A Valorant esports team has disbanded despite winning crucial tournament

theverge.com:

Earlier this week, Riot crowned its 2023 Valorant champions, Evil Geniuses, who took the title with a 3–1 win over Paper Rex. But what should have been a triumphant moment for Riot esports quickly soured after the news that The Guard, one of the teams that won the right to compete in Valorant’s international tournaments, would not be participating in 2024 — all because of what seems to be an administrative error.

Prior to the 2023 season, Riot restructured the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT), introducing a new promotion system. Teams in one of the three Challengers regions (the lowest tier of competition) would compete to qualify for an Ascension tournament. The winner of each Ascension tournament (one for each Challengers region) would be promoted to its region’s international circuit, qualifying the teams for participation in global events like Masters and Champions tournaments and benefits like a Riot-offered stipend and revenue sharing. Promotion, therefore, is a sought-after and highly competitive prize for organizations and players — not only for the esteem that comes with competing alongside Riot’s handpicked partner teams but also for the financial benefits it conveys.

This year, the three teams that qualified for promotion were Gentle Mates in Europe, Asia Pacific’s Bleed eSports, and The Guard in North America. But in a completely unexpected development, Riot announced that because The Guard failed to agree to the Team Participation Agreement, it would not be participating in the 2024 season.

In a follow-up tweet, head of Valorant esports Leo Faria went into detail about the circumstances leading up to this announcement as well as the reasoning behind Riot’s decision:

Every team that qualified for Ascension