Franchising shakeups
News regarding VALORANT’s franchise league is now coming thick and fast. Thus far, teams such as Fnatic, NAVI, Cloud9, and Sentinels have all been confirmed.
Also joining Sentinels and Cloud9 in the Americas league will be NRG, KRU, and Leviatan. However, it seems that current North American superstars OpTic will not be joining them.
OpTic snubbed?
The Green Wall’s representatives are arguably the best team in the world, they certainly have the best player in the world in yay. Denying them a spot in the VALORANT franchise league seems to be a questionable decision on Riot’s part. That is unless they know something we don’t. TSM had reportedly already held an interest in the OpTic roster.
Speaking of TSM, they too will likely be denied a spot in the Americas franchised league. The organization was one of the frontrunners in the early days of NA events, with drone quickly establishing the meta of how Phoenix should be played.
Their fortunes were shortlived, however, and since then they’ve largely been chasing the pack in the NA scene. The organization’s rejection comes as a further shock considering their high status in Riot’s other premium title, League of Legends.
The bigger loss to the scene is of course OpTic, whose players will be highly sought after in the impending rostermania that will follow. But also spare a thought for XSET, who, despite impressing at VALORANT Champions 2022, also so far looks to have not been successful in their franchise partnership bid.
The remaining teams who have been accepted are all in the EMEA region, they are as follows: Vitality, Team Liquid, Heretics, Giants, BBL, Koi, and Karmine Corp.
