I thought franchised teams are all Tier1 but was i mistaken here?
VCT -- tier 1
VCL -- tier 2
anything below that -- tier 3+
of course, since this is the first year of franchising and all that, T1 and T2 have a bit of a grey area where you wonder why a team is in T1 (i.e., DFM) and you also wonder why another team isn't in T1 (i.e. M80, MxM, Union, Apeks)
in a couple of years the tiers will become more defined
im surprised no one has said this - there is no concrete definition for what a tier 1 team is compared to what a tier 2 team is. it is all subjective - nothing has been defined by Riot, or even any pro player
automatically categorizing franchising teams into tier1 makes no sense - they're tier 1 because they're franchised? tiers should be based on a combination of accolades/average skill/peak sill, meaning teams like DFM are tier 2-3, while MxM would be tier 1
it's a big hodgepodge for now because riot rushed franchising. the big idea was that the franchise league WAS supposed to be the tier 1 league, but obviously as you said there's a huge grey area between some teams in VCL and some teams in VCT (i wouldn't be surprised if The Union would demolish MIBR as is, for example). i'd say give it time. hopefully in a year or so with the transfer windows and such the different tiers will become a bit more defined