Challengers has just been reduced to a farming system for talent
Any team doing well will have their top talent poached mid-season
No team will be able to build consistency
Another L from Leo Fraudia
exactly.
as for the idea that tier1 should have such access to players, and that players do want this, i think this is a valid argument. nevertheless, this just seems like an excuse not to care about anything outside franchising, and thus undercutting the necessary structural dimensions for cultivating talent worthy of poaching...
In literally any esport or traditional sport, tier 2 competition primarily exists as a pipeline to tier 1 competition.
If any team in a second league has a good player, they'll get poached by a top league team. Obviously every player's goal is to compete with the best.
The fact that Valorant has a promotion/guest slot system is already giving tier 2 a lot more value than any esports titles with a franchise league. Although I hope after 2027 when the 5 year contracts with the partnered teams run out, we will get an actual promotion/relegation system.
you should do an OF, the way you put that whole boot in your mouth
T2 SHOULD be a way to get into T1, but now its ONLY as an individual -- any good team will have their best players poached, and thus the team that 'ascends' will likely just be random winner of last tournament of the year and not a consistently good team from a year of competition
???. Most players would be contract locked so they probably won't even get to leave but if they magically did and they lost their best player then they could just get another talent who would probably be even cheaper then your old player. This is already happening with the gaurd as marved and victor are trial scrimming with them.
You make it seem like there is actually a big audience and finance pool backing T2. No side takes financial gain from T2. It is only for lesser known players to prove themselves. Actually we can be happy that something like ascending into T1 exists. I can bet a lot of companies wouldn't even consider this options.