NYFU, NYXL depart Valorant amid franchising rejection

#1

Matrix13e

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sadge

#2

BelgianSausage

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Really hope we don’t look back at franchising as the problem…

#33

OxiWun

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It is literally the problem.

#3

S3V3N

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Sadge

#4

AverageJoe

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expected

now i expect more and more teams leave, and the knights/NSG monthly will just be semi-pro/PUG team in a few months time

#29

hekzy

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It won't exist. No way NSG is gonna run a competition with 200 viewers.

#5

hiimnsk

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Wait how is franchising ment to be good for the game with all the orgs leaving?

#6

AverageJoe

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good for the 10 teams, bad for the rest

the rest will most likely just leave

#7

Hudsen

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On Riot's end, it allows them to partner with bigger brands and host bigger events, assuming it's done right

The biggest question mark is what's happening with the T2 and below scene since no insight (to my knowledge) has been given on what's the future going to be like for the orgs and rosters that don't make it into franchising. If Riot were to make regional leagues like what's in place in EMEA right now there'd be less panic and uncertainty, but there's really nothing to go off for the future, so people are assuming the worst

#12

DaNtyLe

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I belive that after Champions RIOT will clear things out, but right now VRLs seem to be the way to go expanding them to every region allied with the creation of College circuits the scene should evolve nicely.

Assuming that RIOT doesn't fuck it up of course xd

#18

Hudsen

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Sounds like they've got the ordering of these things backwards. The Overwatch League really proved to everyone that a top-down esports structure does not work, and basically ensures that the T2 scene gets turned into a wasteland where very few amazing up and coming talents rise to the top

Even something like "hey we liked how VRLs/VRCs worked in EMEA, so we're going to try and replicate it in the other regions" is better than nothing. I'm hopeful that things will still work out, but I'm not going to get my hopes completely up until something is actually announced

#14

yungbasel

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Franchising while good in someways is basically just capitalism on show in gaming.

Good for the few, shit for the masses.

Maybe it will lead to more entertaining formats for viewers and fans though, maybe not with the possible lack of Cinderella stories. Who knows at this point. Not looking great though.

#21

V0sotros

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there still will be cinderella stories, just in a different way. Maybe it's a team that started the year at the bottom of the table suddenly going on a crazy win streak and getting upsets over the top teams to just barely qualify for a masters or champions tournament, or a team with new recruits going on an insane run to playoffs. If riot can play their cards right and properly play up the storylines, we can still get cinderella stories.

#28

yungbasel

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Yeah man, you could be right. Time will tell!

#8

augmented

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Can someone explain what franchising means? I am completely lost like what is the 2023 franchised league huh

#10

dckjavis

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basically riot's gonna take vct and make into a league where only 10 teams can compete at the highest level, no qualifiers to get in - teams like optic, c9, 100t, and most of the other teams who were in vct this year should be able to buy into it no problem (this is happening for na emea and asia). however, for the t2 teams who are just below the vct teams (e.g. nyfu, akrew) this completely removes any possibility of accessing the top of the pro scene. these orgs are gonna pay thousands of dollars per year to only win like 5 grand prize pools, so they will understandably leave the scene and ruin the lower tiers of pro play. without these lower tiers, rising pros have a much harder time finding an org and actually signing onto a top team bc there's not gonna be much opportunity to play tourneys, have to grind longer to prove themselves, and more stuff like that

it's really good for the teams in the franchised league because it eliminates the risk of not being in the top league - as long as the team pays to be in and riot says they can be in, they will remain in the league. more sponsorships, more prize money, etc

this is all for now as riot hasn't announced any t2 stuff, so unless they do, all these orgs are gonna continue to pull out. csgo has some franchised leagues as well, but there are also so many more tourneys in the scene that an org can keep a team in the scene without being in one of these franchised leagues. imo riot did franchising way too early and without any plans for the scene outside of franchising

#20

texraupen

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Have to add some stuff about franchising in CS. Assuming you're talking BLAST and EPL here. The thing with those is that they still offer couple of slots for the teams that qualify from lower tier tournaments or local qualifiers, so in the end there are teams who make it in and even some Cinderella stories still happen (Movistar Riders at last EPL) in those.

While the the most important tournaments - Majors, are still open for all, no "pay to play", no invites, much like Champions right now, with circuit points per regions and all that. That keeps lower tiers alive as well, since teams can breakthrough to the top tournament.

All of that, and a fuckton of smaller tournaments keeps the scene very healthy. Hell, CS right now even has specific Academy League ran by one of the event organizers.

So I really hope that Riot don't fuck it up and close the access for those who cannot pay completely. They should somehow still find a way to attract tournament organizers. Otherwise it could end up like Dota some years ago, when nobody cared about anything except qualifying for The International and disbanding after a year if they couldn't achieve it, sometimes disbanding even after a half a year if they didn't qualify for Major (basically Masters in Valorant). And that happened there with open format as well, so it's not panacea in any means. At least there are some other tournaments now, but disband circle still present.

Also would like for Champions to remain open, but that's probably just wishful thinking.

#36

augmented

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oh ok thank you so much but does that just mean that t2 is basically fucked and there wont be t2 teams anymore?

#37

xPR13ST

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T2 scene dead

#38

augmented

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oh rip

#9

p1lot

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F

#11

Ve3r

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one of many more to come sadly, franchise is such a bad idea for game only in its 2nd year of international competition

#13

Kobel

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I feel like there NEED to be some big Open format tournaments next year (for both partnered and non-partnered teams), alongside the main circuit, else there's absolutely nothing to grind for T2 players team-wise

Sure you'll have things like VRL Finals, but if there's nothing more than one tournament per split then what will matter for players is not building a successful squad, but flashing yourself out to be picked. Which will kill off competitiveness both in T1 and T2

I hate how LOL system looks and Riot at first said they won't replicate it in Valorant (first they talked about keeping Open Circuit for the first 4-5 years of the game - well, they lied), then that franchising will work different in Valo... so far another lie, tbh

#15

Lamchops

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Where did you hear riot saying they would keep it open for the first 4-5 years? I've never heard them say that before

#16

DELUSIONAL_POTTER_FAN

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sadge

#17

Thiag0_

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Bruh
Tough times

#19

miniature

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JSUNG WILL REVITALIZE CARPE NOCTEM. CARPE NOCTEM 2023 CHAMPIONS. THIS IS A MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE. FAIR WELL.

#34

OxiWun

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vouch

#22

Enamul_Huq1990

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This is gonna bring death to Valorant esports

#23

kapteN

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Franchising is a terrible idea. I know nobody on this forum likes people bringing up CS, but CS has really proved you can make a huge and successful esport by NOT franchising, and also by allowing 3rd party tournament organizers to bid each other up to create the better productions.

Rito has traditionally had the issue of trying to keep everything in their own hands, and in the FPS genre that really just won't cut it. The community is what made the genre great. Think about community maps and modes (almost all maps in CS were made by the community), think about CoD4 promod, and many more.

Rito - lessen your stranglehold; you will be choking your own game.

#24

Ultimate6989

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How many orgs have to leave before Riot starts to listen?

SoaR, Akrew, NYFU, it's just starting

#25

no_rice_no_life

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Riot should learn from what valve doing with csgo leagues, which is let 3rd party did it like EPL and Blast

#26

RiotGunBuddy

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finally good news! we dont need tier 3-4 valorant franchised by riot

#27

YAYE

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they should have the League and the VCT at the same time. League's top teams will eventually compete in the international play-off. meanwhile, VCT masters could invite the League's top teams without having to qualify and all that. However, I guess Riot wont do such a thing since it costs a lot of resources that - I think - they don't have. also, not to mention the massive amount number of teams competing in the VCT since there are some additions from the League.

#30

hekzy

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The start of the end. Riot is so deluded that they think that the tier2 will replace the VCT teams and get the same viewership while the franchised league is gonna take up another imaginary audience of millions.

In reality, what is going to happen is, the tier 2 scene's viewership will devolve even further below current VRL viewership because (literally) the only reason people even watched VRLs was to see who was gonna make it to the VCT. VRL viewership will go down to below 2k per match, no org can justify spendings on that, only very small orgs, with very small paychecks. Tier2 will become a wasteland.

As for the League, it will initially be able to put up numbers like Reykjavik 1 but then it will drop down to what we are having currently.

Now, let's not blame franchising for the orgs exodus. This was bound to happen as only very few orgs were profiting from valorant as of now. The rest were bleeding money. The market was oversaturated with more than 30 top tier orgs in NA alone competing for crumbs of viewership in the range of 800 people in Knights/NSG. You can't justify paying players even minimum wage for that exposure.

This was bound to happen, I said it back in 2020, just not to that extend. And Riot really didn't think it out because the mass exodus that is going to ensue is going to be terrible publicity and will be a huge turn off for many of us, esports fans.

#31

wxngster

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oh man :(

#32

Astar

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they better make a franchise with relegation system. isnt that better??

#35

OxiWun

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Relegation and franchise are two completely separate things. The only way to do this would be to allow 8 franchise teams and 4 non franchised, with the bottom 1 or 2 franchise teams playing a Bo3/5 against an open bracket winner/runner up to decide if they stay in the league at the end of each season.

#39

kfan4238173

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Those are some really solid players going to free agency