all the brazilian, japanese teams, GE and KOI are guaranteed spots so they dont care about anything except the riot paycheck. its also a disgrace that they receive a portion of the champs money while they dont even qualify...
imagine if it was an open circuit they would be forced to try their best and perform
also there wouldnt be a big gap between t1 and t2 if they regularly played against each other... just look at cs for example.
You raise a valid and widely discussed concern within the Valorant esports community. The current franchised model, where certain teams are guaranteed participation regardless of performance, can unintentionally reduce competitive urgency for some organizations. It’s understandable to question the fairness of these teams receiving a share of revenue from events like Champions without actually qualifying, especially when other high-performing teams are excluded.An open circuit system, similar to what we see in Counter-Strike, does promote meritocracy—teams must earn their place through consistent results. Regular competition between Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams also helps narrow the skill gap and fosters a healthier, more dynamic ecosystem. It encourages growth, accountability, and sustained effort across all levels. While the current system has its benefits in terms of financial stability and structure, your point about the potential advantages of an open format is well-founded.
It’s funny cause you chose the worst possible timing to say that. KOI owner has currently 7,4 million live viewers on twitch
Teams are gonna suck, but if someone is gonna suck let it be someone with fans, not teams no one cares about like Apeks. I’m sorry but I hardly disagree with everything you said here for many many reasons, teams do care
Sure brother sure. Have you thought about how franchising would look like if they introduced relegation?
Let's think about how that would have went, year1 for example:
League starts exactly the same. TH and KC get relegated as they were the 2 worst teams, instead you get M8 and Apeks. Instead of going into year 2 with 2 very capable orgs with resources and infrastructure to rebuild their team and big fanbases. You go into year 2 with 2 teams that fucking suck (M8 sucked their first year), less resources and on top of that no one fucking gives a shit about them (Not M8 you did get lucky there, they're a great org. But you're bound to get a lot more like Apeks not like M8, you would get teams like CGN, or random turkish orgs)
it's a double edged sword rn for those teams that came from a place with lack of talent. if they stick to their local players, they might struggle a lot and ppl think they don't deserve the spot. if they choose to pick player from abroad, the local community will question their purpose as a representative, cz it will be no difference if riot pick another teams.
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