The CEO of Acend Club, Benjamin Rolle, detailed on social media how the VCT system is a “disaster” after his company spent $700,000 on Valorant rosters over two years.
Rolle explained how the second tier of the Valorant esports ecosystem is broken, and “got a lot worse” when Riot established its semi-closed leagues.
“Esports deserves better. Valorant deserves better. Maybe Riot’s focus is on T1. Maybe the higher-ups are unaware of what’s going on. Maybe things will change. But right now, it’s a disaster for orgs,” the executive said.
The European organization was once the darling of Valorant as its 2021 team went on an underdog run to win the first Champions. However, Acend announced its departure from Valorant esports on September 16, 2024 after spending two years trying to earn a promotion spot into VCT EMEA.
The org was not invited into the VCT partnered league system by Riot Games after the 2022 season, but tried to continue operations in the Tier 2 competition to win its way into the EMEA competition.
Acend winning Valorant Champions 2021.
It fielded highly competitive rosters, which came at a staggeringly high cost, as its 2023 team placed third at VCT Ascension EMEA, and its 2024 squad missed the event.
“Once we descended to T2, everything changed. That’s when the nightmare began. You see, fighting for just one slot across all of Europe isn’t just difficult – it’s ruthless, but potentially extremely rewarding… Teams, including ours, poured money, time, and heart into the competition, paying good salaries and making massive sacrifices,” Rolle said.
The Acend CEO also detailed how the European side of T2 has become, in his eyes, a wasteland for teams as tournament organizers continue to fail to pay winnings and payroll for production staff for these Challengers leagues.
Riot’s handling of the feeder system into its top esports leagues has always been a hot topic, as it is hard for organizations to commit money into players and rosters when there is little, usually a temporary slot in the top league, or no potential return on investment.
The developer has little incentive to give organizations not in its top leagues access to other means of profit like stipends or in-game cosmetic revenue and has different goals for its esports properties than teams competing in them.
But, that hasn’t stopped many players, executives like Rolle, and creators in the space from calling out Riot Games for the handling of its esports systems.
