Hear me out.
Riot from a marketing and business perspective, and kids, this post ain't for you, realises that market reach for Valorant is already saturated in NA and especially in EMEA. More importantly, they are competing with CS:GO for players and viewers, especially in EMEA but also in large parts of NA where COD and APEX are big. So their initial masters events being in EU makes sense, since its a safe choice where they know the tactical shooter market is saturated and is fully developed so low risk, along with the fact that they can tap some CS crowd.
My hot take: Franchising and the future of Riots plan, business-wise makes sense for them if you consider that their primary goal is Asia. My reasons are listed below:
- Asia is untouched by CS:GO, no big orgs or players here so the interest in CSGO is comparatively low.
- New market with loads of untapped potential, meaning they have scope to grow and print them moolahhs for their shareholders.
- Investment into the ecosystem or protecting it in the long term just generates more players, now the fun part is, they don't have to compete with CSGO in Asia.
Riot is abandoning NA. Maintaining a presence in EU and trying to grow in Asia, to beat Valve and Blizzard. This makes perfect business sense to me.
P.S. Caveat, I'm am also drunk rn.
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