They paid them for the affiliate relationship i assume. If they just owned them there would be no need for Pcfic branding to remain. They would just call it BBL academy.
Edit: i just asked them directly. Lets hope they respond soon and end this question once and for all.
Sorry for responding late but basically if they made pcific a academy team then they wouldn’t be able to compete in ascension so to bypass this they made it a partnership on paper but bought their entire Valorant operations
wasn't it that the lower placing team still goes to ascension? But given that they qualified to champs it is likely that the level between them and the ascenscion candidates is really big
Discord