loss in viewership and sponsors last year. However, there could be several reasons, other than franchising, that may have caused the degradation for Overwatch eSports.

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On the other hand, Riot Games has reiterated that organizations will not have to pay any participation/franchising fee to participate in Valorant’s Partnership Program. Instead, Riot will pay a stipend to the selected teams for their contribution towards developing the game’s eSports ecosystem.

Then again, Riot is partially inclined towards selecting certain organizations for franchising. The process will clearly favor established organizations, which already have a strong ground in eSports, making it impossible for budding ones to make the cut. Moreover, offering organizations direct slots to the most prestigious Valorant tournaments is quite unfair for underdog teams.

Organizations are leaving Valorant’s pro scenes

Riot’s 2023 plans also seemingly affected some budding eSports organizations, leading them to quit the game entirely. The list includes Luminosity, Complexity, NYFU, DarkZero and more.

As many fans proclaimed, the partnership program may backfire on Riot, considering how organizations are parting ways with the game. In fact, organizations and personalities have directly stated the new partnership program as a reason behind them quitting the scene.

The upcoming partnership program has left T2 and T3 teams hanging in the air, leading to many of them quitting. While many promising teams continue to exit the scene, Riot has failed to address the situation yet. Right now, the popular game developer company must shed light on their plans for budding talent to avoid further prominent departures.

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What do you think about the Valorant Partnership Program for 2023? Let us know in the comments!