Riot Denies The Guard A Spot In 2024 VCT Americas League

By Tit Krajnik

29 Aug 2023

Tit Krajnik 29 Aug 2023

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The Guard will not participate in the VCT 2024 Americas League due to missing the Team Participation Agreement deadline
The decision has been met with negative reactions from the Valorant community
No other team from Ascension will be promoted to the top league next season

The Guard (credit: via Twitter (@TheGuard))

In a shock update, Riot Games announced that The Guard won’t participate in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2024 Americas League. As confirmed, the North American Valorant esports team didn’t meet the deadline to agree to the Team Participating Agreement for VCT Americas.

One of the most promising North American Valorant esports teams, The Guard, won’t be competing in VCT Americas League in 2024 due to the organisation’s mistake, Riot Games confirmed on Tuesday, August 29. According to the announcement, The Guard failed to agree to the league’s team participation agreement after several months of communication.

“After several months and rounds of communication with The Guard, the organisation has failed to meet the deadline to agree to the Team Participation Agreement for VCT Americas.”

Additionally, Riot Games confirmed that no other team from Challengers will be promoted to the main league. Instead, the 2024 VCT Americas League will welcome the same ten teams as before.

The shock announcement wasn’t accepted well by the Valorant community, which failed to make any sense of Riot’s decision.

Interestingly, today’s news came as a complete surprise for The Guard roster, who was unaware of the situation, nor were they informed about the decision in advance. As confirmed by Jonah “JonahP” Pulice, the players had no idea there could be an issue with The Guard’s promotion to the VCT Americas League. At the same time, other community members put Riot under fire, questioning how it is even possible for The Guard to find itself in such a position.

Since the North American esports organisation didn’t meet the criteria for joining the VCT Americas League in 2024, many found it strange how The Guard even made it into VCT 2023: Ascension Americas (promotion series for VCT Americas League). Moreover, it’s fair to question why Riot Games didn’t have any solutions for situations like that.

The current view of the situation from the Valorant community is very negative, with many asking Riot to give The Guard’s players a chance to play in the VCT Americas since they’ve earned the right to be promoted to the main league.

On the other hand, the decision not to promote any team due to The Guard’s mistake leaves a terrible example, effectively making the Challengers season irrelevant, as it ended with no team getting promoted into the first tier, including the VCT 2023: Ascension Americas runner-ups, M80.

The Guard were by far the best team of the VCT Challengers league and recently fought their way through the VCT 2023: Ascension Americas, dropping just two maps, against The Union (3-1) in the semifinals and M80 (3-1) in the final.

Meanwhile, the Ascension in EMEA and Pacific ended without issues, with Gentle Mates and Bleed eSports earning a spot in VCT EMEA and VCT Pacific League, respectively.