After Riot announced earlier today that the VCT Americas Ascension winning team The Guard would no longer be participating in the 2024 VCT as planned, the VALORANT community spoke out in support of the team’s players, including the Americas VALORANT Players Association.
Around two hours after the initial announcement from Riot was made, the AVPA released their own statement, insisting that the actions of both The Guard and Riot are “harmful and will result in lost jobs and lost value for their hard work.”
The AVPA is an organization focused on representing the interests of the VCT Americas players and negotiating with both teams and Riot themselves to ensure players are being treated fairly. The AVPA has also worked to represent players in Game Changers and tier two.
The AVPA’s statement condemned the actions of both The Guard and Riot, saying that both organizations acted without consulting the association and didn’t act in the best interest of the players involved. Though the future of The Guard’s roster remains unclear, speculation has already begun that the organization will let the players go.
Related: Riot confirms The Guard out of VCT Americas 2024 in shocking update
Yet in their statement, the AVPA offered up another potential solution, one that has already been gaining traction around other voices in the VALORANT community.
“The AVPA believes and promotes that there is a solution to be found with the players and/or a 3rd party org that would honor Riot’s commitment to expand the VCT and reward challenger teams,” the statement read.
This idea would allow The Guard’s five rostered players and head coach to still compete in the VCT Americas league via their winning Ascension spot, but would put the management of the team under a different organization. However, this solution might require loopholes that Riot may not be willing to jump through, even if it would be in the individual players’ best interest to do so.
While other players have proposed that the second-place team, M80, get the Ascension spot instead of The Guard, the AVPA argues that “the most important thing is that these 5 players are rewarded the opportunity they earn[ed].”
In the replies to the AVPA’s statement, several people called for an LCS-like strike or walkout of all Americas League players, which is another realistic possibility given the already brewing contentions over the integration of tier two VALORANT.
Overall, the goal of the AVPA is to represent the players affected over anything else, which seems to be a sentiment that many fans of North American VALORANT are also standing by.
