Yesterday Acends CEO, Bencb, has made a sort of "farewell" post, talking about the current state of t2.
https://x.com/bencb789/status/1839249370824261989
I strongly recommend reading the original tweet.
Huge thanks to both him, and their Head of Esports Krimson, for openly talking with us about these issues from their viewpoint.
They also have a Youtube channel "Inside Esports" (https://www.youtube.com/@InsideEsports-n5v), where they will be, for example, discussing tier 2 Valorant in the future.
This post will add some more insights based on answers Bencb gave on Discord, as well as parts from Acends latest video "Why Acend Club is Leaving Valorant".
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"We asked: What are the reasons for staying in valorant tier 2 and [...] we had one or two, but I think we had ten reasons speaking against staying in tier 2 Valorant [...]. Its very disheartening." (Bencb - 2)
spending $700,000 on our Valorant Team in 2 years to compete in T2
When asked if this was a reasonable investment, Bencb responded that in hindsight it was not. "We expected a better T2 system but looking back, I wouldn't pay more than 2k per player anymore.
Since it is 1-year franchise only anyway, no matter how skilled or experienced, I wouldn't even pay 500$ per player per month anymore" (3)
The drop in salaries is something noticeable across all of t2, across all regions, and is bound to continue in the current landscape.
"Orgs are forced to pay min salaries. Imo we overpaird in some cases because we wanted to support the players and have them focused on the competitive scene.
In Riots case, it already forced us this year to decrease tremendously and reject salary increases because it was not possible and justifable with the state of the system." (3)
When Riot reduced the 2 - year franchise slot to just one year, it felt like a slap in the face.
In the podcast, Krimson explains that they began reevaluating their investment in t2 after the changes for the minimum Ascension duration were announced.
Elaborating, Bencb explained that "its pointless winning Ascension and spend[ing] 700k+ to setup all the business structure in Berlin with players, teams, staff, content, facility just to leave after 1 year. Way to risky.
Esports is about sustainibility. It should be 3 years, 2 years is already a stretch and min 2 slots." (3)
This isn't an isolated case with other org owners, such as Ucams CEO Marco Mourão publicly criticizing the lack of security for Ascending orgs. (4)
What happened to the T2 scene? Is Riot understaffed? Do they not care? Or are the wrong people in charge? Any of these possibilities would spell disaster for building a sustainable T2 ecosystem. And trust me, it wouldn’t take much to fix, definitely not a lot of money.
He criticized Riot for "trying to build the franchise model from top to bottom." Specifically, he points out that he "believe[s] some people try to copy franchise because it works in other spots in America. [...] But what they forget, they have a very good T2 and T3 system." (3)
"There are obviously other systemic issues in Tier 2 that we have seen, with various newsposts that are coming out, where it appears that in a number of [...] [cases], offseason tournaments that have been canceled already. [...] There have been no, and there will be no games until February [for Acend]." (Krimson - 2)
Additionally, Bencb also points out that the current format has an additional 2 months of offseason for teams that don't make it to ascension. During this time it is nonviable to start building next year's roster, as teams don't know what player will be signed in t1/FA/RFA. (2)
Another worrying criticism that also gets brought up frequently is Riots unwillingness to talk to the organizations. "Start talking to Orgs. Right now, there is 0 communication." (3)
"I think we have a lot of good ideas, potentially, for fixing tier 2 and I hope that Riot sees the problems organizations are having." (Krimson - 2)
This leaves all the pressure on the underfunded, understaffed, and oftentimes seemingly overwhelmed TOs, to try and figure out how to fix their region while still in the bounds of Riots system.
In a side comment Bencb mentioned a more ideal t2, in his opinion, would be "one emea challenger league. 20 teams, can be 10 direct invites, 10 qualifiyng teams, Only 1 league, much bigger viewership, more competitive, play ins and play offs in nov/dec. Ascension winner crowned in early december."
He also voiced his support for an Open League with more slots for teams.
While not brought up as a reason for their departure, when asked what games Acend would be looking towards in the future, Bencb explained that Acend will "only compete in Games where we dont have restrictions with sponsors as we do have it in LOL, Valorant or other Riot Games [as Acend pivots into better monetization models]."
This once again brings up the concern that Riot's restriction on sponsors makes it even harder for t2 orgs to be sustainable, despite Riot being largely unwilling to support t2 (in both Val and LoL).
(1) https://x.com/bencb789/status/1839249370824261989
(2) "Why Acend Club is Leaving Valorant" https://youtu.be/SXG77L0782Q
(3) Acend Discord Q&A
(4) https://x.com/marco_esports/status/1804278976124191076
Discord