OpTic Gaming is reportedly out of contention for the VALORANT franchised league for 2023.
The runners-up at VALORANT Champions Istanbul will not be one of the 30 partnered teams in the initial franchised league, according to Kevin Hitt. This information comes alongside OpTic in-game leader Pujan “FNS” Mehta thanking his teammates in a goodbye post on Instagram earlier today.
OpTic quickly rose to become one of the top teams in VALORANT this year after winning Masters: Reykjavík, coming in third at Masters: Copenhagen, and finishing second at VALORANT Champions. This was coupled with a dominant performance during the regional Challengers leagues, where they placed second back-to-back. Other organizations that had a less than stellar year, like Cloud9, Sentinels, and NRG, have been accepted into the partnership league, according to reports by Dot Esports.
Hitt reported today that TSM won’t be making it into the franchised league alongside OpTic, which was also reported by Dot Esports. Earlier this year, TSM was reportedly interested in buying the OpTic squad during the offseason, but that seemingly won’t happen now with both teams missing out on the Riot partnership. What will happen with the current members of OpTic is still unknown. The team has expressed the desire to stay together as a core six but could be split up between multiple teams depending on how the offseason progresses.
Neither OpTic nor TSM has publicly acknowledged being denied from the league at time of writing. There are still slots available for the VALORANT Americas region that have yet to be claimed, according to reports.
