Why do we not see more offseason big tournaments?

#1

Botfragger9000

My take on why we don't see our favorite teams/players outside of the 6 mo. VCT, please comment your thoughts on how I see this:

Riot has a two factor system that has discouraged places like ESL or other major tournament organizers from hosting Valorant. One, the obvious LoL debacles from the past, these huge tournaments are hesitant to work with Riot from these blunders. Two, if you read the 'Major Tournament Guidelines,' they only award these licenses to exceptional candidates, sounds like an application for a SEAL team. Given their reputation and these lofty requirements, it makes sense it doesn't exist much. Riot seem to want to both monetize, and have strict conduct regulation on casting/format/sponsors involved (they very much hesitate to have betting sponsors, for better or worse depending on how you view these things). What I think they are missing being this strict, is why yes, they don't get as much money directly from 3rd party major hosts, they miss out on general game exposure for half the year pretty much, you can decide for yourself what is better for Riot themselves.

I've heard Sideshow state on his streams that the team/crew does events for Val, does it for league also (I don't watch league so can't confirm). Wouldn't you think there is plenty of casting talent? Why do we need to bounce around LoL schedules for 3rd party tournaments? I think its partially because of Riots, in my opinion, overbearing nature on conduct. They want the same casters so that this conduct regulation is strictly adhered to via already trained talent. They're worried about a 3rd party event hosting going poorly enough that it reflects badly on their game it seems. I think this is a misread by them, if ESL had casters that said things controversial or that they didn't agree with, it would reflect poorly on ESL, not Valorant, but that is my opinion, and also Valve's take.

From the pro player/viewer perspective: I think we are getting the short end of the stick in all of this, imo. Point blank, I would like to see more high-end Valorant.. I know a lot care about both, but me personally, I don't care about LoL at all, its an entirely different game. Pro's, this has been stated by a vast amount of them, they want to play more, have chances at more money outside of VCT contracts. Individual team brand orgs also lose alot here (NRG, SEN, etc), would want their brand represented more often, and return more exposure for their investments.

With all this said, my TLDR take on this is that only Riot perceivably wins (debatable considering they lose lots of general game exposure), everyone else (Viewers/Players/Team Sponsors/Outside major tourny orgs) lose hard.

#2

reremus

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Riot is historically stingy when it comes to shit like that, not just in Val but in their other games as well. Yea there's shit like Redbull and individual teams hosting their own events like SEN but there's no real incentive for any off-season tournaments. I wish Riot would fix that.

#5

ArtemisZ083

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afreeca tv league??

#6

reremus

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Again, its not of importance. None of the pro players play for money. They play to win. There's no real reason to play in an event like that other than for content or to solidify a team like SEN did.

It doesn't count towards anything in the season.

#8

ArtemisZ083

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But still it does give 25k(off season) and you get to play against top teams

#9

ct_fd_str

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25k gets split between the org and the players and then gets taxed

#12

ArtemisZ083

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Even if each player gets 2k, thats my dad's 5 month salary

#15

ct_fd_str

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extreme friendly fire

#16

ArtemisZ083

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Its the truth

#19

ct_fd_str

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he even confirms that💀

#21

ArtemisZ083

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with that much money,my family is already in the top 10% of india

continue thread →

#11

Botfragger9000

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100% agree on your first response with everything you said.

I tend to disagree on the point where, no pro players play for money. I think alot of them if there was a 50-100k first place prize, which is close or in Major tourney territory, we would see the best talent/teams participating

This stuff builds player brand, team sponsor brand, overall Valorant brand. Not to mention me just being happy to see my favorite players/teams play more.

#3

Kxtqqh

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not profittable, probably

#7

Botfragger9000

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Potentially, but wouldn't you say that they lose a lot of general game exposure with less Valorant being played?

#10

IonlywatchvcjXD

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I'm pretty sure that esports is generally aimed to be as a marketing move😅

So the amount of exposure really comes from other marketing aside from esports(content creators, friends, trends etc)

#13

Botfragger9000

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I think you are absolutely correct, then why would Riot shy away from 3rd party tournaments, that gives them marketing for their game?

#17

IonlywatchvcjXD

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I'm trying to say that esports department generally has little say in how riot does it's business 😅

Besides 3rd party tournaments doesn't mean they have a different audience, it might possibly be your target audiences happens to overlap.
Which is what makes watch parties a powerful marketing move, they rarely overlap, they are a fan of the content creators not the esports but that doesn't mean riot can't attract those fans to start consume vct more.

#28

Botfragger9000

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I see, I read what you were saying wrong, and I definitely agree with that first sentence, Riots gonna Riot.

I somewhat contest what you said about them having different audiences, at least Valorant specifically, maybe not for FPS as a whole genre. Example: IEM, they have broadcast channels that primarily, maybe exclusively host CS tourneys. If they were to host Valorant for example, CS watchers would click on IEM and see Valorant there, give CS players a look at it and maybe attract them. Therefore you potentially garner CS players to Valorant.

Watch parties are definitely a powerful cross marketing scheme, but Riot even makes that difficult.

#4

Botfragger9000

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Side note: This has be a major reason less team sponsors want to have a Valorant team.. Underexposure + Franchising costs, make this a less attractive marketing investment.

#14

DuD5K1S

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Another reason noone plays is because teams dont field a roster until a couple weeks before matches start, so orgs dont even have teams to play

#18

Botfragger9000

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I think that this is both cause and effect here. Teams don't field a roster until before matches start, because of no Valorant being played for so long. They work around Riot's scheme, the best way to do that is to basically not pay players during the offseason. If the offseason were saturated, teams would deem it attractive to keep their roster year-round, as their brand is consistently being represented.

#20

DuD5K1S

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hopefully this t2 split 3 thing is enough incentive for t2 teams to keep rosters, then hopefully t1 teams will also join those events

#29

Congo1

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do they gain points from split 3 that carries over towards next ascension? if not it seems useless

#31

DuD5K1S

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I think its more for trialing/seeing new talent before the season starts

#32

Botfragger9000

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Congo1, I think you are missing the main point of these esports, playoffs, VCT all together. It's for brand promotion (Players->Team Sponsors->Valorant), whether it counts for anything or not, its the teams playing, brands represented, marketing being pushed.

Incentive comes in many forms for participation, whether thats prize money/glory/playoff points/etc. More Valorant->more promotion->business grows

#30

Botfragger9000

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I hope so too! I simultaneously feel for these players/selfishly want to see more action. I think that the only path for stability here is near year-round saturation. I don't really care if that is done via 3rd party or Riot saturating it themselves, but it needs to happen, imo.

#33

Azzelastia

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Do you want more invitational mickey mouse tournaments like Lock In?