I feel like both teams could go very far in LCQ despite not being able to join this year, I don't think they'd win with Cloud9 in the bracket but I think they would be able to get 2nd/3rd.
for sure, I would hope that ascension teams would at least get to play in LCQ if not the regular season. The amount of teams would make sense, as 7 teams would become an even 8 team bracket. Also given that ascension happens before lcq
Riot would never let them play franchised teams because they know ascension teams would destroy a lot of “tier 1” teams. They don’t wanna exposed their flawed system