The 2024 Americas League will move ahead with ten teams.
Riot Games has announced The Guard will not be participating in the 2024 VCT Americas League. The shock announcement has left fans bewildered and furious at the North American organization. Meanwhile, the future of The Guard's players in the VCT is uncertain at the time of writing.
The Guard is out of VCT NA VALORANT
The Guard failed to meet the deadline to agree to the Team Participation agreement for VCT Americas. As such, The Ascension Americas winners will not participate in 2024 VCT Americas league.
The Guard has been one of the standout teams this year. The team blazed through the Ascension tournament with only two map losses. The first one was in the upper bracket against The Union while the second one was against M80 in the Grand finals. They won both these series, despite dropping a map each.
The announcement comes as a surprise to the players as well.
Who will replace The Guard?
In what has been a very controversial decision for the VALORANT community, Riot announced no team will be replacing The Guard. This means the 2024 VCT Americas League will move ahead with ten teams similar to this year.
Earlier this year The Guard laid off all of its employees, essentially marking their exit from esports. However, for the five Guard players, this news comes after they achieved their goal of qualifying for VCT Americas 2024.
Community reactions
The shock announcement has left the community with a bad taste. Despite months of grinding and some fabulous results, the players would be unable to participate in the VCT Americas 2024 League due to the (former) org's failure to sign the agreement.
In their quest to qualify for VCT Americas League, the players undoubtedly passed over opportunities to join other teams. And now the five players are left without a team and might not have the chance to participate in 2024 VCT League.
The team's coach has already reached out on social media for orgs that might want to pick up their players.
Why was this org allowed in Ascension in the first place? The players grind all year with a specific goal in mind just to get it ripped away right in front of them in the end, AFTER reaching their goal. So frustrating, I hope all the players find a team for next year :/
DisguisedToast to potentially pick up The Guard players?
DisguisedToast said he'd sign the players if it allows them to stay in franchising. Of course, with Riot already having made their decision, the chances of the players competing in the 2024 VCT Americas remains unlikely.
What was The Guard's VALORANT roster?
The Guard's VALORANT roster at VCT Ascension was as follows:
- Jacob "valyn" Batio
- Michael "neT" Bernet
- Jonah "JonahP" Pulice
- Trent "trent" Cairns
- Ian "tex" Botsch
More information will be added as the story unfolds.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest VALORANT news and updates.