Guard should be in franchising over EG

In every single aspect of franchising and considering how Riot were picking the teams, The Guard should've been invited to the Americas League.

CONTENT: The Guard's content is top-notch. Just look at their matchday graphics and YouTube skits/mini-documentaries on the team and players. This type of content makes you love the players and the team so much more than a team like EG, who haven't made any content surrounding or with their main roster. Even the player announcement graphics were abysmal - just look at their twitter. Is a franchise team really producing that as a player announcement?

FINANCIAL BACKING: If you're not already aware, The Guard is owned by Stan Kroenke (Kroenke Sports & Entertainment), who also owns Arsenal FC, the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, and the Colorado Rapids. There is significant financial backing behind The Guard, so this is not a worry at all when looking to invite them into a franchise league.

FANBASE: Over their fairy-tale run at the start of 2022, The Guard created a respectable fanbase in NA Valorant. Their players went from literal nobodies in the scene to having huge support from every region across the world. Even though their run at Masters Reykjavik wasn't that successful in a competitive sense, it launched them into the international Valorant sphere, in turn generating hype around their players. EG's fans are still yet to be located.

MANAGEMENT: The Guard showed that they could take home-grown NA talent to the top levels of international competition. I mentioned before that they have the money to buy top players in, but decided to go with a route that benefitted competition in NA and allowed it to flourish. EG has done much the same in Valorant (to less competitive success), but in other games such as CS, they have shown their questionable decision-making when it comes to building rosters... which seems to have spilled over into the upcoming franchise league.

I have no problems with EG as an org, and if NA had more slots than 5 I would definitely consider them a strong contender to be invited - but it really is crazy how they got in over The Guard.

true eg is pretty sleeper - dont see guard better than any of the other na orgs though

this was already said before but the final franchising slot was taken by cloud9 when everyone thought optic or the guard was gonna get it, meaning EG actually was guaranteed a spot before all 3 of those orgs, crazy to think about tbh.

yes true i actually want to know so bad what the fuck riot were thinking, EG has had a dogshit valorant content team and guard has shown much more investment in valorant

Carried by league.
Decent team in the LCS whilst bringing in new na talent.

Their management in csgo in laughable at best.
This tweet sums it up https://twitter.com/GamerDoc_/status/1616130871794319360?t=rt9DZI7c8YDc-0niEjPYug&s=19
Complete delusion.

They mustve had a crazy presentation to riot to somehow win them over because they were barely even a recognisable name in valorant nor a big player in esports anyways

Though the NA alternatives all have their own flaws.
Eg is almost flawless in terms of branding and drama.

Guard is a tiny org since it’s new. EG was the obvious choice although g2 would’ve been better

Riot know Guard will make it whatever but Eg could never

no one is reading all that

Who's gonna tell him that EG wasn't the last NA teams invited but instead it was C9?

In my mind, the two things they had over other teams was that:
1) They have a focus on "developing new talent", which makes me assume that their 10-man roster plan was part of the deal and why they got chosen
2) The org's values align heavily with what Riot is currently aiming for, with them being a lot more progressive then some other orgs - originally signing the team as a mixed M/F roster and being a lot more supportive LGBTQIA community then other teams

I would have rather seen TGrd, OpTic, or one of the controversial orgs like TSM/G2/FaZe make it over them too, cause I don't care much for the CEO drama, but it is what it is

They got a slot because of their good relationship with Riot in LCS.

Cmon guys, it's that easy to understand

commend loves the guard enough to write a whole essay

Good yt channel, good post, good team to support, common Commend W

GOD FUCKING DAMN if I hear any NA caster say that again, then I might just go insane.

Yes the gaurd lost at masters. Bodied? BODIED? DESTROYED? No fucking chance.

They lost to PRX over 2 maps. A 13-10 and a 13-8, not too close but nowhere near bodied. It took neT having a really, REALLY bad series to lose by just 3 and 5 rounds. This same Paper Rex squad would go onto get 4th in that Lan, and then place 2nd at the next global lan while pushing the best team to ever stroll out of EMEA (at that point) to 5 maps.

Then, there is the OpTic series. 3 Maps. They still forced 3 Maps against Chet and FNS. 13-7 to steal each teams map pick, then an 11-13 loss on map 3, fracture. And, to re-run everyone's mind on, this is the same Fracture that OpTic revolutionized and used as their win condition for M1 and most of the next split. The same comp that teams would still use up to the chamber nerf. That Fracture was only rivaled like the Guard did by XSET in the NA finals of split 2, a 14-12 win for optic. The first time the comp lost was to DRX in M2, then PRX in M2. That Fracture 13-9'd Xerxia, 13-5'd Zeta, and 13-2'd LOUD, in the same tournament. OpTic had to do an amazing comeback to win that map as well.

What I'm trying to say: NA Caster Braindead as fuck, who would have guessed. Also wanted to throw a little more respect to Guard since, if that's getting bodied, then damn. Every team got BODIED to the point of retirement at some point where they dropped a map 13-6.

We know

sure but did they sign shroud?

Good yt channel, good post, good team to support, common Commend W (2)

In my opinion that spot was for G2 in the American league, but due to the Carlos problem, they had to finalize a different team.
But yeah till date I'm not sure why they didn't chose Guard, probably because EG is an established Org and Guard was (back then) relatively new without any certainty.
That seems like the only reason from the outside

Bro before you think riot should pick the guard instead of EG you have to remember that riot pick cloud9 as a subs for G2 so it's mean EG already consider as a top pick by riot and yes we don't really know what's the factor of riot picking the franchising team

Ain't no way.
A British loving NA org gourd so much that he typed a whole ass essay about them
💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

Sprouts already said a lot about this but all the posts are missing the key point - riot cares about those four things somewhat but they really are focusing now on the inclusion/diversity/equity/whatever piece that orgs have now especially after riot's scandals. eg fits it almost too well for riot to accept them, their original roster being mixed, their presentation probably hammered home on that piece, the diversity in their hires/players, etc.

L

This aged terribly for The Guard. EG still an L org tho. What the roster achieved doesn’t absolve EG of their issues.

WHERE YOU HELLO