“What in the April fools” – Fans are left clueless as Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 winners The Guard set to miss out the VCT Americas League 2024 

Riot Games has voided The Guard's participation!

“What in the April fools” – Fans are left clueless as Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 winners The Guard set to miss out the VCT Americas League 2024 

(credits: VCT & Liquipedia)

This year was the most memorable for Valorant’s eSports scene. Many underdog teams performed exceptionally well and rightfully earned the title of the best amongst the best. Moreover, with the Valorant Champions 2023 Grand Finals over, fans are now eagerly waiting for the VCT 2024 to kick off. However, one of the VCT Americas League 2024 teams that got into the League from VCT Ascension won’t be present. Riot Games has voided Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 winners, The Guard’s participation in the VCT Americas League 2024.

Riot Games revamped the VCT during the summer of 2022. Valorant Champions Tour introduced a new stage to give regional teams a chance at the Major Regional Leagues. This new stage was named Valorant Challengers Ascensions. The international leagues will grow by one team yearly until 2027, with the promoted teams enjoying the same advantages as the ten partner organizations. These include the ability to participate in income sharing and the chance to go to overseas events.

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The winners of every regional Ascension will receive a two-year stay in the international league. However, Riot Games will limit the VCT Americas League 2024 to 10 teams. This is because the Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 Americas winners, The Guard, won’t be participating in the upcoming event. Furthermore, this news has left the fans clueless over the team’s expulsion from the event!

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Why is The Guard not participating in the VCT Americas League 2024

"What in the April fools" - Fans are left clueless as Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 winners The Guard set to miss out the VCT Americas League 2024 
The Gaurd won the Valorant Challengers Ascension 2023 (credits: VCT)

Ten other teams were selected before The Guard; hence, they were initially passed over for the list of partnered league teams for the 2023 season. The team had to participate in the Challengers League in order to join the league. They would have then qualified for the Ascension tournament as a result. And they sure did and even emerged to be the winners against M80. However, Riot Games has resined their participation in the upcoming VCT Americas League 2024!

The Guard won’t be participating in VCT Americas for the 2024 season, according to a statement posted on social media by Riot Games. The Guard will not take part in the league as a result of missing the deadline from Riot. Additionally, according to Riot Games, VCT Americas will continue in 2024 without a promoted team from the Challengers Leagues. Thus, there will only be 10 teams in the VCT Americas League 2024. As per Riot Games, The Gaurd,

“failed to meet the deadline to agree to the Team Participation Agreement of VCT Americas.”

Valorant fans are really disappointed that Riot just removed the extra slot from the Americas region while all the other regions will move forward with the new 11-team system. This whole instance with The Gaurd even left fans really upset since they won’t be seeing another underdog performance during the majors next year. Although The Gaurd has yet to make an official statement, until then, the situation seems to be really shaky.

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